QNA WITH SRI SRI
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016

Q: All the knowledge that I have listened to, seems to vanish out of my being when my mother-in-law comes to visit. How can one forget and forgive someone who is constantly behaving in a harsh manner? Please give the advice to the mother-in-law.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Listen, I want you to just take a look at how your mother behaves. How many times did you have arguments with your own mother, and how many times was she frustrated with you? Haven’t you gotten scolding from your own mother? I don’t think any girl or boy has grown up without being scolded by their mother. I have gotten many scoldings from my mother. She used to always think that I was not doing things as well as her and that she always knew better.

Even about the running of the ashram, she would say, "No, you don’t run the ashram properly". My biggest critic was my own mother. So you have this experience. When your mom criticizes you, you just fight with her and then you forget it. It doesn’t really touch you. My dear remember your mother and mother-in-law are of the same age, the same kind and the same category. She scolds you only 10% of what your mother used to scold you, then why does it hurt you deeply? So just accept her. You can’t change her.
If you forget your knowledge at other times, it is okay. But when your mother-in-law comes, that is exactly when all your knowledge is needed. Those days don’t forget to listen to knowledge talks.

People who are tough to handle, whether at office or at home, only help you to develop your skills. You should really thank them. They make you more skilfull, more refined, more compassionate and all your good qualities can start manifesting. Instead your ugly face starts manifesting. See, this is the difference. If you have knowledge, in tough situations, wisdom manifests and good things manifest out of it. If you lack skills, the worst things come out of it. So this one thing we need to master. What? Master the skill of expressing and communication, and grab this as an opportunity to do that.

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