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In every culture,

anything

beyond the normal perception of life,

anything beyond the normal

day-to-day happenings, means

it is an opportunity to ask for and receive

things which are not normally available to people.

Whether it is Santa Claus of the West,

whose bag is full of gifts,

or the traditional three boons of India

whenever God appears he offers you

three boons; you can ask him what you want.

This interpretation, this direction

of lore...

and stories that...

why this lore has taken this direction is.

always...

in the world...

a large part of the population of the world is always deprived.

always it been so,

a large part of the population in the world is always deprived of many things that...

they would aspire to have,

or I would say, almost everybody is deprived of

of what they want to have.

If they have this, they don't have that. If they have that, they don't have this.

So...

almost everyone is deprived of something or the other.

So if a new possibility arises, the first thing is to ask,

and...

if anybody is of any worth, he is supposed to give.

I know

there are various people,

there are various prayers

and lamentations of the so-called - devotees, where

they are swearing to God and saying:

“If you cannot even give this, what kind of a God are you?

If you cannot even do this, what kind of a Guru are you? Where is your compassion?”

In the Shaiva lore,

Shiva narrates many stories and incidents

to...

highlight the limitation,

to highlight the trouble that one can get into

just by giving indiscriminately

The trouble that both the giver and the receiver can get into

by simply giving somebody something...

(that...)

for which they are not yet ready.

If...

they had evolved their life

to a point,

to that which they desire,

it would anyway happen;

but before they reach there, they want to have it.

Before you evolve yourself

to a point

where you are ready to receive something, if you receive something

the great gift may become a great curse.

There are any number of people on the planet

who manage to somehow

manipulate situations to get something that they want

and suffer immensely because of what they receive.

They would be better off the desire,

but by fulfilling the desire, they get into deep trouble.

So both the giver and the receiver

can be in a lot of trouble simply by giving something

or by receiving something for which they are not ready.

Many times, human beings,

once they reach a certain level of attainment,

they have an urge

to be overly compassionate.

Misplaced compassion

always comes from your ego;

you want to be the most compassionate person on the planet.

Wherever anybody needs anything - reach out.

This is not coming from any kind of understanding, wisdom, or awareness.

This is coming from

wanting to be the best or the most.

You know, whatever you do, you want to be the most.

Wherever you go, even if people say,

'I am stupid', people want to say, 'I am the most stupid person in the world.'

Even there, they want to stand first.

Somehow they want to be the best

one way or the other.

'I want to be the most intelligent, or I want to be the most stupid,

I don't want to be lost in between.

I don't want to be ordinary; I want to be somehow special.'

So you want to be the most compassionate.

This problem is there among people

they want to be the most compassionate.

True compassion is not about giving or taking.

True compassion is just doing what is needed.

You have no preferences of your own;

simply doing what is needed is compassion.

You revving yourself up into a huge amount of emotion

and reaching out to somebody is not compassion.

This is just self- satisfaction, devious ways to fulfill yourself.

Compassion is possible,

genuine compassion is possible,

when there is nothing to fulfill in you, you are just doing what is needed.

But always,

if you get into a deep emotion and do something,

you think that was a very compassionate moment.

No,

you are seeking self-fulfillment.

I am not saying anything right or wrong, it is still coming from a certain inadequacy.

One overly-compassionate sage

was indiscriminately disposing of...

people's needs.

Because of his austerities,

he had attained to a certain capability and he was giving it away.

So one day, Shiva called him

and tried to advise him,

“See, this is not good.

The way you are...

dispensing gifts and boons to other people,

this will not bring well-being to you,

or to the people to whom you give.

It may bring you much trouble,

it may bring them much trouble, or both of you much trouble.

So stop giving these boons.

People come and ask, it's okay,

you don't have to give.”

Parvathi, Shiva's wife, who was sitting there,

She said: “Oh, my Lord, how is this possible?

As it is, there are very few givers in the world.

As it is, there are very few people who are willing to give anything in the world.

And the few men who are giving,

you are trying to restrain them also

what is the point?

At least a few men who are willing to give, let them give.

You must explain this to me.

This is not fair.

There are very few givers:

that also you want to discount and make it much smaller?”

Then...

Shiva said: “See,

this is not about depriving people of something.

This is not about depriving the world

of receiving something,

nor is it an effort to deprive the person

to have the pleasure of giving something.

It is just that

instead of helping people to evolve

where they will naturally receive the bounty of life,

an un-evolved person, if you give him something,

you will only overburden him.

You will only destroy his life.

If you are concerned about somebody's

ultimate well-being,

you must

put him through the painstaking process of evolving himself

to a higher possibility, where he will receive higher

dimensions of life,

where receiving just happens to him because he deserves it.

If you

gift a ton of gold to an ant,

it will only crush the ant.

It will not make the ant rich;

it will only crush the ant.

So what you give, how you give, is very important.

You don't just give because somebody is asking.

Let me tell you a story.

Once... there was a very sweet sage.

Sweet one, not like me.

And he sat in his cave in the mountain

and was into

very stringent austerities...

eating simple food,

always focused on his sadhana.

One day a king came hunting in the forest,

he found this cave, came inside, and saw the sage

totally absorbed in his meditation.

He bowed down to him,

and

he was thirsty, he wanted to drink water.

He looked around,

there he found a real mean looking vessel.

all...

You Know real mean-looking vessel. We don't have such thing in the Ashram.

The King thought, 'Such a wonderful human being,

so deep in his meditation, so dedicated.

Why should he use such a mean looking vessel?'

So he rode back,

then sent for some of his men and said,

'Leave two of the most wonderful golden urns for him to use, two golden vessels.'

So the king's people came, took away this mean-looking vehicle vessel,

and put up the golden vessels.

And after a few days the sage opened his eyes, and

to perform his morning ablutions and also

for other purposes,

he looked for his vessel it was not there.

He could not find it anywhere; then he found these two golden vessels.

It was not very convenient, they were too elaborate,

ornate, and heavy,

but he decided to use them because there was nothing else.

Life went on for a few days.

One day

a very mean looking person with a mean,

very mean mind, with mean intentions,

came in that direction.

He walked into the cave and the first thing was, his eyes fell on the

golden vessels.

Then the sage welcomed this man and served him a small meal that he had.

The man ate, but his eyes were fixed on the

golden vessels.

The moment the sage closed his eyes to meditate,

the man picked up the golden vessel and ran.

When he ran, the sage saw

in his meditation this man running away with just

one golden vessel.

Then the sage ran behind him;

both of them ran.

The man saw the sage coming and ran faster and faster,

but because of all this yoga, you know,

the sage could run faster.

By the time the thief reached the town,

the sage caught up with him.

Then...

that man was too tired to do anything else,

he placed the golden vessel at the sage's feet and said, 'Forgive me.'

People gathered around them.

The sage said, 'No, no, no, I had one more.

You just forgot to take the other one.

I just came here to give you the other one.'

The man didn't know what to do,

and people

who looked at this whole scene,

it really humiliated the man

because he stole from such a man,

who is running behind him to give the other vessel, that he missed out.

The sage went back,

he went back and he started looking for his old vessel.

He searched the whole cave everywhere, here, there.

In the process of

turning everything around,

he pulled out

a few baby mice...

were there.

And also, the mother mice

when he turned everything around,

these baby mice fell out,

the mother mouse terrified, ran away,

abandoning the children.

So

the sage ended up with five little mice;

the mother was terrified and never came back.

So he started feeding these baby mice with the little grain that he had, and they were

slowly putting on weight.

One day,