Suppose we suddenly get infected by a disease. Amid such adversities, our emotional energy often gets dissipated in resenting what has happened and such negative emotion leaves us internally crippled. . 

If we are to act constructively, we need to accept what has happened. We may find acceptance difficult because we may mistake acceptance with passivity. We may think we are letting ourselves be victimized, traumatized, walked over, preyed upon — all these are definitely undesirable. The Bhagavad-gita (18.35) indicates that such emotions are characteristic of a mind afflicted by ignorance. 

How can we accept without becoming passive? By understanding our place and purpose in the overall scheme of things. 

Spiritual wisdom helps us to understand that we are all parts of a Whole bigger than ourselves, Krishna. And within that cosmic whole, things move purposefully, even if they seem to move randomly at our level of perception. 

Within this purposeful movement, we are meant to keep playing our part in a mood of service and contribution. By such a self-conception, our vision shifts from what we can’t change to what we can change; indeed, accepting what can’t be changed is vital for such a shift. As finite parts of the whole, we have small yet significant agency. If we use our agency to do what we can, we can at the very least stay prayerfully connected with Krishna and offer ourselves as instruments for doing whatever he wants us to do. Guided by this spiritual vision, we don’t stay passive however constricting our situations may be. With grace, we accept what we can’t change. And with grit, we strive to change what we can.

With such spiritual grace and grit, we can free our emotional energy to face the situation better and go through that situation to a better place. 

One-sentence summary:

Acceptance means to stop fighting what is, passivity means to stop fighting to improve what is.

Think it over:

  • Why is passivity unhealthy?
  • How is acceptance empowering?
  • Amid difficulties, how can you shift your response from passivity to acceptance?

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18.35: And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and illusion – such unintelligent determination, O son of Prutha, is in the mode of darkness.

To know more about this verse, please click on the image