The youngsters, Shubham Sinha talked to for krrisha.com, more or less touched beyond- the- body dimensions of the term maturity. But they need to get hold of the basics of the issue as defined in the Bhagwad Gita for clarity and proper understanding.
Let’s get deeper
Maturity is not by age. It is the sign of the extent of mastery you have over your response system. What is a response system? It is your naturally trained neurological system, which makes you act, react and respond to a situation. Basically, your nervous system can be translated as the karmic system in Sanskrit. Karma represents a neuron. That simply means when by your will you can manipulate and direct your neurological impulses towards a desired direction, then you are said to be mature. In Sanskrit there are two words to define physical and neurological maturities. When you are physically mature but keep the inherited neurological response system, you are called vayaska. But when you have a mastery over your response system or karmic system, you are called pundit. So being pundit really means being mature in the right sense of the term.
What it means
It means when some impact makes your karmic system to react negatively and spread the wave of depression throughout the body, you immediately refuse to be governed by it and reverse the impact with your will, you are called a pundit. It simply means a person who can counter natural karmic impulses in order to deliver a desired response is called pundit (a mature person). The sorrow does not affect him and happiness does not distract him, such a person with a masterly command over his neurological system is called pundit, according to Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna says it clearly in discourse 2 shloka 11 “A pundit is not affected in anyway by witnessing people dying and still alive.” That means he does not give into the natural neurological response of witnessing people dead or alive. This is called maturity which comes from the conscious perception of the reality. He makes it further clear in discourse 4, shloka 19 “The wise call the person pundit (mature) whose karmic system (natural response system) has been refined by the fire of conscious perception (gyaanagnih dagadhkarmanam). So therefore, Krishna is clearly suggesting us what real maturity means. But look at ourselves we are physically mature but neurologically so weak that a little impact shakes our system up and we go haywire and deliver reactions under a karmic impulse. This is not maturity. Such persons can be defined as ‘moustached babies’ in Swami Vivekananda’s phrase. It means physically mature, but neurologically weak. The science of spirituality neutralizes the karmic reactions and makes you evolve as a master of your own self. When you are able to command your karmic responses, you are actually working from the plain of freedom. And that freedom is what has been defined as moksha.
The Bhagwad Gita is a science of making you a mature person. A shaken Arjuna in the first discourse becomes the executor in the eighteenth discourse. Refer to Beejankuri: the seed of Bhagwad Gita Think about it!
Vivek Sharma
Editor-In-Chief
krrisha.com
Maturity doesn't have any specific definition as far as we humans are considered. The way we say our money/fund is matured we claim its maturity on its specific character i.e. full growth of money. The same way maturity for us humans is dependent on various aspects of life. A person can act maturely in a situation can act just the opposite in other situation.. So it's completely subjective.
We can't exactly claim or judge someone's level of maturity as we define maturity based on our own level of understanding and how much matured we are to judge others maturity level is still a debatable point. The way we say an old and experienced person is matured but can't we think of a young person being matured? He/she might not have the kind of experience of age but it doesn't lessen his/her level of maturity a bit. Thus age is not the only factor as we think of maturity.
Generally as the mind and emotions develop, a person moves to a higher level of maturity. The maturity of a person can be noticed by their behavior and attitude in various situations of life. We expect a matured person to take responsibility when in a situation. We expect him to behave sensibly and control his emotions. We expect him to be patient and remain stable. He should always be calm and ability to forgive others. Moreover we expect him to understand his own conscience and environment around him.
There are many characteristics as such but once again I must say that this is subjective to the kind of person and kind of situation.
Inference: Acting maturely is a subjective phenomenon.
Abhishek Kumar
By definition maturity is a stage of life when someone starts looking into things more deeply, having a broader vision after having experienced a lot of situations in his life and knows how to react to most of them.
People carry grudges for life for little things, judge others without even stepping into their shoes, waste their time and money on things which are just their wants and later falling short on their needs. When a person gets clarity on topics like these and more I think he is on the way of attaining a certain level of maturity.
When a person: starts thinking before acting, starts forgiving, stops judging, starts understanding the difference between needs and wants, starts understanding that nothing is permanent in life, etc.
Inference: When a person starts analyzing more than reacting he is sure to be on the path of maturity.
Shariq Ansari
Response towards a situation or a person is the scale for measuring maturity. Maturity is the balance in thoughts and actions.
Maturity is irrespective of age. But if someone first introspects and then react to a certain situation, he is mature.
The way one reacts to a situation, one who has his own and accepts all other perspectives, one who takes his mind and heart in a same scale is mature.
Inference: Maturity is not a phenomenon governed by age. If a person is able to maintain balance between head and heart he is mature enough.
Priyanka Khatri
When we start taking decisions yourself with some logic and reasoning.
We can say one is mature when one starts handling most of his situations with a calm attitude and take most appropriate decisions.
criteria for mature behavior can be thinking before doing anything, taking decisions on the basics of logic.
Inference: A person is mature when he can handle his situations with a calm mind.
Aakashdeep Singh Rawat
Maturity can be defined as a state of being in which a human behaves like an adult physically, mentally and emotionally. And yes it is a subjective term and can differ on personal thoughts.
We can only comment on someone's maturity, when we know on what parameters we are observing the person. If we talk of mental maturity, I personally believe that a person is mature if his/her tongue is in control of his/her mind, ideally every time but practically most of the times.
As I said, your words are reflection of your thoughts. And your thoughts define your mental maturity. So on the face of it, choice of words is the most important criteria as it reflects your maturity level. Secondly, having equally clear and good thoughts is also important, as it will make it easier to translate them to words without any tweaks required.
Inference: Words are reflection of your thoughts and parameter to measure maturity. The more you are in control of one the other improves.
Jagpreet Sing Anand
Mature is when we can handle the worst situation patiently and calmly.
The criterion of showing someone that you are mature is--Attitude, ability to handle situations, knowledge, courage.
Inference: Maturity is directly proportional to experience. The wisely you handle your situation the more mature you are.
Shwetima Gupta
A person gets mature in multiple ways but I think the true definition of maturity is when you start respecting other's view points and thoughts leaving behind your own ego. When you accept people for who they are, with all the choices they make in their personal or spiritual life and for all the decisions they have ever made in their life. Because you never know what lead them to here and you have no rights to question their choices.
For an individual, the true sign of maturity is to accept your own flaws and take responsibility of your actions.
The few criteria for maturity are: respecting other decision and accepting your own mistakes.
Inference: The sign of maturity is to accept your own flaws and take responsibility of your actions.
Priya Kakar
Compiled by Shubham Sinha
Maturity is not something that can be defined in words rather it is something which is reflected in an individual’s thoughts and action. According to me defining maturity in one or two aspect of life will be injustice to the word maturity.
We have often heard our elder say, older you get more mature you become. But it’s not always the case. Maturity is not something which is completely dependent on our age, rather it comes with the experiences we have in our life and how much we learn from them. No one is ever completely mature, there is always a possibility for us to commit mistake at any stage of our life.
It’s difficult to set a criterion to judge someone’s maturity level because maturity is shown in every aspect of life from the most simple things to the most complex ones, like not getting angry if your friend doesn’t reply to your text to sacrificing your dream for some reason.