By Snigdha Jain

Ever wondered what makes some people different from you. Why some people are famous, great or legends, I mean it’s not like that only a handful people in the world have talents or the brains to use them. Then why is it that only a handful of people as we say it “make it” in the world. Well the answer lies in their perspective to see the world and their understanding of humans and different aspects of the human condition that makes all the difference. It’s their attitude towards life and suffering. We should be thankful that there were few people across all regions and during all times who were the epitome of compassion and genius and who help shaped the world as we see it today.

They are remembered because they shape the world with their ideologies, they sacrificed themselves for the greater good. Most of them lived the life full of misery, in condition we cannot even imagine, to provide answers to questions that we all see but are too afraid to ask and answer. And because of our ignorance more often than not these men and women had to face hatred, rejection and anger because we were not smart enough to understand the importance of their work. We are so comfortable in following the status quo and maintain the stereotypes that we forget every idea needs a criticism, every ideology need an opposition to improve and they were the ones who provided us with alternative theories and thinking for the development of all.

The basic difference that I see in their lives and ours or specifically mine is that we are all busy in achievement of those goals which have no greater value at the end of the day. Which those great people would have referred to as mundane. It’s not that we don’t have that spark of doing something – I guess we are too lazy to actually do something.

If you ask me personally I am in awe of how these minds functioned and how they saw society, how they pictured it and what their understanding was of things happening around them. Sometimes I wonder would all those questions have been asked if they did not think of it, I don’t think they would have ever occurred to me and yet they were the most basic questions that we all should have been asking in the first place. And also I would like to point towards the notion of great and terrible. The good genius and evil genius. If you ask me we are no one to judge who is good and who is not because our judgement is hindered and affected by our own biases and prejudices. All we can say is the every one of them we know, be it Hitler or Churchill, Marx or Freud and many more they all were different and were shaped by the society around them, so probably they all had it right even if we think not. It’s okay to be wrong, to be not well liked, what’s important is to have the freedom of putting your thoughts forward. No one is asking anyone to follow someone blindly or to believe in some ones truth without proof.

Just acknowledge the fact that is okay for people to exist who think differently than you. Diversity and difference is what makes this world so wonderful and beautiful. Even in today’s world such men and women exists. Another reason we are not like them is that they think on this macro level including all the individuals and we are just so engrossed and closed in our own personal vision that we cannot see the greatness that they are seeing. They see this world as a whole, when we see this world; we are talking about this world from our personal point of view and the things that affect us. Whenever we are seeing things we keep ourselves as the center of the universe, but that’s not true and that is what all great men do, they see the world as it should be seen. They look at it from an outsider’s perspective and then analyse everything that is going on and that is I think the reason that their vision are the ones which are read and are being talked about at such a large scale and not our opinions based on petty biases.

It’s true that many of their works are also influenced by personal incidences and personal experiences but they just helped in igniting the flame. We also have personal incidents which also raise some questions but then we limit ourselves to our personal surrounding and try to find the answers within it but that is not what the great men of our ages do. The questions they ask change into global questions or query on a world phenomenon that affects everyone to which they try to seek and find answers, they do not keep restricted in their own little universe. They incorporate the world in their thoughts and then ultimately when they do find answers they do not find them for themselves but for the global masses. It is possible that maybe their drive to find answers is personal but at the end whether good or bad they thought of everyone. It was never about just them. It was not that they wanted to emancipate themselves. They wanted to free all and that is the difference between us and them.

Even their selfishness is selfless. As it is their thirst, their inquisitiveness, that drives them to find answers. There is some sense of self achievement that is motivating them but at the end whatever they achieve, it benefits all that is why I say there is selflessness even in their selfishness. But that is not the case with us – even the problems we raise are so small that their solutions will affect only us. It’s like we have become the epitome of selfishness that even if our questions have the power to change the world or benefit on a large scale we will design answers in such a manner that is affects us only, because we don’t want the fruits of our labour to benefit someone else.

We should stop for one second and think that is this would have been the perspective of all the great men that revolutionize the world, where our world would have been today. We would have never known the theory of evolution – how things came to be, we never would have had electricity if Edison would have decided to keep his find a secret or would have never know that earth is round if Copernicus would not have died for it. We should respect everything they did whether right or wrong, good or bad. I mean we even remember and study Hitler who was a fascist dictator.

It’s like harry potter when Olivander says that Voldemort did terrible and horrible things but they were great. Greatness just means exceptional, it does not define the deed to be good or bad. To understand the world it is important we study all kind and types of perspective whether we agree with or not because our world has been affected by all those alternatives in some way or the other.

About the Author: Snigdha Jain is a 20 year old graduate from Bikaner, India with a passion for writing and would like to pursue it further as a career. Her Facebook page, Instagram handle and WordPress blog information is given below.

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