#8 Illusion and Identity (in English)
I happened to visit an exhibition in Rome where modern artistic endeavours were being exhibited from both the developed and undeveloped countries. When we reached the British pavilion, we found that they were selling punk colours, punk hats and punk dresses.
There were many Italians standing next to the pavilion and laughing. I asked the lady accompanying me, "Why are they laughing?" She said, "Italians still have a great sense of the ridiculous." This modern idea of punks is ridiculous, no doubt, but later, when some punks came to see me at one of my programmes, they complained that their eyes were losing their sense of vision.
I told them, "Don't use these dyes on your head. Maybe they are affecting your vision." They answered, "What's wrong? At the most we may become blind. So what does it matter?"
I was really surprised to see at what terrible cost they were indulging in the cult of these practices, just to establish their so-called identity. I felt like telling them that the identity of every personality is within and not outside in your dress of hair style. Unless you know your self, there is no identity whatsoever. Whatever identities you may have without self-knowledge are just superficial and they drop out as soon as you take to some other style of life.
Chapter 5, Meta Modern Era, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
There were many Italians standing next to the pavilion and laughing. I asked the lady accompanying me, "Why are they laughing?" She said, "Italians still have a great sense of the ridiculous." This modern idea of punks is ridiculous, no doubt, but later, when some punks came to see me at one of my programmes, they complained that their eyes were losing their sense of vision.
I told them, "Don't use these dyes on your head. Maybe they are affecting your vision." They answered, "What's wrong? At the most we may become blind. So what does it matter?"
I was really surprised to see at what terrible cost they were indulging in the cult of these practices, just to establish their so-called identity. I felt like telling them that the identity of every personality is within and not outside in your dress of hair style. Unless you know your self, there is no identity whatsoever. Whatever identities you may have without self-knowledge are just superficial and they drop out as soon as you take to some other style of life.
Chapter 5, Meta Modern Era, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi