Kurt Goldstein, a psychologist, pointed to the organism’s master motive or basic drive or tendency for self-actualization of its full potential. Carl Rogers, also a psychologist, talked about the restorative, curative force in psychotherapy as the human’s tendency to actualize oneself, express, and activate all capacities of the organism. In the theory of hierarchy of needs of Abraham Maslow, another psychologist, self-actualization as the final development, where all mental needs are fulfilled and where full human potential is realized, was brought to prominence. Through self-actualization everyone fully becomes what one is capable of. Every person is guided by the reality principle, to use a psychoanalytic term, wherein he/she is willing to meet the stern and unavoidable demands of reality for actualization, which in turn involves delay of gratification or postponing of immediate pleasure. We need to leave at the earliest the world of consumerism, that got us stuck in the world of immediate pleasure, and that has not learnt to delay gratification for a worthy cause, and that is leading us to blind alleys.
Our current world has been in trial and error for a long time, and has learnt what to avoid, but is stuck like a car in deep snow or mud, and has to be dislodged. Like an alcoholic it has the knowledge but not the wisdom or insight to kick the habit and move onto health. Various models of humanity (for instance, Buddha, Christ, Muhammed, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramanna Maharshi, Vivekananda, Narayana Guru, and Gandhi, to mention a few) have identified, and the prophets living are boldly identifying ingredients for realization. There are so-called God-men/women with a lot of hype, fanfare, and extravagant promotion, who instead of being pointers to the destination or reality beyond this world try to become the destination themselves. We need to beware of such false prophets because they diminish our own humanity and divinity by appropriating all of divinity for themselves.
We cannot and should not pay homage to any human being at the expense of our own humanity. The main difference between the realized and the unrealized is that the realized know that they are realized while the unrealized do not. The principle that we need to keep in mind always is that everybody has something to contribute to the development and expansion of the entire humanity. It is the restless vacuum within us that impels us and takes us to someone who we think has the answer that we are looking for. Nobody has the definitive answer. So a brief stop on a way station is alright, but to tarry and get stuck there distracts us from our destination. The real answer is within us. It is important to acquaint ourselves with all the knowledge available with regard to realization. But as the answer is within us we need to get into the depth of our own being for the answer that we have been running around for. Once our formation and training period is over, it is us, our conscience, and our God.
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