Improvisation of Choices

All of us exercise choices, almost each day. We exercise a choice of the time we get up from our bed, the mode of transport we use to reach the office, the priority of the office assignments, the food we eat, the places we choose for vacations, the choice of the people we like to spend time with, the choice of movie we want to watch. Many decisions have a bigger impact like the choice of university, career, marriage partner, and workplace. 

Whatever choices we make are based on our present level of awareness and often having gone through the experiences, we realize that we could have made better choices. We had limited awareness at the time of making choices and will always have limited awareness. In fact, some of the experiences that were not the result of our choices change our lives quite significantly. For example, all of us would have seen failure in one or the other examination or relationship. Most of us would agree that the experience as a result of these failures is often far more precious than the experience as a result of success. These failures broaden our perspective. Yet, given an opportunity, nobody would choose failure and everybody would wish success in every decision we make.

What should be the way out in that case? Probably, the key is awareness. We will keep making the choices based on our present level of awareness. We can not sit idle and waste time waiting for somebody wiser or the almighty to make decisions for us. Or for some divine enlightenment that will make the future visible to us. We make decisions based on our present level of awareness but remain open to new possibilities. It's like we start on the route suggested by Google Maps to reach the destination in the minimum time but while traveling along the route, Google suggests a change of route to save time and accordingly, we change the route. Similarly, we make choices and while moving along our choices, we become aware of new possibilities and change the course of life accordingly. 

That's what happened with most of the enlightened people. Tulsidas started his life as an ordinary person and when his wife scolded him for being so possessive about her, he realized a different perspective of life and became the creator of Ramcharitmanas. Kalidasa became one of the greatest poets of Samskrita from being a fool when he became aware of the possibilities. Valmiki became a saint from a dacoit. Mahatma Gandhi could have lived the life of an ordinary advocate but became the father of the nation. Shri S. N. Goenka could have remained an ordinary businessman and died of Migraine but he became aware of the Vipassana technique and devoted his life to spreading this technique to the whole of the world. 

Not so that the enlightened people did not exercise the choices. Everybody exercises choices while living life. The difference lies in the level of awareness. While most of us remain aware of a very narrow spectrum of possibilities, some people become aware of the wider spectrum. That's the quality of the best of the scientists, artists, sportsmen, and industrialists. The best sportsmen improvise the shots rather than playing with a pre-decided mind. The best batsmen read the mind of the bowler and improvise the shots. The best soccer players are aware of each and every move of their opponents and team players and hit the ball accordingly. The best scientists improvise their research as they become aware of new possibilities. The best actors always improvise their shots rather than acting strictly on the pre-decided scripts. "Being aware of new possibilities" requires that our entire "RAM" is not engaged in routine and there is a space therein to "connect to" the new possibilities that keep knocking on our door.