5 August 2011 QA 5

Dear Guruji, how can I cultivate more humility and acceptance? I am known for being arrogant, rude and short tempered.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You in the right place. Do the silence program couple of times. Two, three silence courses will melt you down. And don’t judge yourself too much. Sometimes we judge ourselves too much. Either we judge others and get angry at others or you judge yourself and get upset about yourself. It is best not to do this; these two acts appear to be different but are the same. Either we blame others or we blame our self. Self blame is as bad as blaming someone else. That is what this knowledge is all about. It takes you from the blame culture to a joy culture. You are happy, you make others happy. And when you are happy, anyone who comes into contact with you, they are happy too. Have you noticed some people in your office are very enthusiastic? They say, ‘hey, come on, let’s go’, ‘hey come on, let’s do this’, ‘hey, this will happen’. Very positive, enthusiastic and even if there are problems, they say, ‘okay, let’s manage it’, they crack jokes. And there are others who in the best of situations are upset, angry. They say, ‘all has gone well, but what will happen from this? One day it will all be finished, then what?’ At least this one day, whatever you are doing, why don’t you be happy? ‘It’s all a one day show, then what?’ This type of pathetic pessimism is not life supporting. Nor does it support anyone around you. Sign of life is not depression, sign of life is celebration, is upliftment. You should bear this in mind. Whenever you tend to do that, whenever you tend to go in the negative cycle, immediately remember,' oh Guruji has said that, let me switch my mode. Like in your cell phone, you switch modes, from cell phone mode to sms mode or phone mode or email mode. Like that you should be able to switch and you have the ability to do that.