When opportunity knocks at the door of a biased person, he does not answer or open the door, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj Ji
It’s a fact that most of us are prejudiced or have an opinion on everything even before knowing the actual facts. One of the earliest psychological explanations of prejudice is described as — an antipathy based on faulty and inflexible generalisation towards a group as a whole or towards an individual because they are a member of that group. The first thing that this explanation tells us is that prejudice is not something logical but rather based on a series of assumptions, half-truths and guesses. Second, it tells us that prejudice is based on generalisation — on a whole host of characteristics and qualities that we assume a person has, based purely on the fact that he or she is a member of a particular group.
We often talk of giving up anger, ego, pride and attachment but, perhaps, we do not put proper emphasis on giving up prejudice, biases and jealousy. In practical life, however, we find that because of biases and prejudice, a person does not listen to spiritual knowledge and, if at all he does, he looks at it with suspicion, fear, hatred or a feeling of opposition. Many a times, he misinterprets and criticises it unjustifiably. The result is that the person does not derive benefit from such precious knowledge even if he is offered this with love and goodwill. He disregards this offer and considers it as a strategy of some selfish people.
The opportunity knocks at the door of this prejudiced and biased person but he does not answer or open the door. Not only does he reject fortune so graciously offered to him but he does not allow others to grab the gift as well. The doctors may not be able to identify the virus that has infected his mind because a prejudiced person does not consider himself to be a patient and opposes all attempts to cure him. However, we cannot leave him in the cruel hands of the strange disease. We have to perform the operation rescue in the moral theatre of virtues with the surgical instruments of yoga after putting him on anaesthesia of love and glucose of good-will. Later, treating him with the curative preparations made from spiritual knowledge and using the therapy called yoga.
Jealousy too, like prejudice, is a dangerous disease. A jealous person cannot digest facts of life nor can he tolerate the truth. It weakens a person’s soul so much so that he cannot stand it when he hears that another person has been praised. Isn’t it a strange disorder, which reduces one’s level of tolerance and appreciation or approval when it should actually enhance it? The news of another person’s success causes nausea and spoils his mood. He becomes a person who suffers from the toxin, called ‘selfishness’. Such a person is always sulking, fretting and fuming. He is in a pressure-cooker, making hissing sounds and whistling as he is boiling in the steam of jealousy. He wants peace and, unlike a prejudiced person, he wants to be cured or relieved. Meditation helps him feel relieved and it builds in him a reservoir of goodwill and love that finally cures him of jealousy which is the generator or sustainer of hatred. If a person wants to be free of hatred, he has to banish jealousy because this emotion cannot live with peace. Universal love is the antidote to jealousy. It can be generated and nourished only through meditation. So let’s start meditating from today.