The Crisis of Self-Recognition
Fida Hussain Balhami
A
close acquaintance of mine, who by profession is a doctor, had returned from a foreign trip; I just to pay a courtesy visit went to his house to know about his travelogue. On asking the purpose of his journey, he cut short by telling that he has brought a special souvenir from abroad; a matter of pride for him. Not mentioning the name of that 'precious gift', he without any pause added that it wouldn’t be any exaggeration if he may call it the fruit of his life and efforts. All those present including me became more curious to know about the valuable souvenir of the doctor that was a matter of great importance for him. In the meanwhile, the doctor left the room and quickly returned with something in his hands that apparently looked like a book. In the heart of my hearts I thought that mostly it could be some precious and rare book on the subject of modern medical sciences. The idea that erupted in my mind got shattered soon he sat next to me and began flipping through the plain pages of this attractive diary. As he continued to turn the pages of this diary to and fro, I wondered as to what magical lamp he was searching for. Finally he found out the page he was looking for and in extreme excitement said, "This is what I wanted to show you, the greatest achievement of my life!” Uttering these words in a manner as he had discovered the elixir of life, I was highly surprised when I found that page was almost blank as other pages except that in its centre there was some rough scribbling. Sensing our surprise, the doctor asked from us whether we knew what made this undecipherable writing extraordinary! When we nodded in negation; he himself so proudly disclosed, "This is the autograph of an internationally renowned person". I again happened to resort guessing. I thought it could be the autograph of a medical scientist or a famous doctor. Again I was wrong when he disclosed the secret of this mysterious autograph that it happened to be of a world famous Asian cricketer. No sooner he named the cricketer, the news about him struck to my mind. In fact the news of the involvement of the cricketer in a drug smuggling case while being in a foreign tour had become the headline of the world media during those days.
From this episode one could simply presume that either this person happen to be a smuggler of a banned substance or himself an adductor. In both the cases he could be declared as a psychic patient who is in need of medical consultation. He certainly was at the mercy of a doctor to get rid of this rubbish.
On the other hand, it was a matter of great perplexity that a doctor who should have known the worth and value of his professional responsibility, amazingly is impressed by a mentally sick person to the extent that he longed to be a cricketer than that of a doctor. Apart from the ethical and moral parameters, as a matter of fact a doctor even of ordinary repute should always be treated better than any 'internationally known cricketer. The profession of a doctor and his services to mankind are unique in its nature. Back in time; before a century, life flourished the same way without this game when the doctor used to shoulder the responsibility of curing the sick. Even today none can undermine the importance of this noble profession. Secondly, cricket is just a game and a matter of amusement that doesn't anyway add any real value to life. It just provides a momentary and transitory entertainment. Comparatively, serving in the medical arena is very essential and lasting service. Where from the inferiority complex stems out that this doctor was suffering from? Simply it is because of non-realization of one’s worth and self-respect. In other words, he hasn't realised how important and beneficial his profession and services are for his society. Had it been so, he wouldn't have been awed simply by a cricket player.
To know the status of a doctor one needs to refer to the exemplary book of a Nobel, laureate, physicist and biologist, Alexis Carrel titled "Man, The Unknown". The theme and gist of this book is that a man utilizes his intellectual capability on three types of sciences; matter and materials, botany and zoology. He further explains, "There is a wide difference between the sciences of living and non-living things. The astronomy, mechanics and physics are based on the postulate which can be perfectly explained in the mathematical language while this is not possible for the sciences of living being or what we call life sciences. To unravel the mystery of life (of the living beings) is tantamount to explore the ways and alleyways of un-trodden forest trails; simultaneously, mysterious and confusing, wherein myriad of trees appear to be continuously changing their places. These biologists can well explain the nitty gritty of their subject, yet they are helpless to illustrate it in Algebraic terms. It goes without saying that man has mastered the secrets of materials; their composition and structure, but the only thing which still remains a mystery for him is his own self - the human being. He hasn't been able to unfold the mystery behind creation and creativity of all living beings in general and humans in particular. Though he has come a long way, he still needs to go on to unfold the secret behind amazing creation of a human life”.
Alexis Carrel admits man's helplessness and ignorance about human life in the above mentioned book even after exploring and unfolding many complexities on the same subject. Man has possibly scaled heights with regard to first two sciences, i.e., the science of materials and the science of plants, yet the science of mankind is more complicated than that he would have thought about it. Man might have won over the world he lives in, yet the only world he hasn't fully explored is the one that resides in his own being." (Man, the Unknown; page 15-18)
Thus we can infer from the excerpts from this book that in comparison to science of materials (non-living beings), the science of mankind (living entity) is a gigantic and herculean task. A medical and biological expert or scientist is the one who studies and carries the responsibility of studying this complicated but essential subject and is relatively more important than a cricketer. It is very unfortunate that this doctor undermined his significance and importance in such a mundane way.
If we dig a bit deeper, we shall know the reasons behind the loss of self-confidence and extreme inferiority complex. The first and foremost reason could be that this doctor hasn't grasped his self-worth which eventually made him be awestruck by a cricketer and assume him to be his role model. It's pertinent to mention that this is not an isolated case with this particular doctor in our society rather almost all of us aren't aware of our identity, value and worth. And what underpins this loss of self-worth and identity is that we don't utilize the faculty of insight, intuition and foresightedness (baseerat), rather we view our world through the prism and medium of the camera. We distinguish beauty and ugliness on the basis of what it looks in appearance. Unfortunately, this is the standard that's being adopted and utilized in today's world for assessing and certifying the greatness of a man. The greatness that one assumes from the popularity that in turn acquires as how many cameras are focused at a person. Greater the number of cameras focussed on a person, the range of his popularity goes wider and it builds up the false impression of greatness of his or her being a great personality. We tend to undermine and probably not take into account what virtually this so popular person has done in real sense for humanity at large. The true greatness of humanity lies in one's vigour and efforts to become a great human being. Indispensably it is not so that a good cricketer may be an ideal man and thus a role model. It's very much possible that a cricketer who has turned to be expert in this game remains an amateur in the practical life. Thus how unjust it would be for a person who has professionally achieved laurels and heights in the ideal sense to consider an armature as his ideal in life.
If we bring shutters down on the camera and view a human being and his purpose through the prism of foresight and internal vision, we could understand how great the role and responsibility he has to shoulder in his life. We can envisage the goal and destination of a real human that he has to achieve. But today's human being has been programmed in such a way that he has to keep his eyes glued to the screen to the extent that he has no time to look beyond this and have a glimpse as over the practical and real life of the so called 'stars' or ‘role models’ in order to differentiate as what they appear and what they are in practical life. The world famous Urdu poet, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib has conveyed this message through these verses;
ہیں کواکب کچھ نظر آتے ہیں کچھ
دیتے ہیں دھوکا یہ بازیگر کھلا
The reality behind the stars is something different as what they appear (from a distance);
They deceive the human eye like the illusion created by magicians.
The consequence of preference of the artificial glittering world over the real world is too evident. When our youth looks for his ideal, he finds himself imprisoned and restricted in the world of movies and sports. When he tries to follow these pseudo characters in his real life he drowns in the whirlpool of disappointment and failure as these fake characters prove to be nothing except mirage for him. These fake characters in their appearance may temporarily seem to be in dominant position but expecting them to revolutionise ones real life is nothing but an illusion. What is the reason that in our subcontinent we find most of our youth being awestruck by the likes of Tendulkar and Afridi while those who are aware of the teachings and message of Iqbal and Tagore are few in number?! We all know about the world famous cricket legend John Bradman and his inspiring cricketing heroics, yet hardly anyone of us remember the famous virologist and medical researcher Jonas Salk who played a key role in developing one of the first successful polio vaccines. It took seven years of his vigorous and rigorous efforts in the field of research to bring forth this vaccine. As a matter of fact, man in today's media and technology driven world keeps track of the news and happenings around the world round the clock, but has no time to think over and deliberate upon the complexity of one’s being. He is oblivious of the world which Hazrat Ali (as) termed as 'the greater world'. Addressing man, Hazrat Ali (A.S) says, "You presume you are a small entity, but within you is enfolded the wider and greater world. The physical world is too small but your inner world it is too greater and wider." To explore and comprehend this greater inner world one needs to view oneself through insight and farsightedness.
The 18th century Persian poet Hatef Isfahani says:
چشم دل باز کن که جان بینی
آنچه نادیدنی است آن بینی
Open the eyes of your heart so as to see the world;
In this way you would be in a position to see what's invisible to you.
Taking a stride forward, instead of letting ones self-worth drift away in idolising pseudo characters one rather need to shape up oneself in a manner that one may find his own personality worth some and attractive. According to Allama Iqbal, one needs to develop intimacy with his own ideals...
دیوانہ و دلبستہ اقبال خودت باش
سرگرم خودت عاشق احوال خودت باش
O’ Iqbal be a fan and devotee of yourself;
Let you be busy in shaping yourself and lover of your own ideals.
یک لحظہ نخور حسرت آن را کہ نداری
راضی بہ ہمیں چند قلم مال خودت باش
Never be disappointed about what you don't possess; Be self contented to whatever little you possess.
دنبال کسی باش کہ دنبال تو باشد
اینگونہ اگر نیست بہ دنبال خودت باش
Be in search of one who is in search of you; if it is not so; be in search of your own self.
پرواز قشنگ است ولی بے غم و منت
منت نکش از غیر، پر و بال خودت باش
It is delightful to have a wide flight but without any stress or strain; don't be dependent on others, be self-sufficient to have your own wings.
Therefore, instead of being a prototype of others better to carve out an original of your own personality. One can get rid of the inferiority complex by way of focussing on oneself. Once he finds his real self-worth, he will find the beauty of self-awareness and self-realisation. That’s why Allama Iqbal considers this thoughtfulness better that leads him to know his real identity, value and worth.
جمال اپنا اگر خواب میں بھی تو دیکھے
ہزار ہوش سے خوشتر تری شکر خوابی
It is appreciable if you happen to see your beauty and worth in the dream than to visualize it in others in awakening.
To conclude, I would say in order to find the spectacular jewel of one’s life one needs to immerse in the ocean of self-identification and self-realisation.
Thus Iqbal again says;
اپنے من میں ڈوب کر پا جا سراغ زندگی
تو اگر میرا نہیں بنتا نہ بن اپنا تو بن
Get immersed in yourself so as to find out the traces of your real life; if you are not in a position to develop intimacy towards me at least you need to cherish your own self.
Translated by: Anjum Hussain
Email: [email protected]
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