Thought for the day fourteen

Do not crave for recognition

A great advice! Recognition is something which everyone loves. But we should think twice to know from whom the praise is coming from.

The world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without any selfish motive. They may praise us today because we are rich and have power; but no sooner we are powerless, they will forget our achievement and start criticizing us.

Moreover, no one is perfect. Then why do we have to value the words of praise of another mortal like us? Why should we crave for recognition? It is better to believe in ourselves. People’s praises do not last long. We have to do our duties sincerely and leave the rest to God.

The Lord of the Song, Sri Krishna says sincerely do your duty and leave the result to ME.

Recognition is a very crazy notion. Generally people will become obsessive with this. The recognition is such a heady drink which everyone wants to drink. The extroverts show off and try to grab the attention, fight for the fame. The introverts swallow and crave in their hearts, but do not show it outside.

If we do not get the recognition which we think deserve, then we cringe inside and slowly go down. If we get some recognition and then it is removed from us, the feeling we undergo is a torture.

There are many examples. We can take any politician as an example. When he becomes an MLA, then a minister or even Chief Minister his joy has no bounds. Suppose he is thrown out of his power, becomes a victim of the circumstances which sends him to jail, the peace of mind is totally lost.

The craving for coming back to power is as bad as the recognition. People around us take advantage of our position. If we are in power, people get stuck to us like a bunch of house flies sitting on a piece of jaggery. I can think of a still worse example. But let me be decentJ

When we are in power, we have everything available anytime and that too on a platter. Each person will start serving us with a hidden agenda. The sole idea of getting something out of the power we are enjoying is in their mind.

We could be helpful to them, which could be our natural instinct. But, on the other hand, if we do not have the eagerness to help others, we may be forced to do some of the things which are not at all advisable.

Among those things, if we are forced to sign some document which we are not supposed to sign, we had it! The peace of mind is totally gone. We would be worried always whether there is a police enquiry, enquiry commission or a CBI enquiry! Why sign and then repent?

There is a saying in Kannada Language. You should not go behind the fame. Then it will come to you by itself. Funnily the converse is also true. The more you try to catch it, the more it distances itself from you.

It is almost like the golden deer Sita wanted Rama to catch! It never got into Rama’s hands. It was a maya of the demons is a different issue. But, it did not come to Sita is the point to be noted.

And the people! Who are they? They want to get some advantage out of us when we are famous or in power. The moment we are out of power, they vanish from our lives. If they just vanish, it is ok. They would even do harm by badmouthing us; they try to join hands with people who are now in power.

The best people? The people who stay with us in thick and thin, the people who don’t care about your status or fame, but be friendly with us.

With such people, we are left with peace of mind. We can be rest assured that we can retain it.