Personal Growth - to grow within

Personal growth is understood differently by different people.

Growth is generally perceived in physical dimension as growth of a sapling into a fully grown tree or growth of a baby into a full-fledged adult and so on; in mental dimension as educational qualifications acquired or intellectual capabilities displayed and so on; in social dimension as important positions held, awards received, material possessions acquired, membership of premier clubs and so on.

When we refer to personal growth, we refer to the growth in spiritual dimension – the growth within.

We all understand that the stability and sustainability of a fully grown tree is dependent on the depth and strength of the roots of that tree.  We also understand that the stability and endurance of a skyscraper is dependent on the depth and strength of the foundation of that structure.  Similarly, the growth of a human being on physical, mental or social dimensions on a stable and sustainable basis is primarily dependent on the depth and strength of the growth in spiritual dimension.

Growth in spiritual dimension is connecting back to our Source and staying connected.

How do we do that?

1. Examine our paradigms

Paradigm is a Greek word which in simple terms means our perception, i.e., the way we see the world around us.  Our paradigms may have been conditioned by multiple factors – by our race, religion, community, creed and so on; by our upbringing – the way we were treated when we were very young; by our surroundings – our neighborhood, schools, colleges, workplaces, friends and so on.

In my workshops, I use the example of non-vegetarian food to explain what we mean by paradigm.  For many of us, whether to eat non-vegetarian food or not is perceived based on the community that we were born into.  For those of us who eat non-vegetarian food, whether to eat beef or pork is perceived based on the religion that we were born into; whether to eat snake or squid is perceived based on the country that we were born into.  The same food, which appears to be natural and delicious to a certain set of people, appears to be unnatural and nauseating to another set of people based on the conditioning that they were subjected to.

During my interactions with school students, I asked the boys, “How should a girl be?”, their immediate response was, “She should be modest and timid.”  When I asked the girls, “How should a boy be?”, their immediate response was, “They should be brave and courageous.”  These were the paradigms that many of us grew up with.  I told them that, in today’s context, it may require to be the other way round: Boys, maybe, should be modest and timid and girls, maybe, should be brave and courageous. 

Many of our paradigms may be faulty.  So, the first step is to examine our paradigms.

2. Understand the principles:

Principles are natural laws in human dimension which are universal, timeless and self-evident.  One example of a principle is the law of cause and effect.  Many of us would have heard of this quote, “What you sow is what you reap.”  In physics, we studied Newton’s third law of motion which says that “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  Law of cause and effect is similar to the Newton’s third law of motion.  Every action, be it thinking, expressing or doing, results in an effect or consequence and the nature of the effect depends on the nature and intensity of the action performed.  If the action had positive impact on others, the effect will have positive impact on the doer.  If the action had negative impact on others, the effect will have negative impact on the doer.

This principle works all over the universe, does not change with passage of time and does not require elaborate experiments to understand.

3. Shed our faulty paradigms and align with principles

In the process of examining our paradigms and understanding the principles, our awareness improves significantly which enables us to shed our faulty paradigms and align with principles in an effortless manner.

And that's how we connect back to our Source and grow within.