Reality Vs Perception

While I was travelling back home from Birgunj, an old man with empty tokari (vessel) got in the bus in Pathlaiya. The old man sat besides the bunch of students who were in merry mood as they were enjoying the rap music played in bus. Probably they were heading to Shaheed Smarak Park in Hetauda for picnic program. The old man asked one of the students in his local dialect, "Hetauda me tamatar ka vau kitana ba?"(What is the price of tomato in Hetauda?). The student got upset and retorted back, "Hamnika ka malum?" (How could I know?).

Generation gap prevails in every society and in every household which is widened by the radical youth thought and behaviour accentuated by fast changing society and technological advancement. Incidence occurs when old mindset does not pick up the pace of new generation. But the question is - your thought is really a genuine?

I used to guide visitors to Chitwan National Park, a famous park infested with many wildlife including rhinos. One day I took my guests to the jungle and saw plenty of rhinos. I felt that there were more rhinos. Next day, I took another group but saw nothing while walking a whole day. Returned empty-handed and exhaustion, I was compelled to think that all rhinos were gone, they were killed by poachers. But, the reality is - there are 450 rhinos in the park which is official record. So, my thought or perception is not correct. Perception is changed with the situation. It is situational. But the reality or the truth is not changed with the situation.

It is very important to discern between the reality and perception. What you think as reality might be just your perception. Mind think of many things, it argues, analyzes and manipulates over the issues but heart realizes the fact. You can feel the reality through the hearts. There is always battle between heart and mind but most of the time the war is won by mind. Mind is so cunning that it won't let you to listen to your heart. It creates many hurdles on the way like social, economical, religious and political. It creates veil in front of eyes such that you can not see the truth. You might feel the freedom but that is just a dream. In fact you are constantly guided by so called systems. But once you start hearing your hearts, these hurdles start crumbling and you come closer to the truth.

Obviously human behaviour is driven by age old cultural norms and value. For example, fatalism plays major role in Eastern culture such that people believe they have limited control over their destiny or fate. On the contrary, Western culture believes that the locus of control is internal and you can achieve what you desire with hardwork. This age old value is reason for the behavioural difference over people of two cultures. Moreover people have their own personal behaviour. Becuase of the individual differences, we are different from others even if we belong to same caste or culture. People possess the universal behaviour like love and humanity. Because of these similarities, we are similar even if we belong to different cultures.