What Others Think

Are we affected?

For many of us, our life crumples in moments when we hear someone say something odd or bad about us... And in such times, we feel low, upset and worthless. But the question we often forget to ask at such times is, ' is it worth being even bothered about what other's think?' Here is a good story  that I happened to read from an email sent by a friend, some time ago. Thanks to the author (unknown to me) and above all thanks to the Mighty God for allowing me to read it... Now here for many more to read... Enjoy and prepare to feel great about yourself.

Once upon a time, a thief hadn’t had any luck for many days in a row. One night he went out with a resolve that he wouldn’t return home empty-handed. He scoured the streets looking for the right home, the right opportunity, without any success. Tired and dejected, in the wee hours of the morning, he sat on a footpath and fell asleep. A few minutes later a drunkard was passing by. He saw the thief and felt sorry for him thinking he was also some drunk who had passed out on the street. He stopped by to see if there was any bottle lying nearby because that’s what he was interested in — more liquor. But, there was none. Feeling angry, he left. Hardly had he gone when another man, who happened to be a gambler, saw the thief. “Poor loser,” he thought. “He must have lost so much that he’s scared to go home.”
An hour passed and another thief happened to pass this way. He looked at the sleeping man and thought, “He must be an unfortunate small-time burglar like me who couldn’t get his hands on anything tonight.” Dawn was breaking over the horizon when a yogi was going to a nearby river for ablutions. He looked at the thief and began admiring him. “This is a real yogi,” he thought. “Unlike me, who’s still caught up in rituals, he’s just lying here carefree, without any belongings. This is the way of a yogi.” He derives deep inspiration from the thief, bows before him and gets going. Another hour later, the sun, now warm and bright, wakes up the thief and he leaves for his home empty-handed.

This is how our world operates. It doesn’t matter who, how or what we are. Each one will see us according to their capacity.THEY WILL FORM THEIR OPINION BASED ON THEIR PERCEPTIONS AND PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS. OFTEN, MOST OF WHAT OTHERS THINK ABOUT US IS DEPENDENT ON THEIR OWN CONDITIONING. IT IS NOT AS MUCH ABOUT US AS IT IS ABOUT THEM. The more we realize this, the less bothered we will be by other's opinions., When people do think about us, often it is more along the lines of what they want to think about us. As they grow and evolve, as their priorities change, they begin to think differently. Right from the day we r able to intelligently perceive this world, we have wanted the approval of others. And the very funny thing is, the other person too wants our approval. Everyone wants to be in the good books of others. Agreed, we cannot totally ignore the opinions of others, but the question is how much r we willing to stretch ourselves for the opinion of others? At some point it is good to turn inward and see who we actually are. It is absolutely possible to sit high in others opinion if we turn inward... the magic is not making others feel high about us, but in the fact that WE WILL BE LESS AND LESS BOTHERED ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK ABOUT US. As we turn inward and cultivate positive qualities, we develop even more beautiful qualities and we will soon find that it is possible to be contended within. HOW WE SEE OURSELVES IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HOW OTHERS SEE US,bcas our happiness purely depends on our own honest opinion. So now, it's time to decide if we must be bothered about what other's think!

The Mighty Trickster

Our Mind

Our mind is the biggest trickster and most difficult to control. Mahatmas (great realized souls) compare it to a mad drunken monkey that is bitten by a scorpion. Imagining a mad monkey is difficult, now one that is mad, drunk and in excruciating pain, can we even imagine one such? That is how crazy our mind is... Now that kind of a mind has some powers too: the veiling power and the power of projection. First, the mind veils the true nature of a phenomenon, and then it misinterprets it. It covers the truth and makes us mistake the truth for something else. 

A man was walking alone along a village path. It was getting dark, and he was struggling to find his way in the dim light. Suddenly, something bit him in the foot. He felt the area with his hand and discovered a small wound. He could also feel that it was bleeding. He suddenly froze when he saw a snake lying coiled in a bush next to him. He must have been bitten by the snake. The panic stricken man screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘Help! I have been bitten by a poisonous snake! I’m going to die! Please, someone come and take me to a doctor!’ The man was hysterical. He called and he called. He was now beginning to feel terribly tired and his head was spinning as if he were about to faint. He sat on the ground and continued to call for help. Within a few minutes, a man appeared out of the dark. He was carrying a torch. ‘What is the matter? What happened?’ he asked. ‘I was bitten by a poisonous snake. I am dying. Can you take me to a doctor?’ ‘Don’t worry. Of course I will help you. But where exactly did it happen?’ asked the stranger. ‘Right here, on this very spot,’ replied the man. ‘Look at that bush. There’s a snake there!’ The stranger turned his torch towards the bush, and what did he see? A thorn bush with a piece of rope entangled in it. The stranger said, ‘Take a good look! It’s a thorn bush. A thorn must have pricked your foot. The unfortunate thing was that you simultaneously saw the rope in the dim light and mistook it for a snake. Thus you were convinced that you had been bitten by a snake. But now that you know the truth, you can calm down.’ Once the man realized the truth, all symptoms of tiredness and dizziness disappeared, and he began to relax."

This is how the mind plays its tricks on us. Thats precisely why, we need to be calm in times of distress . We need our mind to be our friend to help us make sense of a situation. But well... As Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavatham Gita, the mind is our best friend if it is in our control and our worst enemy if we are in its control. And most of us are... Slaves to our own mind... Jumping to its every like! We are all well experienced in the 'slave to our mind' scenario! No proof needed! And yes... I know the feeling! So how then can we make our mind to guide us rather than misguide us when necessity arises? I think it's  possible only through constant perseverance and loads of positivity. 

The mind is like a big bucket of salt water. Every positive thing we read, hear, speak, share... all helps. They r all like the small drops of fresh water we continuously add into our bucket of salt water, which is currently our mind. The more fresh water we add, the less and less the salty taste. The more often we add, the faster we clean the saltiness. As we continuously do it, we bring down the saltiness of our bucket and eventually there will be nothing salty but fresh water in the bucket of our mind. And that is when, we can make our mind our friend! But beware, not to add more salt back in for every few drops of fresh water!!! Well, if we begin today, probably we can accomplish the magic of getting our own mind to be our own dearest friend before we bid goodbye to this place and this existence. It's a treasure worthy the try.