We don't have control over what others think about us: Beautifully explained Chinnakatha

People have plants in their houses and tend to them by watering them, cleaning and providing suitable conditions to grow and they think that such cleaning work may be considered by others as menial and are afraid of being labelled as servants. Due to this perception people have stopped cleaning their houses. One should not waste one’s life based on the respect and disrespect doled out by others. People should not give in to feelings of shame as the work done by them is for their happiness and to keep their houses clean and intact. One should not care about the thoughtless fame or defame that others give and must only be ready to act on one’s thoughts, either good or bad, not depending on others’. Fame and obscurity are meaningless words. There is a small story. There lived two persons in a village. One of the two always rode a horse when journeying. The other person carried a pillow on all his journeys. One day both of them had to travel at the same time to the same destination. The person who had the habit of carrying a pillow started first and the other person, who rode his horse, followed. They had to pass through a village on the way to their destination. The people of the village took the person walking with a pillow, to be carrying the records and books and thought him to be a peon. Seeing the man riding the horse behind, they took him to be the officer who was following the peon. In the old days there were no cars or buses to go from one place to another; so the collectors, Tahasildars and officers often used horses. On reaching their destination, the person with the pillow sat comfortably in a rest house against the pillow and the person on the horse walked the horse in search of a suitable place to lodge the horse. Seeing the man resting royally on the pillow the villagers thought him to be an officer and the man looking for a stable, to be a peon. This is how people form feelings of respect and disrespect in the world!! The person who was thought of as a peon in one village was considered as officer in another and vice versa!! The respect and disrespect that people gave the two persons was solely based on their perceptions. The persons did not lose or gain respect by the villagers’ perceptions. A king may have a dream of being reduced to a pauper and a beggar may see himself being crowned as king in his dream. But as soon as they wake, the king finds himself as king and the beggar a beggar. Neither the king has become a beggar, or the beggar a king. In their wakeful state both retain the respect due to them. The feelings of respect or disrespect experienced in their dreams are like the passing clouds. Therefore, without taking such feelings to heart, one must be ready to sacrifice anything to serve one’s own, in one’s house for one’s self satisfaction.