Yad Bhavam Tad Bhavathi

The Ideal approach would be:

'See what is there in it, not what you want to see in it.'

Post and Ghost Story

 

         One day, in the middle of the night, a villager was travelling from his village to another village, to meet his friend. It was pitch dark and was bit difficult to navigate. All of a sudden, he saw a ghost hanging in the air and spitting fire. He got terrified and ran away from there and somehow managed to reach his friends hut and narrated the incidence. 

       The next day morning, out of curiosity, he went back to the same place to check whether the ghost is still there or not. There he found an electric post with spark emanating from its defective wires. What he had seen the previous night was not ghost. It was just this electric post with defects.

 

Now the question is, where was the ghost?

 

     It was in his mind. Ever since childhood, he would have been bombarded with so many ghost stories, wherein, he would have come to believe that, any strange thing seen in the dark in a remote place will be a ghost. 

     Similar things happen when we form opinion about others too. Due to some unpleasant incidences in the past or the negative inputs we might have received from others, we may start forming all sorts of negative views about others, which hinders in seeing the true person they are.

 

Remedial Measures

 

Once in a while, if we can spend a few minutes to introspect and purge out the biases/strong views (ghosts) from our mind, it will help us to empathize with others and the situation they are in. It will avoid imagining all sorts of negative things about them.