We Are All Learners

Beyond Inferiority and Superiority

No one in this world is inferior or superior. Every one of us is a creation of the same Supreme Creator. If the Creator is one, how can one creation be considered lesser than another?

And in the same way, none of us is truly superior. The only Supreme is the Divine Power Himself. Perhaps we need to stop looking at ourselves and others through the labels of inferiority and superiority.

We often place these labels on people. We say that someone has an inferiority complex or someone has a superiority complex. Sometimes we even place these labels on ourselves. Why do we need these labels when we are all simply learning?

We are neither inferior nor superior. We are all learners.

Stop Downgrading Yourself

Sometimes we are kinder to others than we are to ourselves. We notice someone else’s qualities and immediately begin comparing them with our own shortcomings. Slowly, admiration turns into self doubt, and we start believing that another person’s strength somehow makes us less.

But someone else’s light does not reduce ours. Humility does not mean considering ourselves inferior, just as confidence does not mean considering ourselves superior. We can appreciate another person without feeling smaller, and we can recognize our own qualities without believing that we are above anyone else.

Every person has different strengths, weaknesses, experiences and lessons. Someone may know more in one area and less in another. That does not make one person greater and another lesser. It simply means that we are learning different lessons.

Uplift One Another

Life could become so much more beautiful if we stopped measuring ourselves against one another and started seeing the good in each other.

We can try to understand instead of compare, encourage instead of judge, and uplift instead of pulling one another down. When we start looking for the good in people rather than their faults, our way of seeing each other begins to change.

And we should offer the same kindness to ourselves. We are all walking through struggles that may not always be visible to others. A little compassion, appreciation and encouragement can make someone’s journey lighter.

When we begin to recognize that every person before us is a creation of the same Supreme Power, the distance between you and me begins to disappear. We begin to understand oneness.

We Are Travelling Through the School of Life

We are all learners on this path of life. We have been travelling on this journey for so long, learning through relationships, experiences, difficulties, mistakes, happiness, loss and every moment that brings us a little more understanding.

Life keeps teaching us. Sometimes the lesson is patience, sometimes forgiveness, sometimes humility, sometimes acceptance and sometimes faith. Sometimes we are taught to let go, and sometimes we are taught simply to love.

Every experience may be another lesson that our soul still needs to learn.

From Learner to Disciple

The spiritual journey is not only about collecting knowledge. A True Master can show us the way, but learning does not become complete simply because we have heard the teachings. We have to understand them, accept them and, most importantly, live them.

It is one thing to know that we should not judge and another to actually become less judgmental. It is one thing to speak about humility and another to become humble. In the same way, talking about oneness is not enough until we begin to truly see everyone as one.

Hearing about the Divine is only the beginning. When that understanding starts changing the way we think, behave and live, the learner gradually begins to become a true disciple.

The Web We Create Around Ourselves

Many times, the barriers in our spiritual journey are not outside us. They are within us. Ego, comparison, jealousy, attachment, pride, judgment, fear, resentment and the constant need to prove ourselves can all become threads of a web in which we remain entangled.

Then the question is ours to answer. Do we want to keep ourselves caught in this web, or do we want to learn from the True Master, follow the guidance given to us and slowly free ourselves from everything that keeps us away from the Divine?

The choice is ours.

When the Learning Is Complete

Every learner is moving towards understanding. Spiritually, when we have truly learnt what this journey is here to teach us, that learning leads us towards liberation.

Different traditions may call it salvation, Mukti or Nirvana. The words may differ, but the essence is freedom.

It is freedom from the cycle that keeps us bound, freedom from ignorance, freedom from ego and separation, and freedom from the illusion that we exist separately from the Divine source from which we came.

And ultimately, it is becoming free from this cycle and merging back into the Divine. Perhaps that is when the learner has finally learnt what this journey of life was meant to teach.

There Is Only One Supreme

Life is not a competition to determine who is inferior and who is superior. There is only one Supreme. The rest of us are learners.

We may be walking through different circumstances, facing different lessons and growing at different speeds, but we have all come from the same Divine source.

Our purpose is not to rise above one another. Our purpose is to rise above the limitations within ourselves.

So let us be kind to ourselves and to others. Let us stop putting labels on one another and simply uplift each other. Let us remain learners and remember that behind all our differences, we are creations of the same Supreme Creator.

When we begin to see the same Divine in everyone, that is when we truly begin to understand oneness.

So let us simply remain learners in this school of the universe, learning from the True Master, growing through every experience and moving towards the Supreme Creator.

Glossary

Mukti
Spiritual liberation or freedom from the cycle of birth and death.

Nirvana
A state of spiritual freedom from attachment, ego and suffering, leading towards liberation.