The love of the ignorant can be harmful, yet even the anger of the enlightened is not harmful. It can only be good. We have a school at the ashram in Bangalore. There are 250 children enrolled, but only 200 come to class on any given day. Fifty children don’t show up. Why? Because they cry at home, “Mother, I don’t want to go to school”. The mother says, “Oh, la la, don’t cry, okay”. She thinks “No child in the world is like my child”. She gives in to the child and defends him. She does not see the teacher’s point of view.
So, what happens? The child grows up spoiled. The child will never learn the alphabet, never learn to read or write. And the mother says, “Oh, never mind, there are sheep to look after and fields to tend”. Her love out of ignorance has spoiled the child. On the other hand, the anger of the enlightened is a blessing.
The Puranas give many instances of this. Once a master was travelling with a disciple in the middle province of India. Some boys who were rude, rough, and abusive began to throw stones and tease the disciple, calling him names. This went on for some time as the boys followed the master and the disciple. They came to a river. The Master and the disciple got into a boat and started to cross. The boys got into another boat which began to sink in the middle of the river.
The master slapped the disciple across the face. The disciple was so surprised, as he had not said a single word in response to the boys’ taunts. He had been such a good disciple and yet the Master had slapped him. The Master said, “It is your fault. You are responsible for their boat sinking. You did not respond to their abuse. Nature has now punished them in a worse way because you did not have enough compassion to quell their insults.”
That slap from the master took away the karma of this event so that it would not be carried into the future of the boys. It also served to take away any little bit of joy the disciple may have felt as he was seeing the boys’ boat sink! Thus, it also took away the karma of the event for the disciple. Even the anger of the Enlightened is a blessing.
A sculptor of temples uses all types of stones. He uses certain stones for the foundation, these never appear outside. From certain other stones which are good to carve, he makes the walls and pillars of the temple. From yet other stones he makes the steps and other stones become the tower of the temple. Only those stones that are extremely suitable for carving will become installed as the deity. When the stone becomes a part of the temple, it no longer remains a stone, it becomes a sculpture, a piece of art, it becomes the living deity.
In the same way many, people come to the master. According to the degree of their surrender they are installed by the master. All are essential. If there were no steps, how could a person reach the temple? If there were no foundation, how could the temple be there at all? What can a tower do without pillars? For a sculptor of temples, each stone is precious and valuable.
