A Guru Always Takes You for a Ride

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. Why this interpretation, these stories, why this lore has taken this direction is - a large part of the population of the world is always deprived. It has always 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 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 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.

If you receive something before you evolve yourself to a point where you are ready to receive it, 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 with just 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, 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 there is anything right or wrong with it, it is just that 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 wellbeing 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. If people come and ask, it's okay, you don't have to give."

Parvathi, Shiva's wife, who was sitting there, said: "Oh, my Lord, how is this possible? 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: "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. 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. 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, sent for some of his men and said, 'Leave two of the most wonderful golden urns for him to use.' So the king's people came, took away this mean-looking vessel, and put up the golden vessels. 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 very mean mind and with mean intentions, came in that direction. He walked into the cave and the first thing his eyes fell on were the golden vessels. 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 his yoga, the sage could run faster. By the time the thief reached the town, the sage caught up with him.

Then the 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 forgot to take the other one. I just came here to give you the other one.' The man didn't know what to do. People looked at this whole scene, it really humiliated the man because he stole from such a sage, who was running behind him to give the other vessel, which he had left behind.

The sage went back and 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 which were there. 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. So this one mouse, 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.

Now the other cat stopped coming because there is a fierce cat. After some time, a wild dog came looking for the cat. Then the sage chased away the wild dog, but the wild dog hung around, waiting for an opportunity to get the cat. Then he thought, 'This does not work,' and again he used his powers and turned the cat into a dog. Now the 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 away.

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 him. 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, 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. If you give somebody something which is beyond their want, if you give somebody something which is beyond their capabilities, if you give somebody something 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.