Someone called up and said that I can never meet my father’s expectations. He would always say that I am good for nothing. I have tried so hard to hear words of appreciation from him but it seems like he would never see my efforts. I feel like dying and saying this he started crying. He said that his father compares him with anyone he would meet and come and tell him that how bad he is in that quality. I could see his father’s judgmental attitude and I asked him who is he to judge you, that too in comparison with others? How can he decide that what you should do, how you should be? It should be your decision? Why are you living the life of a prisoner? He was shocked and said that, no, I am free. I can go anywhere I like. May be physically. But emotionally and mentally, you are your father’s prisoner. You need to set yourself free. Look at what you like and what you want to do and design your life as per that. Hearing this, like he got some wings, he started talking bad about his father and what type of person he is. I allowed him to complete because it was important that his anger had to come out or else it would keep burning him forever and then I asked him, now who has given right to judge your father? He did a mistake and you are doing same. Like you have right to be be free, to be who you are, he also has right to be how he wants to be, and what he wants to do. You are not his judge. He keeps judging you, you keep judging him, then you would judge yourself on the basis of his judgment, then your own son and others and this way it would never end. We all keep each other imprisoned behind the judgments and we create a chained society which can never be at peace. Peace comes with freedom. So what should I do, was his next question. Well, the first step is to set yourself free from the thought that what others are thinking of me including your own father and then explore yourself. Ask yourself who am I, what I like, where do I want to see myself in life, what do I want to do with myself as per me, what gift do I want to give to the world. There is no hurry. After few days, he contacted again and he was brimming with excitement for life. He said I know I want to be a writer. I used to write and keep them secret, but no more. I have created a website and I am uploading everything there. I would write more and that would be my gift to the world. I wrote about pain, now I would write about happiness.
We all are created by God and we are perfect the way we are. We have no capacity to judge someone who is create by someone better than us. But we do that, we imprison each other and we stay behind those bars too. If we are not free then how can we be happy? To be happy we need to be emotionally, mentally and physically free. That can happen when we stop judging others, we do not worry about what others are thinking of us. When we gain freedom, we give it to others too. When we accept ourselves the way we are, we accept others too the way they are. This world is beautiful with the variety of flowers and it would not be same if every flower looked same. We try to prune every flower to look same. But we forget that of we try to prune the flower, it loses its natural beauty. It can be in full bloom when it blossoms as per own choice. So stop judging, stop criticizing, accept everyone with love and there would be a new world after that.
