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When all is one there is no question of ignoring or not ignoring. If all is not one, then the question arises whether to ignore or not to ignore; then there is a choice. But when you feel all is one, there is no choice. I am not saying that you will ignore, I am not saying that you will not ignore; you are no longer there, so whatever happens, happens.

If you start serving those people on the streets, perfectly beautiful. If it doesn’t happen, nothing can be done. Try to follow me: because you think that when you come to realize oneness, you will serve those people. It may be so. It may not be so. Because when oneness is felt, who is the server and who is the served? Then who are you who is feeling the misery and sympathy and compassion, and who are they? They have disappeared. Then nothing can be said about what will happen. Something will happen. But nobody can predict.

The question arises because oneness has not been felt; it is just an idea in the mind. You have been thinking. It is a logical conclusion, it is not existential. A beggar is on the street, you pass by; you feel hurt. This too is the ego which feels hurt. You feel compassion – or you don’t feel compassion, you just ignore. Ignoring is the ego, feeling compassion is also the ego; you are there in both cases. Of course compassion is a better ego, more polished, golden in a way, but it is also the ego. The man who is ignoring may have a very, very ordinary ego – not pious, not religious, uncultured – but he has an ego, and to me both egos are the same. Whether you feel compassion or you ignore, you are there.

My whole effort here is just totally different; the effort is that you should not be there, then let whatever happens happen. If you feel compassion arising, then you will not be there, only compassion will be there. Then you will not say, “I feel compassion for this beggar,” because that “I” cannot feel compassion. I – how can it feel compassion? And a compassion that flows through the I is already corrupted. It has not the innocence, the beauty, that should be there. It is already a part of the ego, it will strengthen the ego, it will create barriers for you to achieve oneness. You will be the compassionate, you will become a great man, or a great woman, a great servant of the people – and great servants of the people have been doing such mischief over all the centuries. They are not needed anymore. They are mischievous people.

In fact, if you enjoy your ego through compassion, deep down you would like beggars to be there on the street – otherwise how will you feel compassion? Deep down you would like lepers, beggars, crippled people, blind people, all around, so that you can have a good time being compassionate and of service. If all misery disappears from the world, the great servants of the people will be most miserable. Because then they will have nothing to do. God seems to be compassionate to them – he continues the misery.

No, I am not here to tell you to become servants of the people. That has not helped. That creates a subtle, pious ego, and when the ego is pious it is more poisonous because it looks so beautiful and you can cling to it more. I am here to help you to drop the ego: pious, impious; of the sinner, of the saint. The ego has to be dropped – then whatever happens is beautiful. You go and you sit by the side of the beggar, you help, but you are no longer there. Then God flows through you, the whole works through you. Then you are not expecting any result out of it, not even a simple thank-you from the beggar. And you are not looking for the photographer and for the newspaper man to reach you in time; and you are not looking for governments to take notice, and the Nobel awarding committee to think about you.

No, you are not there. And you will not carry it in your mind that you served, that you helped, that you were of such great service to somebody in misery. No, you will not carry it. You have not done it, God has been there working through you. You were possessed. When you are empty you are possessed by the divine force. Then whatever happens is beautiful. Sometimes it is possible that you will serve, will be of help, and sometimes it may happen that you will just pass by. One never knows. Sometimes you may just pass by. If the whole is not willing, if the whole has its own plans, you will not interfere.

If that man needs misery, if that misery is going to become a growing pain within him, if that misery is going to give him a new birth, then God is not going to help him. He is going to mature through it – help will be harmful. So don’t force yourself upon him, leave him aside. If God – and when I say God I mean the whole, not any person, just the whole – if the whole wants to take him out of his misery it will start working through your hands, but you, please, don’t come in. You don’t know what is happening, what is going to happen. Why is this man in misery? There must be something in it. He may be suffering for something which he has done, it may be a karma to him; or he may be passing through a birth pain out of which he will be renewed.

It is just like coming across a woman who is going to give birth to a child, and she is crying and weeping and screaming, and you feel compassion, and you help in such a way that the child is not born. Then you are an enemy not a friend. Because then this child is going to die within the womb and the woman is going to die because of it. Sometimes surgery is needed, sometimes indifference is needed, sometimes compassion is needed – but you should not be the decider. The decision should not be made by you.

So what you can do is one thing only, and that is to drop yourself, unlearn, decondition yourself – and then you are a vehicle. But then the choice is not yours. Then you can say simply with your totality: Thy will should be done. And then whatever happens is beautiful.