We often have things in our past that we resent. If terrible things have happened to us, we may feel that we are so damaged as to have no way to create a better future.  

Thankfully, the past can never take away our capacity to change how we see and explain it. The past is a vast sequence of countless events, big and small. What we remember of it is a selection understood through an interpretation. And we can change both the selection and the interpretation.  

Change how we see our past: We may remember those incidents from our past where we were wronged. But if we seek the positive, we may discover that some good things also happened to us. While some people have hurt us, others have helped us. Just the fact that we are alive, that we have survived till today, indicates that there’s been more good than bad in our past. 

Gita wisdom can help us change our vision of everything, including the past. The Gita explains that we all are eternal souls on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution. When we understand that we have an indestructible core, we feel less scarred by our past.  

Change how we explain our past: Events in themselves don’t affect us much; what primarily affects us is the meaning we assign to them. And Gita wisdom helps us discover an eminently positive meaning to everything, including to the events from our past. The Bhagavad-gita (13.23) indicates that the supreme reality, Krishna, oversees everything. We are his eternal parts, and he orchestrates things for our ultimate welfare. Even when bad things happen, he retains the ability to bring good out of them. 

When we thus learn to see and explain our past positively, we can play our part in creating a better future.  

 

Think it over:

  • How do we remember our past?
  • How can we change how we see our past?
  • How can we change how we explain our past?

 

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13.23 Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.

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