Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | May 11, 2014
Alfred Adler (1870-1937) was an Austrian psychologist. The title of one of his books is The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology (1927). In this book, he discusses man's inborn qualities. Then he observes, that the most unique quality that he discovered in human beings was their power to turn a minus into a plus.
One such example is that which has been narrated in the life of India's great spiritual giant, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). Once he was invited to one of his friend's house. The friend wanted to test Swamiji's spiritual shakti.
For this purpose, he put a table in a room of his house. On this table, he kept the holy books of ten major religions. The Gita was placed at the bottom of all of these books.
When Swamiji reached his friend's house, he was made to enter this room. When he saw the table, the host asked for his remark at the order in which the books were placed on the table. Apparently, it was a provocative scene for Swamiji.
The Swamiji observed the table and smiled, then he politely said: "The foundation is really good." Apparently, this was an unfavorable scene for Swamiji, but by his wise remark, he converted the minus into a plus.
This is no doubt a great quality of man. By birth, everyone has this unique quality. The only condition, is that when a person faces a crisis or an unwanted situation, he must keep his mind normal.
He must save himself from reaction. He must think about the situation with a positive mind. He should be able to respond to the situation without hate and malice.
Anyone who fulfills this condition will certainly be able to turn his minus into a plus.