Consider the Panchatantra story where a camel is adopted by a group of animals led by a lion, which include a jackal and a crow. The lion got wounded one day, couldn’t hunt and everyone was going hungry. So, the jackal suggested they eat the camel since he was not a part of the core group. The lion refused, saying that his values do not permit that. The jackal comically responded “What if he volunteers?” The lion just shrugs “If that’s the case, so be it.”

The other animals plotted against the camel. When they met him, the crow said, “I would like to offer myself to you to eat.” The jackal said, “You are too small and that’s not going to solve anything, I offer myself.”

The camel then offered himself, because he wanted to be a part of the inner group, he felt they were in trouble and he should help. On doing so, he was devoured by all the animals i.e. the licking mainstream mob. The message from this Panchatantra story derived from Rig-Veda and Upanishads is that we all need to be clear of our aims, we need to know when to say no. This hunger to be accepted, make quick-bucks or liked by all causes us to shift from our natural & idealogical balance.

When you lose your ability to respond and react, then you’re not using your ability as a human being. You must draw a distinction between a response and a reaction. A knee-jerk reaction is not thought out and a response is where you review a situation and then act. When emotions drive us, it leads to what psychologists call emotional hijack. Here you are enticed to indulge in activities like corruption, public war for private wealth, genocides for profit, financial blackmailing, supremacy mania, popular hype, capital extortion, murder, rape, etc.. Mar 22, 2015

Choose the battles you should fight, ignore hypes of populist war mongers cum profiteering weapon sellers. When we are hallucinated, encounter hate, provoked or perceive as if we are threatened then we tend to react to even small things, which we can very well displace our focus and energies from the big picture – your ultimate goals in life. Small things do matter, but many times they do hijack your life’s critical objectives!