Drop The Hate

Drop The Hate

What can really block your progress is hatred, says Guruji, while discussing the essence of the Upanishads

The meaning of upanishad means sitting close: the individual mind getting close to the universal mind, the finite getting close to the infinite, the limited trying to access the unlimited, the known reaching out to the unknown. These are dialogues between the master and disciple that happened thousands of years back. In a literal sense, the student would sit close to the teacher, who is an embodiment of wisdom, and learn — getting close to that wisdom step by step.

The Upanishads begin with the Shanti Mantra — Prayer for Peace. Only when there is peace can people come close to each other. When there is mistrust and doubt, then although you sit next to each other, your minds are apart. When our understanding, thinking, and feelings are apart, then no communication or exchange can happen. So, the first requirement is peace. There are three types of peace; one is physical peace — when the environment is peaceful. Second is peace at the level of your thoughts and emotions. And the third is inner peace. At the beginning of every upanishad is a prayer for peace that says, “Let the divine protect us both, let us develop our ability together. Let us be effulgent, brilliant. Let us not hate each other.” What can really block your progress is hatred.

There is a story about the Buddha that the first thing that he would ask any new disciple is not to hate, but to forgive and be compassionate to everyone. Once a gentleman came to the Buddha’s congregation and said, “I can give anything you ask, I can give my whole life to the world, but I cannot love these two people that I know; I hate them.” The Buddha simply smiled and said, “I don’t want you to love the whole world but can you be compassionate only to these two people?”

Whoever you hate becomes a big block in your mind. Often you start hating people whom you love very much. You fall in love and fall out of love with the person, because your love is all about getting something from them. And the moment you stop getting that, you start hating them. That is why people start killing people whom they love so much, because the pain of suffering and hatred overtakes love. So, there is no way you can get close to the divine as hatred is the stumbling block.

Why would the master say, ‘let us not hate anybody’? Because a student cannot understand that there is a state where hatred doesn’t exist. Someone who has been in a desert all the time cannot understand what an igloo in the North Pole is. Hatred begins right from where we are. We don’t love ourselves, and, in some way, we start hating ourselves and then we start hating everybody else. So the upanishad tells us to drop the hate because hatred is spoiling and killing you. Someone can come and kindle hatred in you; and while they are happy and enjoying themselves, you suffer.

Cultivating, nurturing, and justifying hatred within oneself is utter foolishness. When there is hatred in the mind, you don’t see things the way they are. You justify your stand, your anger and your feelings. There may be peace externally, you may be in a very quiet state but if your mind is boiling with hatred there is no true peace. Unless you have a spiritual path to walk on, the soul is restless. Have the confidence that says, “I am on the right train, and the train is going to take me to my destination.” There is no point being on the train and running from coach to coach with your luggage. You are not going to reach any faster. This sort of inner restlessness kills one. That is why the teacher says, “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti — let there be peace.”

Om Namah Shivay