By Mahatma Das
Lord Caitanya says: one should offer ALL respect to others and should not demand or seek respect for himself. When your peers do better than you, are you happy? Do you appreciate what they’ve done or do you feel concerned or upset that you are not getting as much attention as they are? Do you sometimes not even acknowledge that they have, in fact, been successful (“Anyone could have done that. It’s no big deal”)? Do you seek more to be appreciated than to appreciate? Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that grass doesn’t resist when it is walked on or thrown around. It doesn’t complain or scream out, “How dare you step on me or throw me here and there?!” As we say in California, “It goes with the flow.” Dale Carnegie said the desire to be appreciated is one of our greatest needs. It seems to me like it’s right up there with eating, sleeping, mating and defending. Tell someone how great they are and even if they know you are exaggerating, they’ll still eat it up. We are hungry for appreciation and respect.