Self Concern...

I was reading a book which is not very popularly known.. It triggered up my thoughts... What is our fundamental, lasting interest in life????? Think for a second... Putting all oblique answers aside and dealing with this question honestly, what would be our answer??? 

Isn't it ourselves?? Anyway, that is what most of us would say if we answered honestly.. I am interested in my progress, my growth, my job, my family, the little corner in which I live, in getting better position for myself, more prestige, more power, more domination over others and so on.... 

I think it would be logical, wouldn't it... To admit ourselves that what most of us are primarily interested in - "me" first... Some of us would say that it is wrong or sinful to be primarily interested in "me" first.. But what is wrong about it except that we seldom honestly admit it?? If we accept also, mostly we are ashamed of it.. This is called hypocrisy.. One is fundamentally interested in oneself and for various cultural or traditional or ideological reasons thinks it to be wrong... 

Some may say that it is more satisfactory to help others than to think about themselves.. What is the difference??? It is still self concern.. If it gives me greater satisfaction to help others, i'm concerned about what will give me greater satisfaction... It is as simple as that.. Why to have double thinking and ideological conflict.. Satisfaction in all sorts of ways, subtle or obvious, is what we want. Ultimate satisfaction, is of course, is the peculiar idea of self-realization. 

Most of us crave for the satisfaction of having a position in society (almost everyone of us!!!).. Because we are afraid of being "nobody" in this society.. And this society is constructed such a way that someone in position is treated with respect, courtesy (or rather fear)... Whereas a man who is "nobody" in the society is kicked around.. Everyone wants to be in a position.. May be in family or office or politics or religion.. And this position must be recognized by others, otherwise its not a position at all...!!!!

Everyone crave to sit on a high platform.. Inwardly we may be shattered or in whirlpools of misery, therefore to be regarded outwardly as great figure is very gratifying...This craving for position and power, to be recognized by the society as being outstanding in one way or the other, is not bad or wrong totally.. It stems out of fear, which is the greatest problem in life... A mind that is caught in fear lives in confusion, conflict, therefore will be aggressive or distorted or both.. It dare not to move away from the same old pattern of its thinking which breeds hypocrisy..Until we free our mind from such fear, even if we invent thousand more Gods, they cant help and we will remain in darkness forever..

A Prayer for Children

We pray for children
Who gave us sticky kisses,
Who hop on rocks and chase butterflies,
Who stomp in puddles and ruin their math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
Who stare at photographs from behind barbed wire,
Who've never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers,
Who've never "counted potatoes"
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us fistfuls of dandelions and sing off key
Who have goldfish funerals, build card-table forts
Who slurp their cereal on purpose
Who put gum in their hair, put sugar in their milk
Who spit toothpaste all over the sink
Who hugs us for no reason, who bless us each night.

And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who watch their parents watch them die,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind,
Who can't find any bread to steal,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for those
Who spend all their allowances before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store
And pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed
And never rinse out the tub,
Who get quarters from their tooth fairy
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
Who squirm in church and scream on the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at
And whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares comes in daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children
Who want to be carried,
And for those who must.
For those we never give up on,
And for those who don't have a chance.
For those we smother,
And for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer...

                                                                                     --- Ina J. Hughs

Let My Country Awake

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, My Father,

Let My Country Awake

                                                                                                   --- Tagore.