jagadeeshkri@gmail.com

The way of the world is to find fault with others. The world is dominated by mind, which is motivated by ego. The nature of mind is to entwine us in ego. We think we are superior to all others. This egoistical thinking leads us to criticise others. Throughout the day it is hard to escape criticism of others. Whether at home, during one’s commute, at work, at social gatherings, during leisure activity or while playing sports, or even shopping, someone is bound to come along and criticise us.

 There may be a mild sarcastic comment, a put-down, someone commenting that what we are doing is wrong and there is a way to do something better or an outright verbal fight. Even if we try to stay alone for an entire day, our thoughts are besieged by memories of words spoken by others who criticise us. These thoughts may replay in our heads over and over again. And we react. We may accept what others may say and then feel bad about it.   At times we become critical of our own self. Then, we take steps to change what we are doing even if we are right.

These critical remarks may upset us and lower our self-esteem. Or, we may try to prove them wrong. We may fly into a rage and then think of ways to take revenge on them. The anger may escalate into verbal abuse or physical violence. If we do so, we are not only wasting our life’s breaths, but we are creating more karma for which we have to pay. We will also face health problems. Worse, we may become angry and want to take it out on others. There is no good ending for retaliation and revenge.

We just add fuel to fire. Instead, we want to put out the fire. One way to do this is to ignore the criticism of others. At first, we can politely listen and ask,” Is there any truth to what they are saying? If i listen to their remarks can i improve?” If so, we can take a good hard look at ourselves and make necessary changes so we can become better. However, if we find that there is no truth in what is being said, we can graciously thank them and ignore their remarks. It is not worth getting upset over the comments of others when they have no validity.

The key to ignore the invalid criticism of others is to forgive. If there is no truth in what people say, we should forgive them for being  ignorant of the true situation, and move on with our lives. When life is so short and the journey back to God must be completed within our lifetime for us to have spiritual success, we do not want to waste time dealing with the criticism of others. When we face criticism we can meditate to calm our minds from the reactions we may otherwise face. If we want to reunite our soul with God, we need to calm our mind to meditate.

Meditation puts our attention on the bliss and intoxication inside. We are focused on the spiritual divinity within and not on the outer world. We are so intoxicated that we do not notice other people along the way
By
K. jagadeeshkri@gmail.com