How To Face Problems Of Life?-A Vedantic Approach II

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There are two parts to a problem. Let me give an example. My leg is paining often. That is a health problem. That is the first part. But the second and the more important part of the problem is, 'How do I look at the problem?' When you see people who do not have any problem, you start thinking, 'I have my leg problem. Why me after all?' The second thought brings more pain than the first one. So the perspective how to look at the problem is very important. If your perspective is right you have solved the problem. I will give you some more examples. One branch of psychology is called 'Philosophical Psychotherapy'. The psychotherapist admits that she is not a religious person, and is not talking about philosophy. She/He says, 'I am a psychiatrist, and I have done this experiment with my patients successfully. According to that, if there is a psychological problem, you must change your worldview that means how you look upon the world as such, the people, the work, etc. If you have a positive outlook towards all these and change the perspective, you will be cured of your disease.'

Psychological problems come because of our wrong way of looking at situations. The psychiatrist gives some case histories. There was a young minister appointed to a big church. He had to replace a very senior, much respected and well-known minister who was also a very good speaker. A minister is like a bishop or swami-in-charge. He became very nervous and thought, 'How will the congregation accept me? I am very new. I am not a scholar and also I do not know how to speak well. What to do?' He became so nervous that he came to the psychiatrist and explained the problem. Then the psychiatrist asked, 'Have you come to this church to impress people or to talk about God?' The minister said, 'Yes, I have come here to talk about God.' The next question was, 'Where have you come? Have you come to a forest or to a church?' He replied, 'I have come to a church. This is the house of God. I have come to the house of God to think and to talk about Him.' Then the minister concluded, 'I feel better now.' That little change in attitude worked. After that he never went to any psychiatrist.

In another case, a young man lost his friend in an accident, became thoroughly disgusted with life and was angry with God that such a thing should happen. His deceased friend had a young wife. The young man got frustrated and had to go to the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist heard all this and said, 'You are right. You are upset over things that have happened. But there are two ways here. One is your way of blaming God and everyone and getting upset. The other is to view it differently. As you know, your friend who is no more has a wife and children. Being his friend, sympathize with them, help them, take care of them. Can you not do that?' Then the young person felt relieved.

These are some extreme cases. The idea is that by changing the perspective, the problem gets solved. This is not new. In our spiritual life we do that. We have to treat parents and teachers as God: Maatridevobhava, Pitridevobhava, Aachaaryadevobhava. Wife and husband and all others are God. If we develop that mental attitude, then everything will change.

Taking Help from Scriptures and Teachers

There is another side to this, namely, to take help from others, our friends and companions. First, one may take professional help. People go to counsellors if there is a problem. The scriptures are the counsellors. Keep in touch with scriptures like Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji's Four Yogas. Mahatma Gandhi used to say, 'Bhagavad Gita is like a dictionary to me to solve problems. When you do not know the meaning of a word, you refer to the dictionary. Similarly in life, if there is any problem I run to my dictionary; that is Bhagavad Gita and I get the answer.' Then there are teachers. Tadviddhi praniptena pariprasnena sevay—discuss with teachers, serve them with humility and then you will know.

About The Author

Swami Prabuddhananda, a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order, is the Minister-in-Charge of the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco, U.S.A. This is the text of his speech delilvered at Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad, India

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