Happy Sunday!
And welcome to today’s edition of ‘Conscious living with Purnima’. In today's post I have 2 thoughts for you to dig deeper. See if you can find a connection between the two.
1. Claim your life
Let's begin with a story. This is the story of sage Valmiki, author of the Indian epic, Ramayana.
“Valmiki was not the sage's original name. He was born to sage Prachetasa & was given the name Ratnakara by his parents. It is said that when Ratnakara was a few years old, he wandered into a forest and got lost. The young boy was found by a hunter who adopted and raised him. Under his foster father's guidance, Ratnakara grew up to become an accomplished hunter. When Ratnakara reached marriageable age, he was married to a girl from the hunter's family. With time, Ratnakara's family also increased, and he became a father to many children. The expansion of his family meant it became difficult for hunter Ratnakara to make ends meet. As a result, out of desperation, he took to robbery and began looting travelers who passed by his area.
One day, sage Narada was passing by the forest where Ratnakara lived. Sensing a good opportunity, Ratnakara attacked Narada intending to rob him. However, Narada remained unfazed. This surprised Ratnakara, who was used to the sight of people cowering in fear at the very mention of his name. Narada questioned Ratnakara as to why he was committing the sin of robbing others. And, Ratnakara replied, "To feed my family." To this, Narada said, "Ratnakara, go and ask your family if they will also share the sins you are committing to take care of them."
After tying Narada to a tree to prevent him from escaping, Ratnakara returned to his family and asked every member if they were willing to share his sins. No one was ready or willing to share the burden of Ratnakara's sins. Heartbroken at his family's response, Ratnakara returned to Narada and asked him the path to salvation."
The story doesn't end there but I will stop here as that much would suffice for contemplation.
Stop to reflect on your own life. In what ways & for whom are you forsaking your dreams? And by dreams, I don't mean chasing after things that will make you look good in the eyes of the society. I am referring to dreams that are your hearts longing, dreams that you know if fulfilled will light up your soul. Dreams that speak to 'your' heart.
You may think you are being noble in making these sacrifices of not going after those. Think again.
The very same society and people for whom you are ignoring the voice of your heart will one day ask you, “why you didn't chase your dreams?”
Wake up. And claim your life.
2. Living to Impress:
Trying to achieve too much too soon can have an underlying motivation of wanting to be 'seen & validated'. While wanting to be seen and validated is a universal human need, when we operate solely from that need, we end up acting in ways that don't serve us.
We may read many books just to appear erudite or act in ways that will win us acceptance but feels unauthentic.
Living life to impress is a short-term strategy that doesn't have the capacity to bring lasting fulfilment. It's like going on a 2-week diet to lose weight over working on building better weight loss habits that can be sustained.
Dorie Clark in his book ‘The Long Game’, talks about what it takes to be a long-term thinker. He says becoming one requires character:
- It's the courage to carve your own path, without the reassurance of doing exactly what everyone else in the crowd is
- It's the willingness to look like a failure - sometimes for long periods because it takes time for results to show
- And it's the strength to endure and persist, even when you aren't sure how it's going to turn out.
Take a moment now to reflect on your daily actions. Are they geared towards bringing long term satisfaction or on creating a short-term impression? Are your actions in line with the vision that you have for your life?
If not, what can you do to course correct?
The 2 ideas I presented today are deeply connected. We lose ourselves not only by suppressing our deepest needs & desires with the faulty idea of making a sacrifice, but also by mindlessly trying to impress the world. What’s needed is an awakening of a very personal kind.
Nice message.