ఆలోచనల స్రవంతి -35

“Why should one strive to be ideal in life?”

RK’s student has posed this question to which RK has given an almost perfect reply - “You live by the way you choose and you like to live that way. The other way always beckons. You avoid it because you hate it or you fear it. The result lies ahead”

A question immediately came to my mind after reading the two SMS is “What is this ideal?” and till you define “ideal” this question cannot be answered. The exact meaning of this word is “Answering to one’s highest conception” which is an abstract one and cannot be found in this material world except in one’s own mind/thought.

Then one has to answer himself for his understanding of his highest conception whether “Is it which is accepted by the society” or “is it something which comes out of his inner voice or say perception?” And both are two faces of a coin which will be together and don’t face each other and in this case affecting each other.

The thing that defines a human being is how he strikes a chord between these two. It is like you try to attain an equilibrium state by balancing inner and outer world. Once your understanding and definitions are frozen to quite an extent then it becomes easier to one of what he wants. Then his ideal is set.

Definitely one tries to answer his own highest conception or rather ideal, what is set by his thought line which is resultant of the combination of him and environment he lives in. He may reach there with high physical and mental strain or rather easily, and what affects this is totally a different concept. So it is in his nature to seek his ideal.

There is no bench mark for this “ideal” thing and as I said earlier “Nothing is permanent, everything is contemporary” and “Change is inevitable.”

Seems the above reply is too philosophical but fact.

We can check on some more quotes by individuals whom the world already identified as successful.  

 “Your time is limited; don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

Personally Steve Jobs may be anything and maybe he followed on these lines and made achievements, the result which the society identifies as rich, but irrespective of that I definitely go with this quote only in case I know with a clarity where the own inner voice drives . If I follow my inner voice then definitely I will be happy. Then with clarity how you identify, acknowledge and follow your own inner voice. For this you need to trigger your analytical skills and thinking patterns. Identify your skill set and define what you want to become. Identify the platform where you are using your skill set and rules of the governments, societies in vogue. Then check whether on the particular platform with your skill set you can achieve your dream or not.

One more quote in this context which is relevant to a particular phase in society which I found apt to present conditions and which causes frustration to an individual who is real good, creative and contributes.

“When you know that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing,
When you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods but in favors,
When you see that men get rich more easily by graft rather than by work,
and your laws no longer protect you against them but protect them against you...... 

you know that your society is doomed~ AYN RAND in "Atlas Shrugged"

It is up to us to decide what we need and where we fit in.