Some see the limitations of their frame, while most do not. Mahatma Gandhi would have enjoyed his life as a lawyer. Even while India was still ruled by the Imperial Crown, he completed his education in London and was practising law in South Africa. He had an opportunity most Indians did not. Yet, why did he decide to leave all the comforts and fight for the freedom of South Africa and India? Why could he see the limits of his life framework when many of his contemporaries could not? How could Siddhartha see the limits of his life framework and leave behind all the comforts to seek truth?

Every child is equally keen to explore. Curiosity is quite natural to every child. Give any child a toy, and he will want to explore it from top to bottom. Every child will try to take it apart and understand what’s inside. If you keep a child in a room, he will naturally run around, touch different things, and explore. That means curiosity and exploration are natural to human beings from birth. What happens after that? Why do we become so sure? So certain of whatever we know? Why do we stop exploring things?

We focus on a target when we listen to the same stories again and again. There would be discussions in the family: “Mr Gupta ka ladka to IAS ho gaya”, “Ab to saan peedhi tar gayi”, “Gupta ji ka to rutba hi alg hai ab”. Then you see that the same child who had no voice in society suddenly gets immense respect. Everybody looks forward to calling that child to their functions. Everybody gives value to his words. You meet him in his office and see that his words carry great weight, and everyone obeys his command. He travels in a vehicle with red lights, and every other vehicle gives way to his. A weak mind, quite insecure because society has made him feel worthless at almost every step, gets tempted to prepare for civil services. The dream is to get that red light. The dream is to get that position to become strong. The dream is to acquire that power. The poor child sets an aim. To clear the civil services. He works hard. He works 16-17 hours a day, with single-minded focus.

After 4-5 years, he is able to crack it and gets into the IAS. Once there, he finds reality quite different, yet it is easy to maintain the facade. He has no energy left to accept that it isn’t what he thought it was. Power comes with responsibility. He decides to live under pretension. He pretends he is powerful and happy. The same facade that many others have maintained throughout their lives. Now the sole purpose is to somehow wear that mask. It’s not easy to take that mask off. That will make him face the same vulnerabilities again. Once we put on the mask, we give up the innocence and curiosity we had as children. That innocence and curiosity required a pure mind. If we fill our mind with manipulations and pretentions, the mind is busy with calculations. The energy and time get sucked into those calculations. That’s why we can’t see what is so obvious. We can’t see how limited the frame is that we live our lives within. Because the moment we accept that, we can no longer wear that mask.

Does it happen only with a few? No, it happens to the masses. Society makes us feel the need for family, children, a job, a fixed income, relationships, and so much more. We just don’t examine it and fall into the trap. We work hard to achieve these outcomes and spend a lot of time achieving them. Having achieved these outcomes, we feel the gap, the emptiness. Yet, because we are already so exhausted, we somehow want to feel happy about the achievement and therefore wear a smile on our face. We pretend to be happy and, in this constant pretence, lose sensitivity to the truth. Only those who somehow protect their innocence and don’t fall into this narrative’s trap retain their ability to see. To see through everything, and they can’t unsee. They can’t ignore, and that’s why these people look like Ajooba to the rest. It’s not easy for someone hiding behind a mask to see, and similarly, it’s not easy for someone not wearing a mask to ignore what he sees.