How SMP* Are Crushing Your Soul [*Small-Minded People]

Acharya Prashant : If it was possible for one man to move toward greatness, it was possible for everybody. Even if you have collected great numbers, all those numbers mean nothing in front of the one person who is demonstrating that something could have been done. So, they get hurt.

They do not get hurt because of you Ankit (questioner); they get hurt because of their own insistence on remaining small. Why do you want to blame yourself? In fact, that which makes you blame yourself is the smallness present in you. If you move towards Greatness or aspire for it, and that hurts people around you; that only means that the people around you are insistent on remaining small. Further, it also means that the people around you do not love you at all. Not only do they not love you, they are also actually actively vicious towards you. Not only do they not want to accompany you to the right place—well, again, the rightness of that place is my subjective interjection—but they want to actually stop you from moving in that direction.

In love, you want the best for the other one, right? Without caring for yourself. And if someone close to you is moving towards liberation, and you start feeling hurt or shedding tears, then it only means that you are probably that person's worst enemy. Who else can be called an enemy? The one who wants to keep you in bondage.

You say people around the aspirant of Greatness get hurt because they have their expectations from him. What are these expectations exactly? The fellow is moving towards Greatness, and they are saying, “Oh, you are not fulfilling our expectations.” So, surely their expectations are? If I want you to be great, and you move towards greatness, then I will say, “Thank you so much. You are fulfilling my expectations,” correct? Now if you move towards greatness and I say, “Oh, you are not meeting my expectations,” then that surely implies that my expectation was that you must remain small. You want to honor such an expectation? You want to honor such an expectation? Please tell me.

You move towards freedom, and somebody says, “Oh, you are hurting my expectations.” Then don't you want to investigate that fellow's expectations? What is he expecting? That you should remain in bondage. That's why when you move towards freedom, he says, “You just broke my heart, sweety. I wanted you to remain in the cage.” No, not cage. Cagu, Sweetu Cagu. How else do you know a person? By what he likes and what he dislikes. What else? If a fellow dislikes freedom, that tells everything about him, does it not? Do you require more information to know a person? Is this much not sufficient? Tell me.

You move towards freedom, and somebody starts feeling annoyed. Now don't you know everything about that person? What do you know about that person? He is a lover of cages. He is dangerous for himself and for everybody else. On the other hand, if you proceed to encage yourself and somebody comes to stop you with determination, what does that tell you about that person? He is a lover of freedom; you require no more information. Correct?

Get rid of this business of taking care, avoiding hurt, and all that; all that is just popular culture. All that is Facebook spirituality. Facebook spirituality says, “The greatest religion is not to hurt others.” Just google it, you will find a million responses. What is the greatest religion? Not to hurt others. That's great. So, why prevent the thief from stealing? The bugger would be hurt. Why prevent the rapist from raping? He will be deeply hurt down there. But there are many who follow this cult, “Don't hurt.”

In fact, if they are hurt, they will accuse you as if you have committed sacrilege. “You just hurt me.” “Yes, I did. Obviously. Deliberately. I will do that once more, and then again and again till you break, because you deserve to be broken. And I am greatly sorry that I just hurt you and didn't shatter you.” “You are being violent.” “Not yet. But I can be.”

From where do we gather these diamond ethics? “You must take care of me.” “In what way?” “Help me remain small.” No, I am not being a misogynist. I am not trying to imitate a female voice. I am speaking as a child does, as a kid does. Because this littleness is a sign of kiddish-ness, immaturity. You are trying to protect that which deserves to be thrown away. Do not be a sissy. Do not just keep saying, “Oh, I get hurt. I need to be handled with kid gloves.”

Have you seen those boxes? On top of them, it's written, ‘Fragile, Handle with Care.’ Are you that box? We are a T-shirt. On the front, it should read ‘Fragile’, on the back, it should read, ‘Handle with Care’. And what is it that you are protecting? Nonsense inside. What is inside that box? Nonsense. Nonsense that has outlived itself. Nonsense that deserves to be broken and directed to the waste bin.

If there is one fellow who is a bigger culprit than the fellow who gets easily hurt, it is the one who avoids hurting the one who gets easily hurt. Because the one who gets easily hurt would have long backdropped his habit of getting easily hurt, had that habit not been patronized by his so-called friends and well-wishers. In fact, we care more for the ones who get more easily hurt, don't we? It's a strange, upended logic. “Oh, this fellow, he is thick-skinned, jolly, and fine. You go and slap him. He minds not. Oh, that one, he is very touchy. Be careful. Offer him all the goodies. Offer him respect. Offer him care. He might feel bad, you know. Display your best manners when you are with him. He might just feel offended.” Don't we do all this, please?

As they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Grease, you understand. Grease. The wheel that keeps squeaking gets the grease; and the wheels that just perform and don't make noise, they don't get the grease. It's tempting to be the squeaky wheel, is it not? You will be greased. The squeaky wheel does not always get greased; if the driver is like me, it gets replaced. No? Aren't there other wheels available? There is a fifth one resting right in the boot of the car. So, you go and relax yourself. There is somebody else waiting to be deployed.

“But we thought this is a spiritual session, and in spirituality, you are supposed to be nice, loving, and caring; and you are supposed to say good things to each other. You are supposed to make each other feel happy. Why are you being so cruel? Isn't love about calling the cauliflower as the rose flower? I do that daily. “

Each of us deserves to be the highest that he can be. Each of us deserves to be liberated from our mean concept of ourselves, that alone is the definition of care. If you care for someone, then don't let them remain what they are. Do you get this? Ankit has asked me: Is it bad to care for others? I am saying, “If you care for someone, don't let them remain what they are.” Rather, to make things cleaner, don't let them remain what they pretend to be, or don't let them remain what they have become. That is the genuine meaning of care.

Full article link: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/do-you-know-what-you-are-so-afraid-of-1_8598027

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