From a Person to an Individual

 

 We all learned what History and Science taught us that Man is a social animal but why it was called one... we got to know this year. This year when the lockdown was imposed on us and we all were confined in our home. We were unable to travel and move around as we usually did, at the start, everything seemed to be fine, but as the time passed and lockdown got extended the theory of man being a social animal kicked in, as everyone had an urge to get out, move around, meet friends and relatives, go to restaurants and return to the normal routine which we previously found monotonous and boring. Isn't it ironic, it only took a few days to make us fall in love with the daily routine which we previously used to hate? Students missed schools and colleges, employees missed travelling to their offices, people complaining about trains and traffics missed going out.

 Lockdown indeed changed a lot from our routine and also about the way we see things. Employees working from offices are now working from home whereas students are attending schools and colleges from home, people realised the real value of trains and public transport, lives of Doctor and Policemen turned upside down. Despite the world being on hold all the changes occurred which makes it clear that life moves on, regardless of whatever happens humans move on by adapting to situations and continue to progress.



In this very race of adapting, connecting and progressing we tend to forget the most important connection we ought to make....a connection with Ourselves. We forget that we are individuals first and then a person.  From the whole lifespan, it’s only twice that a person is an individual when it is born and second is at the time of death. Just after birth the baby’s transformation from an individual to a person begins as it falls in the web of relations. From becoming someone’s child to a friend to an adult to a lover to a parent till becoming a grandparent we connect and make relations with a lot of people and in the midst of all the connection, we tend to lose our own self. It is only on the deathbed that a person becomes an individual again as at that time it has nothing to do with the people in the world or with the people he made relations with.



 The main difference between an individual and a person is that a person is someone who is identified by the relations he has made with other people or things. The moment we start identifying ourselves with somebody or something our journey of becoming a person from an individual begins, the identification is not one or two but many. As one gets stuck in the complex web of identifications he loses the sense of individuality and becomes a person. A person is a mess which lacks clarity, as a personality is made up of several traits it's never clear and can be broken down and analysed but beneath the complex layers of personality lies an individual which is crystal clear as it is not identified with any being or thing and thus it cannot be broken down. Thus a baby is born an individual but later it is primed to be a person. As it grows, the environment around the child enforces it to become a more complex person. Once an individual becomes a person there is no looking back, due to the society and the fast life there is no time to even think about the fundamental self beneath ourselves.


In my opinion, 2020 is not a bad year, after all the facts say that this year halted the whole world’s development but it is also a fact that this year also gave us an opportunity to disconnect with the outside world and connect to ourselves, reboot our whole system, discover our own self and start the things which were not done due to the stressful life. Moreover, break the crutches of being a person and start the journey of becoming an Individual again. 


Now the question arises- Why is it important to be an individual?”


The answer to this question lies with everyone. We just need to have a stable mind to acknowledge it. Think about your problems, imagine your past experiences of your failure, recollect what people around you said when you failed and think how you felt that time. It's an experience any person would like to forget. But now think why did you feel bad when they spoke bad things about you or discouraged you? Aren’t you aware of your capabilities? If yes, then why did you experience such feelings? This is because you are a person who identifies your success according to people around you. If you were an individual who is connected to self you wouldn’t need anyone else's opinion be it good or bad to measure your own success.


It is said in the Bhagavad Gita that “He who keeps his mind stable be it in happiness or in sorrows is called a sage (Ideal man).”
For anyone who wishes to reach this level, it is very much important to become an individual. In order to reach this point one must start meditation, one can also start by reading holy books and gain knowledge given in them, if not this then the least one could do is to inculcate discipline and get control over their senses either by fasting or giving up unnecessary materialistic things. The path is tough and may seem unrealistic, but remember back in 1950 going to the moon was also seen as tough and unrealistic but the man with its mind achieved it, Whereas, for this one, we only have to take a peek inside ourselves.

So let's make this Lockdown a Countdown to our development towards our self and begin our journey from being a person to an individual.


-Krutik Shah


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Churn it to Turn it.

Let's develop GReAT.TITUDE