From Twilight to Light: The Sunlit Path, Talk 11: ‘Pushing Boundaries’
Full session recording is available here.
AuroYouth has been conducting a series of talks to help youth discuss and discover issues prevalent in recent times. Titled “From Twilight to Light – The Sunlit Path”, these sessions are meant to provide the youth with inner strength and spiritual outlook that will help them in navigating through life.
In the eleventh talk of the series, Riddhi Shah interacted with about 90 youths on the topic of “Pushing Boundaries” on August 30, 2020. She started off the session on an interactive note by posing the question ‘what is a boundary?’ to all the participants and went on to clarify how the boundaries we set for ourselves are external as well as internal. She emphasized on the fact that it is important to identify and become aware of our boundaries to push ourselves beyond rather than getting tied to them. She shared examples from her life to support this idea.
She also emphasized that boundaries are mostly self-imposed or self-made. She elaborated on how people set their boundaries by listening to others, through the media and other external sources, without filtering them for the truth. She also explained that internal boundaries are created because of certain existing insecurities and fears that we have within us already which develop into a lack of trust in oneself or faith in one’s own being. External boundaries are outside difficulties, usually the reflection of what we have within ourselves. For e.g. If I am afraid of something, it becomes a boundary to me irrespective of the fact that I can actually overcome that in reality.
Riddhi also shared that Sri Aurobindo has given importance to aggression, and she clarifies that the aggression she was referring to is not the physical power we usually think it is, however, it is the aggression (force) that is attached with goodness, the aggressive goodness rather than passive goodness. She gave an example of how Covid times have allowed people to come together and work aggressively towards solving their problems during the pandemic. If we choose to remain within the boundaries we set for ourselves, it is very difficult to do anything of value to the community.
We have to push boundaries to enable our own growth and translate it to something powerful outside also. She also added that each of us have different boundaries and boundaries are fluid. Pushing our boundaries should be a full time journey, where we use our mind, body and spirit to break out. We should learn to reject what we do not agree with and which is violent to our own being and once we learn to reject with assertion, something in us starts to emerge. To realize how we really want to be, we can either introspect, reflect and discover our inner selves or reject what we do not resonate with and deduce what we agree with. One precaution is that we should learn to reject cautiously and not randomly.
Riddhi also shared that we should learn to pick our battles consciously so that there is a purpose for which we are striving for. Making friends with discomfort is extremely important to grow. Oftentimes, we know what creates discomfort, however, we do not act on it and it recurs repeatedly till we learn to deal with it. We can always rely on our inner force that will guide us and is unfailing at any time. Each time we can push our boundaries, we emerge as a new person. She also added that agreeing with people without questioning is not the best way to progress and we need to question ourselves why we are so comfortable in the way we are and are not concerned with what is happening around? If we continue to live this way, we become disconnected with everything around us and expect things to happen to us, which in turn creates unhappiness and misery for us. Rather, the right way to proceed is to make the path for ourselves and strive forward by relying on what we feel from within.
Post this intense and inspiring message, a few poll questions were posed to the participants and the results were discussed in the session. Towards the end of the session, Riddhi beautifully answered all the questions posed by the participants.
Next in the series, AuroYouth is coming up with a session on ‘Money – Slave or Master?’ by Srinivas Mulugu, this Sunday, September 6th, 2020; Hoping to see you! Please share this message with the interested youth in your circle.
Click for details of The Sunlit Path Talk 10, Talk 9, Talk 8, Talk 7, Talk 6, Talk 5, Talk 4, Talk 3, Talk 2 and Talk 1.
