As you are, so shall you see.
What you see is not the reality of the world but your own reality. When you go out, look at the people of the world, and try to understand them, you may or may not understand them, but you’ll understand yourself.
There are many people, rather a majority of the people, who tell us that the world is mean, full of corrupt people, ready to stab us at the slightest opportunity and that we should always remain beware lest we may be hurt. Many of these warnings come from people who care for us. And so, we take them seriously. But when these people presented their understanding of the world, did they really tell about the world or about themselves?
In the light of the Gurbani lines, we need to ask ourselves this question.
If we are always afraid of others, whom would we love? If we are always afraid of being cheated, whom would we trust? If we are always thinking of a “mean” world, what are we becoming? “As you think, so you become”!
The world is not as nasty a place as we are thinking it to be! Probably, we meet with so many cheaters, hear about so many opportunists, see so many backstabbers because we are “expecting” to meet, hear, and see them. Probably, our expectations create our reality. Probably, when we look at the world with a different pair of eyes, we’ll meet, see, and hear different kinds of people. Probably, our thinking will change the kind of people we meet. Probably, we’ll start attracting people who can be trusted, who are caring, and who are benevolent. Probably, our fear of getting harmed is making us see the world as full of enemies.
But then how can we change our eyes?
In the company of the enlightened beings, who indeed have different eyes or ‘perspective’ of the world.