When a man feels proud of his position, the placement of his kids, family lineage, or intelligence, what happens to the awareness that this cosmos is infinite? The diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light-years. That means it will take 93 billion light-years for light travelling at the speed of 3 lakh kilometres per second to travel across the universe. We can’t even imagine the universe, let alone see or experience it in our lifetime. Yet, what we believe to be “I” is the centre of all our decisions.

In today’s world, the ability to make choices is one of the most important indicators of development. The choice to go to the university or college one likes, the choice to buy the vehicle and house one likes, the choice to earn money, the choice to choose a partner, the choice to go abroad, and so on. We go to malls to have the choice to buy a shirt. In stores like Lifestyles, we can choose from among many brands. Brands offer different packages too. Even when it comes to finding partners, there are many choices. One can get registered on matrimonial websites and meet many potential life partners before saying yes. Some of us choose to live together before marriage so we can get to know our life partner better before forming an alliance. Several career counsellors are offering hundreds of options to the children on a platter. You spend money, and you have all kinds of choices. That’s why money has gained such importance in today’s world. 

But the fundamental question remains unanswered. How do we choose? When we choose one thing over another, we obviously have a preference list. Every preference list must include some basics. We may choose a hotel based on the star rating. But the higher the rating, the higher the price too. But we do not have unlimited money, so within our budget, we try to get the best-rated hotel. Probably, the star rating takes care of many things, such as service quality, location, and comfort. What if I don’t want comfort and services, and I want scenic beauty? Then I may have to overlook the star rating and go for the real pictures of the hotel and location.

My question is more fundamental than this. How will somebody know what he wants by exercising a choice? And an even more fundamental question: if he knows what he wants from the choice, how can he be sure that what he believes to know is correct? How much do we know about ourselves? Is it not so that the proud possessions of our childhood have no meaning today? Is it not so that our choices are changing too? Why would so many people have this regret while being just near their death: “I wish I could have listened to my heart.” Why don’t we listen to our hearts throughout our lives? Then what do we listen to? The alarms of fear? Why? Because they are loud? If that is the case, then where is choice? We are just listening to louder voices and making choices out of fear. 

An honest question. If there is no compulsion, would we like to do the same things which we are doing now? For some, this question may look quite strange because they have never thought about love and passion. They have accepted the stereotypical meaning of life without ever examining it. They have imbibed the widely held understanding of the meaning of life so deeply that they have stopped questioning it. They are happy with a small dose of pleasure here and there. Happiness is quite alien to them. Some of us hold a strong belief that certain achievements will make us happy, and we want to run faster in the race to get the award, so we have no time to waste on these frivolous questions. Some of us have set our minds on a target, such as a powerful position. They do not like what they do all day long, and yet they keep doing the same. But the fact of the matter is that if the parents and society do not feed insecurity in the minds of the children from the very beginning, probably every child will explore what he loves to explore. Many more would like to become scientists, artists, writers, and painters. If survival is not an issue, why would somebody like to do repetitive work? 

I feel that every heart has dreams to do the things that give it creative and exploratory satisfaction. It’s just that we lose awareness so early that we don’t even remember as we grow. How will we choose something that we have lost awareness of? How will we choose love over lust when we have lost awareness of love? How will we choose compassion over sympathy when we have lost awareness of compassion that comes out of pure love, unlike sympathy founded in fear? How will we choose freedom over attachment when we have forgotten to stay free and alone? How will we choose companionship over relationships when we want a name for every union, a name on which we can bank on? How will we choose creation over commerce when we know that commerce gives us money, and with money we can choose more of what we want? Basically, when we are so convinced of what we know, we will never ever explore the unknown, and therefore our entire lives will be confined to the known. My plot of land in the entire universe, with a diameter of 93 billion light-years.