How to accept and confront one's bad self?
Question by:Bhavini,student,Lucknow
Acceptance is a process. It is not just a word or phrase expressed as simply as “I am sorry.” If you know you have committed a mistake and are embarrassed about it then your psycho-physical evolution has started.
Awareness, embarrassment and emergence are the three stages of acceptance.
Awareness: That you have done wrong can only be known when you have the right idea in your mind. The right idea is always in the mind, take it for sure. When it rises, you begin to know the wrongs you have committed and are unable to get out of the guilt. Therefore, awareness is the state of mind when the light of the right idea is growing in your intellect and showing the mistakes clearly. The processes are happening simultaneously.
Embarrassment: When you see things in the light of the right idea, you begin to feel the guilt of seeing the wrongs in you. This state is expressed as embarrassment. It increases with the idea of guilt. What is guilt? Guilt is the state of the mind when the committed wrong has magnified in the light of the right idea so much so that you feel as if the shadow of the wrongs will overpower the idea of right in you. The wrong has already been there in your mind since you committed it. But, the rise of the right idea brings it face to face with you to deal with it. You try as hard as possible but you can’t get rid of the idea of guilt. Guilt only stays till the right idea is firmly rooted in you.
Emergence: Finally, the light of the right idea increases and the darkness of the wrongs begins to disappear like the morning sun dispels the darkness. The sunlight of the right idea rises with the day and the darkness of guilt melts away in it. This state of the mind is called emergence—you are on the way to freedom from the guilt. This is also the state when you reject the wrong completely and never repeat it in your life. This sumps up the process of acceptance. Now you are firmly established in the idea of the right and there is no room for the wrong one. The guilt goes. It stays as long as you have the chance to recommit the mistake. When the right idea has been firmly rooted in the buddhi, it reconstructs the mind accordingly and you begin to project the right idea—-begin to live it, express it and enjoy it. No guilt now. This has been beautifully expressed by Krishna in Chapter 4 shlok 7.
Whenever the right idea makes you feel the guilt and see the wrong idea rise, then
I reconstruct the mind and begin to manifest myself through it, O Bharat!
What a beautiful explanation by Krishna! You cannot see your wrongs unless the right idea shines in you. When it lights up, it shows you the reality of “how wrong idea has been rising”. Unless this happens, there is no reconstruction of the mind. That means when you feel the guilt of committing the wrong, you are in a way evolving. That evolution completes only after you begin to see how the wrong has been rising in you. The moment you know it, acceptance happens itself and you begin to reconstruct your mind without the wrong idea! This is deliverance at the mental level. You may call it evolution. You don’t have to accept or reject things, just be aware of the right idea, hold on to it, follow it and everything will happen on its own. Yes, the guilt will remain till the right idea has been fully rooted in your Buddhi!--VS
How to accept and confront
one's bad self?
Bhavini,student,Lucknow
Acceptance is a process. It is not just a word or phrase expressed as simply as “I am sorry.” If you know you have committed a mistake and are embarrassed about it then your psycho-physical evolution has started.
Awareness, embarrassment and emergence are the three stages of acceptance.
Awareness: That you have done wrong can only be known when you have the right idea in your mind. The right idea is always in the mind, take it for sure. When it rises, you begin to know the wrongs you have committed and are unable to get out of the guilt. Therefore, awareness is the state of mind when the light of the right idea is growing in your intellect and showing the mistakes clearly. The processes are happening simultaneously.
Embarrassment: When you see things in the light of the right idea, you begin to feel the guilt of seeing the wrongs in you. This state is expressed as embarrassment. It increases with the idea of guilt. What is guilt? Guilt is the state of the mind when the committed wrong has magnified in the light of the right idea so much so that you feel as if the shadow of the wrongs will overpower the idea of right in you. The wrong has already been there in your mind since you committed it. But, the rise of the right idea brings it face to face with you to deal with it. You try as hard as possible but you can’t get rid of the idea of guilt. Guilt only stays till the right idea is firmly rooted in you.
Emergence: Finally, the light of the right idea increases and the darkness of the wrongs begins to disappear like the morning sun dispels the darkness. The sunlight of the right idea rises with the day and the darkness of guilt melts away in it. This state of the mind is called emergence—you are on the way to freedom from the guilt. This is also the state when you reject the wrong completely and never repeat it in your life. This sumps up the process of acceptance. Now you are firmly established in the idea of the right and there is no room for the wrong one. The guilt goes. It stays as long as you have the chance to recommit the mistake. When the right idea has been firmly rooted in the buddhi, it reconstructs the mind accordingly and you begin to project the right idea—-begin to live it, express it and enjoy it. No guilt now.
This has been beautifully expressed by Krishna in Chapter 4 shlok 7.
Whenever the right idea makes you feel the guilt and see the wrong idea rise, then
I reconstruct the mind and begin to manifest myself through it, O Bharat!
What a beautiful explanation by Krishna! You cannot see your wrongs unless the right idea shines in you. When it lights up, it shows you the reality of “how wrong idea has been rising”. Unless this happens, there is no reconstruction of the mind. That means when you feel the guilt of committing the wrong, you are in a way evolving. That evolution completes only after you begin to see how the wrong has been rising in you. The moment you know it, acceptance happens itself and you begin to reconstruct your mind without the wrong idea! This is deliverance at the mental level. You may call it evolution. You don’t have to accept or reject things, just be aware of the right idea, hold on to it, follow it and everything will happen on its own. Yes, the guilt will remain till the right idea has been fully rooted in your Buddhi!--VS