Why bad things happen to Good People…
January 29, 2019
There is a general perception with everyone that he/she does good to people but they face bad things in lives.
In the current times- there is a lot of strain within personal relationships [families], The thing I am going to mention here should be taken into account with both pros and cons if we want to bring balance into our relationships and lives.
This question may often cross our minds that we say and do good to people but bad things have happened in our life :- I would like to share a story to answer the same
There were two well known sages- 1-Sage Vashisht and 2- Sage Vishwamitra
The people of the times had given Sage Vishwamitra the title of Raj Rishi and Sage Vashisht was given a higher up title of Brahma Rishi.
It pained Sage Vishwamitra that he was bestowed with a lower title than Sage Vashisht and why he was not given the title of Brahma Rishi.
This thought kept on troubling him for long and took the form of jealousy. A time came such that he pondered on finishing off Sage Vashisht and thereby upgrading himself with the title of Bramha Rishi. He concluded in his mind that this seemed to be the most simple and obvious solution to his concern.
Sage Vishwamitra also started to bad mouth and criticize Sage Vashisht in front of their followers and people in general. Then one night Sage Vishwamitra took a sword , went and hid himself behind the bushes around Sage Vashisht’s ashram with an intent to behead him at the first available opportunity.
While behind the bushes, Sage Vishwamitra overheard Sage Vashisht speaking to his pupils. One of the pupils asked Sage Vashisht a question that “What was his opinion on the Raj Rishi-Sage Vishwamitra ? ”
To this Sage Vashisht became speechless and tears started rolling down his eyes. Controlling his emotions he replied to his pupils – “If you want to learn what the embodiment of true love and compassion in human form looks like, you should look upto Sage Vishwamitra. Sage Vishwamitra is so full of love and empathy towards me and people around him that he is like the moonlight spreading across the sky on a dark night.”
The sword fell from the hands of Sage Vishwamitra when he overheard the words of praise coming out of the mouth of Sage Vashisht. Sage Vishwamitra then came out of the bushes and fell onto the feet of Sage Vashisht. Sage Vashisht was taken aback with this gesture , but Sage Vishwamitra disclosed that he was hiding in the bushes with the intent of beheading him. However,when he overheard the faith , the love and praise for him that Sage Vashisht had in his heart , it melted him. On hearing his confession , Sage Vashisht picked Sage Vishwamitra up by his shoulder and hugged him tight.
Sage Vashisht proclaimed to Sage Vishwamitra ” You are the Brahma Rishi from now on”. Because the heart that is full of love , repentance , forgiveness and compassion , the owner of such a heart is the true –Brahma Rishi.
Coming back to the initial question- whenever there is strain in families, please make it a point that you do not bad mouth about him / her in their absence. But from what has been generally observed in families nowadays, if there are 4 members in a family, as soon as 1 member goes out, the remaining 3 start criticizing the absent member. And if 2 go out, the remaining 2 members start making unkind remarks about the absent members and this vicious cycle is repeated often.
But when you start to value the member not only in their presence but most importantly during their absence, you never bad mouth about them; then and only then the statement that “I say and do good for others” holds true meaning. In such a scenario it would never happen that bad should come upon you.
Once again we need to thoroughly introspect if any such thought of jealousy, belittling, doubting , complaining crosses our minds and are expressed in our actions in front of our near and dear ones.
If we can train our minds to be full of love and compassion for all, then the question of good / bad would never arise in your life. The thoughts and advice I am sharing here is not just for the sake of speaking but it is the outcome of my life experiences. I would suggest if we can introspect and can spend only 20 minutes with ourselves at our homes / any place of worship in utter silence then the seeds of compassion ,empathy and love towards all would germinate and fructify in your hearts.
If this can be achieved through meditation, the question of good / bad in our lives can be put to rest.
