We should know how to reject things. Do you know how to just reject? If someone is hurling an insult at you, you are so ready: “Okay, give me, I take it.” And then you boil: “Oh, he insulted me.” And then you read those books, if it doesn’t come naturally in your mind: “Two thousand insults for all occasions.” Someone has written a book. I saw that only here in North America-insults for all occasions. You have to hurl an insult back, and then you feel, “Ah.” See, whenever we are upset, we want to immediately act on it. Take the phone and yell at them. Only then can you sleep better, right?
When you want to do something good, you will postpone it: “Okay, I’ll do it tomorrow.” If you have to do charity: “Okay, we’ll do it tomorrow, day after, next month, maybe next year.” But anything negative-“I’m going to yell at somebody next week”? No. You have to do that immediately.
This tendency of the mind, we have to reverse it. If you postpone insulting people for three or four days, I tell you, you can’t insult them. Have you noticed that when you have been nasty, when you insulted somebody, you always end up regretting or justifying it? We were never happy about it. It never brings satisfaction. Momentary satisfaction, maybe-“Oh, look, I insulted somebody, I gave it back.” You don’t even say insulted, you say, “I gave it back.” What is the result of it? You gave back, but what came back? It bounced back on you.
Seeing life from a broader perspective means this: postponing anything negative and preponing anything positive.
Someone wanted to do charity. On the first day, he was so grateful and thought, “Okay, I’m going to give 100,000 for charitable work, but I will do it next week.” By next week, it came down to 30,000. A week later, it just came to 5,000. And then he said, “No, 50 dollars is enough for now.” When we postpone doing something good, it also reduces.
Be quick in doing good, be slow in expressing anger.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
