Shadow in Us

We all are endowed with sufficient amount of weakness, shadows, problems, negative experiences and sins. Some are obsessed with overcoming them and  others are blissfully unaware of them, and some inadvertently boasting about them. All three groups are in no win situation. spiralling down is inevitable.

External forces do not create the negatives within us, they might have triggered the problem in us but they are not the authors of our problems and sinfulness. Being in darkness is an existential condition; we are born with the potentiality to become psychopaths.

Most of the self help books are busy highlighting the problem behaviors and then advise us on how to control and overcome them. They forget that it is battle that is lost before even the first shot is fired. Valli in Ramayana is the classical representation of fighting with shadows in us. If you fight against him half of your strength will go to him, and added to that he himself is a powerful person, so the battle against him will result in failure for anyone.

Our mind has a tendency to look at reality in a binary system. Either we must overcome it or surrender to it; Win or lose; defeat or get defeated. But there is the third way, an alternative we often fail to recognize. Transform the negatives; it is not same as overcoming. The process of transformation is slow and tedious. It is not a conclusion but remains a process which will lead us to the conclusion. It is always three steps forward and two steps backward journey. It is not a linear but essentially not linear.

People who do not transform their  shadows and problems will invariably transmit them to others and the next generation. And keep the society sick perpetually.