You are Unique… You are Original

We know that life primarily hinges on three relationships – your relationship with yourself, your relationship with others and your relationships with the force above.

Your life will be complete only when you develop yourself in all the three relationships. Start from where you can start – your relationship with yourself.

I can only give you what I have. If I have wisdom, I can share my wisdom with you. If I only have ignorance, I can only share my ignorance with you. If I am full of love, I can share my love with you. If I am full of hate, I can only share with my hatred with you. Kabir so beautifully said, 

“If the Guru be blind, the disciple is born blind. When the blind leads the blind, both fall into well.”

Only if I enjoy a good relationship with myself, I can enjoy a good relationship with others. If I am too critical about myself, if I have a complex about myself, if I keep thinking ‘I am not good enough’, if I constantly feel low about myself in the presence of others… when my own relationship with myself is lousy, there is no way I can enjoy a good relationship with others.

In fact, unless I have good relationship with myself, I cannot have a good relationship even with God. Swami Vivekananda said,
Basically, Swami Vivekananda wanted you to realize, your belief in the creator can’t help you much, unless you also believe in his creation – that’s yourself.

“He is not an atheist who does not believe in god. He is an atheist who does not believe in himself.”

So, even if no one likes you, you got to like yourself. In fact, only when you learn to like yourself, the world will begin to like you. Even if no one loves you, you got to love yourself. In fact, only when you learn to love yourself, you will begin to recognize the love the world has for you. Simply put, how the world see you will make only a small difference to you, but how you see yourself will make all the difference to you.

And, why would you not celebrate yourself when you are born winner. Do you know that long time back about 700 million participants ran a race, out of which only one emerged the winner. Those 700 million participants, I am referring to you are the 700 million sperms from the father racing towards the egg in the mother. Only that sperm, which is the fastest and the healthiest, first fused into the egg, for YOU to be born. YOU are that Winning Sperm. Your very birth is a symbol of victory. You are born to win. You are a winner by birth. Your very beginning was winning.

Every seed has in it the potential to become a forest, every rock has in it potential to become a statue, every human has in him the potential to become a Legend. And, you are that sleeping legend. Wake up to the sleeping potential within you.

Do you know what a blessing it is to be born as a human being?  If God wanted, he could have created you as a mosquito or as a monkey or as a pig. But God chose to create you as a human being – the greatest of all His creations. Abusing the gift is abusing the giver. Cherishing the gift is cherishing the giver. Cherishing yourself is your way of saying.

You begin to cherish yourself only when you begin to cherish your originality. It seems the plum fruit once said, just because a banana lover came by, I converted myself into a banana. Unfortunately, his taste changed after a few months and so I became an orange. When he said I was bitter I became an apple, but he went in search of grapes. Yielding to the opinions of so many people, I have changed so many times that I no more know who I am. How much I wish I had remained a plum and waited for a plum lover.

“Thank you God, for creating me as me, and as no one else.”

This is the story of most people. Just because a group of friends do not accept you as you are, there is no necessity for you to drop your originality. Never stoop down in order to gain recognition. Never lose yourself to gain someone else. It is not worth it. This is the only chance you have got to be yourself.

Life is to express and not impress. The group that doesn’t accept you as you is not your world. There is a world for each one of you, where you shall reign as the King, as the Queen – by just being yourself. Find that world … in fact, that world will find you. And only that world is your world.

What water can do, gasoline cannot and what copper can, gold cannot. The fragility of the ant enables it to move and the rigidity of the tree enables it to stay rooted. Everything and everybody has been designed with a proportion of uniqueness to serve a purpose. You, as you alone can serve your purpose and I, as I alone can serve my purpose. You are here to be you.. just you. You don’t have to try to be anybody else. Be yourself and be the best you can be. Don’t miss yourself and let the world not miss you.

It seems Vikas, a ninth standard student, had this habit of always carrying the pocket version of Jain Dharma in his shirt pocket. This was a source of major sarcasm, especially, for many of the senior students. Vikas would be bullied, joked at, laughed at, mocked at – and this went on. One day, a bunch of seniors surrounded Vikas and insisted he should not carry the scripture in his pocket anymore. Almost spontaneously, Vikas lifted the scripture out of his pocket, extended it towards the seniors and said, “Anyone of you carry this holy scripture in your shirt pocket for at least one day, and then I will stop doing so.” The first one retracted, ‘No chance – everyone will bully me,” then the second one stepped back, “No chance. I don’t want to be ragged,” so went the third, the fourth, the fifth and eventually all of them refused. With subtle pride in his smile Vikas concluded, “Anyone can be like anyone of you. It is easy to be one in the crowd. Not everyone can be like me. It needs courage to be different from the crowd. You be you. Let me be I,” saying so, he put the scripture back in his pocket and majestically walked away.

Most people cannot appreciate others that easily and they also cannot handle it, when others appreciate them. How will you celebrate yourself, if you cannot even accept the appreciation of others? So the next time anybody appreciates you, gracefully say, “Thank you,” and whisper unto yourself, “I deserve this appreciation.” Learn to feel good about yourself. Also, learn to see good in others and appreciate it. The more and more you see good in yourself, you will be able to see it in others. The more and more you are able to see good in others, the more and more you will be able to see it in yourself. It is absolutely reciprocal. So, express to your parents how good you feel about being their child. Express your gratitude to your teacher. Tell your spouse, “Thank you for putting up with all my nonsense.” Appreciate the top performers in your class. Tell the driver how safe you feel while he is driving. Recognise the servant for all that he is doing for you. Whenever you enjoy good food, never miss mentioning it to whoever had cooked it. Learn to appreciate. Learn to enjoy being appreciated.

And most importantly, to come out of the self-rejection mode, always take the initiative. Always be the first to take the first step forward. In fact, the more and more you take the initiative, the more and more you become self-accepting. People who refuse to take the initiative keep rejecting themselves. Instead, take the initiative to appreciate. Volunteer wherever possible. Never miss a chance to raise your hand for any opportunity presented to you. Never focus on what others would think. Focus on what you can do. Be the first to wish. Be the first to shake hands or extend a hug. Be the first to take the initiative in all matters.

Above all, celebrate your uniqueness. So what if you are imperfect. You are still the only one of your kind. So what if have erred in the past. There is no Saint without a past, and no sinner without a future. So what if there are blemishes in your personality. What’s the future there for? You can become what you choose to become. This is you. Period. Of course, you have the responsibility to strive to become the best ‘you’ that you can be.

It seems a man went to a studio to take his picture. The photographer gave him a warm welcome and said, “Just pay me 10 Rupees, I will make your picture look like Sharukh Khan.” The man hesitated and immediately the photographer said, “Okay pay me 50 Rupees, I will make your picture look like Sachin Tendulkar.” Looking into the eyes of the photographer the man said, “I need the picture that will look like me.” For that he photographer said, “I will charge you 1000 Rupees for that.” The man was willing to pay 1000 Rupees because only his picture will serve his purpose. Nobody else’s will. You can look up to anybody but you don’t have to become anybody. Become the best you can be and you will be looked up to.

This universe is made up of millions of galaxies and our galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of them.  Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is made up of millions of solar systems and our solar system is just one of them. Compared to the size of our solar system, our planet earth is just a small speck of dust. And, in our planet earth YOU are just a speck of dust. And yet, in the entirety of this Universe, there has never been anyone like you and there will never be anyone like you. You are the only one of your kind. You are unique. You are original. You are the Master’s piece. So, simply live as a masterpiece.

Source: Excerpts from the magazine Frozen Thoughts.