What Courage Really Looks Like When You Choose to Be Yourself

“They are such courageous people. They are my new heroes.”

When people speak about courage, they usually point to obvious examples such as soldiers in war, people

engaged in dangerous sports or risking their lives to rescue someone in trouble. When Vishrant speaks about courage in this Satsang, he points somewhere unexpected.

He speaks about the LGBTQI+ community. To him, they are some of the bravest people alive today.

Why?

Every day, in a world that still holds prejudice and misunderstanding against them, they make a powerful choice:

To live honestly.

From being uncomfortable around other people who are judging them to being outrightly rejected by their families, their schools, friends and work places.

So, for Vishrant, this is what real courage looks like. Fear is still there but so is the willingness to face it and still live truthfully.

And that kind of courage is far rarer than we often realise.

Watch excerpt here:

What Real Courage Actually Looks Like

When most people imagine bravery, they imagine dramatic moments.

A rescue. A crisis. A life-or-death situation.

But the deepest courage often shows up in far quieter ways.

It appears when someone tells the truth about who they are and stop hiding.

No more pretending.

In the LGBTQI+ community, this moment is often known as coming out and despite growing social acceptance from more and more people around the world, coming out can still be one of the most vulnerable acts a person ever makes because it carries real risk including family rejection, social isolation, workplace discrimination, losing friendships and being misunderstood or judged.

This is why Vishrant speaks about it with such respect. Coming out is not simply a statement of identity.

It is an act of profound vulnerability. It is living your truth without knowing how the world will respond and that takes real strength.

Why Coming Out Takes Extraordinary Courage

We often underestimate what coming out actually requires.

It means risking the loss of belonging and we are at our core, tribal and it something every human nervous system depends on. So, for many people, the fear isn’t theoretical. It’s very real.

Questions arise like:

What if my family turns away? What if my friends abandon me? What if people see me differently forever?

These are not small fears.

They go straight to the core of human survival and yet, countless people still make the decision to live openly.

That’s why Vishrant calls them heroes.

Not because they are fearless but because they move forward even while feeling the fear.

And for many, this courage is not a single moment, it is something that happens again and again with every new social situation, every new work environment bringing the question back:

Will I hide, or will I be honest?

Each time someone chooses honesty, the act of courage repeats itself.

The Courage of Coming Out at Thirteen

During one Satsang, a young man shared something deeply personal with Vishrant.

He had come out as trans in year eight, when he was around thirteen years old.

He had already been attending his school for six months before making that change.

Which meant everyone already knew them as he had been before that.

This wasn’t a new school where he could quietly start again.

It happened in full view of his entire social world, classmates, teachers and friends.

Anyone who remembers being thirteen can understand how intense that age can be.

At that stage of life your identity is still fragile.

The nervous system is highly sensitive and rejection can be absolutely devastating.

Being different in high school can invite ridicule, exclusion and bullying.

And yet this young man stepped forward and said:

“This is who I am.”

That level of honesty at such a young age required extraordinary inner strength.

Vishrant immediately recognised it.

Not with grand gestures or dramatic praise.

But with something far more powerful.

Simple recognition.

Sometimes the most healing thing someone can receive is for another person to simply say:

“I see what that took.”

The Moment Buried Fear Returned

As Vishrant spoke about the courage of the LGBTQI+ community, the young man began to reconnect with the

fear he had felt years earlier. Not as a memory but as a feeling in the body.

This is something many people experience after difficult moments in life. When fear is overwhelming, the mind

often pushes it down so life can continue. The experience gets stored in the body and when someone names

the truth of what happened, those feelings can rise again.

Not to harm us, just to finally be acknowledged.

Vishrant didn’t try to fix the fear.

He didn’t analyse it.

He simply acknowledged the obvious truth: There must have been a lot of fear.

And that simple recognition can be deeply healing because what has been suppressed does not need to be solved. It only needs to be allowed.

When fear is welcomed instead of resisted, something inside begins to soften.

A Moment of Human Recognition

“We are brothers.”

At one point in the conversation, something very moving happens.

The young man shared that Vishrant is one of his heroes and Vishrant responds with something unexpected.

He explains that the wolf tattoo on his arm exists because of this young man.

To Vishrant, the wolf symbolises something wild, honest, and fearless.

The courage to live truthfully even when the world may not understand and it was witnessing this young

person’s courage that inspired him to carry that symbol on his own body.

For a moment the room goes quiet.

The roles of teacher and student disappear.

Two human beings are simply seeing each other.

Vishrant looks at him and says,

“We are brothers.”

And the young man feels it too.

Moments like this reveal something essential about Vishrant’s way of being.

He does not place himself above those who come to sit with him.

When someone shows courage or openness, he honours it immediately.

Sometimes that honour takes the form of simple words.

In this case it took the form of a permanent symbol, a reminder of the bravery he witnessed.

In that moment, something deeper than teaching happened.

One heart, no separation, love remained.

And sometimes that experience alone is enough to change everything.

Why We Sometimes Push People Away

During the conversation, the young man noticed a pattern in himself.

He often created distance in relationships. He pulled away from people, even from Vishrant.

This is a common protective strategy.

When someone has been hurt or rejected before, the nervous system learns to keep others at a safe distance.

If you never get too close, you never get hurt.

But Vishrant did something different.

He didn’t chase. He didn’t withdraw. He simply stayed present.

And that quiet presence interrupted the old pattern.

This was deeply healing because someone refusing to participate in the old dynamic can reveal something surprising:

The pattern of distancing isn’t permanent. It can soften and underneath it, connection is still waiting.

The Power of True Empathy

“I put myself in your shoes and felt what it would have been like.”

Vishrant shared that his admiration for the LGBTQI+ community didn’t come from political debate or ideology.

It came from empathy.

He could feel the young man and know directly what it is like to come out in a world that still holds judgment.

He felt the vulnerability, the uncertainty, the fear and when he allowed himself to truly feel that experience, something changed.

His respect deepened, his admiration was real.

The young man responded by saying he never felt like he had a choice. He simply had to be himself.

Vishrant’s response was immediate.

Choice or no choice, it didn’t matter because to him, he was still a hero because courage is not about whether something was optional.

Courage is about how honestly someone lives their truth.

Honouring the Courage That Lives Among Us

What Vishrant offers in moments like this is not political commentary. It is something much more real.

He recognises the courage that already exists in ordinary human lives.

In a world where conversations about identity often become arguments, his approach is refreshingly direct.

He simply sees people clearly.

He sees what they carry and he honours the courage it takes to live honestly.

An Invitation to See Courage Differently

“To me, you’re a hero.”

Courage does not always come the way we expect.

Sometimes it’s telling the truth about who we are.

It can look like a thirteen-year-old walking into school and refusing to hide.

Sometimes it’s allowing an old fear to finally be felt or having the quiet willingness to let ourselves be seen.

Sit in Satsang with Vishrant and experience this openness for yourself.

In the presence of stillness, truth, and the buddha field, something inside begins to soften.

When we truly allow ourselves to be open, something remarkable happens.

Love does not need to be created. It simply appears when the walls fall away.