Expressions

It so happens that the thoughts circling in my heart gathers a critical mass tumbles out as words. More often than not, the words carry no meaning. Such words are just content to stream out through my fingers into a word document, typed out in a haste, full of spelling mistakes...never to be read again.

But at other times, the words twist with another deeper urge within -the urge to share that which is inside me with others. I would be lying if I say that these words are like a window to my soul. They are just a reflection of a temporary state of mind, which may make no sense to me, if I were to revisit it at a later point of time. But right now, these words are my world. The unfiltered expression of all that is going on inside me. 

This makes me wonder. Why is it that we feel this need to share a piece of ourselves with others? Why this urge to express oneself? 

If we were to just observe for a minute, everyone of us expresses & strives to share our inner world with our fellow humans. isn't? If we take any form of art...singing, dancing, painting, photography, making cinemas, theatre...aren't they all a medium of expression? The immense popularity of social media stems from this need of self-expression, coupled with the secondary needs of approval & validation - social media provides an easily accessible platform to express & share -be it the stunning painting that one created or a simple dosa one made for breakfast. 

Leave aside art, consider any work that we do. Be it household work or office work or business or charity or even our daily exercises -doesn't our work carry our own exclusive stamp? The same work done by 2 different people come out in 2 different ways. Without even us being conscious of it, we are expressing ourselves through our work. 

The way we speak, the way we dress, the food we eat, the home we live, the books we read, the shows we watch, the people we spend time with, the places we go -all the choices that we make -comes with the stamp of our identity...the identity of who we think we are & whom we want to be perceived as. And beyond these two is the actual personality -'whom we really are' -free from all our own expectations.

The fascinating thing is, 'whom we want to be perceived as' takes a priority in our lives. Much of our stress will be eliminated if we free ourselves from the shackles of 'whom we want to be perceived as'. Why is it a shackle? Because, it prevents us from even exploring whom we truly are...leave alone understanding and expressing our true nature.

I remember, in one of my first Vedanta classes, where my Acharya was expounding on the nature of the Self, saying that our true nature is that of "existence, conscious & bliss", I went up to her, saying I feel anything but blissful. All Masters, across all religions, across all geographies, across all times, keep insisting that the Self is bliss absolute -meaning its very nature is that of bliss... bliss which is not dependent on any external factor. 

Such a complete and unanimous declaration implies that either they all are a part of some secret brotherhood bent on lying & misleading the masses...or they are actually saying the truth. The probability of a secret brotherhood is highly unlikely, considering that many of these declarations have been made as a result of their own, direct experience. 

So, if our true nature is that of absolute bliss, what does it mean practically? It means, our happiness is not dependent on things, people, circumstances, social validation, etc etc. We are free from the obligation of working towards 'whom we want to be perceived as'. We don't have to act from fear, rather, we can act from love. We no longer have to judge / criticize ourselves or others. We can accept more easily, love more freely, give more generously & live more happily. We can abide in our own Self and revel in our true nature -which is that of existence, conscious & bliss.