Positive Thinking 26 – Don’t let the world’s opinions determine your decisions

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, welcome back to our, positive thinking discussion, we are now discussing, the fourth energy sutra, E-N-E-R-G-Y, R is be resolute, so, being resolute, being fixed, being one pointed, being determined, is, vital for moving onwards, in doing anything constructive in life, so, Jimmy Carter said that, we must adjust to changing times, and still hold, to unchanging principles, being resolute is difficult, because change, characterizes the environment around us, and due to such change, we also, recognize the necessity to change, now, the necessity to change is fine, but what do we change, we need to change, not our principles, but we need to adapt, I’m changing some external, features, while we pursue, unchanging principles, so if we have, using the, previous principle that we talked about, learn to, internalize certain values, certain purposes in our life, we have set certain goals for ourselves, and we are pursuing those goals, after understanding that this is what, pursuing these goals is what will comprise real success for me, if we have used our intelligent smart expectations, if we have, avoided a competitive comparison mentality, and have learned, what it is that we are striving for in life, what is our talent, what is the contribution that we would like to make, once we have decided to say we are moving onwards, we need to put aside the weapon, the things that will distract us from our resolution, and what can distract us, there are two things, there are opinions, outside us, and there are passions inside us, so, let’s look at them, opinions, in the world, whatever we do, there will be people, who will discourage us, will criticize us, will lambast us, for doing that, and that way, we, will, have to learn to tolerate and transcend worldly opinion, if we want to do anything worthwhile in our life, without, without having this determination, we won’t be able to achieve anything, so the important thing to recognize in our life, is that we are, spiritual beings, we are at our core spiritual, and when we have decided to pursue a particular purpose in our life, the fickleness of worldly opinion, is something which we need, to register in our consciousness, so that we don’t let, ourselves be misled, so once, here’s a story to illustrate this, once a person, had a horse, and he was taking his son along with him, for a walk, and this person, as he was walking along, he had put his son on the horse, and he was leading the horse along, and, there was some passer-by who said that, you see, how utterly shameful this is, this young boy, he is young and healthy, and he is riding comfortably on the horse, and he is getting his, his father to walk on the ground, isn’t there any culture left nowadays, what is this, the father got a little disturbed, and he told his son, you walk along, and I will ride on the horse, and as the son was riding, as the son was walking along, and the father was riding on the horse, the passer-by started criticizing, saying, see, what is this, isn’t there any parental love left, this boy is so small, he is so tender, what father, would let such a son walk on the ground, while he himself is riding comfortably on a horse, what has humanity come to, the father heard it and became disturbed, not knowing what to do, he asked his son, son, you also ride with me, and both of them got on the horse, and both of them were riding on the horse, and that time some passer-by said, see, what is this, the poor animal, it is being crushed under the double weight of these two people, the animal is meant to carry one person, and both of these people are young and healthy, either of them could walk, they could walk, but they are crushing the poor animal, where is the way to get the animal right activists, these are such cruel and sensitive people, he got further disturbed, and he got down, and he got his son also down, and they both started walking, while leading the horse along, and then the passer-by said, what stupidity is this, what is the point of a horse if not to ride it, these people are so dumb, that they have a good healthy strong horse, and instead of riding the horse, they are walking along, what stupidity is this, the father he had exhausted all options, what does he do, he just stay at home and keep the horse at home, it is like this in the world, whatever we do, there are people who are going to criticize us, Subhashita by Bhartruhari, he says that if you are humble, people will say that you are effeminate, if you are helpful, people will say that you are attention seeker, a self promoter, if you are kind, people will say that you are doing this, and you are doing that, and in that way, people will criticize you for whatever you do, that’s why it’s best that we do what is important for us, we don’t let others opinions determine our actions, we let our decisions, our principles determine our actions, it’s a beautiful poem which illustrates the same point here, so people are often illogical, unreasonable and self-centered, if you are kind, people may accuse you of selfishness and ulterior motives, be kind anyway, if you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true friends, succeed anyway, if you are honest and frank, people may call you naive or may cheat you, be honest and frank anyway, that which you spend years building could be destroyed overnight, build anyway, if you find serenity and happiness, people may be jealous, be happy anyway, the good you do today, people will forget tomorrow, do good anyway, give the world the best you have and it may never be enough, give the world the best you have anyway, you see in the final analysis, it is between you and God, it was never between you and them anyway, so it is between you and God, turning away from worldly opinions and staying resolute in our purpose, becomes much more realistic, when we are not just turning away from the world, we are turning towards God, when we understand that the essential relationship, the most fundamental relationship which is between us and God and we focus not on pleasing man but on pleasing God or doing that which is pleasing in his eyes, then we will be able to do that which will eventually be pleasing in a good number of people in the world’s eyes also, because we will do justice to our talents, we will make substantial contributions and eventually we will be able to do something substantial, so before being resolute, we need to neglect worldly opinions and stay fixed in our resolutions. Thank you.