I tell you, if you see a person sitting next to you how you will feel, if you see a dog sitting next to you how you will feel, if you see a plant sitting next to you how you will feel, it is based on that, that, that is going to respond to you. Please understand, if you think the person who is sitting next to you is alive, you will react either with love or withdrawal, whatever; you may react in some way. If you see a dog sitting next to you, you will react in some way. But, if you don’t react the same way to the plants, it means you don’t feel they are alive.

Listen to this logic; you will understand the conclusion. Why we feel the plant is not that much alive, the person is more alive, the dog is a little less alive, and the plant is less alive? Why? Because, we have the wrong knowledge that, “action decides life”. No! Existence decides life; not action decides life. Because the man can do more actions than the dog, the dog can do more actions than the plant, you gauge, you measure even the existence of life in them based on the actions. Please understand, this is the basic misunderstanding. Some of these basic misunderstandings can be repaired only by Upanishads. Only by Upanishads! Because, only the Upanishadic Masters carried that kind of an inner-space.

Our architect who is doing this stage decoration for Upanishads, getting the plants, rock, everything, she suddenly comes and tells me, ‘Swamiji, really I have to tell you something!’

I said, ‘What?’

‘The plants kept next to you have grown taller, almost one feet!’

I said, ‘Come on! I heard enough stories!’

She says, ‘No, Swamiji! Really, Swamiji, too tall! They are growing every day, day by day, tall!’

I laughed and tried to brush it aside.

She said, ‘No, Swamiji, I will prove to you! I can show you the height, Day One, then Day Two, how they are growing so tall!’

I said, ‘They are also hearing Upanishads!’

‘First…’, I told them, ‘first get me evidence. Only then I will talk about it.’ Because, I don’t want people to make fun of me or fun of this whole idea of Upanishads.

Listen! I don’t treat them because of their action or inaction; I don’t have an idea about them because of their action or inaction. Just like every day I bow down in front of Kaalabhairava….. See, the Garbhamandir door, we respect it as a symbol of Kaalabhairava. It is worshipped as a deity of Kaalabhairava. Just like every day I bow down in front of Kaalabhairava, when I come down I always touch the plants in my garden, I touch all of them for a second, bless them, and come. Because of (based on) their action or inaction I don’t gauge the level of life in them. Please understand, I have not done something special to them. I just didn’t judge their level of life. See, just like when the dog is sitting next to you, if you judge that it is a very low life, you may not even respond; and that also won’t respond. But, even if you just recognize his existence, he loves himself and loves you, understand?

Whoever makes you love yourself, you love that person. Whoever makes you love yourself, you love that person. It is a law of life.

Your attitude may be different: respectful, sometimes reverence, sometimes fear, sometimes…..whatever, but whoever makes you love you, you WILL love that person. I tell you, my whole work is making people love them truly.

I tell you, I am constantly respecting your existence as life. With these plants, the same thing. I just respected their existence. I never did anything else! But, before sitting in this seat every day, I bow down to all of them. I don’t have an idea they are some way lower. I just feel I am sitting with a group of people. If a group of people are sitting next to me how I feel, that is exactly the way I am feeling. The way I respond to your existence, the same way I responded to their existence. For human-beings, the way I am responding to their existence is by blessing them or healing them or asking them about their problems, giving some solution or consolation, courage. For these plants, just a good look! Look from the eyes which is respecting their life is enough for them to beautifully expand and celebrate, love their own existence! Love their own existence, understand? And one good thing with plants is, you don’t need to train them; they don’t have SDHD (Self-Doubt, Self-Hatred, Self-Denial); they don’t have exploiting mentality; they don’t have exploiting tendency; they don’t have something which is not them as part of them. With human-beings, they internalize something which is not them as part of them. So, we have to separate that and show them what they are. And, I tell you, the moment I show what is you, you will just fall in love with you!

The Mahadeva component of you which fulfills whatever you want, which gives so much of “feeling good” about you, is the real you. Please understand, all of you have the Mahadeva component of you which makes you feel so good about you. Sometimes people say, ‘No, I think I never saw that part. I don’t think I have that. I think, when I came down, I left that in Kailash and came down.’ HAHAHAHA! Or, ‘After I came here, somebody stole it.’