Usually, we identify a person by his actions. Whatever we see with the naked eye seems to be true or we recognize a person by words or speech. We take for granted what we hear. In short we usually use our senses to identify people. But due to the limitations of the senses, most of the time we do not recognize the person in his true form and make a mistake. Thus we are constantly cheated by the world and relationships and sometimes we pay a very high price for cheating. It is often a lifelong ordeal.
It is also difficult to identify a person in a world where there is no uniformity in speech, thought and behavior. People have something in their mind, something in words and action is completely different from that is the experience of all of us. In such a hypocritical world, identifying a person is as difficult as chewing iron. If a person is understood on the basis of his intentions behind his actions or words, his true identity may be possible and the chances of deception may be reduced. But for that one has to look at the world with two eyes, that is, one has to be unbiased one has to give up selfishness because often due to selfishness we are ignoring or not seeing the reality even though it is visible. One has to use the special eyes of the mind instead of the senses to identify the person with the intention rather than the action which requires subtle intellect and discretion. Moreover, a state of peace and stability is essential for recognizing anyone in his true form which we may never have.
As soon as the person calms down he starts recognizing him as well as all the individuals in front of him. But unfortunately, we are making all the important decisions of life in a hurry and with selfishness or prejudice. As a result, we often fail to identify the person and pay a very high price for a long time. When we see someone doing charity or good deeds, we get very impressed and instantly praise the person and spread our soft feelings among all without knowing many facts about him by that one illusionary net has been created and many innocent people fall into that trap. It is sometimes too late when it is realized. The pigeon feeder is a virtuous soul or hunter that can be known by its intentions, but our observation is never so subtle and accurate that we can understand the reality. The reasons behind this can be many such as haste in decision making, lack of peace and stability, your preconceived notion about the person i.e. personal illusion that the person is good or bad.
We all know that behind every good or bad deed there are many reasons or motives such as prestige behind donations, desire to get many times more, desire to immortalize one’s name even after death, besides often business purpose i.e. business gain is also responsible. In today’s commercial age nothing selfless happens. Deals are made with take and give principles. We normally trapped in the illusionary net of action or words because we are not aware of it we are failing to identify the person. A similar mistake is often made in identifying a religious spiritual saint Guru. We cannot discern a man who is actually a saint who has reached the pinnacle of knowledge and sometime begin to worship the unworthy person by the deception of action as well as words.
I remember a story here an accomplished sage was sleeping with his feet on the SHIVALINGA one day. Many people saw him, sharply criticized him and made inappropriate propaganda about him. Finally an innocent man pleaded with him saying why are you sleeping like this? Lord Shiva is our adorable god and this action of yours is hurting us like anything, so please remove your feet from SHIVALINGA. Then a divine smile appeared on the Mahatma’s face and he told the innocent man to put his feet in the direction where Shiva is not there. All became speechless as we all know that there is no place without god (Shiva) in the entire universe. From that point of view, Mahatma’s feet should always be on SHIVALINGA or Shiva even if we change the direction of Mahatma’s leg. But we only see Shiva in a certain place so we try to keep that place holy and clean. That is our personal illusionary vision. We do not have the best vision or deep wisdom like that Mahatma and yet we always try to identify people with our shallow intellect and vision and keep on criticizing people according to our sense. Through which we weave a web of heterogeneous karma and remain entangled in it from birth to birth. Another truth to be understood is that it is not always true that a person who has set foot on the SHIVALINGA is always a great devotee or a Mahatma who has reached the pinnacle of knowledge. Even the greatest ignorant soul can often imitate in the pretense of being accomplished something that can never be tolerated. If an alcoholic is intoxicated and falls on the SHIVALINGA, then in terms of action, both the alcoholic and the Mahatma come in the same line, i.e. in terms of the viewer, they are the same. But there is a sky-high difference in their sentiments and intentions. But we never care about recognizing a person’s inner feelings and starts reacting by his external actions and words. As an intelligent or sensible person that is not appropriate.
We often misunderstood our personal relatives and considered their sensible advice wrongly which has excellent inner value, such as parents advising offspring or a guru disciple or a husband and wife advising each other in extreme sentiments. That is our unforgivable mistake. If possible we should try to identify everyone by his sentiments. If we try to identify everyone not only by action but also by the right or wrong intention behind the action, I am sure we will always be happy and avoid many other harms and dangers as it is our own loss to judge a right person as wrong and wrong as right. Never forget that there is a great risk for the society in understanding a drunkard as Mahatma by his action (who puts his foot on Shiva) or a mahatma as a drunkard.
When we give some money to a beggar we expect that he will use this money properly, not utilize it in drinking alcohol or in any other inappropriate way, but when we give millions of rupees to the religious leaders in temples, we never think for a second that how will this money be used? We are Interested in knowing intentions in one place but not in another. This is called inappropriate vision or vision of only one eye in my opinion. Where there is selfishness, prejudice or belief, it becomes impossible to see the real and complete. How long will we see such an incomplete (one eye vision)? If it is right to see with one eye, why would God has given us two eyes? Let’s cultivate the habit of seeing with two eyes by using the both eyes as a priceless gift of God. That is why the Scriptures advise witnessing SAKSHIBHAV. By witnessing the reality we can see the existence as it is. We can understand the action with its intention if we are stable, calm, selfless, unbiased and unconfirmed. Which can only be done with two eyes and that is why God has given us two eyes so that we understand every action with his intention i.e. one eye sees the action and the other eye knows the intention and makes the right decision to make life largely peaceful.
Shilpa shah,
director in-charge, HKBBA, College
