November 14, 2015
Spiritual head of the Brahma Kumaris, Sister Shivani was in Coimbatore to deliver her talk on ‘Feeling great no matter what.’ The discourse was organized by FICCI Ladies Organization, FLO Coimbatore.
Sister Shivani began her discourse by chanting ‘Aum Shanthi,’ which, when translated, means ‘I’m the peaceful soul.’ “Regardless of what I see around me and no matter what my circumstances are, I will be at peace. This is what we should tell ourselves,” Sister Shivani said.
She asked the members of the audience to look back at their lives and analyze themselves. “We are all looking for happiness in objects and materialistic things in the world. Sadly, we often limit our happiness to such objects of desire.” she said. With a tinge of humour, she explained how the advertising industry exploits this weakness of ours to make money. Quoting some popular captions, the audience burst into laughter when she pointed out how companies lure their target customers by using phrases like ‘purchase this and you will be happy.’ “Are we purchasing the product or are we purchasing happiness? Can all these products give us happiness?” Sister Shivani asked.
“When things and situations do not go our way, we tend to become unhappy. Yes this is natural. However, we have a choice to be happy no matter what situations we go through. We can still be happy if we choose to be, even if people say negative things about us,” Sister Shivani said. She advised those present not to define their happiness based on what other people think and feel about them.
Moving the focus to the materialistic world that we live in, she said that people have lost the ability to face the truth. “People are unable to take the truth and their thoughts and feelings are dependent on what others have to say about them,” Sister Shivani said.
About parenting, she said that parents these days want to push their children. She also pointed out that it would make a huge difference if parents used phrases like “in my opinion this is right/wrong,” and, “according to me this is good/bad for you,” while talking to their children. Imposing your thoughts and beliefs on the child is a dangerous trend, she said.
She laid emphases on the fact that we must all respect each other’s individuality. “We must learn to respect and accept each one’s individuality and originality. We are not aware of the journey one has travelled. We have no rights to impose our opinion on other people.” Sister Shivani said.
“What we give is what we will get. In order to get what we want, we must start giving as much as we can. This rule applies to everyone and everything,” she said.
She ended her talk by requesting the members of the gathering to give as much happiness as they possibly could.