Generally, people especially the trainers, ask this stupid question: “Can you describe yourself in three words?” The so-called trainers think they are asking a brilliant question! The moment you accept the question, you have fallen into a tight inescapable trap. You begin to describe yourself with words like: kind, benevolent, cooperative, God fearing, supportive, understanding and so on. I have also seen few people who describe themselves as: selfish, greedy, unsupportive, suspicious and so on.
I wonder why people do not describe themselves with all the bad qualities. Why they describe only with good qualities? Are they not obsessed with the fictitious concept of being good and never being bad? Good and bad are what we the humans created. Sadly, we are swallowed by those very concepts! Every moment of our lives we this of good and bad! We became rather sick! All the religions across the globe and societies of both past and present have bitten the pill of being ‘good and bad’.
Thus, the society has corrupted our minds thoroughly and in it the contribution of religion is no less. Consider the following situation. It is from a sacred religious book which I shall not name. We are made to believe that God is all Good and Evil is all bad. I wish to disprove this very notion.
A young woman went to a handsome young man, said “Sir. I Love You. I have never seen a handsome man like you in my life and I cannot imagine life without you. I shall give you every comfort, all riches and most comfortable life which even no god can ever imagine. Please take me sir. I know that you are married. But my love towards you cannot allow me to share you with others. Hence, I beg you to divorce your wife. Come sir. Come with me”.
What is wrong in this statement? A woman is simply expressing her mind with clarity. The very fact that she is so eloquently open indicates that her love for this man is irreproachable. What do you think the man should have done? He should have thanked the woman for loving him, should have explained her slowly, carefully why her request/demand is not possible as there are better and deserving people than he to justify her unfathomable love. But what did this man do? What this man did was rather stupid. He simply cut off her nose & ears, disfiguring her forever. This sorrowful and mindless episode proves that even the gods cannot be describing as all good!
When his only sister was insulted, disfigured and made useless for life, any brother would choose to do the same to the sister of the man who has committed this heinous act! As this man had no sister, he stole the wife, took her away to his land. He did not harm her, rape her or torture her. He had kept her as securely as he would have kept his house guest. He did not cross the line. His character shows good control over his emotions. He knew how to respect women. This respectful act of this man vindicates that all demons are not necessarily evil!
The society has corrupted our minds to think all good as God all evil is demonic. According to this thinking there is no devil who is said to have done something good; and there is no god who has done something bad! If this is the extent of our thinking, how can I describe myself in three words? I will have to invent a new method, a new direction and new angle where it is possible to describe myself aptly in three words.
What others think or say of me such as “He is a good man” or ‘He is the cruelest man I ever saw’ etc. are not my concern. Why would I do or not do something to make other people conclude of me in whatever manner they deem fit is not in my hands; similarly, what I conclude of others is not in their hands. Most importantly it is irrelevant. Thus, having eliminated the entire society from the scope, how would I then describe myself in three words? Good and bad are meaningless non-absolute divisions. Nothing is either good or bad. Everything is qualification neutral.
The only way to describe myself in three good words would be: I, Me and Myself! These three are the magic words. It means the following: no one else can judge me in the world, including gods. The only person who can ever describe me is the I. It is the ‘I’ who can decide about ‘Me’ and it has to be none other than ‘myself’. Hence, I choose the three magic words “I ME and Myself to describe self.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
