A mother was hurt and shocked to hear her son telling lies. So, she took the boy aside and told him about the perils of telling lies. “When you tell a lie, a demon with red eyes and a horn on his head will drag you from your bed in the middle of the night and punish you badly. Then, I am sure you will never lie,” she continued.
“No Mother, from now on, I will never lie,” assured the son and then he added, “More than me, you are a bigger liar.”
Mistake on the part of one in lying cannot be corrected by another by committing the same mistake.
Why do people lie? What do they achieve by telling lies? Can’t you see that the effort needed to protect one from being caught as a liar causes more tension and that lying causes unnecessary strain of remembering one’s lies? You land up filling the mind with unnecessary thoughts, worries, hurts, and lies. This restricts the space available for any creative act.
People tend to work on increasing their knowledge. In the East, there is a distinction between knowledgeand Being. The emphasis is on increasing one’s Being. Both knowledge and Being are required. But with the transformation of knowledge into Being, knowledge will not be limited to information. So, both knowledge and Being should be firmly on the transformation track.
Anyone can understand that there are different levels of knowledge, but only few can understand that there are different levels of Being. Being is your presence – a good, pure, inspiring, and transparent essence. One should not confuse existence with Being. The stone exists, the plant exists, a man exists, but they exist quite differently. It is here the idea of Being comes in. For example, the Being of a plant, stone, animal, man, or the divine are all at different levels.
Being is an evolving essence, an evolving presence. If a person gets hurt because someone makes an unpleasant statement, it only shows the level of one’s Being. But if one can forgive the person who has caused the hurt, it shows that the level of one’s ‘Being’ is at a higher level. If you are selfish, it shows that your Being is at one level. But if you were to serve others with love and goodness, it shows another level of Being. It is not a matter of judgment but a matter of clarity leading to an opportunity for growth.
To grow up is one thing and to grow old is yet another thing. Growing up involves adding life to your years. Growing old involves adding years to your life.
So, are you working on your Being? Let’s resolve right now to make a beginning to transform and support the process of transformation in our daily lives.
To celebrate Navaratri Utsav online with Swamiji, October 15-23, and a live session with him on October 24, via Zoom, 6:30-8am, contact: 99017 77003 / 95135 60108