The Unfortunate Non-Changers!

Dear All,

Suppose I am following a certain way of life. And someone comes and says that my way of life is wrong, or that it could be improved. Now, what should I do? What should be my reaction to this? Should I say a bit agitatedly "Well, I live life this way, you may live life some other way. Why do you want to impose upon me your way?" Or should my reaction be "OK. Let me see what you have to say, and then I will think about it and compare it with my way of life and see if it makes sense to me.. Thanks."

What a stark difference in the two approaches. The first betrays my lack of motivation to improve my life. It also betrays that I dont really know why I am living a certain way of life. What is the goal of my life and so on.. If I were very clear about why I am following a certain way of life, and what I want to achieve by doing so, then when presented with an alternative, I will certainly have something to compare it with. I certainly wont say that you do your thing and I'll do mine. Instead, I will try to understand the goal of the alternative way of life. Then I'll compare it with my current goal of life and then come to a conclusion whether the alternative path is better or not.

Makes sense?

I get flabbergasted when people just say "well, there are different ways to live life.... " and some such philosophical sounding but vague concepts.. Agreed that there are different ways of living life, but isnt one way better than the other? Isnt leading a virtuous life better than leading a criminal life? Well, this is a gross example because it compares two extremes, but this is just to bring forth the point that one way of life can definitely be better than another!

And shouldnt one be eager to lead a better way of life?

Another quite illogical argument I have to face when speaking to people who dont really want to make any change in their lifestyle (because it will disrupt their daily routine of getting up late, rushing to a newspaper, drinking a couple of cups of tea and so on...), is that "Abhijit, you say your philosophy is better than the others! How can you say that? How can you be so close-minded?"

I find this response so absurd and illogical that I cant possible refute it with logic :-) Because ya, I might say that this is the best way to live life, but as long as I am justifying every statement I make with sound logic, how can anyone say that it is "close-minded"? Its quite a no-win situation when talking to people who cant talk logically.

The conclusion I have come to with such people is that they do not want to change their lifestyle even if it is recommended by the great saints. They say it is impractical though there are thousands of live examples in front of their eyes. And the reason is that these people are attached to their sense enjoyment so much that they cant give it up even if there is a promise of wonderful things. In fact, they say that they are already following some way of life, but if one looks a little closely, one can see that they are not following even that path seriously!

What an unfortunate situation? Who can help these miserable people if they do not want to be helped? Who can wake up a person feigning that he is asleep?

May God be merciful upon such unfortunate souls.

Abhijit.