Sometimes, All You Need Is A New Perspective

If you have inculcated this habit of being aware of natural laws, you will definitely wake up to the fact that everything doesn’t happen the way you desire or plan them. Despite working according to a plan, things can happen very differently. However, we should not let that discourage us. Because the next step in the process of the evolution of our soul is: Forming the right perspectives. How do we judge that what we are doing is the right thing? Ancient Hindu scriptures have a talisman for it, that is now famous as the ‘The Gandhi Talisman’. This was among the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948 and expresses one of his deepest social thoughts.

Gandhi said: “I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man (woman) whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him (her).”

Seema Saxena

Of course you will argue that everything you do may not be connected to the poor, but it is definitely going to affect someone close to you. So ask yourself how your action  will influence others. You can then avoid many selfish anomalies which create rifts in families and thus in society. This doesn’t mean that your actions have to sound like big sacrifices. It only means that you need to think of the community as a whole before thinking of yourself and the family first.

This sounds like a paradox in itself, but it works. You need to return to the universe what you have been granted in whichever little way you can. That is the ‘Law of Abundance’.

We become conscious of wrong perspectives with time; and when we do, we should not be rigid. They need to be discarded and new perspectives developed. The new ones too will have their shortcomings, and you will ultimately know that with experience. ‘Life is but an experience’, they say.

The mind needs to use its discriminatory powers here. Let wisdom and intelligence have a say, and not just your sensual perceptions. Don’t suppress them totally as this will merely lead to frustration, but subdue them somewhat, if needed. Let wisdom take control.

We all know that poison can kill us. Anything in excess has the same effect on us as poison. Greed, anger, lust and jealousy are as potent as poison. But often, it is difficult to see where we are going wrong or to realise our errors. Neither can we ever find anything wrong with ourselves. But if we really want to know what is wrong, we should listen to other’s opinions of us. They can see through us, but we cannot. Therefore, listening to people is an important exercise. Wisdom can then decide whether we need to change or whether we want them to understand the reasons for our action.

Once we know what is wrong, we can make attempts to rectify the situation immediately without letting the ego interfere. 

Therefore, being honest, truthful, and straightforward helps. We need to be candid about our actions. Pretensions create misunderstanding. Be bold and have the courage to do what you think is right. But, first, resolve your confusion.

Seema Saxena is a teacher with spiritual insight.