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Tears of a repentant sinner,
though precious and beneficial to the person concerned, however are very
rare because human nature instinctively rebels at owning mistakes. This act
is often perceived as admission of weakness or guilt within or as lowering
oneself in his or others' eyes. A shaky ego and a hazy self-image contribute
to this situation.
This resistance to
and fear of change also arise due to a sense of imaginary, though damaging,
emotional 'security' which the disturbed person has got used to.
Indoctrination, ingrained beliefs, opinions and prejudices too are causes, in certain situations, for such stagnation.
The underlying and common
factor, in all such cases, is that the resistance and fear within to change
exceeds the discomfort caused by maintaining the status quo. In simple
words, the person is able to manage 'somehow'. inventing also, when
necessary, explanations for what clearly are the drift and shallowness
within.
For a way out this impasse,
the inner discomfort caused by such drift or by rebellion of the conscience
and self-honesty within, should become more than the resistance within to
change. Alternatively, the external problems caused by such lack of change
should become more than this resistance. It is then that change is forced
upon--a state of necessity, as if. This enforced necessity is often the
mother of a series of positive developments and changes which would finally
serve to liberate and empower.
The 'critical state' of commencement of change
in evolved persons is reached even with just one particular experience. It
needed only one visit, through the city, for Gautama Buddha, to see the
sufferings first hand while the mere sight of the gory Kalinga war
transformed Ashoka. A
hardened hunter was changed into sage Valmiki, as he saw the agony of the
mate of the bird which he had just shot down. Tulsidas's metamorphosis was
effected when his wife taunted him gently, suggesting that he divert at
least a part of his infatuation for her, to true devotion to God. The rest
is history.
As applied to worldly beings and organisations,
needing tangible change, probing self-honesty and analysis would bring to
surface the aberrations, toxins and retarding forces within. The healthy
discomfort and revulsion with the state of things, which one could bring
himself to feel, would then be transformed to the joy of self- discovery.
Welcome changes and developments within and without would inevitably follow. |
