*Chapter 5 - The Fourth Dimension*
*Day 21*
One who says he doesn't know, he knows it, and one who says he knows it, doesn't know. One who knows also doesn't know. One who doesn't know also knows. That completes the confusion.
Divinity is not alien to anybody. It is not the proprietary of some special people on planet. It is part of the entire existence. Everything is in it, everything is of it.
That is why everybody at some level knows it. It is there, and that is what is the basis of whole creation. So even those who think they don't know at some level somewhere deep inside they have some idea.
Those who ascertain I know it well, somewhere they miss it. They also may not know how this universe consciousness is functioning in its totality. So here ignorance and knowledge are not poles apart, they are somewhere mixed up, they are there together.
It is not black and white. It is everything together. Now this is the blast for the intellect. Often people, when they know a little, it gets into their head. It's the heady people who get stuck in the paradigms and they don't go into the paradigm shift.
They think, "Who are you to teach me business? I have been in the business since 40 years. What do you know? You are a kid." Those of the older generation successful businessmen are closed to new ideas from youngsters.
Then they really bite the dust. This has happened over and over again. We have heard many such stories and incidents. The same things happen in teaching also. Teaching is a very dangerous job.
Teaching job can get into your head. Everybody adores you - Wow. such a great teacher, such nice knowledge. It happened to one of our teacher, a very brilliant person who had the gift of the God, good language.
So, of course he became a teacher of the Art of Living and started teaching and everybody started appreciating. It went to the head right away : "What Gurudev can do I can also do, I am also a great teacher. Everybody is flocking and appreciating me so much."
Then no sooner than when things go to your head, you don't know what to do. Everyone started disrespecting that person because he was not behaving properly. He was arrogant.
So everyone complained and started moving away. They said this is not what the teaching is. This person is not walking the talk. Whatever respect this person gained in few years, in a couple of years he lost all the respect.
When I happened to visit that country this person came to me and said, "Gurudev none of these people respect me. You tell them to respect me." I said, “Listen i, will not tell anybody to respect anybody or not to respect anybody. You have to gain it. It doesn't come by demand. If you have lost it you better take some break”.
“You have lost the respect of people. They say you are not walking the talk. Okay, say everybody is wrong. Not everyone can be wrong. All your students are wrong? Your own students?
“They all pleaded with me, please take this person from here. Give us break. We want to meditate. We want to do seva together, but here this person yells and screams and demands. It's so horrible".
Demanding respect is impossible. You cannot demand it. It has to come by your virtue and even if it comes, you shouldn't mind it. So what if they respect you or do not respect you.
If you think that you are doing right you should go ahead. That person said, “Now I am going to write a Blog about Art of Living”. I said, " Okay do it. Write whatever you want to write". He said " otherwise give me three thousand dollars".
I said,No you write whatever you want to write. Good”. When a someone says I am a senior teacher and I don't like the Art of Living because no one walks, the path, then people suddenly think. Oh yes there must be some truth to it”.
It's good because you can filter away all those people because I am not going to give you a pie. You can't demand respect. You can't demand money. These is extortion, not the spiritual path, not the spiritual way.
When things get to your head these sort of things happen. We are so fortunate in the Art of Living that among seven and a half thousand teachers, not even a dozen people have gone like that.
Because people cannot handle love, handle appreciation, then things get into their head. They cannot handle knowledge also. That's why in Sanskrit there is a word called patrata, your capability to receive and hold the knowledge, it has to be there.
