Geeta through Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror"

August 31, 2012

One late, sleepless night I was channel surfing and came across the popular Michael Jackson song, "Man in the Mirror" on MTV. I suddenly realized, the lyrics are awesome. I looked them up here:

"Man In The Mirror"

I'm Gonna Make A Change,
For Once In My Life
It's Gonna Feel Real Good,
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . . .

As I, Turn Up The Collar On My
Favourite Winter Coat
This Wind Is Blowin' My Mind
I See The Kids In The Street,
With Not Enough To Eat
Who Am I, To Be Blind?
Pretending Not To See
Their Needs
A Summer's Disregard,
A Broken Bottle Top
And A One Man's Soul
They Follow Each Other On
The Wind Ya' Know
'Cause They Got Nowhere
To Go
That's Why I Want You To
Know

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change)
(Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah)

I've Been A Victim Of A Selfish
Kind Of Love
It's Time That I Realize
That There Are Some With No
Home, Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They're Not
Alone?

A Willow Deeply Scarred,
Somebody's Broken Heart
And A Washed-Out Dream
(Washed-Out Dream)
They Follow The Pattern Of
The Wind, Ya' See
Cause They Got No Place
To Be
That's Why I'm Starting With
Me
(Starting With Me!)

Now you may click on the Youtube video link below:

From the video, the adulation of the fans is a strange thing to watch. For such an awesome lyric, I was just sad that with the weird turns in his life story, Michael Jackson could himself not be the agent of more lasting change. I recall the quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see." Perhaps, real change comes only in response to a person who truly reflects the change in himself / herself at the deepest levels à la Nelson Mandela or a Medha Patkar.

Geeta 6-5 is the shloka that addresses the topic of change. I have also covered this topic of "change yourself" in a few different posts. Click here for the discussion with Guruji on "We must change our idea of change".

Namaskaar and Hari Om until the next post.

PS It happened to be Michael Jackson's birthday on August 29th - what an apt occasion to reflect on this song!

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