Zoom-in & Zoom-out

The Bhagavad Gita is many things – a navigation system, a mirror, a spotlight, a compass, a map, a companion. All in all, it is an eye-opener that encourages a person to look for solutions and explanations in the wisdom of the wise rather than in the world full of woes and wonders! And wisdom can be imbibed within each one of us by choice, so in other words, the Gita teaches us to be open to it and to internalise it.The most fascinating thing that studying this amazing book has taught me, is the connectedness of everything.We tend to compartmentalise and categorise whatever we see around us. We feel, ‘this is this and that is that and this can’t be that and that can’t be this.’ We do the same with the people we meet; we typecast them and even though we have so often been proven wrong about the impressions we have of people, yet we continue doing this. We also do it with our own lives. For example, we say things like ‘my personal life’, ‘my social life’, ‘my family life’, ‘my professional life’, the list goes on! But when you stop and think about it, you realise it’s all just you! How can my social life, family life or professional life be anything other than personal when I am involved?!When I operate from recognition of the connectedness between myself and what is happening around me in the world, my search for meaning and purpose gains more of a direction. From earlier getting lost in the seeming multiplicity of the world of objects and people, and even of my own life, I can instead somewhat simplify and narrow things down. I find that I play a bigger part than what I earlier thought, and that things are not happening to me without my involvement..I am very much a connected part of it all – thinking, doing, reacting, choosing, deciding… All this contributes to what my life is like and what my world is like. However, while these may seem like many various abilities or powers, they all stem from me. Whatever I start, whatever I continue, whatever I put an end to – it’s all done by me. I don’t become three entities for performing these three functions; I remain one – me!I am reminded of ‘The Three Musketeers’ – “All for one and one for all!”The fun of it is that when this connectedness is practiced, it’s gives you the ability to look at things in two ways. When I look at the multiplicity, I get to see that it’s all connected to one; that is me – a zoom-in of sorts. But this vision doesn’t let me sit on my high horse, arrogantly believing that I am separate from the multiplicity. The connectedness keeps reminding me of my involvement in it all – a zoom-out of sorts.It’s the same lens that zooms in and zooms out, if one could only remember to use it correctly!