Dealing With Four Types Of People And Situations

Excerpts from Gurudev's discourse on the Patanjali Yoga Sutras.

Patanjali has said that there can be only four types of people in the world - people who are happy, those who are unhappy, those engaged in good and meritorious acts, and those engaged in bad and demonic acts. Happy people, unhappy people, meritorious and blessed people and sinful people – the four categories. And how do you deal with them?

Patanjali says;

Maitri karunaa muditoupekshaanaam sukhadukha punyaapunya vishayaanaam bhaavanaatah chittaprasaadanam.

Patanjali suggests to have maitri – friendliness with all those who are happy. If you are not, you will become jealous. You are jealous of people who are happier than you. But if you feel that you own them and that they belong to you, it does not bother you when they are very happy. You are never jealous about the happiness of someone very close and dear to you. The jealousy arises when the happy person is not connected to you totally. So, Patanjali said that, you should be friendly with them.

You can see the same Self in everybody but the feelings will not be the same. It can differ for a beginner. You do not feel identified with everybody, though intellectually you may feel that it is only you who is in the other person; but your feelings still have their preferences since they are not fully cultured and established in the Self. Then, what preference will you have? Be friendly with those who are happy.

If you are friendly with unhappy people, you too will become unhappy. So Patanjali said that we should not be friendly with unhappy people, but we should be compassionate to them.