This evening I received a voice message from my high school friend. I was overjoyed to reunite with her. However, this glee was short-lived as she gradually shared her darkest fears, which were consuming her since the past few weeks. I was overwhelmed to witness her drowning in a well of negativity towards people, circumstances and her own life.
This is not just a one-off case but at some phase during our lifespans we have all faced such moments of truth wherein we perceive things in a negative way, when we let apprehensions and doubts cloud the mirror of our minds leading to irrational judgement. How many times have we thought ourselves unworthy, engaged in negative self-talk, felt resentment and hatred towards others or towards the way our own lives are shaping up? There have been numerous occasions when we may have exclaimed, "Why do things always go wrong with me?", "Why do I always meet bad people?" etc.
The Foundation:
Let me share the following story that I narrated to my distressed friend, which not just gave her an anchor, a direction but served as a stimuli to shed her negative mindset and transformed her vision towards events, people and circumstances.
I apprised her that, "A battle is going on inside me. It is a fierce war between two cats. One is evil – he is filled with anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.The other is good – he is filled with joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight between the two cats is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
To this, she asked me, “Which cat will win?”
I simply replied, “The one you feed.”
What is the food? The food is the decision we make, the choice we opt for which voice within the mind we are going to nourish and accommodate. Every choice that we make, makes one cat stronger and the other weaker. Every time we make an abominable choice, we become more addicted to immorality because the bad cat becomes stronger and good cat becomes weaker. Every time we make an ethically right choice, we come close to liberation.
If our default mindset is toward negativity, we’ll always see the glass half empty. The moment we become conscious of our choices, shift focus from darkness towards light, despair towards hope, we can start feeding the good cat to see, and live, the silver lining. It’s significant to have foundational beliefs and spiritual values that keep us composed, to appreciate and celebrate the good, and to process trials knowing they shall pass soon.
Tap the Source:
The highly revered, topmost sacred Vedic manual, 'The Bhagavad Gita As It Is' very aptly describes that the mind can be our greatest friend or it can be our biggest enemy.
All the holy scriptures warn us to not succumb to the mind’s myopic urges seeking instant pleasures. Many of us may be consciously or subconsciously attempting this. But we will frequently find ourselves trapped in a cage of pessimism, because often situations do go out of control, things go wrong and people do behave unreasonably, and our mind tends to glue on the negativity around us.
The mind can make heaven out of hell and hell out of heaven. The state of our mind determines the quality of our life. Our mind is the root of all thoughts and actions. It navigates our life. So it is crucial for us to learn to tap the power of the mind.
Hence, we need to critically evaluate its plans, which are often detrimental to our long term self-interest. However the mind proposes its ideas, desires and views so subtly and irresistibly that we rashly consider them to be our own and impulsively act on them. Only when hit with the consequences do we regret our imprudent decisions and behaviour. When we consciously monitor our mind, we are able to judiciously reject the negative or complacent thoughts and replace them with positive ones.
Vedic Chronicles:
When Mother Sita was kidnapped by the Demon Ravan, the servitor of Lord Rama - Hanuman ji, set out to look for her. He frantically searched at innumerable destinations. But he did not lose hope neither did he let frustration creep into his efforts. He was persistent and with complete faith in God, while maintaining a positive outlook, eventually succeeded in his endeavour.
Another pivotal incident was when the mighty warrior prince Arjuna became confused, bewildered and filled with miserable thoughts before the epic Battle of Kurukshetra. When he completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord Krishna, thats when he was enlightened with real spiritual knowledge. As soon as he took shelter of God, all negativity vanished and the illuminating light of positivity flooded his soul. He received the highest transcendental knowledge and experienced newfound bliss.
A classic example of optimism was King Bali. He did not feel dejected when Lord assumed the form of Vamandeva to test him. He willingly offered himself and surrendered at God's Lotus Feet. Pleased by his positive attitude and virtues, the Lord granted Him benedictions.
Positive thinking can be cultivated and eventually becomes natural when we comprehend the purpose of our existence. We are all souls, spiritual beings, the beloved children of God and are meant to rejoice in eternal loving exchanges with Him. When we train ourselves to see all events in our life as expression of God’s love for us and to make all our actions as expressions of our love for Him, then we tap our latent positive spiritual energy. Hence love of God is the source and essence of all positivity.
The Highest Test:
The highest test was faced by Maharaj Parikshit - a great saintly monarch. He was cursed to die by a young Brahmana boy. The King knew he had only seven days to live. Now this did not cause him to grapple with fear, whimper, complain or become morose. Rather he gracefully accepted it as the will of the Lord, took it as an opportunity to understand the purpose of his life. He immediately renounced all his worldly opulences to nourish his soul by absorbing himself in hearing the glories of the Lord. This was the greatest test that he passed at the time of death and attained His ultimate destination - He went back to Godhead in the spiritual world.
The soul is an eternal spiritual person with a full existence beyond this temporary world. To attain that original identity, we must awaken the love for God that is always present in our hearts—although it’s covered now by illusion. Through patient and submissive service to Lord, we can rekindle that sublime love. We can most easily and effectively experience God’s love for us and express our love for Him by chanting His Holy Names, by associating with pure devotees. God being omnipotent fully manifests Himself in His Names and gives us the strength to reject negative thoughts.
Therefore, we can perfect the art of staying positive when we practice devotion. Through this sincere attempt to dovetail unfavourable phenomena towards purifying our consciousness, we experience showers of love, peace, joy and wisdom that washes away all the negativity from the mind. This expression of gratitude uplifts us to a higher realm, filled with colours of vibrance, success, positivity and eternal bliss.
Article by:
Meghna Choudhury (Her Grace Mathura Vasi Devi Dasi)
Life Coach | Spiritual Counselor | Author
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