Love Yourself

Love… a feeling that binds two people and cannot be defined. We love our parents, our family, and our friends and we also sometimes fall for a stranger. We love so many people but often forget the most important person…our own self.

How often do we think about our self? When did you count yourself among your favorite personality? Yes of course you can say that I always think of my future. I always have the answer when the interviewer asks me ‘Where do you see yourself ten years down the lane?’ And I always do my SWOT analysis while preparing my resume.

All the above mentioned things are just a concern and preparation for our unknown destiny. It is not even a complete reflection of our true self. We keep analyzing ourselves doing SWOT and always trying to figure out how we can tackle with our weaknesses and threats. We do not love our weakness and threat as much we love our strengths and opportunities. We put a constant effort to change our self into an admirable flawless icon.

The fault is not when we desire to change into a better human being. The fault is when we do not accept ourselves. Everyone has a unique personality, an individuality which differentiates us from rest of the crowd. In fact our imperfections only distinguishes us because if everyone would have met all the standards of perfection then we wouldn’t have known Mahatma Gandhi, Einstein, Mother Teresa, Shakespeare and many others, as everyone would have been the same.

Accepting our weakness makes us confident and stronger. When we will learn to love ourselves, we will be able to love others truly. It is learning to conquer oneself in order to win over others love.

In my school days we were made to sing a devotional hindi song. Its lyrics were:

hum ko man kii shakti denaa, mana vijaya karin
duusaron kii jaya se pahale, khud kii jaya kare

In these lines the poet is asking for strength and courage in the heart so that he could conquer the inner self before conquering others. I kept on singing the song for so many years closing my eyes every time in the prayer assembly, never really understanding the meaning of the song. But today when I think, I feel so stupid for not realizing how meaningful and beautiful this song is.

Our inner strength lies in true understanding, which comes only when we accept who we are. No one knows us better and no one can know us better than ourselves.