The Animal within Each and Everyone of Us! - 11th February ‘11

Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong

as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.

But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond

the highest which is in each one of you,

So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than

the lowest which is in you also.

And as a single leaf turns not yellow

but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,

So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

-          Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet)

Was wondering for sometime now, thinking as to how did I manage to control and subdue the beast that’s lurking within me! Times when I was scared of even my own self, moments when I could imagine myself committing something sort of a heinous crime, things that we say as the lowest of acts by lowly mortal humans…

How did I overcome all those moments! All those meaty temptations, carnal cravings, tempting open purses, moments of madness and so more.

What did swerve me off the path of downfall? What did help me retain the same self-righteous image that we have learn to cloak ourselves with, the moment we lost the raiment of innocence? What’s the name of the inner compass, that guided me during those darkest hours of my life, which I am sure that each and every one of us faces – the dark hours of the soul, as one of my favorite authors succinctly noted – without letting me rock and ruin the boat of my path?

Within me lurks a self-righteous sinner, who acts as a reminder to me, who is an eclectic gatherer of smears and stains in someone else’s character, so that I can wear those smears and stains as my shield, protecting my deeper self with the shell of those misgivings of others, so that I can boost my ego saying that I am above the lowly mortal who has committed the sin, while in fact, he should be the one that I should be grateful to, since he’s the one who notified the pitfalls that I might come across in my path. Merci, my unseen friend.

Salutes and thanks from a self-righteous sinner!