1. You Cannot Make Anybody Happy :

In this world there is always a play of positive and negative. Some problems come, some challenges come, and solutions also follow them. The ancient people would simply focus on keeping their energy high. If your energy is high and people come to you, their problems will get solved.

What happens when people talk to you about their problems? You get steeped in their problems. You get carried away with the problems. So just try this. Let everybody come and complain 100 things to you, you simply keep your energy high, your sight inwards, your mind inwards as though nothing has happened. You will realize that there is freedom within you.

Try this –  anybody can complain about anything, let the world go topsy-turvy, but hold onto the idea – I am going to keep my energy high. You just take one such step and then see.

Instead of turning the mind inwards when problems come, what do we do? We chase the problem and get completely drawn in that direction, and then our energy goes down and we collapse. Many a times, in the name of compassion and sympathy you get drowned. Your compassion does not really help at all in solving the problem. It may sound very shocking but in compassion the problem multiplies and doesn’t get solved.

Problems come so that a person can turn inwards and look inside, get into a state of dispassion and calmness. Instead, you give reasons and try to pacify the person. Pacifying a person in a problem is the worst thing. You should not pacify them. Let everybody carry their own cross. Bear their karma. If you are miserable or happy, it is your karma. So you change your karma.

This attitude makes a person more  independent. You show compassion and then they seek more attention. You feel more compassion and give them more attention and then neither compassion nor attention is possible.

It breeds tension in you, “That poor person is so upset and I have to make him happy.” To make someone happy is a big burden. Don’t try to do that at all. This is a new policy – don’t try to make anybody happy, you can’t.

There is a Sanskrit proverb that says ‘Kashtasya sukasya nakopi data’ – Nobody gives happiness or misery. It is created by one’s own self, one’s own mind.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar