Honour reduces the freedom. Your fame, honour and virtue can limit your freedom. Nobody expects a good person to make a mistake. So the better person you are, the higher the expectations people have of you. It is then that you lose your freedom. Your virtues and good actions are like a golden cage. You are trapped by your own good actions, for everyone expects more from a good person. Nobody expects anything from a bad person.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says most of the people are stuck in this cage of prestige and honour. They cannot smile. They are constantly worried about keeping up their prestige and their honour. It becomes more important than their own life. Just being good or doing good to keep the prestige and honour is worthless. Prestige and honour can bring more misery in life than poverty.
Many desire fame, but little do they know that they are looking for a cage. It is an art to be dignified, and yet not be suffocated by it. Only the wise would know this. For the wise one it is natural to be in honour, and he has no concerns even if it falls apart. Despite having fame or prestige, he will live as though he has none. A wise person can handle any fame without feeling suffocated, for he is crazy too! By doing good in the society one gains prestige, then enjoying the prestige and honour, one loses their freedom.
A devotee asked Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Guruji, “Then how do you keep your freedom?”
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar smiled and answered: “ By being like a child, considering the world as a burden a joke or a dream.”
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says most of the people are stuck in this cage of prestige and honour. They cannot smile. They are constantly worried about keeping up their prestige and their honour. It becomes more important than their own life. Just being good or doing good to keep the prestige and honour is worthless. Prestige and honour can bring more misery in life than poverty.
Many desire fame, but little do they know that they are looking for a cage. It is an art to be dignified, and yet not be suffocated by it. Only the wise would know this. For the wise one it is natural to be in honour, and he has no concerns even if it falls apart. Despite having fame or prestige, he will live as though he has none. A wise person can handle any fame without feeling suffocated, for he is crazy too! By doing good in the society one gains prestige, then enjoying the prestige and honour, one loses their freedom.
A devotee asked Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Guruji, “Then how do you keep your freedom?”
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar smiled and answered: “ By being like a child, considering the world as a burden a joke or a dream.”
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