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Soul Sustenance 11-11-2012
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Resisting From Playing The Blame Game
A very common negative habit that some of us possess is blaming others when required,
either in the family or at the workplace, to save face and gain temporary respect,
even if it is at the expense of someone loosing face and being disrespected. It
is a very common occurrence in offices when an issue arises between people, before
the issue is taken up with the head of the particular department or the office,
one of the two people involved in the conflict, who is more at fault, will present
his case to the head in such a way so as to blame the other and to acquit (free)
himself and maintain his reputation in the office and find favour with the head.
We explain this phenomenon on a spiritual level. The person who blames is attached
to an image of himself being as being extremely efficient and well-respected at
the workplace, who never does anything wrong or incorrectly. He identifies with
this image completely and because of that is very attached to it. In the above scenario,
if he lets his mistake come out in the open, this internal image, which he carries,
would get tarnished (harmed), something which he is in love with. So there is attachment
and because of that there is fear of loss or harm to the object to which there is
attachment, the image in this case. This image, which is so defined in spiritual
language, is called ‘reputation’ in common language. Also, there is attachment with
an internal image of being more successful by getting a possible promotion and progressing
at the workplace in the future. This image is also about to get damaged since the
job might be lost or a promotion might be stopped. So there is attachment to this
second image and fear of harm to this image also. To protect these two images, the
person plays the blame game. The Law of Karma, though, does catch up sooner or later
with such a person and with such behaviour. Being honest may cause temporary harm
to these two internal images or ‘reputation’ as defined above, but one remains safe
according to karmic principles in the long run and the temporary harm, if any, is
undone and respect regained.
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Message for the day 11-11-2012
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Responsibility enables us to give our best in all we do.
Expression: When we are responsible to do something, we tend to feel burdened.
This could be because responsibility sometimes takes on the form of interference.
That is we take on those tasks too that are not connected with us. To such an extent
that we even begin to do those things that others are capable of doing by themselves.
Experience: If we ever find ourselves feeling burdened, we need to ask ourselves
if we are taking on any responsibility which is not ours. When we recognise the
fact that responsibility doesn't mean taking on everything on our head, we will
be able to lighten our own burden. At all times we need to have this attention that
we need to take responsibility but if the situation is not our business or someone
else is in charge, we don't have to get caught in it.
In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris