Recently, I got to visit a dhām, a sacred place where devotees throng in large numbers. Since it is quite popular, being squashed by people is obligatory. The experience that was supposed to be rewarding on day one ended up being sour, due to the necessity of walking extra miles. Well, that’s how these places are – you barely get five seconds to look at the idol. It beats me how one could even pray to God in that window. Those five or ten lucky seconds can only buy you a glimpse, and that’s what they call – enough.
When we finally returned to the place where I had kept my sandals, I noticed that they were missing. The exasperation that had immediately built up inside me was at once extinguished by my mom’s words, “It is a good sign that they went missing. It means your problems have been taken away with those sandals.”
It was quite fascinating how her words immediately changed my comportment. My ability shifted to seeing the glass as half-full. It got me thinking, why can’t we always associate a bad event with such strong proclamations? I mean, looking at the bright side, finding that silver lining, kind of instantly turns one’s perspective around. Imagine the meanest things that have happened to you and place a brilliant affirmation next to them. See how you no longer feel the same way about those bad things.
Mulling over my case, I think only a genius could have once come up with this planetary concoction. They must have realized how its association with such positively ominous replies could make a person feel better about their situation, so much so as to make them forget their problems in the first place. I mean just think about it – running to a scholar in those times with your problems and walking away with a smile on your face, only because they said that it was good that something bad happened to you by consorting with a very positive thing – it’s enough to change a state of mind.
Why can’t we implement this very strategy in our lives? What’s keeping us from finding that inner voice that tells us, it’s outstanding that something bad happened because it’s a phenomenal good omen, and that good things await? What a way to turn a bad state of affairs around!
The trick is whenever you get hit by a crisis, think how opportune of it to find you to make you stronger. Dial it all the way toward the other side, thinking not that you got knocked out with a sock on the jaw, but anticipating a tremendous, exquisite, life-changing return lies ahead.
You can also say a bad karma just got destroyed. That one particular awful thing in your life was eliminated—one bad marble out of a bag of marbles got discarded, a hurdle removed from life’s race, one less thing to worry about.