I have been  bit busy during the last few weeks, and was catching up on the blogs that I follow when I came across the following.
Today, the shadow called my name. “Sit down and visit for the day…†I fought the urge to sit and chat. It whined and wept; it pranced and danced, weaving words like a bazaar seller on the street. “Sit down my dear, tarry here my dear and rest your weary bones. Put your feet up, Take a break, a very long break.â€
“God has placed in each soul a true guide to the light, but man struggles to find life outside himself, unaware that the life he is seeking is within him.†Kahlil Gibran
“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.†Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
via Mirth and Motivation | Motivate. Elevate. Laugh. Live Positively….
I had thought long and hard about what is right and wrong, about what religion and the law teaches us about it, and how everyone follows what is preached. A voice inside me always questioned these teachings, not because they were wrong, but because the preachers were as fallible as me. How can I trust the information when I can’t trust the source? I refer Wikipedia on a daily basis, but I make sure that it makes sense. More often than not, it will turn out to be accurate as it is collective wisdom, but the possibility that someone might have made a mistake, intentionally or otherwise, is still there.
When collective wisdom has to be checked for errors, the possibility of one person making a mistake is too high. The person might be giving you the collected wisdom, but in his own words, and there is always a possibility of transmission loss.
Anyone who reads the post referred above and my words would be a bit confused. Elizabeth was talking about the voice inside which was making her lazy, and here I am talking about right and wrong. The common point is the inside voice. But we will come to that.
I have heard a lot of conflicting thoughts from different people that I was confused about a lot of things. What is right for someone cannot be right for others; whom should I listen to? Should I follow a prescribed rule? Law has to blind but that does not mean I have to be. I chose to learn from what I heard, but to reserve my judgment on them.
Mankind once thought the Sun revolved around the Earth, and then we realized that we are revolving around the Sun. Then we found that the Sun was revolving around the Milky Way Galaxy and the Milky Way around the universe. We know that the universe is bigger than we can imagine that we have to call it infinite. But when our thoughts have grown to accommodate the size of the universe, we will realize that the Universe is revolving around something yet unnamed along with millions of other universes. Laugh all you want, but this is quite possible, and it need not be within the 3 dimensions that we know of (Chaotic-Inflation Theory).
At some point in the future we may have to stop wondering what is revolving around what and start thinking that everything is revolving around us or rather me. As I said, different dimensions, different perspectives. It might sound a bit selfish, and unless we cannot think of the other person’s persons perspective, it will definitely be selfish. At the same time, if we are able to look at something from different perspectives and then take a decision then I am sure that would be the best decision that you have taken. Not because it is right, but because you took the right way to take the decision.
The problem you will face once you start observing things from someone else’s perspective is that, you will start realizing that there is not absolute right or absolute wrong. Even killing could be defended under certain circumstances. Killing is not right, but if by killing one person you are saving a thousand, or maybe just one person, then it can be right. There are scenarios where thousands will have to die to save one person or to uphold a principle. Once you stop thinking in Black & White, you will always approach everything with an open mind.
I haven’t made the right choices, but at the same time, I haven’t made a lot of mistakes either. I am sure that the inner voice will guide me when I have to choose between right and wrong, and sometimes I will choose what is considered wrong, because I would know it is right. This is the same voice that tells Elizabeth to rest or to work, the same voice that is there in everyone that many choose to ignore and few choose to follow.
This is probably one of my most incoherent rambling ever, but then this is something that I am working on. I am sure this is not an original thought, and probably there is a lot to read on this. As I am still working on this, there is a good possibility that some of my thoughts would change over the years, so do me a favor and don’t follow my advice. 🙂
Do me another favor, and post your thoughts and understanding about right and wrong in your blog with a link to this post so that I can follow-up on when I post an update on this. It would be more like a brain storming session.
