Does it seem to you like lately the world is full of hate and negativity? There is always something bad happening around us. And every time we turn on the News, we get to hear some negative news only of the world. Indeed, it feels like Kalyug has arrived in full force on Earth.
Vacationing, exercising, socializing, sports, entertainment, etc. are some of the ways many of us try to counter, or should I say escape, the negativity and hate we are unable to otherwise deal with. But somehow their effect too is very short-lived.
What then is the long-term solution to the problem of negativity surrounding us?
Finding a spiritual path and committing to it fully can provide us that permanent solution. Spirituality has the power to empower us with positivity and essentially render negativity, hate and stress useless. Let’s look at some of the ways, spiritual path can lead us away from darkness of negativity towards the bright light of positivity:
1.Spiritual Knowledge helps prevent the very causes of having to deal with any negativity
We are having to deal with the negativity and hate in the world because we only have attracted it. Or else the negativity may remain in this world, but it wouldn’t draw us into its circle. The right understanding of the spiritual laws of Karma proves to be an integral stepping stone on the path of dealing with this cause.
We understand how it is our ‘inner intentions’ that primarily decide whether we attract good or bad karma. This navigates us towards adopting and embracing more of positive thoughts, intentions and actions in our life in order to live a happy and peaceful life. And at the least, it drives us away from harnessing any negative intentions, so that we are not put into a situation where we are given to deal with the negativity and hate in the world in the first place.
2.Spirituality helps identify the real culprit for our suffering.Everyone has at some point wondered, “why me?” This “why me?” adds to the negativity and hate that already exists in this world. Answer to this question can be found only through the spiritual path. We realize that ‘I myself am whole and sole responsible for whatever I am given to suffer in life. Any suffering that I experience is owing to the effect of karma that I myself have bound in my past life. Thus, I am suffering as a consequence of my own mistakes, and not anyone else’s.’ This spiritual knowledge helps us get immediate solace as it calms our intellect. And only when we are calm inside, can we rightly deal with any negativity and hate that prevails outside.
3.The spiritual path shows us an easy way to eradicate negativity from the world
One who is negative spreads negativity while one who is positive spreads positivity. And one who is pure spreads purity in the world. Only when we are pure, do we equip ourselves to deal with the impurity that exists in the world. This is like turning the regulator of the fan, rather than standing up on a table and taking a broom in hand in order to stop the fan.
The spiritual path shows us the way to become pure by giving us the following tools.
a.The tool of ‘introspection’ that helps us gain insight into what is the cause of the mistake we made i.e. was it our anger or our false pride or some greed on our part that led us into committing this mistake? Further, the tool also leads us into understanding the real reasons behind that cause i.e. what exactly led us into getting angry – did we get angry in order to get things our way or because of our frustration that the other person is not understanding or for any other reason. With this exercise, we are able to exactly place our finger on the negativity or the impurity within that is causing us all the pain and suffering.
b.The spiritual path also offers the tool of ‘pratikraman’, with the help of which, we apologize before God for each of our mistakes, ask him for forgiveness with genuine repentance in our heart, and seek strength from him so that we never repeat the same mistake.
By practicing the above, we become pure! This is prime and essential for the world to become pure.
4.On the spiritual path alone, we get rid of our ignorance
It is because of ignorance that one does not know how to conduct himself. And hence discord is brought on, which eventually gives rise to negativity and hate in the world. On the spiritual path, we understand this root cause of the negativity and hate, which is ignorance. The entire negativity hovers around ‘I’ and ‘my’. We have always believed our body and the name given to identify the body to be our real identity. However, it is only on the spiritual path that we get to realize that really, ‘who am I’ (Self-Realization). And if we are lucky enough to get the path of Akram Science, we are able to attain Self-Realization in just 2 hours through the direct grace of the Living Gnani. Gnani puts in a line of demarcation between our real Self and the worldly self, after which we realize that really speaking ‘I am a Pure Soul’.
The negativity was all in our worldly self and the negativity in the world too was affecting our worldly self only. By separating us from the worldly self, Gnani automatically separates us from all the negativity and hate in the world. After this separation, we are able to make use of the above-mentioned tools of introspection and pratikraman too much more effectively.
5.Spirituality helps differentiate between what is temporary and what is permanent.
The negativity arises due to the excessive valuation of the temporary. No problem arises where things do not have any value. On the spiritual path, Gnani enlightens our Pure Soul, which is permanent. It is an eternal element! As a result, all worldly things are known to be temporary. Thus, we obviously stop attaching undue importance to the temporary any more thereafter. We instead begin to value the permanent factor i.e. the Pure Soul, within ourselves and even in others too. This provides a big boost to the positive element in our life and of other people in this world too.
6.The Spiritual path spearheads the world in the positive direction.Negativity arises where there is a feeling of injustice done. Accepting the spiritual science of karma leads us to accept both, a positive or a negative result, to be a just and fair result. Negativity arises due to ego. The spiritual knowledge of ‘who am I’ breaks us free of our attachment to the false ‘I’ (our ego). Negativity arises due to the feeling of ‘I am the doer’. The spiritual understanding of ‘who is the real doer’ relieves us not only of the pressures associated with any task, but also of the associated worries, tensions and stress. The spiritual path even releases us from the burden of ‘I have to deal with the negativity and hate in the world.’ It gives us the right understanding that everything just happens; one just needs to have right intentions!
7.Power of Prayer
The power of prayers is enormous! In our spare time, we must always pray for salvation of this world, ‘May negativity and hate be eliminated from this world. May positivity flourish in the hearts of people. May everyone attain the ultimate salvation!’ By sending out positive vibes through prayers, we encourage positive evidences to gather and quickly counter the negativity prevailing in this world.
This is anytime better than the act of adding fuel to fire that we do, when we infuse our own negativity into this world through our negative actions, thoughts and intentions, in reaction to the negativity and hate that exists in the world? Even in cases where we find it really difficult to deal with some specific negativity and hate that exists in the external world, we can pray to the Pure Soul residing within the associated / concerned person(s) to turn the tide. The Pure Soul is the Almighty, so everything will be easily taken care of very easily and effortlessly!
To know more please visit: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/self-help/positive-thinking/
Ambalal M. Patel was a civil contractor by profession. In June 1958, spontaneous Self-Realization occurred within Ambalal M. Patel. From this point on, Ambalal became a Gnani Purush, and the Lord that manifest within him became known as Dada Bhagwan. A Gnani Purush is One who has realized the Self and is able help others do the same. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan used to go from town to town and country-to-country to give satsang (spiritual discourse) and impart the knowledge of the Self, as well as knowledge of harmonious worldly interactions to everyone who came to meet him. This spiritual science, known as Akram Vignan, is the step-less path to Self-realization.