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| “Identity crisis”, is yet another negative psychological and physical offshoot of the modern day lifestyle. As if the water crisis, energy crisis and food crisis of the world were not enough, we have this self created crisis of self. And the suitability of the word “self” in “self –created” is quite ironical at that. If you mistake to think that this crisis is of personal or individual level, you are missing out the larger picture. The magnitude of this crisis is huge, frightening and universal. The worst identity crisis we are facing today is that we have stopped identifying ourselves as humans at all. The present sorry picture of the world corroborates my statement. When man turns thirsty of human blood, we begin to identify with cannibals and sadists. The whole world has taken to a killing spree. The newspapers carry stories of human blood shed in some corner of the world every single day of the year without exception. Our rationality has fallen prey to basal instinct and this in turn is creating lot of victims of human envy and intolerance in the most globally challenging phenomenon of terrorism. Some man wisely remarked, “It is a grim reality that we prepare for war like precocious giants and for peace like retarded pygmies”. On whom do we set the blame for this grossly unnatural and inhuman identification of ourselves? The fanatic religious leaders, corrupt politicians, the ordinary citizen who gets swayed with zealous talks or the one who is indifferent to all of this? Our world is in its gory condition because each one of us has a clandestine selfish interest which has overpowered even the basic humanity within us. | The first and foremost identification that must dawn upon us is of a human being. Realize that we have a mind to think, a heart to feel and a body to act upon these thoughts and feelings. Once we understand ourselves as thinking human beings in the scheme of creation, there evolves individuality for each one of us. From individuality springs the aspect of ego. In terms of psychoanalysis, ego is that part of the mind that is responsible for the interpretation of reality and the sense of self. The ego then has two roles to opt for. We may either feel a sense of being a unique individual. However, this sense of uniqueness is not the same as the other role of being ego-centric. Though there is a very thin line dividing the two. Swami Chinmayananda says, “Renounce Ego” is the Lord’s only request. ‘And I will make you God is the promise’
We do not have to become a conceited self-engrossed person in the wake of our individuality. But most often than not, we misinterpret our identity as self centered space. In actuality, the question about creating our identity is itself misplaced. You already have a very separate identity from others, uniqueness to yourself. The question then arises of awakening to this identity and using it to enable others to unfold theirs and thereby mutually succeed in accomplishing your desired goa |
