Majority of youngsters Hemangi Chaturvedi interviewed for krrisha.com this week on escapism and fears rightly concluded that it was a bad attitude of the mind. But none really could touch the face or flight syndrome of the brain, which even neuroscientists are seeking answers to, as it shapes your future brain.
Let’s get deeper
According to the Bhagwad Gita, escapism is a state of the brain, that sets off a chain of negative neurological sequences and makes one take wrong decisions. It often leads to nervous breakdown in extreme cases. Discourse One is nothing but a detailed explanation of the state of the brain.
Arjuna was a great warrior. He knew why he was there on the battlefield. But, yet he wanted to know who all had gathered to fight him. And when he saw he was overpowered by ‘escapism’. He suffered a nervous breakdown—body shaking, mouth drying up, seeing bad omens all around and deciding not to fight. He even tried to justify his response to Krishna, leaves his weapon aside, depressed, even concluding “let them kill me and take away the kingdom, what good is it for me when my very own will not be there after the battle.”
Three stages of escapism
To make it simple, let us know there are three stages of escapism. (1) Negative perception (विपरीतानि पश्यामी—I see negative all around) (2) Negative conclusion (न काङ्क्षते विजयं कृष्ण न च राज्यं सुखानि च—therefore, I don’t desire victory, not my kingdom and luxury therefrom) (3) Justification of negative conclusion (ऐतान्नहन्तुमिच्छामि घ्नतोपि मधुसूदन—I don’t desire to kill them even if they kill me) (4) Getting depressed (सीदन्तिमम गात्राणि मुखं च परिशुष्यति—my body parts are numbing down and my mouth is drying up) (5) Taking wrong step (एवमुक्त्वा संख्ये रथोपस्थ उपाविशत् । विसृज्य सशरं चापं.…stating this, he gets down his chariot, leaving his weapon aside).
These are the five steps every escapist undergoes when challenged by a situation. This basically generates from ego and memory and may manifest as any of the five steps or all. Memory has certain past experiential records which influence you while you are facing a situation. The result of it is negative conclusion, wrong decision and depression.
What should we do
Look! There is nothing to be ashamed about if you have one of the signs of an escapist. Arjuna was a great warrior. His credentials as a matchless combatant with and without weapons were well established and yet he fell to escapism and got depressed.
Instead of pondering over it, better it is to divert your mind to facing the situation. And that is what Krishna teaches Arjuna through out the discourse, stretching it to various dimensions of life—social, individual and scientific. But, amid all this he gives out the most generalised and common way to handle the situation, where he gives us the very tools to handle our ego and face the situation. His analysis is perfect. He knows that escapism is because of ego (ownership of experiential wealth) and memory (experiential wealth). They are the cause of this escapism, as whatever you perceive comes through the filter of past experiences, which colour it or make you see it in a certain context. Isn’t it?
He gives a psychological anti-dote during Discourse Two—हतो वा प्राप्स्यसि स्वर्गं जित्वा वा भोक्ष्यसे महीम्।तस्मादुत्तिष्ठ कौन्तेय युद्धाय कृतनिश्चयः।। “If you are killed, you will gain the evolutionary sphere worthy of a great fighter, if you win, you will enjoy your kingdom on the earth. That is why, Get up, O Kaunteya! Battle it out inside out, with a determined resolution.” Face it and fight it, rather than giving up what comes your way, is the inference of Krishna’s advice.
Why this advice?
Behind this advice is a whole lot of scientific reasoning. But, it is sufficient to understand the basics. Any situation comes as a challenge. Every challenge has two options—fight and lose, fight and win. There is no third option —Don’t fight. But, we most of the time choose this option—almost saying “none of the above.” You go through your personal experiences and analyse wherever you have escaped a challenge, you had had to face it in a new form. If you escape your enemy, you empower him and he will threaten you more. But, if you face and fight, you have an option of resisting him and gradually defeating him. Could Ram escape Ravana? Could Krishna escape Kamsa? Could the Pandavas escape the Kauravas? No. They all had to face and win their respective challenges.
Since your heart already knows that you are taking a wrong course by taking the decision to escape, you remain depressed and convert all situational energies negatively. This is surely out of fright or fear. Fear is the negative expression of the ego and memory complex. It comes only after you consider your past experiences ( experience is not essentially what you have undergone. It can be gained through hearing, seeing or analysing others’ situations too). This is natural. But, not processing it with the tool given above by Krishna makes us an escapist, who is nothing but a loser in his own mind. Always think. “I will face the situation. If I prevail, I win. If it prevails, I win by gaining experience.” This is a great help stopping the negative course of your conclusions. What happens when you face the situation? You gain experiential energy. Next time, you already know and you make good efforts. Finally, you learn not to be an escapist, victory or no victory. I think that attitude of the mind is the real victory!
Therefore, try to face the situation as much as you can. If you can’t face a situation, withdraw yourself temporarily, analyse it and equip yourself for it and face it again. This will make you a winner within and you will manifest that win outside also.
So face it and grow stronger, because escaping it is no option and it leads to depression and belittles you in your own eyes. Face it! Even if you feel depressed. Stand firm! And you will see that gradually you are absorbing the situational energy and becoming stronger. If you face your fears today, they will become your friend tomorrow. If you fear a person, face him time and again with a calm strength. I assure you that you will absorb energy and won’t have any fears after some time. Besides, it is a fact that what you run away from, you have to face again and again. The form, time and place may change but the challenge will remain the same. Because, in Nature’s classroom, you have to evolve by facing challenges! That is how an amoeba evolved into a Buddha. You can’t escape it, so better it is to face it!
Vivek Sharma
Editor-In-Chief
krrish.com
Escapism is to run from your responsibilities, to pay no heed to the requirements.
People being concerned about their reputation, prefer running away, take extreme steps such as suicide to escape fear.
Fear should not be fed because if people can’t accept us it only shows their true side and such people must not hold any value in our lives.
Inference: Escapism is to run away from our responsibilities. Fear of non acceptance should not be fed.
Muskan Shilpkar
Escapism is running away from the duties which one’s life has to offer. We usually escape because of fear of non acceptance.
We should learn to accept and so must the others around us but usually we run from the world. At least I do.
Inference: Fear of non acceptance is the reason behind Escapism. We should learn to accept ourselves and others.
Avantika
Escapism is an activity, a form of entertainment which helps you to avoid or forget unpleasant or bad memories.
It is usually fear of non acceptance that drives us to run away.
We must learn to accept all which the world has to offer, be it good or bad.
Inference: Escapism is a way to forget the unpleasant and harsh realities. We must accept all that the world has to offer.
Ayushi Gupta
Escapism, in its elementary form is intentional detachment and distraction from reality. It allows us to sit in the passenger seat while we rest during a long and difficult journey that is life, thereafter permitting us to come to a problem or reality with a fresh mind. However, one needs to poke their head out of the clouds when escapism turns to avoidance. It might stagnate a person after a while. That being said, one should utilise escapism as a tool in the right way to deal with onerous situations. It could be a result of both or of one another, meaning, growing materialism have allowed us to depend on things to distract ourselves from our actual realities thus making us run away because of the underlying fear and vice versa. With the present scenario, we are almost as scattered as we are together. Fear is basically non acceptance of the reality, which in the back of our minds, puts us in a dilemma, wherein running away seems the easier way out. As a result, we may or may not rely on materialistic platforms to assuage the outcome of our action. It might leave us feeling a little weak. Either way it takes away from the whole yet facing the situation and embracing the actuality always makes one stronger.
Inference: Facing the situation makes a person strong. Escapism may act as a temporary way of thinking about problem.
Shubhangi Mishra
Escapism is not standing where we should.
We escape largely because we want to be neutral and largely accepted by all.
Taking Arjuna as an example, we must not escape. Acceptance is natural and physically running away is the law but if we are running away from our duties and ourselves, it is neither natural nor a law.
Inference: Escapism is an outcome of the inner desire to be accepted by all. Running away from our duties is not natural and thus should be avoided.
Aastha Bhardwaj
Escapism is avoiding the life we already have and seeking elsewhere, the life we dream of.We mostly try to escape because of fear of non acceptance.We must not try to avoid the life we have but try to accept it in live with zeal.
Inference: We must try and accept the life we have. Escapism is avoiding what we have and dreaming of what we want.
Gautham S Gopan
Escapism is wanting to dwell on the dreams which remained unfulfilled in the past and bury our present selves.
We generally escape for fear that the dreams which were crushed in the past might also get broken in the future.
We eventually ruin ourselves when we forget reality and thus, we must learn to accept it.
Inference: Escapism is living in dreams of the unfulfilled desires. Reality should be faced and learned from.
Alpika Srivastava
Escapism is running away from the troubles which our path has to offer.I believe it is mostly because of fear of non acceptance from the society owing to differing ideas or beliefs.One must not give in to these fears but face everything because one can never be certain what the future has in store for us.
Inference: Escapism is running from the troubles we encounter. A person should not give in to the fears.
Pooja Chaturvedi
Escapism is a need of a person to run away from the worldly joys of one’s life.
It is usually owing to fear because we often do not wish to come to terms with the reality of our lives which more often than not seem to us ugly.
We must learn to stand strong for what we believe in and accept ourselves and our lives to be able to move ahead.
Inference: Fear is the reason behind escaping reality. We must learn to stand strong and move ahead despite of harsh reality.
Archana Chaturvedi
Escapism is the tendency to overlook what’s happening at present and focusing on what might be or what has been. The young usually fear fitting into the society and perhaps want to stand out but their actions are called cowardice and are connected to escapism. Though yes one must not escape owing to fear but every once in a while it’s okay to have our own world.
Inference: Escapism is a tendency to not live our present but our future or past. Escapism should not become a tendency though it is fine to sometimes escape our realities.
Akshay Yadav
Compiled by Hemangi Chaturvedi
Escapism is neither running away nor cowardice. Exploring these both dimensions, usually inclines our reflections towards the vulnerabilities of human life. But that, in my opinion, is a prejudice which more often than not every thinker of stray thoughts and every dreamer of far flung dreams, faces. Rather Escapism is the mere joy of dwelling in one’s mind, the safe haven, to reach what we do not inherently think of as the truth and to seek what may never lie in the realm we connect ourselves to.Escapism might be owed to the fact that human nature has always feared realising its life to be a mere futility and thus, the search of meaning can be termed escapism. It is perfectly alright to be a rebel every once in a while and to travel where no other have aspired to be. But we must tread softly because darkness though calm can be equally misleading.