The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 1
Chapter #4
Chapter title: Just lucky, I guess!
24 June 1979 am in Buddha Hall
The first question:
Question 1
BELOVED MASTER,
UPON RETURNING TO HOLLAND LAST YEAR I STARTED COMMUNICATING
ABOUT YOU WITH AN OVERWHELMING SENSE OF URGENCY. I FELT YOU
IMPARTED THIS URGENCY TO ME, BUT IT SEEMED ALSO TO BE A PART OF MY
NATURE.
THIS FEELING OF NOT HAVING A SECOND TO LOSE, THE WISH TO GET MORE
DUTCH PEOPLE TO BECOME SANNYASINS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, MADE ME
FAR FROM PLAYFUL. THE SERIOUSNESS LED TO MUCH ANGUISH BECAUSE I
WAS CONFRONTED WITH INDIFFERENCE, RIDICULE AND CONTEMPT,
ESPECIALLY FROM THE JOURNALISTS. OBJECTIVELY I DID NOT FAIL -- FAR
FROM IT -- BUT IN TERMS OF BEING, MY TRIP WAS NOT EXACTLY wu-wei. I
SIMPLY COULD NOT COMBINE THIS URGENCY WITH JOY AND RELAXATION.
WILL YOU SAY A FEW WORDS ON THIS URGENCY, EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE
GIVEN ME SO MUCH ALREADY?
Deva Amrito, the playfulness that I talk about comes very slowly. You cannot just jump
out of your seriousness which you have accumulated for lives. Now it has a force of its
own.
It is not a simple matter to relax; it is one of the most complex phenomena possible,
because all that we are taught is tension, anxiety, anguish. Seriousness is the very core
the society is built around. Playfulness is for small children, not for grown-up people.
And I am teaching you to be children again, tobe playful again. It is a quantum leap, a
jump...but it takes time to understand.
And as far as I am concerned, you have been immensely successful: objectively,
certainly, but subjectively too. Unexpectedlyyou have been successful. Anybody else in
your place would have been in a madhouse.
You were excited, and it is natural to be excited. When somebody understands me, feels
me, he immediately starts feeling an urgency -- not a single moment to lose. And the
word has to be spread. A kind of tremendousimmediacy overwhelms. It is natural! It is
true that there is not a single moment to lose. And if you love me, you would like all
those people to come to me, because theymay not get the opportunity again -- for
centuries, for lives together!
When you love, and you have found a treasure, you would like to share it. And if the
treasure is such that it can disappear any moment, how can you avoid the feeling of
immense urgency? You will have to shout from the tops of the houses.
And the response that you will get is absolutely certain and fixed. The more you would
like people to come to me, the more they will escape -- from you, from the very idea of
coming to me. And the only way to escape is toridicule you, to laugh at you, to call you
mad. That is their way of defending themselves. If they listen to you understandingly, if
they allow you to overwhelm their being, to overflow into their being, to flood their
being, then they will also find themselves inthe same grip. And it will be very difficult
for them to avoid.
Hence, from the very beginning they will ridicule you, criticize you, oppose you, laugh
at you. They will do everything possible to create the feeling in you that you are wrong.
But they failed. They could not create that feeling in you. The more they ridiculed you,
the more they laughed, the more they criticized, the more you tried to convince them.
And you have been objectively successful --you have convinced thousands of people.
Since your going to Holland, many many Dutch people have arrived, and more are
arriving, and more will go on arriving. You have created a great stir. You have touched
many people's hearts. And it has been a great experience for your inner growth too.
The impact that you created has not got into your head yet; it has not made you more of
an egoist. In fact, it has made you more humble. It may not have been exactly wu-wei,
but it was very close. And I was not expecting it to be absolutely wu-wei, but it has been
more than I was expecting.
I was a little bit afraid, Amrito, that you might go mad. The urgency was such, your
ecstasy was such, you were so passionately inlove with me, that I was afraid deep
down. I was sending you with all kinds of apprehensions. But you survived the test.
You have come back. The turmoil that was created around you because of your talking
about me -- in the newspapers, on the radio, the TV -- the way you talked, it gave the
sense of your immense love, it gave the sense that you have found the home.
Many have been convinced. And many who have not been convinced have also started
thinking about it. And even those who have ridiculed you and have opposed you are
impressed; otherwise who cares? Why should you oppose somebody if you are not
impressed? Why should you ridicule and laugh if you are simply alert that he is mad?
Nobody laughs at a madman, nobody ridicules a madman. It is enough to know that he
is mad and everything is finished!
You have created a chain which will go on. And I would like many of my sannyasins to
be so excited, to feel the urgency, to go to their countries and spread the word. And you
will have to shout from the tops of the houses.
And whenever you are in love you look mad -- you are mad. Love is madness...but far
higher than the so-called, mediocre, mundane sanity. And love is blindness, but a
blindness that is capable of seeing the invisible.
Love is not part of the ordinary world that we have created. We have expelled love
from it. So whenever you are in love -- and tobe in love with a master, to be in love
with a buddha, is the ultimate love -- it drives you crazy. It makes you part of the
beyond. Nobody can believe it.
How can your friends, Amrito, believe it, that it has happened to you and it has not
happened to them? It is so much against their egos that you have found and they have
not found yet, and still they are struggling. No, the easier way for them is to deny, to
say that you have not found, that you are inan illusion, that you have been hypnotized,
that you are hallucinating, that you have beendrugged. That gives them a consolation,
that gives them a kind of at-easeness. If you have really found, then they will feel very
very uneasy -- then their lives are failures.
It has been a beautiful experience. I know you could not be very playful. It was difficult.
Next time when I send you, you will be moreplayful. Now don't get afraid! I know that
you don't want to go back again. Enough isenough...but one more time. Next time the
whole project is to be playful. Then people will laugh more and they will think that you
have gone even more mad. But laugh...dance, sing. This time you were arguing. Next
time no arguing -- singing, dancing, hugging people.
But I am absolutely happy. Whatsoever has happened has been good objectively, has
been good for others, has been good for you. It is a device: to send you for a particular
purpose is a device for your inner growth. And you have been successful.
There was every possibility of being a failure.
I am reminded:
Once George Gurdjieff asked P.D. Ouspensky,his chief disciple of those days, to come
from London to a faraway place somewhere in the Caucasus. It was very difficult.
Financially Ouspensky was bankrupt. He had no money, no house to live in, nobody to
support him. And such a long journey! And the times were very dangerous. In those
parts of the world it was dangerous to move, because the Russian revolution was
happening. People were being massacred, killed, murdered. There was no peace. Even
Gurdjieff had to leave Russia, and he was hiding in the mountains of the Caucasus.
It was not a right time to go there; it was very dangerous. The journey was not easy: all
the trains were unsettled, roads were cut, bridges were broken. It was chaos! But when
the master calls, the disciple has to follow. Whatever belongings he had, he sold. He
borrowed money from people, and traveled thousands of miles. It took him almost
thirty days to reach Gurdjieff. Tired, tattered, thinking many times, "What am I doing?
People are escaping from Russia, and I am going there!" And he was on the blacklist of
the communists, because he was a well-known figure -- chief disciple of George
Gurdjieff, a well-known, world-famous mathematician, a great author, one of the
greatest the world has ever known. His books were translated into almost all the
languages of the world. Going back to Russia was dangerous. He could be caught,
imprisoned, killed. He was anticommunist! -- no sensible person can be a communist,
because the whole idea is nonsense. But hetraveled...and when he reached Gurdjieff,
Gurdjieff looked at him and the first thing that he said was, "Go back to London and
start work again."
Now that was too much. Ouspensky failed. He could not trust this man. Now what
kind of a joke is this? Playing with somebody's life in such a way...and immediately he
said, "Go back right now! I have nothing else to say."
Ouspensky went back -- turnedagainst Gurdjieff, became an enemy. That was a great
device of a great master. If he had trusted, he would have become enlightened. He
missed the opportunity. He died an unenlightened person.
When things are going smooth and easy, trust iseasy -- but it is worthless. When things
become difficult, arduous, impossible, and you can still trust, when it becomes
absolutely illogical to trust and you can still trust, only such a trust becomes a
transforming force.
Amrito, I am going to send you one moretime. And remember, I am not a very
consistent man: it may be twice, thrice...it depends. But for the moment, one time I am
going to send you -- that much is certain.
And this time the project is being playful.
The second question:
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER,
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD, AND WHY DO THESE
RELIGIONS CONTINUOUSLY QUARREL WITH EACH OTHER?
Geetam, it is natural that there should be so many religions. In fact, more are needed.
As I see it, each individual should have his own religion; there should be as many
religions as there are people. The number isnot so much: there are only three hundred
religions -- and how many people on the earth?
Each individual should have his own religion,because each individual is so unique, so
different from anybody else. How can two persons have one religion? It is impossible.
But we have been asking the impossible. Eachindividual has to reach God in his own
way, and that way is never going to be traveled by anybody else again.
Hence, buddhas can only indicate, can only give you hints. They cannot provide you
with certain, absolutely certain maps -- just hints, a few hints. And those hints have not
to be taken very seriously -- very playfully. You are not to become a fanatic. If you
become a fanatic you are no longer religious.
A religious person is humble, available to all kinds of hints; he is a seeker, a searcher, an
explorer, and he will learn from every possible source. He will learn from the Bible, and
he will learn from the Vedas, and he will learn from THE DHAMMAPADA. He will
listen to Buddha, to Jesus, to Zarathustra. Hewill learn from all possible sources, but
still he will remain himself. He will not become an imitation, he will not become a
carbon copy. He will retain his authenticity. He will be humble, sincere, authentic; he
will not become pseudo. He will not be a follower, he will be a lover.
He will love the buddha, but he will not follow him; he will not follow him in the
details. How can you follow a buddha in the details? He is a totally different kind of
person. You have never been before, nobody like you has ever been before, and nobody
who is exactly like you will ever be there again. Hence your religion has to be your
religion, your truth has to be your truth.
And that is the beauty of truth, that it always comes in such a unique form that you can
say, "This is a special gift from God to me."Hence there are so many religions. And it is
beautiful! -- there should be many more. Many people have been trying to make one
religion; that is utter stupidity. You cannot create one religion. You can enforce one
religion on people, but that will destroy their spirit, their freedom; that will cripple their
being and paralyze their growth.
Just as there are so many languages, there are so many religions. The variety is
beautiful, the variety makes it possible for you to choose according to your type.
Religion is not and cannot be decided by birth, and those who decide their religion by
their birth are utter fools. You cannot beborn a Hindu and you cannot be born a
Christian; birth has nothing to do with your religion. Religion is an inquiry. You may be
born to Hindu parents -- that is one thing -- but if your parents really love you they will
not convert you into a Hindu. Of course they will tell you all they have known and
experienced, but they will leave you free. And they will tell you, "Become more alert,
watchful, mature, and when you are matureenough and you want to decide, choose
your own religion."
Go to the mosque, go to the church, go to the temple, go to the gurudwara. Listen to all
kinds of things, see all kinds of flowers: the garden of God is so full of variety, is so rich
because of variety. There are roses and lotuses and a thousand and one other flowers.
Go and choose your own perfume, your own fragrance, because unless you yourself
choose you will not be dedicated to it, you will not be surrendered to it.
The world is not religious because religion is imposed upon us. The parents are in a
hurry to impose; the church, the state, the country -- everybody is in a hurry to impose a
certain religion on the child. How foolish! How stupid! Religion needs maturity, great
understanding, before one can choose.
Nobody is born a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Parsi. Everybody is born clean,
innocent, a TABULA RASA, and then everyonehas to seek and search. This is the
beauty of life because life is aninquiry. And don't be settled too early; there is no need.
It is possible that no existing religion may satisfy you. But that is good; that means a
new religion is born in you. The world becomes richer: one more religion, one more
flower, one more tree -- a new phenomenon.
Buddha brings a new religion into the world; the world was poorer before Buddha
because it was missing Buddhism. Buddha could have followed the religion of his
parents; then the world would have beenstill poor. The world would have missed
something immensely valuable, a new door to God. Buddha opened a new door, a new
vision, a new insight. He was not convinced by his parents' religion; otherwise, he
would have remained a Hindu. He rebelled. All religious people are rebellious people.
He went on an individual search -- all religious people are explorers, all religious
people are adventurers. It would have beeneasy and convenient and comfortable to
believe in the religion that had been believed in by the parents and the parents' parents,
and for centuries. It would have been more convenient because you need not inquire,
you need not go through the whole effort of finding the truth. It has been found by
some seer in the past -- you can simply borrow it. But a borrowed truth is not a truth at
all. A borrowed truth is a lie.
Buddha went on a search; arduous was the inquiry. He risked all -- his kingdom, his
life. But when you risk so much, life showers new treasures on you. A new religion, a
new insight, a new vision, was born into the world.
Mohammed could have followed his parents' religion. Jesus could have followed
Judaism. Become a Jesus, become a Buddha, become a Mohammed! Don't be a
Mohammedan and don't be a Buddhist and don't be a Christian -- explore! Don't waste
life in imitating, because then you will remain pseudo. And a pseudo person cannot be
religious. Great authenticity, sincerity is needed.
So, Geetam, it is good that there are three hundred religions -- there should be more! I
am always for variety. I want the world richer in every possible way. Would you like
the whole world to have only one kind of flower-- just roses, or just lotuses? Will it not
be an impoverished world, very poor? Would you like the world to have only one
language? Then the different nuances of the different languages will disappear.
There are things which can be said only inArabic and cannot be said in any other
language; and there are things which can be said only in Hebrew and cannot be said in
any other language. There are things which can be said only in Chinese and cannot be
said in any other language. If the world has only one language, many many beautiful
things will remain unsaid.
Lao Tzu can speak only Chinese. You may not have pondered over the problem: just
think of Lao Tzu writing his TAO TEH CHING in English...and the book will be totally
different. It will miss something of immense value; it will have something different, a
totally different color to it, but it will miss the flavor that it has in Chinese.
Now, Chinese has no alphabet; it is written in symbols. Because there is no alphabet,
symbols can be interpreted in a thousand and one ways; symbols are more fluid, less
fixed, more poetic, less prosaic. One symbol can mean many things. It is not scientific; it
is very difficult to write scientific treatises in Chinese. For that, English is a far more
adequate language.
But what Lao Tzu has given to the world would not have been possible without
Chinese. Each symbol has many meanings, a multiplicity of meanings. You can choose
your meaning according to your state of mind. Each symbol has many layers of
meaning. As you grow in your understanding, the meaning of the symbols changes.
Hence, in the East a totally different kind ofreading has existed which is nonexistent in
the West. You would not like to read the same Bernard Shaw book again and again and
again, or would you? Unless you are insane you would not like to read it again and
again and again. What is the point? Once you have read it, itis finished! That's why the
paperback has come into existence: read it and throw it. But in the East a different kind
of reading exists: the same book is read again and again the whole life long.
The TAO TEH CHING is not a book which can be published in paperback -- they are
doing that now. It should not be published in paperback -- itcannot be, because it is a
totally different kind of book. It has layersand layers of meaning. When for the first
time you read it, it is one book because you know only one meaning, the superficial.
After meditating for a few months you read it again; another meaning reveals itself;
after meditating a few months more you read it again...a third meaning. It has to go on,
it has to become a life's study.
And you will go on finding the meanings -- they are inexhaustible. Aes dhammo
sanantano: the ultimate is eternal and inexhaustible. It is not a fiction; you cannot just
read it and be finished with it. One reading is not going to help you at all; it simply
introduces you, it does not give you the coreof it. It takes a whole life to come to the
core of it.
Now we need all kinds of languages. English is needed for its definiteness, for its
certainty. Each word has a definition. Science cannot develop without such a language.
Science could not be born in India because of the language; Sanskrit is a poetic
language. You can sing it -- it has that quality -- you can chant it, but you cannot make
much of a syllogism out of it. Many songs,certainly, but it isnot argumentative;
expressive but nonargumentative.
Arabic has a very haunting quality. If you chant it, it will become a haunting in your
heart. Stop chanting it and the chanting continues in the heart. Arabic has that quality in
it because it is a desert language; desert languages have a haunting quality. When you
are calling somebody in a desert, far away, you have to call in a certain way -- and in a
desert you can call people who are very far away; if you call them in a rhythmic way
your sound will reach them.
Hence the beauty of the Koran. It is not a book to be read -- those who read the Koran
will miss its meaning -- it is a bookto be sung. It is not a book to be studied: it is a book
to be danced, only then will you reach its inner spirit.
It is beautiful that there are many languages because there are many things to be said,
expressed, communicated. And as the world grows, many more languages are needed,
because as the world grows, many more things people are feeling, people are going
through, people are reaching.
Religion is nothing but a language for expressing the ultimate. Geetam, there is nothing
wrong in there being many religions. Of course, there is certainly something wrong in
their constant quarreling with each other. Thatshows that the so-called religions have
lost their religious quality, they have becomepolitical; that these so-called religions no
longer have alive masters in them but only dead, dull, mediocre priests. They go on
quarreling, they go on trying to convert, because numbers create power. If there are
more Christians then Christianity has morepower and the pope in the Vatican becomes
more powerful. If Hindus are more in number, of course they are more in power.
Numbers give power. So Christianity wants everybody to be a Christian, and
Mohammedans would like everybody to bea Mohammedan, Their ways and means
may differ, but the effort and the desire is the same, a very deep political desire -- it is
power politics. Then naturally quarreling will arise. Politics is quarreling; it has nothing
to do with religion.
Religions should be as many as possible. And there is no question of any conflict: it is a
question of like and dislike. If I like roses, you don't try to come and convince me that I
should like marigolds -- you simply accept my liking. And if you like marigolds, it's
perfectly okay; there is no question of arguing, quarreling. We need not fight with each
other -- actually or intellectually. I can leave you to your choice, and I don't feel
offended because you like marigolds and I don't like them.
Likes and dislikes are individual affairs.One may like the Bhagavadgita, another may
like the Koran, somebody else may like THE DHAMMAPADA -- it's perfectly okay,
absolutely okay. We should share our likingswith each other, but we should not try to
convert the other, to force the other into our fold. Yes, share by all means, because
sharing shows your love. If you have found a source, share! But the sharing should be
out of love, not for power politics. It is not to convince the other and to drag him into
your fold. Religions have been doing such ugly things. People have been converted at
the point of the bayonet; people are being converted by money, by bribing them...by
any means, right or wrong. Become a Christian! Become a Mohammedan! Become a
Hindu! Grab more and more people so you become more powerful, and don't allow
anybody else to leave your fold.
Mulla Nasruddin's son was asking him,"Papa, when a Christian becomes a
Mohammedan, what do you call him?"
Nasruddin smiled and said, "He has come to his senses, he is a man of understanding,
wisdom. He has understood what is false as false and what is truth as truth."
The boy asks again, "And Papa, if a Mohammedan becomes a Christian what do you
call him?"
Nasruddin was very angry and said, "He is a traitor! He has betrayed. He is stupid!"
Now, if a Christian becomes a Mohammedan, he is a man of intelligence, a wise man;
and if a Mohammedan becomes a Christian he is a traitor, stupid. And the same is the
situation if you ask the Christian.
A Hindu became a Christian. All the Hindus were against him, naturally -- he had
betrayed them! But Christians made him a saint. Sadhu Sunder Singh was his name.
They almost worshipped him as if he was anincarnation of Jesus, because he proved
the truth of Christianity. And Hindus? -- they were so angry withthe man that they
wanted to kill him. And there is every possibility that they did kill him, because one
day he suddenly disappeared and his body has not been found since then. It is still a
mystery what happened to Sadhu Sunder Singh.
I know a man who was a Hindu and became a Jaina. Hindus were very much against
him, naturally, obviously. They tried in every way to destroy the man, but he became
the most famous Jaina saint. Ganesh Varni was his name. He defeated all other Jaina
saints; he reached the highest pinnacle. What was his real quality? Why did he reach the
highest pinnacle? Because basically he was a Hindu and became a Jaina. "He proved
that Jainism is far higher than Hinduism; otherwise, why has this man, such a wise
man, come to our fold?"
Geetam, these religions quarrel because they are not religious; they have become more
and more political. And when you quarrel, then everything is right -- in love and war
everything is right.
A Catholic is trying to convert a Jew and tells him that if he becomes a Catholic his
prayers will certainly be answered -- because the priest will give them to the bishop,
who will give them to the cardinal, who will give them to the pope, who will shove
them up into heaven through a hole at the top of the Vatican, which just matches a hole
in the floor of heaven, where Saint Peter will take them to the Virgin Mary, who will
intercede on their behalf with Jesus, who will say a good word for them to God.
The Jew repeats this whole itinerary with an astonished air, ending, "You know it must
be true, because I have always wondered what they do with all the shit in heaven. They
must throw it down that little hole in the Vatican, where the pope gives it to the
cardinal, who gives it to the bishop, who gives it to the priest, who gives it to you -- and
you are trying to hand it to me?"
Religions are good -- many more are needed -- but quarreling religions are not religions.
The very quarreling attitude makes them political. And the priest and the politician
have been in a very subtle conspiracy down the ages -- because the politician can
dominate the people through the priest very easily. The priest possesses the souls of the
people and the politician possesses the bodies of the people. Both are oppressors,
exploiters. Both are in the same business, both are partners. Both can help each other.
The politician can help the priest because he has temporal power, and the priest can
help the politician because people listen to him, worship him, take his word as divine.
Do you know, Buddhism did not become a great religion because of Buddha; it became
a great religion because of the emperor Ashoka. It was not because of Buddha that
millions of people became Buddhists, no. While Buddha was alive, only a few, a few
chosen people were courageous enough to walk with him in his light, to commune with
him. And they were courageous -- because they had to suffer, they had to suffer much
ridicule, opposition, because the established Hindu church was against this man
Buddha.
Buddhism became a world religion not because of Buddha but because of the emperor
Ashoka. When the Buddhist priests joined hands with the emperor Ashoka, then the
religion became a world religion. The whole of Asia was converted. Now the priests
would help Ashoka to retain his power, and Ashoka would help the priests become
more and more powerful.
Christianity became a world religion not because of Jesus. Jesus was very alone -- only a
few disciples, twelve disciples, and a few hundred sympathizers, that's all. And even
those disciples disappeared when Jesus was being crucified, and the sympathizers
simply forgot about him; they stopped talking about the man because it was dangerous
even to show sympathy.
It is said that the people who had sympathized with Jesus came to spit on his face while
he was dying to show the people, "We are against, we are not for him." To prove to the
people...because this man is dying -- now they will be in trouble. Theyhave to live, they
still have to live. They have to give some proof that they are against this man.
They denied Jesus while he was dying. They threw mud, stones, they spat on his face,
just to show the crowds, "See, isn't this enough proof that the rumors that you have
heard that we are sympathizers are absolutely wrong, unfounded? We are against him
as much as you are -- in fact, we aremore against him than you are."
The enemies were not spitting on him but the friends. Jesus became a world force not
because of himself but only when the Roman emperors and Christian priests joined
hands. Now, this is an irony. Jesus was crucified by a Roman emperor -- see how
history moves! Pontius Pilate was just a representative of the Roman power, of the
Roman emperor; he simply followed the orders from Rome. Who would ever have
thought that Rome would become the centralplace of Christianity? Who would ever
have thought while Jesus was being crucified that Rome would be the residence of the
pope? But that's how it happened. Whenpriests joined hands with Emperor
Constantine and other Roman emperors, Christianity became a world force.
Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism -- they have all depended on politics. They
are not true religions anymore but political games being played in the name of religion.
I would like the world to have many more religions, so many that each individual has
his own religion -- then no priest will be needed. That is the only way to drop the
priests. If you have your own religion, no priest is needed -- you are the priest and you
are the follower and you are everything.
You have to listen to your inner voice. Buddha says: Follow your own nature; there is
no need for anybody to intercede on your behalf.
But I am not in favor of creating one religion;enough of that nonsense! In the past we
have been trying to do that: make one religion so that quarreling can stop. But it is not
possible. Even if you can enforce one religion, if the whole world becomes Christian,
then again there will be Protestants and Catholics and a thousand and one sects. And
the same game will start again: people will start quarreling -- because their needs are
different, their understandings are different.
I have heard:
A beautiful young woman came home from London. She belonged to a small village,
was from a Catholic family. After three orfour years of living in London she had
become very rich; she came back to see her parents. The mother could not believe her
eyes. She asked, "How did you manage? You have become so rich -- such beautiful
clothes, a diamond ring, a beautiful car!"
And the girl said, "Mother, I have become a prostitute."
Just hearing this the mother fainted, became unconscious. When she came back she
asked again, "What did you say?"
The girl said, "Mother, I said I have become a prostitute."
And the mother started laughing and she said, "I misunderstood you -- I thought you
said you had become a Protestant."
To be a prostitute is okay, but to becomea Protestant...? The same quarreling will start.
Even small religions -- for example, Jainism, one of the smallest religions in the world --
have so many sects, sects within sects. In fact, we have not yet become aware of the
great necessity that each individual needs his own version of God, and each individual
has his own way of approaching God.
A man picked up by a prostitute in a bar is amazed by the college pennants and
diplomas ornamenting the walls of her room.
"Are these your diplomas?" he asks.
"Sure," she says airily. "I have my Master ofArts from Columbia, and took my Ph.D. in
Shakespeare at Oxford."
The man is incredulous. "But how did a girl like you get into a profession like this?"
"I don't know," she says. "Just lucky, I guess."
People have different understandings, different ways of looking at things, different
interpretations. And they have to be allowed this freedom.
The third question:
Question 3
BELOVED MASTER,
MY PARENTS WERE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN INDIA FOR TWENTY-FIVE
YEARS. MY BROTHER WAS A JUNKIE, MY SISTER A COMPULSIVE LIAR. AS FOR
ME, I AM SO SERIOUS THAT IF I SMILE MY MOUTH HURTS. HOW DID I END UP
HERE?
Prem Parijat, just lucky, I guess! You will live in ecstasy and you will die in ecstasy.
Did you hear about the man eighty-seven yearsof age who married a nineteen-year-old
girl?
He died of a new disease called ecstasy. It took them three days to wipe the smile off his
face.
Now, this is going to happen to you too: living your life will be a laughter; dying, it will
be difficult for the people to wipe off your smile.
It may be just because your parents are Christian missionaries that you have landed
here, because to be born to any kind of missionaries -- Christian, Hindu or
Mohammedan -- is to be fed up with all that nonsense. To be born to a priest is to know
one thing for certain: that priests don't believe in God. It is their business; they pretend.
It is a rare opportunity to be born in the house of a priest, because children are very
perceptive and they can see through and through that all that nonsense that their father
in preaching is just preaching -- he does not mean it because he never practices it. The
children of the priests are bound to becomeaware of the hypocrisy of the so-called
religious people.
It may be just because of it, because it is almost impossible to be in the house of a priest
and not to know that he is the most irreligious person possible in the world.
Priests are exploiting religion. They are exploiting people's trust. They are the greatest
cheaters in the world, because to exploit people's trust is the greatest crime. You are
destroying their trust. But they live on that kind of cheating; that is their whole trade
secret.
The bishop was very proud of an elegant mansion he had constructed as his official
residence. One day, a friend and the bishop were engaged in conversation and the
bishop was pursuing a seemingly atheistic train of thought....
That kind of thinking is becoming very prevalent in Christian circles: religionless
religion, Godless Christianity -- these are being talked about, discussed. After Friedrich
Nietzsche, who declared that God is dead, Christianity has been in a turmoil -- what to
do now? They have been trying every possible way to create a Christianity which does
not need God anymore, so that the profession can expand again.
Now God has become a barrier; the moment you assert the word 'God', you put people
off. So Christian theologians are discussing, thinking, meditating, how to create a
Christianity that does not need God at all.And it is possible! -- because Buddhism is
there without any God, and Jainism is there without any God, so why can't there be a
Christianity without God?
...This bishop was pursuing a seemingly atheistic train of thought. The friend asked
him, "Bishop, do you believe in God or not? Say it exactly, say itin short. Don't go
round and round. Say simply yes orno -- do you believe in God?"
After a long hesitation, the bishop replied, "Of course I do! Who do you think paid for
this house?"
Now, the house that he has made, a beautiful mansion, is possible only because people
still believe in God; and because they believein God, they believe in the bishop. He
cannot publicly declare there is no God. If you drop God, then Jesus is no longer the Son
of God, then the pope is no longer the representative of Jesus, and so on and so forth.
And they all go down the drain. It needs a hierarchy: God atthe top and the priest at
the bottom, the whole ladder.
And the priest certainly knows that there is noGod. If he was aware that there is a God,
he would not have been a priest in the first place -- he would be a Jesus, he would be a
Buddha, but not a priest. He would be a prophet but not a priest. He would bring
something of the unknown into people's lives, but he would not be part of a status quo,
he would not be part of the established church. No man of understanding, no man who
has some religious consciousness and experiences, can be part of any established
church. It has never happened. Buddha has to leave his fold, Jesus has to leave his fold,
Mohammed has to leave his fold -- this has always been so. Whenever a religious man
is born, he has to leave his fold, because the fold is already in the hands of the
politicians and the priests, whose whole interest is in exploiting people.
Anand Moksha has written to me:
During the time of the major earthquakes inGuatemala in 1976, the Catholic bishop at
Lake Atitlan befriended me and allowed me to stay in his garden for a while.
A few months passed and after-shock tremors were still common. At that time I
discovered that a beautiful house on a hillside was for rent for very little money. The
reason was that a large boulder ominously overhung the house and people were afraid.
I felt the vibes and it seemed okay to me -- so I rented the place.
When I told the bishop, he reacted with nervous dismay and swung his arms about,
saying, "Aren't you worried about thatrock tumbling down on the house?"
I replied, "If the Lord wants to take me, he will."
The bishop shrugged his shoulders and said, "You don't believe that, do you?"
It may be simply, Parijat, that just because you were born of Christian missionaries it
became possible for you to behere. Christian missionaries, and twenty-five years in
India! -- that is too much. In the first place, Christian missionariesand in the second
place, twenty-five years in India...that is enough, more than enough, to convince the
children that their parents are pseudo, that they are talking business, that they don't
believe.
It is not a question of belief at all.
I have heard a small story:
In a school, a Christian missionary school, the teacher asked the children, "Who is the
greatest man in history?"
An American boy says, "Abraham Lincoln."
A Mohammedan boy says, "Hazrat Mohammed."
A Hindu girl says, "Lord Krishna."
And so on and so forth...and finally, the little Jewish boy stands up and says, "Jesus
Christ."
The teacher could not believe her ears -- the Jew and saying Jesus Christ? She asked,
"Do you really mean that?"
He said, "That is not the question. In my heart of hearts I know it is Moses -- but
business is business."
To be with Christian missionaries for twenty-five years, and in India, and seeing what
they are doing, is enough to disillusion you.The whole credit goesto your parents and
their twenty-five years in India. They have brought you here -- be thankful to them.
The fourth question:
Question 4
BELOVED MASTER,
I FEEL THAT I AM A VERY SPECIAL PERSON. I AM SO SPECIAL THAT I WANT
JUST TO BE ORDINARY. PLEASE CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?
Anand Sangito, everybody here thinks exactly the same. And not only here, but
everywhere else. Everyone deep in their heart knows that he is special. This is a joke
God plays on people. When he makes a new man and pushes him down towards the
earth, he whispers in his ear, "You are special. You are incomparable, you are just
unique!"
But this he goes on doing to everybody and everybody goes on carrying it deep in the
heart, although people don't say it as loudly as you are doing, because they are afraid
others may feel offended. And nobody is going to be convinced, so what is the point of
saying it? If you tell somebody, "I am special," you cannot convince him because he
himself knows that he is special. How can you convince anybody? Yes, maybe
sometimes somebody may be convinced, at least pretend to be convinced. If he has
some work with you, as a bribe he may say, "Yes, you are special, you are great." But
deep down he knows business is business.
A braggart is telling his friend about his three cars, etcetera, etcetera. When he also
mentions that he has two kept mistresses in New York, but that he has made his
ravishingly beautiful and terribly passionate private secretary pregnant, and must
therefore take his gorgeous blond stenographerwith him on his business trip to Rio de
Janeiro to see the carnival, the listener suddenly begins to pant, grabs at his own
necktie, and has a heart attack.
The braggart interrupts his tale, gets water, pats the victim on the back, etcetera,
etcetera, and he asks solicitously what the matter is. "Can I help it?" the man gasps. "I
am allergic to bullshit."
It is better to keep such bullshit hidden deep down inside yourself, because people are
allergic. But in a way it is good that you exposed your mind.
If you think you are special then you are bound to create misery for yourself. If you
think that you are higher than others, wiser than others, then you will attain to a very
strong ego. And the ego is poison, pure poison. And the more egoistic you become, the
more it hurts, because it is a wound. The more egoistic you become, the more you
become unbridged from life. You fall separate from life; you are no longer in the flow of
existence, you have become a rock in the river. You have become ice-cold, you have lost
all warmth, all love. A special person cannotlove, because where are you going to find
another special person?
I have heard about a man who remained unmarried his whole life, and when he was
dying, ninety years old, somebody asked him, "You have remained unmarried your
whole life, but you have never said what the reason was. Now you are dying, at least
quench our curiosity. If there is any secret, now you can tell it, because you are dying;
you will be gone. Even if the secret is known, it can't harm you."
The man said, "Yes, there is a secret. It isnot that I am against marriage, but I was
searching for a perfect woman. I searched and searched, and my whole life slipped by."
The inquirer asked, "But upon this big earth,so many millions of people, half of them
women, couldn't you find one perfect woman?"
A tear rolled down from the eye of the dying man. He said, "Yes, I did find one."
The inquirer was absolutely shocked. He said, "Then what happened? Why didn't you
get married?"
And the old man said, "But the woman was searching for a perfect husband."
Your life will become very difficult if you live with such ideas. And yes, the ego is so
tricky, so cunning, it can give you, Sangito, this new project: "You are so special, become
just ordinary." But in your ordinariness you will know you are the most extraordinarily
ordinary man. Nobody is more ordinarythan you! It will be the same game,
camouflaged.
That's what so-called humble people go on doing. They say, "I am the most humble
man. I am just the dust on your feet." But they don't mean it! Don't say, "Yes, I know
you are," otherwise they will never be able toforgive you. They are waiting for you to
say, "You are the most humble man I have ever seen, you are the most pious man I have
ever seen." Then they will be satisfied, contented. It is ego hiding behind humbleness.
You cannot drop the ego in this way.
You ask, "I feel that I am a very very special person. I am so special that I want just to be
ordinary. Please can you say something about this?"
No one is special, or, everyone is special. No one is ordinary, or everyone is ordinary.
Whatsoever you think about yourself, pleasethink the same about everyone else, and
the problem will be solved. You can choose. If you want the word 'special', you can
think you are special -- but then everybody is special. Not only people, but trees, birds,
animals, rocks -- the whole existence is special, because you come out of this existence
and you will dissolve into this existence. But if you love the word 'ordinary' -- which is
a beautiful word, more relaxed -- then knowthat everybody is ordinary. Then the
whole existence is ordinary.
One thing to be remembered: whatsoever you think about yourself, think the same for
everybody else and the ego will disappear. The ego is the illusion that is created by
thinking about yourself in one way and thinking about others in another. It is double
thinking. If you drop the double thinking, ego dies of its own accord.
The last question:
Question 5
BELOVED MASTER,
WHEN I CAME HERE I FELT GOD TO BE VERY NEAR -- ANY MOMENT AND I
WOULD BE WITH HIM -- BUT AS TIME PASSES IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE. HE IS NOT
AROUND; IT IS DIFFICULT TO SEE HIM.
WHY IS IT SO? PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.
Vedant Bharti, you must be carrying a certain image of God in your mind; hence you
are missing. And unless you drop that image you are going to miss. God has no
obligation to fulfill your idea of him. You must be carrying a certain idea that "God
looks like this, behaves like this...." That's why it is becoming impossible: you are
making it impossible.
God can be known only by those who are capable of dropping all ideas about God. Any
idea that you have accumulated in yourself in your ignorance is a hindrance. Drop all
ideas about God and you will be surprised, you will be shocked, you will not be able to
believe your eyes...because only God is! Then you will never ask, "Where is God?" You
will ask, "Is there any place where God is not?"
Then in the very ordinariness of things you will see something tremendously
extraordinary. Then ordinary pebbles are transformed intodiamonds. Then ordinary
humanity is no longer ordinary -- then something luminous is in everybody's heart.
Then man comes closer to the divine, and the divine comes closer to man; the human
and the divine disappear into each other, the world and God disappear into each other.
Then you are not searching for a God who isseparate and high and far away, living in
the seventh heaven; then he lives in your neighborhood as your neighbor. Then he is
human, he is animal, he is vegetable, he is mineral...he is all.
And when you can see that he surrounds you, not as a person but as a presence, then
only does your inquiry come to a fulfillment. God is not hiding from you but you are
keeping your eyes closed because of so manyprejudices. Somebody has a Hindu idea of
God, and somebody has a Christian idea of God, and somebody else a Mohammedan
idea of God. Now, God is neither Mohammedan, nor Christian, nor Hindu, so all these
people who are carrying these ideas are bound to go on stumbling in darkness and
more darkness. From darkness to darkness will be their journey, from death to death
they will move. They will never know the light.
A Hindu cannot know God, a Mohammedan cannot know God. First you will have to
cleanse your mind completely of all Hinduism, all Mohammedanism, all Buddhism.
When you are utterly thoughtless, just alert, aware, watchful, then God explodes. And
he explodes all over the place.
Vedant Bharti, you say, "When I came here I felt God to be very near." That was your
imagination.
"...Any moment and I would be with him." That was your wish.
"...But as time passes it seems impossible" -- because no imagination can ever become
real. No dream of yours can ever be fulfilled. Reality has to be discovered, not
imagined.
Now you say, "He is not around; it is difficult to see him."
Only he is around. It is difficult to see him because your eyes are too burdened with
your own prejudices, concepts, systems of thought. Be a little more childlike, be a little
more innocent. God comes onlywhen the heart is innocent. God comes only when you
are utterly empty of all ideas. He is always ready to come, he is standing at the door,
but you cannot hear because your mind is so full of turmoil, full of thoughts, millions of
thoughts clamoring around. Your mind is so noisy you cannot hear the silent knock on
the door.
Be silent, be innocent. God is. Only God is.
Chapter #4
Chapter title: Just lucky, I guess!
24 June 1979 am in Buddha Hall
The first question:
Question 1
BELOVED MASTER,
UPON RETURNING TO HOLLAND LAST YEAR I STARTED COMMUNICATING
ABOUT YOU WITH AN OVERWHELMING SENSE OF URGENCY. I FELT YOU
IMPARTED THIS URGENCY TO ME, BUT IT SEEMED ALSO TO BE A PART OF MY
NATURE.
THIS FEELING OF NOT HAVING A SECOND TO LOSE, THE WISH TO GET MORE
DUTCH PEOPLE TO BECOME SANNYASINS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, MADE ME
FAR FROM PLAYFUL. THE SERIOUSNESS LED TO MUCH ANGUISH BECAUSE I
WAS CONFRONTED WITH INDIFFERENCE, RIDICULE AND CONTEMPT,
ESPECIALLY FROM THE JOURNALISTS. OBJECTIVELY I DID NOT FAIL -- FAR
FROM IT -- BUT IN TERMS OF BEING, MY TRIP WAS NOT EXACTLY wu-wei. I
SIMPLY COULD NOT COMBINE THIS URGENCY WITH JOY AND RELAXATION.
WILL YOU SAY A FEW WORDS ON THIS URGENCY, EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE
GIVEN ME SO MUCH ALREADY?
Deva Amrito, the playfulness that I talk about comes very slowly. You cannot just jump
out of your seriousness which you have accumulated for lives. Now it has a force of its
own.
It is not a simple matter to relax; it is one of the most complex phenomena possible,
because all that we are taught is tension, anxiety, anguish. Seriousness is the very core
the society is built around. Playfulness is for small children, not for grown-up people.
And I am teaching you to be children again, tobe playful again. It is a quantum leap, a
jump...but it takes time to understand.
And as far as I am concerned, you have been immensely successful: objectively,
certainly, but subjectively too. Unexpectedlyyou have been successful. Anybody else in
your place would have been in a madhouse.
You were excited, and it is natural to be excited. When somebody understands me, feels
me, he immediately starts feeling an urgency -- not a single moment to lose. And the
word has to be spread. A kind of tremendousimmediacy overwhelms. It is natural! It is
true that there is not a single moment to lose. And if you love me, you would like all
those people to come to me, because theymay not get the opportunity again -- for
centuries, for lives together!
When you love, and you have found a treasure, you would like to share it. And if the
treasure is such that it can disappear any moment, how can you avoid the feeling of
immense urgency? You will have to shout from the tops of the houses.
And the response that you will get is absolutely certain and fixed. The more you would
like people to come to me, the more they will escape -- from you, from the very idea of
coming to me. And the only way to escape is toridicule you, to laugh at you, to call you
mad. That is their way of defending themselves. If they listen to you understandingly, if
they allow you to overwhelm their being, to overflow into their being, to flood their
being, then they will also find themselves inthe same grip. And it will be very difficult
for them to avoid.
Hence, from the very beginning they will ridicule you, criticize you, oppose you, laugh
at you. They will do everything possible to create the feeling in you that you are wrong.
But they failed. They could not create that feeling in you. The more they ridiculed you,
the more they laughed, the more they criticized, the more you tried to convince them.
And you have been objectively successful --you have convinced thousands of people.
Since your going to Holland, many many Dutch people have arrived, and more are
arriving, and more will go on arriving. You have created a great stir. You have touched
many people's hearts. And it has been a great experience for your inner growth too.
The impact that you created has not got into your head yet; it has not made you more of
an egoist. In fact, it has made you more humble. It may not have been exactly wu-wei,
but it was very close. And I was not expecting it to be absolutely wu-wei, but it has been
more than I was expecting.
I was a little bit afraid, Amrito, that you might go mad. The urgency was such, your
ecstasy was such, you were so passionately inlove with me, that I was afraid deep
down. I was sending you with all kinds of apprehensions. But you survived the test.
You have come back. The turmoil that was created around you because of your talking
about me -- in the newspapers, on the radio, the TV -- the way you talked, it gave the
sense of your immense love, it gave the sense that you have found the home.
Many have been convinced. And many who have not been convinced have also started
thinking about it. And even those who have ridiculed you and have opposed you are
impressed; otherwise who cares? Why should you oppose somebody if you are not
impressed? Why should you ridicule and laugh if you are simply alert that he is mad?
Nobody laughs at a madman, nobody ridicules a madman. It is enough to know that he
is mad and everything is finished!
You have created a chain which will go on. And I would like many of my sannyasins to
be so excited, to feel the urgency, to go to their countries and spread the word. And you
will have to shout from the tops of the houses.
And whenever you are in love you look mad -- you are mad. Love is madness...but far
higher than the so-called, mediocre, mundane sanity. And love is blindness, but a
blindness that is capable of seeing the invisible.
Love is not part of the ordinary world that we have created. We have expelled love
from it. So whenever you are in love -- and tobe in love with a master, to be in love
with a buddha, is the ultimate love -- it drives you crazy. It makes you part of the
beyond. Nobody can believe it.
How can your friends, Amrito, believe it, that it has happened to you and it has not
happened to them? It is so much against their egos that you have found and they have
not found yet, and still they are struggling. No, the easier way for them is to deny, to
say that you have not found, that you are inan illusion, that you have been hypnotized,
that you are hallucinating, that you have beendrugged. That gives them a consolation,
that gives them a kind of at-easeness. If you have really found, then they will feel very
very uneasy -- then their lives are failures.
It has been a beautiful experience. I know you could not be very playful. It was difficult.
Next time when I send you, you will be moreplayful. Now don't get afraid! I know that
you don't want to go back again. Enough isenough...but one more time. Next time the
whole project is to be playful. Then people will laugh more and they will think that you
have gone even more mad. But laugh...dance, sing. This time you were arguing. Next
time no arguing -- singing, dancing, hugging people.
But I am absolutely happy. Whatsoever has happened has been good objectively, has
been good for others, has been good for you. It is a device: to send you for a particular
purpose is a device for your inner growth. And you have been successful.
There was every possibility of being a failure.
I am reminded:
Once George Gurdjieff asked P.D. Ouspensky,his chief disciple of those days, to come
from London to a faraway place somewhere in the Caucasus. It was very difficult.
Financially Ouspensky was bankrupt. He had no money, no house to live in, nobody to
support him. And such a long journey! And the times were very dangerous. In those
parts of the world it was dangerous to move, because the Russian revolution was
happening. People were being massacred, killed, murdered. There was no peace. Even
Gurdjieff had to leave Russia, and he was hiding in the mountains of the Caucasus.
It was not a right time to go there; it was very dangerous. The journey was not easy: all
the trains were unsettled, roads were cut, bridges were broken. It was chaos! But when
the master calls, the disciple has to follow. Whatever belongings he had, he sold. He
borrowed money from people, and traveled thousands of miles. It took him almost
thirty days to reach Gurdjieff. Tired, tattered, thinking many times, "What am I doing?
People are escaping from Russia, and I am going there!" And he was on the blacklist of
the communists, because he was a well-known figure -- chief disciple of George
Gurdjieff, a well-known, world-famous mathematician, a great author, one of the
greatest the world has ever known. His books were translated into almost all the
languages of the world. Going back to Russia was dangerous. He could be caught,
imprisoned, killed. He was anticommunist! -- no sensible person can be a communist,
because the whole idea is nonsense. But hetraveled...and when he reached Gurdjieff,
Gurdjieff looked at him and the first thing that he said was, "Go back to London and
start work again."
Now that was too much. Ouspensky failed. He could not trust this man. Now what
kind of a joke is this? Playing with somebody's life in such a way...and immediately he
said, "Go back right now! I have nothing else to say."
Ouspensky went back -- turnedagainst Gurdjieff, became an enemy. That was a great
device of a great master. If he had trusted, he would have become enlightened. He
missed the opportunity. He died an unenlightened person.
When things are going smooth and easy, trust iseasy -- but it is worthless. When things
become difficult, arduous, impossible, and you can still trust, when it becomes
absolutely illogical to trust and you can still trust, only such a trust becomes a
transforming force.
Amrito, I am going to send you one moretime. And remember, I am not a very
consistent man: it may be twice, thrice...it depends. But for the moment, one time I am
going to send you -- that much is certain.
And this time the project is being playful.
The second question:
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER,
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD, AND WHY DO THESE
RELIGIONS CONTINUOUSLY QUARREL WITH EACH OTHER?
Geetam, it is natural that there should be so many religions. In fact, more are needed.
As I see it, each individual should have his own religion; there should be as many
religions as there are people. The number isnot so much: there are only three hundred
religions -- and how many people on the earth?
Each individual should have his own religion,because each individual is so unique, so
different from anybody else. How can two persons have one religion? It is impossible.
But we have been asking the impossible. Eachindividual has to reach God in his own
way, and that way is never going to be traveled by anybody else again.
Hence, buddhas can only indicate, can only give you hints. They cannot provide you
with certain, absolutely certain maps -- just hints, a few hints. And those hints have not
to be taken very seriously -- very playfully. You are not to become a fanatic. If you
become a fanatic you are no longer religious.
A religious person is humble, available to all kinds of hints; he is a seeker, a searcher, an
explorer, and he will learn from every possible source. He will learn from the Bible, and
he will learn from the Vedas, and he will learn from THE DHAMMAPADA. He will
listen to Buddha, to Jesus, to Zarathustra. Hewill learn from all possible sources, but
still he will remain himself. He will not become an imitation, he will not become a
carbon copy. He will retain his authenticity. He will be humble, sincere, authentic; he
will not become pseudo. He will not be a follower, he will be a lover.
He will love the buddha, but he will not follow him; he will not follow him in the
details. How can you follow a buddha in the details? He is a totally different kind of
person. You have never been before, nobody like you has ever been before, and nobody
who is exactly like you will ever be there again. Hence your religion has to be your
religion, your truth has to be your truth.
And that is the beauty of truth, that it always comes in such a unique form that you can
say, "This is a special gift from God to me."Hence there are so many religions. And it is
beautiful! -- there should be many more. Many people have been trying to make one
religion; that is utter stupidity. You cannot create one religion. You can enforce one
religion on people, but that will destroy their spirit, their freedom; that will cripple their
being and paralyze their growth.
Just as there are so many languages, there are so many religions. The variety is
beautiful, the variety makes it possible for you to choose according to your type.
Religion is not and cannot be decided by birth, and those who decide their religion by
their birth are utter fools. You cannot beborn a Hindu and you cannot be born a
Christian; birth has nothing to do with your religion. Religion is an inquiry. You may be
born to Hindu parents -- that is one thing -- but if your parents really love you they will
not convert you into a Hindu. Of course they will tell you all they have known and
experienced, but they will leave you free. And they will tell you, "Become more alert,
watchful, mature, and when you are matureenough and you want to decide, choose
your own religion."
Go to the mosque, go to the church, go to the temple, go to the gurudwara. Listen to all
kinds of things, see all kinds of flowers: the garden of God is so full of variety, is so rich
because of variety. There are roses and lotuses and a thousand and one other flowers.
Go and choose your own perfume, your own fragrance, because unless you yourself
choose you will not be dedicated to it, you will not be surrendered to it.
The world is not religious because religion is imposed upon us. The parents are in a
hurry to impose; the church, the state, the country -- everybody is in a hurry to impose a
certain religion on the child. How foolish! How stupid! Religion needs maturity, great
understanding, before one can choose.
Nobody is born a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Parsi. Everybody is born clean,
innocent, a TABULA RASA, and then everyonehas to seek and search. This is the
beauty of life because life is aninquiry. And don't be settled too early; there is no need.
It is possible that no existing religion may satisfy you. But that is good; that means a
new religion is born in you. The world becomes richer: one more religion, one more
flower, one more tree -- a new phenomenon.
Buddha brings a new religion into the world; the world was poorer before Buddha
because it was missing Buddhism. Buddha could have followed the religion of his
parents; then the world would have beenstill poor. The world would have missed
something immensely valuable, a new door to God. Buddha opened a new door, a new
vision, a new insight. He was not convinced by his parents' religion; otherwise, he
would have remained a Hindu. He rebelled. All religious people are rebellious people.
He went on an individual search -- all religious people are explorers, all religious
people are adventurers. It would have beeneasy and convenient and comfortable to
believe in the religion that had been believed in by the parents and the parents' parents,
and for centuries. It would have been more convenient because you need not inquire,
you need not go through the whole effort of finding the truth. It has been found by
some seer in the past -- you can simply borrow it. But a borrowed truth is not a truth at
all. A borrowed truth is a lie.
Buddha went on a search; arduous was the inquiry. He risked all -- his kingdom, his
life. But when you risk so much, life showers new treasures on you. A new religion, a
new insight, a new vision, was born into the world.
Mohammed could have followed his parents' religion. Jesus could have followed
Judaism. Become a Jesus, become a Buddha, become a Mohammed! Don't be a
Mohammedan and don't be a Buddhist and don't be a Christian -- explore! Don't waste
life in imitating, because then you will remain pseudo. And a pseudo person cannot be
religious. Great authenticity, sincerity is needed.
So, Geetam, it is good that there are three hundred religions -- there should be more! I
am always for variety. I want the world richer in every possible way. Would you like
the whole world to have only one kind of flower-- just roses, or just lotuses? Will it not
be an impoverished world, very poor? Would you like the world to have only one
language? Then the different nuances of the different languages will disappear.
There are things which can be said only inArabic and cannot be said in any other
language; and there are things which can be said only in Hebrew and cannot be said in
any other language. There are things which can be said only in Chinese and cannot be
said in any other language. If the world has only one language, many many beautiful
things will remain unsaid.
Lao Tzu can speak only Chinese. You may not have pondered over the problem: just
think of Lao Tzu writing his TAO TEH CHING in English...and the book will be totally
different. It will miss something of immense value; it will have something different, a
totally different color to it, but it will miss the flavor that it has in Chinese.
Now, Chinese has no alphabet; it is written in symbols. Because there is no alphabet,
symbols can be interpreted in a thousand and one ways; symbols are more fluid, less
fixed, more poetic, less prosaic. One symbol can mean many things. It is not scientific; it
is very difficult to write scientific treatises in Chinese. For that, English is a far more
adequate language.
But what Lao Tzu has given to the world would not have been possible without
Chinese. Each symbol has many meanings, a multiplicity of meanings. You can choose
your meaning according to your state of mind. Each symbol has many layers of
meaning. As you grow in your understanding, the meaning of the symbols changes.
Hence, in the East a totally different kind ofreading has existed which is nonexistent in
the West. You would not like to read the same Bernard Shaw book again and again and
again, or would you? Unless you are insane you would not like to read it again and
again and again. What is the point? Once you have read it, itis finished! That's why the
paperback has come into existence: read it and throw it. But in the East a different kind
of reading exists: the same book is read again and again the whole life long.
The TAO TEH CHING is not a book which can be published in paperback -- they are
doing that now. It should not be published in paperback -- itcannot be, because it is a
totally different kind of book. It has layersand layers of meaning. When for the first
time you read it, it is one book because you know only one meaning, the superficial.
After meditating for a few months you read it again; another meaning reveals itself;
after meditating a few months more you read it again...a third meaning. It has to go on,
it has to become a life's study.
And you will go on finding the meanings -- they are inexhaustible. Aes dhammo
sanantano: the ultimate is eternal and inexhaustible. It is not a fiction; you cannot just
read it and be finished with it. One reading is not going to help you at all; it simply
introduces you, it does not give you the coreof it. It takes a whole life to come to the
core of it.
Now we need all kinds of languages. English is needed for its definiteness, for its
certainty. Each word has a definition. Science cannot develop without such a language.
Science could not be born in India because of the language; Sanskrit is a poetic
language. You can sing it -- it has that quality -- you can chant it, but you cannot make
much of a syllogism out of it. Many songs,certainly, but it isnot argumentative;
expressive but nonargumentative.
Arabic has a very haunting quality. If you chant it, it will become a haunting in your
heart. Stop chanting it and the chanting continues in the heart. Arabic has that quality in
it because it is a desert language; desert languages have a haunting quality. When you
are calling somebody in a desert, far away, you have to call in a certain way -- and in a
desert you can call people who are very far away; if you call them in a rhythmic way
your sound will reach them.
Hence the beauty of the Koran. It is not a book to be read -- those who read the Koran
will miss its meaning -- it is a bookto be sung. It is not a book to be studied: it is a book
to be danced, only then will you reach its inner spirit.
It is beautiful that there are many languages because there are many things to be said,
expressed, communicated. And as the world grows, many more languages are needed,
because as the world grows, many more things people are feeling, people are going
through, people are reaching.
Religion is nothing but a language for expressing the ultimate. Geetam, there is nothing
wrong in there being many religions. Of course, there is certainly something wrong in
their constant quarreling with each other. Thatshows that the so-called religions have
lost their religious quality, they have becomepolitical; that these so-called religions no
longer have alive masters in them but only dead, dull, mediocre priests. They go on
quarreling, they go on trying to convert, because numbers create power. If there are
more Christians then Christianity has morepower and the pope in the Vatican becomes
more powerful. If Hindus are more in number, of course they are more in power.
Numbers give power. So Christianity wants everybody to be a Christian, and
Mohammedans would like everybody to bea Mohammedan, Their ways and means
may differ, but the effort and the desire is the same, a very deep political desire -- it is
power politics. Then naturally quarreling will arise. Politics is quarreling; it has nothing
to do with religion.
Religions should be as many as possible. And there is no question of any conflict: it is a
question of like and dislike. If I like roses, you don't try to come and convince me that I
should like marigolds -- you simply accept my liking. And if you like marigolds, it's
perfectly okay; there is no question of arguing, quarreling. We need not fight with each
other -- actually or intellectually. I can leave you to your choice, and I don't feel
offended because you like marigolds and I don't like them.
Likes and dislikes are individual affairs.One may like the Bhagavadgita, another may
like the Koran, somebody else may like THE DHAMMAPADA -- it's perfectly okay,
absolutely okay. We should share our likingswith each other, but we should not try to
convert the other, to force the other into our fold. Yes, share by all means, because
sharing shows your love. If you have found a source, share! But the sharing should be
out of love, not for power politics. It is not to convince the other and to drag him into
your fold. Religions have been doing such ugly things. People have been converted at
the point of the bayonet; people are being converted by money, by bribing them...by
any means, right or wrong. Become a Christian! Become a Mohammedan! Become a
Hindu! Grab more and more people so you become more powerful, and don't allow
anybody else to leave your fold.
Mulla Nasruddin's son was asking him,"Papa, when a Christian becomes a
Mohammedan, what do you call him?"
Nasruddin smiled and said, "He has come to his senses, he is a man of understanding,
wisdom. He has understood what is false as false and what is truth as truth."
The boy asks again, "And Papa, if a Mohammedan becomes a Christian what do you
call him?"
Nasruddin was very angry and said, "He is a traitor! He has betrayed. He is stupid!"
Now, if a Christian becomes a Mohammedan, he is a man of intelligence, a wise man;
and if a Mohammedan becomes a Christian he is a traitor, stupid. And the same is the
situation if you ask the Christian.
A Hindu became a Christian. All the Hindus were against him, naturally -- he had
betrayed them! But Christians made him a saint. Sadhu Sunder Singh was his name.
They almost worshipped him as if he was anincarnation of Jesus, because he proved
the truth of Christianity. And Hindus? -- they were so angry withthe man that they
wanted to kill him. And there is every possibility that they did kill him, because one
day he suddenly disappeared and his body has not been found since then. It is still a
mystery what happened to Sadhu Sunder Singh.
I know a man who was a Hindu and became a Jaina. Hindus were very much against
him, naturally, obviously. They tried in every way to destroy the man, but he became
the most famous Jaina saint. Ganesh Varni was his name. He defeated all other Jaina
saints; he reached the highest pinnacle. What was his real quality? Why did he reach the
highest pinnacle? Because basically he was a Hindu and became a Jaina. "He proved
that Jainism is far higher than Hinduism; otherwise, why has this man, such a wise
man, come to our fold?"
Geetam, these religions quarrel because they are not religious; they have become more
and more political. And when you quarrel, then everything is right -- in love and war
everything is right.
A Catholic is trying to convert a Jew and tells him that if he becomes a Catholic his
prayers will certainly be answered -- because the priest will give them to the bishop,
who will give them to the cardinal, who will give them to the pope, who will shove
them up into heaven through a hole at the top of the Vatican, which just matches a hole
in the floor of heaven, where Saint Peter will take them to the Virgin Mary, who will
intercede on their behalf with Jesus, who will say a good word for them to God.
The Jew repeats this whole itinerary with an astonished air, ending, "You know it must
be true, because I have always wondered what they do with all the shit in heaven. They
must throw it down that little hole in the Vatican, where the pope gives it to the
cardinal, who gives it to the bishop, who gives it to the priest, who gives it to you -- and
you are trying to hand it to me?"
Religions are good -- many more are needed -- but quarreling religions are not religions.
The very quarreling attitude makes them political. And the priest and the politician
have been in a very subtle conspiracy down the ages -- because the politician can
dominate the people through the priest very easily. The priest possesses the souls of the
people and the politician possesses the bodies of the people. Both are oppressors,
exploiters. Both are in the same business, both are partners. Both can help each other.
The politician can help the priest because he has temporal power, and the priest can
help the politician because people listen to him, worship him, take his word as divine.
Do you know, Buddhism did not become a great religion because of Buddha; it became
a great religion because of the emperor Ashoka. It was not because of Buddha that
millions of people became Buddhists, no. While Buddha was alive, only a few, a few
chosen people were courageous enough to walk with him in his light, to commune with
him. And they were courageous -- because they had to suffer, they had to suffer much
ridicule, opposition, because the established Hindu church was against this man
Buddha.
Buddhism became a world religion not because of Buddha but because of the emperor
Ashoka. When the Buddhist priests joined hands with the emperor Ashoka, then the
religion became a world religion. The whole of Asia was converted. Now the priests
would help Ashoka to retain his power, and Ashoka would help the priests become
more and more powerful.
Christianity became a world religion not because of Jesus. Jesus was very alone -- only a
few disciples, twelve disciples, and a few hundred sympathizers, that's all. And even
those disciples disappeared when Jesus was being crucified, and the sympathizers
simply forgot about him; they stopped talking about the man because it was dangerous
even to show sympathy.
It is said that the people who had sympathized with Jesus came to spit on his face while
he was dying to show the people, "We are against, we are not for him." To prove to the
people...because this man is dying -- now they will be in trouble. Theyhave to live, they
still have to live. They have to give some proof that they are against this man.
They denied Jesus while he was dying. They threw mud, stones, they spat on his face,
just to show the crowds, "See, isn't this enough proof that the rumors that you have
heard that we are sympathizers are absolutely wrong, unfounded? We are against him
as much as you are -- in fact, we aremore against him than you are."
The enemies were not spitting on him but the friends. Jesus became a world force not
because of himself but only when the Roman emperors and Christian priests joined
hands. Now, this is an irony. Jesus was crucified by a Roman emperor -- see how
history moves! Pontius Pilate was just a representative of the Roman power, of the
Roman emperor; he simply followed the orders from Rome. Who would ever have
thought that Rome would become the centralplace of Christianity? Who would ever
have thought while Jesus was being crucified that Rome would be the residence of the
pope? But that's how it happened. Whenpriests joined hands with Emperor
Constantine and other Roman emperors, Christianity became a world force.
Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism -- they have all depended on politics. They
are not true religions anymore but political games being played in the name of religion.
I would like the world to have many more religions, so many that each individual has
his own religion -- then no priest will be needed. That is the only way to drop the
priests. If you have your own religion, no priest is needed -- you are the priest and you
are the follower and you are everything.
You have to listen to your inner voice. Buddha says: Follow your own nature; there is
no need for anybody to intercede on your behalf.
But I am not in favor of creating one religion;enough of that nonsense! In the past we
have been trying to do that: make one religion so that quarreling can stop. But it is not
possible. Even if you can enforce one religion, if the whole world becomes Christian,
then again there will be Protestants and Catholics and a thousand and one sects. And
the same game will start again: people will start quarreling -- because their needs are
different, their understandings are different.
I have heard:
A beautiful young woman came home from London. She belonged to a small village,
was from a Catholic family. After three orfour years of living in London she had
become very rich; she came back to see her parents. The mother could not believe her
eyes. She asked, "How did you manage? You have become so rich -- such beautiful
clothes, a diamond ring, a beautiful car!"
And the girl said, "Mother, I have become a prostitute."
Just hearing this the mother fainted, became unconscious. When she came back she
asked again, "What did you say?"
The girl said, "Mother, I said I have become a prostitute."
And the mother started laughing and she said, "I misunderstood you -- I thought you
said you had become a Protestant."
To be a prostitute is okay, but to becomea Protestant...? The same quarreling will start.
Even small religions -- for example, Jainism, one of the smallest religions in the world --
have so many sects, sects within sects. In fact, we have not yet become aware of the
great necessity that each individual needs his own version of God, and each individual
has his own way of approaching God.
A man picked up by a prostitute in a bar is amazed by the college pennants and
diplomas ornamenting the walls of her room.
"Are these your diplomas?" he asks.
"Sure," she says airily. "I have my Master ofArts from Columbia, and took my Ph.D. in
Shakespeare at Oxford."
The man is incredulous. "But how did a girl like you get into a profession like this?"
"I don't know," she says. "Just lucky, I guess."
People have different understandings, different ways of looking at things, different
interpretations. And they have to be allowed this freedom.
The third question:
Question 3
BELOVED MASTER,
MY PARENTS WERE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN INDIA FOR TWENTY-FIVE
YEARS. MY BROTHER WAS A JUNKIE, MY SISTER A COMPULSIVE LIAR. AS FOR
ME, I AM SO SERIOUS THAT IF I SMILE MY MOUTH HURTS. HOW DID I END UP
HERE?
Prem Parijat, just lucky, I guess! You will live in ecstasy and you will die in ecstasy.
Did you hear about the man eighty-seven yearsof age who married a nineteen-year-old
girl?
He died of a new disease called ecstasy. It took them three days to wipe the smile off his
face.
Now, this is going to happen to you too: living your life will be a laughter; dying, it will
be difficult for the people to wipe off your smile.
It may be just because your parents are Christian missionaries that you have landed
here, because to be born to any kind of missionaries -- Christian, Hindu or
Mohammedan -- is to be fed up with all that nonsense. To be born to a priest is to know
one thing for certain: that priests don't believe in God. It is their business; they pretend.
It is a rare opportunity to be born in the house of a priest, because children are very
perceptive and they can see through and through that all that nonsense that their father
in preaching is just preaching -- he does not mean it because he never practices it. The
children of the priests are bound to becomeaware of the hypocrisy of the so-called
religious people.
It may be just because of it, because it is almost impossible to be in the house of a priest
and not to know that he is the most irreligious person possible in the world.
Priests are exploiting religion. They are exploiting people's trust. They are the greatest
cheaters in the world, because to exploit people's trust is the greatest crime. You are
destroying their trust. But they live on that kind of cheating; that is their whole trade
secret.
The bishop was very proud of an elegant mansion he had constructed as his official
residence. One day, a friend and the bishop were engaged in conversation and the
bishop was pursuing a seemingly atheistic train of thought....
That kind of thinking is becoming very prevalent in Christian circles: religionless
religion, Godless Christianity -- these are being talked about, discussed. After Friedrich
Nietzsche, who declared that God is dead, Christianity has been in a turmoil -- what to
do now? They have been trying every possible way to create a Christianity which does
not need God anymore, so that the profession can expand again.
Now God has become a barrier; the moment you assert the word 'God', you put people
off. So Christian theologians are discussing, thinking, meditating, how to create a
Christianity that does not need God at all.And it is possible! -- because Buddhism is
there without any God, and Jainism is there without any God, so why can't there be a
Christianity without God?
...This bishop was pursuing a seemingly atheistic train of thought. The friend asked
him, "Bishop, do you believe in God or not? Say it exactly, say itin short. Don't go
round and round. Say simply yes orno -- do you believe in God?"
After a long hesitation, the bishop replied, "Of course I do! Who do you think paid for
this house?"
Now, the house that he has made, a beautiful mansion, is possible only because people
still believe in God; and because they believein God, they believe in the bishop. He
cannot publicly declare there is no God. If you drop God, then Jesus is no longer the Son
of God, then the pope is no longer the representative of Jesus, and so on and so forth.
And they all go down the drain. It needs a hierarchy: God atthe top and the priest at
the bottom, the whole ladder.
And the priest certainly knows that there is noGod. If he was aware that there is a God,
he would not have been a priest in the first place -- he would be a Jesus, he would be a
Buddha, but not a priest. He would be a prophet but not a priest. He would bring
something of the unknown into people's lives, but he would not be part of a status quo,
he would not be part of the established church. No man of understanding, no man who
has some religious consciousness and experiences, can be part of any established
church. It has never happened. Buddha has to leave his fold, Jesus has to leave his fold,
Mohammed has to leave his fold -- this has always been so. Whenever a religious man
is born, he has to leave his fold, because the fold is already in the hands of the
politicians and the priests, whose whole interest is in exploiting people.
Anand Moksha has written to me:
During the time of the major earthquakes inGuatemala in 1976, the Catholic bishop at
Lake Atitlan befriended me and allowed me to stay in his garden for a while.
A few months passed and after-shock tremors were still common. At that time I
discovered that a beautiful house on a hillside was for rent for very little money. The
reason was that a large boulder ominously overhung the house and people were afraid.
I felt the vibes and it seemed okay to me -- so I rented the place.
When I told the bishop, he reacted with nervous dismay and swung his arms about,
saying, "Aren't you worried about thatrock tumbling down on the house?"
I replied, "If the Lord wants to take me, he will."
The bishop shrugged his shoulders and said, "You don't believe that, do you?"
It may be simply, Parijat, that just because you were born of Christian missionaries it
became possible for you to behere. Christian missionaries, and twenty-five years in
India! -- that is too much. In the first place, Christian missionariesand in the second
place, twenty-five years in India...that is enough, more than enough, to convince the
children that their parents are pseudo, that they are talking business, that they don't
believe.
It is not a question of belief at all.
I have heard a small story:
In a school, a Christian missionary school, the teacher asked the children, "Who is the
greatest man in history?"
An American boy says, "Abraham Lincoln."
A Mohammedan boy says, "Hazrat Mohammed."
A Hindu girl says, "Lord Krishna."
And so on and so forth...and finally, the little Jewish boy stands up and says, "Jesus
Christ."
The teacher could not believe her ears -- the Jew and saying Jesus Christ? She asked,
"Do you really mean that?"
He said, "That is not the question. In my heart of hearts I know it is Moses -- but
business is business."
To be with Christian missionaries for twenty-five years, and in India, and seeing what
they are doing, is enough to disillusion you.The whole credit goesto your parents and
their twenty-five years in India. They have brought you here -- be thankful to them.
The fourth question:
Question 4
BELOVED MASTER,
I FEEL THAT I AM A VERY SPECIAL PERSON. I AM SO SPECIAL THAT I WANT
JUST TO BE ORDINARY. PLEASE CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?
Anand Sangito, everybody here thinks exactly the same. And not only here, but
everywhere else. Everyone deep in their heart knows that he is special. This is a joke
God plays on people. When he makes a new man and pushes him down towards the
earth, he whispers in his ear, "You are special. You are incomparable, you are just
unique!"
But this he goes on doing to everybody and everybody goes on carrying it deep in the
heart, although people don't say it as loudly as you are doing, because they are afraid
others may feel offended. And nobody is going to be convinced, so what is the point of
saying it? If you tell somebody, "I am special," you cannot convince him because he
himself knows that he is special. How can you convince anybody? Yes, maybe
sometimes somebody may be convinced, at least pretend to be convinced. If he has
some work with you, as a bribe he may say, "Yes, you are special, you are great." But
deep down he knows business is business.
A braggart is telling his friend about his three cars, etcetera, etcetera. When he also
mentions that he has two kept mistresses in New York, but that he has made his
ravishingly beautiful and terribly passionate private secretary pregnant, and must
therefore take his gorgeous blond stenographerwith him on his business trip to Rio de
Janeiro to see the carnival, the listener suddenly begins to pant, grabs at his own
necktie, and has a heart attack.
The braggart interrupts his tale, gets water, pats the victim on the back, etcetera,
etcetera, and he asks solicitously what the matter is. "Can I help it?" the man gasps. "I
am allergic to bullshit."
It is better to keep such bullshit hidden deep down inside yourself, because people are
allergic. But in a way it is good that you exposed your mind.
If you think you are special then you are bound to create misery for yourself. If you
think that you are higher than others, wiser than others, then you will attain to a very
strong ego. And the ego is poison, pure poison. And the more egoistic you become, the
more it hurts, because it is a wound. The more egoistic you become, the more you
become unbridged from life. You fall separate from life; you are no longer in the flow of
existence, you have become a rock in the river. You have become ice-cold, you have lost
all warmth, all love. A special person cannotlove, because where are you going to find
another special person?
I have heard about a man who remained unmarried his whole life, and when he was
dying, ninety years old, somebody asked him, "You have remained unmarried your
whole life, but you have never said what the reason was. Now you are dying, at least
quench our curiosity. If there is any secret, now you can tell it, because you are dying;
you will be gone. Even if the secret is known, it can't harm you."
The man said, "Yes, there is a secret. It isnot that I am against marriage, but I was
searching for a perfect woman. I searched and searched, and my whole life slipped by."
The inquirer asked, "But upon this big earth,so many millions of people, half of them
women, couldn't you find one perfect woman?"
A tear rolled down from the eye of the dying man. He said, "Yes, I did find one."
The inquirer was absolutely shocked. He said, "Then what happened? Why didn't you
get married?"
And the old man said, "But the woman was searching for a perfect husband."
Your life will become very difficult if you live with such ideas. And yes, the ego is so
tricky, so cunning, it can give you, Sangito, this new project: "You are so special, become
just ordinary." But in your ordinariness you will know you are the most extraordinarily
ordinary man. Nobody is more ordinarythan you! It will be the same game,
camouflaged.
That's what so-called humble people go on doing. They say, "I am the most humble
man. I am just the dust on your feet." But they don't mean it! Don't say, "Yes, I know
you are," otherwise they will never be able toforgive you. They are waiting for you to
say, "You are the most humble man I have ever seen, you are the most pious man I have
ever seen." Then they will be satisfied, contented. It is ego hiding behind humbleness.
You cannot drop the ego in this way.
You ask, "I feel that I am a very very special person. I am so special that I want just to be
ordinary. Please can you say something about this?"
No one is special, or, everyone is special. No one is ordinary, or everyone is ordinary.
Whatsoever you think about yourself, pleasethink the same about everyone else, and
the problem will be solved. You can choose. If you want the word 'special', you can
think you are special -- but then everybody is special. Not only people, but trees, birds,
animals, rocks -- the whole existence is special, because you come out of this existence
and you will dissolve into this existence. But if you love the word 'ordinary' -- which is
a beautiful word, more relaxed -- then knowthat everybody is ordinary. Then the
whole existence is ordinary.
One thing to be remembered: whatsoever you think about yourself, think the same for
everybody else and the ego will disappear. The ego is the illusion that is created by
thinking about yourself in one way and thinking about others in another. It is double
thinking. If you drop the double thinking, ego dies of its own accord.
The last question:
Question 5
BELOVED MASTER,
WHEN I CAME HERE I FELT GOD TO BE VERY NEAR -- ANY MOMENT AND I
WOULD BE WITH HIM -- BUT AS TIME PASSES IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE. HE IS NOT
AROUND; IT IS DIFFICULT TO SEE HIM.
WHY IS IT SO? PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.
Vedant Bharti, you must be carrying a certain image of God in your mind; hence you
are missing. And unless you drop that image you are going to miss. God has no
obligation to fulfill your idea of him. You must be carrying a certain idea that "God
looks like this, behaves like this...." That's why it is becoming impossible: you are
making it impossible.
God can be known only by those who are capable of dropping all ideas about God. Any
idea that you have accumulated in yourself in your ignorance is a hindrance. Drop all
ideas about God and you will be surprised, you will be shocked, you will not be able to
believe your eyes...because only God is! Then you will never ask, "Where is God?" You
will ask, "Is there any place where God is not?"
Then in the very ordinariness of things you will see something tremendously
extraordinary. Then ordinary pebbles are transformed intodiamonds. Then ordinary
humanity is no longer ordinary -- then something luminous is in everybody's heart.
Then man comes closer to the divine, and the divine comes closer to man; the human
and the divine disappear into each other, the world and God disappear into each other.
Then you are not searching for a God who isseparate and high and far away, living in
the seventh heaven; then he lives in your neighborhood as your neighbor. Then he is
human, he is animal, he is vegetable, he is mineral...he is all.
And when you can see that he surrounds you, not as a person but as a presence, then
only does your inquiry come to a fulfillment. God is not hiding from you but you are
keeping your eyes closed because of so manyprejudices. Somebody has a Hindu idea of
God, and somebody has a Christian idea of God, and somebody else a Mohammedan
idea of God. Now, God is neither Mohammedan, nor Christian, nor Hindu, so all these
people who are carrying these ideas are bound to go on stumbling in darkness and
more darkness. From darkness to darkness will be their journey, from death to death
they will move. They will never know the light.
A Hindu cannot know God, a Mohammedan cannot know God. First you will have to
cleanse your mind completely of all Hinduism, all Mohammedanism, all Buddhism.
When you are utterly thoughtless, just alert, aware, watchful, then God explodes. And
he explodes all over the place.
Vedant Bharti, you say, "When I came here I felt God to be very near." That was your
imagination.
"...Any moment and I would be with him." That was your wish.
"...But as time passes it seems impossible" -- because no imagination can ever become
real. No dream of yours can ever be fulfilled. Reality has to be discovered, not
imagined.
Now you say, "He is not around; it is difficult to see him."
Only he is around. It is difficult to see him because your eyes are too burdened with
your own prejudices, concepts, systems of thought. Be a little more childlike, be a little
more innocent. God comes onlywhen the heart is innocent. God comes only when you
are utterly empty of all ideas. He is always ready to come, he is standing at the door,
but you cannot hear because your mind is so full of turmoil, full of thoughts, millions of
thoughts clamoring around. Your mind is so noisy you cannot hear the silent knock on
the door.
Be silent, be innocent. God is. Only God is.
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