Oct 29, 2010
In pin safety pin
In pin out
Out go the safety pin
In pin out…..so the rhyme trundles along the turf of our minds making us nostalgic.
We have all used the above verse at some point in time during our elementary school days (sometimes strangely enough, even at later stages in life as grown-ups!). As children we have sung it to choose teammates during games, to choose answers in tests and for all the other so-called 'complex issues' that we as children had to deal with in our day-to-day activities. In all of this one thing was common – we had to deal with a situation of making a choice!
Choice – the simple, unassuming six-letter word is a constant companion of our mortal existence and making one can be a joy or a pain depending on one’s situation and one's perspective about the issue at hand. I still vividly remember the soft drink ad that I watched as a kid, where a famous cricketer of those days would come blaring out of the TV set exclaiming “Yehi hai right choice, baby!!” But the choices we have to make at times may not be all that smooth and easy (maybe it was so for the cricketer - after all, he was being paid a fortune for endorsing it).
During our lifetime, day in and day out we all make choices, small or great, good or bad, voluntary or involuntary, consequential or inconsequential, about simple issues or complex ones. However, one thing is certain – we all have to make a choice and no one, I mean no one is spared. It could be our choice of friends at school to the electives we choose in college, from the branch of specialization to the careers we choose, the jobs we choose or the companion with whom we choose to take up the walk of life, the lifestyle we choose, our religious affiliation, political inclination... the list simply chugs away deep into the maze of our minds.
Of late, we hear a lot about sportsmen opting to represent their adopted country rather than their country of birth. During the recently concluded FIFA football fiesta many of us might have heard of or read in the papers about two half-brothers who played for different countries (in fact continents!!). While the older brother chose to move out of the country where he had learnt the nuances of the game, the younger sibling chose to stay back and don the colours of his country of birth.
The older brother was painted a villain and a traitor for his choice. In the end, his team bowed out after a hard-fought tournament, while his brother ended up with second runners-up medal around his neck for his efforts. Of course it is not the end of the road for either of them and both may have many bitter losses to swallow and sweet victories to savour in future, but the point here is, both the brothers made a choice! A choice that brought with it its share of consequences into the lives of these siblings.
According to experts, choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them. While a choice can be made between hypothetical options (eg, "what would I do if ...?"), often a choice emanates from real options, and is followed by the corresponding action. Experts in the field of mind matters, believe that most people regard choice as a good thing, but having said that they are of the opinion that a severely limited or an artificially restricted choice (when we are under the influence of others and at times appear bound by them) can lead to bafflement in choosing and perhaps an unsatisfactory outcome.
Then the question arises - “Are multiple choices/options good for us?” It is an interesting contrast where an abundance of options may lead to confusion, regret of the alternatives not taken, and indifference in an unstructured existence; and the illusion that choosing an object or a course leads one to be necessarily controlled by that object or course can cause psychological problems.
Let me give a very basic example to illustrate the above statements better. Most of us have been through the experience of having to deal with multiple choice questions in our academic lives or while answering competitive exams, haven’t we? Now imagine being seated in an examination hall, with four/five options for each question in front of you. You find yourself unsure about a good number of topics asked in the paper, to make matters worse each wrong answer carries a negative mark, the clock on the wall keeps ticking away as a mute witness to your anguish, and you start squirming in your seat, you tick one option, strike it the next moment. Boy!! There is only one thing on your mind 1, 2, 3, 4…1, 2, 3, 4…1, 2, 3, 4…running all over in never ending circles.
If an exam lasting not more than an hour or two can do this to us, imagine what goes through our psyche, especially, in these modern times, when we are constantly overwhelmed by a flurry of ideas that are being flung at us from all quarters. All said and done, it is definitely not my intention to sound like a pessimist and portray a gloomy picture about the issue. It is not often that we fail to notice the people around us who have made some intense choices for themselves and for us, making our lives a lot easier. The most obvious but oft overlooked – our parents! Yes, the wonderful souls who choose to sacrifice, starting from their sleep when we fall ill to even their personal ambitions at times just to give us a comfortable life and see us happy and contented.
Life has its own mysterious way of functioning. If we desist from making our choices, then life will make its share of choices for us. Fine then, we may say. Anyway life will make its choices for us. Can we not relax, put up our feet and laze our days away? Why go through the entire grind? Why bother? Just try reproducing the same emotion when at the fag end of our mortal existence, looking back at all the times when we just chose to stand on the platform of activity watching the train whizz past us, only because we were all too afraid to get into a compartment. Of course the compartment could have been crowded, the ride bumpy, but at least we would have ended up in a new destination. Not watching life speed past us! I leave the rest to your imagination.
We all have choices to make – in our physical lives as well as in our spiritual lives. We can choose to fight our battles with guns or with roses. People like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela chose the latter. We can choose to fight our failures, critics and detractors with disconcert or with determination. People like Lance Armstrong (the man fought back stage three cancer to make a comeback and win the Tour de France a record 7 times in a row!), Sachin Tendulkar, Bill Gates, Thomas Alva Edison chose the latter.
We can choose to be deficient or be abundant. People like Henry Ford, Dhirubhai Ambani, Steve Jobs chose the latter. We can choose to fight our spiritual hostilities with fear or with faith. The numerous men and women of God we come to know of in our respective religious beliefs chose the latter. The beauty of this gift lies in the fact that we as individuals are absolutely free in making our choice, no matter what the situation is. Most importantly, whatever the contrast might be we must show up on one side of the battlefield and not in the middle of it. Else you are bound to be shot at mercilessly from both sides of the field!!
Remember: “Raising your dormant vibration is a choice. You are the master of your own light. Within you lives this undeniable radiant beauty. Awaken to your gifts and share them as was intended.”
We are called to be the children of light, not of darkness. The Master has presented the two extremities on a platter to us. As I have mentioned throughout the power of choice lies with us and He will not interfere in the process. If we choose to be with the Master all our choices will be blessed and we will not have to be servants any more. Now are you ready to make your choice and decide on whose side will you ride or is it going to be “in pin safety pin?
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