Love and 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.

 

*Playing your part*

 

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.