More than Words

Wisdom is beyond words. It is the very Being. It is the essence of all words. See and relate beyond words. Then there is no lie in your life. We attach meaning to words and we distort them, too. If you manipulate words, it is a lie/If you play on words, it is a joke/If you rely on words, it is ignorance/If you transcend words, it is wisdom. Let’s examine few words which have changed their meaning in the course of time.

BRAINWASHING, Disillusionment, purana: Take, for example, the word ‘brainwashing’. Like your body, your brain needs washing sometimes. You don’t want to walk around with a dirty brain, a dirty mind. What is wrong with the word ‘brainwashing’? It indicates a clean brain, a clean mind, but it is used in a derogatory manner. Like that, the word ‘disillusionment’. It is good that you are disillusioned. You have come to reality. Similarly, the word ‘purana’. It means ‘‘that which is new in the town, the most modern’’. But it is used in the sense of being old.

MERCY: First let us look into the commonly used word ‘mercy’. Mercy indicates lack of intimacy. It Indicates a distance; a lack of belongingness. You don’t have mercy on your near and dear ones. You don’t hear parents say, ‘‘l have mercy on my children’’. You have mercy on those who you think are not yours. Mercy indicates anger, judgement and authority. When you ask for mercy, you are self-centred. You want to be excused from the law of cause and effect. It also indicates lack of courage and valour. When you know and trust the process of creation, you will simply rejoice. It is the small mind which superimposes its nature on the Divine mind. The Divine is all knowing and all loving; there is no chance for mercy. Do you know I have no mercy? When there is intimacy there is no place for mercy.

FORGIVENESS: Similarly ‘forgiveness’ can never be complete. We struggle, trying to forgive someone else. You know why? When you say I forgive, you think they are the culprits, and when you think someone is a culprit and trying to forgive, however you do it, a little bit of it remains. But when you see with a broad outlook you see the culprit is also a victim, victim of his or her own mind, ignorance, unawareness, unconsciousness. Isn’t it? So compassion arises from within you. But when people cannot understand compassion, then they have to be spoken to in terms of forgiveness.

SOFTNESS, FORCEFULNESS: Certain types of people are soft and their softness comes out of lack of courage and forcefulness. There is yet another type of softness in people and this softness comes out of maturity, magnanimity, and the knowledge of the Self. The people who are soft out of lack of courage suffer a lot. And at sometime or the other they become volatile. Similarly there are two types of forcefulness in people viz aggression or assertiveness. Some people are forceful in an aggressive manner out of weakness, lack of strength, or out of fear. Others are forceful out of care and love, out of compassion.

TOLERANCE: Another word used often is ‘tolerance’. Many people think tolerance is a virtue. Tolerance is a negative term. If you like something you don’t have to tolerate. Tolerance indicates a deep sense of dislike, which can at any time turn into hatred. It indicates a sense of separateness, small mindedness, limitation of consciousness. When you are tolerating, it is a temporary state. Tolerance is a potential volcano. If you are tolerating it means you are holding on.

AUSTERITY: Austerity is often mistaken to be poverty or self-denial. It is neither. Austerity comes out of maturity. It is a sign of social health. Austerity is not against celebration and just vanity is not celebration. Only one who is rich in spirit can practice austerity. Poverty of spirit is vanity. Austerity brings freedom from the pride of vanity. But taking pride in austerity is again a vanity!