Life can be fun and joyous only if we know how to cut out the frills and keep it simple with the bare essentials. The Yoga Sutras show us the way for that too.
There are many ways to integrate the mind and make it fit for meditation. One of the main steps is to use the very world we interact with, in the right manner.
When we contact electricity in the right manner, power flows and our appliances work well. If it is connected in an unscientific manner, there may be electric shocks too. It is the same with the world we relate to from morning to night.
The whole world you see in front of you is like a giant computer screen. All the images are nothing but data—names and numbers. When you have the right software installed and your virus protection is in check, then you can work smoothly with the world.
Patanjali Maharshi gives four ways of responding to four different types of relationships. Only these four categories of relationships exist in the world. First, there are individuals we interact with. Some give us joy, the rest give us sorrow.
There is no need to discuss about the neutral ones, which form the majority of our relationships and who cannot cause us trouble. To the one who gives you joy, respond with friendship. When the power in a person is a conductor of joy, then you plug the pin of friendship into that socket and the electricity of joy will flow to cool your life.
When the power of sorrow flows through someone to you, then you must choose to connect with the adapter called compassion. When you respond to sorrowful persons with compassion, the electrical flow gets converted to joy again in your life.
The next two relates to society. We react to happenings in society too. In the society, if someone performs good actions, then you connect to that source with the plug point of joy. We respond pretty well to positive stories in the media generally.
However, when the media comes up with stories of negative developments from many parts of the world, instead of getting agitated with the newsbreak after newsbreak, respond to the events with nonchalance.
In just a few seconds, when the newsfeeds would stop getting reactions from people (an Utopian thought indeed) the situation would return to normal. It is our attention that feeds the power to negative events. With the right response and right contact, our life too would flow in the right direction.
When everything begins to flow smoothly in the world outside, we are left with enough peace of mind to focus on our own efforts and growth in our individual life too. Next time when that constant newsbreak is exciting for you, remember—just severe the threads of your attention. Brahmacharini
Sharanya Chaitanya
(www.sharanyachaitanya.blogspot.in)