For many people nowadays, whatever has happened in the past has become an excuse for what they are right now: “I am like this because somebody abused me.” I am not saying this without any concern or lack of compassion for such things, but this problem has taken on major proportions. If they do something nasty and somebody asks them, “Why did you do such a thing?” people say, “When I was a child, you know what my father did to me?”
I am not trying to belittle somebody’s unpleasant experiences. I know there is pain behind it, but do we want to continue to harvest pain or do we want to convert this pain into wisdom and harvest wisdom out of our experience of life?
That is a choice every human being has. That is the choice society itself has. That is a choice we must exercise. Especially if you have been abused, if you have been put through unpleasant situations in your life, you should be sensible enough not to put anybody else in those situations. Isn’t that an intelligent way to be? But many people just use the unpleasant experiences in their past as something to hide behind.

Whatever you consider as misfortunes are events in your life. When life happens in a way that you do not want it to happen, that is what you consider a misfortune. It is every human being’s aspiration that life should happen the way we plan it. But no matter how capable we are, outside situations will never happen one hundred percent the way we want them.

However unpleasant the events may be, as human beings we have the intelligence to think beyond that. If something unpleasant happens to us, what should be our first thought? “This should never again happen to me or to anyone.” This is very human. But now, because something unpleasant happened to you, if you do that to everybody and say, “I am doing this because they did it to me” – this definitely needs to be looked at. And this is not an individual position. The larger society has taken this position. They think it is alright. It is not alright. It needs a social psycho-therapy.
Especially if you have been abused and you know the pain of being abused, you should ensure it never happens to anybody.

Isha Foundation New Zealand conducts Isha Inner Engineering and Hatha yoga Programmes. It also offers free Isha Kriya and Isha Upa yoga practices online for the general public regularly. For more information Pls contact: 0224637811 or Visit: www.ishayoga.nz
Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.