'As you sow, so shall you reap' is a Law of Nature. Take responsibility for whatever comes to us from our surroundings.

Secrets for gaining most from your surroundings with least effort
Part 1 — How to make best use of your surroundings
by Global Good News staff writer
29 June 2007

As you sow, so shall you reap
What exactly is the secret for making best use of one’s surroundings? In his book, The Science of Being and Art of Living, His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gives insight into the answer by calling to mind the simple proverb, ‘as you sow, so shall you reap.’

Maharishi reminds us that our surroundings are our own creation. They are a combination of the result of past action and what we are presently creating. Like a gardener who created a rose in his garden—both the beauty of the rose and the prick of the thorn are part of the rose.

Maharishi explains the technique for gaining maximum from our surroundings is an attitude of giving:
‘If we want to receive the maximum at all times, we must have an attitude of giving. "If you want to receive, you must give" is a Law of Nature.’

Maharishi applies this law of giving to personal relations:
‘If you are open with someone, he will be open with you. If you want love from someone, give your love to him. If you want kind and sympathetic behaviour from someone, be kind and sympathetic to him. If you want comfort from him, prove yourself comforting to him. If you want admiration from others, do something to show your admiration for them. If you are sincere in giving, you receive it in return many-fold.

'The teacher learns by teaching; in obeying the student commands the respect of the teacher. If your son readily is obedient to you, he captures your heart as a natural return of his obedience. If you are kind to a child he will be kind to you; if you are harsh to him, he will revolt against you. This is action and reaction.’

Maharishi explains that this technique of giving in order to receive is based on a law of science—the law that every action has an equal reaction. If we react to someone in a certain way, someone will react to us in a similar way. This equal reaction may not come from the same person with whom we just interacted. Nature may bring a different agent to deliver the reaction of our behaviour, but the reaction will come to us. We reap the results of whatever we sow.

The golden rule
Thus, the fundamental principle of making the best use of one’s surroundings is the old familiar golden rule, learned by children across the nation. The golden rule states: ‘do onto others as you would have them do onto you.’ Maharishi underscores the importance of acting in the same way we would like our environment to react towards us.

Maharishi says: ‘The Laws of Nature cannot be deceived; the reaction will come. If a man is jealous of you, you will find—when you search your heart—that you have been jealous either of him or of someone else sometime in the past. Be kind to him, and the surroundings will be loving to you; begin to doubt, and the surroundings begin to doubt you. If you hate, the surroundings begin to hate you.’

This truth of life puts the full responsibility of what comes to us in life on our own thoughts, speech, and action. It gets rid of blaming anyone outside our self for what comes. Maharishi explains that we have only our own conscience to blame for any negativity coming to us from our surroundings.

A kind, forgiving attitude
Maharishi emphasizes our inner conscience is even more important than our actions in attracting the right influence from our surroundings. A loving, kind, forgiving attitude creates the foundation for positivity to flow to us from our environment.

You may ask, ‘what if I have been kind and loving, and my environment is still harsh?’ Maharishi explains that if one feels that one has been loving and positive, and yet there is something wrong in one’s surroundings, then one should just accept it, knowing that it is a result of past actions and just not minding.

Addressing the concept of retaliation, Maharishi advises not to come down to the level of the wrong. Maharishi: ‘Rather let the wrong be just a drop in the ocean of your virtue. A common saying is, "Do not resist evil." If evil is resisted, first you must stoop to that level of evil, and second, you are further responsible for the evil influence you are producing in retaliating.’

Thus, love and forgiveness are the way to deal with wrong. Maharishi: ‘Let the impurities of the atmosphere find a refuge in the ocean of purity in your heart, the unfathomable joy of your inner pure conscience. When you forgive, all nature enjoys your brilliance and returns joy to you. Forgiveness, tolerance, purity of heart, sincerity, love, and kindness are the basic platforms from which to enjoy and make full use of the surroundings on the fundamental platform of giving.’

Spontaneous right action through Transcendental Meditation
These principles of giving are easy to accept and yet, how many of us have found that we cannot always live the highest ideal of behaviour? Maharishi emphasizes that only a ‘normal’ person—a person living in tune with all the Laws of Nature in the state of enlightenment, or ‘cosmic consciousness'—is capable of giving maximum and therefore, of making best use of one’s surroundings.

This is achieved through the regular practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Mediation Technique. Through the regular practice of Transcendental Meditation, one naturally puts oneself in a state where he will not only be making full use of the surroundings, but also where the surroundings will be of full use to him. Right action happens spontaneously, without him having to do anything. Then one enjoys automatic support from Natural Law and from one’s surroundings.

Maharishi explains that only through the experience of Transcendental Consciousness can one reach a level of inner peace and harmony and thus draw the support of Natural Law for full support of one’s surroundings. This can never be achieved through suggestion, or force, or moral pressure.

Broader vision in personal relationships
Maharishi also prescribes Transcendental Meditation for alleviating negative relationships, because one cannot create reconciliation on the level of surface action. By contacting Being through Transcendental Meditation, one gains a broader vision of the situation, based on expanded consciousness. Immediately, one finds oneself more forgiving and tolerant about the same thing, which was a terrible problem a few minutes before. Maharishi:

‘The tragedy is the same, the circumstances are the same. At one moment he fails to derive the advantage and is miserable from the surroundings, but at the next moment—by virtue of raising his consciousness through the method of Transcendental Meditation—he begins to enjoy the surroundings and to develop maximum advantage for himself and for others.’

In conclusion, in order to make full use of the surroundings:

1. First, raise one’s level of consciousness through the regular practice of Transcendental Meditation.

2. On the basis of the experience of inner fullness, entertain a loving, kind, giving, and forgiving attitude.

3. Recognizing the Law of Nature, ‘as you sow, so shall you reap.’ Take responsibility for what comes to you from your surroundings—without blame or retaliation.

4. Behave according to the principal: act towards your surroundings as you would like your surroundings to be to you.

5. If your surroundings still are not favourable, know that this is from past action, and just do not mind.

Copyright 2007, Maharishi University of Management