"To thine own self be true" said Shakespeare. One who is not true to one's own self is unlikely to be true to others. It is also Shakespeare who said: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women are players". We are all actors and actresses on the world stage in varying degrees. That we need to act means we are not who we need to be. And to the extent we act we are not free. The word persona from which comes personality means the mask that persons wore to hide their true identity on stage in the Greek and Roman theaters of old while acting. In the ground-breaking work Games People Play by Eric Berne, a well-known psychiatrist and the founder of Transactional Analysis, he sets forth some of the games that persons play in their day-to-day life. If we examine our own life carefully, we will discover the kind of games we play in our life to mislead or deceive others ever so slightly. It is amazing the kind of ploys that we employ to disguise our real intent. I am not suggesting that we are telling outright lies. On the other hand, to the extent we use such ploys, we become less transparent, our freedom is diminished. In People of the Lie, M. Scott Peck, another well-known psychiatrist, describes the ways in which we avoid full honesty and genuineness. We are also very careful about what we want people to know about ourselves. We couch our messages in carefully chosen words. We present ourselves in socially desirable garbs. We have programmed ourselves to hide our vulnerable areas, our warts and moles. We have been programmed to believe that we have parts of our body called pudenda that in Latin literally means those things that we need to be ashamed of. Genital areas need to be covered and not because they are shameful but for hygiene and also for special protection; they do not need to distract us as they play such vital roles in generation, elimination, and a very special way of intimate relating in a committed relationship (marriage).

             Transparency coming out of on-going awareness needs to be the standard for every behavior or interaction that needs to be programmed. Transparency and openness promote accountability and greatly diminish the occurrence of deception, corruption, and abuse. There is evidence of a culture of dishonesty, manipulation, one-upmanship, and pretensions. Every now and then, I am told, that everyone is lying. When I challenge the person who makes such a statement if he/she is included in that everyone, he/she quickly makes a point to exclude him/herself. What I am experiencing is truly a culture of resignation and helplessness. It is not that the world is suffering from more moral deterioration now than in the past, but hypocrisy, double standard, and moral decay of the past are exposed more and more. Certain persons who have a nostalgia for the past on account of the good times they enjoyed at the expense of others wrongly think that the past was morally superior. There are others who take advantage of the moral chaos of the transitional period from the old order to the new. As the old world order of the mighty and the privileged oppressors is breaking down we are putting the new order in place painfully and slowly but surely. It is interesting that a young newly-wed couple, William and Kate, from U. K., very much in the world news in a confused world, are parading themselves with their retinue these days (second week of July, 2011) in the USA solely on the merit of William's so-called royal birth. That the world is hungry for such news only shows the current unfortunate status of the world and the past programming of the world. For conscientious people of the world, the news of their marriage is irrelevant, and serves only to remind painful imperial and colonial times wherein humanity suffered a great deal. It is difficult to feel at home in a world with an enormous baggage of racism, colonialism, casteism , sexism, imperialism, dictatorship, and all kinds of exploitations, oppressions, and abuse from the past. We have to undo and deprogram the evils of the past and re-program a new world order based on values and purpose led by spirit-life. The scriptural promise that darkness can never overcome or snuff the light out gives us eternal and undyinghope. This world has to come out of the dark ages of the past baneful programming into the bright glory of holistic, healthy programming for a wholesome world for all humanity led by spirituality, truth, and purpose.

             In an earlier article I mentioned how the world was heavily programmed, and how I was heavily programmed. We truly are the product of own culture, religion, circumstances, and milieu. We have few choices about how we are brought up. We do what we are told. We follow the instructions of our parents, teachers, and religious leaders, and civic institutions while growing up. They decide what is good for us. They even select the mate that we are going to live with our whole life in an arranged marriage, say, in India. Unfortunately some persons will never have a life of their own. If we conform to the unspoken but strong norm, we will be considered to be good. If we disagree or act differently, we will be considered to be rebellious and bad. Acceptance, approval, and consequences for behaviors are very powerful factors in programming persons, shaping behaviors, and keeping members of a society or group in line. Consequences of behaviors consist, especially in various forms of behavior therapy that is very much in vogue in the USA, in scheduling, withholding, or denying appropriate and effective reinforcements for desired behaviors. When Edward VIII, the openly racist, playboy king of England and emperor of India and an admirer of Hitler, who wanted to have the cake and eat it too, decided to marry a twice divorced American Wallis Simpson, he did not conform, and he was forced to abdicate for the woman he loved. Interestingly his utter contempt for other human beings, especially non-white races, would have been tolerated by the British who honor virtue by paying homage to hypocrisy according to a wisecrack, but not his marriage. Not only was he not welcome in his own country but he had to spend the rest of his life away from his family of origin in France in disgrace. In the middle ages or earlier years or even now in certain communities life will be in peril if one goes against the dictates of certain clans. Honor killings are still very much in the news. With dire and life threatening consequences, persons have no choice but to conform if they want to be alive. What a world?! Many legitimate freedoms have been won at the expense of untold suffering, sacrifices, and innumerable lives. With more and more persons willing to pay the price for their freedom and rights, societies and the world at large are changing; and slow deprogramming and reprogramming or adjustments to new conditions are taking place.

             Around and after my ordination to the priesthood I realized my thinking and views were drastically changing. I knew I was a slow revolutionary. I was good at coping skills and survival strategies. I was opportunistic in that I lay low when my religious superiors were conservative and not in favor of my progressive views; I thrived when there was a change of superiors who could empathize or even resonate with my views. In one retreat I took time to subject everything physical, mental, and spiritual, specifically my habits of eating and drinking, my attire, my thinking and my views, my treatment of others, and my spirit-life, to meticulous scrutiny. I wanted to make sure that I was not a slave to any habit. Nothing was sacrosanct that was not in the purview of my examination.