Everything is Right

There is no right or wrong, for it is but a journey of moments!

In the great work War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy says, “Greatness it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong.”

Simple and yet so profound.

As an exponent of Kathak who has lived and learned with the masters, such words were often heard in my classes. For my Guru, the great maestro of Lucknow Gharana of Kathak, Shri Munna Shukla ji lived by this philosophy.

As an eager, inquisitive, seeking disciple, I would often be in self-doubt of whether I was dancing the right way. And he would calmly say, “nothing is ever wrong.” And it would leave me baffled. On other occasions while debating over the works of other artists, I would try to make him walk towards a right and wrong of the thoughts, creativity and performance and he maintained, “it is neither right nor wrong.”

Probably his mantra while he lived and definitely oft repeated was, “everything is right,” with that all knowing smile filling up his face.

Right Vs Wrong

After Guruji has passed away on 12th January, 2022, I am left in a whirlwind of his words. The moment I heard the news, I cried inconsolably, unable to accept, thinking this is not right. A river of tears later, Guruji sat with me in my mind and asked what is this, right vs wrong? For there is none. And I emulated his smile on my face through a curtain of flowing pain.

What is good vs bad, great vs evil, correct vs inappropriate?

We are brought up in the system of being right and wrong as children by our families, education, society. And this judgement follows us like a nightmare, all through our lives. With this fear within we fail to contemplate that the whole existence actually fits together as a larger whole. The right becomes wrong and the wrong transforms to right based on people, perspective and place. Progressing in a state of worry makes us forget that the very next moment can change the dynamics of a situation and the coin may flip.

Is right the harder path?

We all experience the grey zone, neither the all absorbing black or the ever reflective white. Grey, is where we pen our story. Only in fantasy can we abide by strict rules, rigid ideas and higher paths. As humans, we have the power to fall in our consciousness to the lowest lows or rise to the pinnacle. What makes us evolve is the journey itself, adorned with countless ticks and crosses.

So how can one journey be tougher than the other?

At the core of mindfulness, each trajectory will be a curve towards learning and self-evolvement. The outer projections are simply the shadow of what we carry within. If we predetermine what is good and bad, then the center of the being will never be immersed in bliss. As a witness each step towards self knowledge, takes you away from the shackles of opinions. Each emotion, thought, word is waiting like a potent seed, ready to bloom into a flower of its uniqueness; if left without the weight of the harder and easier path.

When is right, right?

Osho in his talk, Let the moment decide says, “whatever comes out of spontaneity is right.”

Each of us can argue this statement and its various connotations, for there are millions of possibilities always. The right can easily travel towards the wrong path as we carry our biases on the path. The quality that we bring to a circumstance filled with judgements or devoid of the baggage; makes a right, right.

Right is correct when done as an act of alertness, honest intention and inner awareness. As time changes, rights and wrongs undergo an evolvement as well.

I carry on the mantra of my Guru, while I am dancing, being an audience or simply a traveler in life, and continue to add to this philosophy. Bereft of the categories of the good and bad, beyond the set compartments of correct and inappropriate, away from the act, the energy soaked in awareness leaves nothing to be wrong.

Right and wrong are just decisions of the other, a body away from you. In an aware heart, all is right at some point and place.

The author is an Indian Classical Dancer, Educator, Storyteller and Writer. For more works, do follow on Instagram And Facebook.