NOT ALL WHO WANDER ARE LOST

 

       

        Not all who wander are lost…. A purposeful paradox captured by this beautiful poetic line. One may think of wandering as non-purposeful act. But many wanderers are seekers of something that they might not possess. Many get lost in the process while others survive. Some also re-find their self. This essay intends to gradually explore all those dimensions.

Many define wandering as where the eyes see, the legs go. But it will be a narrow view if the wandering is confined to such a physical dimension.

          It in fact extends beyond what eyes could see! Not speaking about the blind, but about our mind. Mind is so powerful that it can take us beyond our vision to the imagination or a step beyond it to the metaphysical world (spiritual experience or journey).

          In general, the wandering is associated with a purpose to find something or to search for something that is lost. But sometimes, wandering itself is to find a purpose. Such wandering is called as self-actualization, something that we think is a spiritual department and not for commoners. If you think so, you might be wrong!

          Self-actualization is something everyone must strive to attain, that is, to find a purpose in life. This can be done by analysing and self-evaluating one’s past to find our strengths and weaknesses and determine what one can do meaningfully in this life. Thus, to do that, wandering becomes necessary.

Where to wander?

          Most of the seekers in the ancient times do go for a physical journey to distant lands to seek understanding of their purpose. They try to find a spiritual guru for guidance. One such example was our national hero Swami Vivekananda, who found his guru in Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, which later led him to give the spiritual call for India to awake!

          Consider the India visit by Steve Jobs before finding Apple. He said that the simplicity and minimalism preached by the Indian philosophy, gave birth to his Apple company.

          But such spiritual travels need not be done physically anymore in this modern-technocratic era. The social media becomes a repository of spiritual knowledge giving us not one, but many online gurus for guidance.

The learning does not need to be through physical preaching, but could be through online seminars, audio-video means, as well as through e-books. One can go through many, if not vast ocean of resources in this online world.

But still, if the compass is lost, the forest turns into a maze.

Might go lost

          Just like a ship left in the middle of a vast ocean without a map, so can be the people who lose themselves in the puzzle posed by the social media jungle.

          The purpose to use the social media is like a compass for the user who sails through. Once that compass is lost, so is the captain! Once upon a time, we started using social media to share our happiness with others by sharing our achievements. But now it turned into an obsession to post content and seek constant validation, thus losing the self in it. Now people plant trees not intending to conserve it, but to post its picture and get likes. Once the seeker of and with purpose, now reduced into merely self-obsessed showpiece!

This takes a catastrophic turn when the validation is attained no more, leading to mental health issues and deterring the quality of life.

But fortunately, this is not the case for all.

Not all go lost

“Captains with compass, sails through the ocean!”.

Everyone who intends to wander must have a moral compass and their purpose mapped. Even if an artist wander on streets for ideas, the morality is the one that lets him/her resist temptations and seek what s/he came for. Similarly in the social media, the self-control acts as a moral compass and the purpose gives one the tunnel vision to look for what is necessary for the self in this ocean rather than what can possibly be attained in random.

One such example is the online education or research. There are free lectures and research papers available from many top universities in the world like MIT, Harvard University, etc. This can help students access content at virtually zero cost. Even the internet is free in India through BharatNet. The wise will voluntarily search for specific video or material rather than letting the algorithm to recommend/decide on behalf.

Similarly, spiritual wandering can also be through online. But the challenge is posed when the Web algorithm markets one specific ideology repeatedly making it more attractive. This increases the chances of getting carried away by such one which may or may not suit the self. The wisdom alone helps one to understand that spirituality is contextual and situational. There is no one-size-fits-all approach as everyone's experience is vivid and different.

This understanding about the spirituality becomes the core for the captains to not get lost in their journey. Such people won’t be carried away by any one ideology but deeply reflect on if that fits their situation well or not. Mahatma Gandhi was one such person who experimented with different value system while wandering, eventually finding what suits him the best, which was ‘Ahimsa’.

Many seekers in India now mimic the same. They seek for information from many sources taking what is useful for them and discarding the rest, as once said by Bruce Lee.

But how much ever these captains sail through successfully to attain self-realization, India cannot become enlightened unless those who were lost are found again!

Find the lost

          To find the lost back, it is necessary to search for them in the place where we lost them and to find what made us lose them.

          When lost physically, a search and rescue team can be sent to the exact location to find the wanderers, like a police complaint or military action could help. But this becomes challenging in the social network world due to its vastness compared to the physical space.

Since a person is carried away by the glitters of social media, the first enemy is the emotions that responds to those glitters. One such emotion, as discussed before is the ‘lust of validation’, or called as the ‘fear of insignificance’. It makes one forget the purpose of self-realization and pulls into a ‘circus of visibility’. Constantly seeking visibility gives subtle time for self-evaluation and discovery. It, in fact, dilutes the mental as well as the physical health of oneself.

Another issue is the click-bait. The random scrolling of content and clicking on random videos is a trap. One must be aware of the difference between curiosity and temptations. Curiosity is something that helps in deeper learning but temptation deviates one from actual content one searched for.

So, there is need for awareness on responsible use of social media. Parents must restrict their children’s screen time, set timers, and switch off recommendations. Meditations must be taught to kids from a young age to channelise their thoughts, control their desires and move towards self-realisation of their goal in life.

Although wandering starts from the eyes and legs, it is the mind that determines if one is lost or not. From music to MNC, education to enlightenment, all of them may have started wandering barefooted, but it was their mind that led them channel their thoughts into action. Their self-control and tunnel vision of purpose made their sail easy. Even the lost one can be found when the click-bait temptations are turned into purposeful curiosity. When we start to seek reforms in our mind and not elsewhere, that is when the wanderers become yogis!  

 Lets me know your perspective on the comment section!