Is this a better way?

Have you wondered what causes pain? While problems are in everyone's life. There is not a single person who doesn't have any problem, yet only few people go through pain. Why is it so? You must have heard this saying: Problem is inevitable, suffering is optional. Why. Why suffering is optional?

There is only 1 word that causes pain in your life. Only because of this 6 letter word, you go through the suffering. Want to know what that word is. Its EXPECT. Suffering/Pain is what? When you lose your composure, when you are not centered, that means you are suffering. Why does this happen? You expect things to be in a certain way. You expect a person to behave in a manner, you expect things to happen your way... you expect this.. you expect that; and when it doesn't happen the way you want, you suffer!

Now what to do if you don't want to suffer? Its very simple. Just change the 6 letter word with another 6 letter word - ACCEPT. Instead of expecting, start Accepting! You lose your composure, because you are not ready to accept things/people/situations as they are! Once you accept, you are free. You should say: Ok this is how I wanted it to be, it didn't happen. Its ok! Then work towards it. This way you will be in the right frame of mind, centered and will be able to deal things well.
If you ask me what is the magical word in our life. I would say its Accept. If you ask me what is the other name of GOD, I would say its 'accept!'

There are 2 ways to stop the suffering in your life:
First is: Don't expect at all. Don't expect a surrounding to be quiet. Don't expect someone to love as much as you love them. Don't expect a person to behave in the manner you want! Once you don't expect, everything comes to you as a surprise! But once it comes, accept that too. If joy comes as a surprise, accept. If problems come by surprise, accept. Accept and move ahead.

Second is: Expect, but Accept too. I expected this to happen as I wanted. It didn't. ok. Now what. Accept and move ahead.

Any method is fine. But only Accepting can remove your problem of expecting!
Once you have accepted this piece of knowledge, your life will be free from suffering! :)


I came across this very nice write up probably from a friend’s forwarded email. It is very well written but it made me think. Life would indeed be simple if we do not EXPECT but ACCEPT whatever comes our way.
I would like to tweak it a little bit and say EXPECT GOOD THINGS for yourself. EXPECT that you will get that promotion, EXPECT that your spouse will always understand you, EXPECT that your children will be obedient and ‘model’ citizens and EXPECT that you should have no enemies, only friends and well-wishers surrounding you; simply EXPECT that all good things will reach you automatically! You only need to ‘simply EXPECT’ that means EXPECTING wholeheartedly, without even a shred of doubt.
Try this out as an experiment; you will find that your enthusiasm soars and the contentment you feel will be inexplicably high!
Of course at every point of life we learn to ACCEPT the people and situations around us; most of the time we do ACCEPT things/people after a long internal battle and after pondering over the evasive question WHY ME? This phase of ACCEPTANCE involuntarily lures us to a wrong sense of fatalistic attitude, albeit even temporarily.
For those situations which seem insurmountable in terms of people who may behave incorrigibly we need to take clues from the ‘divine’. Just remember the golden words of Sri Krishna:
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
“you only have the right to do your duty, never on the results”
Just execute your part in the situation and forget about the result. It is not your job to get exasperated about ‘how incorrigible’ someone may be. Such type of thinking only leads to frustration. Instead do your bit, with a clear heart and mind, fully anticipating good things to accrue to you. That way you win over the fatalistic attitude, your mind and heart will brim over with enthusiasm which is the single most pertinent thing for a human being.