“Your life quality is affected by the quality of your thoughts.”
– MARCUS AURELIUS
Kabir – The couplet
बाहर कहाँ देखि ऐ, अंतर कहिये राम ।
कहो माहौल खलक सो, पर धनीसे काम ||
Transliterated:
Baahar Kahan Dehi Ai, Antar Kahiye Ram |
Kaho Maahaul Khalak So, Para Dhanise Kaam ||
Translation:
Why do you look outside, pray inside your heart|
The world does not need to know your prayer, their approval means nothing ||
My understanding:
In the early stages of learning any new skill, we are anxious to seek approval of our new learning from the society immediately around us. So we parade our new learning and wear it on our sleeve for all to see, hoping they appreciate and praise our displayed skill.
Prayer and meditation, however, is not for the external world. As long as we depend on finding satisfaction through the feedback received from our physical senses, we are limiting our growth and consigning ourselves to that space of opposites (joy and sorrow, passion and dispassion, love and hate, enthusiasm and apathy), for the brain vacillates between these extremes as a pendulum, unable to find emotional stability or centered peace, as long as it depends on finding approval externally.
This inability to center and stay rooted in quietude is because the search for external approval is driven by desire – and the ego always wants more, not satisfied by any level of acceptance or approval. If one likes me, why not two? If the whole world approves, are they all secretly making fun of me? If they really liked this this much, what else can I do to make them like me more? How can I please all at once?
This rapidly draws me into the whirlpool of sycophancy, which will at the end dump me into the deep ocean of desolation and despondence, for ultimately, even the greatest sycophant tires and moves on to other pastures.
Do pray for you need it, not because someone else must approve. Find satisfaction within in the resulting calmness and peace. There is no need to look for external approval – the ability to pray is reward enough!