Demanding Respect

As I was doing my Japji Sahib today, I couldn’t help thinking about this video that I sent to my dear friends and family.  What is it about doing my prayers that makes me want to do things for others?  Inherently, I seem to review all the things that I could and probably should have done differently.  It sometimes feel as if the words disappear on my Gurbani Anywhere app, and I am reading and thinking of all that has transpired in my life the last few days. It strikes me as almost disrespectful that I am a thousand miles away as I pray.  Yet the thoughts keep coming, and I have to work on ensuring that I am present as I pray.  It occurs to me that praying and meditating are the only times I am by myself and Him, and I this is my way of connecting with the one above.

It struck me as telling  that I forwarded the video to over 2 dozen people and I received only 3 replies so a 2% conversion rate (I am not that great at math so that could be wrong).  I have become that annoying person who constantly puts uplifting messages on his timeline as well as is always sharing wisdom that affects him. I felt a bit helpless this time around because I REALLY wanted the people to watch the video I sent. In it, BK Shivani discusses how we constantly demand respect from others while continually not giving it ourselves.  We always want people to do what we want them to do, which in turn is what everyone else wants so until we begin the process of separating from souls from their thoughts, feelings and actions, we will continue to DISRESPECT them.  We will fail to see the close people around us as emotionally disturbed. We will not see things from their perspective so we will continue to send negative vibrations to them.

These past few days. I managed to spend some quality time with one of my dear friends and his family. It really effected me to see them struggle with each other. They are the most loving people I know, yet their environment has become toxic as each of them demand respect from other. Rather than accepting each other as they were, they were embroiled in a battle to change each other.  And then there are people in my life who will go months not talking to each other because they feel they are both right. What if everyone was right in their own way? What if we, instead of wasting time demanding respect from each other, they accepted everything faults and all. To many of us, this sounds impossible. Yet, it is also that simple. If we just gave up demanding respect, and accepted each other souls with different ways of doing things, we would be so much happier.  Wish us luck! 🙂

On a totally random note, I have become obsessed with this song.