If you are looking for means to overcome the pain and anger due
to insults, name calling and body shaming. Then this passage will be of great help.
Insults - Name Calling
Pain and anger due to insults is because of wrong perception and our identification with our ego. Know that there is no I. It appears from the Supreme Truth like a bubble and will take another form any moment. It is this wrong identification that is the true problem.
- How we respond to a problem depends largely or in most cases, solely, on how we perceive the problem.
- If a mentally disturbed person were to call us names, we would not bother and would probably pray for that person’s welfare.
- On the other hand, if a healthy person were to verbally abuse us, we would not tolerate it and would come out with a fitting retort even before that person is finished. That would be our response because we perceive a threat in the verbal abuse.
- Deeper thought would make us see our faulty perception in this instance. How does someone calling us something bad change our nature? It does not.
- Apart from being disturbed by what you have heard, you do not change. And even that little disturbance would not occur if you choose not be affected by those meaningless words.
Next time have pity on the person who insults or calls you names because the person is actually insulting the Supreme Truth which is present in the person, you and all animate and inanimate.
Body Shaming
- Same is the case with anyone telling something bad about your body. Say, someone calls you a cripple. How would it change your body, if you are healthy? It would not.
- That shows us that we are disturbed because of our identification with external circumstances that really do not mean much.
- If we could train our mind to stay rooted in the reality of our personality and not be swayed by what we experience, then we could achieve much more in life.
- Stop expecting praises from other people for your body
- Treat body as a temple of god. Not just yours but the body of all living organisms. The single Supreme Truth resides in all the bodies.
Know oneself to be beyond the body and the mind and believe
that one’s true personality is a spiritual personality, the Atman. It cannot be
insulted nor can it be shamed.
Know that one’s true nature is beyond the body and the mind
and is unaffected by the external circumstances.
Having said it is hard for many of us to digest insults and name calling. But know that we are in pain due to wrong perception and ignorance. Self realization can alleviate many such wrong pains.
Some lines taken from the editorial page of Prabuddha Bharata published in April 2016