Love & Sin

[Guest guest]

A very nice knowledge from -- Sri Sri Ravishankar

 

The whole world is made up of love and everyone is made up of love.

All is God. All is love. But then what is the purpose? Where is life

heading? Life is heading towards perfection. Why? Is it not already

perfect? No! Because love has six distortions - anger, lust, greed,

jealousy, arrogance and delusion.

 

In animals also these six distortions are present but they have no

way to go beyond these distortions because nature rules them. But

human beings are endowed with discrimination. This is the purpose of

all (sadhana) meditation and practices. Moving away from distortion

of creation to purity or back to the source.

 

Usually we go from one imperfection to another imperfection. For

example, if someone is greedy, you are angry about their greediness.

Well, that person is greedy, but you are not less than them. You are

not bringing the purity in you, but changing the flavour of impurity.

Change of distortion does not bring perfection. But normally everyone

does this, they just change the distortions, lust becomes anger,

anger becomes jealousy or greed or arrogance or delusion.

 

Anger is no better than lust, it's worse than lust. Jealousy is worse

than anger. That is why it is called 'Vikara'. Vikara means

distortions. The whole creation is made up of nature, and distortion

of nature - Prakriti and Vikriti. Anger is not our nature; it is

distortion of our nature. Jealousy is not our nature; it is

distortion of our nature. You know why anger, greed, jealousy, lust,

etc are impure? Because they do not allow the 'Self' to shine through.

 

Sin is that which does not bring the spirit inside to shine forth

fully. Sin is not your nature; you are not born out of sin. Sin is

like wrinkles in the cloth, it needs proper ironing. You know why

lust is a sin? Because in lust you do not consider the other person

as life, you do not honour the life, you use them like an object. You

make them an object of your enjoyment so you are somewhere over-

shadowing or not looking at the self in the other person.

 

This is the only reason why lust is sinful. Love is the reverse of

it. In love there is surrender, you see the other person as divine.

You elevate the matter into the level of spirit. An idol you worship

is a stone, it's matter. But when you are worshipping it, it becomes

a living reality. You are giving life to it. You elevate it to the

level of God. This is moving towards perfection.

 

Anger is a sin because when you are angry you have lost the

centredness, you have lost the sight of the Self. Again, your focus

is not on the divine, infinite. You have made things small as objects

again. So anger is a sin. Jealousy is a sin. Guilt is a sin. Why? In

guilt you are not recognising the Self as the only doer in the world.

You are limiting the small mind to an action which has happened, or

which has happened through somebody.

 

Be thankful if you have been bestowed with the qualities that you

have, because it is not your own making. In the same way it depends

on the part, which you have been given to play. Say, suppose in a

drama, if you are given the part of a villain, and you play that role

perfectly. And a villain always knows that when I am playing the role

of a villain, it's just a role I am playing. I'm very sincere to my

role.

 

There is a saying in Sanskrit, Durjanam Prathamam Vande Sajjanam

Tadarantaram. First, worship the bad person, and then the good man.

Because the bad man is falling and giving you an example, " don't do

what I did " . Don't hate a criminal in the jail, because he's a

criminal. In the prison, if there is a criminal, he is an embodiment

of God. He has done you a greater service. Don't ever hate a drug

addict, because he has given you such a beautiful lesson, and he has

been given that role. He is just performing his role that way.

 

When you understand these basic laws of truth, then your inner

perfection becomes so stable that nothing on this planet can shake

your inner perfection. Nothing can shake you. Your knowledge of a

mistake comes to you when you are innocent! The knowledge of a

mistake dawns in the moment when you are 'out of the mistake'.

 

However the past has been, whatever mistake has happened, do not

consider yourself to be a sinner or the maker of that mistake because

in the present moment you are again new, pure and clear.

 

Mistakes of the past are past. When this knowledge comes, that moment

you are again perfect. Often, mothers scold their children and

afterwards feel so guilty. Then they go on regretting, " Oh, poor

thing. I got so angry and annoyed at this kid, poor child! I should

not have done this " . Then you prepare yourself to get angry again.

Okay, you got angry at your kid once or twice. Why? Because of lack

of awareness! Awareness was missing so the anger came up, it happened.

 

That's what Krishna tells Arjuna, " Arjuna, you think you are not

going to do what you are supposed to do? I tell you, you will do it.

Even if you don't want, you are going to do it! " In a very clever way

He puts it: " Okay, you better surrender to me directly " .

 

He says: " Drop everything. Surrender to me, and do what I say " . Then

He says: " Well, I have told you whatever I have to say, now you think

it over and do what you like, you do whatever you want to do, do

however you like " . But then He said, " but remember, you will do only

what I want " .

 

These last few sentences of Krishna were so confusing, and people

have struggled to make sense out of them. There are thousands of

commentaries trying to make sense out of these few words, three

contradicting statements. First He says, Surrender everything, I'll

do everything for you, or just do as I say. Then he says: Think,

think and see what is right for you, do whatever you feel is right.

And then in the third statement he says: But remember (anyway) you

will do only what I want you to do.

 

All of our wanting to do, 'doership', is there to eliminate the tamas

or inertia in you. Once inertia is eliminated, then you are in

activity. When you are acting, you become a witness to the acting.

Then you know you are not doing, things are happening through you.

This is the final level of realisation. You can see this in every

action of yours. Have you noticed this? You are busy 'doing' when you

accomplish something. In the beginning you think, " Oh! I have

accomplished " . But your accomplishment becomes more and more and

more and as time goes by, you will feel, " No, it's all happening. I

did not do anything, I did not accomplish. "

 

A writer will feel, " I did not write, it just started flowing, it

started happening " . All the creative work in the world - whether

painting, dance, drama, music, anything - has all come from that

unknown corner. It just spontaneously started happening. You are not

the doer. A best sculptor will say, " I didn't do it, it just started

happening " . A best painter will say the same thing; the best music

composer would say the same thing.

 

I tell you, the same is true for criminals too. You ask the worst

criminal, " Did you do this? " . He will reply, " No, it happened! What

could I do? " And Self knowledge is the only thing that can take you

from imperfection to perfection.