Understanding the Role of Attitude and How It Impacts Our Lives

0:00 In the Sanskrit language there is a term bhava, which defies precise translation into English, but generally can be understood as an orientation of the being, a feeling or attitude of being, a vibrational field that expresses a specific mood mode or energy. This word has a far broader and deeper connotation than any similar single words we may find in English. There can be a mode of devotion, for instance, where the being takes on the energy of aspiration, prayer, and consecration. Dr. Dalal helps us appreciate the sense of this term through his description of the psychological connotations of the term attitude, which can encompass states of being, knowing and expressing from the various parts of the being.

0:58 We can look back on our lives and note times when we managed to change our attitude about something and thereby changed the entire direction of the future in relation to that person or living being generally, or our environment or how we respond to situations. A common example is found in the way people often relate to bees in the United States. As young children, they are frequently indoctrinated to believe that bees are dangerous and painful, and thus they tend to treat bees as hostile beings that should either be avoided out of fear or exterminated. This category has expanded in many people's minds to include honey bees, native pollinating bees of various types, bumble bees, as well as yellow jackets, Hornets, and Wasps. Some of these beings are innocuous, busy doing their job of bringing back pollen to their hive and as a result, pollinating much of the food that we eat. Thank you bees.

2:08 Some are more aggressive and may need different treatment under various circumstances, such as yellow jackets, but even here they have a role to play, and careful consideration of location and circumstance can minimize hostile interactions. Meanwhile, people, particularly in the United States, call in an exterminator and they try to destroy the bees, including the beneficial innocuous ones that make no trouble for anyone. Similarly, there is widespread use of insecticides that kill bees as part of their functionality, and people do not give this a second thought. The result in the United States is the decimation of bee colonies, colony collapse and a crisis for future food supplies. This has gone to such an extent that scientists are trying to invent tiny drone bees to undertake pollination in the absence of bees.

3:11 So let us back up for a minute as many people have started to become aware of the concern and have cultivated a new attitude towards bees, to support bees, to understand bees and to find ways to not only coexist but to actually help the bees survive the onslaught in the general society. This is a visible change in attitude which has a change in action and results that can be observed. Such changes take place all the time as we learn how to retreat from surface reactions and we begin to look at the entirety of the world around us and the interactions that take place.

3:54 As such RE evaluations take place, we may find us changing over time our attitudes and thereby our interpretations and responses to many types of situations. Such changes are exemplified by individuals who have had a traumatic experience of some kind, such as a near death experience and come back transformed in their understanding and way of seeing the purpose of their lives and how they should participate positively in the world. Dr. de Lal notes quote what is meant by attitude?

4:36 The phrase attitudes of mind used by James obviously implies that attitudes have something to do with the mind. Thus, dictionaries define attitude as a way of thinking or as a mental view. A further understanding of the term is provided by psychology, which defines attitude as an internal affective orientation that would explain the actions of a person. This psychological definition indicates that an attitude is not merely a way of thinking, but also a way of feeling an affective or emotional disposition which determines a person's actions.

5:19 In psychological jargon, an attitude has cognitive thinking, affective feeling, and conative willing components. Therefore, a change in one's attitude towards a thing, person, circumstance, or event implies change in the way one thinks, feels, and is disposed to act in relation to the thing, person, circumstance, or event. End Quote. Reference. Sri Orovindo and the Mother looking from within. Introduction by Doctor Delal, pages 4 to 5. Roman.