Emerson said “A man is what he thinks about all day long…….”. What controls our thought process? We can have 9 types of thoughts as are the “ rasa”. Some of the thoughts could be of Love, hate, fear anger, devotion, renunciation , happiness, pleasure and pain. What haunts us most is the thought of ungratefulness of someone for whom we have done a lot and what causes maximum agony is the idea to settle the score with him . We keep on brooding all bad things that s/he has done to us and keep on remembering the ungratefulness. But is s/he listening. No. Is s/he affected? Only our health is. Thoughts keep on coming that make us angry . Why did I help him? Do good things and forget that is Indian philosophy. “Our life is what our thoughts make out of it” But what controls our thoughts ? How can we overcome thoughts of ill will and replace them with thoughts of goodwill towards all. It’s not possible in human beings. Humans have all the good qualities and all the bad qualities, like seven colors of light which make white light. Proper mixture of all the good and bad is what makes a human being. Why do we expect Godly behavior from mortal humans? Abrahma Lincoln once said “ most folks are about as happy as they make up their mind to be” Things remain the same in this world. It's our outlook that changes. Things do not change , we change our outlook. Human nature will be same. Greed to amass wealth will be same. Tendency to grab will not change. And humans will cheat as well. However Eastern philosophy of renunciation provides more peace of mind. But this is against human nature , a man is made to excel in all fields of his liking and if you limit his potential to achieve maximum such systems, philosophies, and nations fail in real-time values and you have witnessed it also. Some of the happiest couples I have seen are those going on bicycle and some of the blank eyes with saddest looks I have seen on the faces of people going in “sedans”. They look on opposite side out of the window in wilderness. They are busy in their world of make believe. When ideas crumple, dreams go sour; there is no World Bank of ideas or support system to keep emotional economy going. One has to keep enough emotional reserves, just in case one encounters emotionless persons in life. “Sadbhav “ same feeling towards good and bad is part of Indian philosophy. “ Those who take pleasure and pain alike , their mind is stable and such people with stable mind attain perpetual peace”. These are the divine words. But man is mortal and he just can’t take pleasure and pain alike. When it pains it pains. There is Japanese proverb its pair of things which is given to us. If pleasure is there pain will come automatically. If pain is there pleasure will follow. A dark night is followed by a bright day always. There is a famous hindi song. “Rat jitni bhi gamgeen hogi subah utni hi rangeen hogi, gam na kar jo hai badal ghanera” If night is sad morning will be happy and don’t bother for the thick clouds they will vanish. Opposite will also be true. East and west have different methods of tackling their personal and emotional problems. Rich and poor also deal with their problems in different manner. It is not uncommon to find poor people spending their whole income of the day on drinking liquor or producing more children. Once poor people are drunk they imagine their problems are gone. An actor starts drinking once his beloved has gone , just to forget the pain in his heart . Remember famous hindi movie “Devdas” . This does not happen in real life . Alcohol is no pain reliever medicine. In west alcohol means something different as in east but the damage to the body it causes is the same as human body structure is same globally. Opinions may differ. However alcohol is status symbol now in many countries and a mark of high society. What a pity. Yoga helps us develop change in attitude towards life. If one is able to join his thoughts towards well being of others the happiness will automatically come to such a soul. Jesus said “ Love your enemies” . Hindu philosophy says “Samdrishti” “keep same feelings for friend and foe” . I would say “love yourself first instead of loving anyone else”. This will give you maximum happiness as you will not be able to cheat yourself if you love yourself. There is famous poem “ Aawat hi harshe nahin, nainan nahin saneh, rahman vahan na jayae , chahe kanchan barse meh” if one does not express happiness on your arrival, his eyes are not full of love, don’t go there even if there is rain of diamonds taking place there. Keep away from unwelcome places. Don’t live a life of bitterness and resentment. We are humans and humans make mistakes. God made pencil , he also made rubber to erase our errors and write on the slate of life again. If you meet selfish egoistic and ungrateful people, keep cool the world is full of such kind of people. It’s normal to have such people around. Only you have to have change of thought process to make you happy in all situations and all times. Follow Yoga or meditation and feel the difference. Be happy and make others happy.