Why Do We Resist Change?
FEAR: We want change and we are afraid of change,
which makes us think of a static condition as a secure condition.
It would be a very funny animal in the jungle, perhaps a deer
or a buffalo, which thinks that just by standing still, it
will escape the tiger. So, static situations don't give us
anything, not even security. They only make us more and more
subject to everything that governs a static condition. There
is no change, there is no growth, there is no movement. There
is only what we can call petrifaction, slow solidification,
until even the consciousness of existence perhaps becomes
so dull that we degenerate into some sort of absolute lethargy.
This is, as far as India is concerned, somewhat of a national
phenomenon. People try to continue in whatever they are
doing. A man wants a new job. A new job is offered, then
he begins to worry. Even though it offers double the salary,
much better job opportunities, he is afraid, that having
got it he may lose it. Is it not better to stay with the
old job which only pays half?
All that we know when we come into this system is to accept the fact that
change is inevitable. Let it be a guided change, a regulated change under
the ever-wakeful, ever-loving gaze of a Master who is there to protect us,
cherish us, nourish us and take us to our goal. It is a natural thing that
people are afraid of it. I was myself substantially afraid. Strangely, I
was afraid of everything except my Master. It was not that I was of impeccable
character, or an outstanding human being, but, I blundered into Sahaj
Marg very much like a baby blunders into some situation. And when the
baby goes and sits on the lap of the king, the king does not throw it away.
He accepts, may be only for a moment, but he keeps it on his lap, he loves
it a little, gives it some present and thereafter he gets a special affection
for that child because it came to him.
PREJUDICE: Resistance to change is caused by fear
and prejudice. Prejudice is the resistance to a change in
values. We resist the change in others; rather, we refuse
to perceive such change. Since our views become fixed, our
own progress is adversely affected. My Master has cautioned
us that prejudice is one of the most harmful things on the
spiritual path. Why is this so? It is because prejudice
is a mental phenomenon. The power of the mind, thought power,
is the highest power, the most potent power available to
man. When we use this power in a negative way to oppose
change in others or ourselves, that is, when we yield to
prejudice, we are using the power of thought in the wrong
way. The greatest alertness is therefore necessary to avoid
prejudice.
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