“अपनी तुलना दूसरों से क्यों करें?”

Swamiji said …

“It is said that God made us in his own image and likeness. Yet, He continues to ensure that none of us are exactly the same. We all are unique in this world – numerous yet singular masterpieces of the Creator.Thus, the best way to show our faith in God; in His plans for us – is by accepting ourselves the way we are – be it our looks, physical abilities, mental prowess, the strata of society we are born into, our family background or financial stability. God takes painstaking effort to ensure that each one of us retains a unique and different identity. He could have saved His precious time by making all of us the same, but, He did exactly the opposite. But, do we ever reflect on His amazing feat of ensuring that no two creations of His are alike? God opted for the path most challenging, most interesting by creating a new individual, each time he crafted us lovingly with His divine clay; giving us a particular form and role to play in our lifetime. He not only saved Himself from the monotony of creating billions of identical individuals, but us also, from interacting with similar looking and similar minded people all the time.”

“But what have we done! Rather than marvelling at the masterpiece that He has made of each one of us, we look at others around us, compare ourselves with them,and, not surprisingly, are more than shocked and distraught, by all that life has given them and not us. We allow devious discontentment to bemoan our fate and envy the other person’s good fortune. Another person’s success makes our heart burn; so much so that we curse the day we were born. His gain is straightaway associated as a personal loss and failure. Seeing someone’s meteoric rise to fame makes us chew our nails in envy. Sadly, some of us are so disturbed on seeing the grass greener, on the other side, that the darkness of doubts, despair and disenchantment with life, takes over us completely and life becomes a living hell for us. Our habit of constantly comparing ourselves,with others, is the root cause of our unhappiness.”

“We must learn from the Sun and the Moon who have a silent understanding between them and shine in their resplendent glory at the appropriate time. Similarly, we need to remember that we too will shine at the right time – at the destined moment – in a particular lifetime. We tend to forget that the money and power that the person , with whom we are comparing ourselves, seems to be enjoying today, is due to his ‘prarabdha’, which is playing out in this lifetime. ‘Prarabdha’ – The result of one’s past ‘karma’ which enables one to enjoy various materialistic pleasures in his lifetime – becomes a sore point for us – as we compare.”

“But, if comparison with another person, inspires and motivates us to draw some positive life enriching changes, then one must certainly do so! Otherwise, open denouncement and outright rejection of our ‘natural selves’, implies a complete mistrust and lack of faith in God’s purpose of having created us. If we fail to appreciate and respect ourselves, others too will find us unworthy of respect and admiration.”

“We must appreciate and learn from the different value systems, qualities and habits that God has blessed each one of us with, while working on us with great concentration. If we need to, compare ourselves with others, then we must do it without a trace of jealousy or ill will. If our habit of comparing ourselves with others makes us morose and unhappy then, such an act is tantamount to disrespecting God’s divine plan for us. Does a mother draw comparisons between her children? An ‘adhyatmik Guru’ showers equal Grace on all His devotees without any discrimination or comparison. Why,then, do we compare and lose our peace of mind?”