Being Straight with Oneself

 

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Being Straight with Oneself

When we talk about a spiritual process, we are not talking about jumping to conclusions and assuming things that we do not know. If we are straight enough to see, “What I know, I know. What I do not know, I do not know,” we are already spiritual aspirants. The fundamental aspect of spirituality is just this – “I am not so flaky in my head that I make up things. I am willing to come to terms. What I know, I know, what I do not know, I do not know.” Once we realise and accept this, the very nature of human intelligence is such that it cannot live with - “I do not know.” It wants to know. Once wanting to know comes, seeking will come. Once the seeking comes, finding a way could happen. That is why, once we are on the spiritual path, we are referred to as seekers.

But right now, it appears that the whole world is against this simple - “I do not know.” Nobody likes “I do not know.” Whatever we do not know we just believe. The reason why every human being on the planet is not a natural mystic is because we went out shopping too early. There is a story – Sharad Pillai got arrested and was brought to court. The judge asked “What happened? Why have you been brought here? What are the charges?” Sharad Pillai said “I just went Diwali shopping a little too early.” The judge said, “That’s not a crime, that’s being judicious. What do you mean too early? When did you go?” Sharad Pillai said, “I went before the shops opened.”

There are no readymade answers – we go shopping too early in the sense, before we can pronounce our name, we already know who god is, who his wife is, how many children he has, his address, birthday and so on…..we fill ourselves with a lot of useless information. If parents just instilled the value that what we know, we know, and what we don’t, we don’t; if that happens then everyone on this planet has the potential to be a seeker. We need to drop all the useless impressions we carry and nurture within ourselves, only then the possibility of encountering the divine opens up.

If we want to get somewhere, we must be in touch with reality. Otherwise, we will not get anywhere, we will just hallucinate that we know things. There is enough intellect in the world today to cultivate a certain level of awareness in people to see: what they know, they know and what they do not know, they do not know. This is a simple way to exist. 

If we cannot be straight with anyone in the world, that’s a social issue – it’s up to us. But if we want to progress spiritually, we should at least take one single step in our life – we should be absolutely straight with ourselves.