A seed reveals its nature when it grows leaves and branches; blooms flowers and produces a particular kind of fruit. The mango seed will only give a mango fruit and never a pineapple. Seeds get nourishment from the environment because they embrace it. A seed displays both a revealing and embracing quality and is programmed that way. It does not need to be self -aware.

Human beings are also like seeds and our actions and accomplishments must reflect our true nature. But we need to be self -aware and for this we are endowed with a WILL that makes us look here and there. Unfortunately we spend most of our time looking outwards rather than inwards for self- awareness. As a result we are colored by what our family, society, and organization wants us to do, and in due course we literally forget (cannot see) our own colors. We acquire an achieving mentality.

This mentality as opposed to the revealing mindset makes us always look beyond and so we reject (not embrace) our environment we are perpetually critical about our background, lack of opportunities and hold others responsible for our problems. The present is never good enough for us.

" REVEALING and EMBRACING mindset helps to express what we are right now in the present. REVEALING is self-discovery and answers the question "Who am I? This makes both the journey and destination pleasurable.

" ACHIEVING and REJECTING makes us unhappy while we are in the present ( which is the case always), because we are chasing dreams we believe will be fulfilled in the future.

The human will is a double-edged sword. It is the will power that makes us work hard, struggle and overcome obstacles, but without the light of self-awareness, we may be working against ourselves. It is the human will that takes us away from adopting a revealing and embracing attitude that is so readily displayed by seeds.

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Arjun and Karan

Let us take the example of Arjun and Karan - the two great heroes in the holy epic - Mahabharata . Arjun was self-aware and he had the answer to the question " Who am I " . He knew he was a great warrior prince and his entire life is a revelation of this fact. He mastered all the martial arts and became an unbeatable archer and when the time came he fought bravely in the battle of Kurukhshetra to establish righteousness.

Karan too belonged to the same noble lineage with perhaps even more potential than Arjun. His intrinsic royal nature longed for expression as reflected in his aspiration for kinghood, and a thirst for learning princely arts. But he was not self-aware as he was abandoned by his mother at birth and subsequently raised in a non-princely family.

In adult hood even after Krishna made him aware of his true identity he chose to continue on the old path. His will did not make him embrace the changed circumstance. In the end he succeeded in getting partially all that he wanted but his journey was ridden with doubts, conflict, struggle and pain. He could never answer perfectly the question "who am I ", nor did he accept his circumstances. He even ended up fighting on the wrong side of righteousness in Mahabharata.

The crux of the issue is - we all reach the destination we are meant to reach - such is the revealing power of our innate potential. But the journey we undertake also matters. Revealing mindset makes the journey easy, pleasant and natural; while the achieving mindset makes the journey competitive, painful and stressful.

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