I Get Along Easily

[Listen to Asha read this story]

I had to work closely with a woman I found overbearing and opinionated. Since I, too, have strong opinions, we often had a personality conflict. I asked Swamiji for advice.

“She is the same way with me,” he said, “but I get along with her easily. When I am with her, I just don’t bother to have a personality of my own, so there is nothing to conflict with hers.”

I took this to mean that I should let go of my likes and dislikes, especially the thought that she needed to be different from what she was. I tried it, and found we got along much better. This thought also helped me in several other relationships.

“Suffering is the result of wanting things to be other than they are,” Swamiji says.

Years later, I mentioned to Swamiji how helpful his statement had been: “When I am with her, I just don’t bother to have a personality of my own.”

He seemed puzzled by his own remark. “Well, I just don’t have a personality,” he said. What for me was an affirmation of right attitude was, for Swamiji, his natural state of consciousness.

“I never identify myself as ‘Swami Kriyananda,’” he says. ”To me, Kriyananda is just an event for which I am responsible.”

~ From an Ananda devotee ~