"Remember Who You Are" !

The other night my kids put on the Disney animation ‘The Lion King’ on TV.  A movie I have watched over 20 times with them. An all-time classic with plenty of real life messages, including the one from Mufasa to his son Simba : ”Remember who you are” in a deep James Earl Jones’ voice.   All this while, I never thought this line to have any more significance than intended for the movie script, than this time around.  I felt, there was a powerful message contained in these 4 little words; and here is my interpretation, without getting too philosophical.

In the movie, Simba, totally oblivious of his calling, was just letting his life pass by until someone from his past reminded him that he was a King, meant to be in some other place doing something far more important.  Some of us face this in real life.  We make choices in life that define us as individuals.  What we are, how we are placed and who we are in contact with, is a matter of what we chose at certain points of our life.  Due to strange circumstances and misconceptions of the past, we build an imaginative blockade in our minds and fail to unleash tremendous reservoir of possibilities, completely underestimating our full potential.

Just the opposite of this is also true.  There are times, we choose to pursue dreams that are far beyond our reach.  Dreams that are ambitious but also unrealistic, that steer our lives on paths not envisaged to be traversed.  We overlook the fact that sky may be the limit, but we have limited time on earth.  In other words, we let an imaginary life get in the way of real life.

In both of these situations, we are not following the right road-map to reach our destination.  Having the right map is half the journey.  Before we set out to sail in open ocean, we forget to ask ourselves 1) is my boat strong enough, and 2) am I prepared to last in deep waters.   It all boils down to knowing who we are, what we are, and then doing the right thing, the right way, at the right place and time.

 Hakuna Matata !!