CIRCUMSTANCES AND SITUATIONS

You cannot control the environment that you are in but you can control the response to the circumstances which is thrown at you. For example, you cannot control the family you are born into, but you can control the circumstances which are thrown at you.

Take a family situation for example, you cannot control the family you are born into but if there is a family quarrel you can control your response to the circumstances which has been thrown at you. It is all a question of your response to the situation which is in line with our spiritual reminder “Be positive towards yourself, others, circumstance and situations.” That is what it means. The positive response, how you respond has a lot to do with how much you are in control of yourself. Last week we mentioned about the budhi, the intellect, which has five qualities. One of them is control.

Your response can be instantaneous, that means you lose control. When somebody says something, your response is immediate or you have a choice. Your choice is to sit back, don’t respond take note and then filter the answer and then you say something positive. Not many people can do that and that’s why we have so many problems in our life. The root cause is Ego!

We are very fortunate that we have been given, by our Guru, the skill sets, the tools for us to be able to be in a situation and yet don’t react to it. In 2012 there will be many situations in which you will be put in for you to exercise this control. There will be plenty because this is a mad world. Families will break up. Relationships will be tested. Families in harmony will suddenly find themselves in disharmony. A relationship that is in harmony will suddenly find itself in disharmony because a lot of changes are taking place in the universe.

You see the world today is a crazy place, humans are eating human flesh. So how do you respond to this is to maintain a positive outlook. Be always positive towards yourself, other, situation and circumstances. If someone throws at you a negative situation, counteract it by being positive. You have a choice. You cannot say you do not have a choice. You cannot say it is difficult. The moment you say it is difficult or it is impossible, then you have closed the door. You have closed the door to your own response because the mental block is there. When a situation comes and you say “Cannot be done” that is because your ego is saying it cannot be done.

There must be a change. Spiritual life is a change of mind set. It is a transformation, a change of thinking, changes in the way you see things. A change in the way you react to situations. Unfortunately for most of us, when given a situation, we forget ourselves. The ego takes over and you just say things and then you regret that you should not have said it. You can say sorry a thousand times but it is already in the universe. You have already cut the person. As our Guru said, you can cut a person once but if the wound is very deep, there will always be a scar. Sometimes we are in a situation where we can hurt others and then the scar is there. No matter how many times you say sorry the scar will be there.

So always be mindful of this in this age especially. In your own life you will see, in your own family settings, you will be faced with such situations. Be mindful of this advice which is given today. In a negative situation which is thrown at you, respond positively. It doesn’t matter, tell yourself “I am nothing, all I have belongs to God.” Like what have been said before, the most is you die and then people will bury you, finished. What is there that you cannot forgive? What is there that you carry with you? We are nothing. We are given only this temporary life. That is it. Don’t carry so heavy a burden that you cannot forgive. When you die it is all finished. So know this, we are nothing. They say death is just a change of the shirt of life.

When you remember this and say that you are nothing then your ego is smashed. It is the ego that is causing this problem. Your reaction to certain circumstances is driven by ego. If you can put the ego in control and you tell ego to shut up, I am telling you to keep quiet, then you have mastered yourself. Baba said master your mind and be a mastermind. Then you are in full change of your every faculty

Ultimately it is the ego that is causing all the problems in your life. So in our own life situations, in your family settings, in your work settings, there will bound to be situations where there will be disharmony. Harmony in life is what you make of it. You make harmony out of your own life. There is plenty of disharmony around. Whether you want your life to be harmonious or not is your choice. We have a choice. So if people whose life is always miserable, this is all nonsense. You have put yourself is such situations.

Worst still, some people have this poor me syndrome. They purposely get into trouble because they want someone to pity them. There are people like this. They get themselves into trouble and creating problems for others. So this is a crazy world and how do you overcome this craziness, by maintaining yourself and holding yourself on to God and your Guru because they are your foundation. They are your only friends. Not a single soul on this earth is your friend. So hold on to Guru, hold on to God.