It is a well-known fact that no growth, be it personal, professional, domestic or spiritual, can take place without a peaceful mindset. A peaceful mindset is directly related to our behaviour and attitude. Unfortunately, not many people bother to check and control them. These five laws can help one achieve a peaceful state of mind:
Do not interfere in other people’s matter/business: It is normal human tendency to interfere in other’s matters and offer unsolicited advice. Irrespective of whether our advice is welcomed or whether we are even qualified to offer advice on an issue, we go ahead and offer it anyway. This is often annoying to a person especially when s/he did not ask for it. It does not end there as we also tend to monitor the implementation of our advice, embarrassing people and brewing negativity against ourselves.
Do not crave recognition: It is an inherent quality in humans to constantly crave recognition. This creates an expectation from others and the rule of expectation is that it never gets fulfilled. So, in the end, we get disappointed and dejected. There is a famous saying in Hindi — “Neki kar aur dariya main daal” — which literally means, “do your good deed and forget about it”.
Do not be jealous of others: Most people are not happy with what they have and keep craving for more. The focus is always on what they don’t have rather than on what they do. So they tend to be jealous of other people who appear to be better off. The cause for jealousy could be anything from looks to intellect, name, fame, riches, house, car, prosperity and position. This feeling of jealousy always keeps one unhappy and unsettled. We should consciously make an effort not to be jealous and, instead, be happy for what we have and what others have achieved. We must realise that God is not biased and what we get in life depends on our individual karma. We must accept everything which we have as gifts from God and know that he is the best judge in these matters.
Grasp the best and leave the rest: All around us, we have a duality of people, things, situations. The duality is “good” and “bad.” It is up to us to grasp what we want to. Generally, our focus is on the bad aspects of people, situations and things, hence we land up grasping only the bad. If we start grasping the good from our surroundings, we would be the happiest people around. One particular example that often finds mention in spiritual literature is that of the lotus — how it blooms amidst all the dirt/mud around it. It is aware of all the dirt around it, yet it just absorbs whatever it needs to from the dirt for its own growth. Similarly, we are surrounded by all kinds of people, but it is entirely up to us to absorb the good for our own growth without constantly trying to change our circumstances.
Do not keep pointing out the shortcomings of others: We often tend to point out the faults of those around us. Some people do it unintentionally while some do it with the motive to correct those faults and change the other person for good. But such people don’t realise that pointing out flaws repeatedly acts as negative affirmation in the other person’s mind and instead of changing for the better, the other person feels dejected and depressed! Another outcome of repeated fault-finding could be strained relations and friction. The other person will avoid our company rather than listen to constant criticism.
Sadguru Rameshji is a modern age spiritual guru and founder of Poorna Ananda, a centre for spiritual evolution and joyful living.
Visit www.poornaananda.org
