Live Life – Don’t Judge It! – Bhakti Yoga 17

यो न हृष्यति न द्वेष्टि न शोचति न काङ्क्षति ।
शुभाशुभपरित्यागी भक्तिमान्यः स मे प्रियः ॥१२- १७॥

Yo na hR^ishhyati na dveshhTi na shochati na kaaN^gshati
Shubaashuba parityaagi bhaktimaan yaH sa me priyaH

Yo na hR^ishhyati – one who does not rejoice excessively : na dveshhTi – one who does not hate : na shochati – one who does not grieve about his past : na kaaN^gshati – one who does not worry about his future : Shubaashuba parityaagi – one who is beyond good and evil : bhaktimaan – one who is a devotee of Mine : yaH – such a person : sa me priyaH – is dear to Me

That person who is a true devotee of the lord will not become extremely excited when something good happens, to such an extent that he loses himself (na hR^ishhyati), he does not have hatred towards anyone (“na dveshhTi”), he neither grieves about his past nor worries about his future (na shochati, na kaaN^gshati).

There is no point in worrying about the past. It is said jokingly, “Any married man should forget his mistakes; there’s no use in two people remembering the same thing.! The husband can forget his mistakes, because his wife is there to keep track of it”

The point emphasized here is that there is no use in remembering and worrying about things that are beyond one’s control.

In the last Sloka the lord talked about a “sarvaaramba parityaagi” and here he talks about a “shubaashubaparityaagi”. There is no use in judging everything and slotting it as good or evil. A true devotee is one in whose life there is no concept of anything being good or evil – because he is able to understand that everything happens only by the will of the Lord. Once everything is accepted as the Lord’s prasad, there are no bad qualities that are associated with it.

Sometimes, in our lives we come across situations that appear to be extremely bad. For eg, while driving one may have an accident. Every day accidents happen and we read about it in the news. When it happens to us, it stops being a news item and we start blaming God/Fate as though this was waiting and conspiring to trap us into an accident. On the other hand, we only need a minute to reflect and see that it could always have been much worse than the current situation that we are in. Once we change our attitude then what appears evil can automatically appear good. A true devotee of the Lord is able to see only goodness in every adversity and spends his time living his life rather than judging it. Such a devotee, the lord says, is dear to Him.

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