When would we learn to Give Way

Ravindra Nath Sharma

ravisharma10008@googlemail.com

Ordinarily, when we are walking along the road, it is very striking the way we walk.

If someone is walking ahead of us, we usually try to overtake him and get ahead of him.

There is nothing wrong in getting ahead of another. But the manner in which we manage to get ahead of the other is striking. We either push the person ahead to one side with our hands and get past him or we hastily and forcefully brush aside his flank to get ahead of him. Similarly, while going through a narrow door, we usually act in a similar manner.

When we see another person coming to the narrow door from the opposite side to go through the narrow door, our response is to speed up our pace so that we can reach the door faster than the person coming from the other side. And in the process of passing through the door, we either collide with the person coming from the opposite side or just about manage to pass through the narrow door forcefully brushing past the person coming from the opposite side and physically shaking up the other person. This kind of behaviour in public places is considered and accepted as 'normal'.

Just consider for a moment the 'idea' that if one would keep walking normally and let the person coming from the opposite side to 'pass through' the door normally if he reaches the door ahead of us and we stand aside for a second to let him pass through, what an enormous effect, this simple act on our part, would have on the overall atmosphere! Not only the other person would feel 'good' but the first person would feel equally 'good'. And the general ambience about the place would feel 'good and harmonious'. Contrast it with the former behaviour when one tried so hard in preventing the other person from reaching the door before him. This is called " Giving way to the other'. This is "Vasudevam Kutumbkam' in practice.

Who is going to teach Giving way to the other?

Obviously, the teaching has to start early in life, in one's childhood. This has to be done by the parents at home, at school by the teachers and at workplace by the mentors.

The spiritual basis of this doctrine:

We have been taught that the Atman in all of us is one and the same. The Atman in A is the same as the Atman in B. That there is Oneness of Being in the universe. That we respect the Atman in the other the same way as we would have the other to respect our Atman. That the other person is also a 'subject' in the same sense as I consider myself as a 'subject'. That the other person is not an 'object' of my judgement and evaluation any more than I am an 'object' for another person's evaluation and judgement.

This understanding brings about a "transformation" and an "upliftment in the harmony, the well-being, and the psyche of the community and the country.

Our motto of attaining the status of a developed country by 2047 is laudable and reachable by economic development, infrastructure development, industrial growth, agricultural growth, military strength, expansion of exports and overall economic well-being of our countrymen. Yet, it has also to include a "cultural transformation" which can be initiated by learning and practicing "giving way to others".