The viscous nature of denial of the Human Mind.

I have been trying to pen down my thoughts on the fundamental nature of the human mind – the nature of denial, since more than a week now and today is the day.

It was an Easter day and my son out of sheer innocence came and asked me whether the story that his friend told him about Christ’s death was true. His friend perhaps told him that there are experts in the west who have studied the crucifixion of Christ in detail and have finally concluded that Jesus never died on the cross. I wanted to share my thoughts over it with all and the discussion that ensued is written below.

Ordinarily everyone is in some or the other kind of denial. With more and more progress happening in the world of science, our mind too is acutely scientifically inclined. It wants a scientific proof for everything. The so called super intelligent mind is therefore always in search of scientific proofs now. If you cannot give a scientific proof, the mind would instantly shift to the denying mode. But we need to accept a fundamental truth that life cannot be confined to the boundaries of science, it has a much larger dimension that what we can ordinarily imagine.

Remember life is all about the conscious choices we make on the journey.While one can choose to walk the path in a mode of complete denial. One can also choose to walk this path in a mode of complete acceptance.

That’s the difference between a Freud and a Buddha. The basic foundation of Fruedian theories was to deny, it was a mechanism of defence against external realities that threaten the ego. Understand this – there are many who asked Buddha this question – Is there God? And Buddha would many a times just smile or not even reply at all. Perhaps that question does not carry any significance to the enlightened master. Perhaps that smile spoke a million words. Because deep inside, a Buddha knows that the question is not coming from a seeker, but from a worldly intelligent man. The man is asking the question just to reconfirm with his intellect. And if at all a genuine seeker asks a Buddha this question, he would at the max say, I don’t know, there might be god, there might not be, I cannot deny, but I am yet to experience it.

A Buddha will never deny. He will never say that there is no God. He will in all possibilities say, I am yet to experience him. Because in denial he knows that the being remains closed to possibilities. You may go on denying, but in the denial you don’t allow growth. Growth can happen only when there is acceptance. In denial you have closed your self; you remain negative towards the subject. In acceptance you remain open to millions of possibilities, a possibility of an awakening.

Now let’s agree with the intellectual mind for a moment that the series of events that happened on the day of crucifixion of Christ was fake. But how does that matter to your life. Are you a believer only because he took the sufferings on the cross or are you a believer because the teachings he offered the mortals on this planet was worth an awakening? If you are a believer, then the belief cannot happen from the head, it has to happen from the heart. And when one believes from the heart, when one is intensely in love with the supreme, the intelligence has no place at all. Then it does not matter whether he suffered for 5 minutes or 15 minutes. Then a Da Vinci Code is codeless.  If you love Christ from the core of your heart, all these dissection of facts and figures does not matter. All that should matter to us is that he has offered the world something extremely invaluable – The Holy Bible. If this book can create a new beginning in life, That’s it, then no calculations and no dissection of events should really matter.

There have also been great scholars in India too who have spent years and years of their life in studying the war of Kurukshetra. They argue that the war never took place, they argue that the Gita could not be recited in the middle of the war field.

One might go on denying that the war did not take place, the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna is made-up. But the fundamental question again remains the same. How does it really matter that whether the war took place or not. All that should matter is that Krishna has gifted the world with another invaluable gem – the Gita. If the Gita has the potential to transform millions and millions of lives, all the dissection of events would remain an utter waste of efforts – nothing else.

While it is difficult to open ourselves to the vast infinite, while the mind will play its tricks by trying to demand a scientific logical proof for everything, remember that it is also possible to drop these mind games and remain open to the infinite possibilities in existence.

Remain open to life; be on a constant endeavour to improvise the quality of your thoughts, your feelings, your behaviour and ultimately – your life through various paths. In denial we will fail to experience an inner growth. In acceptance we remain open to the ultimate possibility – An Awakening…….An enlightenment.

God Bless !!!