Let’s begin our analysis first with an interesting social-emotion called…Guilt!
You know who did you slap for the first time…I mean really hard, heart-felt slap? Well! In all probability, your mother! You must have been around one-year old when you had some problem with stomach, you cried, she thought you were hungry, she tried to feed you, you didn’t want it, you cried more, she thought you were really hungry, she tried even more and when it got too much for you to handle, you slapped her! Now, she realized it…and saw things differently! Did you feel any guilt at that time? No!
I have seen children treating Shivlings as balls, toddlers putting idols in their potty-seats, kids throwing God-photos from Balcony? But do they ever feel guilt? No!
What’s the reason??? Well! Because in childhood, we think that the whole world belongs to us, we own it, everything & everyone is ours! Whole world is nothing but an extension of us! So there are no duties, only rights! This feeling never lets us feel any guilt.
But, as we grow up, the realization begins to dawn upon us that we and the world are separate entities, this realization of separation is not received kindly by us at first (thus the hysteria that kids create when they are closer to their teens) but when we start accepting this separateness (‘sign of maturity’ in world’s words), we get to learn the equation: Rights – Duties = Selfishness!
…And in walks the social-emotion called Guilt!
So, in fact society induces in us this emotion called ‘guilt’, to keep us aligned-with and conformed-to the norms set to support interdependence – the basic building-block of a social apparatus. In other words, guilt is induced to remind us of our duties!
I am not a spiritual-guru who is preaching you to get enlightened or a character straight out of an Ayn Rand’s novel who wants you to get liberated. I am just a fellow homo-sapiens (a thinking being) who wishes us to get more sorted, while still being in mid of this madly-rushed world! So, I am not against guilt! I can very clearly see the utility that it has!
All I disagree with is…how it has gone beyond its utility to create more problems than it solves. I see so many people suffering in the name of it… people feeling guilt and getting inert, people making other people feel guilt; to then exploit them, people staying feeling-guilty and destroying themselves…and what not?
Well! Guilt was supposed to be a trigger… purposed to act as a reminder! So, it was meant to activate us and initiate us into a corrective action…it wanted us to be progressive…not regressive!
So, when you feel regret about something…then forget the feeling…and now… Do something about it!
Just… Stay Verb!
