The young one of a bird was learning to fly. He often fell
down and yet was trying his hard to fly. His mother would often help him out
and give some practical tips to improve. And then one day, when he felt
confident to fly alone, he decided to make a maiden trip to a nearby forest. As
a caution and advice, the mother bird told the young one to be aware of the
hunters who spread the grains and cast a net over it. To ensure that he
remembers it, the mother told him, ‘Repeat, “I will be aware of hunters, I will
be aware of hunters. . .”’
The young one repeated and flew off. In the evening,
when he did not return, the mother bird, worried and anxious, went in search of
him. After much flying around, she finally heard her young one’s voice. He was
repeating, ‘I will be aware of hunters, I will be aware of hunters’ and was
lying caught in the net which the hunter had laid!
That is our life, too. We repeat and reiterate our freedom
but are often caught in the nets of our own passions and ego. We know but that
does not help. So, wherein lies the crux of the matter? It lies in seeking, in
finding out what we really want, and stop reciting and proclaiming what we seem
to want.
Swami Vivekananda says
Let us ask ourselves each day, ‘Do we want God?’ When we
begin to talk religion, and especially when we take a high position and begin
to teach others, we must ask ourselves the same question. I find many times
that I don’t want God, I want bread more. I may go mad if I don’t get a piece
of bread; many ladies will go mad if they don’t get a diamond pin, but they do
not have the same desire for God; they do not know the only Reality that is in
the universe.
Among all the spiritual disciplines one takes up, the
practice of being aware of oneself is the ‘best’. We must examine our motives,
our intentions and our expectations — and the more we can study ourselves, the
more we can understand ourselves. We can fool some people sometimes but not all
people all times. So, one must be conscious of what one wants. We must convert
our ‘information’ into conviction for it is conviction that becomes action. We
always follow what we are convinced of and not just what we proclaim. Faith
gets transformed into action. ‘A man is as his faith is,’ says the Gita (17.3).
Two cautions in this practice of self -examination: in order
to do honest self-appraisal and self-examination, one should keep a sharp eye
on the excuses and arguments that the impure mind makes in its own favor—the
‘it is alright attitude.’ When we are caught in such lines of thoughts, we are
lenient towards ourselves and strict towards others, while the opposite should
be followed: being strict towards oneself and lenient towards others.
And the second caution is about the basic approach that we
should adopt: let us never try to prove our moral and spiritual life to others.
Does that alter my goodness or evil? Let us be good for our own sake on our own
responsibility,’ cautioned Swami Vivekananda.
That would be living honestly.