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Articles
Think for Yourself
by
Shernaz Wadia
 “Don’t
make tragedies of trifles, Don’t shoot butterflies with rifles”.
Can you imagine
someone running after a butterfly with a rifle in his hands? Won’t such
stupidity make you burst out laughing? But wait. Stop and consider how often you
might have done something similar.
Many of us are like the fabled hen, Henny-Penny. She lived in a forest with many
other animals and birds. But she excelled in making tragedies of trifles!! One
fine, sunny morning, she was busy scratching the ground for worms and grubs.
Suddenly she let out a frightened cackle and scampered, wings flapping in fear.
A dry leaf had fluttered down on her, but she went squawking at whoever she met,
“Run, run for your lives, the sky is falling.” The other birds and animals left
off whatever they were doing. Some ran helter-skelter behind Henny-Penny,
shrieking warnings with her, while others scattered in different directions
spreading the unfounded story that the sky was falling.
We have all come across people like this hen. They turn a flimsy rebuff into an
unpardonable, punishable affront; a dog barks and they raise a hue and cry as if
bitten by it; a classmate may pull a harmless prank on them but they and their
parents will try to bring the school down in retaliation. Two sneezes and they
drive the family frantic with their moans and groans. In such minds, a strong
wind takes on the dimensions of a tornado and sadly they react as if to a
twister.
The rest of us are like the other foolish creatures who did not stop to verify
the truth for themselves. We make ourselves gullible to rumors and conmen. It is
little wonder that people not only flock to see idols drinking milk, they also
pick up weapons and stones at the drop of a hat. They shoot butterflies with
rifles. They just will not think for themselves. They shelve commonsense
somewhere in the attic of their minds and allow predatory spiders to weave their
webs in them. Unfortunately, many don’t clean those mental cobwebs forever and a
day.
Why don’t people think for themselves? Often because of mental apathy as also
because they do not want to be responsible for their way of thinking, the
ensuing behavior and the consequences of their actions. It is always so easy to
blame it on elders, ‘them’, scriptures, politicians and everybody else. Are you
amongst those who abdicate good sense to people ever eager to capture the minds
of others? Don’t let your mind be enslaved by someone else. Stop, Think,
Ascertain and then go ahead. Let these be the signals that direct you at
every crossroad of life.
Walking through life with the mind relinquished is more dangerous than crossing
a busy road with eyes closed. That does not mean we follow another extreme and
rebel at every turn in our lives. Our thoughts should lead us to speak and act
in ways conducive to our own good and that of the society at large. They should
lead us towards the light of wisdom and sense, not away from it into darkness.
Our thinking should be high, raising us to the ranks of the sensible. Let us not
follow blindly the trends of fashion, life-styles, ideologies or precepts. We
have been blessed with reasoning, discerning, sensitive minds. Let us make use
of these faculties and be the masters of our own minds.
November 19, 2006
Image under license with Gettyimages.com
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