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Sivaya Subramuniyaswami is founder of the magazine Hinduism Today. His editorials continue to inform my way of thinking and help me evolve spiritually. I came across his February 1998 editorial titled "Getting Even Is Such An Odd Thing To Do". It resonates with me because of the severe cultural and political divide in our country.
Swami Sivaya notes that those of a "lower nature" react to others with retaliation. "This is a quality of the instinctive mind. "You strike me once, I'll strike you back twice. You make a remark to me that I don't like, and I will put you down behind your back. I will make up stories about you to get even and turn other people's minds against you."
We do have the option not to retaliate, not to strike back and this is an option which those who live out of their higher nature seek to do. "Those living in the higher nature know better. Belief in karma and reincarnation are strong forces in a Hindu. Two thousand years ago South India's Saint Tiruvalluvar said it so simply, 'Worthless are those who injure others vengefully, while those who stoically endure are like stored gold. Though unjustly aggrieved, it is best to suffer the suffering and refrain from unrighteous response.' "
Our country and our planet would do better if more people would give up the desire to get back at others.
Swami Sivaya notes that those of a "lower nature" react to others with retaliation. "This is a quality of the instinctive mind. "You strike me once, I'll strike you back twice. You make a remark to me that I don't like, and I will put you down behind your back. I will make up stories about you to get even and turn other people's minds against you."
We do have the option not to retaliate, not to strike back and this is an option which those who live out of their higher nature seek to do. "Those living in the higher nature know better. Belief in karma and reincarnation are strong forces in a Hindu. Two thousand years ago South India's Saint Tiruvalluvar said it so simply, 'Worthless are those who injure others vengefully, while those who stoically endure are like stored gold. Though unjustly aggrieved, it is best to suffer the suffering and refrain from unrighteous response.' "
Our country and our planet would do better if more people would give up the desire to get back at others.
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