Getting What You’re Not Ready For Only Brings Trouble

Though tradition tells us that, should we find ourselves in the presence of a higher being, it is wise to ask for our heart’s desires without hesitation, Sadhguru cautions us that receiving a gift for which one is not evolved enough to receive will only bring trouble for both giver and receiver. If you give a ton of gold to an ant, he explains, it will not make him rich – it will crush him.

Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that yoga is a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times.

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Transcript

In every culture,

Anything beyond the normal perception of life,

Anything beyond the normal day-to-day happenings means it's an opportunity to ask and receive things which are not normally available to people.

The Santa Claus of the West who is bang 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 or this direction of lore and stories that have… why this lore has taken in this direction is,

Always in the world,

A large population of the world is always deprived,

Always it's been so.

A large 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 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 by the 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 at their.

If they had evolved their life to a point to that which they are desiring,

It would anyway happen.

But before they reach there,

They want to have it.

Before you evolve yourself to a point where you really 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 received.

They would be better off with the desire,

But by fulfilling the desire,

They get into deep trouble.

So both the giver and the receiver can be in lot of trouble simply by giving something or by receiving something for which they are not ready.

Many times human beings,

Once they attain to 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 or 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's needed.

You have no preferences of your own.

Simply doing what's 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're just doing what's needed.

But always,

If you get into a deep emotion and do something,

You think that was a very compassionate moment.

No,

You're seeking self-fulfillment.

I'm not saying anything right or wrong.

It is still coming from a certain inadequacy.

So an overly compassionate sage who 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're dispensing gifts and boons to other people,

This will not bring well-being to you or to the people whom you give.

It may bring you much trouble,

It may bring him 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.

Parvati,

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 unevolved person,

If you give 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 him 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,

Then 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,

A real mean looking vessel.

We don't have such a thing in the ashram.

We dispose of the mean looking ones,

Whether they're vessels or people or whatever.

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 he sent some of his men and said,

Leave two most wonderful golden urns for him to use,

Two golden vessels.

So his king's people came,

Took away this mean looking vessel and put up these 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,

Because 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 it because it 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 the direction.

He walked into the cave and the first thing his eyes fell on the golden vessels.

Then the sage welcomed this man,

Served him a small meal that he had.

The man ate but his eyes were fixed on the golden vessel.

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 just with the 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,

He 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.

And the man didn't know what to do.

And the people who looked at this whole scene really humiliated the man because he stole from such a man who is running behind him to give him 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 who were there and also the mother mice.

When he pulled,

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,

Never came back.

So he started feeding these baby mice with little grain that he had and they were slowly putting on weight.

One day a cat walked in and mopped up four of them.

The fifth one,

The willy one,

Went and hid in a corner and escaped,

But four of them,

The cat mopped it up.

Then this one mice,

He was feeding it and making it grow.

Then one day the cat came.

He chased away the cat.

The mouse was so terrified.

So the sage,

Out of his compassion,

Thought,

How long can I protect this mouse?

Every time the cat comes,

I'll have to open my eyes,

I have to come out of my meditation.

This won't work.

Out of his siddhi,

Out of his capabilities,

Out of his sadhana that he has done,

He decided to turn this mouse into a fierce cat.

So the mouse became a cat.

So the other cat stopped coming because here there is a fierce cat.

After some time,

A wild dog came looking for the cat.

Then he chased away the wild dog,

But the wild dog hung around,

Waiting for an opportunity to get the cat.

Then he thought this doesn't work and again he used his powers,

Turned the cat into a dog.

Then the dog was fine for some time and the dog likes to roam around.

One day he came running into the cave with a tail in between his legs.

When the sage saw a panther was chasing the dog,

He stopped the panther,

Chased away the panther.

Then he sat there and thought,

This is getting too troublesome.

Every time I close my eyes,

Either I have to protect a mouse or a cat or a dog or something.

So he's decided the best thing is to turn this into a lion.

He'll be the king of the jungle.

Then I can turn him loose in the forest,

He will be safe,

I will have no problems.

So he turned this dog into a big lion.

Now the lion roamed about the forest.

When he walked,

Every other animal ran away seeing the lion,

But though this was the body of a lion,

It still had the heart of a mouse.

He was feeling very diffident.

If they come to know that I am just a mouse,

What will they do to me?

He was always going through this struggle.

You know,

Many people are going through this.

They are… in the society,

In the world,

They are like lions,

But inside they are like mice.

They are constantly struggling within themselves,

Always.

Whenever a person is placed in a situation which is beyond his writ or want,

Then that person will suffer so much insecurity and fear.

Because of this fear,

In his mind,

So many evil thoughts will arise.

This happens every other day in the world.

If you give somebody which is beyond their want,

If you give somebody which is beyond their capabilities,

If you give somebody beyond what they deserve,

Suddenly they become so mean-minded because somewhere inside they are small,

They have to put on the big act.

Now they will start thinking all kinds of nonsense.

So this lion was feeling very insecure.

He is a lion as far as the world is concerned.

Everybody is afraid of him,

But within himself he is a mouse.

Then he thought,

The only other person who knows that I am a mouse is the sage.

If I finish him off,

Nobody will know that I am a mouse,

I will be a real lion.

With this intention,

He walked into the cave.

The sage was sitting and meditating.

The lion slowly approached him,

Because if she… the lion finishes off the sage,

Nobody in the world will know that this is a mouse.

As he came closer,

The sage realized.

Then he looked at the lion and said,

This was not right of me to turn a mouse into a lion.

And he turned the lion back into a mouse and said,

Get out of here.

Fend for your own life.

It is nature for a cat to eat a mouse,

For a dog to eat a cat,

For a bigger animal to eat the dog.

It is natural,

Unless they evolve to that position.

If you give them that position,

They will only suffer and they will bring suffering upon everybody.

So Shiva went on with the story and he went further,

I will stop here.

Now,

This traditional… what to say… temptation that they have created in people.

If you ever see a holy person,

If you ever see a sage or a saint,

First thing is ask for what you want,

It will happen.

I am telling you,

Never ask because if he is wise,

He will not give,

But sometimes he is just in a state where he says okay.

If he says okay,

You are in trouble because you will get something that you are not ready for.

If you get things that you are not ready for,

Life doesn't become better,

Life only becomes turmoil in so many ways.

So when you sit in a certain space,

When you sit in a certain energy,

If you notice a certain person or a place is creating a certain level of energy,

It seems to be a little bigger possibility than what you are.

That is a time when you don't think of anything,

When you don't ask for anything,

You simply sit.

If you simply sit,

You will get the necessary nutrient to evolve very fast,

To mutate from one dimension to another.

Once you grow into a certain possibility,

Everything that is possible in that dimension will anyway happen to you.

If you do not grow into that possibility,

But just aspire for that,

Then you are just bringing heaps of trouble upon yourself.

So meditation,

Temple,

Dhyanalinga or sitting with a guru is not a time to ask,

It is a time to imbibe and allow this one to evolve into a higher possibility so that if it evolves,

What has to happen to it will anyway happen.

Reviews

Inspiring wisdom. I was just thinking about a situation in my life that I’ve been wrestling with for some time. This wisdom from Sadhguru gave me the clarity I needed. Many thanks. 🙏

This talk makes sense of something I’ve been struggling with: why areas of my life seem to be lacking, while there is a beautiful abundance in other areas. It’s helping me deepen the realization that life is giving me exactly what I need, by going through seemingly unpleasant experiences, as I’m being prepared to receive what’s needed next. It’s all a perfect process when we sit and accept it. 🙏🏼💗✨

Thank you for this!!!
I struggle with how much to give at times... this really helps put it into perspective by showing what over giving can create.
Blessed to have these wonderful words of wisdom 🙏♥️💫

Fabulous wisdom of Shiva, translated and role modeled by Sadhguru, honoring the feminine, honoring ALL of LIFE (Living Integrated, Fully Embodied, www.living-compassion.org)! In gratitude, ahimsa 🙏🏽

Wow!! Thanks for that. ❤️

Very clear support in understanding the parent’s desire to give

Amazingly insightful, as always in gratitude 🙏🏼💫🌷

Insightful talk, as always. I often have something to ponder, explore further or implement from listening to these talks.
May Shanti be with everyone at all times 🙏

Wow I needed to hear that . Could have said it or explained it better . Namaste

This answered some big questions for me. Thank you so very much .

Thank you so much

Thank you for sharing this truth and wisdom. Namaste 🙏

I needed this.... I love you Sadhguru ji.

Great message...thank you

Amazing. I really enjoy all of his talks

Thank you! I needed this.

Always Blowing my mind, I always will love and enjoy Sahdguru because he is truly truly authentic! I recommend his book “Inner Engineering” 📚 bless

Such a powerful shift in listening to this. Thank you