By Abhishek Prasad –
There’s a famous saying which goes like this – “There is always a moment in life where we have to make choices.”
I would define this term as “A choice to make a sacrifice”- Although this is more intimidating, more respectful and more dignified. I will certainly justify why I began with this quote later in this write up.
Sacrifice means a gesture of giving up something that you love and possess for the sake of others’ happiness or God’s happiness. Sacrifice might be made for some human life or just as a belief or a ritual.
Some people are always ready to do whatever it will take to see others prosper in their lives. Some are also willing to sacrifice their lives for others because of the affection and love they have for one another and humanity. When you are choosing to sacrifice for someone, then it is not by any obligation, but that is something, which is done purely from the depth of your heart. Making sacrifice is not that easy as many people presume it to be.
Every time I think of – “Lent” – I conceive in my mind the idea of the fact, that it is a “season of grace”– a time of dedicated sacrifice, purification, time of transformation and a time of healing as well. I was so joyous to enter into this season- as if entering into an operation theater and trusting him completely and allowing him to perform surgery upon us. Yes- it is an appropriate time to break down our egos, selfishness, gossip, back biting, and over throw any qualities that would conceal us or hamper us from receiving that transforming energy into our life and existence.
For me its going an extra-mile; often times we hold back to ourselves the things and resources that we could easily part with, time to try and rediscover our own capacities to be different from what world would think otherwise! Re-discovering the potential within us to rise above our own predicaments and limitations is the life-time challenge that lay ahead of us. Strictly speaking, it doesn’t need to imply a strict religious implication or in other words, religious connotation in order that we may derive some meaning. Being born in this world whether or not we like it we got to pass through this tunnel of darkness and find a splendid luminous light at the end of it. As George Bernard Show beautifully puts– “Life is not about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself”
Nobody is perfect this world, I am damn sure, and perhaps, none that they can claim that they are perfect. Nobody is born perfect, but we long and progress to become perfect. Our growing toward perfection is a resemblance of our longing for “perfection”- I mean- psychological, emotional and inner healing- an inward journey towards oneself. How does this happen? Well, I would suggest this way– willingness to admit that we are sick, we are broken, we are frustrated, we have betrayed, broken our promises– wounds that are emotional, psychological and with our distorted idiosyncratic nature is the first step towards healing. Seeking for an appropriate help is where we begin our first step towards the journey of creating ourselves.
So let this season of grace be time of detoxification, rejuvenating experience and let this be a turn of the tide where we acknowledge our brokenness that we need healing and purification that our hearts and minds become a place of sanity and sanctity.
Abhishek Prasad is a Ph.D Research Scholar at the Department of Pychology, Periyar University, Tamil Nadu