Question 2

IT IS NOT GOOD TO SERVE PEOPLE OUT OF A SENSE OF DUTY?

It is related.

No, not at all, it is ugly. When you do something only out of duty, without love, you are harming yourself and you are harming the other too. Because if you are not doing it out of love, you will feel that the other has to be grateful: you will feel that you have obliged the other. You will wait for a return; in fact, you will make a demand, gross or subtle, 'Now, you do something for me, I have done so much for you.'

When you do something out of love, you do it without any idea of any return. It is not a bargain-you do it because you are happy doing it; the other is not obliged. Not that love is not returned -- love is returned a thousand-fold but only love is returned, never duty.

In fact, if you are doing a duty toward somebody, he will never be able to forgive you. You can see it in children: they are never able to forgive their parents. Their parents must have been doing a great duty. It is difficult to forgive those people who have been doing duty.

Respect arises for those people who have loved you, not out of any sense of duty but just out of sheer joy.

Do you see the difference? A mother loves you just because she feels love for you -- whether you return it or not is irrelevant. There is no bargain in it; it is not a contract, it is not business. If you don't make a return, she will never mention it, she will never think about it. In fact, she has attained to so much joy while loving you, what more can she expect?

A mother always feels that she could not do as much as she wanted to do. But if the mother is doing it out of duty, then she feels she has done too much, and you have betrayed her -- you are not returning her love. And she will constantly hammer the fact into your head that she has done this and that, and she has carried you for nine months in her womb. And she will relate the whole story again and again. That does not help to create love; it simply helps divorce. The children become very, very angry.

I know of a young boy. I was staying with the family, and the mother brought the boy in front of me: they wanted me to teach the boy something because he was very ungrateful.

I knew the family very well, I knew the father and the mother, so I knew why he was ungrateful. They had done all that they could do, but always only out of a sense of duty.

I told them 'You are responsible, you have never loved the boy. He feels hurt. You have never allowed him to feel worthy. Your love is not love, it is just like a hard rock on the heart of the boy. Now he is growing up and is capable of rebelling against you, that's why he's rebelling. The boy looked at me with such gratitude. He started crying. He said 'Whosoever comes to the family, any guest, any friend, I'm always brought into the court -- everybody has to teach me. You are the first man... This is exactly the case. These people have been torturing me, and my mother goes on saying "For nine months I carried you in my womb." And I say to her "But I had not asked you to. That had nothing to do with me, it was your business. You decided. Why didn't you get an abortion? I would not have interfered. Why did you get pregnant in the first place? I had not applied for it!"'

And I knew he was angry, but he was right.

Now you ask: IS IT NOT GOOD TO SERVE PEOPLE OUT OF A SENSE OF DUTY? No, in fact, if you serve people out of a sense of duty you will become their torturers: you will become very dominant over them. It is a way to dominate. it is political.

Start by massaging their feet, and soon you will be at their necks. Soon you will kill them. And naturally, when you start massaging their feet, they spread their feet. They say 'Perfectly okay', and they don't know what is going to happen. All public servants, sooner or later, become politicians. That is the right way to start your political life: become a public servant. Serve people out of sense of duty, and then, sooner or later, you can jump on their heads; then you can exploit them. Then you can crush them, and they cannot even utter a cry, because you are public servants.

To become masters of people, the beginning is in public service.

My whole approach here is to make you alert to these traps. These are trips, ego trips. In the name of humbleness, humility, service, you are going on an ego trip. Do, but only do out of love, otherwise, don't do. Please don't do. It is better if you don't do anything.

You will be able to do, because nobody can remain undoing continuously. Energy is created, and you have to give it -- but give it out of love. When you give out of love, you feel grateful to the other because he has accepted your love, he has accepted your energy, he has shared with you, he has unburdened you.