Most people live with a sense of impending doom. Some wait for happiness to happen. “If I could own a house”, “If my daughter could get married”, “If I could marry”, “If I could get a job”. Slowly through life, we keep amassing things that fascinate us, from dolls to balls, from house to mouse! Life keeps offering new toys which you keep acquiring till you possess a dump of waste! Heard of dung beetles??
Media uses excitement to grab and sustain your attention. Sensationalism is money for them and loss of peace for you. They deftly calculate to focus your attention on crime, theft, corruption, rioting, war, and destruction. A TV guarantees that the blood that spills world-over spills in your very home!
How does one protect this mind pollution? A willful shift in focus is the answer. We ourselves choose what we want to hear, see and experience. We tend to take for granted all the blessings we have and generally focus on that which we have not! Life is not intellectual but experiential. Let’s be alive to the symphony of beauty that life sings. Swami Niranjanananda asks, which pile would you choose, gold or dirt? Gold of course. We need to do the same with our personalities. If our thinking has the Midas touch, it can turn dirt into gold.
Let’s open our hearts to positivity in every situation, job, relationship, exams, or family tussles. Swami Chinmayanandaji said, “Whenever mother Ganga meets a small rocky hurdle, she slightly lifts her saree and jumps over it, but if it is a huge rock she gracefully skirts around it” thus the river flows smoothly, never encouraging conflict. The grass that humbly bends against a strong wind survives to stand tall again!
Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi.
Email: prarthnasaran@gmail.com