Dealing with difficult people

It's not definitely easy to deal with difficult people. Sattvik people find a lot of difficulties in dealing with Tamasik and Rajasik people. Tamasik people are interested in the protection of their interests. They want a status quo vis a vis their wealth, power, and positions. Rajasik people are interested in the promotion of their interests. They want greater wealth, positions, and power. Sattvik people want harmony, which is in nobody's interest. Setting up harmony and systems in itself requires a great deal of effort. These efforts become further challenging due to the resistance by the Tamasik and Rajasik people. Since these Tamasik and Rajasik people have very strong identification and obsession with their cause, they become very vocal and obstructing at times. The Sattvik person will have to bear all this resistance and at the same time make the efforts required to set up the systems.

That is the reason why setting up systems is so difficult. Each one of us has vulnerabilities. Many times the system setters have to face the threats of disruption in normal career progression. Many times they are ignored for promotion. Many times they are sidelined and most of the time, they are criticized as stupid and worthless fellows. The peers and colleagues all start hating them because they are reluctant to twist the systems for the benefit of their friends. In fact, there are very few friends these people would have.

We see so many examples around us. The biggest example is our resident welfare associations. I have seen so many bizarre fights inside the RWAs. We see similar fights and leg-pulling inside each organization. Even different divisions of the same organization which are supposed to work in close coordination to achieve the objectives of the organization fight against each other. Individual interest becomes primary and the interest of the organization becomes secondary. Sometimes it looks quite strange that all the people sitting in the meeting want the same objective to be achieved and yet there are so many bitter fights. For anybody working genuinely towards harmony within the organization, it's really a roller coaster ride to tackle the people with self-interest.

Most of the time, these people with self-interest have an interest in money or power, or position. Sometimes they openly fight for their interest. However, most of the time they fight for their self-interest in disguise. They wrap their interests in a very good package of organizational interests to sell their products. An even stranger category of self-interest is the fixation with ideas. People get so obsessed with their ideas that they conveniently ignore the damage inflicted on the organization by their ideas.

When a sattvic person tries to set up the systems in any organization, he has to bear the opposition of all these types of Tamasik and Rajasik people. As per Indian mythology, the devas always wanted harmony in the universe. While the Danavas were Tamasik and were interested in the protection of their interest. In the fight between the Devas and Danavas, generally, the Danavas will win the battle. Because of the simple reason that they do not have any wider objective in their mind. They are happy destroying. It's always easier to destroy and very difficult to create. For lord Siva, there is no difference between the devas and danavas. Whosoever establishes a connection with lord Siva, he blesses him with powers and desired boons. However, whenever there is a disbalance, he himself takes the form of a deva and resets the balance. 

The important point here is that connection with the divine. In the journey on the spiritual path, it's only that connection that matters. If that connection is well established, one will automatically get inclined towards harmony. When that connection is well established, we see the temporariness of all the creation. We can clearly see the temporariness of all the wealth and powers. We can also see the futility of their pursuit. In fact, we can see clearly that each harmony in a local place leads to disharmony on a wider plane. 

As that connection grows stronger, our perspective changes quite significantly. We stop giving premium to the shade of the character we play or the length of the play or the storyline of the play. What becomes important while playing any character on the stage of life, is how well we played the character and while playing the character, what was the strength of our connection with the director. The source of satisfaction is not the events at the stage. Anyhow these events are meaningless. Satisfaction is driven in terms of continuity and strength of the connection with the divine. Any and every role with this strength is equally beautiful. This connection automatically brings compassion to fellow human beings. It also brings a natural instinct to help others. Help not to add fuel to their inner fire of accumulation of wealth, power, and positions. Rather help to reconnect to the divine to get that inner satisfaction that is incomparable to external satisfaction and is quite priceless.