Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Q: Sri Ramana Maharshi died. What difference did it make to him?
None. What he was, he is - The Absolute Reality.
Q: But to the common man death makes a difference.
What he thinks himself to be before death he continues to be after death. His self-image survives.
Q: The other day there was talk about the use by the jnani of animal skins for meditation etc. I was not convinced. It is easy to justify everything by referring to custom and tradition. Customs may be cruel and tradition corrupt. They explain, but do not justify.
I never mean to say that lawlessness follows self-realization. A liberated man is extremely law abiding. But his laws are the laws of his real self, not of his society. There he observes, or breaks according to circumstances and necessity. But he will never be fanciful and disorderly.
Q: What I cannot accept is justification by custom and habit.
The difficulty lies in our differing points of view. You speak from the body-mind's. Mine is of the witness. The difference is basic.
Q: Still cruelty is cruelty.
None compels you to be cruel.
Q: Taking advantage of other people's cruelty is cruelty by proxy.
If you look into living process closely, you will find cruelty everywhere, for life feeds on life. This is a fact, but it does not make you feel guilty of being alive. You began a life of cruelty by giving your mother endless trouble. To the last day of your life you will compete for food, clothing, shelter, holding on to your body, fighting for its needs, wanting it to be secure, in a world of insecurity and death. From the animal's point of view being killed is not the worst form of dying; surely preferable to sickness and senile decay. The cruelty lies in the motive, not in the fact. Killing hurts the killer, not the killed.
Q: Agreed. Then one must not accept the services of hunters and butchers.
Who wants you to accept?
Q: You accept.
That is how 'you' see me. How quickly you accuse, condemn, sentence and execute! Why begin with me and not with yourself?
(To be continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment