INSPIRATION

 

           INSPIRATION

 

INSPIRATION – WHAT IS IT?

An inexplicable but essential trigger is ‘inspiration’. All towering personalities should have had it in some stage of their life.  A number of achievers do acknowledge of their having been inspired by X / Y or Z. There is general acceptance of this trigger which ignites a ‘life-long’ fire that keeps generations and legacies intact and vibrant

                                                  

Preamble:

 

Having devoted our time and effort to so many aspects of life, it looks relevant to consider “inspiration” as a key ingredient. Why I prefer to call it a key ingredient, is self explanatory in the sense that it unlocks the potential in a person. It is quite inexplicable as to how one gets inspired. The ambience for an inspiration may be an event, experience or some strange circumstance. If we analyse the prime cause of inspiration, invariably we would find some person or the other triggering our attitude to a particular taste. The statement appears vague. In trying to compress the overall pattern into a common statement, an uninspiring vagueness comes about. A patient scrutiny would reveal the crux. Since it is a human attitude, each individual may get inspired by a personal experience that is exclusive to that person. A major exception to this is the inspiration from brilliant teachers / Professors who captivate the entire audience. Even then, not every one gets inspired and triggered to the same degree.  Obviously, only the right key can open the lock. The one that can open many locks is the “master key”. But, always master keys are few and far between. The same situation obtains of the few persons who can inspire many recipients.

The Enigma:

The ambit over which “inspiration” can play a significant role is limitless. Therefore seeking or providing a clear definition for inspiration eludes precision. This is the beginning of the issue. Further, what inspires a person, how, when and where is also unpredictable in the sense that there is no age-limit to inspire or get inspired. The most common factor in all cases for getting inspired is the ‘mind being touched’ by an event / utterance / methodic analysis of an issue. How deeply a person gets inspired, depends on the emotional bridge between the inspirer and the inspired. At this juncture, it is pertinent to suggest that, opportunities for frequent interaction with the inspirer can enhance the scope and level of inspiration. So, good teachers stand a better chance to inspire, since the recipient can have many occasions to receive and sustain the trigger for inspiration. This is also the reason why “one-time” induction may not sustain for long; it may just fade or dissipate over a span of time. Ironically, there is no proportion between the number of such inspiring interactions and the level of inspiration reached by an individual. But definitely, a certain level of threshold must be reached before inspiration turns meaningful. Any further supplementation to the threshold does help reaching a plane from where inspiration starts working on the mind of the inspired.

 

The cause and the effect:

The most primary cause underlying the inspiration is the recipient’s “liking” for a particular aspect of the interaction. This “liking” has a complex background. But, in classroom situations where many start “liking” the teaching, this background converges to one point namely clarity in exposition of the thought. Clarity is the first ingredient to inspire some one. Achieving the degree of clarity is a domain of the individual and has no definite prescription except that of desire on the part of the individual. For that individual, personal desire acts as an inspiration. He or she starts mustering all the requirements that enhance clarity and fineness. But, absolute clarity does not mean that everyone would be inspired. To get and stand inspired, several other factors come to play. One such is, how well the recipient is able to grasp the information from an interaction.

To continue                                           Prof. K. Raman