The right vision needed for knowledge

 

Knowledge will be different at different levels of consciousness. At a particular level of consciousness, you will achieve anasuya, which is a state of mind that is devoid of fault-finding eyes. If a mirror is dusty, you need to clean it. But if your eyes have cataracts, any amount of dusting the mirror will not help. First you have to remove the cataracts, then you can see that the mirror is clean. 

There is a type of mindset that always finds fault, even in the best of conditions. Even when people with this mindset have the best, they still find faults. With the best possible companion, or the most beautiful painting, they will still find something wrong. That kind of mindset cannot know sacred knowledge. 

Krishna tells Arjuna that he is giving him a royal secret because he achieved the state of anasuya. “You find no fault in me even though you are so close.” From a distance, even craters cannot be seen, and up close, even on a smooth surface there will be holes. If you are only interested in the holes, you will not see the magnanimity of things. If you are not in anasuya, knowledge cannot blossom and there is no point in giving knowledge to you. 

What about discrimination – wisdom? If it is in your vision, your perception, then you will find discrimination. The moment you are off the path, everything will be wrong. That is not anasuya. For example, after ten years of friendship you no longer see the good in that relationship; you only find faults. However, once you discover you have the wrong vision – you have discovered your cataracts – then half of the problem disappears. 

There is a fine line here. Instead of saying, “My vision is blurred,” you say, “The whole world is not sharp.” Suppose someone is coming through a door but it is windy, so you shut the door. If the person thinks the door has been slammed in his face, then this is asuya, not anasuya. 

Most people are like this. Asuya is finding fault. It is seeing malicious intent everywhere. It is like a child who says, “Mother, you do not love me!” The child’s vision is wrong. If a mother does not love her child, who will? It is the same when someone comes and says, “Guruji, you do not love me!” If I do not love him, then nobody else in the world will. Where else will they find love? Nowhere. A mother may get frustrated but not a master. 

Can a person achieve anasuya without being enlightened? Not always. Such questions are only excuses. To find enlightenment, you must have this vision.

Going beyond words

 

Words have meanings that we distort. For example, the word “brainwashing” implies that your brain sometimes needs washing. You do not want to walk around with a dirty brain, a dirty mind. What is wrong with the word “brainwashing?” It indicates a clean brain, a clean mind, but it is used in a derogatory manner. 

The word “disillusioned” is the same. It is good that you are disillusioned; it means you have come to reality. 

Purana means “that which is new in town, the most modern” but it is now used in the sense of being old. The word “enthused” comes from the Greeks which means “God is with us.” Then it came to mean crazy, and today it has changed again. 

In the course of time, meanings of words change. Do not be stuck on words. Your worries are words. Your ideas are words. Wisdom is beyond words. It is the very Being. It is the essence of all words. See and relate beyond words. Then there are no lies in your life. 

If you manipulate words, it is a lie. If you play on words, it is a joke. If you rely on words, it is ignorance. If you transcend words, it is wisdom.

Unlearning your way to becoming hollow and empty

 

What shall we talk about today? What is the point in talking about something of which you know nothing? 

There is no point in talking about what you know and no point in talking about what you do not know. There is no end to learning but there is an end to unlearning. That is when you become totally hollow and empty.

The four modes of action

 

Nigraha means control. 

Agraha means insistence. 

Satyagraha means steadfast determination. 

Duragraha means blind adamancy, reckless stubbornness. 

These four allow you to progress when practiced for just a limited period of time and will give limited results, positive or negative. But if practiced for a long period of time, they will eat away the potential of life. You have to transcend all four to attain peace. 

Freedom is when you transcend all four – control, insistence, determination and adamancy. They are inevitable to streamline life, but you need to transcend them to be free.

How to get true freedom

 

Life moves by dual factors – inner tendencies and outer influences. 

Inner tendencies form your attitudes and behavior, while external influences make strong impressions in your mind. Your tendencies often generate external situations, and situations around you can form tendencies within you. This is called karma. 

Both these factors – the tendencies from within and influences from outside can be either beneficial or harmful. It is awareness that filters the outer negative influences and it is awareness that corrects and annihilates the unhealthy inner tendencies. This awareness is called gyana. 

The purpose of education is to develop this awareness so that you can be selective about your tendencies and influences. It is practically impossible to resist the external influences and the inner tendencies without raising one’s consciousness. This can be gradual or sudden.

This is how a human being has both free will and destiny. Freedom is when you have a say about your tendencies and your influences, but only awareness and impeccable devotion can bring this freedom.

How to, or not, lose your freedom

 

Honour reduces freedom. Your fame, honour and virtue can limit your freedom. 

Nobody expects a good person to make a mistake, so the better you are, the higher the expectations people have of you. It is then that you lose your freedom. Your virtues and good actions are like a golden cage. You are trapped by your own good actions for everyone expects more from a good person. Nobody expects anything from a bad person.

Most people are stuck in this cage of prestige and honor. They cannot smile. They are constantly worried about keeping their prestige and their honor; it becomes more important than their own life. Just being good or doing good to retain prestige and honor is worthless. 

Prestige and honor can bring more misery in life than poverty. Many desire fame, but little do they know that they are looking for a cage. It is an art to be dignified and yet not be suffocated by it. 

Only the wise know this. For the wise one it is natural to be honorable, but s/he has no concerns even if it is lost. Despite having fame or prestige, s/he will live as though s/he has none. A wise person can handle any fame without feeling suffocated. By doing good in society you can gain prestige, then when you enjoy the prestige and honor your freedom is lost. 

Then how do you keep your freedom? By being like a child, by considering the world a dream, a burden or a joke.

Rising above attraction and delusion

 

Those you associate with can either elevate you or pull you down. 

At first there is an attraction but then delusion. This keeps your mind swinging between the two extremes causing love and hatred. 

With the power of knowledge and satsang you can rise above this dilemma.

Don't fight for your rights

 

Those who fight for their rights are weak for they do not know their inner strength, their magnanimity. The weaker you are, the more you demand your rights. Asserting your rights makes you isolated and poor. 

People who fight for their rights take pride in it. This is an ignorant pride. You need to recognize no one can take away your rights. They are yours.

The courageous will give away their rights. The degree to which you give away your rights indicates your freedom, your strength. The stronger you are the more you give away your rights. Only those who have their rights can give them away! Demanding rights does not really bring them to you, and in giving them away you do not really lose them.

Poor are those who demand their rights. 

Richer are those who know their rights cannot be taken away. 

Richest are those who give away their rights. 

Demand for rights is ignorance, agony. 

Knowing no one can take away your rights is freedom. 

Giving away your rights is love, wisdom.

Company matters

 

Normally in the world people with similar tendencies group together– intelligent people get together, fools get together, happy people get together, ambitious people get together and disgruntled people also get together to celebrate their problems. 

When disgruntled people get together, they complain and pull each other down. Frustrated people cannot be with someone happy because the other is not dancing to their tune. 

You only feel comfortable when the other person is in tune with you. Intelligent people do not feel at home with foolish people. Foolish people feel that intelligent ones are not humane. 

People with wisdom feel at home with the disgruntled as well as the happy, foolish and intelligent. Similarly, people with all these tendencies feel at home with the wise. 

Just turn around and look at what goes on in your group – are you grateful or grumbling? Take responsibility to uplift the people around you. That is satsang, not just singing and leaving. The wise person is like the sky where all birds fly.

Are you a tourist or a pilgrim?

What is the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim? Both are on a journey. 

Where a tourist satisfies the senses, a pilgrim is in quest for the truth. 

A tourist gets tired and tanned, while a pilgrim sparkles with spirit. 

Every move a pilgrim makes is done with sacredness and gratitude, while a tourist is often preoccupied and unaware. 

A tourist compares his journey with other experiences and places and thus is not in the present moment. But a pilgrim has a sense of sacredness, so he tends to be in the present moment.

Most people in life are just tourists without even being aware of it. Only a few make their life a pilgrimage. Tourists come, look around, take pictures in their minds, only to come back again. But pilgrims are at home everywhere – they are hollow and empty. When you consider life to be sacred, nature waits on you. Are you a tourist or a pilgrim?

Considering our past, present and future

 

When people consider past events to be the result of free will they are filled with remorse and regret. When they consider future events as destiny, lethargy and inertia set in. 

A wise person will consider the past as destiny and the future as free will. When you consider the past as destiny, no more questions are raised and the mind is at ease. 

And when you consider the future as free will, you are filled with enthusiasm and dynamism. Of course there will be some uncertainty and some anxiety when you consider the future as free will, but it can also bring alertness and creativity.

Now, how do we remove the anxiety? By having faith in the Divine and doing sadhana. Consider the past as destiny, the future as free will and the present moment as Divinity.