The   authentic man

Dr Sudhansu Kumar Dash

We all generally come across two words: personality and individuality. A close watch to these two words reveals a very startling fact that personality is a false identity and individuality is that what nature has given to us. Personality is given to somebody by the society, not by nature. Ordinarily almost all live as a personality, hence the life is not authentic because an authentic man is one who has come out of his personality. Individuality is existential but personality is social. Personality is false, deceptive and hypocritical man caring personality is not only deceiving others but also deceiving himself.

‘Personality ‘has been derived from the Greek word ‘persona ‘ which means mask and the word ‘sona’means sound..In ancient Greek drama all the actors have a mask so that one cannot find out who the actor is. One can see only the mask and the voice that comes from inside the mask is the actor. The real face is not seen. While watching oneself closely one will certainly find oneself quite surprisingly that one is a borrowed being. All the thoughts are borrowed and even about feelings one may not be certain

.This personality surrounds us from everywhere and our individuality is almost a hidden thing. We never allow it to live because the society never allows it to live in freedom of its own original nature. The society wants us to live in a way it finds useful for it. Personality is safe for the society for the simple reason that it is never rebellious. This personality has become very powerful because the society supports it but there is nobody to support the individuality-which is one’s nature, one’s real power, one’s authentic being, remaining repressed in darkness and the moment one crosses the boundaries of personality , consciousness is one.

An authentic man is a rebellious spirit rebelling against his own personality. It does not know the art of compromising for whatever the cost ,as far as his freedom is concerned. It prefers to die than to be enslaved. By nit being authentic we do the last injustice to ourselves. We have made our being crippled, and go on complain about the miseries if life. the fact is that we have compromised for small comforts from the society at the cost of our original being ,our soul. We have become non-existent. This is the misery, the hell that every man is passing through. there are some vested people with vested interest who utilize and exploit the situation. These people become the leaders in assuring man to bring him an utopia into the world-a world without poverty, without suffering, without exploitation and inequality. All their slogans give man a consolation, although for thousands of years these same kinds of people give the same idea of utopia, but the utopia never comes. It may be perhaps that the very word ‘utopia’ means that what never comes.

The politicians give man the great utopian ideas, the so called religious people give man the great idea of heaven, paradise moksha etc.but if one has an authentic life one does not need these false promises of these hypocrites who have never seen what they say .Quite strange the situation is. When one is authentic in his being, one is so fulfilled that, one is so blissful that one does not need a paradise because no paradise can become in any way an improvement on it.

No utopia can make life richer .One is just to see the strategy of those cunning people who always try to keep man false and to keep man miserable. A miserable man only needs a priest, a politician, a psychoanalyst and all kinds of charlatans because he is in such a misery that he is ready to fall into anybody’s trap, whosoever gives him a hope.

Hope is the greatest business in this world .The priests have been exploiting in giving hope of the next life. The fact is that if it in next life, then why it is not in this life? The logic is that this life must have been the ‘next life ‘of the previous life. The only solution to this miserable life is to drop the false personality and to start living with individuality whatever it may cost. There is no way out.

Lecturer-in-English

Shreedhar Swamy College of Education and Technology

Sadangi,Dhenkanal,Odisha, INDIA