The society which is created based on power and politics, by business people and politicians naturally will have techniques only to keep people in guilt. They need to control, so they will put people in guilt. Only through guilt people can be easily controlled. But the social system created by enlightened masters helps people to be liberated and move towards more and more expression of freedom. Understand the big difference between the society created by enlightened masters and the social structure created by politicians and businessmen.
In the system created by the masters, they constantly give you confidence. Even when you fail, they say, 'No, don't worry. Just because you committed a sin, you are not a sinner. Committing a sin is different, being a sinner is different.' There is no word 'sinner' used to address people in the ancient vedic system of enlightened masters. They address human beings as amrutasya putraha* or Sons of Immortality!
You are complete as you are
A small story:
A disciple goes to a master asking, 'Master, how can I become free? How can I attain liberation?'
The master asks him, 'Who has imprisoned you?'
The disciple replies, 'Nobody.'
The master asks, 'Where are the chains to bind you?'
The disciple replies, 'I have no chains.'
The master says, 'Then what are you trying to be free from?'
Just look at animals. You cannot find guilt in any animal. It just is. It has no ideals, no perfectionist attitudes and no discontent. That is why it is beautiful and innocent. But in the case of man, he always has an image of how everything should be, including himself, his family, situations, society - everything. He is always yearning to be what he is not.
This can be healthy and unhealthy. When you are yearning to actualize your potential, it is a healthy yearning. But most of the time we yearn to achieve only based on the ideas society imposes on us and the ideas we borrow from others.
Once you are caught in these imposed desires and ideals, you can never relax and enjoy the journey of life. You will always be discontented. And the more dissatisfied you are with yourself, the more it becomes impossible to reach your ideal. It is a vicious circle.
Amrutasya putraha - A scriptural statement from Shvetashvatara Upanishad that says: Shrunvantu Vishve Amrutasya Putrahathat means 'You are the child of immortality', that all human beings are divine.
In the soil of dissatisfaction the seed of intelligence and spontaneity cannot grow.
In the soil of dissatisfaction the seed of intelligence, spontaneity cannot grow. You become
like the horse with blinders, with a narrow vision of how you think things should be.
If you are not dissatisfied with yourself, if you accept yourself as you are, what you really need can be fulfilled here and now.
Society teaches you constantly that you are not complete. It induces in you a fear, an inferiority complex so you will not be confident and independent. Then your intelligence gets suppressed and you follow the rules put down by society.
You are already what you can be. All you need to do is just relax and let the energy of Existence flow through you.
If you are caught in bettering yourself, you cannot relax. You will be tense and always anxious that you are lacking in some way.
True religion says you are complete as you are. How else can you be when you have emerged itself from fulfillment? Man as such has emerged from fulfillment. So his very nature is fulfillment. This is what is implied in the great declarations such as Tat tvam asi – That Art Thou, Aham Brahmasmi – I am Brahman* .
You are complete and you are total. You don't have to reach anywhere since you are already there. You don't have to become something because you are already that. It is just a question of waking up to this Truth.
Guilt of not being worthy of love
Many people carry the guilt of not being worthy of being loved. This guilt happens from young age conditioning. When we are children, our parents tell us, 'If you do this I will love you more. If you do that, I will give you a candy. If you listen to me, I will take you to a movie.' All these things take root in you and you grow up with a strong impression that you should deserve to be loved. You feel guilty if someone loves you without you doing anything to deserve it.
Many people when they come to me, carry the same guilt. Be very clear, you are here not because you deserve to be here. You are here as part of the flow of Existence, that's all. There is nothing deserving or undeserving in this. I am like a full cloud ready to shower. You don't need to do
Brahman - Absolute, Cosmic Consciousness, formless god, etc., all referring to the universal Energy source of which the individual energy of the soul is a holographic part.
anything or deserve to be showered on.
There is no question of the master's love asking for any qualification from you to receive it.
If you are open, if you choose to stand with open arms, you will receive. Instead if you decide to open an umbrella of guilt and stand under it, naturally you will not receive much.
Guilt vs Gratitude
If you are caught in guilt, you can never feel connected to the Divine. The only way to get out of guilt completely is to feel the connectedness to your higher Self. But your very guilt acts as the barrier to this. The only way to overcome this guilt is to start melting with gratitude.
When you accept things as they are, when you experience the causeless blessings of the Divine, you become more and more grateful. Gratitude is the fragrance that can pervade your inner space and replace the smell of guilt.
With guilt, it becomes impossible to celebrate life. Guilt sits on your chest like a rock. You become heavy and frozen. It does not allow you to be free to dance, sing, laugh and love.
Total acceptance and surrender
Especially in the subject of master-disciple relationship, I have seen people creating a lot of guilt for themselves. When it comes to your relation with the master, you have certain fixed ideas as to how you should relate with the master, how you should receive him and such things. Based on this, you create guilt for yourself. Just receive the master in the way in which you are ready, that's enough. Every state is right, every stage is right, every relationship is right. Just be authentic and integrated about what you feel. That is enough.
Whatever way you feel, be honest about it to yourself and the master. And he will guide you to the final goal.
Don't set ideals looking at others. Your relation with the master is unique. You are close to him in your own way. Don't try to jump ahead of yourself. Then you will create your own suffering and feel guilty.
Accept yourself as you are, totally and unconditionally. The total acceptance will bring about an active and intense relaxation in which your natural intelligence will flower. Then the transformation will happen, the realization will happen of what you always were deep within you. Suddenly you will see that you have started moving, flowing. You move towards realization, just like the river moves
If you want to slow something down, hurry up.
towards the ocean on its own with no
rules or directions from anybody.
Start living and flowing. Enjoy the ultimate surrender to Existence just as you are. Don't feel guilty, don't feel afraid you have missed. What you are searching for was always inside you. You were always complete. Then how can you miss? When you are relaxed, you can sense this completeness. But when you are guilty, you create a gap and then you feel you are incomplete and separate, away from the Whole.
For example, if you are talking to a child some concepts of philosophy, what do you expect the child to do? Naturally, he will not be interested. He will just continue jumping and playing around. Can you say there is anything is wrong in it? No.