Self-importance

Image courtesy: Onedio

New Year resolutions never worked for me.  So I stopped making them long ago.  But this year I made a resolution.  And I know it will work.  Because I have already made it work to a large extent in the past year.  That was one of my few achievements in 2017. 

To live without any feeling of self-importance.  That’s my New Year resolution.  I have already tried it quite successfully in the past year and it is immensely rewarding.  I’ll tell you why.

I used to feel hurt by the deeds and misdeeds of other people.  Then came a flash of inspiration at some point in 2017.  Probably, it was not a moment; it was a gradual realisation, the result of a protracted self-examination which started some time in 2015 when I lost my job in Delhi which was one of the best things in my life.  The depression that followed lasted months and made me extremely contemplative. 

Why do I feel hurt easily?  It’s because I consider myself important.  What if I just let go that ego and see myself as an insignificant person?  I tried it out.  Eventually life became easy and fun too.  In fact, I simply ceased being hurt by anything that people did.  On the contrary, events became entertaining.  I began to be amused by what people did.  I realised how silly I had made myself earlier with my pompousness. 

It is in those days of contemplation that I reached out to the stars.  I thought of the billions of galaxies out there.  The vastness of the cosmos overwhelmed me enough to make me realise my diminutiveness.  What am I in this cosmos of billions of galaxies with infinity of stars? 

The stars taught me humility.  I know that my New Year resolution will work this year.