My source of inspiration for today’s blog is a very simple couple of lines by the great poet Mirza Ghalib. The lines are as follows:
Taumra Ghalib yah bhool karta raha
Taumra Ghalib yah bhool karta raha
Dhool chehre pe thi ; Aaina Saaf karta raha
The literal translation of these lines is that All his life, Ghalib continued his one folly i.e. when he saw himself in the mirror, he thought that there was something wrong in the mirror and tried to clean the mirror, but the real problem of the dust particles seen were not on the mirror but on his own face.
These lines are very simple to hear and often heard and quoted by many, but the deeper meaning hidden behind these simple sounding lines sinks in only when you actually pay attention to what Ghalib has tried to convey through these lines.
Like Ghalib, we always blame problems, issues and other faults on others. We always feel that we are better than others, we are almost perfect – the fault lies in others. And if things go wrong, it is due to someone else, the fault never lies with us – it is as if we can do no wrong. Just like Ghalib tried to attribute the dust particles seen in the reflection of the mirror to be a problem of the mirror which he tried to clean every day, the same way we lead our lives blaming others and pointing fingers at others for all the problems we face.
Realization that the issue may be within us or that we are the root cause of the problem never dawns upon us and we keep trying to clean the dust off the mirror like Ghalib did all his life. If we introspect and pay attention to these simple lines, like I did today, and when we look back at the way we have led our lives, we will realize that yes, the problem was not with the mirror, the problem was with Ghalib’s face – the problem lies within all of us. It is we who require the cleaning and not the mirror.
But how many of us actually reach that stage of understanding? Very few because we are always caught in the rat-race and we do not have time to sit and introspect and look in these small things so deeply. Our daily individual battles with life keep us pre-occupied and we let the ignorance continue. And in this ignorance, we keep suffering the problem like Ghalib did, of the distorted reflection in the mirror. Our lives continue to be tense & negative in our outlook because we are unable to find the root cause of our own unhappiness and we try desperately to pin the blame on others.
So we keep trying to clean the proverbial mirror and keep trying to rid it of the dust particles like Ghalib did. We feel that by doing that, maybe someday, we will get a cleaner reflection, and until such time, we keep toiling in the irrelevant effort. If only all of us could realize the truth and understand and accept it, all of our reflections would be crystal clear because the mirror was never at fault. We could do so much to cleanse ourselves of our faults instead of blaming everything on others.
Realizing such simple things do not take great mastery or the need to give up worldly pleasures and take the route to Himalayas to do penance and meditation – these are simple everyday facts of life which are always there right in front of us. It is only we who lead our lives with selective blindfolds and only see what we wish to see. Anything that says we are at fault is not to be seen.
So Mirza Ghalib has taught me a valuable lesson through these lines of his and in whatever little way I can, I will henceforth certainly try to not blame the mirror for the problems but try to look deeper inside my ownself to resolve the issues because that is the real cause of the problems.
So guys give Mr. Ghalib’s lines their due respect & do join me in this journey of self-realization – I assure you that it will be worth it.
Dr. Rajesh Mankani
