Welcome to Sync Mind. For a better experience,
Please Use Headphones. In every culture, anything beyond the normal perception of life, anything beyond the normal day-to-day happenings, means it is an opportunity to ask for and receive things which are not
normally available to people. Whether it is Santa Claus of the West, whose bag is full of gifts, or the traditional three boons of India whenever God appears he offers you three boons; you can ask him what you want. This interpretation, this direction of lore... and stories that... why this lore has taken this direction is. always... in the world... a large part of the population
of the world is always deprived. always it been so, a large part of the population in the world
is always deprived of many things that... they would aspire to have, or I would say, almost everybody is deprived of of what they want to have. If they have this, they don't have that.
If they have that, they don't have this. So... almost everyone is deprived
of something or the other. So if a new possibility arises,
the first thing is to ask, and... if anybody is of any worth,
he is supposed to give. I know there are various people, there are various prayers and lamentations of the
so-called - devotees, where they are swearing to God and saying: “If you cannot even give this,
what kind of a God are you? If you cannot even do this, what kind of
a Guru are you? Where is your compassion?” In the Shaiva lore, Shiva narrates many stories and incidents to... highlight the limitation, to highlight the trouble that one can get into just by giving indiscriminately The trouble that both the giver
and the receiver can get into by simply giving somebody something... (that...) for which they are not yet ready. If... they had evolved their life to a point, to that which they desire, it would anyway happen; but before they reach there,
they want to have it. Before you evolve yourself to a point where you are ready to receive
something, if you receive something the great gift may become a great curse. There are any number of people on the planet who manage to somehow manipulate situations to
get something that they want and suffer immensely because
of what they receive. They would be better off the desire, but by fulfilling the desire,
they get into deep trouble. So both the giver and the receiver can be in a lot of trouble
simply by giving something or by receiving something
for which they are not ready. Many times, human beings, once they reach a certain level of attainment, they have an urge to be overly compassionate. Misplaced compassion always comes from your ego; you want to be the most
compassionate person on the planet. Wherever anybody needs anything - reach out. This is not coming from any kind of
understanding, wisdom, or awareness. This is coming from wanting to be the best or the most. You know, whatever you do,
you want to be the most. Wherever you go, even if people say, 'I am stupid', people want to say,
'I am the most stupid person in the world.' Even there, they want to stand first. Somehow they want to be the best one way or the other. 'I want to be the most intelligent,
or I want to be the most stupid, I don't want to be lost in between. I don't want to be ordinary;
I want to be somehow special.' So you want to be the most compassionate. This problem is there among people they want to be the most compassionate. True compassion is not about giving or taking. True compassion is just doing what is needed. You have no preferences of your own; simply doing what is needed is compassion. You revving yourself up into
a huge amount of emotion and reaching out to somebody is not compassion. This is just self- satisfaction,
devious ways to fulfill yourself. Compassion is possible, genuine compassion is possible, when there is nothing to fulfill in
you, you are just doing what is needed. But always, if you get into a deep
emotion and do something, you think that was a very compassionate moment. No, you are seeking self-fulfillment. I am not saying anything right or wrong,
it is still coming from a certain inadequacy. One overly-compassionate sage was indiscriminately disposing of... people's needs. Because of his austerities, he had attained to a certain
capability and he was giving it away. So one day, Shiva called him and tried to advise him, “See, this is not good. The way you are... dispensing gifts and boons to other people, this will not bring well-being to you, or to the people to whom you give. It may bring you much trouble, it may bring them much trouble,
or both of you much trouble. So stop giving these boons. People come and ask, it's okay, you don't have to give.” Parvathi, Shiva's wife, who was sitting there, She said: “Oh, my Lord, how is this possible? As it is, there are very
few givers in the world. As it is, there are very few people who are
willing to give anything in the world. And the few men who are giving, you are trying to restrain them also what is the point? At least a few men who are willing to
give, let them give. You must explain this to me. This is not fair. There are very few givers: that also you want to discount
and make it much smaller?” Then... Shiva said: “See, this is not about depriving
people of something. This is not about depriving the world of receiving something, nor is it an effort to deprive the person to have the pleasure of giving something. It is just that instead of helping people to evolve where they will naturally
receive the bounty of life, an un-evolved person,
if you give him something, you will only overburden him. You will only destroy his life. If you are concerned about somebody's ultimate well-being, you must put him through the painstaking
process of evolving himself to a higher possibility,
where he will receive higher dimensions of life, where receiving just happens
to him because he deserves it. If you gift a ton of gold to an ant, it will only crush the ant. It will not make the ant rich; it will only crush the ant. So what you give, how you
give, is very important. You don't just give because somebody is asking. Let me tell you a story. Once... there was a very sweet sage. Sweet one, not like me. And he sat in his cave in the mountain and was into very stringent austerities... eating simple food, always focused on his sadhana. One day a king came hunting in the forest, he found this cave,
came inside, and saw the sage totally absorbed in his meditation. He bowed down to him, and he was thirsty, he wanted to drink water. He looked around, there he found a real mean looking vessel. all... You Know real mean-looking vessel.
We don't have such thing in the Ashram. The King thought,
'Such a wonderful human being, so deep in his meditation, so dedicated. Why should he use such a mean looking vessel?' So he rode back, then sent for some of his men and said, 'Leave two of the most wonderful golden
urns for him to use, two golden vessels.' So the king's people came,
took away this mean-looking vehicle vessel, and put up the golden vessels. And after a few days the
sage opened his eyes, and to perform his morning ablutions and also for other purposes, he looked for his vessel it was not there. He could not find it anywhere; then
he found these two golden vessels. It was not very convenient,
they were too elaborate, ornate, and heavy, but he decided to use them
because there was nothing else. Life went on for a few days. One day a very mean looking person with a mean, very mean mind, with mean intentions, came in that direction. He walked into the cave and the
first thing was, his eyes fell on the golden vessels. Then the sage welcomed this man and
served him a small meal that he had. The man ate, but his eyes were fixed on the golden vessels. The moment the sage closed
his eyes to meditate, the man picked up the golden vessel and ran. When he ran, the sage saw in his meditation this
man running away with just one golden vessel. Then the sage ran behind him; both of them ran. The man saw the sage coming
and ran faster and faster, but because of all this yoga, you know, the sage could run faster. By the time the thief reached the town, the sage caught up with him. Then... that man was too tired to do anything else, he placed the golden vessel at the
sage's feet and said, 'Forgive me.' People gathered around them. The sage said, 'No, no, no, I had one more. You just forgot to take the other one. I just came here to give you the other one.' The man didn't know what to do, and people who looked at this whole scene, it really humiliated the man because he stole from such a man, who is running behind him to give
the other vessel, that he missed out. The sage went back, he went back and he started
looking for his old vessel. He searched the whole cave
everywhere, here, there. In the process of turning everything around, he pulled out a few baby mice... were there. And also, the mother mice when he turned everything around, these baby mice fell out, the mother mouse terrified, ran away, abandoning the children. So the sage ended up with five little mice; the mother was terrified and never came back. So he started feeding these baby mice with
the little grain that he had, and they were slowly putting on weight. One day, a cat walked in and mopped up four of them. The fifth one, the wily one, went and hid in a corner, and escaped. but four of them the cat the cat mopped it up. Then this one mice,
he was feeding it and making it grow. Then one day the cat came again, he chased away the cat, but the mouse was so terrified. So the sage out of his compassion thought, 'How long can I protect this mouse? Every time the cat comes, I'll have to open my eyes,
I have to come out of my meditation. This won't work.' Out of his siddhi, out of his capabilities, out of the sadhana that he has done, he decided to turn this
mouse into a fierce cat. So the mouse became a cat. So the other... cat stopped coming
because there is a fierce cat. After some time, a wild dog came looking for the cat. Then he chased away the wild dog, but the wild dog hung around, waiting for an opportunity to get the cat. Then he thought, 'This doesn't
work', and again he used his powers and turned the cat into a dog. Then dog was fine for some time, and it
liked to roam around. One day he came running into the cave, with his tail in between his legs. When the sage saw that a panther was chasing the dog, he stopped the panther, chased it the panther Then he sat there and thought, 'This is getting too troublesome. Every time I close my eyes, either I have to protect a mouse,
or a cat, or a dog, or something.' So he decided the best thing is to turn the dog into a lion. 'He'll be the king of the jungle, then I can let him loose in the
forest, he will be safe, I will have no problems.' So he turned this dog into a big lion. Now the lion roamed about the forest. When he walked, every other animal ran away
seeing the lion. But though this was the body of a lion, it still had the heart of a mouse. He was feeling very diffident, 'If they come to know that I am just a mouse, what will they do to me?' He was always going through this struggle. You know, many people are going through this. In the society, in the world, they are
like lions, but inside they are like mice. They are constantly struggling
within themselves... always. Whenever a person is placed in a situation which is beyond his wit or want, then that person will suffer
so much insecurity and fear. Because of this fear in his mind, so many evil thoughts will arise. This happens every other day in the world. All the time it is happening. Its happen here also in the ashram If you give somebody which is beyond their want, if you give somebody something
which is beyond their capabilities, if you give somebody beyond what they deserve, suddenly they become so mean-minded, because somewhere inside they are small. They have to put on a big act. Now they will start thinking
all kinds of nonsense. So this lion was feeling very insecure. He is a lion as far as the world is concerned, everybody is afraid of him, but within himself,
he is a mouse. Then he thought, 'The only other person who knows
that I am a mouse is the sage. If I finish him off, nobody will know that I am a
mouse, I will be a real lion.' With this intention he walked into the cave. The sage was sitting and meditating. The lion slowly approached him, because if the lion finishes off the sage, nobody in the world will
know that he is a mouse. As he came closer, the sage realized it, looked at the lion and said: 'This was not right of me to
turn a mouse into a lion', and he turned the lion back into a
mouse and said, 'Get out of here, fend for your own life.' It is nature for a cat to eat a mouse, for a dog to eat a cat, for a bigger animal to eat the dog. It is natural... Unless they evolve to that position, if you give them that position, they will only suffer and they will bring suffering upon everybody.” So Shiva went on with this story and
he went further; I will stop here. Now... this traditional, what to say, temptation, that they have created in people if you ever see a holy person, if you ever see a sage or a saint, first thing
is, ask for what you want, it will happen. I am telling you, never ask, because if he is wise he will not give. But sometimes he is just in a state where he says okay. If he says okay, you are in trouble, because you will get something
that you are not ready for. If you get things that you are not ready for, life doesn't become better, life only becomes a turmoil in so many ways. So when you sit in a certain space,
when you sit in a certain energy, if you notice a certain person or a place is creating a certain level of energy, it seems to be a little bigger
possibility than what you are, that is the time when you don't think of
anything, when you don't ask for anything, you simply sit. If you simply sit, you will get the necessary
nutrient to evolve very fast, to mutate from one dimension to another. Once you grow into a certain possibility, everything that is possible in that
dimension will anyway happen to you. If you do not grow into that
possibility, but just aspire for that, then you are just bringing
heaps of trouble upon yourself. So meditation, temple, Dhyanalinga, or sitting with a Guru is not a time to ask. It is a time to imbibe and allow this one to evolve
into a higher possibility, so that if it evolves, what has to
happen to it will anyway happen.
