Acceptance
An email to me on the 13th of March 2020 from a Global Healing forum about what precautions to take in the event of the Coronavirus spreading in our city and community seemed suddenly to awaken me to a new reality.
What started as a routine day turned out to be something I was beginning to resist. I remembered what my son had shared with me a few days before about the impending spread of a deadly new strain of coronavirus to India which had already made its mark in China and had begun its deathly trail across the globe. I had shrugged it off at that time.
Nobody knew what was coming but whatever was expected was something quite like we had never experienced before and being prepared was what we were all doing.
Even though my first response was the refusal to accept the gravity of the same, my practiced mind quickly adjusted to this new situation.
We are so accustomed to living in a reality that is about only accepting what we like that when anything contrary appears in our lives there is a sense of discomfort and resistance. We often stay in denial, and find excuses to avoid facing life as it is and all this causes more pain.
Life is full of myriad experiences some good and some not very. By resisting the unpleasant emotions that come up in bad experiences we add suffering to our pain. Pushing these emotions under the rug can grow into something bigger like anxiety or behaviors that may be damaging to us in the long run.
Acceptance is about turning these resistant thoughts into acknowledging a situation just as It is. It is not about giving up or giving in. This is an ability that needs daily practice.
In our Leadership Lessons at the Chiranjeev Gurukul, we are encouraged to focus on Swaadhyaay, or Self Reflection and Meditation, and becoming more mindful of the present
These practices help cultivate a sense of nonattachment to the outcome and help us become more accepting of the situation.
Acceptance is a concept that is central to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, an Eternal Indian scripture that is considered one of the most important and influential texts in Indian philosophy.
In the Bhagavad Gita, acceptance is closely linked to the concept of detachment, which is the idea of letting go of attachment to outcomes and focusing on one’s actions instead. This detachment and acceptance of what is can help us find peace and contentment, even in difficult circumstances.
One key teaching from the Bhagavad Gita that I can correlate the above experience to, is about accepting the nature of the world. The Bhagavad Gita teaches that the world is full of dualities – pleasure and pain, success and failure, joy and sorrow. By accepting the nature of the world and not being attached to either side of the dualities, we can find that inner peace and equanimity.
