Self-help – who is self ? what is help ?
Another post – flood after a famine.
I was watching a movie – Fracture – Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling. There is a poem kind of a thing that the narrator reads somewhere. I looked it up in google and found that it was from Dr.Seuss’ collection of rhyming lines for “self-motivation” – Oh! The Places You’ll Go!
Then I remembered another book, Robin Sharma’s Monk who sold his Ferrari. These books and other self-help ideas try to send the message that you think something is good for you then you go after it. If you feel that you are not doing the right thing to go after it then you punish yourself. Punish yourself so much that you only think of the “right” thing all the time. So, that we all become very efficient machines. Now, if everybody tries to become such creatures (though it is a far-fetched idea) the whole beauty of nature, the varied psyche of the human nature will vanish. This is one point of view.
Another idea here is that we become so goal-oriented that we seem to lose the reason of our existance in certain circumstances in life and our responsibility and role in the society. In my opinion, these ideas have to be modified such that they make us more aware of our social and spiritual existance and not to waver from our resposibility – our Dharma.
This is one stark difference that I noticed between the neo-spiritualism and the spiritualism taught by the Bhagawad Gita or the likes. (Neo-spiritualism is another name that I want to give to the self-help ideas that the western self-help gurus propagate) The neo-spiritualists seem to say that YOU decide your goals and go about them no matter what. Whereas the orientals say that you do what you are destined to do. And no matter how much you do it is insignificant – yet you keep doing it without the thought of the goal or result.
Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani
Chapter 2, verse 47 (from the chapter on Sankhya Yoga)
Your right is to work only and never to the fruit thereof. Do not be the cause of the fruit of action; nor let your attachment be to inaction. (The Bhagavadgita – Gita Press, Gorakhpur)
So, who actually decides what is right and what is our Dharma ? more importantly our Karma ? Has God pre-determined our Dharma ? If so do we go with the flow of life or do we stop and question whether this is the right direction ? What is the role of decision-making ?
I will always keep pondering about these…
Thanks for reading and I’m open for your inputs and correct-me’s
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Sound of musig 