Who are You

- Dr. Abhijit Das

Dr. Abraham Maslow first coined the term ‘self-actualization’. Early in his career whilst working with monkeys he noticed that certain ‘needs’ took precedence over others. For example, thirst would always be a ‘stronger’ need than hunger. Similarly breathing would be a more important need than thirst. He extended this concept and created the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’.

In this article I will expand on self-actualization since it is the pinnacle in the hierarchy of human needs. We can sum up this concept as follows-

A musician must make music, An artist must paint, A poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization. It refers to man's desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially; To become everything that one is capable of becoming…   There are two processes for self-actualization; self-exploration and action. The deeper the self-exploration, the closer one comes to self-actualization. These needs involve the continuous need to fulfill potentials; to be “all that you can be”. They are a matter of becoming the fullest and truest ‘YOU’, hence the term ‘self-actualization’.   The question then arises WHO IS THE “REAL YOU”? Tagore beautifully conceptualized this eternal question in the ‘Gitanjali’- 

I came out alone on my way to my tryst. But who is this that follows me in the silent dark? I move aside to avoid his presence but I escape him not.

He makes the dust rise from the earth with his swagger; he adds his loud voice to every word that I utter. He is my own little self, my lord, he knows no shame; but I am ashamed to come to thy door in his company.

The starting point to your sacred quest is the understanding that the universe and our participation in it are not haphazard things. Intelligence flows through everything in the universe, and has had many names. It causes the planets to orbit, the galaxies to stay in place, the seedlings to sprout, the flowers to open and you, yes you, to breathe and walk and think. The key to finding the real you- is to search in yourself. Unfortunately most of our lives we face the wrong way; we look outwards for answers when we should be looking inwards. The only way to look inwards is during our still moments. It is in silence that we can discover our inner universe. As Dr. Wayne Dyer puts it ‘Be Still and Know’. As a first step, we should all recognize the availability of a spiritual energy in this universe. When we incorporate this first step we begin the process of this self accessing power. Only then we will also realize that WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS HAVING A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE, BUT WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS HAVING A HUMAN EXPERIENCE.