In my 47 years of existence I have never been inspired or influenced by any woman per se. Honestly there was nothing to learn from them or look up to. Unfortunately, while working for an IT company ages ago I was put in a position to report to two women bosses – one for 4 months and another for 4 weeks – and I barely survived their dumbness.
I am not much of a reader, I just observe. When peers were into reading fiction, I was focussing on aquariums, rabbits, white mice, birds, and turtles. There was loads to learn from animals. And then my father bought me a set of Encyclopedia Britannica, which I scanned through some 100 times.
I found reading fiction, waste of time and reading newspapers – waste of money. Though people kept telling that reading is a good habit to improve you language and vocabulary – I didn’t find those reasons justifiable enough to take up reading. Except reading subject related books at school), I hadn’t read a single extra book till the age of 18.
My thought processes were strange, and my interests were completely different. I had doubts and questions that could never be answered by my college mates or Chemistry professors. I had to exist among them for lack of choice.
Books change lives, and I never believed in that phrase until one of my college mates handed me a book by Osho Rajneesh. It was like the whole ‘Cosmic Consciousness’ opening up for me and blessing me with answers none could answer so far. I got glued to Osho’s works for almost 7 years and didn’t read any other content than his books. I have read almost all his books, attended 2 meditation camps and still could not come out of the shackles of a 9-5 job. Osho by far was the first ‘man’ who inspired me to lead a better life.
Time passed – I read few works of Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharishi, Satya Sai Baba and other Indians saints but I could not strike a cord with them. They were good, but then I wasn’t awed till I came across Sigmund Freud’s work.
His works answered my other questions about life, and also answered those questions that which had not risen in my mind. No wonder Freud is called the Father of Psychology, and God does not produce such intellectuals for centuries together. Freud happened to be the second ‘man’ who made me feel ashamed for having such poor intelligence.
In 2002 I bumped into a man wearing broken footwear, a wrinkled shirt, and plus size pants who visited our office to collect a pending cheque. That was the first time I realised to never judge a book by its cover. He impressed me so much with his intelligence and knowledge that I became a disciple of him – learnt Vedic Astrology, Vastu Shastra, Tarot Card, and all that I know at the metaphysical level. He was the 3rd man who inspired me and so much so that I quit my corporate job and took up astrology as a full time career.
Studies on comparative religion has attracted me to a very large extent all my life, and I found someone to whom I could bow down to – Dr Zakhir Naik. His insights and speeches awed me as to how one single individual can rise to such a level of understanding and consciousness, and master a subject with such infallible accuracy.
I have had my ups and downs in life, and whenever I was down – emotionally, mentally, or spiritually – God has always sent the right people with the right guidance at the right time. And whenever I have thought that I have understood enough about life, humans and the world, God surprised me with a new belief system that shook my very base of understanding life. And these days I am in awe of another international personality – of course a ‘man’ – who occupies my mind-space most of the times. I will reveal his identity when the right time comes.
Till then Good Bye…