I have always been inspired by data patterns in my life. My
obsession with numbers has given me a parallel career in consulting and as a
photographer in Pi Studio. To me everything looks like a set of data through
which I develop patterns for my own comprehension of the world.
This has been the way I perceive things and I was comfortable with
the way I operated till a few days ago. I had a mental “checklist” which I
always had open through which I would judge a person. This inevitable led to me
being biased as my opinions were formulated based upon my perception and data
patterns.
When I was expressing my biased opinion about someone, my wife got
considerably angry as she noticed that I was viewing humans as inanimate
objects and this view was diminishing my humanity. When she pointed this out to
me, it shook me like a thunderbolt that although I proclaimed to be a sensitive
artist and even though it sounded cool to the ears, deep down inside that my
dirty soul knew it was a lie.
It is then that I realized that even though we humans have
predictable patterns of existence most of the time, but it is the uncertainty
which surrounds us which is the beauty of humans. What makes the soul move can never
by explained or predicted by any behavioral pattern. The great humanitarian Mother
Teresa has beautifully summed up my predicament in this quote:
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
I have now realized that I also judge people on their
background, race, religion and physical appearance. In my illusion of seeing
the soul of someone else, I see the hidden reflection of my own soul. I hope
that my habit of judging people ends and my heart becomes pure. However, the way
to mastering the heart is a very tough, long arduous journey.
