REAL OR FAKE?

This is the age of information and technology.

But what does it means to a common person. He/she is dying with information overload. On any aspect/issue there is tons of advise/tips available but the question is, which one is reliable and in my interest?

You may be a well informed person and calculate the outcome of events around you precisely. But for how long, and on how many issues? The technology, theories and environment all are changing very fast. As a result, any calculation becomes ineffective very soon. Moreover our mother nature wants the future to be unknown for all of us equally so that life remains interesting.

Some of us expect that the life has become a ‘bed of roses’, just because lot of information is easily available today. In my opinion, it is too high and hypothetical conclusion. It is like expecting that you are ruling the democratic country just because you have a right to vote or you own a company just because you hold one of its shares (stocks).

No doubt, logically and conceptually, there is a possibility that every citizen with voting rights can become the head of state of a democratic country and every shareholder of a company can decide the policy of that company but the practical realities are different. If you have some rights , so what? Thousands (may be millions) others also have similar rights.

As a common person, there are fair chances that what reaches to your ears and eye (projected by experts of market and so called well wishers etc) is much away from absolute reality. Unless you are the best specialist in your subject and consider some issue of your profession sincerely, you may be lost in the jugglery and glamour of the world.

The absolute truth seems out of reach for most of us. Therefore, for our day to day issues, we have to make some assumptions to solve the problems of our lives. What we assume is not much important but becomes the basis on which we can work further towards a solution with the information at hand.

It is like a question of mathematics for a college student where some facts are known and we have to find out, let us say, income of a person. Now some student will solve with assumption that the income of the person to be 100 $ while others will assume it 1 $ and some may assume it to X $. They all can reach to the same solution. Of course, once a particular assumption has been made, you take it to be true for all further calculations. If you examine the solution of different students, before final conclusion they seem to be heading in different directions. Still, if their effort is honest and sincere, the conclusion is same.

Similar event happens with most of us in our daily lives. We have to work on some assumptions or beliefs which are made available to us by our community, society, culture, home or other institutions. These assumptions/ beliefs may not be real or absolute facts. But we have to treat them as real in the interest of solving the problem of our lives. The point to understand is that most of us work on unreal beliefs in our lives. (Only real superman or real yogi can live without unreal beliefs.)

We can live with different set of beliefs and reach to same destination. Of course, our working would be different according to our assumptions or beliefs.

Problem comes when some of the beliefs do not hold good on the face of changed realties or circumstances of our lives. We sometime become so much attached to our beliefs that get upset on knowing the truth about these.

Comparing our beliefs with others or criticizing the system/institution of their origin may not help. What is required at that moment is switching to a better belief system if we can afford/maintain that. It is like changing the software platform of your computer. The mind will configure to the new settings very soon.