BHASKAR JYOTI BORAH ‘ Nature’ is a unique balance of opposites. The day is turned into night, the summer season chan...
BHASKAR JYOTI BORAH
‘Nature’ is a
unique balance of opposites. The day is turned into night, the summer season changed itself into winter and also there is the presence of the infinite sky and the finite land, high mountains
and the oceans, the evidence of life and the existence of death all these are enough of a
proof that nature balances the opposites. No one of all these can exist without
the other opposites. All the opposites are equally important and therefore we
need to value them equally. Similarly the values life use to teach us in terms
of opposites are also important e.g. smile and tears, balance and imbalance,
success and failure, discipline and flexibility, faith and doubts,
concentration and detachment, work and rest, believing and not believing,
courage and fear, giving up and not giving up etc. We used to learn by making
mistakes. If we omit mistakes, we can’t learn. It is a part and parcel of any
learning process. What compels me to write about the value of opposites is that
we can’t expect to achieve ‘the good things’ without overcoming ‘the problems’.
Problems exist to glorify people who want to succeed. We must learn to value
all the lessons that life wants to teach us. We are not apart from the negative
factors. But to achieve something greater, we need to sometimes live with
negativity to conquer it. Opposites exist. We need to value, believe and accept
the opposites and the lessons that we can learn from them.
1.
Balance and imbalance:
Maintaining balance is very important in our lives.
When we balance our activities, works, roles and relationships, we become happy
in our lives. Because by balancing our roles externally we balance our mind and
thoughts. We follow a daily routine to perform our daily duties. But sometimes,
due to certain reasons or conditions of life we have to remain in imbalance.
There may be sometimes imbalance in relationship, in works (i.e. we have to
work very hard than our usual routine), in health (i.e. we used to get caught
by diseases), in thoughts (i.e. there may be tremendous stress, fear and
tension due to some reason) that may disturb our progress to our goal. But we
can’t avoid those conditions or situations. Therefore maintaining balance and
also to cope with imbalance to maintain the balance further is also very
important in our lives.
2.
Discipline and flexibility:
Discipline is as much important as flexibility. We
need to have control over our activities to give direction to our lives.
Discipline is a tool in our hands to create a life that we desire. But
situation sometimes demands flexibility. All the days are not same. Every day
we can’t maintain our discipline in the usual manner. Sometimes we have to
break our discipline to ensure flexibility in our lives. Discipline is not an
end in itself. It is an aid to the realization of our goal and to lead a rich
and fuller life.
3.
Concentration and
detachment:
Concentration is the faculty of mind to engage our
mind fully occupied in the work in hand. Concentration should not be momentary
or temporary. It should be holistic. We need to have concentration developed to
the extent so that we can realize our goals. But concentration without
detachment is a disaster. When we concentrate our mind to a particular work
with a greater intensity and forget everything, we become restless. We become
too attached to that work. When we become too attached to something, it becomes
our bondage. Therefore, it began to deprive us of our mental peace. Because of
this reason, we have to practice detachment. Practicing detachment helps us to
remain mentally free. We then become free to take wise decisions, to control
our thoughts, emotions and to control our destiny. Concentration gives birth to
attachment and too much attachment is bondage. It may rob you of your true
happiness. Therefore detachment is as important as concentration. Swami Vivekananda
has stressed in his writings about the practice of concentration and also detachment.
4.
Work and rest:
If we do not take rest, we can’t work. To work
effectively we need sufficient rest. A healthy person can work for 14-16 hours.
But 8 hours of sleep and rest is essential every day, so that next day he can
work hard again. But if we ignore rest and work more than our capacity, than we
will get caught by diseases. We won’t be able to work for long beyond our
capacity. Therefore regular hours of work with the required hours of rest only
will keep us healthy and wealthy.
5.
Believing and not
believing:
Not believing is as much important as believing. We
must believe in the ideals that we set for us and we must refuse to believe in
the contradictory things that may take us away from our ideals or goals. We
can’t believe many things at a time. If you believe in many contradictory
things you will become a hypocrite. We must believe the one right thing
wholeheartedly than many right things halfheartedly. We have to be rational
for that. This believing and not believing is very crucial to our personal
development. We become powerless many a times because we can’t believe what we
want to believe and run after other things that we should not believe. Believe
only in yourself, in your capacities, in your principles, in your work, in your
Mentor/Guru and God. Make your beliefs strong by not believing other principles
that is not decided by you consciously, other works that distracts you, and
other people that ridicule you and beliefs that weakens you.
6.
Courage and fear:
Fearlessness is a great virtue. Nothing great can be
achieved without courage. Faintheartedness never brings success. The higher the
goal ‘is’, the higher the requirement of courage ‘is’. Courageous people are
courageous because they conquer fear. Without conquering fear people can’t
become courageous, strong and fearlessness. Fear therefore, is an aid to
courage. Fear is the challenge by overcoming whom people has created history.
Therefore fear is as important as courage. Moreover fear protects us from
danger. Fear to fail leads us towards success, fear of diseases helps us to
stay healthy, fear of defamation helps us to do good things, fear of losing time
helps us to spend our lives wisely and fear of God makes us more honest. Fear
is not bad. It is fear that compels us to take action. It is fear that warns us
to do right things on the right time. Therefore, we must learn to respect our
fears, find out the causes of fear and must try to remove them at the earliest
possible.
7.
Giving up and not
giving up:
We must learn to give up which is not important for
us and at the same time we must not give up what is very important for us i.e.
our goals, principles, relationships etc. We must give up our bad habits, bad
thought patterns, bad relationships which are not conducive for our self
development one by one. To the contrary we must cultivate good habits, good
thought patterns and healthy relationships and must not give them up at any
cost.
8.
Life and Death:
Death is as important as life. It exists side by
side of life. Because death exists, we use to enjoy life. It is death that
warns us like an alarm bell to do whatever we like to do before we expire. It
is death that teaches us the value of time, the value of discipline, peace,
happiness, relationship and life itself. Life becomes more beautiful because it
has a limited span of time. Therefore life becomes more meaningful.
9.
Faith and Doubts:
When we are certain to achieve something, our faith
increases and our confidence level becomes high. On the other hand uncertainty
gives rise to doubt and fear. Overcoming doubts, fears and uncertainties again
develop our faith, strength and capacity. But if we value uncertainty and doubt,
we won’t be able to cultivate faith. It is therefore, faith that determines the
quality of our lives and it is uncertainty and doubt that teaches us to develop
more faith, strength and power within. We can’t ignore the opposites. We need
to learn the value of the problems, the uncertainties that our life offers us
as a precious gift for our self development.
10.
Success and Failure:
It is said that failure is the pillar to success. If
we are not ready to experience failure, we will not be able to achieve any
success. Failure is as important as success. It is the fear of failure that
compels us to work hard and to achieve success. It is because of failure that
success has become so much meaningful and valuable. It is failure that used to
teach us discipline, sincerity, courage, faith, endurance and patience. It is
failure that prepares us for success. It is failure that makes success
extraordinary.
