Modesty cannot be injected like artificial insemination. It has to happen on its own like natural fertilisation. Otherwise, it will become a superficial covering, which hides the dark interiors. Simplicity taught cannot be simplicity. Then it will become a cult, a sect or a faith and harbour ostentation. It will be adopted like uniforms in school, with an inkling to dress luxuriously at weekends to portend affluence.
Counter productive
Uniform can never bring uniformity. Induced uniformity unleashes disorder when barriers are broken and controls are removed. Conditioning will be counter-productive like awarding corporal punishment to a student who flunked in his examinations on non-violence.
To be simple is neither a virtue nor nobility. For many, pursuing virtue is to escape from their vices. Their morality is more rooted in their venality. One who accepts authority and jumps to conclusions without probing can never be simple. Simplicity brims with innocence. There cannot be any hypocrisy or hidden agenda. Only those who are selfless can afford to be simple. Simplicity can become exhibitionism, if selfishness creeps in. It is practised by a few and enjoyed by a very few. It is possible only when one chooses to act from his consciousness. Those who understand can perceive it as an abstraction. It is not just withdrawal.
It is not austerity or asceticism. One may renounce things but not his ego. It is difficult to overthrow hangovers but easy to hurl material possessions. Ultimately, we end up with inflated egos. That is why J. Krishnamurti pointed out, "One can be inwardly simple, surely, only by understanding the innumerable impediments, attachments, fears, in which one is held. Our beliefs and sentiments are obstacles to prevent us from proceedings towards purity.
Simplicity means flexibility. Rigid, recalcitrant and obdurate persons can never be simple. They will be brittle and will break. Flexibility can blow off rigidity like precipitation on rocks and typhoon on mammoth structures.
We crave for popularity and long for recognition. We are swayed by the number of heads that bow before us. We like others fawning in front of us. We fail to realise that popularity and fame are diametrically opposite to each other. Popularity is ephemeral and fame is eternal. The former evaporates instantaneously and the latter is immortalised forever.
As we secretly brood over the intention of becoming popular, we could never be really humble.
Cultivated
Often our humility is a cultivated one and it reveals its horrible premolar teeth in defence when someone scratches our pride. Pretended meekness is more dangerous than spur of the moment superciliousness. An ambitious person can never be simple. His simplicity will be his yet another strategy to sabotage others. He will be dreaming about his future all the time and his current life will be slipping under his feet. He will lose his peace. Mind flowing like poetry alone could be at peace and the one which works constantly like a computer will get jinxed. Ambition makes a person cunning and slowly he turns greedy. He uses his external appearance to entice others and play tricks. We cannot award simplicity. It is an area, which does not entertain competitive fervour, and no titles are conferred.
By understanding the circumstances and adjusting with them to avoid conflicts and controversies, we become clear like a crystal and simple like a dove.
To be natural and spontaneous without fear is real simplicity.
V. IRAI ANBU
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