The Voice Within

"Two roads diverged in a wood and I-

I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference."

Thus spoke Robert Frost, the great poet defining what one needs to do in life when one finds one's self at life's cross road..

Well, my brief experiment in life has taught me the above lesson as well as the fact that one should always heed to his/her own heart's calling... Coz no matter what, if you are not enjoying what you are doing, if your daily work is a like a great burden you have been carrying on your shoulder unwillingly, if work to you mean earning basic means of livelihood for yourself...Then it is time for you to stop doing all that you are doing and reflect on the path so far taken by you and also think whether this is the path you really wanted to take..

Most of the time we do not listen to the inner voice within ourselves which tells us that the road being taken by us may not be the right one but in a world of fixing priorities and jostling with others to get ahead, one either ignores this small voice or is not able to hear it...

What happens with such status quo existence is the fact that though we manage to eke out a living but our soul goes dead and the spark of creativity dies within us... In the absence of that tireless flame which helps us to go ahead in life, we become like mere mechanical robot who work as per specific commands...

Whenever such incidence has happened in my life I actually take the following steps without fail:

1. First of all I try to reflect on what I have been doing and the road I am currently travelling ; is it the one that I wanted to do or travel on respectively
2. The moment I find out that it is the wrong work which I have undertaken or is the wrong road that I am traveling on; I usually suspend all activity and work in all earnest to rectify my mistake and set right my course
3. In this process I generally ensure that I consult people whom I consider my guide/mentor for guidance/advice, talk with my employer (if it is job related) and most of all talk to my family for their opinion and more importantly their support
4. Once when I have the guidance/advice of my mentor/guide, the best option at work given by my employer and the opinion of my family; I retreat to my own 'cave' so to speak and reflect on all all the option available to me in view of the advice/guidance/opinion given to me
5. Based on the best option which best suits and is endorsed strongly by my inner voice, I pick the same and then make a decisive move from which there is no looking back

By following the above method/pathway and always listening to the small voice within me, I have realised that I have been able to keep myself happy and satisfied along with people who come in contact with me.

I read it somewhere ( I guess it was Paulo Coelho) who said that the inner voice is the loudest when a man is in his childhood. That is the time when innocence abounds in the living angel in the form of children. But as they grow up, the parents, society, teachers, religious clergy etc try to impose on them certain regimented way of living in the name of culture, values, ethics, morals, discipline and so on and so forth. 

By the time a person grows up to be an adult, that small voice within is either very feeble or totally inaudible... By making the voice muted or ignoring its message we only help to kill our own personal legend, the creativity, the soul so to say within us... With our soul gone we become nothing more than a living corpse.. an automated robot running the race of life till such time when it finally drops dead...

Hence it is very much essential for us to keep that innocence alive with in us not for the sake of doing a good to the world but for our sake for this is the fire which will goad us to perfection and make us choose profession which becomes a joy to carry out - An extension of one's life itself...An ecstasy to be felt only by the blessed who care to listen to their inner voice...