"Every attempt to control which is not voluntary, not with the controller's own mind, is not only disastrous, but it defeats the end" - Swami Vivekananda
Invariably, humans like being in control or least most of us like to believe that we are in control. As a boss, a parent, a spouse, a leader or even as a teacher. Which makes it true that there are some who are being controlled. And needless to say its a viscous circle; an individual may be in a controlling position in one role while he might be the one being controlled in another role and there are some individuals who control others in every role. To me such people are not only dangerous in their own domain but also detrimental to human society.
Yes, there are individuals who do good to others for a time by giving a new trend to their predispositions at the same time they bring ruin to millions by unconscious suggestions they throw around rousing in men and women a passive and hypnotic state that eventually leave them soulless. There numerous people around us who proclaim their mastery over a subject; religion or philosophy being the most common. And in their endless desire for control they spread their biased opinions, amongst people who out of their sheer ignorance blindly allow others to control them.
It's thus important for all individuals to beware of how we unknowingly allow ourselves to be acted upon by others.For example, when we eat we are aware of it but we are not aware of how and when the food gets assimilated by our body to provide it all the strength. It’s not that someone else is assimilating the food for us and providing us energy. We only do it ourselves but we are not aware of it because we are not in control of that organ.
Similarly we are never in control of our own mind. The human mind is forever wandering and wayward. We endlessly search for happiness, success, peace, justice, glory and when we fail to find them, we are confronted with endless questions and that's when we become vulnerable to control. Not realising the fact that we are not in control of our mind the way we are not in control of most of our organs.
We should to first gain control over our own mind and senses and then work towards achieving our goal. The goal of each soul should be freedom - from matter and thought, mastery of internal and external nature. It's only us who can do it for ourselves. We alone can find our own path to freedom and not by walking on trails left by others for we do not know where did people who walked those roads ended up. The answers to our questions lie within us, its only that we are not aware of it. Subscribing to someone else’s opinion dilutes our own goals. We end up giving birth to new communities, sects and religions in our attempt to find answers to our questions. And with so much heterogeneity and lack of acceptance, we thus add to intolerance, dislike, hatred and eventually vanishing a whole era of culture developed by a races of an entire civilization.
So before submitting ourself to someone’s propensities and adding to the bigotry, we should ask ourselves if we are in control of our ownself. Once we learn to control ourselves and accept every existence, we can make this world a much better place to live in and ensure the advancement of humanity..
