January 28, 2014
Bangalore, India
Gurudev, I am a victim of one sided love, always. Please give me
some idea or tips to make it two sided.
Sri Sri: I have no experience in this.
Let’s think. All problems are caused by love only. There are two things. One is
people express their love too much, and then there are others who do not
express it at all. Both are no good.
If you express your love too much, the person who is receiving it doesn’t know
how to respond. Just imagine yourself in that place, if someone gives you too
much love, you will feel like running away. You don’t know how to respond,
unless and until you are so centered and you have one pointed love towards the
Divinity.
If you are connected with the universal spirit of one pointed love, it doesn’t
matter. Then there is only one thing, that is one sided love.
I think God also feels the same thing: one sided love. The biggest
victim of one sided love is God. He loves you so much and you don’t even
recognize it. So he must be feeling the same way. God loves you, this
creation loves you, and you seldom recognize it. If you recognize this and be
quiet in yourself, then you'll see. The universe pours so much love on you. You
can't handle it, the universe pours that much love on you.
The world always loves you more than you love the world.
You should know this, the universe loves you more than you love the universe. God
loves you more than you can ever think or can ever imagine.
As I said, a seed will not sprout if put on the surface of the mud. And also if
it is too deep inside the mud, then it won’t grow. So it should be somewhere in
between. It should not be deep inside the soil or in air, just a little bit
covered. In the same way, expression of love should be somewhere in the middle.
When you don’t express it verbally, it shows in your actions.
Gurudev, we can see mistake of others very easily, but keep on
repeating our mistakes as we don’t see them. Many times we are not able to
apply knowledge on ourselves, but we give knowledge very easily to others. Why
is it so?
Sri Sri: That is a good realization. Once we recognize that we are not
applying the knowledge. Once we realize it then we start turning around.
Do you know why mistakes are tempting? It is because we think we are going to
get some great pleasure and joy out of it. But over a period of time, it will
drop.
Gurudev, how does a master decide, how much truth is to be
revealed and how much to be concealed as the listeners may be on different
stages of their spiritual growth.
Sri Sri: Real master does not make any effort at all. He has purity in
heart, clarity in mind and spontaneity in action.
Gurudev, when I teach, I teach from the space of ‘I know’. But in reality,
sometimes I don’t know. I am a seeker, how to be in the ‘I know’ and ‘I want to
know’ at the same time. How to teach and remain a seeker at the same time?
Sri Sri: You know some things, at the same time, you don’t know many other
things. It is as simple as that. Whatever you know, you convey with certainty,
and whatever you don’t know, you simply wait in the hollow and empty space.
Life is a journey from an angry ‘I don’t know’ to a beautiful ‘I don’t know’.
Whenever someone is upset or frustrated, he says ‘I don’t know. I don’t care.
Don’t ask me’. From this ugly ‘I don’t know' to a beautiful ‘I don’t know’,
that is wonder. From frustration to wonder is the real journey.
As a child, we are all born with this beautiful ‘I don’t know’; wonder.
Unfortunately it is moving from the beautiful space of ‘I don’t know’ to an
ugly ‘I don’t know’. This should be reversed.
Gurudev, how does the spiritual growth of people help a country
prosper? Please give an example. How can spiritually inclined people help save
the country?
Sri Sri: The spiritually inclined people will have a better attitude in
life. They will not have prejudice. They will work with humility, dignity,
protect others' dignity, care for others, and have compassion. All these things
naturally come to spiritually inclined people.
Spirituality creates sense of belongingness. When there is sense of
belongingness, corruption will go down. Corruption begins where this sense of
belongingness ends.
Gurudev, Chanakya’s pain was that Hindu kings had no concept of a
united nation. Their fighting allowed Alexander and the Mughals to rule India.
Even today rulers are in the garb of secular politicians. How do we revive the
pride of Hinduism?
Sri Sri: Actually Hinduism means universalism. It is not just any sect. The
president of India Dr. Radha Krishan was asked, 'Who is a Hindu?'
He said by negating all the religions, i.e., one who is not a Muslim, one who
is not a Christian and so on, whoever is left is a Hindu.
So all those who accept everything, are Hindus. It is very difficult to define
a way of life as a religion. A way of humanism is really what Hinduism is. It
does not force you to follow just one scripture, one book, or one ritual per
say. It simply says that the world is a family, accept knowledge from every
side. Realize yourself and serve others. This is the principle.
When I was in America, I was talking to some people about, the constitution of
America. It is exactly what Hinduism is, honoring diversity, freedom of
worship, liberty, and justice to all; the whole philosophy is what Hinduism is.
This universe is versatile, there are so many dimensions and so many ways to go
to the one truth. That is exactly what the essence of Hinduism is.
Unfortunately, in this country the self-esteem of Hinduism has gone down so
much. In the colonial era, they suffered a lot. So the self-esteem and prestige
went down. It is only during Mahatma Gandhi’s time, or little before, when Swami
Vivekananda tried to tell people and reestablish their pride in their culture
and religion.
Lord Macaulay, when he went to London, he wrote to Queen Elizabeth, saying, 'I
have travelled the length and breadth of India, and I have not see one person
who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such
high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever
conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which
is her spiritual and cultural heritage'.
He wrote this letter. It is a very famous talk that he gave in the British
parliament. After that they systematically destroyed the Indian culture.
He said that people should think that they are no good, and that was
successful. In the 40's and 50's people started thinking that way. That
anything from India is not good.
But now times are changing, we simply have to tell people this country had some
very good things and some bad things also, like everywhere, because our culture
has been interpolated by things which are not good.
Originally, the caste system was for professional convenience. People of
professions were grouped together. Later on it became hereditary, and then the
rigidity increased.
Anyone who did not follow the rules of a particular community were kept out for
a small period of time as untouchables, as a punishment. Like you are in
chamber of commerce, and you did something bad and you were thrown out.
But untouchability was never bad so it became a big problem for the Hindu
religion later on. Saints throughout the ages have worked to eradicate the
untouchability, and they have been successful.
I have written a book, the heritage of Dalits. Many saints were
from the untouchable community.
Coming back to this lack of self esteem, this needs serious attention because
there is no one big authority. Hinduism is just a way of life. It has its
advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that you cannot bring
uniformity. On the other hand, the advantage is it has a lot of scope for
growth.
Religion alone is not enough, the spiritual aspect is needed to regain the self
esteem and prestige.
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