It has been almost thirteen years (yes, yes I am positive about that unlucky number!) since I started my journey of self-actualization, beginning with probably “The Power of your Subconscious Mind” and continuing through to learning “The Secret” last week. I don’t know how much I have learned and how much I did grow in this period which has spanned maybe 1/6th portion of my life until now. Did I grow at all? How different would life have been if I did not know “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”, the power of my thoughts, the notion that the human body and mind combine to make a very effective psycho-cybernetic system or “The Secret”? Most of my friends do not know about it, neither my parents nor my grandparents and they are pretty ok, living successful, satisfied lives.
However I do know that there were times when these books and philosophies provided me with solace as well as exhilaration. And there were times when I tried so hard to understand things, to achieve calmness that I ended up more frustrated than before. Deepak Chopra told me that “all possibilities” exist in the gap between two thoughts and if you put your intentions into the gap, the universe will manifest them for you. I try to access the gap everyday. I don’t know whether I am successful, you see it is supposed to lie between two thoughts, the “no thought land” so technically speaking I may never be aware when and if ever I have made it into the gap ;-)
I may sound like a cynic, that’s because I am one; probably I have allowed myself to be rubbed non-stop by self-help literature and philosophies, probably because I abhor the commercialization of something that is actually lofty. Mediocre, dumbed down and derived stuff is being peddled as man’s gateway to nirvana. It may only be a matter of time before we start seeing several “secrets” and “laws” of success peddled on tele-shopping networks; and god forbid if Ekta Kapoor decides she’s had enough of numerology and does a Byrne/ Oprah and produces “Kkissmatt Mmuththiiiii Mein Le Llllo” and dozens follow suite. Indian mommies would stop cooking with the hope of manifesting food and creatively visualize a clean house. Brrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!
It makes me cynical and I feel justified in thinking that way. Maybe some good stuff is reaching more people that way, but no matter what, I believe dumbing down something makes it vulnerable to corruption. I think an individual should be ready for the truth, in the case of New Age Philosophies, the truth is being ‘readied’ for the masses… which does not speak well for its future.
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