Playing Your Part

Dear One,

Greetings!

Are you not thankful for all the wonderful qualities, nature has bestowed on you? Now, don't sulk saying, 'I am nature's most neglected child'. Stop being such a natural born positive pessimist. Be thankful for all the qualities you have been bestowed upon, as they are not your own making. It's a wondrous gift of nature. In the same way, it depends on the part that you have been given to play that makes all your qualities complete.

Say, in a drama, you are given the part of a villain, and you play that role perfectly. A villain always knows that when I am playing the role of a villain, it's just a role I am playing. I'm very sincere to my role.

There is a saying in Sanskrit, 'Durjanam Prathamam Vande Sajjanam Tadanantaram'. First, worship the bad person, and then the good man. The bad man is falling and giving you an example, "Don't do what I did." Don't ever hate someone because of their misdeeds; they have given you such a beautiful lesson to learn. Remember nature teaches you every second; but we fail to learn it most of the time.

When you understand these basic laws of truth, then your inner perfection becomes so stable that nothing on this planet can shake your inner perfection. Nothing can shake you. Your knowledge of a mistake comes to you when you are innocent! The knowledge of a mistake dawns in the moment when you are 'out of the mistake'.

However the past has been, whatever mistake has happened, do not consider yourself to be a sinner or the maker of that mistake. In the present moment you are new again, pure and clear. You die every moment, only to be born again.

Mistakes of the past are past. When this knowledge comes, that moment you are again perfect. Often, mothers scold their children and afterwards feel so guilty. Then they go on regretting, "Oh, poor thing. I got so angry and annoyed at this kid, poor child! I should not have done this." Then you prepare yourself to get angry again. Okay, you got angry with your kid once or twice. Why? Because of lack of awareness! Awareness was missing so the anger came up, it happened.

That's what Krishna tells Arjuna, "Arjuna, you think you are not going to do what you are supposed to do? I tell you, you will do it. Even if you don't want, you are going to do it!" In a very clever way He puts it: "You better surrender to me directly."

He says: "Drop everything. Surrender to Me, and do what I say". Then He says: "Well, I have told you whatever I have to say, now you think it over and do what you like, you do whatever you want to do, do however you like". But then He said, "but remember, you will do only what I want".

These last few sentences of Krishna were so confusing, and people have struggled to make sense out of them. There are thousands of commentaries trying to make sense out of these few words, three contradicting statements. First He says, Surrender everything, I'll do everything for you, or just do as I say. Then he says: Think, think and see what is right for you, do whatever you feel is right. And then in the third statement he says: But remember (anyway) you will do only what I want you to do. I guess, only out of confusion can come clarity.

A writer will feel, "I did not write, it just started flowing, it started happening." All the creative work in the world - whether painting, dance, drama, music, anything - has all come from that unknown corner. It just spontaneously started happening. You are not the doer. The best sculptor will say, "I didn't do it, it just started happening." The best painter will say the same thing; the best music composer would say the same thing.

I tell you, the same is true for criminals too. You ask the worst criminal, "Did you do this?" He will reply, "No, it happened! What could I do?" Knowledge of the your own Self is the only thing that can take you from imperfection to perfection. Keep searching for that evasive perfection - within you. Stop searching for it outside, as you will never find it. Start searching it inside, and surely, you will find it some blessed day.

So, the best thing is to keep playing your part, unsullied and unattached. One day, the drama will end and you can resume your true nature. Till then, play on.

Peace in oneself. Peace in the world.