QnA with Sri Sri

Q: Guruji, you said there is freedom in giving away your rights, and nobody can take away what is yours. Now, if somebody takes away my rights to something, should I just wait believing that it is mine and it will come back to me, or should I fight?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First of all, if you believe someone has taken away your rights, you should correct your thinking. If it is your right, no one can take it away from you. You should stand up and take your rights.
This I have said in Hindi: Drop your sense of authority over something.
If you say I have the authority over something, just drop the authority. Here, authority may be the right word to use. Do you see what I am saying? See, when you give your authority to your loved one then it definitely comes back to you.
Often, we want to exert our authority on others by force.
For example, you have authority over your wife, but if you do not exercise your authority over your wife and instead give away your authority to her, then that brings freedom.
Are you getting what I am saying?
You have a right over your children. What I am saying is, don’t exercise your authority over your children, rather give away your authority to them. That brings freedom to them.
If you do not force your authority on your loved ones then that brings freedom.
Suppose you are a school teacher, you definitely have an authority over all the kids. Now if you exercise your authority over the kids, they will run away. Isn’t that what usually happens? Similarly, say you have 50 employees working under you and you exercise your authority over them, then the work place will not be a pleasant one for them. So instead you should give away your rights.
Who can give away their authority? Only one who has full authority with them.
One is like giving charity, while the other is like trying to give when you do not have any money in the first place. What you are saying is, ‘How can I give when I do not have any money to begin with?’ What I am saying is, ‘You should give some charity’. So you can only give when you already have owned the right fully. Got it?
You can give away your rights only when you know it is yours in the first place. If somebody has snatched away your rights then you should fight it out with them. But if you have given it to them then that is a different issue. Then that is called love. Giving away your right to someone else is an act of love, but if someone has snatched away your right then you have not given it to them at all. Then you should fight and take it back. Did you get it?
Now what do you do? Do you wait to claim back your rights? Suppose you have a home and some gangsters come and snatch your property from you. Should you just give away your rights over your property? I would say no. You should stand up against them, get a good lawyer, go to the police and do all that is needed to get back your rights. But before you die at least give away the right (over your property) to somebody otherwise it will go to government, or it will be left unclaimed. At least you give away your right to your property to someone before leaving this planet.