Dead rules vs live intelligence🔗

First, you try your best to escape from it. Next, you create a deep guilt inside your being.

A small story about how things became superstition or moral setup:

There was an ashram in Bharat, where everyday the guru(master) used to do regular worship, morning pūjā(worship). He had a pet cat. The cat used to jump and play around on him when he did the pūjā. He felt the cat was a big disturbance. So, before starting the pūjā, he called one of his disciples and told him to cover the cat by a basket. Everyday it became a routine to cover a cat before the pūjā.

Suddenly, one day the guru died and the cat also died. The disciples were wondering how to get a cat to cover before the pūjā! They started searching for a cat. Somehow they could manage to get one cat; and before the pūjā, the cat was kept in the same place and covered with basket. The pūjā started. By and by, after some time, it became very difficult to get a cat. They were not able to get a cat to cover, before the pūjā started.

Slowly, they started thinking, without a cat, you can't do the pūjā, that it was sacrilegious. Slowly, they stopped doing the pūjā because there is no cat! This is what happens if things become superstition.

One more small story:

One great paṇḍit(learned man) wanted to take bath in the Ganga. He had a kamaṇḍalu(water jar) with him. He had to keep it in a safe place. He searched here and there. There was nobody trustworthy to whom he could entrust the kamaṇḍalu and go for Ganga snānam (bath in river Ganga). Because there was nobody, he made a small pit in the Ganga sand, put kamaṇḍalu, covered the pit, and just to remember where he kept kamaṇḍalu, he made a heap. He went to take bath.

There was some farmer who was watching the pundit from distance. He thought, 'Oh, before taking bath in Ganga, I should make a small heap!' He made a heap before he went for a bath. The third person came. He thought, 'Oh, it is tradition to make a heap before taking bath in Ganga.' He made a small heap and went to have bath. By and by, all people started making heaps before taking bath in Ganga. When the paṇḍit came out, he saw hundreds of heaps all over Ganga bed! He had a problem now: where is his kamaṇḍalu? Under which heap is it? He started searching. He started to destroy the heaps. Suddenly the farmer came and shouted, 'Why are you destroying our Śiva liṅgas (symbol of God Shiva)? Why are you destroying our heaps? You are a paṇḍit. You should have sense! Don't you know that you are supposed to make a Shiva linga before bath? And you are disturbing our Shiva lingas. Don't you have sense?'

The heap of sand naturally looks like a Shiva linga. The paṇḍit thought, 'When did this ritual start? It is me who started the ritual. It is for sake of my kamaṇḍalu I started it.' Finally, it became a big trouble for himself. Anyhow, he was not allowed to destroy the heaps. He had to move without his kamaṇḍalu.

If you look into your life, there are so many heaps that entered the same way. There are so many speed breakers; there are so many obstacles that entered your life, without your understanding. In course of time, many regulations which had meaning, became rules without even having any meaning now!

In Bharat, in the olden days they will not stitch clothes after sunset, because the stitching was done with a needle. Naturally, in the nighttime, in the dim light of candle or lantern or some other small lamp, you will not be able to stitch. But, even now, in Bharat you can see after sunset they won't stitch! Not even in the tailor shops! There are so many tailor shops where lights are available. They won't stitch with hand after sunset.

When you don't have understanding, things become dead rules. When you have understanding, any rule can become a technique to live life happily. When you have understanding, you will understand that all rules are created just to have a happy and blissful life for yourself and other people around you. Today these very rules create hell for yourself and others.

I have seen a few people. Before starting their meditation they create so much of noise in the house before the meditation; 'Keep quiet, don't shout, switch off the calling bell…do this, do that,' they will practically turn the whole house just for the sake of ten minutes meditation. Do you think that they will do ten minutes meditation also? The moment they start, they will start dozing; after two to three minutes, they will start squatting the mosquitoes; after two minutes they start scratching. Then, they will think, 'I think I can do my meditation tomorrow. It is enough for today.' For this drama, they will make such a big drama that they will practically turn then whole house without understanding that the very meditation itself is done for the sake of peace and silence. Some people, when they try to silence others, they themselves create so much of noise. Their sound will be much worse than others. Their words, 'Hush, keep quiet' will be louder than the people who are talking. In schools you can see the sound of kids will be less than that of teachers.

Any rule internalized will create guilt in you

Most of the times when you don't understand the root of morality and you start living in a dull and dead way. According to me, any rule, if it is internalized, will create guilt in you. Understand: any rule. When I say any, I mean ANY. Any rule if it is internalized, it will create a deep guilt in you; because, by your nature, you are the person who aspires for freedom. Svabhāva svatantraka(Free by nature). Means your nature itself is freedom. You are a nitya mukta(eternally free). You are eternally free. You never wanted to be caged! You never wanted to be slave of any rule! You can see all the society is struggling, working only towards freedom. Your entire struggle is nothing but struggle for freedom. Even your search for money, is the search for freedom. If you have more money, you have bigger choices; bigger house, bigger car, more comforts. You have more choice; you have more freedom. Your choice or freedom is the real search. Your search for money is nothing but search for freedom.