A Miserable Person Can’t be Noble

 

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A Miserable Person Can’t be Noble

The miserable person is bound to be mean; he/she cannot be noble. One should not expect nobleness out of misery. That is impossible; that is asking for something which is against nature. But this is what we have been doing for centuries. People are miserable, and society in every way creates their misery. It is a created phenomenon - it is not natural. Except for humans, nobody is miserable. All the animals, birds, trees, rivers, mountains, stars, they are all in tremendous bliss. Of course, they are unconscious of it.

Humans have one thing which is extremely valuable: they can be consciously blissful. But there is a danger also. The danger is that they may get trapped in a pattern of misery. No animal can get trapped in it; no tree can get trapped in it. When one is capable of consciousness one is also capable of choosing. That is part of consciousness, one can choose. Both alternatives are open: one can be blissful; one can be miserable.

Society is filled with miserable people. It needs miserable people because they are good slaves. Their whole energy is destroyed by their misery; hence they cannot be rebels. Rebellion needs overflowing energy, vigour, courage. The miserable person is so tired, so exhausted, he/she is willing to do anything, to follow any commandment, any order, howsoever stupid it is. He/she has no energy to fight against it; he/she cannot say no. Out of the sheer necessity to survive they go on saying yes to all the vested interests. And society consists of vested interests: priests, politicians. All kinds of powerful people need everybody to remain in misery.

Every child is brought up in such a way that it gets caught in misery. And then we expect nobleness, then we expect grace, then we expect love, beauty, joy. We make the person even more burdened, more miserable.

We can get out of it; we just need to decide. It is simply a question of deciding to get out of the prison. Nobody can prevent us - there is nobody to prevent us. It is out of our own choice that we are in it, it is out of our own clinging that we are in it. And the moment we are out of misery, suddenly we are noble. There is grace, beauty, joy. Life starts having a new dimension, a new richness. It becomes more festive; it starts taking on the colours of celebration. And that celebration is sacredness, that celebration is godliness.

The way to come out of our misery is meditation, because the mind has been created by society, and if we remain inside the mind, we remain in the prison. Mind is the prison, the root cause of all our slavery, of all our despair, anguish, anxiety. It is continuously destroying us - it is poison.

And it is very easy to get out of the mind just by becoming aware of the whole mechanism of the mind - thinking, desiring, expecting. All these things have to be watched as a pure witness - and immediately we are out of the mind.

Meditation means going beyond the mind, but it is not against the mind. By just being a witness, we learn the art of stopping it. The moment we become a witness it stops on its own. Then nobleness is ours, and then to live is certainly a great gift. One feels grateful to God. Out of that gratefulness arises prayer.