The Serene Sage Abides in the Self (Ashtavakra Gita 3.9) - 27th October 2016

Sage says whether acclaimed or tormented, the Serene Sage abides in the Self. He is neither gratified nor angered. Now, he's talking about the appearance of a sage. Now, the appearance of a sage is a pointer to our own Self. The appearance of the outer Guru is a reflection of our own inner presence, I-amness, this beingness. Being is just being. All things can come and go within it, but it remains untouched.

Now, does this mean that to a sage anger will never arise or fear will never arise? It is not like that. Momentarily, the play of these energies called emotions can still come, but you won't use these emotions along with their interpretations to make something more poisonous out of it. So, anger does not become resentment, does not become a grievance. It just comes and sometimes it's expressed and it goes. Other emotions like compassion or empathy do not convert into guilt. Without doership, the sage remains unconcerned by the rising of any of these emotions.

That's why we created a definition once. We said there are Grade A emotions and Grade B emotions. Grade A emotion is that which spontaneously arises in any situation. Grade B seems to be that which then gets mixed up with identity. It gets mixed up with identity and that becomes a more seemingly longer-lasting sense of part of our identity in some way. So, anger can arise, fear can arise, lust can arise momentarily. But once you take it on and say, 'Oh, I should not be angry, I'm still an angry person, I'm not getting my freedom,' then we mix it up and make a lot of guilt out of it. You make a lot of unworthiness out of it. It is not so for a sage.

And in Indian spirituality, there are so many examples where sages have had anger fits, okay? And the fits of anger that curse people with all kinds of curses. And what happened then? After five minutes, the anger cools down and they also tell them the way to get out of the curse. This is normal stories in India. And then how does it turn out? It turns out that even what happened through the curse was just pure Grace. So even the serious anger was an expression of their love, of their Grace, of their power. Sometimes tough love is needed. Sages can play that role.