The essence of spirituality lay in our thinking prowess. Unless proficient in thinking, we cannot travel spiritual path successfully.
Born in India, I primarily relate to spirituality as detailed in Hinduism sacred texts.
Can we ask how topic of generation gap fits into spiritual website maintained by Vijay Kumar?
Spirituality deals with all topics related to inner well-being. Generation gap was one of them. So many children, people world over suffered from so-called generation gap. And what could be the main cause of generation gap? When both elders and children inherently summarized they were intelligent enough to form independent opinions yet, found themselves unable to comprehend viewpoint of others… what could be the remedy, from spiritual point of view?
From a spiritual angle, all children were all the time gradually evolving, intelligent in their own perspective! There was nothing to compare. Only if we could visualize the hidden underlying meaning of what others said, there would be no problem of so-called generation gap!
The elders blamed children of present times for not following moral and ethical values of yesteryears. On the contrary, children blamed elders for being orthodox in their thinking. From the individual viewpoint, both were correct… elders and the children. It was only due to a bloated ego, both were unable to comprehend, come to terms at par with each other.
If the thinking prowess was to blame, then it was for elders at times, to succumb to wishes of juniors. Similarly, children must also effectively listen to what elders had to say. The clash in thinking prowess was the root cause, something that could be resolved.
Let us take an example –
If a person 80 years of age, located on 80th floor of Empire State Building has to contact a child existing on second floor (assuming the child is two years of age) then there were two alternatives; either one going up or down! Remaining wherever they were, interaction could not be had. The same was happening with elders and children of present times. Standing on their floor (adamant on their viewpoint propelled by ego) none was willing to go up or come down to the level of other.
In all fairness, the solution lay in coming down or going up, coming to the same level. In the above case, it was logical that the elderly person came down to level 2 to interact with the child. Unless our frequency of talking matched, we could not interact correctly. For a child two years of age, whatever the understanding of elder – meant little to the child! We just could not force others to think our way.
Similarly, if the young generation of present times needs corresponding with elders then it is imperative they behaved maturely and logically; only then they could understand what elders had to say. We just could not follow our whims and fancies, impose thinking on others. For a child, a young gentleman, interacting with elders may initially seem difficult but was a definite possibility.
Spiritual people, successful people in different walks of life always do it successfully.
Truthfully, roots of generation gap existed only in our thinking, nowhere else! If we could restrain, guide our thought process… we could easily interact with elders all the time.
For elders to interact with children, they definitely had to come down to their level.
My Personal Experience relating to Generation gap
From six years of age I was very comfortable talking to elders, clarifying my inner queries most of time. Not for once did I hesitate in asking anything or shooting a poser to an elder. Most times elders remained mum! It was only with experience and time I realized that answers to my queries eluded them (the reason for their keeping mum).
Every single query I posed to elders was point-blank, logical and straightforward. I similarly expected from the elders a simple straightforward answer. Whole of my life as far as spirituality was concerned; I was never stuck with so-called generation gap. If I talked to an elder, I elevated myself to one’s level. Initially it was difficult but moment I started realizing underlying cosmic truths of life lying hidden in our conversations; interaction with elders became easier.
All my life I never believed in concept of generation gap. Talking to a two-year child, I brought myself down to the level of two-year-old and interaction thereafter was easy. If I was talking to an elder, I elevated myself to one’s level to interact comfortably and conveniently. Following path of reasoning and logic, I comfortably interacted with everyone at any stage of life. Devoid of ego within, I could easily interact with others by going to their thinking level.
I distinctly remember children aged six years of age and elderly 80 years of age attending same sessions of my spiritual discourses. Both enjoyed the spiritual journey I took them along. Both were keen to understand the hidden spiritual meaning of life.
If we desire removing barrier of generation gap from our life, we must indulge in logical thinking all the time; only then we can reason out with others. Samvad (dialogues like in dialogues of Plato) is an easy way to indulge with elders and children to understand their point of view. For this, we need upscale our thinking prowess.
Invoking positive thoughts most of time, we could master our thinking prowess as do spiritual seekers. Remaining wherever we were, we could easily interact with those junior to us and also the elderly. Adi Shankaracharya completed his commentaries on Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Brahma Sutras 15 years of age. The power of human intellect is infinite. We could increase mind power to infinity.
Instead of relying on what people said or did, we must believe in our capability of thinking almost infinitely. Mind power of human beings truly was infinite, finally helping them reach god.
By: Vijay Kumar “Atma Jnani”… The Man who Realized God in 1993 – (Ref. 180122)
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