There are three types of action: animal, when you perform action through instinct without any question; human, when you perform an action with motive, with the conscience present even if you do not listen to it and with the principle of karma operating; and divine, when you are not bound by any action because there is no selfish motive attached to the action.
A cat sits on a mat and a mouse appears. The cat will at once catch it, no questions asked! This is animal instinct. When a human being acts, he may start to question his animal nature. He starts to question his actions. His conscience operates. Perhaps when you were a child you killed an insect on purpose. What was the reaction the first time you killed it? Were you happy about it? No one saw you; no one was going to accuse you, you were alone; you could get away with it. But, wait, there is one who is going to question you—and that is your conscience. It will be behind you asking you why you did what you did. There will be disapproval. You will feel guilty. But the second time you kill an insect, your conscience does not prick as hard. By the third, fourth and fifth time, the conscience is buried, like a distant echo. Your conscience will question you the first time you do something wrong, but if there is no one around to question your actions, be careful what you do, because you will find that it becomes easier and easier to repeat an action that initially made you feel very guilty.
If you are an evolved being, you would not take a life. I’ll give you an example. Once when we were with Master Sivananda in his garden on a hot summer’s day, a scorpion came out of its small hole to walk around in the fresh air. We were with a visitor, and he saw the scorpion. The guest was carrying a torch, he killed the scorpion with it. Gurudev Swami Sivananda asked him why he had done so. The visitor replied—it was poisonous and had a nasty sting. Gurudev said, “By killing one scorpion, do you think you will be able to get rid of all scorpions? And do you have the power to give life back to it? If you do not have the power to give life, you cannot take life.” There is a place in God’s creation even for a scorpion. We have no right to take its place away.” Our responsibility is to allow freedom for everyone.
When we start to follow the divine life, we know that we do not have the power to give life, so we cannot take it. One who follows the divine life prefers to die himself in order to save another. Jesus had the power to destroy the people who came to crucify Him had He wanted. He could have burnt the cross; He could have burnt all the people there. But if He had, then He would not have acted as a divine being; He would have acted as a human being. That’s why, at that time of suffering on the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Acting as a human, He had the right to defend Himself. But He was divine and so He died to save others.
Our own Gurudev was once attacked by a crazed man with an axe. The police came and arrested the attacker. The next morning Gurudev went to the jail and garlanded his would-be assassin, put flowers at his feet and prostrated before him. He saw God in the form of an assassin and then allowed him to return home. This is divine action. Later on Gurudev wrote to him as a disciple and, soon after the assailant wrote a letter asking forgiveness. Through love from Gurudev the man’s life changed totally. This is divine action. If Master had acted as a human, he would have taken revenge and sent him to jail. But divine beings like Jesus and great teachers like Sivananda Gurudev do not even entertain the idea of taking revenge.