Acting skills and spirituality

The basic assumption behind writing this article is the the entire universe is a "Cosmic-drama" which sometimes bypasses the human intelligence to realize. Shakespeare once said that "All the world ‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts." That indeed is a very enlightened quote from an enlightened mind. In Sikhism, tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh ji has also made a similar statement: "Main hoo'n param purakh ko daasa, dekhan aayo jagat tamasa" which means that "I am the servant of the lord and I have come to watch the world drama".

Even if we sometimes interact with those people who are considered to be really wise and enlightened about how to live a better life, we realize that somewhere they may get reluctant to share their secrets and would rather highlight more on their achievements rather than their failures as they very well know how to save their image. In fact, those who sometimes believe that they have a perfect understanding of life and are equipped with the intelligence to live it and handle any situation, sometimes they have to go though an ego-crushing experience and sometimes they end up messing up things.

What I exactly want to point out here is that intelligence, knowledge and resources are important for life but there are some important skills that we need to be equipped with for making better choices for ourselves in our own lives. Once I just came across a quote that is worth sharing here:

You sow a THOUGHT, You reap an ACTION.

You sow an ACTION, You reap a HABIT.

You sow a HABIT, You reap a CHARACTER.

You sow a CHARACTER, You reap your DESTINY.

So, your DESTINY depends on your THOUGHTS.

Now if you are born and brought up in India, Cricket and Bollywood are bound to be your fantasies. There's a "wanna-be-actor" or a "wanna-be-cricketer" hidden in majority of the Indians. It's not that if you read my article you'll become a superstar overnight or you'll become a successful actor if you are pursuing that profession. "Acting skills" as mentioned in the title specifically points out the "Superficiality" in our lives. We all have a tendency to get superficial sometimes by choice and sometimes we're forced to get superficial by our circumstances and for a moment we say things or behave in a way that is not expected by us and deep inside ourselves we know that what we are saying or doing is not our real being. e.g. 

Situation 1: If we go to wedding of a distant relative, in order to show our involvement, we say hi and get into candid talks with people we don't like much or we haven't talked to for a long time or we try and be more polite and pretend to be closer to people than we actually are.

Situation 2: if we go to the funeral of a distant relative or an associate, we make sure that we don't smile or laugh or get into a candid talk with people around so that we can have a better projection of our concern for the deceased and we look wiser in our community.

"Superficiality" doesn't end here, we inevitably get superficial in a group of people and sometimes in handling our immediate family members as well. I believe that our thoughts, words and actions are in harmony only when we are alone but as social animals our existence is impossible in isolation and we're bound to confront the group situations in our day to day lives. But whatever we say or do in those situations, get buried deep down into our sub-conscious minds and has a lasting effect on our being. Hence, we must choose our words and actions wisely. In order to be wiser, we must choose our thoughts wisely, as positive and refined thoughts will enlighten you to be or not to be a part of a group situation.

So from this article one must be able to figure out that CHOICE has a role to play in one's being, I will definitely touch this topic regarding the role and percentage of choice and role of destiny in some other article.