Infinite possibilities By Ronjoy Bordoloi
We all have heard many intellectual persons saying words like-‘Never Judge a person’, ‘Don’t come to conclusions’, ‘Who are we to judge anyone?’, ‘Don’t make hasty decisions’, ‘Never React’ etc. Undoubtedly, they are true to some extent, but when we start seeing the bigger picture, we realize that if we do not judge or compare or compete or react to a situation or a person etc, how will we learn? How will we be even human?
And that is how we mostly learn, don’t we? We judge, react indiscriminately and thus make mistakes. When we make a mistake, that mistake is etched into our memory and usually we do not repeat the same mistake twice. And thenceforth, we jump into the next conclusion and again a mistake is committed and the cycle goes on until we reach a stage where there are no further mistakes left to be committed. By all means and purposes, we have learnt!
Hereby, it also does not mean that we judge people in totally absurd and foolish ways. There is a quote from Einstein, ‘Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life believing that it is Stupid.’
However, we can judge someone’s character and attitude; observe their behavioural patterns and come to concrete conclusions. But, coming to conclusions isn’t enough. To test our hypothesis, we have to indulge ourselves, ask more questions, know more, learn more an then decide whether a person or an animal or situation is truly what we had thought it to be. That is how we learn. That is what is called science.
Therefore, never be afraid to judge anyone or question something, because this holy curiosity starts a tremendous chain of events leading to discovery and awareness of surroundings. However, always be aware of your grey self, the self that only passes judgements without any material evidence to back it up. This is our untrue self, the ego-self that keeps on bombarding our minds with fake, baseless decisions. To get rid of this ego-self, you have to analyze these fake judgements with sound logic and tear them into pieces inside your mind. Because, a logical decision is seldom wrong, however, it needs data or information for corroboration of facts.
Moreover, whenever it comes to comparison and competition, the modern insight infers that to be successful in one’s life, you have to mimic others and destroy your competitors to the ground, without remorse. This phenomenon has been named as Cut-Throat. And this programming, which is initiated into the minds of people from an early age, culminates into social diseases and prejudices, for example, the merit-list or good-job holder is viewed with revered eyes, while the poor, less fortunate souls are labelled as good-for-nothing. This, without doubt, leads to depression and criminal behaviour in most cases.
But, this can be checked through soul-searching courses, which can be incorporated in school curriculum, apart from the mundane moral science lessons, which are too generalized.
Each child should be given individualistic treatment, because each child is unique. They should be taught about self-believe, self-respect and self-knowledge. They should be advised about the fact that comparison and competition should never be with others, but instead should be with themselves. They should thrive to be better persons tomorrow then they are today. And certainly, bit-by-bit they will improve and through self-discovery, become better individuals. Because, self-knowledge is the basis of wisdom.
Therefore, after we have achieved self-wisdom, phrases like ‘Never Judge Others’ should be replaced with- ‘Judge them, but with sound reasoning, intuition and after thorough research.’
And that’s how our brain works. That’s how it will work further and work efficiently. Because, when you say ‘Never Judge’, the tunnel stops and there’s no more forward movement. But when you say ‘Let’s Decide’ or ‘Let’s Choose to Judge’, the tunnel opens up to infinite possibilities!