Satyopanisad

[Guest guest]

Swami! How should we conduct ourselves socially? What are social norms?

 

You should forget two things: the help you have given to others and the harm

others have done to you. Moreover, you should remember two things: the help that

others have given to you and the harm you have done to others. Then there will

be no ego, pride, jealousy, envy, hatred, and other evil tendencies in you.

 

You should also note another important thing. However small a fault or mistake

there is in you, take it as a very big one. At the same time when you notice a

big mistake in others, you should consider it a very small one. Take your own

goodness as tiny and that of others as mighty. This attitude helps you to

correct yourself, improve yourself, and enable you to forgive and forget the

lapses of others.

 

But, today quite the opposite is happening. Everyone magnifies his own goodness

and minimises that of others, considers his own Himalayan blunders small as an

anthill, while he gives Himalayan magnitude even to the smallest mistakes of

others. This is the cause of all conflicts and infighting.

 

There are still two more extreme categories of people. Some of them portray

their lapses as merits, project their mistakes as right things, and try to focus

on their virtues, which are actually missing in them. Then, there is the last

category of people who are even worse than demons. These are the people who

attribute faults, mistakes, and defects to others, which are all false, and

totally ignore their merits. Correct your own mistakes first. Judge others by

their merits and not by their faults. Seek out your own faults and others'

merits.