All Human Beings are Similar – Differentiating People is Disrespect!

Today let me introduce Mr. Arunachalam, my husband, shortly I call him Aruni.  

On Sundays, Aruni and I like to take our morning walk at the Marina beach or at the lake view park near our house where there is a walking track around the lake. 

Last Sunday we were walking along the lakeside walking track. I saw a snail crossing the walking path so slowly that it did not seem to be moving. As I noticed a few baby snails crushed by the people walking there, I said to Aruni that if this snail is going this slow then people will crush it as they might not notice it. Immediately, he made a remark that just because it’s a snail people are walking on them. At the same time if it’s a snake will they do like this, won’t they run away. 

This reminded me of how we differentiate people based on gender, their power and sect etc. 

How do we respond to a person neatly dressed up and speaks good english versus a person with dirty clothes and speaks the local language, that too in a different slang?

How do we respond to a literate person in a high position of status / job versus an illiterate person, an automan, a person on daily wages? Honestly give it a thought on this!

What do you think, is the human being just the body or something more than that? Whether the body can do all the activities on its own? Or is it getting instructions from somewhere?

Can you see that every human being is the coexistence of self and body? Yes, I am not just the body, I have a self coexisting with my body. My body sends the information to the self in the form of sensations and the self gives the instructions to the body. Self is deciding what the body has to do. Self is the decision maker, it is central to human existence. 

Differences are there in the body, male / female, young / old, short / tall etc., but the self is similar for everyone. There are feelings in the self: trust, respect, affection, etc. I need trust, I need respect, I need affection… What about you? Do you need respect? For that matter, whether every human being needs all these feelings? This is not different for different people. Every human being needs these feelings, right?

I can see every human being is similar, everyone is a coexistence of self and body. The self is using my body for the expression of the feelings and executing the activities it desires to do. If we observe closely we can see that the body is just an instrument of the self!!

With the gross misunderstanding that this body is the human being we differentiate the people. Differentiating people based on their body, is it not disrespect ?

Just explore yourself.  Take any of the feelings, for example respect and check whether you need respect?  A child needs respect?, an elderly person? A literate? An Illiterate? The one at the east? The one at the west?…

What is your observation? 

Every human being needs these feelings, every human being is similar and differentiating people based on their age, gender, power, sect, etc., is disrespect – can you see this?