Some thoughts on “Right, Wrong or Peaceful ?”

I was expecting some good thoughts after posting my last post. And I was not disappointed. Here is a thought of Puneet.

“The flipside to notice here is if they had accepted your documents after you got angry, would you still be writing this blog the way you have written, would you still be wondering about peace of mind.

Sometimes a situation like this makes us think about peace and personal benefit rather than monetary but if you change a few parameters in the entire situation, you don’t know if you would have thought and felt the same.

In your own words “Things are the way they are if you understand(accept) them. Things are the way they are even if you don’t understand(accept) them”"

A very accurate observation ! yes, I might have not got these thoughts had they accepted my documents. That is why it is said, each incident offers you one opportunity to improve yourself. Sometimes, we need harder ones to give us the wisdom we seek. Somebody had said :” No pain, no gain”. I may put it in these words: “There is no such thing as problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts” (from Illusions – Richard Bach)

Hope, we all can reach at the stage where, we don’t need any particular event to understand the truth lying beneath…

- Uday

Right , Wrong or Peaceful ?

Recently, I faced one difficult test. The story goes like this.

In my company, salary includes one component called FBP (Flexible Benefit Plan) in which we need to provide bill receipt to claim the reimbursements. I declared my FBP with telephone bills. After 2 days, my company got converted into public limited. so they asked all to fill FBP in four days to claim the reimbursement. After that, they were not going to process it. Now, before one day of deadline, I got my application back, because I had attached wrong form (my form carried more and all details than the asked form.) I filled that form and sent it back. After four days, it came back again asking to submit original bills ASAP , as receipts were not accepted. The mail came late on friday (6:13 PM to be exact) . I sent bills on monday. Didn’t get any reply. So thought everything is fine. Then, on next friday, I got my FBP. Telephone reimbursement ? 0.

Why ? I asked. They said I didn’t submit my bills on or before sunday. I said I never knew that sunday was the last date. You asked me to submit it ASAP so I sent it on next working day. They said they could have considered it even on monday. I said I have sent it on monday only. They didn’t get any !! Or they lost it ?

I asked them why didn’t they asked me to submit bills early ? They asked me why didn’t you submit your FBP earlier in the last 4 months ? I asked them to consider it as special case and do the process. They said they can’t. It is frozed. What if everybody comes and asks for the same ? I told them they should do this because it was not my fault. I was new to this company and didn’t know the process-flow. And there was no help on this either. They said now its almost 5 months. you should have known all these things. Finally, I asked: “do I have any hope of getting it ?” they said: NO.

I was definitely angry. I even became rude with that person. I shouted on him. He was calm. I thought definitely, what was he loosing ? I thought he could have done it if he wanted to. But he didn’t. I lost peace of my mind.

Then, after some moments, I thought :” Is it a question of right, wrong or peace ?” I lost my peace believing I was right and other person was wrong. I thought I should not tolerate this injustice. I must act against it. Otherwise I am also taking part in this system. But isn’t being peaceful all the time is more than being just (relative) right ? When I lost peace of my mind, the battle outside was already over. Now, it was all inside.

Things happen and are generally out of our control. We can however, control our mind participation. I firmly believe – whatever happens, you can keep your peace of mind. When you loose it, you loose all. In normal circumstances, we easily follow it. But when you think you are right and you have been treated badly, you tend to forget it. The real “TAPA” is to easily pass into such situations.

Then what should be my reward ? First, Be Alert – Be witness – Stay present.
Two, I am not claiming any telephone reimbursement for this year. Well, there is no ill-will or over-reaction. It is only to make me remember how dreadful it is to lose your peace of mind.

So, Right or Wrong ?
Aha, finally it just is.

- Uday