HOW TO OVERCOME TENSIONS AND HAVE PEACE OF MIND - 5

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HOW TO OVERCOME TENSIONS AND HAVE PEACE OF MIND - 5

 

When I was a student in school, I saw a picture, which left a lasting impression

on my mind. It was the picture of two pails, each half-filled with water. On one

of the pails was a face with a frown and underneath were written the words: “Of

what use is it to be half empty all the time?” On the other pail was a face

with a smile and the words: “I am grateful to God that I am at least half

full!” The two buckets symbolised respectively the negative and positive

attitudes towards life. The man with negative attitude wears a frown on his

face, and is morose and resentful. He feels unwanted and rejected. The man with

the positive attitude is cheerful and buoyant and has the strength to face the

difficulties of life in the right spirit. The man with the positive attitude

has a singing heart: his heart keeps on singing all the time. Try this

experiment. When you get up in the

morning, the very first thing, hum yourself a simple tune, such as Deena bandhu

deenaa naath, meri dori tere haath. “O Thou, the Friend of the friendless, the

Lord of the lowly, I surrender the thread of my life in your safe Hands: lead

me where Thou wilt!” As the day advances, in the midst of your work, pause for

a while, again and again, and hum to yourself the tune: Deena bandhu deenaa

naath, meri dori tere haath. You will find that difficulties will have no power

over you; tensions will not be able to touch you. And see that your face always

wears a smile. For smile mounting up, just smile: you will break the force of

tensions. The imagined clouds will scatter and the sun will shine once again.

 

Suggestion number one is, adopt a positive attitude towards life. And suggestion

number two is, do not anticipate troubles. There are some who imagine all sorts

of troubles, -troubles which never come. It was Benjamin Franklin who said: “Do

not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the

sunlight.” Many of us, by anticipating troubles, keep on building up tension. I

know of a man who has made himself a virtual prisoner in his house. If you ask

him to out for a walk, he will tell you, “If I go out, my foot may slip, and I

will break my bones.”

 

There is a mother who has a son, and if the child gets late in returning home,

she imagines that all sorts of misfortunes have befallen him. One evening, the

child was late in returning home by fifteen minutes: and the mother called up

different hospitals to find out if a child of his age had been admitted to any

hospital. After fifteen minutes, the child quietly walked into the house,

unaware of the anxiety he had caused his mother. Significant are the words of

Thomas Jefferson: “How much have cost us the evils that never happened.”

 

There is a poem which is full of wisdom of life:

 

Better never trouble trouble,

Until trouble troubles you,

For you’re sure to make your trouble

Double trouble when you do.

And your trouble, like a bubble,

That you are troubling about,

May be nothing but a cipher

With the rim rubbed out.

 

So do not anticipate trouble.

 

-to be continued

(Author: Sri J P Vaswani)

 

TAMASO MA JYOTIRGAMAYA….

 

Both rain and sunshine are needed to make a rainbow.

Both joy and sorrow are needed to make life truly beautiful and colourful.

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