Are we too struggling with our choices? Do we know the Purpose of our existence or what could give us Happiness/Peace? Sita’s dilemma explores the concept of ‘Holistic Dharma’ and “New Age Maslow’ to explore a possible path for discovering self.
“What kind of dilemma is this? When Sita was in the forest, she wanted the Golden Deer, and when she was in the Golden Palace (Lanka) she wanted Ram” ~ a poem by Dr Uday Pratap Singh
Are we any different from Sita? Many of us go through life griped with this feeling too often. Once we reach our most awaited Milestone/Goal, we come to realize that the much-anticipated joy or happiness is lacking even more missing. We find it to be either short lived or much worse, we realize that this Milestone was not what we were striving for all along. Then the question that begs to be answered is ‘What is the significance of ‘striving’ and ‘wanting’ to my overall purpose?”
Why does this happen? One may question, while the answer to it can be the result of many reasons. Many a times and only after we have reached the peak of the mountain do, we realize that there is yet another mountain to be conquered. Once we have conquered the next one, we glimpse the next one and in like manner. The vagueness we experience, could it be because we realize that the many milestones which we are trying to achieve is not helping us to realize our ‘Purpose’ of life? Or Are we too preoccupied in serving ourselves then realizing or being holistic in our approach to our definition? Or is it that our outlook on life is too narrow? Or simply, are we feeling lost! (mid-life crisis)
Balance between the WHAT & HOW
Moving away from the ancient 2×2 matrix, we propose a new outlook which is two overlapping circles, one represents the ‘WHAT’ (which basically signifies what we are striving for ~ Purpose ?) and the other circle represents the ‘How’ (How I plan to spend my time/how I plan to reach my purpose)
The WHAT circle encompasses the 7 Dharmas which we need to balance to have a holistic and contented life while the HOW circle represents the 7 Drivers / Channels / Pathways via which we can achieve happiness and a sense of fulfilment in life (balance of 7 dharma). Then, the important question in finding our purpose (ways to achieve / fulfil dharma) is, do we achieve it through fulfilling basic needs or through a path of transcendence?
More often we are confused with what the ‘WHAT’ circle signifies. This is because leaning on the WHAT circle itself it creates an imbalance wherein we are consumed with either self and believe serving our self is the goal thus, we are skewed towards the HOW circle by focusing only on one or two Channels / Drivers / Pathways which may or may not align to our Dharma priority.
A healthy balance between these two dimensions is what the magic quadrant which we need to seek to resolve Sita’s Dilemma in us.
