Authority.

Authority

If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.” 
― Tacitus

I just came across this line, of course I am yet to figure out who I don’t criticise. But then it did make me think of authority.

I mean “Pramaana” is the word used in the ancient texts, to authenticate information. So many things we accept the nuclear physicist tells us that everything is made of atoms we accept it.

We look to teachers; various gurus’s to tell us about the path to enlightment, and the nature of the realm of spirit. Of course these inputs are undeniably valuable, but somewhere I wonder if our own sense of truth should ultimately be the most important piece in the processing the information that we take in from external sources. In the end we are authorities in our own lives and we have the final say on whether something generally held as true is true for us or not.

It occurred to me throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities—political, the religious, the educational authorise who attempt to comfort us by giving us rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality. But thinking for ourselves means questioning authority, and stepping out of protection zone, to put ourselves in a state of vulnerable, open mindedness, chaotic, confused, vulnerability.

Looking at history we see that those religious, scientific and political establishments were all wrong about something at some point in time. This is the beauty of learning, experiencing and evolving.

Most times it is easier to let someone else decide for us, what is real and true but may not be a viable option. I mean we can’t believe everything people tell us – not even if those people are our own brain. May the way out, is making up our own minds about reality, taking everything that is handed to us as truth with a grain of salt.

We could gather information, from outside by reading, listening and not discount it, but question it before we agree or disagree, the information helps the process of making our mind. Interestingly it our experiences that decides the filtration criteria. As we allow ourselves to contemplate over our information, measure them alongside with our experience, and draw an informed conclusion our mind grows stronger, making us more engaged as human beings.