When we are criticized, is defending ourselves detrimental for our bhakti?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
when we feel offended not necessarily detrimental we have to see what works best for us at one level but another level we have to give respect to others so that means we want to create a culture where there is caring and respect for everyone and we all want to develop humility but it is not that if we go around insulting everyone it is not that they are going to become humble humility is a conscious decision it cannot be a social imposition if it is a social imposition then what happens is not humility but humiliation humility is when there is the false ego but we care for something bigger than the ego I care for my service I care for my relationship with Krishna and that is more important than my ego but having said that we need to make sure that we have a culture where everyone is valued and respected and if we are feeling devalued by someone then we need to do the needful sometimes if a person is habitually disrespectful to everyone we may need to report otherwise we need to defend ourselves defend means not in a conflicting sense but just clarify sometimes people accept sometimes they don’t accept so broadly we shouldn’t think that when we are clarifying it is always defending we can see what is my purpose just as if we are feeling very cold then we put on some warm clothes so that we can comfortably chant or do our service what applies at the level of the body physically also applies at the level of emotions if we are feeling too hurt then we can’t focus on ourselves so we need a basic level of emotional security and comfort also and occasionally if there is somebody who speaks something or does something towards us we can talk to it but if it is regularly happening then we need to do the needful to protect ourselves so that we can focus on our spirituality sometimes it might be just we clarify and other person understands sometimes some people are just no matter what we do they always speak negative about us then in that case we just need to shift our focus we need to we shouldn’t over value those who devalue us and we should value those who value us so sometimes it can’t change the other person then just keep a distance from them don’t take their words so seriously but to be able to do that we should have some other people who value us not in the egoist not that fluttering us but just giving us the basic respect and basic courtesies so that we can go on in our life then we focus more on connecting with them and then we learn to live with them in all our relationships there are some people some people say who bring happiness wherever they go and some people bring happiness whenever they go so if the people in the second category become more than in the first category that means people who exhaust us and interacting with them become more than the people who enliven us then we will not be emotionally stable so we need the relationships where we are enlivened and encouraged that’s how we can move on in our lives thank you