(Original question asked in Hindi:)
Hum bura bartab karte hein toh logon ko bura lag jata hai. Logon ko bura lagta hai toh humei bhi bura lagta hai. Par agar log humse bura bartav karein tab bhi humein bura lagta hai. Lekin agar return hum unse bura bartav na karei toh humei hi bura lagta hai. Isko kaise overcome karein? Please bataiye.
What others do is not in our hands. It is their deeds and theirs is the consequence. Why should we react and spoil our consciousness? Our attitudes, actions and reactions are the only things in our hands. By reacting to what others say or do with anger or ill-will, we end up giving them too much importance, putting ourselves at their mercy and actually add up to the actual harm towards us because in reactions, we enter into an interchange with people who are throwing ill-will at us. The best is to smile and walk away unaffected by what they say or how they behave. People who engage in bad words and bad behaviours have already fallen. They suffer inwardly. There is no need to do anything unless they try to wilfully harm, in which case whatever one needs to do in self-defense must be done.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
