Sadhguru: A very beautiful incident happened
in Ramayan.
Rama
too many unfortunate happenings in his life. Hmm?
He is a king.
For some reason, he loses his kingdom
or he gives up his kingdom,
or whichever way,
or he’s conned out of his kingdom,
or he’s too gentle to protest
and walks away from it into the jungle,
lives a hard life.
Then
his wife gets kidnapped by Ravan,
And then,
having love for his wife and being despondent
about the loss of her
and being concerned what could be happening to her,
he walks all the way down south,
gathers an army of Tamil people
Yeah,
who else was in Tamil Nadu?
And gets across to Sri Lanka,
wages a war,
defeats Ravan in the battle,
slays him.
As all of you know,
Ravan had ten heads.
With one, you’re struggling, hmm?
He had ten!
So Rama went about,
you know,
ten slaughters
so that the man is dead.
Battle won,
they’re coming back to Ayodhya.
Rama chooses
He says,
“I don’t want to go back to the kingdom.
I want to go to Himalayas
and spend some time in the cave of Agastya Muni
because I want to repent
for the great sin that I have committed.
I have killed someone,
who was pious,
a great devotee of Shiva,
a phenomenal scholar,
a great king,
a generous man.”
The others were shocked.
Lakshmana, his brother, said,
“What are you talking about?
Ravana kidnapped your wife.”
So Rama said,
“See, those are the other nine heads.
In these other nine heads of his,
he had greed,
jealousy,
lust,
all kinds of things.
But there was one head,
which had great wisdom,
knowledge,
piety,
devotion.
I regret taking that head.
I would have liked to leave that head alone,
not kill the man.
But there was no way to do it,
so I had to do this.
But I am in great repentance
because I took away that one head.”
What this is trying to tell you is,
all of you have ten or more heads –
all kinds of things.
Do you see?
One day your head is in greed,
another ray… another day in jealousy,
another day in hatred,
another day in love,
another day in beauty,
another day in ugliness.
Yes or no?
Or the same day you go through everything
If I see you in a moment of jealousy, I’ll say,
“This is a jealous one.”
If I see you in a moment of greed, I say,
“This is a greedy one.”
If I see you in a moment of hatred, I say,
“That is a hateful one.”
If I see you in a moment of lust,
I say, “That’s a lustful one.”
No, no, everybody has ten and more heads.
At different times,
different heads are working.
But everybody has head –
at least one head –
of love,
beauty,
generosity,
compassion.
At least one head,
there is.
So the biggest mistake you do in your life is
that instead of identifying
and condemning a quality,
you condemn an individual person.
This is what Rama is trying to say.
“It doesn’t matter,
he did so many horrible things,
those are the other nine heads.
But that one head I saw of tremendous possibility
but unfortunately, I had to take that.”
I want all of you
to follow this fundamental principle –
in the ashram and wherever else you may be –
that if you see something wrong in somebody,
we will only condemn that,
not him or her.
If you bring this wisdom in this New Year,
if you just bring this wisdom,
this Bhogi,
all the baggage will go.
When you do this to others,
the same will happen to you.
There is no need to conclude,
“I am this way, I am that way,
or I’m like this only.”
Well, that’s how you have been in some moments.
In some moments,
you’ve been a horrible creature,
in some moments, you’ve been beautiful,
in some moments, you’ve been ugly,
in some moments, you’ve been wonderful.
If you don’t empower the possibility
and take away
that which blocks your possibility,
then you’re not a spiritual seeker.
You are a,
you know
We must make you a kangaroo court judge
“She’s not okay,
she’s not okay, he’s not okay,
he’s not okay,
he’s not okay, not okay.
And there are a few new people here,
whom we’re yet to know
they are beautiful,” you know?
That is a judgmental life.
Otherwise,
the more you get to know somebody,
more love and compassion should happen because
now you know all their struggles and problems and things
and suddenly you know
they’re bloody as human as you are
yes?
Rama is doing penance for having killed a man,
who kidnaps his wife
and he’s done many terrible things.
But Rama is still identifying,
“There was one head, which was so beautiful.
I shouldn’t have removed that.”
This is a man of great wisdom.
This is why he is worshipped.
Every sensible human being
like this
if you see a rose plant, we call it a rose plants.
Tell me, are there more roses or more thorns?
More thorns but we call it a rose plant
because we recognize the beauty.
Maybe only one rose but 1000 thorns
but we still call it a rose plant.
If you see a mango tree,
there’re more mangoes or more leaves?
Definitely more leaves.
We don’t call it a leaf tree,
we call it a mango tree
because we recognize the sweetness that it drops.
Those drops of sweetness
Full of leaf but that one mango –
“Wow, mango tree!”
Why don’t we see this in people?
Hmm?
If there is one drop of sweetness
Have you seen any human being without a single drop of sweetness?
Have you seen?
Then please do this.
Before Pongal or Maattu Pongal comes,
depending on which category you are
please everybody around you,
the people that you work with on a daily basis,
people with whom you’ve been rubbing –
no, not rubbing shoulders
you know.
Just do this –
the people that you
That horrible person,
this terrible woman –
just see that one drop of sweetness
can you recognize because
if you cannot recognize that,
it will not reflect in you,
you better know that.
Terrible things that you see in other people will reflect in you.
This does not mean you should become blind to everything.
No.
We see the leaf in the tree,
we see the thorns in the rose bush,
but we acknowledge the flower and the fruit.
That’s all we need to do.
Rama’s birthday is also coming in the couple of months.
Let’s make this happen.