Essay - “A man with no inner life is a slave to his surroundings”

The basic most vital difference between human and machines is that humans have feelings. Although the advancements in the robotics and the world of intelligent machines haven’t reached its full potential for commercial purposes, still it is safe to even discuss the differences between the two.  

It’s no wrong to take pride in what we have been gifted with. We should be proud that we can feel, we can think, we can aspire and we can be happy. This elixir of life with which we are blessed with is undeniably the most precious possession. But the meaning of it remains so entangled in our brains that it seems like an endless loop. In the fierce competition of running ahead of everyone else, have we really understood the meaning of life?

            "A man with no inner life is  a slave to his surroundings"

This famous quote by Henri Frederic Amiel introspects about the inner life, its power and possibilities. The “inner” life he mentioned might be pertaining to the alternative of your brain with which everyone else is aware of, or maybe your conscience, or maybe even your spiritual being. But before we consider ourselves eligible for this discussion, we should be able to clearly demarcate between the two form of lives, shall we?

It’s a kid’s play to tell that the “outer” life of yours is exactly what people outside you, see of you or rather what you want to show them. With this what immediately follows is that everything inside you, cannot be shown to everybody, and that is why the segregation.

“Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.”                                                 

-          W.H. Auden

Youngsters destroy their lives in doing all what includes they think which comes under “party” and “enjoyment”. It is not that those things are really harmful, but it is the overexposure to it which is without having a solid base built. Once you have a strong base, you can build anything on it otherwise you will be demolished. The inner life provides this base.  A strong person has a strong inner life which helps him to build a strong base on which he builds his own glory. Without the base, everything is self-destructive.

Inner life may include your sub-conscious, your relevance or to simply frame it, your spirit (spiritual energy). It is actually built over as your knowledge grows; your intellect grows and as your opinions grows. But knowledge shouldn’t be confused with knowing/learning of something which was already there. You have only realized it, not know it. Your realization about it is irrelevant to its own existence. And that is why knowledge which is gained through merely realizing isn’t sufficient. It always remains incomplete.

 People get disheartened through some disrespectful words spoken to them. They want to reject those words, they cannot. They even sometimes want to accept them, but they cannot. Then their heart seeks peace, it struggles to comply with them and after sometimes it starts to despise them. The shift of emotions is most of the times negligible but it is still there, and there are equal amount of chances for that emotion to turn into rage. We humans are adroit at shifting emotions.

But people never understand that it is the highest form of derogatory in itself that some external words coming from some external person with very less knowledge about you were actually able to twist your emotions which should have been completely under your control. This is the highest form of slavery you can experience. A person with no inner life experiences this form of slavery. He is vulnerable to almost all kinds of irregularities and disturbances happening outside him. That is a never ending prison.

A person with no original feelings, no opinion of his own is literally termed as a slave right?

The life which we are leading is a twisted path with no guide around. Yes, our parents do that for a bit but in the long run it is our decisions that matter. The only way to keep moving forward is to have a fixed direction. Inner life helps you to find that. Outer life cannot guide us; it is just a reflection of you which is visible to the surroundings. But your inner life is actually the reflection of your surroundings to your heart. Once you turn your eyes towards this mirror, everything which your mortal eyes perceive automatically becomes crystal clear.

A delirious mind without a sturdy base, without a strong inner life never stays in present. It either roams in the gloomy clutches of past or struggles to finding the right path in a paradoxical web of roads to a safe future. But life is nowhere in past and doesn’t exists in the future. It is right NOW, this very moment. We should learn to accept that neither we can predict future, nor we can secure our future. We can only welcome it, embrace it with our prepared hands. Your inner life helps you to attain this peace.

The power of revolt comes from within you, not from your projection. It’s the zeal which comes from beneath you. Desire, hunger, generosity, etc are the characteristics of your inner life and indirectly of yourself. The moment you give a discrete and respectful attitude to your inner life, your entire identity in itself glorifies. So, let this demarcation flourish and you will experience astounding moments of happiness. Otherwise, it is highly unlikely that you will want to be remained a slave as well, forever.