Love gives, and demands no returns || With youth (2014)
Questioner (Q): Sir, if we realize something is not faithful, then what should we do?
Acharya Prashant (AP): Who is not faithful?
Q: Anything.
AP: Somebody.
Q: Somebody close to you.
AP: You don’t demand faith from that person. If the fellow is not faithful, let it be. You are anyway not demanding anything, you are anyway not losing anything. What are you afraid of?
I am speaking to you right now; there might be a couple of you who may not be listening. Whatever I am giving, I am giving. It is reaching out to everybody. If somebody is not able to take it, so be it. My intention was that I wanted to share, I have given. At best, I can try to help, I can give, I can share. There is no need to feel bad about it.
You look at a beautiful squirrel, you have nuts in your hand, and you offer something to the squirrel. The squirrel doesn’t take them. Do you start abusing the squirrel? The squirrel is as beautiful as it was. If the squirrel is a little afraid of you - and squirrels are often afraid of you, if you offer something, they just don’t come and take it. They need time to become familiarized. It is alright, it's okay. I wanted to give, you didn’t take, and you couldn’t take. It is okay.
There are small kids, you bring something to them with great love, a toy or something, the kid takes it, looks at it, and throws it away. What do you do? Do you beat that kid up? You are still alright. But that doesn’t happen. Our ego is such that even a one-year-old kid can hurt it. Is that not so? A beggar comes to you, you offer the beggar a coin and that beggar refuses to take the coin. You feel hurt. Even a beggar can hurt our ego. ‘It is okay. I wanted to give and you didn’t take, it’s okay.’
You feel bad because you were expecting something in return. You know what you are expecting? Some kind of acknowledgement. We say that if I love, then love should be reciprocal. We demand something in return and whenever you are demanding something in return, let me assure you that it is not love. By that I do not mean that you keep giving and giving, by that what I mean is giving is your nature, taking depends on other person. I smile. I do not smile so that you become happy, smiling is my nature and if you smile back, it is good for you, your mood will become better. Smiling is my nature. I do not smile to get something from you. I will keep smiling. You want to frown, you want to keep a straight face, keep a straight face. Act as if the world is coming to an end. I am smiling, smiling is my nature. That is love. Will you say, ‘Why should I smile, you are not faithful’? Will you say that? And the person who is smiling will smile even at the walls. Will the walls smile back at him?
Smiling is my nature.
