Lack of interest does not mean dislike, hate or disgust

If a snake enters your house, what do you do? 

If you are compassionate, you may have it safely caught, taken out and released back in the wild.

If the snake is very dangerous and posing serious threat to you and your family, you may kill it.

This is what everyone from an ordinary mortal to enlightened people will do.

Sometimes it easy to take the aphorism - everything is ONE. Everyone is ONE  little too far. That's nothing but a beginners' confusion or dilemma.

I am sure even a person like Dalai Lama, most saintly, most compassionate person will do the same if a snake gets into his room. Dalai Lama may be a liberated soul but snake is not. 

Just for the kicks, some saint may use his powers to subdue the snake and make it harmless.

There is a story that Swami Prabhavananda tells about his guru Swami Brahmananda. Once while walking on a road in some Indian city, a raging bull charged at them. There was not much time or opportunity for these 3 people to escape. Swami Prabhavananda and another disciple decided to shield their guru Brahmananda and sacrifice themselves if needed. Guru stopped them and boldly faced the charging bull. The bull which was ready to tear up anything on its way came charging with all its anger and might and stopped just inches away from the body of Swami Brahmananda and became docile and moved away. It looked like a miracle to everyone. But for the people who live on a different astral plane, it was not a big deal at all. For Swami Brahmananda, it was like correcting some anomaly in the universal consciousness which was same in the bull and the swamis. He just tuned it right and the bull became normal and went away.

Point is-  all though the consciousness in a saint and a snake is all same, they just can not live together because they are at different points in their evolution. 

Sometimes we mistakenly think that since everyone is ONE, we just have to like everyone and make them part of our lives. This is akin to keeping a snake in your room  and expect that since you and snake are ONE (as consciousness), it should not bother you. How silly is that?

If we can understand this, then why don't we understand similar thing with humans? If someone does  not like you, is it your problem? I do  not think so. I won't use hate or dislike or disgust. They are all extremely strong words and should not be used against fellow human beings. But, lack of interest is perfectly fine. Someone does not find you very useful to make you part of their inner circle, why should you care? Just respect their decision and move on. You may be a snake and he may be a saint or other way round. Just because you are a snake, you are not necessarily a bad creature even if you carry the deadliest venom and still have your fangs intact and can strike at anybody with all the viciousness. That's what makes you a snake. Saint is what he is. Respect the differences in the different manifestations of the same consciousness. Since as a snake, you can not discriminate, as a saint, he has to do it for you.

We all have people in our lives whom we like very much and there are others whom we do not care much about and there are others whom we avoid. That's all fine. Hate is what is not called for. Judgement is not what is called for. When you start hating and judging other people, you violate the aphorism - we are all ONE. But just recognizing the differences and then deciding how best to deal with each person or living creature is perfectly fine. Everybody can exercise that right.

All these thoughts came to my mind when read this quote

Everybody lives in my heart.

Only selected few live in my life.

Made perfect sense. Since we are all ONE, everyone and everything that has come from the same consciousness is one and is in our heart, the seat of consciousness in the body. If you are a sensitive person, from time to time you have felt bad about having to avoid some people or being avoided by others, take heart in this quote. As long as you do not hate, dislike, judge others, you are free to make them part of your life or wish them best and leave them outside of your life. They can do so too.

But, if we ever resort to hate or dislike or judge others because we are not part of their life or if we have made them not part of our life, then we are hating, disliking and judging ourselves.

Cheers!