Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

The whole world is made up of love. Everyone is made up of love. You have heard this, all is God, all is love. But then what is the purpose. Okay, if everything is God, then what is there, where is the life heading to? See, life is heading towards perfection, isn’t it?

You want perfection. Perfection, why? Is it not already perfect? No, because the love has six distortions. Though the creation is all love, this love has six types of distortions. What are these six distortions of love? Anger, lust, greed, jealousy, arrogance and delusion. So six distortions of love, you know in animals also, they have these six distortions but they have no way to come beyond these distortions because nature rules them. Spirit is pure love, matter is distortion. But human beings are endowed with discrimination. So that one moves from distortion to perfect love, one pure love. The purpose of all sadhana, practices, meditation…what? Moving away from distortion of creation to the purity of the source, back to the source.

Now three kinds of perfection are there. One is perfection in action, another is perfection in speech, and the third is perfection in feeling, of how you are feeling. Do you see what I am saying? And it is rare to find all perfection in one object. It is not difficult, but rare. Some may be very good in their actions, but inside they feel very grumpy and angry. Then though they are doing wonderful things outside, it is not…perfect. Some may tell lies in their words, that is, speech may not be perfect, but they do their job right or they feel right inside. Their feeling is very good. The doctor may tell the patient “No, no. Don’t worry. Your disease will be cured.” Or “You will become better.” But he may not become better. Doctor knows that but at that time, doctor says that lie. So his speech is not perfect but his intention behind it is like a young baby comes and asks, a boy or girl comes and asks, “Where did you bring this other baby in the house?” You say, “The stork brought the baby.” You have told a lie to the baby but the baby cannot grasp anything beyond it. So when you have said a lie, the speech was imperfect but the intention or feeling behind that was perfect. If someone tells a lie with a bad intention, then both the feeling is imperfect, speech is imperfect, and the action you know will reflect that. Are you getting what I am saying or is it too complicated?

Suppose someone does a mistake and you look at the mistake and you feel angry on that mistake, then you are not any better than the person who has done the mistake. The perfect person’s action was imperfect but your feeling towards that action becomes imperfect so you have come in the same boat. Action can never be perfect. Any action will have a flaw here or there, now and then, but the feeling when it becomes imperfect, it stays for a long period. Innermost perfection is lost. Are you getting it?

So when you see an imperfection, say, an injustice done to somebody, how do you bear it?

Inside you, are you boiling “Injustice! Injustice!” then you have become more imperfect. At least protect your inner perfection, and then perfection in the speech, then you are able to deal with the imperfection outside. Do you get what I am saying? First most priority is inner perfection, i.e. inner peace.

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Sin & Spirit (the six distortions of love) by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Now usually what we do is we go from one imperfection to another imperfection. If someone is greedy, you are angry about their greediness. “Well, that person is greedy, why that person is greedy?” but you are not less than that. You are not bringing the purity in you but you are changing the flavor of impurity. Are you getting what I am saying? Change of distortion does not bring perfection. But normally, everybody does this, they just change the distortion. Lust becomes anger, anger becomes jealousy or greed or arrogance or delusion. We are just moving from one imperfection to another imperfection in that case. Is that clear? At all costs, save the mind and how we deal with that mind, is to see that every action is happening according to some laws. So when you look into different actions, you find imperfections but done let those imperfections enter into your heart, your Being. (You become angry.) You know, most of the people who fight for rights, human rights, feminine rights…you are fighting for rights but inside you, you are all messed up, you are angry, then your anger is no better than lust, its worse than lust. Jealousy is worse than anger, its not better than anger. All these imperfections, six imperfections, you think one is better than the other? Its not, do you see what I am saying? And sadhana is to maintain that and not to be shaken by small little events, another event here, and another event there.

If someone scolds you or scorns you or their speech is imperfect, don’t see that their feelings are also imperfect. Don’t see intention behind other people’s mistakes, you see what I am saying? When you see intention behind other people’s mistakes, then the mind is reeling again in more impurity. Replacing one impurity by another impurity does not make anything pure or better, it makes it worse. Does it make sense?

So that’s why Vikara, Vikara means distortions…Prakriti and Vikruti, the whole creation is made up of nature and distortion of nature. Anger is not our nature; it is distortion of our nature. Jealousy is not our nature, it is distortion of our nature. Why we call these as impure, you know? Why anger, jealousy, greed, lust are impure, why? They are all there in nature, isn’t it? You tease a dog, how angry it gets. You tease a child, how angry it becomes. Lust is there in nature. Everything is coming out of lust. Everyone is born out of lust. Desires are there… this is a part of creation. But why do we call it distortion, why are they called impure? Why?

Because they do not allow the Self to shine forth. Sin is that which does not bring the spirit within to shine forth fully. Are you getting it? Anything you do, if it dampens the Self to shine forth, dampens the sincerity that we talked about yesterday, the Nature of Self to shine forth, then that we call sin. Sin is not in your nature, you are not born out of sin. Sin is just the wrinkles in the cloth. It needs proper ironing, straightening it all out.

Why lust is a sin? You know why lust is a sin? Because in lust, you do not consider the other person as life, you do not honour the life. You use them as an object, you make them an object of your enjoyment, so you are somewhere overshadowing or not looking at the Self in the other person. This is the only reason why lust is impure. Love is the reverse of lust. In love, you see the other person as Divine. In love, you surrender, you see the other as higher. To elevate the matter to the level of the spirit. An idol you worship, it is a stone, it is a matter, but when you are worshipping it, it has become no more just an idol, statue or a picture, it has become the living Reality. You have given life to it. You elevate it to the level of God, love, moving towards perfection.