SOUL SUSTENANCE 23-07-2024
Becoming Free From
The Desire For Praise (Part 2)
Always remember that
as an actor in the world drama, I have to perform all actions to my best
capability, but it is not possible to always please everyone with my performance
all the time. This is because we have woven webs of negative karma with a large
number of souls in our previous births as well as in our present birth. Because
of this sometimes even our good actions are seen as negative ones or sometimes
not noticed by some. When we understand this hidden secret of karma, we will
perform nice actions only for our happiness and not to please others or receive
their respect, which may or may not come. Suppose I talk lovingly and sweetly
with someone who is negative and angry with me, do they always respond in the
same manner? So, should I also stop being nice to them? So praise for my actions
from others is less important than praise from myself and even God, who is
always noticing what I do the whole day and how I behave.
We are all also brothers at the spiritual level. As brothers, we share a bond of
spiritual love with each other and to love, care and respect for each other is
our natural spiritual duty. But when we consider serving others as something for
which we should get recognition, we have forgotten the same. God serves the
whole world in different ways. He helps us in different ways, but sometimes we
do not realize it. Does He look for recognition? No. So, as God’s children, our
duty is to serve everyone we meet with our goodness in every thought, word and
action and not expect goodness in return. We commonly say we are misunderstood
by this person. And then we feel hurt because the other person did not
appreciate us. So serving selflessly is the key to contentment and inner freedom
from the desire for praise.