|
Be Soft and Gentle
I have always been fascinated by the roots of the tree. You know at
the meeting point where the root emerges out of the trunk, it is thick,
hard, almost ossification has set in. But if you see the tiny hair-like
roots which are the things which are really penetrating into the soil,
between rocks, which is really what is drawing the sustenance, it is
so fine that sometimes you can hardly see it, but it supports the whole
tree's existence, you see. It is what penetrates where a tree cannot
penetrate. It can break up soil, it can break up rocks, the tiniest
fracture in the rock this root will go in and then harden itself, expand
it and the rock is thrust aside. Yet if you just put a little pressure,
it is broken, it is destroyed. What is the miracle, you see, that the
softest thing can penetrate the deepest, hardest substance known? Whereas
a hard thing can only break up a hard thing.
And we have also, in our fairy tales, that when the wind blew, all
the hard trees which would not bend were just blown down, and the soft
things which were willing to bend, bent almost to the earth, but recovered.
It is the soft which wins the battle always. Not the hard, you
see, the hard is broken. It survives until it meets something harder
than itself. But the soft, nothing in the universe can destroy it. All
of you know that a drop of water, you know, falling on rock, drop after
drop, bores a hole through the rock. But rocks cannot bore holes through
water.
So Sahaj Marg teaches us, be soft, be gentle, be loving, be kind, even
at the risk of being exploited. What is exploitation? Exploitation is
having something and being afraid that it is being taken away. Give
it. Give it before it is asked of you. I will replace it. Then when
we find this miracle, you know, that for one who is willing to open
his arms and say, "Take," the taker cannot take at all. Therefore,
my Master could say with impunity, without any fear, 'Loot me."
Nobody could do it. Because who can exhaust the inexhaustible?
So you see, we have to unsolidify our heart, make that rock become
fluid again, soft. Now what is the first sign of this softness coming
into you. It is tears! These people meditate, and they start weeping
without knowing why tears come into the eyes! You know, it is the first
sign that the heart is beginning to melt. And once this rocklike hardness
of the heart is gone and it has become soft and pliable, the Master
moulds it into what He wishes.
|
