Q: Dear Sadhguru, how can we love people who irritate us the most?
Sadhguru: How to love people who irritate you? First of all, do not pretend to love them – just understand that they are irritating you. Why are they irritating you? Simply because they are not the way you expect or want them to be. But in the same breath, you claim that you believe in God. If you believe in God, the person who irritates you also happens to be a creation of God, and they seem to be such a masterpiece that they can irritate the hell out of you.
So, do not deceive yourself. Just see that this irritation is happening because you have already decided what is right and what is wrong. You think that the way you see it is the right way. If they are some other way, first you will get irritated, then you will get angry, then you will hate them, then you will want to kill them.
Why are they irritating you? Simply because they are not the way you expect or want them to be.
These are all natural processes. It happens simply because you are expecting everyone in the world to be like you. If everyone in the world were like you, could you be here? If there was one more person like you in your own home, could you live there? It is very good that everyone in the world is the way they are.
Any human being in this whole mass of people is absolutely unique. If you look at the person who is sitting next to you right now, you will see that there is no other human being like them anywhere on this planet. There never was one like them, and there never will be another person like them.
If you recognize that they are such precious material, how can they irritate you? Everyone around you is an absolutely unique human being. There is no other one like them. And it is such a miracle for you that today you are sitting next to this absolutely unique human being. If you see this, where is the question of irritation?
You are simply blind to life. You have not opened your eyes and looked at life – that is why you can be irritated. Otherwise, how can anyone irritate you? If you see the uniqueness of all creation, love is the only way you will be. You will become an outpouring of love.
