One of the greatest powers that can be truly game changing in our lives is the Power of Responsibility. This is one thing that is not given but taken. Individuals who voluntarily take responsibilities of various aspects of their lives be it health, family or career, undoubtedly achieve success in them. While we learn to take responsibilities of the external world, we can't neglect to take responsibility of our inner space. In fact external success even if achieved is unsustainable without taking responsibility of our inner world.
What kind of thoughts and emotions are we entertaining in our hearts? If we are holding onto to negative thoughts and emotions like those of anger, lust, greed, envy and pride we will experience tremendous anxiety and pain. That's a plain law of nature. We may deny it. That's our choice. But fact remains fact whether we accept it or not. We can't cheat ourselves by holding onto negativity in our hearts and expect peace and happiness. Peace and happiness is a product of a heart freed from negativity - a pure heart.
Just like we are very careful to see that the house we live in is clean and pure, isn't it also not equally, if not more important to take responsibility of our inner space, ensuring that it is clean. We speak of a clean world, but forget to clean our own hearts. External pollution is a result of internal pollution.
In Sanskrit, these negativities like lust, greed, anger etc. are called anarthas. Artha means 'that which has meaning'. Anartha means 'that which has no meaning'. The mistake we do is we foolishly consider anartha to be artha. We consider negativities that are actually useless in our lives to be something that is very useful.
One of the reasons we do this, is because we are not aware or fully conscious of our feelings when we give in to these negativities. How do we feel after a bout of anger or how do we feel when we become envious? Do we feel peaceful or do we feel anxiety and agitation? If we are aware and conscious during these moments we will come to the conclusion that these negativities destroy our peace of mind - they are not worth it.
Once we realize this, then we will want to get rid of these negativities. One may ask, how do I get rid of them? The answer is simple - JUST DROP IT, LET IT GO. Know that the negativities are not holding us, we are holding them. How does one drop a piece of hot coal that one is holding or how does one drop a useless baggage he's carrying around for long? The answer is - just drop it. It's that simple. We have the power. We can chose to act powerless if we want, but it doesn't serve us in anyway.
Many times we expect complicated solutions to our problems, but the fact is most problems in life have simple solutions. Remember, that at every moment in life we always have two options - to hold on or let go. We can choose to hold onto these anarthas and suffer or choose to let go of them and experience peace.
Imagine that our consciousness is like a hot air balloon and these anarthas are like heavy weights tied to the bottom of the balloon. If we want to rise in our consciousness and float freely in the sky of peace, love and happiness then we need to drop all these weights that are stopping us from rising.
So the next time these negativities arise in your heart, PAUSE, be fully conscious, see them for what they are and wisely choose to let go because at the end of the day if you don't take responsibility of your inner space, who will?
- Achyut Gopal Das
Just like we are very careful to see that the house we live in is clean and pure, isn't it also not equally, if not more important to take responsibility of our inner space, ensuring that it is clean. We speak of a clean world, but forget to clean our own hearts. External pollution is a result of internal pollution.
In Sanskrit, these negativities like lust, greed, anger etc. are called anarthas. Artha means 'that which has meaning'. Anartha means 'that which has no meaning'. The mistake we do is we foolishly consider anartha to be artha. We consider negativities that are actually useless in our lives to be something that is very useful.
One of the reasons we do this, is because we are not aware or fully conscious of our feelings when we give in to these negativities. How do we feel after a bout of anger or how do we feel when we become envious? Do we feel peaceful or do we feel anxiety and agitation? If we are aware and conscious during these moments we will come to the conclusion that these negativities destroy our peace of mind - they are not worth it.
Once we realize this, then we will want to get rid of these negativities. One may ask, how do I get rid of them? The answer is simple - JUST DROP IT, LET IT GO. Know that the negativities are not holding us, we are holding them. How does one drop a piece of hot coal that one is holding or how does one drop a useless baggage he's carrying around for long? The answer is - just drop it. It's that simple. We have the power. We can chose to act powerless if we want, but it doesn't serve us in anyway.
Many times we expect complicated solutions to our problems, but the fact is most problems in life have simple solutions. Remember, that at every moment in life we always have two options - to hold on or let go. We can choose to hold onto these anarthas and suffer or choose to let go of them and experience peace.
Imagine that our consciousness is like a hot air balloon and these anarthas are like heavy weights tied to the bottom of the balloon. If we want to rise in our consciousness and float freely in the sky of peace, love and happiness then we need to drop all these weights that are stopping us from rising.
So the next time these negativities arise in your heart, PAUSE, be fully conscious, see them for what they are and wisely choose to let go because at the end of the day if you don't take responsibility of your inner space, who will?
- Achyut Gopal Das
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