There is always a beginning. There is always an ending. And sure as hell, there's a multitude of colossal journeys in between, each with their own beginnings and endings. There is always something to be learnt from these myriad journeys. The smarter of the lot try to decide what they wish to learn from the journey before they even embark upon it. But, they never have it their way. The reason - that is not how learning is meant to happen. This is precisely the reason why our education system is fraught with flaws. Learning does not follow a schedule, it is not bound by time. Very few people succeed in setting out to learn something within a pre-determined time frame and manage to look back and say 'That went according to plan!'. These are the ones that live the lie. Our world of achievers is filled with these people. Only a handful of people truly learn something if you go by the broader definition of the world.
Everywhere you look, you find seekers. These are the people that set out to 'learn' something because they 'believe' that is what they like, because that is what their peers or parents want them to do, because they dream that will liberate them from their current state. These seekers are not true learners. They just don the outfit of the learned. Sadly, we live in a day where the seekers are revered and the learners are shunned. The problem with being a seeker is that a seeker will always remain a seeker. There is no value addition (here I refer to spiritual and intellectual and not material value addition), no moral or ethical development. In fact, there is hardly any change. Even after years and years of seeking, a seeker will still remain a seeker. There is no transformation. The one who chooses to follow the path tried and tested is assured of some measure of success only because the others are too afraid to choose the path not taken. As more and more people brave the decision and take the path not often taken, they transform from being a learner to a learned. They are born again. They are born again with the knowledge of their journey through the path not taken. This is the simple difference between a seeker and a learner. A seeker sets out on a journey to learn something where as a learner looks back at the end of the journey and realises what he has learnt. The seeker picks the destination for that elusive pleasure he believes he will get on reaching it and struggles through the journey while the learner picks the journey he loves and enjoys it all the way and evaluates where he is on reaching the destination. Life used to be the one of a learner's, but now it has turned into the one of a seeker's and is headed towards becoming a more gruesome one - a race among the seekers. No wonder one out of every three adults suffer from health disorders that have their roots in the mind (read stress related disorders). Its all in the attitude, and the attitude of a learner is the best to adopt. So do it today, and you'll be born again!
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