In life, we always put ourselves on a pedestal and we don't like to be criticized or hear criticism from others. Let me tell you one story - A Guru was walking with his disciples. A trespasser suddenly shouted towards them-'Hey, are you blind can't you see someone is also walking " ..Guru exclaimed with a witty smile on his face, and move on to his destination? Next time again he was walking with his disciples and someone said that same word " Hey are you blind can't you see me walking too" this time Guru was not happy, the ever-shining smile on his face was gone, he was ashamed and deeply humiliated. Third time again he was walking with his disciples and someone said again" are you blind can't you see? why are you walking over me ?" this time Guru was completely devasted with shame, anger, and frustration. The pain he got this time is 1000 times more than he felt any other day. This time it was very painful, more than shame and humiliation, he was heartbroken.
Now let me explain the scenario-in 1st scenario- the one who said those words was an ordinary trespasser. He said those words to one of his disciples so he had a witty smile thinking that he has not been insulted and he is great and no one has that ability to talk to him like that ..he criticized his disciples because of walking wrongly. So no problem at all and he moved on.
2nd-time scenario trespasser said those words to the great Gurudev. Imagine the shame and pain he felt! so he was sad and his self-esteem was hurt, "how can someone say something like this to ME?" I'm the great Gurudev after all, he was very ashamed.
In the 3rd scenario, those words were said by his son, his loving Son. Now the pain increased 1000 times more, "My Son! oh no he said to me and that too in front of everyone?" Guru was utterly ashamed and his pain was nearly the feeling of death.
If you look at the bigger picture we cause our pain on our own. We put him ourselves on the high self-worth pedestal and never try to see us from other people's point of view. If someone tries to advise or criticize to act on something, our high self-esteem never tolerates the criticism to become a better person.
You cannot change someone who doesn't see mistakes in their response, to develop a character we need to be truthful and honest to ourselves, we need to know how to accept criticism and also to know how to encourage our spirit to do something better. We can only able to do that- when we stop drawing our picture with the "best version" pencil and ruling by false ego.
There is one guy, he is into digital marketing, when asking for help related to my social media handling he discouraged me saying people like me can't compete with high established people in my profession as I don't have so much money to invest, he was correct, maybe the way he said discouraged me but I got the message what I needed to hear.
Someone's criticism should not be the obstacle of our life it should be a lesson to learn and provocation for acting on it.
