Obligation itself is an illusion
Chapter 4 - Glorify The Divine
Day 32
In the beginning It will be nothing of course, but it sucks you in and when you get sucked into that type of company, it becomes like a hailstorm. You are unaware, without your knowledge you just sit in the darkness of negative company and start saying, “Oh, he’s bad, he’s no good.” The other day someone said, “So-and-so is so jealous of me.” Come on. Even if they are jealous of you, you don’t recognise it. You know, recognising someone's jealousy puts you down.
If they are jealous, it is up to them. Thinking they are Jealous of you makes you all worked up, doesn 't it? “Everybody is picking on me,” Such an illusion. Don't think anyone is bad. We say, “Oh that person is bad, this person is bad, shun this company.” No. The bad company is within you, it is notin the other person. Bad company refers to your attitude. In our Bangalore Ashram we have two teachers, anybody comes to one of these teachers with any complaint, he will blow it up.
He will say, “I agree with you. Yes, you are right”. But the other teacher, whatever complaints come to him, he will make sure that people feel lighter about it. Don't feel obliged to say yes to someone's negativity. This is another problem. When a friend comes and complains to you about anything, even the weather, you feel obliged to say ‘yes’ to that complaint and flow with them, rather than contradicting them.
Isn't that so? How many of you feel that way? There is no rule to feel obliged to flow with their negativity. Obligation itself is an illusion. We shouldn't feel obliged to say anything. See, if you feel one with everybody, if you have so much love, you don't feel obliged at all. Obligation comes when you feel a little distance, right? If someone is really part of you , do you feel obliged?
Absolutely not. I don't feel obliged to anybody for anything. Everyone is part of me, why should I feel obliged for anything? Obligation is an illusion, it makes you feel loaded. You have a load on your head and that makes you behave unnaturally, it takes you away from reality. What do you say? When you feel obliged, then you feel obliged to say ‘yes’ to their negativity. Then you become bad company for someone.