Image: Part 1

Image:

I came across a social media post today about the Canadian Prime Minister Mr Mark Carney. I only heard about him in 2025 when he succeeded Justin Trudeau as the Canadian premier. Since then I have come to admire him for his stand in global politics. His career is impressive with a doctorate in economics and positions of Governor in the Bank of Canada and Vank of England amongst other things. 

The social media post was a rather lighthearted one asking viewers to describe him in a single word. Those who are in the camp of his supporters and admirers used words like brilliant, intelligent, awesome etc. What surprised me was the negative comments. Most of all allegations of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis at Oxford. I later found out that these allegations were refuted by his academic advisor/ doctoral supervisor Dr Margaret Myer. Appropriate credits were offered in the document to the original authors whose statements were cited in the thesis. That put to rest the question about his credibility in my mind.

However, even before I read about the verification of the said accusations, a rather interesting thought came up in my mind. 

That was about the image of a person we carry in our minds. 

Like I mentioned above, I had a positive image of Mr Carney all this time. For a moment the plagiarism accusations seemed to threaten that image. Even if those accusations had proven to have some truth to it, would it be of too much consequence that one would dismiss Mr Carney for what he seems to be doing right today?

Are we creating a mental culture for admiring people with zero faults?

Can we hold people with admiration for all the good they do and be forgiving of things they may have been less than perfect with at some point in time?

Can we allow the best of men and women to be human ? 

Is it our desperation, to have a perfect role model to emulate, that drives us to put people with apparent outstanding qualities on a pedestal, only to feel disillusioned when we come across some sides of them that seem less flattering than we ever expected? Whose fault is it really? Ours for holding rather unrealistic expectations or theirs for being human like anyone else?

I think it’s high time we begin to see humans as humans and simultaneously see God in every human, not just in select humans. That is perhaps our best hope to equalize the difference and bridge the big gaps between the respectable and deplorable. It is our mind that assigns these designations to people. Instead of such skewed labels, it may be desirable to see things in black and white. Accept each for their strengths and despite their weaknesses. It doesn’t mean we ought to not exercise caution and allow close proximity of those with major flaws. We can keep safe distances where necessary and appropriate, yet not cancel them out in our minds. 

The next time such a situation arises that brings us face to face with someone’s image we have fostered in our minds and the shattering of that image as a result of new information we gather with time, it is perhaps prudent to question our attitude towards building and sustaining any such image and acting surprised when the image begins to crumble. When we never bothered to verify the negatives and positives of a person before forming an image of them, why do we show surprise when that image proves less than real? It’s a case of subscribing to unverified data and being shocked when the verification is complete. 

Perhaps the only thing we should trust about any human is that they are human. And remain cognizant that it is human to err. 

No matter how much I’m drawn to the divine spirit, it is an undeniable fact that my human nature still struggles to overcome impatience and anger. I have my moments of self doubt and insecurity. These are flaws of the mental culture. The fight is on. Each day. Each moment. To gain victory over these personal shortcomings. But it is also important to accept where one truly is at any given point in time and not be in a denial about it. 

There is something beautiful about being aware of our own shortcomings. It gives a good reason to understand other people and show at least a minimal inclination to forgive them for their faults. When we live with the false idea of being perfect ourselves it becomes so much harder to accept faults in others. Faults simply take on different colors. They never completely disappear in any mortal being. 

The only perfect one is the one at the core of our being. That’s the one we are trying to become one with. 

That’s the one Muktabai was referring to when she said to Dnyaneshwar:

अहो क्रोधे यावे कोठे

अवघे आपण निघोटे

Where can anger arise when we are simply perfect?

True, anger cannot arise when we are at our center of perfection. 

But we aren’t there yet. That is certainly our destination and that’s where we are trying to reach with determination each day.

In our present reality however we are still imperfect. Let us accept it the way it is in the present moment. Not only are we imperfect, the entire world is imperfect. Let us show some grace to it and to ourselves. 

Talking about images and the perfection we are seeking through an image, a beautiful Marathi bhavgeet comes to mind. I will share in the next post.