What you call evil is the servant of the good ...Nisargadatta

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Live Facts, not Fancies..C#60 from "I AM That"

 

Q: You say that whatever you see is yourself. You also admit that you see the

world as we see it. Here is today's newspaper with all the horrors going on.

Since the world is yourself, how can you explain such a misbehavior?

Maharaj: Which world do you have in mind?

Q: Our common world, in which we live.

M: Are you sure we live in the same world? I do not mean nature, the sea and

the land, plants and animals. They are not the problem, not the endless space,

the infinite time, the inexhaustible power. Do not be misled by my eating and

smoking, reading and talking. My mind is not here, my life is not here. Your

world, of desire and their fulfillments, of fear and their escapes, is

definitely not my world. I do not even perceive it, except through what you

tell me about it. It is your private dreamworld and my only reaction to it is

to ask you to stop dreaming.

Q: Surely, wars and revolutions are not dreams. Sick mothers and starving

children are not dreams. Wealth, ill-gotten and misused, is not a dream.

M: What else?

Q: A dream cannot be shared.

M: Nor can the waking state. All the three state - waking, dreaming and

sleeping - are subjective, personal, intimate. They all happen to and are

contained within the bubble in consciousness, called 'I'. The real world lies

beyond the self.

Q: Self of no self, facts are real.

M: Of course facts are real! I live among them. But you live with fancies, not

with facts. Facts never clash, while you life and world are full of

contradictions. Contradiction is the mark of the false; the real never

contradicts itself.

For instance, you complain that people are abjectly poor. Yet you do not

share your riches with them. You mind the war next door, but you hardly give it

a thought when it is in some far off country. The shifting fortunes or you ego

determine your values; 'I think;, 'I want', 'I must', are made into absolutes.

Q: Nevertheless, the evil is real.

M: Not more real than you are. Evil is in the wrong approach to the problems

created by mis-understanding and mis-use. It is a vicious circle.

Q: Can the circle be broken?

M: A false circle need not be broken. It is enough to see it as it is -

non-existent.

Q: But, real enough to make us submit to and inflict indignities and

atrocities.

M: Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope, because the

moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity. This is the

function of the guru - to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life

makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware.

Q: Sir, you are neither the first no the last. Since immemorial times people

were breaking into reality. Yet how little it affected our lives; The Ramas

and the Krishnas, the Buddhas and the Christs have come and gone and we are as

we were; wallowing in sweat and tears. What have you done, Sir, to alleviate

the world's thrall?

M: You alone can undo the evil you have created. Your own callous selfishness

is at the root of it. Put first your own house in order and you will see that

your work is done.

Q: The men of wisdom and of love, who came before us, did set themselves right,

often at a tremendous cost. What was the outcome? A shooting star, however

bright, does not make the night less dark.

M: To judge them and their work you must become one of them. A frog is a well

knows nothing about the birds in the sky.

Q: Do you mean to say that between good and evil there is no wall?

M: There is no wall, because there is no good and no evil. In every concrete

situation there is only the necessary and the unnecessary. The needful is

right, the needless is wrong.

Q: Who decides?

M: The situation decides. Every situation is a challenge which demands the

right response. When your response is right, the challenge is met and the

problem ceases. If the response is wrong, the challenge is not met and the

problem remains unsolved. Your unsolved problems - that is what constitutes you

karma. Solve them rightly and be free.

Q: You seem to drive me always back into myself. Is there no objective solution

to the world's problems?

M: The world problems were created by numberless people like you, each full of

his own desires and fears. Who can free you of you past, personal and social ,

except yourself? And how will you do it unless you see the urgent need of your

being first free of craving born of illusion? How can you truly help, as long

as you need help yourself?

Q: In what way did the ancient sages help? In what way do you help? A few

individuals profit, no doubt; your guidance and example may mean a lot to them;

but in what way do you affect humanity, the totality of life and consciousness:

You say that you are the world and the world is you; what impact have you made

on it;

M: What kind of impact do you expect?

Q: Man is stupid, selfish, cruel.

M: Man is also wise, affectionate and kind.

Q: Why does not goodness prevail?

M: It does - in my real world. In my world even what you call evil is the

servant of the good and therefore necessary. It is like boils and fevers that

clear the body of impurities. Disease is painful, even dangerous, but if dealt

with rightly, it heals.

Q: Or kills.

M: In some case death is the best cure. A life may be worse than death, which

is but rarely an unpleasant experience, what ever the appearances. There for,

pity the living, never the dead. This problem of things, good and evil in

themselves, does not exist in my world. The needful is good and the needless is

evil. In you world the pleasant is good and the painful is evil.

Q: What is necessary?

M: To grow is necessary. To outgrow is necessary. To leave behind the good for

the sake of the better necessary.

Q: Why all this trouble then?

M: Whose trouble? Which trouble? Do you pity the seed that is to grow and

multiply till it becomes a mighty forest? What is wrong with life, ever more

life: Remove the obstacles to growing and all you persona, social economic and

political problems will just dissolve. The universe is perfect as a whole and

the part's striving for perfection is a way of joy. Willingly sacrifice the

imperfect to the perfect and there will be no more talk about good and evil.

Q: Yet we are afraid of the better and cling to the worse.

M: This is our stupidity, verging on insanity.