Perspective

It’s scary and interesting to think that no person views the world in the way that you do. The sensory organs might work the same way for every person, but the fact of the matter is that, it is still a completely different world. The way every person perceives what the sensory organs detect is different for everyone. So what I see and understand about this world might be completely opposite to how you see it. It’s like a huge geometrical object made of billions of edges, corners and sides. It is just one object, but my point of view matters. From every position, I see a different and new object. But in reality, I’m looking at the same thing.

Perspective is very important. The way you think matters, the way you understand things matters. There are always multiple perspectives to a story. Some people view Rama, the Hindu god, as a hero, as an ideal man who possessed all sorts of good qualities. I see him as a vile person who had no trust in Sita and had the audacity to ask her to undergo Agnipariksha (which apparently was a way to tell if Sita had any relationships with any other man), after he rescued her. I don’t see him as a God, but as a convoluted person who exiled his pregnant wife into the forest. But it’s just my perspective. I might be wrong. I might not know the true story. Perspective plays a major role in law too. A judge comes to a decision only after knowing and carefully studying all possible perspectives to the case. In many people’s minds, all the planets and the Sun went around the Earth. But in the minds of a couple of heads, like Copernicus and Galileo, the perspective of things were different. Not everybody made themselves the centre of the universe. And most of the problems we face is because of that fact. Because we make ourselves the centre of the universe. We see things from where we are, and not from the outside. We are indeed the church that opposed science. It’s important to see the solar system from the top, rather than being in the centre and being blind to the truth.

How do you classify things as good or bad? Maybe in somebody’s perspective some acts are good, and in somebody else’s, it’s considered bad. In most of the world’s perspective, suicide bombing is considered an act of terrorism, an act so violent and cruel, and yet in the perspective of the terrorist, he/she is a hero, who is following God’s wishes and wants to end up in heaven. Coming back to the geometric shape, consider heaven to be the shape. Everybody from almost all religions want to go to heaven. Heaven is a place of pure happiness and joy. But perspective plays such a huge role here. Some people try to attain heaven by doing good to others, by leading a truthful and honest life. And for the Jihadists, it’s the opposite. Everybody wants to do good. But there’s a conflict. Jihadists see suicide bombing as a good deed, where as, the others see it as a bad deed.

The concept of good and bad, should originate from you. Despite what you learn in school, at home or wherever. The true understanding of good and bad comes when you think about things from the perspective of humanity, the perspective of understanding, caring and respect. Ethics and morals originates when you have a proper understanding of the world. It’s not just reading and following the moral of the story. It’s about understanding why it’s important to follow the morals.

Moral of the story? Have a wide perception of everything and not just a narrow outlook.