Offering

Question: Namaskaram Sadhguru, In one of your discourses, you said we need to direct all our energies towards Shiva. You said, “Whether it is love, lust, anger or greed, everything should be directed towards Shiva.” How is it possible to direct one’s anger, lust and greed? Love is understandable, but the others I do not understand.

W hatever you do in your life, you can only do it with what you have. You cannot do something with what you do not have. So whatever you have, use that. It is not about whether Shiva gets something or not; he really needs nothing from you. The important thing is that you learn to direct all your energy - everything that you are - in one direction. If you do not put everything that you are in one direction, you will not go anywhere.

If your love is for Shiva, your lust is for someone in the neighborhood and your hatred is for your friends, you will drive yourself in five directions. One who is trying to drive himself in five directions obviously is not serious about making a journey. But if you put everything in one direction right now, you will go somewhere. I want you to understand – you neither have love, hatred, lust or jealousy in you. You just have life in you. What you make out of it is up to you. You can make love out of it, blissfulness, depression or frustration. You can make it pleasant, unpleasant, ugly or beautiful.

There is a wonderful story…On the way to Mysore, there is a place called Nanjangund. Just after Nanjangund, there is a little ashram on the left side called Mallanna Moolai. Over a hundred years ago, there was a man there named Malla. At that time, Mysore City was one of the few cities in South India which was planned and done-up beautifully because the Maharaja had a sense of aesthetics. He created a wonderful palace and gardens.

People would go to Mysore for everything – commerce, livelihood and pleasure. They would either walk or go in a bullock-cart. But when they came to this corner, which was 16 miles from Mysore, Malla would rob them. People came to find out about this and instead asked if they could make a deal with him. He became like a tax collector, and set up a system where every person that passed would pay him one rupee, which was a big amount of money at that time. The people hated this, so they called him Kalla which means “thief”, and that spot became known as Kallana Moolai which means “thief’s corner.”

He collected money the whole year and then on Mahashivarathri, he celebrated in a grand way and fed the whole town. He didn’t eat up this money, he just had a little piece of land on which he lived, but he robbed everybody and then conducted a big festival for Shiva. So when two Veera Shaivas – sages who were also great devotees of Shiva - came and saw what he was doing, robbing everyone and then having a big Mahashivarathri, they were both embarrassed and intrigued by this form of devotion. They talked him out of this and said, “There are other ways to conduct this festival.” They set up a little ashram and Malla became a monk along with them, and all three of them attained Mahasamadhi.

There are many wonderful stories about how Shiva is most pleased with his devotees - not because they offer a lump of gold or a diamond, but because they offer what they have. The message is, “You offer what you have” because in the very nature of things, you cannot offer what you do not have.

So the question is not about in what form you offer; you just offer your life. In offering, your life becomes one-pointed. Once it becomes one-pointed, it will begin to move. If it is a five-pointed star, it is not going anywhere. It will just create tension in five different directions. If you make a weapon, you want it to penetrate so you make it one-pointed. It has to be sharp. Sharpness means its point is limited.