Respect (Continued)
Bangalore Ashram, India
18th February 1998
Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change
Day 40 - Respect (Continued)
Respect everyone as you respect me, but do not expect from everyone what you expect from me. You usually do it the other way. You do not respect everyone as you respect me, but you expect them to give you joy and you expect them to behave ideally.
When they do not live up to your expectations, you get frustrated and you blame or curse them. By cursing, you lose your spiritual energy. When you can bless, your energy goes up. The world is full of differences, arguments are inevitable.
With forbearance, patience and wisdom, skillfully make your way. If you find fools around you, they I’ll make you wiser. The number of fools around you indicates the strength of your centeredness. Do not try to get rid of them. If you are not centred, you will not have the patience to endure them.
When you are totally established, you find that even fools come up with wisdom. They are your own reflection, there is no other. Fools offer you frustration or wisdom and make your life juicy.
Question - How can you stop thinking that others are fools?
Gurudev - You don’t have to. You can see all the people in the whole world as fools. The advantage is that you don’t get attached to fools. Otherwise, if you think people are sane, you will want to join them. You can think everybody is a fool and be cool. Thank those who do not respect you. They have given you freedom.
When people respect you, they often take away your freedom. They expect you to smile at them, recognise them, and behave in a certain way with them. If they do not respect you, you are not obliged to answer their questions and you can drop all formalities.
You can naturally smile or frown, you can be complete. When people love and respect you, you are obliged to return their courtesies because you do not want to hurt them.
But when they do not respect or love you, they will not be hurt by your expressions. They set you free. When you gain respect, you often do it at the cost of your freedom. Wisdom is to put freedom first and not bother with respect.
True freedom is not an “I don’t care” attitude, it is not stiff. It is an inner lightness with a genuine smile. When someone is stiff and arrogant, they are not free. Love blossoms only in freedom. When there is love, respect simply follows you.
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