The same thing can be both good and bad. Whenever you speak of good, bad is also present. The world is a mixture of both. There is not good without bad. They are both sides of the same coin. Both are necessary. We have been given free will and discriminating capacity to select what is beneficial to us and to avoid what is detrimental to us. Even Cobra poison can be used as medicine.
Interpretation
Good and bad are interconnected, and one cannot exist without the other.
This quote by Swami Satchidananda emphasizes the duality of existence, where good and bad are intertwined aspects of the same reality. It suggests that our ability to choose wisely, utilizing our free will and discernment, is essential for navigating the complexities of life, as both positive and negative elements coexist and play vital roles in our experiences and growth.
In practice
In a speech about resilience, one could use this quote to illustrate how challenges and hardships can lead to personal growth.
If you have done something meritorious, you experience pleasure and happiness; if wrong things, suffering. A happy or unhappy life is your own creation. Nobody else is responsible. If you remember this, you won’t find fault with anybody. You are your own best friend as well as your worst enemy. (99)
Begin with little things daily and one day you will be doing things that months back you would have thought impossible.
Anything that you throw comes back. All your actions are echoes.
. . . I feel we don’t really need scriptures. The entire life is an open book, a scripture. Read it. Learn while digging a pit or chopping some wood or cooking some food. If you can’t learn from your daily activities, how are you going to understand the scriptures? (233)
When you win and the other fellow loses, what do you see? A losing face. There is great joy in losing and making the other person win and have a happy face. Who will be the happiest person? The one who brings happiness to others.
Yoga is not only learning to stand on your head but also learning to stand on your feet.
They are just 100 per cent bear, whereas human beings feel we're not 100 per cent human, that we're always letting ourselves down. We're constantly striving towards something, to some fulfilment.
Thought is pure energy. Every thought you have, have ever had, and ever will have is creative. The energy of your thought never dies. Ever. It leaves your being and heads out into the universe, extending forever. A thought is forever.
whose steps were a restless substitute for flight.
We continue to blame the poor for their own condition. They are lazy. We do not want to know that the poorest of the poor are toddlers under three years of age.
It is only work that is done as freewill offering to humanity and to nature that does not bring with it any binding attachment.
The real person you are is revealed in the moments when you're certain no other person is watching. When no one is watching, you are driven by what you expect of yourself.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.