Become More by Giving Up

I have always had this question in my mind. How do I become more? How do I become more of a human being?

As humans we are privileged because we have the faculty of intelligence – we can distinguish between right and wrong, we can differentiate between good and bad, we can analyze and we can synthesize. It is we and only we humans who can do it. Our potential is immense, yet we squander all our talent, throw away all our passion and follow mundane pursuits.

Genetically we are less than 0.1% different from monkeys. Yet we as a race have used our brains, our intelligence and our resources to build this modern world. 

However to be honest, less than 1% of earth’s population have actually used their mind, resource and knowledge to discover and create new things (Einstein, Newton, Edison), better and improve old things (scientists, engineers) and destroy useless things (Martin Luther King, Rammohan Roy). Rest of us are either passive or destructive.

The passive people are like the proverbial sheep, grazing and grazing and grazing their way to death. The destructive people are those who use their intellect to further their individual political agenda and have no regards or respect for sanctity of human life, culture, tradition or Mother nature. The later groups include terrorists, religious fanatics, suicide bombers, tinpot dictators and so on.

Yet despite the passive and the destructive folks who make up more than 99% of our race, humans are still progressing and evolving. If we take this to its logical conclusion then it is obvious that even if 5% or 10% of humans contributed to betterment of human society, the world would be a completely different place and a better place for our children and their children.

So we need to continuously ask ourselves, how can we become more human?

The potential of the infinite which is now hidden behind a curtain of ignorance, how do I unleash that potential? 

How does one escape the net* of mind numbing banality and ascend the evolutionary chain?

We can start by giving up.

– Giving up filthy habits like smoking. Smoking is bad for health, we all know that. Yet smokers continue to smoke. Giving up smoking is easy, I have done it myself – if I can do it then so can anyone. All we need is the right guidance.

– Giving up prejudices and superstitions like racism, hatred for others, fanaticism, astrology and so on.

– Giving up anger, jealousy and violence. There are simple ways of controlling them but again we just need the right guidance.

These are negative emotions and make as anti-Humans.

The moment we start giving up the negative, we automatically become POSITIVE and more human. We become more, much more than we could ever have imagined. 

So give up to become more.

* Known as maya-jaal in Indian tradition

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