Awareness Is a Privilege
From ancient philosophy to modern psychology, awareness has always been seen as the highest form of being. But what if it's also a luxury many can't access?
We often treat awareness as an inner trait, something that can be achieved through mindfulness or effort. But if we dig deeper, awareness isn't distributed uniformly. It is shaped by where we live, how we live, what we consume, and what we ignore.
Awareness is the highest form of being according to the Upanishads; it is knowing the true self. Swami Vivekananda expands the idea practically by saying awareness is moving closer to divinity, but our ignorance pulls us away from reaching the divine, and the veil of ignorance can only be lifted by powers like education and inner discipline.
If we talk about being aware in the Indian context, it is a luxury for many because one cannot question "Who am I?" when their everyday life is a fight to survive. They are bound to be ignorant, and it is not a moral failure but a social failure.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar said caste, poverty, and exclusion crush the mind's capacity to reflect because poverty limits us from thinking of a broader picture; it traps us in the cruel cycle of chasing basic necessities.
And when we live under constant stress, it's quite obvious we think faster, reactively, and with less depth. The Cognitive Load Theory, proposed by psychologist John Sweller, explains why. There is simply no bandwidth left. The theory suggests that our working memory has a limited capacity, and when it's overloaded with worries about survival, safety, or scarcity, the brain cannot process deeper or abstract thoughts. In such conditions, awareness, reflection, or creativity naturally shrink because all mental energy is consumed by immediate concerns.
Awareness, on the other hand, comes when we feel most aware, usually when life is quiet, peaceful, safe, when the rent is paid, when we can breathe, when life is stable. This makes these situations poles apart. It's true that some people awaken through suffering, but they are the exceptions. Pain contracts awareness instead of expanding it.
In a nutshell, awareness should not only remain the property of the stable and rich. If awareness is a privilege, then the task of the aware is to build conditions where others can awaken too. Even the Buddha, after attaining enlightenment, did not retreat into silence. He chose to walk among people, teaching and guiding them toward their own light. His awakening wasn't an escape. It was a return.
That's the real meaning of being aware: not to sit above others in understanding, but to help create a world where reflection isn't a luxury. Awareness, then, must evolve from personal realization to collective responsibility, from something we possess to something we share.