33. Judging Life is Violence🔗

The more judgments you carry about life, the more you will suffer with unnecessary violence, unnecessary anger. The big problem is, you are so quick to pass judgment on a particular person, based on one experience, or even on a particular race, based on one person! You are just waiting, you are just waiting! And the worst part is, not only do we throw these emotions on others, in a few days we start internalizing them also. This is what I call suffering with unnecessary emotions.

I have seen so many people suffering with unnecessary emotions. Because I am travelling all over the world, I am seeing different races, different communities, different cultures, different religions, different nationalities, different backgrounds, different kinds of people suffering with these unnecessary incompletions about life.

The judgments you pass about a particular race, the judgments you pass about a particular religion, the judgment you pass about a particular state, the prejudices and biases you carry, are all related to this wrong knowledge. Many times people tell me, especially when they come to India, 'Swamiji, we thought the whole of India will be always only meditating! But we don't see that!' They think all Indians are constantly sitting with closed eyes, silently meditating! Sometimes we pass judgment on an entire country, an entire religion, an entire culture, based on our experience with one person or a few people from that country, that religion, that culture. We use the past experience to judge the present situation.

I always tell people, 'The worst crime you can commit against yourself is suffering with unnecessary emotions.'

I am not asking you not to have emotions. For example, you can keep the anger which you need to display in your day-to-day life, that is okay. But unnecessary anger is going to only destroy you. Unnecessary anger means, the anger which is in no way going to help you, or the anger which you can in no way exhibit or use in your life.

For example, you read some news about some country's President, and you say, 'This guy is killing the citizens of his country!' So you carry a strong anger against him. But will you be able to do anything against him? No! You can't. You can't directly interfere in his life. You have neither right, nor power, nor anything!

So you will be just sitting with that anger.

And later, if you hear that some misfortune has happened to that person, you are happy, because your anger is fulfilled, your violence is fulfilled.

This is what I call excess anger, unnecessary anger - carrying the anger which is in no way directly related to your life. It is just a judgment you are carrying about life.

Same way with pain.

I have seen people sitting in front of the TV and crying for no reason, crying because of some stupid soap opera or some news from another country, by which they are no way affected.

You have so many opinions, so many ideas, so many concepts you carry, and you suffer joy or pain based on those concepts.

Listen: I am not asking you to be insensitive to others, insensitive to life. What I am saying is, don't carry strong words or judgments about life based on your narrow logic, based on your past conditioning. All these things are based on wrong knowledge.

I can say that if this one sutra of Patanjali is reached to people all over the world, there won't be any wars, there won't be any wars! So much of peace will land on this world. The world will become a peaceful, blissful place.

CONTEMPLATION

Look back on your thoughts today.

What are the judgments you have passed by applying a localized idea or understanding in a generalized way?

Bring awareness to these judgments.