Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Reflections on Jesus of Nazareth

Talks given from 31/10/75 am to 10/11/75 am

English Discourse series

11 Chapters

Year published:

Originally the series was published as "Come Follow Me, Vols 1 + 2". Later to be republished as four volumes under the title "Come Follow To You".

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #1

Chapter title: When the bridegroom shall be taken away 31 October 1975 am in Buddha Hall

MATTHEW 9

14 THEN CAME TO HIM THE DISCIPLES OF JOHN, SAYING, WHY DO WE

AND THE PHARISEES FAST OFT, BUT THY DISCIPLES FAST NOT?

15 AND JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, CAN THE CHILDREN OF THE

BRIDECHAMBER MOURN, AS LONG AS THE BRIDEGROOM IS WITH

THEM? BUT THE DAYS WILL COME, WHEN THE BRIDEGROOM SHALL BE

TAKEN FROM THEM, AND THEN SHALL THEY FAST.

16 No MAN PUTTETH A PIECE OF NEW CLOTH UNTO AN OLD

GARMENT,FOR THAT WHICH IS PUT IN TO FILL IT UP TAKETH FROM

THE GARMENT, AND THE RENT IS MADE WORSE.

17 NEITHER DO MEN PUT NEW WINE INTO OLD BOTTLES: ELSE THE

BOTTLES BREAK,AND THE WINE RUNNETH OUT, AND THE BOTTLES

PERISH: BUT THEY PUT NEW WINE INTO NEW BOTTLES, AND BOTH ARE

PRESERVED.

RELIGION CAN BE HEALTHY -- as healthy as a new born babe, as healthy as the songs of the birds in the morning, as healthy as a newly opening lotus. Or religion can be ill, diseased, dying -- just like an old man: shrinking, sad, moving.into death.

When religion is young, it has a fragrance -- the fragrance of life, It has a song, it has a mystery around it. It has the quality of dance, joy, delight. It is a celebration. When religion is young, alive, fresh, religion is always a celebration.

It is a feast. It is life-enhancing, life-affirmative.

When religion is old, dying, or already dead -- just a stinking corpse -- then it is renunciation; then it is not celebration. Then it is anti-life, then it is life-negating.

Then it leaves the world, it leaves all that is alive. It starts being suicidal -- it shrinks.

Life expands, death is a shrinkage. When you are young, you are flowing in all directions. When you are old, you are frozen. You no longer flow. You only grumble: you become hard, the flexibility is lost.

When religion is young, alive, it is ordinary. It has nothing in it to fulfill the ego -

- it is very ordinary. In fact, in its very ordinariness, it is extraordinary. It is superb in being just ordinary. Life is enough when religion is young; no other God is needed. Then life is God, life is divine.

When religion becomes old and ill.... Everything becomes old and ill, whatsoever is born has to die. Even a religion is born one day, lives for a while and then dies.

But followers go on clinging to the dead body. Then the dead body kills the followers also: it becomes a source of illness, neurosis: it becomes an abnormality, a cancerous growth. When religion becomes ill or dead, it kills you; it is poisonous. This has to be understood from many directions.

Firstly, people are more willing to be in a dead religion than to be in an alive one, because you have been taught to be afraid of life, of love, of happiness. Every child is brought up in the world with a conditioning: with a feeling that there is something wrong in being happy. A very vague feeling, but it is there. It influences your whole life, you think that there is something wrong in being happy. So whenever you feel happy, you feel guilty -- as if you have been committing some wrong, as if you have been sinning.

Only sinners seem to be happy, saints seem to be very sad. So whenever you are sad, everything is okay. You never feel guilty if you are sad -- have you observed it? But if you are very happy, suddenly you try to hide it; nobody should know it. Why has this happened to the human mind?

Every child is taught to be serious, somber, to be long faced. Every child is taught not to jump, not to run, not to shriek, not to be too delighted, not to laugh loudly.

"Sit quietly" -- as if there is something wrong in energy expressing itself.

Whenever the child is happy the family, the people around, all start teaching him, as if something has gone wrong. And when the child is not happy, when he is unhappy, everybody sympathizes with him.

When the child is ill, everybody takes care of him; when he is healthy, everybody goes on stopping him: "Don't do this, don't do that." When the child is Lying on the bed ill, the father comes, the mother comes, the relatives come. They are all very careful about him. By and by he starts learning that there is something basically wrong in energy, in happiness, in joy. In dancing, running around, shrieking with delight, there is something basically wrong. He gets the hint.

And there is something basically good in being sad, ill. Whenever he is sad, he is appreciated, sympathized with. Whenever he is healthy, everybody seems to be against him; the whole world is against him. This creates a guilt, a deep guilt in the child, and that guilt follows him his whole life.

If you go to see a saint and you see him laughing loudly, you will be shocked.

You will be shocked -- a saint, and laughing so loudly? A saint should be sad; you have a particular idea about the saint. It is okay to laugh in the pub, to laugh in the hotel -- gamblers can do that -- but to laugh in church? No, it is not allowed. One has to become serious when one goes to church; one has to become almost corpse-like.

Because of this training.... And the training has a vicious circle about it: you were trained by your parents, your parents were trained by their parents. Somewhere in the past, hidden deeply in unknown history, something went wrong.

It may be that one who is happy cannot be forced to work because happiness is a play. Only sad people can be forced to work. That's why, when you work, you become sad; when you are on duty, you become sad. A holiday has a different quality to it. You can laugh, you can enjoy.

Life was difficult in the past, man was in a constant struggle with nature. To survive was the only aim, and everybody had to work hard. If you are happy, you would like to dance not work; if you are happy, you would like to sing, play a flute, and not go hunting. If you are happy, who bothers about duty and about the office? If you are happy you would like to rest and relax. That was dangerous.

That's why happiness was condemned, laziness was condemned, rest was condemned. It has been taught, it is deep in your blood. that work is the goal of life. A good man is always working; a bad man seems to be always on holiday.

Mulla Nasruddin has not worked for a long time, for years. One day he was sitting by my side. The day was very sunny and he said, "If I had been working somewhere, I would have taken a holiday today." And he has not been working for many days, for years! He is missing work because he cannot take a holiday.

From where to take a holiday? He remembers the working only when it comes to taking a holiday.

The whole human mind has been trained for work. That's why duty has been praised, playfulness condemned; business praised, gambling condemned. A gambler is playful; a businessman is serious. The businessman is respected; a gambler, simply condemned. He is thought to be below humanity.

Religion is a totally different dimension. There is every possibility that a gambler may enter in it, but a businessman is debarred. A drunkard may enter into religion. I am not saying that you should become drunkards; I am just emphasizing the quality of playfulness, the quality that can enjoy and be, and is not worried about results. But a very serious man is debarred by his own seriousness.

Jesus created trouble for himself. He was a religious man -- healthy, young, vibrant with life. Life was his God. In the gospels, many times you come across scenes that depict him as sitting at the dining table -- eating, drinking. How could the Jews and the people, his people, believe that he was religious? Fasting should be done and he was always feasting, he was always creating a feast around him. Wherever he moved he created happiness. What type of religious man was he?

His own relatives thought that he was a little beside himself, his own relatives thought that he was a little mad. And the society in which he lived thought that he was a glutton, a drunkard -- he could be a sinner, but he could not be a saint.

That's why he was crucified outside the town. Jews had it as a law, they used to crucify in two ways: either in town or outside the town. When a person who belonged to the society had done something wrong, then he was crucified in the town. But if somebody who had done wrong was, at the same time, an outsider, to symbolize the fact that he didn't belong to society, he was an outcast, he was crucified outside the town.

Jesus was crucified outside the town. Not only that: to emphasize the fact, two very dangerous criminals were crucified with him. On either side: two dangerous criminals. Right between these two he was crucified, just to emphasize the fact, to hit it hard in people's minds, that he was just a criminal, a dangerous man -- not at all respectable, an outcast. He had to be cut down like a worm, not like a man. What had he done? What sin had he committed? The sin of being happy.

That's how I am condemned. People would have liked me if I was a sad man; they would have liked me if I was fasting and killing my body. They would have liked me if I was teaching to you some type of masochism -- to be cruel to yourself. They would have liked me, they would have praised me like anything; they would have called me an avatar.

But I teach you to be alive, I teach you to be happy. I give you only one gospel: the gospel of joy and love. That is a crime. That is creating a dangerous situation, that is corrupting people.

Jesus committed the crime of being happy. That was his only crime, nothing else.

Christians have been trying to change his face. They say he never laughed. Can you imagine a man who is always seen at dining tables, eating well, drinking --

and not laughing? Impossible! But Christians have to create a respectable Christ, a Jesus who is not a criminal. They have painted his face. You can't find any picture of Jesus depicted by Christians, any statue of Jesus created by Christians, which is real or true. It is absolutely unreal. The man has been betrayed.

Just the other night I was reading a poem. I liked it. I would like you to listen to it. It is a poem by Adrian Mitchell.

The Liberated Christ Gives An Interview

I would have walked on the water

But I wasn't fully insured.

And the B.M.A. sent a writ my way

With the very first leper I cured.

I would've preached a golden sermon

But I didn't like the look of the mount.

And I would've fed fifty thousand

But the press wasn't there to count.

And the businessmen in the temple

Had a team of coppers on the door

And if I'd spent a year in the desert

I would've lost my pension for sure.

I would've turned the water into wine

But they weren't giving licenses.

And I would have died and been crucified

But like -- you know how it is.

I am going to shave off my beard and cut my hair

Buy myself some bullet-proof underwear

I am the liberated Christ

And I have got no blood to spare.

Christians have made him totally different. He was not like that. He was a rebellious man, an extraordinary revolutionary. And he lived it, he lived his rebellion. He was not a theoretician: he lived it, he died for it. He loved life so much that he was ready to die for it. But he was not ready to be anti-life. That was his crime.

Even with John the Baptist and his disciples there was trouble. John the Baptist was an old, traditional prophet. His disciples were ascetics: fasting, praying.

They were anti-life. There was conflict between Jesus and the disciples of John the Baptist. These sutras are about that conflict.

THEN CAME TO HIM THE DISCIPLES OF JOHN THE BAPTIST, SAYING, WHY DO WE AND THE PHARISEES FAST OFT, BUT THY DISCIPLES FAST

NOT?

Why has fasting become so important? Why has brahmacharya, celibacy, become so important?

There are two things on which life depends: food and sex. If you are anti-life you will be against both food and sex, because they are the very base of life. Through food, you live: through sex, the coming generations will live.

If you fast, you will die. If you become a celibate, you cut the passage for the future generations to come. If celibacy and fasting become absolute, life will disappear from earth. Those who are against life -- they have praised fasting as a method, celibacy as a goal.

The question is relevant: "Why do we, the disciples of the Baptist, fast often, and the rabbis and the Pharisees do the same, but your disciples fast not?"

People come to me also. They say, "Why don't you teach people to fast? " I am always surprised. Why are people so much concerned with food? If you study Gandhi's life, his whole life he is concerned with food: food and stomach. Eating and enema -- these are continuously the two basic problems. Why is he so afraid of food?

With food, a fear arises. The fear is of sex. If you eat well, sex energy will be created. And if you don't know how this energy can move upwards in your being, it will start moving downwards. If you don't know how this energy can move like fire, it will move like water. So with food, the fear of sex arises.

Go and see. In India there are many saints, particularly Jains. Jains have a great number of saints who are continuously fasting. The fear is of sex, because if they eat well, energy is created. And if energy is there, what will you do with it? You cannot laugh, you cannot dance, you cannot love. What will you do with that energy? That energy will become a heavy load on you. It is better not to create it.

Fasting is trying not to create energy. You live on a starvation level so a minimum of energy is created and that is used by your day-to-day work. You never have any to spare. Even for a good laugh, you will need energy; for dancing, you will need energy. So live at the minimum -- because if energy is at the maximum, then joy will burst forth.

If you don't give sufficient water to a tree, if you don't give sufficient manure, food, to a tree, the tree may remain, but flowers will not come. Flowers come only when the tree has energy to spare. Flowers are a luxury: when the tree has enough -- more than enough -- and it wants to share, then flowers come and the fragrance is released.

That is how the tree enjoys its energy. It has too much of it; it would like to share it with the world. But when you don't have enough, how can you share? The tree may live, but it will not be really green. It will be almost dying -- always on the verge of death.

People have learned the trick: that if you fast, you can live a minimal life. Then there is less danger. Anger will not be possible, because anger needs energy; love will not be possible, love needs energy; joy will not be possible, joy needs energy._ Life is a play of energy; everything needs energy. So if you live at the minimum, you are just barely alive. Death is always at hand.

Remember, the kingdom of God is at hand only when you live maximally, when you live an optimal life, when you live at the peak. Then the kingdom of God is at hand.

Those who are living at the minimum are suicidal people. They are not courageous enough, otherwise they would commit suicide in a second. They are cowards, committing suicide slowly, poisoning themselves very slowly. They will live, and they will not live at all.

John the Baptist and his disciples were ascetics, they lived at the minimum. Jesus was thought by his brother-disciples, because he was also a disciple of John the Baptist -- he was thought to be a traitor. He had betrayed the master because he started moving in a totally different dimension. He became the source of an alive religion. He started celebrating.

That real Jesus is completely lost in the desert of Christian theology. He is completely lost. In the rubbish that Christian theology goes on producing in great quantity, the real gospel is completely lost and forgotten. The message of the man was to delight in life, because only that can be a prayer of gratefulness to God. Life should be a feast and not a fast.

WHY DO WE AND THE PHARISEES FAST OFT, BUT THY DISCIPLES FAST

NOT?

AND JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, CAN THE CHILDREN OF THE

BRIDECHAMBER MOURN, AS LONG AS THE BRIDEGROOM IS WITH

THEM? BUT THE DAYS WILL COME, WHEN THE BRIDEGROOM SHALL BE

TAKEN FROM THEM, AND THEN SHALL THEY FAST.

It is a very pregnant sutra. He's saying: "When the bridegroom is there, can the children of the bridechamber mourn?" That will look absolutely foolish, absurd, neurotic when the bridegroom is in the house, there is no question of mourning and fasting and being sad. The children of the bridechamber will dance, feast and enjoy: the bridegroom is with them.

BUT THE DAYS WILL COME, WHEN THE BRIDEGROOM SHALL BE TAKEN

AWAY FROM THEM, AND THEN SHALL THEY FAST.

Those days have come. Those days have been on the earth now for a long time, almost two thousand years. Churches are mourning: the bridegroom is no longer there. Popes are sad, bishops are not able to laugh. Their faces are almost dead: life frozen and stuck, flexibility gone. They simply go on repeating mechanically what Jesus has said.

Jesus is saying that while the religion is alive, there is no question of fasting. It is the time to feast and be grateful, and be thankful that the bridegroom is with you. It is the time to dance and sing -- and go mad in sheer delight! Yes, the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away, Jesus will no longer be there.

Then you can mourn and fast at your ease. Jesus is saying, "Because I am here, how can they be sad? When I am here, why should they fast? This is the time to rejoice!"

Jesus says, again and again: "Rejoice! " He never says renounce, he says rejoice.

The world is yours if you rejoice; the whole is yours if you are happy.

The saying is true which says: "Laugh and the whole world laughs with you.

Weep and you weep alone." In deep laughter, suddenly trees and birds and animals, and the sky and the earth, join together with you. It is an invitation, an opening. When you cry, moan, you are closed. Then you are not available to the sea and the sands, and the sea and the sands are not available to you. You have become a nomad: windowless, doorless -- everything closed in.

A sad man is closed, completely closed in himself. His being is not expanding; his being is not like a river flowing towards the sea. He is a dead pool that goes nowhere. The movement, and the process of life, has stopped.

JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, CAN THE CHILDREN OF THE BRIDECHAMBER

MOURN, AS LONG AS THE BRIDEGROOM IS WITH THEM? While the religion is alive and young, don't miss the chance, because the days when the bridegroom will not be with you will be long. Then you can mourn and fast and do whatsoever you like.

But this is the trouble: when Jesus is there, people kill him; and when he is gone, they worship him. When Buddha is there, people throw stones at him; when he is gone, he is worshipped. This has always been so. Human stupidity is tremendous!

When Jesus is gone.... A totally different type of religion is created at his death, diametrically opposite to his being, because those who create the religion when Jesus is gone are the sad people. They are head-people, hung-up in the head.

They create the religion: they gather together, they call conferences, they decide what Jesus was. They paint/repaint: the original face is completely lost. They take charge. When Jesus was there, these same people would never come close to him because he was not respectable enough.

What a misfortune -- that when Jesus is alive he is not respectable enough for these pundits, Pharisees, rabbis, to come and listen to him. They will not come, he is below them. They already know too much. But when the smell is gone, they immediately come to fill the vacuum, to fill the place that Jesus has left, because now they can discuss what Jesus meant and what he never meant. Now they can decide the whole character of Jesus. That character is going to be a caricature, it is going to be absolutely false, because these are the people who cannot understand him: the men of knowledge.

The man of knowledge cannot understand Jesus. He can understand only scriptures, the dead word. Jesus is the word become flesh. It is alive, throbbing, living.

The man of knowledge is expert only in post-mortem. He can dissect the dead body, and then he creates something which is absolutely, diametrically opposite to the real man who was there. These people create Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism. Buddha was not the originator of Buddhism, and Christ was not the originator of Christianity.

Christianity was created by the same type of people who crucified Jesus -- the same type. They may not be exactly the same people, but they are the same type.

Those who crucified him were the priests, and those who created Christianity were also the priests.

It makes no difference whether the priest is a Jew or a Christian. These are only labels; it makes no difference. The priest is always against the alive religious man, he is always for the dead, because the dead can be manipulated by him.

The alive Jesus won't listen to the rabbi. The rabbi is afraid of the alive Jesus; he will never cross his path, he will try to avoid him. But when he is dead, the rabbis will gather together. They will create a church on his corpse.

That's what Jesus says:

CAN THE CHILDREN OF THE BRIDECHAMBER MOURN, AS LONG AS THE

BRIDEGROOM IS WITH THEM? BUT THE DAYS WILL COME, WHEN THE

BRIDEGROOM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THEM, AND THEN SHALL

THEY FAST.

"When I am dead," Jesus says, "when the freshness of religion is gone," Jesus says, "then people will fast, they will mourn. But right now, fasting is irrelevant."

So remember this: when a religion is feasting, it is alive. Join it! But when a religion is fasting, escape from it as fast as you can, because it is not only dead: it will make you dead if you allow yourself to be close to it.

NO MAN PUTTETH A PIECE OF NEW CLOTH UNTO AN OLD GARMENT, FOR THAT WHICH IS PUT IN TO FILL IT UP TAKETH FROM THE

GARMENT, AND THE RENT IS MADE WORSE.

Jesus says, "The traditional religion, the old religion, cannot celebrate."

Celebration is new. Every moment it is new, it is never old. NO MAN PUTTETH

A PIECE OF NEW CLOTH UNTO AN OLD GARMENT....

A new, fresh, young religion never fits with the tradition. It will fit someday when the newness of it has gone, and it has become a tradition itself, a dead past.

Religion, alive, is a presence. It is in the present. A tradition is just a memory.

Can you feel the difference distinctly? It has to be felt.

You love a woman. The woman is there, you are there -- love is flowing between you two. It is a presence: something indefinable surrounds you, something which you cannot catch hold of, something immaterial, something spiritual.

Something of the other world has descended around you. You live in a totally different type of world. The moment is no more a part of this world: you are transcended, transferred to some unknown dimension.

But then, the woman has gone, the love has gone. Years have passed. Now it is just a memory. Sometimes you can ruminate about: you can close your eyes and again see that moment of bliss. But now it is dusty, much dust has gathered upon it. Now it is no longer alive. You can feel it, but now that feeling is only a feeling through the mind -- it is not immediate.

When the love was there, it was immediate. It was something you could have touched, something that was there surrounding you. It was more alive than your own body, it was more vital than your own mind. But now it is just a memory.

A flower: alive in the morning, welcoming the sun, dancing in the breeze. By the evening, the petals have withered, the fragrance is gone. A memory of something past. You cannot live it, you can only think about it.

That thinking can create a clinging to the past. That's how tradition is born.

Buddha lived two thousand five hundred years ago; Jesus, two thousand years ago; Krishna, maybe five thousand years ago. Something happened in the moment Jesus was here on the earth. Now it is only a memory: the flower is gone, the fragrance gone. Only the emptiness is left. And you go on worshipping that emptiness; you create temples around it, churches around it. You worship that emptiness. It is just a memory.

What type of foolishness has settled in the human heart? When the flower is there, you avoid; and when only the emptiness is left, then you worship. You are afraid of real religion. That's why you become a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian. This is a trick of the mind, a deception. This is a way to avoid religion, because religion will transform you. Religion will destroy you as you are, and religion will give a new birth to you. Something unknown will come into existence through religion and you are afraid of that -- of dying. of being reborn.

So you belong to old traditions.

Jesus says: NO MAN PUTTETH A PIECE OF NEW CLOTH UNTO AN OLD

GARMENT. The traditions are old, like old garments. Celebration is always new, it is never old. It is herenow. Religions which are dead go on fasting, they are ascetic. Religions which are new -- they are celebrating, they have a type of spiritual hedonism around them.

Have you read Kazantzakis' ZORBA THE GREEK: Read it! Jesus must have had something of the quality of Zorba the Greek -- a tremendous capacity to enjoy life, an infinite trust in life, a deep attunement with the present. Kazantzakis'

novel, ZORBA THE GREEK, has some of the quality of Jesus in it.

Of course, the pope in the Vatican will be very much offended if he comes to know that I say Jesus has the quality of Zorba the Greek. But I say it. He has; I can't help it. A spiritual hedonism.

Allow me to coin the term'spiritual hedonism', because ordinarily you think of hedonism as very earthy. "Eat, drink, be merry" -- that is earthy hedonism. In spiritual hedonism that is there, and more also. "Eat, drink, be merry" is there --

plus God. Eat, drink and be merry in the name of the holy, in the name of your God, your Father who is in heaven.

Eat, drink, be merry -- make them your prayer. Let your eating and drinking and merrying be a sort of ritual, a sort of prayer -- a gesture of happiness that "I am okay, and I am happy that you have given birth to me. I am happy that I am, and my whole thankfulness goes to you."

A spiritual hedonism is always there when religion is alive. When the religion becomes dead, hedonism disappears completely and the religion becomes antagonistic to everything that man can enjoy. Then religion goes on seeking ways and means of how to be sad, how to be more and more sorrowful, how to kill all avenues of delight and joy. Then it becomes ascetic.

NEITHER DO MEN PUT NEW WINE INTO OLD BOTTLES: ELSE THE

BOTTLES BREAK, AND THE WINE RUNNETH OUT, AND THE BOTTLES

PERILS: BUT THEY PUT NEW WINE INTO NEW BOTTLES, AND BOTH ARE

PRESERVED.

Only a new religion -- just born, fresh, original -- can celebrate. Then celebration fits with it. It can love, can trust, can enjoy.

NEITHER DO MEN PUT NEW WINE INTO OLD BOTTLES.... A very enigmatic answer. They had asked, "Why don't your disciples fast?" and jesus answered in a very indirect way. There are things which can only be said in an indirect way.

You cannot indicate them directly.

I was staying with a friend. He has a beautiful child, a young boy -- just eight or nine years old. The child was playing outside in the garden and I watched him.

He was running after butterflies, collecting flowers, rolling on the grass and enjoying the wetness of the grass and the dewdrops. The gardener was cutting the hedge and the freshly cut hedge was giving a beautiful fragrance to the whole garden. The boy was jumping and dancing and running around in sheer delight.

Then he came inside. The mother asked, "Where have you been?"

He said, "Out."

"What have you been doing? "

He said, "Nothing."

Then I called him and I said, "That's not correct. You have been doing so many things. And you say you have been doing nothing?"

He said, "That's why I say'nothing'. Those things cannot be said. The fragrance...."

Yes, I understood his point. The fragrance that was filling his nostrils -- how can you say it? And when he was rolling on the grass: the touch of the grass, the dewdrops clinging to his body; a subtle coldness, a freshness. How can you say it? And running after butterflies.... What happens in the mind of a child when he runs after butterflies? How can it be said? And the sun, and the showering of light -- how can you say what happens in the heart?

Yes, I understood his point. He avoided. He said, "Out." And when his mother insisted, "What were you doing?" he said, "Nothing." He was doing so many things that there was no other way to say it. Only'nothing' can cover it. And only'out' -- a blanket word that covers many things. Out: the whole world is included. Out: the sun, the trees, the butterflies, the grass, the dewdrops. These are the outer things. And what was happening inside the child? The sheer delight, for no visible reason. Just happiness. How to say it?

When Jesus was asked, "Why do your disciples fast not? " -- how to say it? He says, CAN THE CHILDREN OF THE BRIDECHAMBER MOURN, AS LONG AS

THE BRIDEGROOM IS WITH THEM? He answers by another question:

... BUT THE DAYS WILL COME, WHEN THE BRIDEGROOM WILL BE TAKEN

FROM THEM, AND THEN SHALL THEY FAST.

NO MAN PUTTETH A PIECE OF NEW CLOTH UNTO AN OLD GARMENT, FOR THAT WHICH IS PUT IN TO FILL IT UP TAKETH FROM THE

GARMENT, AND THE RENT IS MADE WORSE.

NEITHER DO MEN PUT NEW WINE INTO OLD BOTTLES ELSE THE

BOTTLES BREAK AND THE WINE RUNNETH OUT, AND THE BOTTLES

PERISH: BUT THEY PUT NEW WINE INTO NEW BOTTLES, AND BOTH ARE

PRESERVED.

A very indirect answer, but it gives you the right clue.

There are things which cannot be said directly. They are so vital that you have to go around them. They are like live wires. You cannot touch them directly; it will be dangerous. Hence, Jesus goes on talking in parables.

Once Adolf Hitler said, "I cannot see why man should not be as cruel as nature."

Why should man not be as cruel as nature? And in a way, man has been as cruel as nature, or even more. Sometimes you are cruel with others; sometimes you are cruel with yourself. These are the ordinary categories into which the whole of humanity can be divided. Rarely does a man come who is neither cruel to others nor to himself. That is the man I call the man of God, the Godman.

It is very easy to change from one extreme to another. Ordinarily, people are cruel to others: violent, aggressive. Then that violence towards others, that cruelty towards others, has to be paid for deeply, because when you are violent to others, they will be violent to you. You cannot go on being aggressive to others, the violence will return back. It is dangerous, it is costly -- even an Adolf Hitler or a Napoleon has to pay for it. They die a death of sheer violence which is returning back to them, falling upon them.

You spit in the sky and it falls on you; you dig a ditch for others and someday you fall into it yourself. Cunning, calculating minds understand the fact that to be violent with others is very costly and dangerous, but they want to be violent and they want to be cruel. Cruelty is deep down in their bones, in their animality, so what to do?

The best and the most diplomatic way is to be violent with yourself. Then there will be no revenge taken. So the ordinary man is violent towards others, and your so-called saints are violent towards themselves. They are simply more calculating. They are cowards, escapists. But they are violent towards themselves.

Do you know that there was a sect of Christians -- they still exist; they are not so prominent now, but they still exist -- who used to flagellate themselves every morning, beat their own bodies? Blood started flowing -- that was their prayer.

As if God was hungry for their blood, as if God was thirsty for their blood. What type of God did they have in mind? Some murderer? Some murderous power?

No, they were sacrificing themselves. They were trying to show God: "Look, we are not happy, we are very unhappy. Have mercy on us." That was their prayer:

"We are so sad. Look, blood is flowing. We are in such deep misery. Have mercy on us." But I tell you, God's mercy is available only to those who are happy.

Jesus says one of the most enigmatic sentences: "If you have, more will be given to you. And if you don't have, even that should be taken away from you."

Nobody has said it in that way. Jesus is simply incomparable: "If you don't have anything, even that should be taken away from you. And if you really have something, more will be given to you."

It looks very anti-communistic! But it is tremendously true, absolutely true.

When you are happy, more happiness becomes available; when you are unhappy, more unhappiness becomes available. When you are happy, you get more: doors open, God's mercy is on you. He loves those who dance, those who come to Him singing. But those who come to Him with complaints -- with sad faces, blood flowing -- they cannot be loved. They have not even been able to love themselves -- how can God love them? They have missed. They could not love themselves, how could God love them? Remember this: if you cannot love yourself, nobody can love you. Forget about God -- even ordinary human beings will not love you.

First you should love yourself. Only then, others love you. And you should love yourself so infinitely, so totally, that not even a little bit of hatred towards yourself is left. Only then does God's love and mercy become available.

He loves tremendously those who love themselves. He is a lover of lovers. His grace descends on you when you are dancing and not standing in the posture of a martyr. That is one of the ugliest postures one can take. Never try to become a martyr! But look -- Jesus is something totally different, but Christians have been martyrs, flagellating themselves.

In Russia, there was a Christian community -- -a big community before the revolution -- who used to cut their genital organs as a sacrifice to God. What type of sacrifice is this? What are they saying? They are saying, "God, look! We have cut our genital organs as a symbolic act, to show that we are no longer interested in life, in love, in happiness. We are no longer interested in any ecstasy." And they would fast, they would pray.

God loves life, He creates life every moment. God is not against life: He is the innermost core of life, He loves life.

You have an expression in English: "To live your life out." I would like to change it a little. I would like to say:

"To love your life out." Don't just live your life out, that is very poor. Love your life out. Be a flame, and burn from both ends. If you can burn from both ends even for a single moment, and flow in love in all directions, you have immediately entered into the divine. This I call spiritual hedonism. Jesus is a spiritual hedonist.

Always watch your attitudes, because there is every possibility that the ascetic may be hidden within you. And always watch your attitudes because, from the awareness of those attitudes, clues will come to you which will open many doors.

For example, if somebody is sad, in pain, suffering, sympathy is very easy; you are full of sympathy. But if somebody is happy, in great pleasure, what happens?

You cannot sympathize with someone who is happy. You feel jealous: maybe the person has won the lottery, and you feel very jealous. Then his wife dies, he is robbed, the lottery is gone, and you are so full of sympathy. What is happening?

Why are you so sympathetic towards sadness?

You must get a certain hidden pleasure from it. You are violent. You are never sympathetic with somebody's happiness, and you are always sympathetic with anybody's unhappiness. You must get some hidden pleasure from it.

When somebody is unhappy, deep down you feel very good that it has happened to him -- "not to me". You have the upper hand. You can be sympathetic, it costs nothing.

But can you dance with somebody who is happy? Can you be really happy in somebody's happiness? Many times you have been sad in people's sadnesses, but can you be really happy when people are happy? Yes, you can pretend, but you know. You smile and you say, "Good. God has been merciful to you," but deep down you are jealous.

You can be in sympathy with happiness only if you yourself know how to be happy. You don't know -- you are miserable, a miserable lot. Whenever somebody is comparatively in more misery than you, you feel a little happy. He is in even darker depths. You feel better. At least you are a little happier than that man.

But whenever somebody is happy, you feel that you are at the depths; he is at the peak. You feel jealous. Jealousy will never go unless you become really happy.

Your sympathy is false, your sympathy is immoral, because, deep down, it has pleasure in it -- in somebody else's misery.

Remember these things: a religious person is one who is so happy that he will never be able to feel jealous. He is so happy, he lacks nothing. I cannot see how I can be jealous of anybody. Impossible. I am so happy that more is not possible.

And if more is not possible, then how can you be jealous?

People try not to be jealous. That is not possible. Be happy and you will be nonjealous. Be happy and you will be nonambitious; be happy and the ego will disappear. The ego can exist only in deep unhappiness and misery. It is a dweller in hell; it abides only in hell.

Go and watch your own life. When you say'God', what do you mean? Do you know any other God than the green trees and the red flowers... and the clouds floating in the sky... and the sunlight... and the moon in the night and the silent stars...? Do you know any other God? And the heart within, and the hearts without -- do you know any other God?

The whole is God, the only God. But the religious, the so-called religious, have created a God against life. They say, "Renounce life. Only then can you attain to God."

Jesus says, "Live life as a prayer." Love life as God's own. Love life! Move into life deeper and deeper, and at the deepest core, suddenly one day you will find God.

He is beating in every heart and He is flowering in every flower and He is hidden in every stone.

Religions have done a horrible thing, they have created a horrible mess. They have put everything upside down.

When Ho-Chi-Minh was alive, he used to say to every American visitor: "Tell me, is the Statue of Liberty still standing in America? Don't be shy." He used to say, "Please tell me, because I am suspicious. Even if it is standing, it must be standing on its head."

All the churches are standing on their heads, and all the so-called religions are upside down. God is not important.

If God is against life, God is just a concept, just an abstraction -- an empty word.

It has no flesh in it: it has no blood in it; it has no warmth in it. It is just a cold, abstract concept.

Pascal, one of the greatest thinkers of the West, had a dream once. In the dream he received a message. He woke up -- the dream was so deeply stirring. He got up immediately and wrote in his notebook the message he had received. He read the message in the morning. It was of tremendous import. He sewed it in his coat; for his whole life it was sewed in his coat. Many times, when he was walking on the road or talking to somebody, he would just look, then close his coat again. It was a very simple sentence: "I don't want the God of philosophers; I want the God of David, Abraham, Jacob" -- the God of life, not of philosophy; the God of the ordinary man, not of the extraordinary egoists.

The God of Jacob, Abraham, David -- the God of those who love life and live life

-- is the real God. A God who is against life is a counterfeit, any temple that is against life is a counterfeit. Beware of it. The temple that enshrines life itself as God is the only true temple.

Jesus replied rightly, and if you can see life as God, then you are always in the bridechamber. Then the bridegroom is always and always and always there. If you can see life as God, then the bridegroom will never leave you.

That God expressed himself through Jesus; that God expressed himself through Krishna. He danced through Krishna, he played on the flute through Krishna.

That God sometimes penetrates and comes to the marketplace, but you don't recognize him because you have a counterfeit God.

I have heard, once it happened that a man took his grandmother to a great art exhibition. There, for the first time, she saw a real painting, an authentic painting, of Vincent Van Gogh. She looked at the painting and laughed.

The man asked, "Why are you laughing? Do you like the painting? "

She said, "This is a copy. For almost twenty years I have had a calendar hanging on my wall, and this is just a copy of it."

The calendar was a copy of this painting -- this was the true, authentic painting --

but she laughed and said, "Why are these ordinary things being shown here?

This painting has been hanging in my room for twenty years."

If you are too influenced by the counterfeit, you will miss the real. If your eyes become too filled with the counterfeit, when the real encounters you, you may not even be able to recognize it.

God is life, and there is no other God. God is you, me and all, and there is no other God. Celebrate, rejoice that God is there in everything. Every pebble and every leaf is full of God, every drop of water is full of God. When you are thirsty, God is thirsty within you. And when you drink cold water, it is God flowing within your being; it is God who will quench your thirst. the thirst is God, the quenching is God, the water that quenches is God. All is God.

What to renounce? For what reason should you fast? Celebrate and dance! A real religion is celebration; a false religion is renunciation.

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #2

Chapter title:

1 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

Question 1

"ROSES ARE RED

VIOLETS ARE BLUISH

IF IT WASN'T FOR JESUS

WE'D ALL BE JEWISH."

PLEASE COMMENT.

WE STILL ARE. Jesus could not succeed. To be Jewish has nothing to do with any race; it is an attitude. To be Jewish means to be calculating, to be under the world of law and not love. To be Jewish means not to be poetic, but to be arithmetical. To be Jewish means not to be in awe of the wonder that surrounds you.

It is not just accidental that this whole century has been dominated by three Jews

-- Marx, Freud and Einstein -- because the world is materialistic. It has never been so materialistic as it is now. One Jew, Marx, invented the idea that life is nothing but economics. That's what I mean: the calculation. Even religion is economics, even poetry is economics. Marx says that even consciousness depends on economical situations; it is a by-product. Consciousness is a by-product of economic situations, the structure of the society. Marx is the perfect Jew. You cannot find a better specimen.

Then there is Freud who tried to invent the idea that the whole of life moves according to unconscious laws, instincts. There is no conscious event in human life; everything is dominated by the unconscious. He was a fatalist; fatalism is another idea that the world is run by dead rules.

To Marx, it is economics which rules everything. To Freud, it is unconscious instinct which rules everything. Then there is Einstein who tried to invent the idea that the whole of life is nothing but a combination of atoms. All three are calculators.

To be a Jew has nothing to do with the Jewish race. There are Jews who are Hindus, there are Jews who are Jains, there are Jews who are Buddhists. To be a Jew is an attitude.

Christ has not succeeded: Christians are Jews! Christ can succeed only when law is defeated by love, when matter is defeated by spirit, when language is defeated by silence, when prose is defeated by poetry. When life is not ruled by economic, instinctive, historical laws, but life is ruled by grace -- then Jesus succeeds.

So don't think that you are not Jews. Out of a hundred people, ninety-nine percent are Jews. Only sometimes one person is not Jewish. That person lives a life of love. He has no pattern to force his life into: he lives moment to moment; he flows from one moment to another moment with no idea of where he is going, with no goal. Then freedom happens.

Only in freedom is there consciousness, only in freedom is there God. God is total freedom. If you live moment to moment, not knowing where you are going, not knowing from where you are coming -- if the past is irrelevant and the future also, if only the present has any relevance, any reality -- you go beyond being Jewish.

Everybody is born a Jew. Rarely, very rarely, does somebody die not a Jew. That is a rare blessing. Just by calling yourselves Christians nothing is changed. Only labels change. The container changes, but the content remains the same.

Jesus has failed -- but not because his revolution was not worth succeeding. Jesus has failed because his revolution was too much for you, it was beyond you. Just to look that far away, that high, is impossible. Your eyes are fixed on the earth; you have completely forgotten the sky. And because you have forgotten the sky, you have forgotten that you have wings. Looking down, groping in the darkness of the earth, you have become creepers -- like a snake. You are no longer birds, birds of heaven.

Jesus failed because you are so deep in unconsciousness. And Jesus will go on failing; his very effort is such that success is almost impossible. As far as society is concerned, he may never succeed. Only with individuals is success possible.

Hence, all those who have known.... Ask the awakened: Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Zarathustra. You will always find their insistence is on the individual. They know well that at the most you can expect a few individuals to rise high. The greater part of humanity will do everything it can to hold onto its bondage, to remain secure in the imprisonment, to remain comfortable -- and live somehow, dragging life as a burden; and die somehow. The greater masses will not listen, will not understand, will not try to transform themselves. Religion is individual.

And religion has no name. Whenever somebody becomes religious, immediately he is no longer a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian. He's simply religious. It is an understanding; it is a different kind of knowing, a different way of seeing.

And when you see differently, you see a different reality. The reality depends on your eyes. If your eyes change, the reality changes.

If you are calculating you will never be able to know more than matter, because calculation has its limitation. If you are too arithmetical, you will never be able to know that which is beauty, that which is good, that which is true. You will never be able to know, because calculation cannot lead to that.

How can you know a beautiful flower by being arithmetical? You can count the petals, but you will miss the beauty. You can count the parts, but you will miss the whole. And you are certain to miss the beauty which surrounds the flower, which exists like a climate around the flower, but cannot be caught hold of by counting the petals. You have to forget counting, you have to forget the mind that counts.

Mind is Jewish. Once you go beyond mind you enter a different world: the world which cannot be accounted for, which cannot be explained; which is a mystery and which remains a mystery. The deeper you go in it, the greater the mystery; the more you know, the less you know. And there comes a moment -- when you really know it, you know only one thing: that you don't know.

Question 2

OH, OSHO, TODAY I WANTED TO DANCE AS YOU WERE SPEAKING. AND

YOU EVEN MENTIONED KAZANTZAKIS WHOM I LOVE. BUT I FEEL

INHIBITED TO DANCE, THOUGH I WAS SITTING IN THE BACK. THE

ASHRAM FEELS CONSERVATIVE TO ME, BUT PROBABLY I DIDN'T DANCE

BECAUSE OF MY OWN CONSERVATISM. IS THIS A QUESTION?

Not at all. It is a confession.

The ashram is not conservative. But you all are conservative, and you make the ashram. The ashram is not mine, it is yours. If it was mine it wouldn't be conservative, but I am alone and I cannot make the ashram. I am a stranger here.

It consists of you, and you are conservative so the ashram becomes conservative.

It cannot go beyond you because you are the constituent parts. It is the total of your conservatisms.

But who bothers about it? If you are really in a state of dance, who bothers? Then you can dance even on the road. Maybe the police will come and take you to prison, but that's okay. What can you do? If you could stop the dance then it was not worth doing. It must have been a mind game, it must have been just an idea, an idea in the mind that you would like to dance.

But you did not really want to dance. When dance happens, it is not an idea in the mind; not at all. It is a tremendous energy in the body. It has its own force.

You are possessed, you cannot do anything about it, You forget the ashram, you forget the society, you forget the world. You are helpless; you are possessed by dance. Then something from the beyond enters.

It must have been just an idea in the mind. That's why you stopped it. Ideas can be stopped, but when you are possessed you cannot do anything about it. It happens; it is not done. And when it happens, it is divine. When you do it, it is human and ordinary.

It is not a question. It is a confession.

And you say that you love Kazantzakis. That, too, may be just an idea in the mind. People love things which they lack in their life. Reading ZORBA THE

GREEK you may love Zorba, but if you met Zorba you might not like him. He is such a totally different, altogether different, being than you. Even Kazantzakis was never at ease with Zorba. They were friends, Zorba was a real person, he is not just a fictional character. Even Kazantzakis was very uneasy with him, because he was a totally different type of man. He was an absolute hedonist, absolutely in the moment. Nothing else but happiness mattered.

Of course it looks very selfish. Only sad people look unselfish, happy people always look selfish. And happy people are always condemned. Because the whole society is unhappy, how dare you be happy? When everybody is so unhappy you must be very selfish to be happy. Don't smile when everybody is weeping and crying. And don't laugh. Life is very miserable, and it looks unmannerly.

A man like Zorba will never be accepted in any home. You would not allow him to stay with you because his very presence would be a disturbance. He does not believe in any morality. He knows only one morality: of happiness.

And I say to you, that is the only morality there is. All else is rubbish. Only a happy person can be moral. Only a happy person is not interested in making other persons unhappy; only a happy person creates an atmosphere around him where others can also be happy. But those others will not like the idea of your being happy when they are miserable.

You may love Zorba, but you wouldn't allow Zorba to become a guest in your home. He is unreliable. Such happy persons are dangerous! With sad, dead people you can rely. They will not escape with your wife! Zorba can escape with her. He lives in the moment. He has no future, no past; no heaven, no hell. He is true to the real moment.

But you may have loved him. This happens. This has to be understood.

You always love the opposite, the opposite attracts you. But only in fantasy. In reality it will be troublesome. People who have never loved go on reading poetry about love. Sometimes they even try to write poetry about love. I have come across many poets. This has been my observation: they have missed love in life, so they go on writing poetry about it. That's a substitute. A very pale substitute, useless, but a little satisfying still. At least something is here. Plastic flowers... but they look like flowers. Love is dangerous. To write poetry about love has no danger in it.

Watch! If somebody is reciting a poem on love you may welcome him, but if the man really moves into love then the society will condemn him. You can read the story of Laila and Majanu, or Shiri and Farahad, and you will love it. But the people who were alive in the days of Majanu hated the man. Who loves a lover?

Try to be a lover and you will be condemned by the society. Write poetry about it and maybe the president will give you an award, you may get the Nobel Prize.

No lover ever gets a Nobel Prize -- people who write poetry about love get Nobel Prizes.

Man has become afraid of the real, but about the phony -- there is no danger in it.

Have you watched this? Sometimes you are sitting in your room or in your house, waiting or doing something, and somebody knocks at the door. You feel very bad: somebody has come to disturb you. You don't even want to answer, you would like to avoid it. You send the servant to the door, you don't go yourself. Or you send your child to tell the visitor that "Daddy is not at home."

But if somebody gives you a call on the phone then you are not disturbed. Then you immediately pick up the phone, because the reality is so far away.

Once it happened that a thief entered somebody's house and was caught --

caught because of an old habit. The phone was ringing. He could not resist, he had to answer it. A phone has to be answered! So he picked up the phone and he was caught. When he was asked, "Why did you bother?" he said, "I completely forgot that I was a thief in the house. When the phone rings, one has to answer."

One man was doing some research work on this phenomenon. He called twenty public phones and somebody or the other answered. Then he inquired of the man: "Why did you answer? It was not for you."

The man said, "I was just passing."

"Then why did you answer?"

He said, "But the phone was ringing!"

It has a certain power. When the phone rings you have to answer. It has a certain quality about it, something hypnotic. You are not concerned with the phone, it is certain that it is not ringing for you. It is a public phone; you pass by it while you are going to your office. It is certain that it is not ringing for you. Why do you answer it?

When the reality is far away, it is very easy to answer. When the reality comes nearer, it becomes more and more difficult. The greatest difficulties of life are concerned with the people who are very real to you and very near to you: your wife, your children, your husband. They are very close, they are real. There is the trouble.

You may have liked Zorba. Even Kazantzakis liked the man -- when he was not with him! But when they lived together it was really difficult. Sometimes he would come home drunk, and he would start dancing and would dance the whole night. And he was a powerful man -- very strong. When you live with such a man it will be very difficult, unless you yourself are such a man.

Don't create substitutes. That's a trick of the mind to deceive you. Love the real, don't love the phony. It is better to love than to write poetry about love. Love will transform you, love will give you insight. Love will give you insight into the human heart -- into your own and into the other's. Through love there will be many unhappy moments, anguish, but there will be peaks of joy also. And that's how one grows: through the night of anguish, then through the day of joy. One moves through the duality: it is a dialectical process.

Just reading poetry about love is so convenient, but don't think that you really love. Reading poetry about love is very easy because nothing is at stake.

Leo Tolstoy has written in his memoirs that when he was a small child his mother used to go to the theater. They were very rich people; they belonged to the royal family. In Moscow the snow would be falling -- a winter night -- and the mother and the child would be in the theater.

Tolstoy remembers that whenever there was a tragedy playing, his mother would weep and cry and sob, and tears would flow down. Tolstoy used to think:

"What deep compassion she has!" But by and by, later on, he became aware that she had no compassion at all. This was a substitute.

When they would come out of the theater the driver, sitting with the buggy and waiting for them, would be dead -- frozen to death. He could not leave the buggy, he had to be there -- any moment they might come. Frozen stiff, he would be dead. And Tolstoy's mother wouldn't pay even a little attention to him. The man would be thrown out, thrown away, another driver would be called and they would move. The mother would not weep or cry. Tolstoy says, "Then I became aware that her compassion was phony. It was a trick."

It is very easy to cry in the theater because nothing is involved. It is very easy to cry while looking at a movie. Everybody cries at the movies. But to cry in life will be difficult because then something is involved. If you cry for this man who is dead, your driver, then next time you will have to change your style of life. Then, if it is snowing too much, you will not go to the theater. Or you will make arrangements for the driver to sit somewhere, or you will make arrangements for him to have warmer clothing. But that will affect your style of life.

Who bothers for the real man? People cry when they read novels, when they see a movie, when they go to the theater. But in real life their eyes are simply vacant, empty -- no tears come.

Remember this: if you really love Zorba, you will become a Zorba; if you love Jesus, you will become Jesus. This is one of the fundamental laws of life: that if you love somebody, if you love something, by and by the object of your love transforms you and you become alike.

Have you observed? Sometimes you come across a couple, a wife and husband, who look alike. They talk in the same way, they walk in the same way, they smile in the same way. There is a deep affinity. What has happened? They are not brother and sister, so why are they so alike?

They love each other and they love deeply. When you love somebody you are vulnerable. The other changes you, and you go on changing the other. By the time life comes to an end, if wives and husbands really love each other, they will be almost alike. It has to be so. Love transforms.

But the theater and movies and novels and poetry -- they will not transform you much. In fact, they are ways to avoid the transformation. They are ways not to look at life, but to live in fantasy.

This is not a question; this is a confession. If you really wanted to dance, who could prevent you? And when that type of dance happens, who would WANT to prevent you? When you are possessed and it is not a mind thing....

Next time you are possessed, don't be worried about the ashram. Let them do whatsoever they want to do. It is not your business to be worried about it. Dance!

But remember, this should not be a mind thing. Otherwise you will simply create a disturbance. Be possessed. When you are possessed, the dance is holy.

Question 3

YOU SAID, "IF THERE WERE NO REFORMERS, THEN THE WORLD WOULD

BE A MORE NATURAL AND BEAUTIFUL PLACE. "THEN WHY IS YOUR

ASHRAM SO FULL OF REFORMERS?

To reform the reformers. The world is full of reformers -- what to do? They have to be reformed. I am training people who can reform the reformers.

The question is not signed. The person who has asked this must be afraid. You should not be afraid. You should sign your question so that I know exactly in whose mind this question is arising. Because I don't answer the question, I answer the questioner. The question is useless if you are so afraid that you cannot even sign it. If you don't want to reveal your identity, your whole heart is not in the question.

Why do you try to deceive? Even if the question is foolish you have to show your identity. Here you are not to hide yourself, here you are to expose yourself --

expose yourself to me so that I can change you. If you go on hiding then how can I change you? If you are foolish, it's okay. Be foolish, but let it be exposed. If you are in darkness, don't be afraid. Open the doors, otherwise from where will the light enter?

There is not going to be any argument or discussion here; I am not interested in any discussion or any argument. If I say something to you I do not say it as an argument, I do not say it for the sake of any argument. I am not trying to defend any dogma, any religion, any scripture. I have none: no dogma, no scripture, no religion to defend. I am trying to create a communion between you and me. But if you are hiding, you will miss.

Always reveal your identity. And don't try to polish your question because that, too, I feel. You write the question, you polish it, you try to write it in such a way that it looks very sophisticated, very cultured. The more you polish it, the further away it is from your reality. Let it be raw so that it is close to your heart.

If your question itself has gone very far away from your heart, then how can my answer be close to you? My answer will hit the question and you will be very far away from it. Let it be raw like a wound so I can hit it directly.

It will hurt. That's why you try to push it away *om you. But if you are so afraid of being hurt, then the surgery that I am trying to do will not be possible.

It is a surgery. You have a very ill mind, a cancerous growth in the mind. It has to be operated upon. It will hurt, certainly it will hurt, but that hurt is beneficial, because once it hurts and the cancerous growth is removed, you will be healthy and whole. So don't try to hide. Be true.

Remember, you can move to the other extreme: you can try to look very raw.

That won't help. Just be yourself.

Question 4

WHILE AT ONE PLACE CHRIST ASKS HIS DISCIPLES TO CARRY THEIR

CROSS EVERY DAY, AT ANOTHER HE BIDS THEM TO CELEBRATE HIS

PRESENCE AS THAT OF A BRIDEGROOM. WHY THIS CONTRADICTION?

There is none. It only appears to be a contradiction.

Every moment one has to remember death, because any moment it is possible.

That is the meaning of'to carry the cross every day' -- that you should not forget death. Once you forget death you relapse into unconsciousness. If you remember death you remain alert, awake.

But when we say'remember death', we don't mean that you should become oppressed by the idea, obsessed by the idea. We don't mean that you should create a deep fear about death and tremble continuously. That will be morbidity, that will be perversion.

In relationship to death, there are two types of perverted people. One: those who have completely forgotten, or try to forget, that death is. They try to avoid it.

They would not even like to talk about death. If you start talking with them about death they will think that you are uncivilized. unmannerly. They will avoid the very topic. They will not go to the cemetery. That's why cemeteries are built outside of the town. Nobody comes across them accidentally. Only when one has to come to the cemetery does one come. Otherwise it can be avoided.

Death is a taboo subject, more tabooed than sex. Nobody talks about it... and everybody knows it is coming. Humanity lives in a great deception. This is one morbidity.

Then there is another morbidity. You can move to the other extreme and you can become obsessed with death. You can constantly tremble and you can lie awake at night, because who knows? -- you may not get up in the morning. You cannot eat well, because how can you eat when death is coming? You cannot love, because how can you love anybody when everybody is going to die? That, too, is morbid; that, too, is perversion.

Jesus says, "Carry your cross every day." He says to remember death... and still let every moment be a celebration of life. Death is coming: that is all the more deep a reason to celebrate. Because who knows? -- this may be the last moment.

This moment of life is not to be destroyed by the fear of death, but AGAINST

death, in contrast to death, this moment has to be celebrated. It has to be celebrated even more deeply, because who knows? -- the next moment we may not be here. While the bridegroom is here, celebrate it.

The parable of the bridegroom can have a very inner meaning. Within you, your body is the body of death and your consciousness is life, the source of life. You are both. Your body is going to die: it belongs to the earth -- dust unto dust. It will have to go, it will return to its source.

You belong to the sky, you belong to God -- your consciousness is separate from your body. This is the meaning of Jesus on the cross. Everybody is on the cross because consciousness lives in the body and the body is death.

If you understand, you know that everybody is on the cross. But that should not become a pessimism. On the contrary, that should be all the more reason to celebrate. The bridegroom is within you and the body is the chamber of the bridegroom. Celebrate it!

Jesus is not contradictory; Jesus is absolutely simple. The contradiction is in life itself: that life exists through death and death exists through life. Life itself is the paradox. But that is the beauty also. All beauty exists in contrast and all of life exists as a tension between opposites. It is a bridge built on two banks: death and life.

Celebrate every moment because this may be the last moment. But while celebrating, don't forget that death is coming. Remember it.

Remembering should not become an obsession; remembrance should become a celebration. Carry the cross but carry it dancing; carry the cross but carry it singing; carry the cross but carry it with a deep celebration within. Then you live both: you live life, you live death. And you live both of them deeply and intensely. When you can live both intensely, they become one. Then you know that life and death are two aspects of the same thing, of the same energy. Life is expression, manifestation. Death is a returning.

Question 5

WOULD YOU DEFINE AND DISCUSS THE NATURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS?

HOW DOES CONSCIOUSNESS RELATE TO EGO? IS CONSCIOUSNESS THE

CREATIVE PRINCIPLE? (THAT IS, COULD YOU SAY EQUALLY, "IN THE

BEGINNING WAS CONSCIOUSNESS" INSTEAD OF "IN THE BEGINNING

WAS THE WORD OR THE LOGOS"?) HOW DOES CONSCIOUSNESS RELATE

TO GOD?

In the BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, or the logos. The same cannot be said about consciousness, because in the beginning unconsciousness was also there.

Consciousness is just a part of your reality, the reality of the within.

Unconsciousness is also there. So just consciousness was not there in the beginning. Unconsciousness was also there, as much as consciousness. Or you can say that something was there in the beginning in which both consciousness and unconsciousness were involved.

That is the meaning of'God'. God is not only consciousness: God is consciousness PLUS unconsciousness. God is both the dark night and the bright day, both summer and winter, both life and death. God is the beginning and the end, both.

God is beyond duality and the duality is intrinsic in him. He is both matter and mind; the manifest and the unmanifest.

Consciousness is just a part of the great oceanic unconsciousness. Consciousness is just on the surface; deeply hidden are layers and layers of unconsciousness.

One has to transcend both to know that which was in the beginning -- which is God.

"Would you define and discuss the nature of consciousness? How does consciousness relate to ego? " One part of you is conscious, one-tenth. Nine-tenths of you is unconscious. If the conscious part thinks itself to be the whole, it becomes the ego. Then it forgets about the unconscious; then the part imagines itself to be the whole. Then it is the ego.

If the conscious becomes aware of the unconscious also.... That is the whole effort of religion, that is the whole effort of meditation. If the conscious turns back, looks back, and becomes aware of the unconscious also -- the dark night within --

then the conscious knows that "I am conscious, I am unconscious also. My consciousness is just a wave on the ocean. The unconscious is vast." Then the ego disappears. Ego is the part, thinking itself to be the whole. Non-ego is the part, becoming aware of the whole. Then the ego disappears.

How to define the nature of consciousness? It has never been defined, it never will be defined. Who will define it? To define it you have to be away from it. To define anything you have to stand out of it, you need a distance. Perspective will not be possible if the distance is not there.

You are consciousness, you ARE unconsciousness. There is nobody who can stand outside and define it. You can know it, but you cannot define it. That's why all religion is mysterious, mystical, vague, cloudy -- because no term which is very basic to religion can be defined.

The subject cannot be made an object. I cannot put myself in front of me, so I cannot define. Neither has Buddha defined, nor Jesus. Definition as such is debarred by the very nature of the phenomenon.

Everything else can be defined because consciousness is the definer. Everything else is before consciousness. The consciousness can know -- it can go around, watch, observe, experiment, define, dissect -- but who will define consciousness?

You cannot go away from it: you ARE it. You can know it, but you cannot define it. Knowledge is not possible, only knowing.

I can help you to create a meditative state where you can know what it is, I can give you the method, but I cannot give you the definition. That's why religion always looks a little suspicious. "Why don't you define your terms? Just do as science does. Define! If you cannot define your terms that simply shows you don't know what you are talking about."

A great linguist and positivist philosopher, A.J. Aiyer, says that if we take two terms -- 'God' and'dog' -- the second is true and the first is false. Nobody can define'God', the word is meaningless.'God' cannot be defined.'Dog' can be defined -- 'dog' is more meaningful than'God'.

If you insist on definitions, then only things can be defined; persons cannot be defined. Laws can be defined, love cannot be defined. Gravitation can be defined, but grace -- grace cannot be defined. That which is without is definable; that which is within is elusive. One has to understand it... and move into meditation.

Buddha says, "Buddhas can only show you the way. YOU have to move. One day you come upon the goal. Nobody can give you the goal beforehand."

Not even a definition is possible. And it is good that a definition is not possible.

Otherwise you will settle for the definition, you will settle for the information, and you will never travel, you will never journey to the goal. And sometimes it happens that the very map you were thinking to use for the journey becomes the barrier. You become satisfied with the map itself.

I was reading a very rare autobiography by a man who belonged to a very primitive race in the Amazon. He was the son of the chief. His father was a great lover of the Amazon River, and he had moved to the very source of the river.

The boy, the son of the chief, went to America -- some missionaries helped him to go there to study. He studied there, graduated, and was on his way back home.

Thinking that "My father loves the Amazon so much. He would be very happy if I brought him a map, a detailed map, of the Amazon," he purchased the best map available and brought it to his father.

He thought that his father would be very happy, but the father looked at the map and was very sad. He threw the map away. The son was very hurt. "I have brought a gift, a present, and my father has thrown it away. Why?"

He asked his father. The father said, "This is absolutely bogus because I don't see the Amazon anywhere. How can the Amazon exist on paper? You are a fool, and you are deceiving me. I have moved on the Amazon, I know what it is. "Don't be deceived by this map. Only lines are there."

Definitions of God are maps: lines on paper. Definitions of consciousness are maps. And sometimes people get too obsessed with maps.

The best way to be lost is to have a map. You cannot fail: if you have a really detailed map, you will get lost in it. And the mind will think, "Now I know everything." The living Amazon is beautiful, dangerous, terrible. At any moment life may be at stake. With a map -- conveniently sitting in your easy chair -- you can study it, and you can think that you know all about the Amazon.

In the world outside you, maps have a little relevance, but in the inside world they are absolutely irrelevant. If you have any maps, throw them away. All the religions have given you maps. Throw them away! Enough of the maps. Now let there be a real journey!

When you will attain to consciousness, you will laugh at the stupidity of the mapmakers. Then you will know that they have never been to the innermost source of life. They have been copying other mapmakers. For centuries they have been copying, and they go on adding their own fantasy and their own ideas.

They go on changing and decorating. All maps are false, because the innermost remains indefinable.

But there is no need to define. Consciousness is there within you. Return, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Why be bothered by the definition? When the real thing is so close, why not taste it?

When the river is flowing, you ask me about the definition of water. I know you are thirsty, and I know that a definition cannot quench the thirst. But you say,

"Unless water is defined, how can I drink the water? I can't see the point."

If people had waited for the definition -- only then would they quench their thirst

-- humanity would have disappeared long ago, because water is still indefinable.

Don't be befooled by what scientists say. They may say that water is H20 -- -two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen -- but when a scientist is thirsty, if you give him oxygen and hydrogen to drink, he will say, "What are you doing? Have you gone mad? Water quenches thirst, not two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen."

Mulla Nasruddin's son came back from the university. He was studying logic there and he had become a great philosopher -- as everybody is prone to become in youth. Youth is foolish, and to become a philosopher is easy.

The son was very interested in showing off his knowledge. Fresh from the university, everybody is. They were sitting at the dining table and the mother brought in two apples. Seeing an opportunity, Mulla Nasruddin's son said,

"Mummy, I will show you something which I have learned. What do you see on this plate?"

The mother said, "Two apples."

He said, "No, logic says something else. There are three apples, not two."

The poor mother looked again, but there were two apples. She said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Look. Watch. This apple is one, this apple is two. How many are one plus two?"

The mother said, "Of course, one plus two is three." The son was very happy.

Mulla Nasruddin was watching. He said, "Good, very good. I will eat the first and your mother will eat the second. You eat the third!"

You cannot eat logic, you cannot eat science, you cannot eat philosophy. Religion is concerned with how to quench your thirst, religion is concerned with your hunger -- not definitions, maps.

Question 6

YOU SAID, "WE ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING HERE," BUT THOSE OF US

WHO LIVE AND WORK HERE IN THE ASHRAM ARE CONTINUOUSLY

OCCUPIED WITH'DOING'. IN FACT THE MORE WE DO, THE MORE WE

ARE PRAISED; AND ANYONE WHO DOES NOT, OR DOES LESS, IS

SCOLDED. PLEASE EXPLAIN.

When I said, "We are not doing anything here," I meant I am not doing anything here. Because I love you. When you love, the doing is not a doing at all.

If you love me, then you will also not think that you are doing very much. In fact you will not think that you are doing anything. Love is not a duty. In love, work becomes worship.

You work in the ashram. The whole quality of the work, and your attitude, will be different if you love me. If you don't love me, of course it is work. Then your mind will hanker for praise. Then in many ways you will try to avoid the work --

as many of you are doing! You go on finding ways and means: how to avoid it, how not to do it.

I never avoid, because I love you. The more I can do. the better I feel. But you avoid -- as if work is something that you are dragging: a burden. If work is a burden, only then it looks like work.

If work comes out of love, it becomes worship. Then there is no need for any other meditation. It is enough. The work itself becomes the meditation. You are so deeply in it that the mind stops.

Energy needs work otherwise the energy will become restlessness. Energy needs expression, energy needs to be creative. Otherwise the same energy, coiled up within you, will become diseased, an illness. You have energy. The energy has to be creative. There is no happiness except in creativity.

But creativity is work, with love. A painter paints. He is not working; he is loving. He is completely absorbed in it -- the doer is not there. A singer sings or a dancer dances. If the dancer is just a professional then it is work. Then he will be tired. But if a dancer really loves dancing, then the more he moves into it, the more energy he gets to move further on.

It is said about Nijinsky -- one of the greatest dancers that has ever walked on earth -- that even scientists were surprised: they couldn't believe his jumping.

When he would dance he would take jumps that were so big they were against gravitation. They were not possible: one cannot jump that much. And the way he would jump -- so gracefully! And when he would be coming down he would come like a dove -- so slowly, as if gravitation was not functioning. Many times Nijinsky was asked, "What is the secret?"

He said, "I don't know. Except that I love dancing." And once he said, "When you love dancing, then you don't function under the law of gravitation. You function under the law of grace."

That is the difference between Moses and Jesus. Moses brings the law of gravitation into the world -- all those Ten Commandments are laws, just like gravitation -- and Jesus brings the law of grace, which is not a law at all.

When you love deeply, you function in a totally different dimension. If you loved me, this question would not have arisen. You would not think of it as work.

Watch a mother -- how much she does for the child. But if you ask her, she will say, "I have not been doing anything. In fact many more things were needed to be done and I have not done them. I always feel that my child has not received as much care as was needed." Then go to the secretary of a club or an institute and ask him. He will give you a long list of everything that he has been doing there.

Even things which he has not done will be included in the list! He is a doer; a mother is a lover.

I was reading the biography of a Hindu sannyasin who lived in South Africa. He came to the Himalayas on a pilgrimage. He was going uphill and it was hot. He was perspiring and gasping for breath; the journey was hard.

Just in front of him was a girl, not more than ten years of age, carrying a very heavy, fat child on her shoulders. She was perspiring. The sannyasin spoke to the girl and said, "My daughter, the child seems to be very heavy."

The girl looked at the sannyasin and said, "Swamiji, he is not a burden. He is my brother. He is not a burden at all, he has no weight -- he is my brother." When you love, weight disappears; when you love, you function in a different world.

Question 7

IS THIS IT? AM I EXPERIENCING YOU? HAS THE FINAL JOURNEY BEGUN?

This is from Dharmateerth Bodhisattva. Yes....

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #3

Chapter title: Your Names Are Written In Heaven.

2 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

LUKE 10

1 AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD APPOINTED OTHER SEVENTY ALSO, AND SENT THEM TWO AND TWO BEFORE HIS FACE INTO EVERY CITY

AND PLACE, WHITHER HE HIMSELF WOULD COME.

2 THEREFORE SAID HE UNTO THEM, THE HARVEST TRULY IS GREAT, BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW: PRAY YE THEREFORE THE LORD OF THE

HARVEST, THAT HE WOULD SEND FORTH LABORERS INTO HIS

HARVEST.

3 GO YOUR WAYS: BEHOLD, I SEND YOU FORTH AS LAMBS AMONG

WOLVES.

4 CARRY NEITHER PURSE, NOR SCRIP, NOR SHOES: AND SALUTE NO

MAN BY THE WAY.

5 AND INTO WHATSOEVER HOUSE YE ENTER, FIRST SAY, PEACE BE TO

THIS HOUSE.

6 AND IF THE SON OF PEACE BE THERE, YOUR PEACE SHALL REST UPON

IT: IF NOT, IT SHALL TURN TO YOU AGAIN.

16 HE THAT HEARETH YOU HEARETH ME; AND HE THAT DESPISETH

YOU DESPISETH ME; AND HE THAT DESPISETH ME DESPISETH HIM THAT

SENT ME.

17 AND THE SEVENTY RETURNED AGAIN WITH JOY, SAYING, LORD, EVEN THE DEVILS ARE SUBJECT UNTO US THROUGH THY NAME.

18 AND HE SAID UNTO THEM...

20 NOTWITHSTANDING IN THIS REJOICE NOT, THAT THE SPIRITS ARE

SUBJECT UNTO YOU; BUT RATHER REJOICE, BECAUSE YOUR NAMES ARE

WRITTEN IN HEAVEN.

21 IN THAT HOUR JESUS REJOICED IN SPIRIT, AND SAID, I THANK THEE, O FATHER, LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, THAT THOU HAST HID

THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND PRUDENT, AND HAST REVEALED

THEM UNTO BABES: EVEN SO, FATHER; FOR SO IT SEEMED GOOD IN THY

SIGHT.

22 ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED TO ME OF MY FATHER: AND NO MAN

KNOWETH WHO THE SON IS, BUT THE FATHER; AND WHO THE FATHER

IS, BUT THE SON, AND HE TO WHOM THE SON WILL REVEAL HIM.

ONCE UPON A TIME, two explorers came to a clearing in the jungle. It was a beautiful place -- thousands and thousands of flowers were blossoming. One of the explorers said, "There must be a gardener tending these flowers, looking after this plot." He was a believer.

The other disagreed and said, "I don't see any gardener here. I don't even see anybody's footprints. And there seems to be no point in making such a beautiful garden in such a dense and deep forest. Who will come to look? Who will enjoy these flowers? Nobody ever passes by. No, there is no gardener. The whole garden is just an accident."

They argued. The second was a nonbeliever, a skeptic. But there was no way to decide who was right, so they pitched their tent and waited for seven days. No gardener ever appeared.

The skeptic was very happy. He said, "Look, there is no gardener. It has been proven now."

But the believer said, "The gardener is invisible. He comes, but we cannot see him; he comes, but we cannot hear his footsteps. This garden is impossible without a gardener."

So they set a barbed wire fence up around the garden. They electrified the wires, they brought bloodhounds, and they patrolled day and night. But nobody ever entered. No shriek was ever heard from the shock of the electricity flowing in the wires. The bloodhounds never gave a cry.

After seven days, the skeptic said. "Finished! Now it is proven beyond doubt that there is no gardener -- visible or invisible."

But the believer waS not convinced. He said, "The gardener is not only invisible, he is intangible. He has no scent. He is eternally elusive: you cannot catch him by electrified wires, you cannot catch him by bloodhounds, and our eyes cannot see him. But he is -- for certain he is."

Now the skeptical friend, in great despair, said, "What happened to your original statement? What is the difference between an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive God, or gardener, and one which is just imaginary, or one which does not exist at all? What is the difference between the two?"

I was reading this parable. I liked it, because this is how the argument has been going on, on earth. Believers go on talking about an invisible God, skeptical minds go on disproving any possibility of it, and they both seem to be right. Or, they both are wrong. The argument never comes to a conclusion.

From the very beginning, the whole line of inquiry has taken the wrong route.

Once you separate the gardener from the garden -- God from the creation -- the problem arises. Then it can never be settled.

The garden is enough proof of the gardener. But the gardener is not separate. He does not come to tend the garden: He is in the garden; He IS the garden. He does not look after the flowers: He is IN the flowers; He IS the flowers. Not that HE is invisible -- He is visible, but visible as flowers.

If you have an idea of God, you will never find Him. The very idea will become the barrier. Only those who have no idea of God come upon Him, or allow God to come upon themselves. If you have a certain idea, the very idea is going to be the wall, the brick wall, between you and the truth.

The believer was not wrong, but he took a wrong line of argument: he divided the gardener from the garden. The gardener cannot be proved because the gardener doesn't exist. A gardener separate from the garden is nonexistential.

That's why the skeptical friend could argue. And his argument is valid -- valid not against God or the gardener; valid against the believer. The believer has taken the wrong argument.

To me, God is herenow. All that you see is God. God is not something beyond; God is something within. Or, if you like paradoxes, you can call God the within beyond or the beyond within. But God is intrinsic, God is the innermost core of existence.

Unless you start in the right direction, you will go on missing. Never believe in a God who is separate from His creatures and the creation. He is not, He cannot be.

He is one with it: He is in it, He is it. Once this is understood, you start flowing; your whole life becomes a prayer.

That is the basic message of Jesus. That's why he goes on saying that "God is my father." It is a way of saying what I am saying to you.

Between the father and the son, or between the mother and the child, there is a continuity. The father goes on living in the son; the mother continues in the child.

The son is nothing but an extension of the existence of the father -- an extended hand: as if the old body has become incapable of existing and is going to disappear, and the father has created a new body to live within.

When Jesus says, "God is my father," he simply means that "I am continuous with Him; there has never been a separation. He is flowing in me: in my every cell He is flowing. Nowhere has there been a discontinuity." That is the whole meaning of it, but he uses the word'father' because he is talking to very simple, unsophisticated people. He is talking to real people, not to plastic people; he is not talking in a university. He is talking to real people -- people who are alive.

He uses the word'father'. And it is beautiful in a way, because unless religion becomes personal, it remains a philosophy. When religion becomes personal, it becomes life. Religion is something to be lived, not something to brood about. It is something that should become a milieu around you; it is something that should become a continuous breathing, continuous beating of the heart.

Religion is a way of life, a way of being. It has nothing to do with thinking. When Jesus says, "God is father," he means this existence is not alien, this existence is a home. You can rest in it, you can rely on it; you need not be afraid.

This is one of the most significant things to be understood, because modern man is so much afraid. Never before has that been so. Never before in the history of humankind has man been as afraid as he is now.

Every day I go on talking to people about their problems, and almost always, deeply hidden somewhere, is fear. Whenever they come deeper to their being, other problems finally disappear. Only one problem remains: fear. Why is modern man so afraid? It has never been so before.

Something has happened, something that is like a catastrophe. Once God is not there in your consciousness, you will be afraid -- because without God, existence becomes alien. Then you are not at home, then it is as if everybody is against you.

If God is not there, then existence becomes inimical. Not that it really becomes inimical, but it looks that way to you. It appears to you that it is inimical. Life looks just like a competition, a struggle to survive. Great jealousy surrounds you.

Love disappears if there is no God; at-homeness disappears if there is no God.

'God' is just a symbolic word. It simply denotes an attitude: an attitude that "I am at home." If God is the father, then the whole existence is your home. You can be at ease, there is nothing to fear -- everything is in the hands of your father.

Religion is personal. The whole effort is to look at life as if it is a family. The tree, howsoever far away, is related to you; it is a relative. And the rock also... and the oceans also... and the moon and the stars also. Everything is related to everything else; you exist in a related family.

You are a part of it -- as if existence is trying to reach somewhere through you, reach to a higher peak of consciousness. Through you, God is trying to reach to a new existence, to a new peak of ecstasy, to a new peak of awareness, to a new way. It is as if God is trying to achieve a breakthrough, through you. Suddenly, you are accepted.

Not only accepted: God is trying to do something through you. History is being created through you, existence is being created through you. You are significant; you have a tremendous significance. Without you, God will lack something.

Just think: without the son, the father will no longer be a father. Without the son, not only will the father lack something -- he will no longer be a father. He will be barren, a desert. The son is a fulfillment.

YOU are the fulfillment. But once you forget God, or you drop the idea of God --

as modern man has done -- suddenly you are alien. Suddenly you are never at ease. Wherever you move, you move like a stranger -- amongst enemies, not amongst friends.

One friend of mine stayed with me. He was a vice-chancellor in a university -- a very atheistic man. I always liked trees, and I always liked trees to be so close to the house that they almost touch it and cover it. People don't like that because there is a danger that the tree may destroy the wall, may destroy the foundation.

But to me it is worth it. Even if the building disappears, it is beautiful.

In the morning the friend looked around and he said, "What have you done? You are creating a jungle. Don't you know that trees are enemies of man? "

He is right in a way, because trees have been constantly fighting with man, and man has been constantly fighting with trees. All the cities that you know were once forests. Man has destroyed the trees, cleared the ground, claimed it. But now if you don't do anything about the trees for even twenty years, they will spread and take over the land again. They will destroy the buildings and the roads and everything.

So he said, "What are you doing? Trees are enemies."

For the first time, I heard the idea. It is historically true, but existentially false; scientifically true, but religiously false.

Scientifically, all of life is a struggle. Everybody else is fighting you, and you are fighting everybody else.'Survival of the fittest' -- it is murderous competition, c.ut-throat competition. Nobody is friendly. Even those who you think are friends are not friends, cannot be -- scientifically.

A new child is born. Now he is a new competitor in the world; one more enemy will be there. He will breathe, and he will destroy much oxygen which you could have used. Now he will be using it. He will need space, he will need food; he will need water and this and that. Now there is one more enemy.

Whenever a man dies, one enemy is dead. You can celebrate the fact. Now that much oxygen is free, that much food will be available -- one competitor is gone.

It is scientifically true. Ask Malthus.

Yes, it is true. But religiously... religiously the world is a unity. Existence is a family; we exist together. Life is togetherness, and that togetherness is God. If you cannot feel that togetherness, you will feel alien and you will always be afraid. To a religious man, fearlessness happens spontaneously. To a nonreligious man, fear is the only way to be. 'God, the father' can be translated. It means: existence is one; it is a togetherness. It is a harmony, not a conflict.

We are members of each other. Whenever somebody dies, something in me also dies. Whenever a new child is born, something is born into me also. Whenever a new child is there, life becomes more alive through him -- life smiles. Whenever somebody dies, there are tears.

It has to be so, because I come out of life; I go back into life. Life was trying to do something through me.

Everybody is a messenger; everybody is a messiah; everybody has a destiny to fulfill. And until you fulfill that destiny, you will never feel fulfilled. You can have much money, but fulfillment will not come through it. You can have much sex; fulfillment will not come through it. You can have much power; fulfillment will not come through it.

Fulfillment comes only when you have fulfilled a certain destiny that you were carrying, that was coded within you, that was deep in your blueprint. Unless you have become that for which you were made -- unless you have attained to being -

- you will never be fulfilled.

Fulfillment is peace, fulfillment is bliss, fulfillment is contentment. And only a fulfilled heart can pray, because only a fulfilled heart can be grateful and can feel the grace descending: the spirit of God, like a dove.

Now the sutras:

AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD APPOINTED OTHER SEVENTY ALSO, AND SENT THEM TWO AND TWO BEFORE HIS FACE INTO EVERY CITY

AND PLACE, WHITHER HE HIMSELF WOULD COME.

The gospels are telegraphic because they were meant to be remembered, memorized. Not even a single word is used which is superfluous; they are very economic. So whatsoever is said has to be understood with deep trust and reverence, because that is the only way to understand things like these. A deep reverence is a basic climate and a basic requirement. Only in that deep reverence something enters in you and hits the heart, stirs your soul.

If you just listen with a skeptical mind -- closed, doubting -- you will miss, because these are not principles, these are poetries. They indicate, and the indication is very subtle. They intimate... and only in deep intimacy can these things be understood.

AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD APPOINTED OTHER SEVENTY ALSO, AND SENT THEM TWO AND TWO BEFORE HIS FACE INTO EVERY CITY

AND PLACE, WHITHER HE HIMSELF WOULD COME.

Why TWO AND TWO? Why not three? Why not one? Why TWO AND TWO?

Jesus shows a deep understanding of the human mind. More than two is a crowd, and a crowd is never united. It falls apart with more than two. There is every possibility they will start arguing within themselves, there is every possibility there will be a conflict of leadership.

More than two is a crowd. Less than two, one is lonely. In loneliness, doubts arise. In loneliness one loses confidence, in loneliness one becomes afraid, suspicious. Jesus says two and two. It should not be a crowd, and one should not be alone. "Go two together."

Two persons -- intimate, close to each other -- bring out in each other whatsoever is great. That's why love is so meaningful, because only in love you touch the optimum. Alone, you exist at the minimum. In love, you touch the maximum.

Have you watched it? Have you seen a single person when he falls in love? Have you observed the change that comes to him? Suddenly he walks in a different way. He walks less and dances more. His movement suddenly takes on a new grace. The eyes sparkle, the face becomes more beautiful. Something deep inside relaxes and rejoices. He is more vibrant, radiant. You can see that the energy is flowing. Just a few days before, he was low, shrunken. Now, in love, he has opened, bloomed. He is overflowing. What has happened?

The other has given a deep call. That call has touched his soul, it has awakened him. His energies, which were lying dormant, have become dynamic. Now he has meaning in his life, a purpose. Now his life is no longer like a desert. It starts blooming. It gains tremendously. And the beauty is this: that the other is not losing; the other is also gaining the same. Two persons in love both gain tremendously and nobody loses.,Both come to their peaks because each stirs the depth of the other and each brings out the most beautiful in the other. Each provokes the divine in the other.

Lovers become gods to each other. And when somebody believes that you are a god, you have to fulfill it. What can you do? When somebody believes that you are a god, unknowingly you start fulfilling it. Unknowingly you attain to your destiny -- you become a god.

If nobody has ever believed in you, you will miss much. If nobody has ever loved you, you will remain barren. If nobody has ever loved you so deeply that at least for him you have become divine, then the divine in you will go on Lying dormant; it will not become dynamic.

When Jesus says TWO AND TWO, he says: "Go not alone" -- alone you will be at your minimum -- "and not more than two" -- because otherwise conflict will arise. Go two and two: in deep friendship, in deep love, in deep trust, so that you can help each other and provoke each other to the greatest height it is possible to obtain. Potentially, whatsoever the one can attain he will attain through the other. "Go two and two".

THEREFORE SAID HE UNTO THEM, THE HARVEST TRULY IS GREAT...

He speaks in the language of the farmers, the fishers, the carpenters.

THE HARVEST TRULY IS GREAT, BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW: PRAY YE

THEREFORE THE LORD OF THE HARVEST, THAT HE WOULD SEND

FORTH LABORERS INTO HIS HARVEST.

It has always been so. When a Buddha is there, it is so. When a Zarathustra is there, it is so. When a Mahavir is there, it is so. The harvest is truly great, but there are not enough laborers. The treasure is vast, but there are not enough sharers. A tremendous energy is released, but nobody is open to receive it. The flower has opened but nobody passes by to be filled by its scent. The fragrance is wasted. It could have been used and people would have attained to their highest peak. But the fragrance goes on spreading into the emptiness of the sky. Yes: THE HARVEST TRULY IS GREAT, BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW.

PRAY YE THEREFORE, JESUS SAYS TO HIS DISCIPLES,PRAY TO THE LORD

OF THE HARVEST, THAT HE WOULD SEND FORTH LABORERS INTO HIS

HARVEST.

The crop is ready to be cut, and if it is not cut in time it will be wasted. There is a time to sow and there is a time to reap. Jesus is ready, the crop is ready -- there is nobody to share it.

Why does it happen? Why are people so blind? Why do people want to remain in their unhappiness and when the door opens to be happy they don't look at it?

They have certain investments in their unhappiness; they have become attuned to their unhappiness. This is my experience also. You come to me and you say to me that you would like to be happy. But at that very moment I can see that somewhere within you a part, a greater part of you, is against it. That part doesn't want to be happy because that part has invested much in being unhappy.

Now the whole investment will be gone.

You want to be happy, but you don't want to lose the investment that you have made in unhappiness. In many, many lives you have tried to use unhappiness for certain ends. For example, people talk too much about their miseries. They exaggerate. Why do they exaggerate about their miseries? What is the point in telling everybody about your misery?

A certain happiness is attained through this. Whenever you talk about your misery, people show sympathy. This is a way to gain sympathy. Of course you must have missed love, otherwise who bothers about sympathy? Sympathy is a poor substitute for love; it is a counterfeit. If you have ever been loved by somebody, and if you have ever loved somebody, you will not ask for sympathy, no. Sympathy is an insult; love is totally different. But sympathy looks like love.

It is a counterfeit. It appears like love; it is not.

When somebody loves you, you are the end; when somebody sympathizes with you, you are not the end. When somebody loves you, you are the emperor; when somebody sympathizes with you, you are the beggar. Sympathy is given to you because you are in such a misery; love is given to you because you are so happy.

When you are happy, people love you. When you are unhappy, people sympathize with you.

But sympathy gives a false appearance of love, and you have invested much in sympathy. Now how can you drop your unhappiness? You cannot. Whenever somebody like Jesus comes and opens the doors of paradise, you don't listen to him. You say, "There must be some deception. Paradise? -- it is not possible. We are not fools; we have also been struggling. Paradise is not possible. Only unhappiness is possible."

In the last years of his life, Sigmund Freud became very pessimistic. For fifty years he had been working with the human mind. Nobody had worked so hard, so persistently, so scientifically. He had watched thousands and thousands of human minds: their functioning, their mechanism. In the last years he started feeling that man, as he is, cannot be happy. "There seems to be no possibility that man can be happy. Something seems to be basically wrong."

Nothing is basically wrong. It is only because man has invested too much in unhappiness.

A child is born. Whenever the child is happy, nobody cares about him. But when he is ill, everybody sympathizes, cares, loves. The child learns the trick. If you want sympathy, if you want attention, be ill. Don't be happy because when you are happy you create jealousy in others. Jealousy means enmity. When you are unhappy you create compassion in others. Compassion means friendship.

That's why you cannot respect Jesus. He is so happy; he is a bridegroom. He is always feasting, never fasting.

You go to saints who are fasting, unhappy, because they don't create jealousy in you. They are so unhappy that they create sympathy in you. And when you sympathize with them you make their unhappiness even more valuable than it was before.

This is a vicious circle. In India it is happening all over. Go and see your saints: the more unhappy they are -- the more they fast, the more they commit suicide, the more they poison their being and body, the more pale and dying they are, the more they look unhealthy -- the more they are respected, the more a crowd gathers around them. People say they are great ascetics. Their unhappiness creates sympathy.

How can Jesus get that sympathy? It is impossible. When you go to see him, he is sitting at the dining table with his friends. He enjoys eating and drinking. He must have enjoyed singing and dancing -- I cannot conceive otherwise. He is a man who enjoys eating and makes eating a sacrament. He says that it is holy, that it is a way of prayer. It is God who is hungry within you, and when God is satisfied, you have prayed.

Not only that. Jesus even drinks and allows his disciples to drink because he says, "Life should be lived in its abundance." Not only needs should be fulfilled because if only needs are fulfilled life is just okay; it is not ecstatic. The wine is simply a symbol for ecstasy: that life should not only be lived for the fulfillment of needs. It should be overflowing, it should be a dance. Wine is not a need, nobody needs it. It is a celebration. Bread is a need, everybody needs it, but wine is not a need, it is a celebration.

If you see Jesus, he will not create sympathy in you. Rather, he will create jealousy. That's why he was crucified. He created so much jealousy around him.

Everybody became somehow inimical to him: "This is not the way to be a saint."

You always like pessimists, dead people, people who are almost in the grave.

Why? And there is little wonder that you also become like them by and by --

because whomsoever you respect, you will become like.

Respect people who are happy, don't respect people who live in misery and create their misery. They are ill, morbid. Don't bow down to anybody who is in any way masochistic, creating his own suffering. In that way you will be helping him also.

Just think: if nobody goes to your masochistic saints, do you think they will remain there? They will escape from their temples. They will come to the marketplace, they will say, "What is the point? We go on fasting and nobody comes. No procession is arranged, nobody respects us -- what is the point? We go on fasting, dying, and nobody respects us." Then the whole point is lost.

It will be a great help to them also; it will be real compassion towards them. If you don't come to them, they will come back to life. But you go on respecting them, you go on fulfilling their egos. Now unhappiness becomes a great investment.

That's also how you are working in your own life. People cling to their miseries because that is all they have. That's why it happens: THE HARVEST TRULY IS

GREAT, BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW.

Only people who are really understanding, and who are really aware that life exists to be celebrated, will be able to enter from the door Jesus has opened for them. The others will not come. Not only will they not come -- they will deny that the door exists. If they accept that the door exists, then it will be a constant uneasiness in their hearts, a restlessness, that the door exists and they have not gone there. No, they will simply deny that the door exists. Not only that, they will say that this Jesus is a deceiver, he is not a true prophet. "True prophets are always miserable, they live in unhappiness" -- and you can understand their language, because you live in unhappiness also.

The language of happiness is absolutely foreign to you; you cannot understand it. You can understand pain and suffering, but ecstasy? "The man must have gone mad!" -- ecstasy looks mad. Pain you can understand, but pleasure? That you cannot understand.

This is the trouble. I also say to you: THE HARVEST TRULY IS GREAT, BUT

THE LABORERS ARE FEW: PRAY YE THEREFORE THE LORD OF THE

HARVEST, THAT HE WOULD SEND FORTH LABORERS INTO HIS

HARVEST.

GO YOUR WAYS: BEHOLD I SEND YOU FORTH AS LAMBS AMONG THE

WOLVES.

It is very dangerous to send ecstatic people amongst miserable people -- very dangerous. If you dance on the street, sooner or later you will find yourself in the police station. If you are miserable and crying and weeping, even the constable will sympathize with you; but if you are laughing and dancing, something seems to have gone wrong. It doesn't happen. Ecstasy? -- "The man is mad! " You cannot be allowed to move in the world. You are dangerous.

Look at the absurdity. A happy person seems dangerous, an unhappy person seems to be okay. The unhappy fits with you; the happy does not fit.

GO YOUR WAYS: BEHOLD, I SEND YOU FORTH AS LAMBS AMONG THE

WOLVES. Jesus knows that he is sending his disciples into a dangerous world.

First, people will not understand what they say. People will misunderstand. But even in their misunderstanding there will be a doubt lurking in the minds of the people: "These people may be right."

That creates more danger. Whenever you feel that something may be right, an uneasiness arises. Either you have to cope with it or destroy it -- so the proof is destroyed.

Jesus was crucified just so that the proof was destroyed that a man can be so happy and so ecstatic. A man can really be a son of God -- the proof has to be destroyed. You go on asking about proofs: what Proof is there of God? And whenever there is proof, you destroy it.

Jesus was the proof. If you could have understood him, you could have understood that God exists. There is no other way to know about God: you can know the tree only by the fruits. Jesus is the fruit, the crop, the harvest. He was a living proof. But he had to be destroyed because if God exists. how can you go on living in your miserable holes? You will have to come out into the light.

It is better to deny God than to come out of your darkness, because you have lived in that darkness so long. You are attuned to it. Yes, it is miserable, but it is your own misery. Yes, it is miserable, but you have lived with it so long that a sort of attachment has arisen. You are attached to it.

Doctors fear that whenever somebody has lived with an illness for long, he clings to it and deep down does not wish to be well again. Then no medicine can help because he is struggling against the medicine. He WANTS the illness to continue.

I know one person: I have watched him; he has been in bed for almost seven years. He was a politician until he fell ill.

I have been watching him all these years. He fell ill because he was defeated in one election. His illness was psychological: he could not accept the fact that he could be defeated. His ego was shattered; he fell ill. The body was simply reflecting something deep that was happening in the ego.

Then it continued. One illness would disappear; another would come. Another would go; then something else would happen. It continued. After one year, everybody in the family became aware that he was not going to be well again.

Lying down on his bed, for the first time he became relaxed. You can understand the whole misery of a politician's life: the conflict, the tension, the anxiety. For one year he rested. Now, somewhere in the unconscious, a deep desire arose that this is better. Now he knows that if he gets up again he will again be the same way. That is the only way he knows how to be in the world; he cannot do anything other than be a politician. That is his profession, the only business he knows. Now he is afraid.

Seven years have passed and things are going well. When he was working and was in the world, his son was not at all worried about the family affairs. Now the son is doing well. His wife has taken many things in her own hands. Even his old father has started to go to the shop again. Everything is going well, perfectly well

-- better than ever. So why bother to get up? Now illness is an excuse.

I went to see him and I talked to him. I told him the truth. He became very angry.

He said, "What do you mean? Do you mean that I am prolonging my illness? I hoped that at least you would understand. You don't understand me. Why should I be Lying down here? "

But at the very same time I knew he had understood. I said, "You be true -- there is nobody here. I will keep it between us and I will not tell anybody."

He relaxed and he said, "Maybe. I will think about it."

The next day I went again and he confessed. He said, "You are right. I thought about it again and again; the whole night I couldn't sleep. It seems to be the case.

But I don't want to get well. Life has never been so good. And now, to go back into politics after seven years will be almost impossible."

Once you are out of politics even for seven days, you are finished. Seven years --

people have completely forgotten about him. Just seven days is enough. A politician has to be constantly in the eyes of the public. He has to go on doing something or other, some mischief or other -- some strike or hunger strike or anything. Whatsoever it is, he has to be in the public eyes, in the newspapers. If he is not in the newspapers for even seven days, he is finished. The public's memory is very short -- who bothers to remember? People will not even recognize now that once he was a great leader. And now there are other great leaders who have replaced him. They won't allow him to re-enter.

So he said, "It is going to be very difficult. It was difficult in the very beginning; now it is going to be almost impossible. And everything is going good."

This is the situation. Then even unhappiness becomes an attachment, even illness becomes an attachment. Illness can become an excuse for many things.

Remember this, otherwise you will never be able to be happy. Don't play games with yourself.

Jesus says, I SEND YOU FORTH AS LAMBS AMONG THE WOLVES. Why?

Why lambs among the wolves? Because he knows that truth is going to be attacked; he knows that love is going to be attacked; he knows that ecstasy is going to be attacked.

CARRY NEITHER PURSE, NOR SCRIP, NOR SHOES; AND SALUTE NO MAN

BY THE WAY.

Why does Jesus say this? CARRY NEITHER PURSE, NOR SCRIP, NOR SHOES; AND SALUTE NO MAN BY THE WAY. He is saying that now you are so happy and ecstatic, you are so blissful, you have tasted something of the divine -- that is enough to create trouble for you. "Now don't carry a purse -- go like beggars, so that at least they can sympathize with you. You are emperors, but go like beggars. Don't even wear shoes, so you look like a beggar. Only the poorest beggar has no shoes. Go barefoot so that they can at least sympathize with you."

That seems to be the reason why Buddha called his sannyasins BHIKKUS, beggars; why Mahavir insisted that you move like beggars. "Because you have the quality of an emperor, that is enough to create trouble for you. Now if your appearance is also like an emperor, you will be immediately attacked. At least let your appearance be that of a beggar. There is no guarantee that you will be saved because you will still be like lambs among wolves. Sooner or later they are going to find that you are an emperor. Your appearance is just a protection." This Jesus says to protect his disciples.

CARRY NEITHER PURSE, NOR SCRIP, NOR SHOES. Why does he say NOR

SCRIP? He means: "Don't go as knowers."

These are the two riches: the riches of the outside and the riches of the inside.

Don't go as rich people and don't go as rich in knowledge. Let them think that you don't know anything. They will sympathize. Don't carry scriptures with you, otherwise you will be unnecessarily attacked. They will argue and you will be dragged into arguments.

That, too, has to be remembered. Don't carry scriptures, don't carry knowledge.

Go like innocent children. That will be a protection. Talk out of your experience, but don't bring the scriptures in. People are very clever about scriptures. Once you bring the scriptures in, you will be defeated. They can argue better than you can.

This is something to be remembered. A man of experience always hesitates because he knows that whatsoever he has experienced cannot be expressed. He hesitates. But a man who has not known anything except the scripture is absolutely certain. Only fools are certain. Wise people are always hesitant.

So don't go with scriptures, otherwise you will be caught in the net of the pundits, the rabbis, and you will be unnecessarily distracted. Then the whole point will be lost.

Jesus says: I SEND YOU LIKE LAMBS -- pure beings with no corruption; not corrupted by knowledge, not corrupted by outward things. "I send you like virgins -- uncorrupted. It is dangerous, but that is the only way you can carry my message," he says.

... AND SALUTE NO MAN BY THE WAY. Why does he say this: SALUTE NO

MAN BY THE WAY? He's saying that on the way there are a thousand and one distractions -- "so keep the goal where I am sending you. Just keep in mind the goal where I'm sending you. Even an ordinary salute to a person, a stranger on the road, can become a distraction."

I will tell you one story. It happened in Tibet. A lama who, was working in a faraway valley wrote a letter to the chief monastery, to his master, to send one more lama: "We need him here."

The chief of the monastery called all his disciples, read the letter, and then said, "I would like to send five of you."

One lama asked, "But only one has been asked for. Why five? "

The old chief said, "You will know later. I will send five and then, too, it is not certain that one will reach because the way is long, and distractions a thousand and one."

They laughed. They said, "The old man has gone out of his mind. Why send five when one is needed?" But the old man was insistent, so five started on the journey.

The next morning when they were passing a village, a messenger came running to them from the chief of the village. "Our priest has died and we need a priest.

The salary is good." The village looked rich, prosperous, so one of the five said, "I would like to stay because that, too, is Buddha's work. Why go to the valley?

There, too, I am going to do the same work. You four will be enough -- only one is needed -- so I will stay here." One dropped.

The next day they were passing by the outskirts of a town. The king of the town passed by them on his horse. He looked at them. One young monk was very beautiful and healthy and radiant. The king said, "Wait. I am looking for a young man because my daughter is ready to be married. I have been watching and looking, but you seem to be exactly right. Are you ready? I have only one daughter. My whole kingdom will be yours."

Of course, the young man said to his friends: "Goodbye!" He left; the second disappeared.

Now the other three became aware that the old man was not mad. The way was really long and distractions a thousand and one!

Now the three decided, "But we will not do such a thing" -- although deep down they were feeling jealous that one man had become a king and another had become a great priest. And who knows about what is going to happen in that valley?

The third night they lost the way. From far away on a hilltop only one lamp was seen, only one house. Somehow they reached there. There was only one young woman there and she said, "It is good that you have come. You are a godsend because my mother and my father were to come back this evening and they have not come back. I was very afraid to be alone in this house so far away from the town. It is good that you are here. You are a godsend, you are sent by Buddha himself. Please stay with me and don't leave me until my parents come."

The next morning they had to leave. But one of them -- who, deep down, had fallen in love with the woman -- said, "I cannot go until her parents are back.

That would not be compassion." Compassion was not the thing, PASSION was the thing! But when there is passion, people talk about compassion.

The other two said, "This is not good. We have to reach and you are dropping out. And we had decided that now we would not do that."

The man said, "I have been taught my whole life to be compassionate. The woman is alone, the parents have not returned. To leave won't be good, it won't be virtuous. Buddha will never forgive me. You can go" -- in fact, he wanted them to go -- "but I will stay here." The third dropped.

In a village the next morning they were surrounded by a crowd, because the village was atheistic; they didn't believe in Buddha. The two were challenged:

"You have to prove that what Buddha says is true." They had a great atheistic scholar in the village and the scholar challenged them.

One of the two accepted the challenge. The second said, "What are you doing?

Who knows how long it will go on?"

He said, "Even if my whole life is wasted.... I am devoted to Buddha, and this man has challenged Buddha and his philosophy." It was not a challenge to Buddha; it was a challenge to his ego. "I cannot leave this village, I will convert this village. You can go. In fact, only one is needed."

And that's how it happened. The man remained there to argue and only one reached!

Jesus says: AND SALUTE NO MAN BY THE WAY. This is just a way of saying,

"Please, remember the goal."

AND INTO WHATSOEVER HOUSE YE ENTER, FIRST SAY, PEACE BE TO

THIS HOUSE.

This is a mantra, a blessing. It changes the whole atmosphere. Jesus says, "Before you enter a house, say: PEACE BE TO THIS HOUSE. It is not only a saying. Feel it, be it. Be peace. Bring peace to the house because only in that peaceful milieu can my message be delivered. Create a spiritual vibration of peace, spread the feeling of peace."

And if you are really feeling it, it will spread. You try it. When somebody comes to see you or meet you, just settle within yourself. Become silent. When the man enters, deep down feel peace for him. Feel: "Peace be to this man." Don't just say it, feel it. Suddenly you will see a change in the man, as if something unknown has entered into his being. He will be totally different.

Try it. It is experimental. It is absolutely scientific -- no need to believe in it. There is a thought transference continuously happening.

Sometimes you destroy yourself by your own thoughts. Somebody comes and you become suspicious: this man seems to be dangerous. You are giving this thought to the man. Now he MAY be dangerous! If he is dangerous you will say,

"I was right! " but in fact YOU created the vibe; in fact YOU started it.

A husband coming home starts thinking in his mind that his wife is going to be nasty and he starts planning how to answer her, how to find an excuse for why he is late. He may be creating doubts in the wife's mind. Women are very intuitive. You may not be able to transfer a thought to a man, but with a woman it is almost impossible NOT to transfer it. They are more intuitive. They are less in their heads and more in their hearts. Now the wife is getting ready to be angry. And the husband is preparing her. Then when she becomes nasty he thinks, "I was right." The next time he will be more afraid, and his fear will create the circumstance.

Try just the opposite. While coming back home, think that your wife is going to be perfectly beautiful. Feel it! Just saying it, and feeling the opposite, won't help.

Feel it, and one day, suddenly, you will see that it works.

We are joined together by our hearts; we exist as parts of one feeling heart. That heart is God. He beats in our hearts: the beat is His. He lives: the life is His.

If you can create a great, strong thought or feeling around you, the ripples go and spread. You live in the world you create and you get the world you deserve.

AND INTO WHATSOEVER HOUSE YOU ENTER, FIRST SAY, PEACE BE TO

THIS HOUSE.

AND IF THE SON OF PEACE BE THERE, YOUR PEACE SHALL REST UPON

IT: IF NOT, IT SHALL TURN TO YOU AGAIN.

If whatsoever you give is accepted, it will be good, because in that deep peace you will be welcomed. If it is not accepted, if the people (or the person) are hard, very closed, not open at all, and your message, your deep love and peace, is rejected, don't be worried. That peace will fall upon you, you will be showered by it. It will still be good, nothing will be lost.

HE THAT HEARETH YOU, HEARETH ME; AND HE THAT DESPISETH YOU

DESPISETH ME; AND HE THAT DESPISETH ME DESPISETH HIM THAT

SENT ME.

Jesus says, "If people love you" -- his disciples -- "they love me, because I am coming to them through you. And if they love me, they love He who has sent me because He has come through me. If they hate you, they hate me. If they hate me, they hate the source of all life."

Remember: whatsoever you do, finally you do it to God. Meanwhile you may be doing it to somebody else, but finally it turns out that you have done it to God. If you hate a man, ultimately you hate God; if you love, ultimately you love God.

All others are just mediums. Whatsoever you do to them is not to them. It is finally to the source, to the very seed.

AND THE SEVENTY RETURNED AGAIN WITH JOY, SAYING, LORD, EVEN

THE DEVILS ARE SUBJECT UNTO US THROUGH THY NAME.

AND HE SAID UNTO THEM...

NOTWITHSTANDING IN THIS REJOICE NOT, THAT THE SPIRITS ARE

SUBJECT UNTO YOU; BUT RATHER REJOICE, BECAUSE YOUR NAMES ARE

WRITTEN IN HEAVEN.

The disciples are disciples; they are not yet awakened. They have come in deep contact with an awakened man. That awakened man has become infectious to them, they are impressed deeply, the impact has gone to their roots, but they are still disciples; they are not awakened themselves.

When they came back were very happy. They had completely forgotten God in their happiness. Wherever they went, people listened to them with tremendous attention; wherever they went, they were received with love. They could not believe what had happened. They came back rejoicing and saying, LORD, EVEN

THE DEVILS ARE SUBJECT UNTO US THROUGH THY NAME.

Their reach is only up to Jesus. They have not yet seen God through him. Jesus is not yet transparent to them; they cannot see God. At the most they see God reflected, at the most they feel something of the unknown, but it has not become a settled, centered feeling in them.

They have completely forgotten God. They say: EVEN THE DEVILS ARE

SUBJECT UNTO US. Now their egos are inflated. But they remember one thing: THROUGH THY NAME. "It is your name that has done miracles. Even devils are in our power."

Jesus immediately says: "NOTWITHSTANDING IN THIS REJOICE NOT. Don't rejoice that the spirits are subject unto you. If you really want to rejoice, rejoice about something else that you are not aware of: BUT RATHER REJOICE, BECAUSE YOUR NAMES ARE WRITTEN IN HEAVEN. Rather rejoice that God has heard your prayers. Don't think about yourself and don't think about my name. Rather feel happy that God has heard you and helped you. YOUR

NAMES ARE WRITTEN IN HEAVEN."

IN THAT HOUR JESUS REJOICED IN SPIRIT, AND SAID, I THANK THEE, O

FATHER...

The disciples were aware that they had done miracles. They had become very important. They remember Jesus. But Jesus REJOICED IN SPIRIT, AND SAID, I THANK THEE, O FATHER -- he remembers God. Jesus' name is of no use. If his name is so powerful it is because of God. He is just a medium, a flute on which God has decided, in his mercy, to play a tune or sing a song.

I THANK THEE, O FATHER, LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, THAT THOU

HAST HID THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND PRUDENT, AND HAST

REVEALED THEM UNTO BABES:

These disciples are just babes. They are neither wise nor prudent. They don't know the scriptures, they don't know the tradition. They are not priests or scholars, they are just babes: simple, innocent.... THAT THOU HAST HID

THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND PRUDENT, AND HAST REVEALED

THEM UNTO BABES: EVEN SO, FATHER; FOR SO IT SEEMED GOOD IN THY

SIGHT.

ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED TO ME OF MY FATHER; AND NO MAN

KNOWETH WHO THE SON IS, BUT THE FATHER; AND WHO THE FATHER

IS, BUT THE SON, AND HE TO WHOM THE SON WILL REVEAL HIM.

ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED TO ME OF MY FATHER.... He simply says that

"I am no more than a medium. If you pay respect to me, don't pay respect to me.

At the most you can pay the respect THROUGH me, but the respect should go to God." ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED TO ME OF MY FATHER....

... AND NO MAN KNOWETH WHO THE SON IS, because once you know who the son is, you have already known the father. If you recognize Jesus, you have recognized God; if you crucify Jesus, you have crucified God -- because whatsoever you do with Jesus, you do with God.

Not only Jesus was crucified on Golgotha; God was crucified that day. You could not believe in God who was expressing himself through Jesus; you could not recognize the son. You could not see from where the song was coming, you destroyed the flute. But in destroying the flute, the song also disappeared.

ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED TO ME OF MY FATHER; AND NO MAN

KNOWETH WHO THE SON IS, BUT THE FATHER -- "Only he knows me,"

Jesus says -- AND WHO THE FATHER IS, BUT THE SON -- "and only I know who he is," because that revelation is possible only when you become part of God and God becomes part of you. When you are so deeply related to the whole existence that you are no longer separate, then you know who God is.

... AND WHO THE FATHER IS, BUT THE SON, AND HE TO WHOM THE SON

WILL REVEAL HIM. And for ordinary humanity there is no other way than to look through the son, to accept the revelation, to see God through him who has become one with Him. Once you see it, you have already become a son. Then others can see through you, and the thing can go on spreading.

Every person who has recognized Jesus has become a Jesus immediately. Every person who has recognized Buddha has become a Buddha immediately. In your recognition you have attained. Then anybody who recognizes you is linked, is bridged, with God. One man can transform the whole world: it becomes a chain of openings.

If you recognize me, you have become me. Then somebody recognizes you; he has become you. And this can go on and on. Just a small pebble thrown in the sea, and ripples arise and go on spreading.

Jesus is just the pebble. You can become Jesus if you recognize him. That is the real meaning of being a Christian: that you recognize Jesus as the son of God and you say, "My eyes are not yet able to look at the sun, the light is too much. I look at the lamp... but I recognize that the light is the same."

To look at God directly will be blinding. To look at Jesus will be beautiful -- he's not blinding. But through him you can recognize, and by and by your eyes can become attuned. Once you have become attuned to Jesus, you can look directly at God. By and by, Jesus will disappear -- will become transparent, transparent, and will be gone -- and only God will be left there. That's why Jesus goes on saying again and again that "I and my father are one."

Recognition is one of the turning points in life. The search for a master is the search for a man in whom you can recognize that God is, in whom you can recognize that now there is no need for any proof, in whom you can recognize --

not intellectually, but existentially -- that yes, God is. That man becomes your master. he becomes the door. That's why jesus goes on saying: "I am the door, I am the opening through whom you can come."

Otherwise you can go on arguing. Your arguments are all futile. Whether you prove that God is, or you prove that God is not, does not matter much. They are all intellectual gymnastics; nothing is proven. No atheist ever becomes capable of converting a theist and no theist is ever capable of converting an atheist. For centuries the argument has continued. Nobody seems to win, the whole thing seems to be futile and meaningless. You cannot convince anybody about anything unless he opens his eyes and recognizes something which is of the beyond.

Once it happened: Mulla Nasruddin woke up one morning and started crying and weeping. His wife was worried. She said, "What has happened? Have you had a nightmare?"

He said, "No, it is not a nightmare. I have died. I am dead."

Now, how to convince him that he is not dead? The wife tried, the neighbors tried, but there was no way to prove it to him. He insisted that he was dead.

He was taken to a psychoanalyst. The psychoanalyst watched him, talked to him

-- a very rational man, argumentative, and he argues that he is dead! And says,

"Give me some proof that I am alive"!

The psychoanalyst thought it over and said, "Yes" -- an idea struck him. He said,

"Come with me."

He took Nasruddin to the hospital, to the post-mortem department, and told the situation to the doctors. The dead bodies were cut and the psychoanalyst said,

"Look, is there any blood flowing?"

No blood was flowing. The psychoanalyst had the idea that if Nasruddin could be convinced that dead bodies don't bleed then something might be possible. At least if he could prove that dead bodies don't bleed and live bodies bleed....

For seven days he took Mulla to see the autopsies. He was intellectually convinced. "Are you convinced? " the psychoanalyst asked.

Mulla Nasruddin said, "Now there is no need to continue. I am convinced that dead bodies don't bleed. But that makes no change in my attitude."

The psychoanalyst said, "Wait." He took Mulla's hand, took a sharp knife and made a small cut on the finger. Blood started flowing. The psychoanalyst was thinking that this would be absolute proof that he was not dead.

But Mulla Nasruddin looked at the blood and said, "My God! So dead men bleed after all!"

No proof can be a proof. If you are convinced that God is not, all proofs will prove that He is not. If you are convinced He is, then all proofs will prove that He is. No conviction can be changed, so whether you believe in God or you don't believe in God, both are bogus, both are headtrips. Unless you recognize.... It is not a question of argument. Unless you open your eyes and see something which suddenly fills you, your total being, and a certainty arises in you which is not intellectual but existential....

To seek a master is to seek somebody in whom you can recognize, somebody who becomes the proof -- in whose being you can taste something of the divine; in whose eyes you can glimpse and see something of the divine; in whose love you can feel something being showered; in whose song you can feel, you can know beyond doubt, that the infinite is flowing. The master is nothing but a reed, a flute -- an empty flute, an emptiness. God flows through him. If you can recognize it, already you yourself have become one with it. Now others can recognize it in you and it can spread.

One man, attaining to God, can become a total transformation of the whole humanity. It has not happened because people insist on being miserable, they insist on being blind, they insist on being howsoever they are. They protect their hell, they defend their misery: they are armored against God.

That is why it has not happened. Otherwise one Buddha would have been enough; one Jesus would have been enough. But thousands of Buddhas and Jesuses and Mahavirs have been, and you go on living in your darkness. It is simply unbelievable, but it has been so.

Don't wait for the whole humanity. Nobody can say when the whole humanity will listen. But if you can listen, if you can recognize. you also become a door.

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #4

Chapter title: Are You The Greatest Master?

3 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

Question 1

I RECOIL FROM THE WHOLE IDEA OF THE CRUCIFIXION. THE MURDER

OF JESUS AT THIRTY-THREE, EVEN MORE THAN THE MURDER OF JOHN

THE BAPTIST OR THE MURDER OF SOCRATES, SEEMS SUPREMELY

UNNECESSARY. COULD NOT HE, THE PRINCE OF COMPASSION, HAVE

MANAGED TO SYMPATHIZE WITH THE HIGH PRIESTS, SEEING THE

IMPOSSIBILITY OF THEIR SITUATION? AFTER ALL, THEY WERE BISHOPS, NOT THE GESTAPO; BENIGHTED NO DOUBT, BUT NOT MURDEROUS. OR

WORSE STILL, DID HE DELIBERATELY PUSH THEN TO THE ULTIMATE

IMPOSSIBILITY -- WHERE THEY WERE BOUND TO KILL HIM AND SET

THEM UP AS THE VILLAINS?

ONE VERY FOUNDATIONAL THING will have to be understood, and that is that the people you call bad are never so bad as the people you call good. The bad people are bad, but they have no excuse about being bad. They know they are bad, and they have nowhere to hide themselves. But the people who are thought to be good -- respectable, honored, respected, religious -- they are the real dangerous people because their badness can hide in their goodness. They can murder and will not feel that they are murderous. They can kill and can go on feeling that they are doing that killing for the good of those who are being killed.

The ordinarily bad, the criminal, is exposed. He knows that he is not good And that is the possibility of transformation: he can understand and can co me out of it. But the so-called good hides under his personality. He may not be able to understand w hat he is doing, for what reasons he is doing it. He can always manage to rationalize.

That's how it happened. And not only in the case of Jesus; it has been happening always. The priests w ho were murderous never thought that they were doing anything bad. They thought that they were saving their religion; they thought that they were saving the m orality. They thought: "This m an is dangerous. He is corrupting the youth."

That was the charge against Jesus -- that he was corrupting people, he was destroying the old morality, he was creating a chaos. And that was the charge against Socrates, and that is the charge against me. It has always been so.

The priests: whether they are Hindus or Greeks or Jews, it makes no difference.

The priests are the protectors of the old. The temple is of the past; they are the protectors, the guardians of tradition. Of course Jesus looked dangerous to them.

He could destroy the whole structure.

It is not that they were deceiving themselves. They may have thought, without a single suspicion, that they were perfectly right. "This man is dangerous. To destroy this man is to save the society." And of course whenever there is such an alternative -- that you can save the whole society by killing one man -- the murder is worth it. The priests killed him because of their goodness, because of their virtue, because of their m orality. They killed him in the name of God; they killed him very innocently.

This situation has been arising again and again in history. There seems to be no possibility to change it. The only possibility is that Jesus should be so moderate that he doesn't hurt anybody. But then he is useless. He could have managed --

you ask me rightly. He could have managed, he could have been very moderate and liberal. He could have talked like a politician who talks much but never says anything, who says many things but is always vague. He never clearly asserts anything; you can never pinpoint what he has said.

The crime of Jesus was that he was clear, certain: that whatsoever he was saying, he was not saying like a politician. He was opening his heart. He was not diplomatic. If he had diluted his teaching there would have been no trouble. But then there would have been no Christ also. And that would have been a greater murder. Then the Christ would have committed suicide.

As I see it, as things are, this is the only way it could have been. Jesus had to be as hard as he was, had to be as rebellious as he was. He could not dilute his message and he could not compromise.

The priests would have been happy if he himself had become a rabbi, a priest.

Then there would have been no trouble. If he had just kept himself within the imprisonment of the tradition, if he had not tried to open new dimensions to humanity, there would have been no trouble. Then they would have worshipped him, loved him, sanctified him as a saint. They would have remembered him.

But he tried to open up new dimensions. That was moving in danger. But that danger was worth taking. If Jesus was crucified it is nothing to be worried about.

That was the only way. He pushed humanity to a higher level of being and consciousness.

It is not that he tried to manage in any way to be murdered. There was no need.

Priests are enough; you need not provoke them. They will be provoked automatically, they move in a mechanical way. There was no need to provoke them -- the very being of Jesus was enough.

You recoil from the whole idea of crucifixion because you cannot understand. It is not an ordinary murder. It is meaningful, it is significant. It has done much: it has created something new that never existed before. Through that crucifixion, Jesus changed almost half of humanity, forced them to move on a different path than they had ever moved on.

When you think about crucifixion you become afraid, as if you are being crucified. You don't know that Jesus cannot be crucified. Only his body' not him.

When you think about crucifixion, you think of yourself being completely crucified and killed. You do not yet understand about life and death.

That is the meaning of the story of the resurrection: that after the third day Jesus was again alive, resurrected. It simply means that you can crucify the body of a Jesus, but you can never crucify his spirit. After three days he will again be moving on the earth. He is deathless. Crucifixion became a situation in which he could assert his deathlessness.

So it is perfectly okay as it is. It is nothing to be worried about. And this will continue to be so. The only possibility there is for a Jesus to exist and not be crucified is if people have become so indifferent to religion that they don't bother. And that is not a good possibility, that would be very sad. Jesus comes and walks on the earth -- and nobody is hurt, and no priest bothers about him?

Rather, people enjoy it; they gather around him. Jesus looks amusing, he looks like a fool or a buffoon -- he seems to be talking nonsense.

That's what the modern philosophers say: that to talk about God is to talk nonsense. It makes no sense, it is meaningless. You are using words which are only containers, and there is no content in them. God, moksha, nirvana -- what do you mean?

If Jesus comes someday and nobody is bothered, that will be the most sad possibility. Jesus hurts because people are concerned. Jesus hurts because religion is meaningful; Jesus provokes antagonism because, with religion, life is at stake. The most unfortunate moment in human history will be when Jesus comes and nobody bothers to stone him, nobody bothers to crucify him. He moves around the earth and people laugh, they are amused. He looks like a buffoon.

No, the crucifixion of Jesus simply means that religion is so meaningful that when a man like Jesus comes he creates a rift between humanity. The whole humanity is divided between those who love him and those who hate him. He is significant.

Many times I think about it -- that it has never happened in India. Buddha was not crucified, Mahavir was not crucified, Krishna was not crucified. Why? This country is too sophisticated about religion and when you become too sophisticated, you become indifferent.

This country could tolerate Buddha, Mahavir, Krishna. Ordinarily people think that it is because this country is so religious. That's not my opinion. This country is so sophisticated that people have become indifferent. Nobody bothered about what Buddha was saying. In fact everybody already knew what he was saying.

Everybody knows all that can be known -- who bothers?

It is like Jesus walking in Cambridge or Oxford University, where philosophers think that God is meaningless. If Jesus comes to Oxford and stands on the crossroads and cries, "I and my Father are one," those philosophers will gather together and they will laugh.

"About whom are you talking? Which father? Where is he? What do you mean by'father'? Then who is your mother? " They will ask irrelevant questions and they will laugh. Jesus will simply feel embarrassed.

This is my understanding: that the Jews of Jesus' days were very simple people, not sophisticated. Religion was very meaningful, not just a philosophy. Their whole life was at stake. And this man was destroying it: this man was uprooting all that they had been protecting for centuries; this man was trying to create a revolution, a chaos. They had deep love for the tradition, for the values that they had always cherished. They were not indifferent, they COULD not be indifferent.

Either they had to follow Jesus or they had to kill him. There was no other alternative.

India is more philosophical -- too much in the head. Jews were not that much in the head.

To me, the crucifixion of Jesus simply shows one thing: that they took Jesus seriously. Buddha was never taken that seriously. We could tolerate him. "lt's okay, let him do his thing. Nothing much is going to happen out of it. Why kill him unnecessarily? By killing him, there may even be more danger because the death will create a stir."

Jesus, if he was in India, would have become one of the AVATARS. But nothing much. Nothing much -- we would have included him in the tradition.

Even Buddha has been included. Buddha denied all that is basic to Hinduism, but Hindus are very sophisticated people. They said, "Yes, this too is a message from God." He was contradicting all that is meaningful to Hindus, but they were not bothered. They said, "He is also an incarnation of God."

Hindus have written a story about Buddha that shows how sophisticated minds function. When Buddha died.... Of course, he was a very important man, one of the most important ever born in India, one of the most influential. How to cope with him when he has denied Hinduism? Hindus have created a story about it.

They say that God created the world, heaven and hell. Centuries and centuries passed. People would die and immediately they would go to heaven. Nobody would go to hell because nobody was a sinner. So the people who were managing hell -- the devil and his disciples -- went to God and said, "Why have you created hell? Nobody ever comes. Our whole existence is futile. We go on sitting and sitting and waiting, and nobody knocks at the door. Either cancel it --

or send people!"

God said. "Wait. Soon I am going to a womb to be born as Gautam Buddha. I will destroy people's minds, I will poison their minds, and then they will be coming to hell."

That's why Buddha was born. An incarnation of God: to spoil people's minds.

And since then, hell is overflowing. This is a sophisticated way to tackle with a man like Buddha.

Jews were simple. They simply could not tolerate this man. They killed him. That means they paid great respect to him. They realized the significance of the man, the dangerousness of the man. Either he lives or their tradition lives. Both cannot live together.

Try to meditate on the crucifixion of Jesus and you will not be so much puzzled, confused. And you will not recoil so much from it.

Question 2

ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE MADE ME ALIVE TOWARDS CHRIST, BUDDHA, MAHAVIR, KRISHNA, LAO TZU AND ALL THOSE KNOWN AS

ENLIGHTENED ONES, AND IT IS REALLY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO

CONCEIVE OF YOU AS SEPARATE, YET WHEN SOMEONE STARTS

TALKING HIGH OF ANYONE, IT AUTOMATICALLY COMES OUT OF MY

MOUTH, THAT THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A GREATER MASTER THAN

SHREE RAJNEESH AND MAYBE THERE WILL BE NONE IN THE FUTURE

ALSO. IS THIS DUE TO MY LOVE TOWARDS YOU, DUE TO MY EGO, OR IS

IT REALITY? OR AM I BIASED? PLEASE ENLIGHTEN.

The disciples of jesus thought in the same way. The disciples of Buddha also thought in the same way. It is part of love, not of reality.

It is part of love. You fall in love with a woman and you think, "Never has there been such a woman before; never shall there be such a woman again." What do you mean? Is it reality? In a sense it is; it is the reality for you. It is not an objective reality, it is a subjective reality. This is your feeling. And feelings are as real as stones; they exist.

But this is not a comparison. You are not saying that there has really never been such a beautiful woman before. How can you know? Millions and millions of women have been on the earth -- how can you know, how can you compare?

You don't even know all the women that are on the earth right now. Who knows? -- there may be somebody who is more beautiful than your beloved.

But that is irrelevant, that is not the point. You are not making a comparative statement; it is not that you have studied all the statistics. You are simply making a statement of love. It has nothing to do with any other woman, it is not comparative. In the moment of love a truth arises, a subjective truth. It is your feeling. For you this is the woman and all other women have become irrelevant.

The same happens when you love a master. It happens even more extremely because the love is even deeper. You love a woman physically; at the most, psychologically. A master you love spiritually. You touch the deepest core, he touches the deepest core in you. In that ecstasy, a subjective truth arises.

This is not new. This is nothing new with you, this has always been happening.

Ask Jesus' disciples and they say, "He is he only begotten son of God." They cannot conceive that Jesus can be compared in any way with anybody else. He is incomparable, unique -- the only begotten son. It is impossible for them to conceive that there is another son of God. Ask the followers of Buddha and they say, "He has attained. And only he has attained the unattainable. Never before was it attained." Ask the followers of Mahavir. They say, "He is the only one: all-knowing, omniscient. There is nobody else."

What is happening? A simple phenomenon of subjective love. It is impossible for the lover to conceive that there can be anybody else. In a moment of love you are in such deep ecstasy, so intoxicated. Love is an intoxicant. In that intoxication, whatsoever you say is poetic, is not scientific.

And there is no contradiction in it. That's why when I speak on Jesus I forget all about Buddha, Mahavir, Krishna. They grow pale. They disappear, they fade.

Then, out of the whole history, Jesus arises as the only one. That is the only way to understand him. You have to be deeply in love.

When I talk about Buddha I forget about Jesus, because even to remember jesus will be a disturbance. When I talk about Lao Tzu I forget about everybody else.

He is enough, more than enough. He himself is such a vast sky that you can go on and on and on, and there is no end to it. They all are vast skies.

But the standpoint of the disciple is the standpoint of a lover. He is making a poetic statement. It is not reality and yet it is reality. It is not reality in the objective sense of the word. It is reality as a subjective feeling.

But I would like you to get out of it. I would like you to attain to a greater love which is less like intoxication and more like awareness.

There are two stages with a master. First is falling in love with him. Absolutely necessary; without it you will never be in contact with him. But that is only the beginning, that should not become the end. In that state of ecstasy you will be poetic. Be poetic! Don't be worried, there is nothing to worry about it. Declare your love. Go on the housetops and declare your love because the more you declare it, the more it grows.

But that is just the beginning. That is necessary to come close to the master. But come still closer and there comes a moment when the two flames of the disciple and master become one. There is a jump, a leap, and the two flames become one.

Then you become aware. Then you will laugh at your own statements.

Now you know that enlightened people are not different at all. Only names differ. Buddha is a name, Jesus is a name, Krishna is a name, but the enlightenment that has happened to them is the same. The closer you come to Buddha, the closer you will come to Christ also.

It is as if you are moving from the periphery of a circle towards the center. On the periphery one point is Buddha, another point is Jesus, another point is Ramakrishna. The closer you come to the center, the more those lines are not so separate, so different, so distant. Ramakrishna approaches Christ, Christ approaches Buddha, Buddha approaches Krishna. They are coming closer. As you move more and more to the center, they are meeting and merging into each other. When you reach the exact center, suddenly they have all disappeared.

Only enlightenment is, only light is. All have disappeared. Those were just the personalities.

Whatsoever you see in me is a personality. It is not the quality of the light; it is the mode of the lamp. It is the body of the lamp, not the quality of the light.

The quality of the light is the same. Lamps differ. Some lamp may be just an earthen lamp, some other may be a golden lamp -- vast is the difference. But that difference makes no difference in the quality of light. In an earthen lamp or in a golden lamp: the same light.

It is the same. Buddha is reported to have said, "Go to the sea and taste the sea water. Anywhere you go the sea water tastes the same." The same is the quality of Buddhas. You can taste from me, you can taste from Ramakrishna, you can taste from Krishnamurti, you can taste from Jesus -- the difference is only from where you taste it The ghat may be different, the bank, but the ocean is the same.

Wherever you taste it, it will taste the same. The same saltiness. The same flame.

So nothing is wrong about it. Don't feel guilty in any way. When you are in love, you have to be mad. In love and reasonable? -- nobody has ever heard about it. If your love is reasonable it will not be much of a love. When you are in love, you are mad.

When Majanu says anything about Laila it is not a scientific statement. But still it has a truth: the truth of Majanu's heart. It does not say anything about Laila; it says something about Majanu's love. But that love is also true.

So don't feel guilty in any way about it, because this love is the only way you will proceed on. But don't cling to it. Move. Go on and on. A greater consciousness is awaiting you. Where love becomes aware, where love becomes consciousness, where love flares up and becomes light -- there you will understand that all are one and the same. In enlightenment the personality disappears, the personality of a Buddha or Jesus, and only the ocean remains, with the same taste.

It is your love. Good -- be happy about it. But don't be content with it, don't think that it is enough. Good, but more is possible.

Always look ahead and always try to transcend the state you are in. There comes a moment when nothing remains to be transcended. That is realization.

Question 3

DO ALL ENLIGHTENED MASTERS SOUND AS EGOISTIC AS YOU DO?

It is bound to be so. They sound egoistic because they cannot be humble in the sense you understand humility. Try to understand. It is a delicate point.

Whatsoever you call humbleness is a function of the ego. It is a modified ego.

The enlightened person has no ego so he cannot have a modified ego. He cannot be humble. In the sense you can understand it, he cannot be humble.

Otherwise Krishna would not be able to say to Arjuna: "Leave all, and come to my feet. I am the God who created the whole existence. SARVA DHARMAN

PARITYAJYA MAMEKAM SHARANAM VRAJA. Come to my feet." What egoism! Jesus would not be able to say: "I am the door, I am the way, I am the truth." "I and my Father in heaven are one." "Those who follow me will be saved... only those who follow me will be saved." And when Buddha attained to Buddhahood, he declared to the skies, to the heavens: "I have attained the unattainable!"

They sound very egoistic. First, they cannot be humble in the sense you understand humbleness. Your humbleness is a modified, polished, cultured ego.

But then why do they sound egoistic?

They are not humble and you know only two qualities, two ways of being: humble or egoistic. They are not humble -- then they must be egoistic. You have only tWo categories. And egoism is easy for you to understand, it is your language.

When you say'I', you mean one thing; when I say'I', I mean something else. But when I say'I', you will understand it in your way, not in my way. When Krishna said to Arjuna, "Come to my feet!" what did he mean? Of course you would understand your meaning if you said to somebody, "Come to my feet!" The same must be Krishna's meaning. No, that is not his meaning. He has no'I' left, he has no'my' left.

But he has to use your language. And you understand it in your own way. So all enlightened masters sound egoistic because you are egoistic. You will understand their humbleness only when your ego disappears. Otherwise it won't allow you. The only way to understand those who have awakened is to become awake.

Continuously I go on observing: I say something; you understand something else. But that's natural. How can you understand my meaning? When I say something, the word goes to you not my meaning. My meaning remains in my heart. Then the word goes within you and you color it, you give it a meaning.

That meaning is yours.

They sound egoistic, but they are not. Because if they are, then the enlightenment has not happened yet. The enlightenment happens only when the ego has disappeared. The ego is the darkness of the soul, the ego is the imprisonment of the soul, the'I' is the barrier to the ultimate.

A Buddha is an emptiness and when he says, "I have attained to the unattainable," he is simply saying that the emptiness has realized its emptiness, nothing else. But how to translate it into your terms? He is simply saying that the emptiness has realized its emptiness, but he has to say, "I have attained to the unattainable."

When Krishna says, "Come to my feet! " he is saying, "Here, look! The emptiness is standing before you. Dissolve into it! " But that won't be direct. He has to use Arjuna's language. He says, "Come to my feet." If Arjuna is ready and willing to surrender, if he trusts and surrenders, when he touches the feet of Krishna he will touch emptiness. Only then will there be a realization of what Krishna was saying. There are no feet, no Krishna -- just a tremendous quality of emptiness.

The temple of God is emptiness. Touching Krishna's feet he will bow down to emptiness and the emptiness will pour down into him. But that will be possible only when he trusts.

Yes, many times I must be sounding very egoistic to you. But don't be deceived, because if you cling to the idea that I am egoistic, you will never be able to let go, to surrender, and then your ego will go on. Then there is no need to be here with me because then the whole point is lost. You are wasting your time.

There is only one way to be here with me: if you want to surrender. Otherwise go away, find somebody somewhere else to whom you find it easy to surrender, because unless you surrender you will not come to know who you are. And without knowing yourself, you will not be able to know what has happened to a man whom we called enlightened. Only through your own experience will things become clear to you.

Yes, it sounds egoistic. Now there are two ways. If you think that it not only sounds egoistic, it is -- then go away from me. The sooner you go the better, because all the time that you are here will be wasted. Or, if you think it simply sounds egoistic but it is not so, then surrender. Then don't wait because sometimes waiting too long can become habitual, you can get addicted to it.

Then you can go on waiting and waiting and waiting.

And I will not be waiting here for long. A little while more and I will be gone.

Then you will repent, then you will suffer, then you will be sad, but then it will be of no use.

It will be easy for you to touch my feet when I am gone because then there is no surrender. You can go and touch the feet of a statue: the statue is dead; there is no surrender. When you touch the feet of an alive man -- alive just like you, in the body just like you -- then the problem comes. The ego resists.

So either believe in your ego or believe in me. These are the only two alternatives. Up to now you have believed in your ego. What have you attained?

I open another alternative for you. Try it....

Question 4

WHO ARE YOU?

Whomsoever you think, because it depends on you. If you look at me with total emptiness, I will be different. If you look at me with ideas, those ideas will color me; if you come to me with a prejudice, then I will be different. I am just a mirror. Your own face will be reflected. There is a saying that if a monkey looks into the mirror he will not find an apostle looking at him through the mirror.

Only a monkey will be looking through the mirror.

So it depends on the way you look at me. I have disappeared completely so I cannot impose on you who I am. I have nothing to impose. There is just a nothingness, a mirror. Now you have complete freedom.

If you really want to know who I am, you have to be as absolutely empty as I am.

Then two mirrors will be facing each other, and only emptiness will be mirrored.

Infinite emptiness will be mirrored: two mirrors facing each other. But if you have some idea, then you will see your own idea in me.

Question 5

DURING THE LECTURES I FIND MY EYES FIXED ON YOUR FACE. EVERY

ONCE IN A WHILE THERE IS A SUDDEN SHIFT AND FOR A FEW

MOMENTS YOUR FACE APPEARS SATANIC. I KNOW THIS IS A PROJECTION. WHAT IS INSIDE OF ME?

Is there any need for me to tell you!?

You have both sides within you: the divine and the devil. Sometimes, when you are flowing through your divine side. you will see the divine in me. Then things shift: you are flowing through the devilish side. Then the devil will be seen in me. But always remember that it is you. I am just a mirror, a situation to reveal yourself to yourself, that's all. So whatsoever you see -- meditate on it, because that must be some quality within you.

It is very easy for the mind to project and forget that it is a projection. There are people who believe that I am really a devil and there are people who believe that I am really divine. Both are taking their projections as real. I am just'I am'. I am just a mirror; I show your face to you. That's the function of a master: to show your face to you.

So whatsoever you see, meditate upon it. If you see the devil then try to find out the devil within yourself and try to drop it. Don't get the idea that the devil is within me because then you wi]l never be able to get rid of your devil. If it is within me, then what can you do? Then you are helpless. But if it is within you, something can be done. You can drop it.

Question 6

WHY ARE THE ASHRAMITE SANNYASINS NOT ALLOWED TO

PARTICIPATE IN ALL THE MEDITATIONS? WHY ARE THEY TOLD TO

PARTICIPATE IN ONLY ONE MEDITATION EVERY DAY?

It is because of you, ladies and gentlemen. It is because of your laziness.

I go on talking about non-doing and my text becomes your pretext. Non-doing has nothing to do with laziness. In fact, a lazy person can never move into non-doing. A lazy person is almost suicidal. He is closed; his energy is not flowing. A non-doer is a flowing person: alive.

A non-doer does not mean that he does not do anything. He does many things, many more than ordinary doers, but he is still not a doer. All that he does is a happening. He is instrumental: as if the divine possesses him and functions through him. He never thinks, "I am doing it." At the most he thinks, "I am allowing it,"

A non-doer will do many things and will not be tired because there will be no tension. A non-doer will do many things and will not accumulate any ego because he is not the doer. Things are just happening. A non-doer loves his work, and the work becomes worship.

People who are in the ashram -- they are allowed to be in the ashram only for a certain work. That certain work i.s: they have to transform their work into worship. But they would like to be lazy. And particularly in India, sannyas is thought to be a type of laziness. People who don't want to do anything become sannyasins.

I am not a shelter for them; I am not a shelter for escapists. I am here to teach you life and more life and still more life, because only when your energy is flowing will you be able to love; only when your energy is flowing will you be able to know; only when your energy is flowing will you someday be able to transcend death -- otherwise not.

But very few in the ashram work as a worship. Many go on avoiding. Not that they want to meditate, because if they want to meditate then the thing will be totally different: they can meditate with their work. But they would like to d3 all the meditations just to avoid the work.

A few are absolutely lazy and they think that they can rationalize it. For example, let me tell you about one day in one sannyasin's life. From six to seven in the morning he will meditate, Then comes breakfast. Then eight to nine-thirty or ten is the lecture. Then of course by ten o'clock he has already done too much: meditated, listened to such a long lecture.... So a little gossiping -- it is obviously needed. Then by eleven, eleven-thirty, he is ready for lunch. By twelve, of course, he has already done too much -- meditating, listening, even eating -- so by twelve o'clock he goes to sleep. Up till three o'clock, rest is needed. Three to three-thirty: tea or coffee time. Three-thirty to four-thirty: Nadabrahma, an individual meditation. Four-thirty to five-thirty he goes for a walk of course. One needs a little physical exercise. Five-thirty to six-thirty: Kundalini meditation. Then dinner time. And then, of course, the girlfriend comes, so the day is complete.

Still more meditations you need?

I talk every day for ninety minutes. That means, at the most, thirty pages. In the ashram we have twenty persons who are doing editing. Every day they have to edit, transcribe, proofread, thirty pages. Twenty persons -- that means one and a half pages per sannyasin. Still the work goes on piling up. And they are always carrying long faces, as if they are doing too much work. It looks ridiculous: one person speaks; twenty persons edit. It simply looks ridiculous. And then, too, the work is never done. It goes on piling up.

They are told not to meditate too much because listening to me is meditation.

Can you do a better meditation than listening to me? If you love the work, if you love me, that is meditation. Your whole life should be meditation. People who come for a few days from the outside have to learn meditation, but those who are living in the ashram -- their whole life should be meditation. Their walking, their sitting, even their sleep; everything should become meditative. Meditation should be a climate here. Not something that you do, but something that you are.

And don't carry faces that show you are doing very great work. Love it! Nobody is helped by carrying a long face and a burden. And nobody is deceived by you because the whole thing seems to be ridiculous. You just have the idea of feeling burdened. That burden kills you. And if you go on thinking about it, it will become a burden. It will create ulcers, it will make your body feel ill, and you will become tense and nervous. Then you will try to show even more that you are burdened very much. You are moving in a vicious circle now.

Here you are to enjoy, to be, to delight. And there is so little work that, in fact, it can be done within minutes. Just one and a half pages of editing, transcribing and proofreading -- how long will it take? And this is just an example. The same is true with the other work.

But there ARE people who take it as worship. They are flowing and growing and flowering. There are people who work -- and work lovingly. That's why some work is done; otherwise it would be impossible.

But these questions come from the people who are lazy. I will not give the name of the person who has asked this question because it is the same sannyasin who wants her name to be told.

Question 7

ARE FEAR AND GUILT THE SAME THING? AND SURELY AS LIGHT

SHOWS UP DARKNESS, SO JESUS MUST HAVE MADE PEOPLE AWARE OF

THEIR GUILT.

Fear and guilt are not the same thing. Fear accepted becomes freedom; fear denied, rejected, condemned, becomes guilt. If you accept fear as part of the situation....

It is part of the situation. Man is a part, a very small, tiny part, and the whole is vast: a drop, a very small drop, and the whole is the whole ocean. A trembling arises: "I may be lost in the whole; my identity may be lost." That is the fear of death. All fear is the fear of death. And the fear of death is the fear of annihilation.

It is natural that man is afraid, trembling. If you accept it, if you say that this is how life is, if you accept it totally, trembling stops immediately and fear -- the same energy that was becoming fear -- uncoils and becomes freedom. Then you know that even if the drop disappears in the ocean, it will be there. In fact, it will become the whole ocean. Then death becomes nirvana, then you are not afraid to lose yourself. Then you understand the saying of Jesus: "If you save your life you will lose it and if you lose it you will save it."

The only way to go beyond death is to accept death. Then it disappears. The only way to be fearless is to accept fear. Then the energy is released and becomes freedom. But if you condemn it, if you suppress it, if you hide the fact that you are afraid -- if you armor yourself and protect yourself and are defensive -- then a guilt arises.

Anything repressed creates guilt; anything not allowed creates guilt; anything against nature creates guilt. Then you feel guilty that you have been Lying to others and Lying to yourself. That inauthenticity is guilt.

You ask: "Are fear and guilt the same thing? " No. Fear can be guilt, but it may not be. It depends what you do with fear. If you do something wrong with it, it becomes guilt. If you simply accept it and don't do anything about it -- there is nothing to do! -- then it becomes freedom, it becomes fearlessness.

"And surely as light shows up darkness, Jesus must have made people aware of their guilt." No, not at all. Jesus tried to help people not to feel guilty. That was his whole effort. The whole effort was to tell people to accept themselves and not feel guilty, not feel condemned. Don't say to yourself that you are ugly, wrong, a sinner. Don't condemn. Whatsoever you are, you are., Accept the fact, and the very acceptance becomes a transformation.

Jesus never created guilt in people. That was one of his crimes. He tried to cheer up guilty people -- that was his crime. He tried to tell them, "Don't be guilty, don't feel guilty. Even if there is something wrong, you are not wrong. Maybe you have acted wrongly, but your being is not wrong because of that." Some action may be wrong, but the being is always right.

He accepted people; sinners were at ease with him, at home with him. That became the trouble. The rabbis, the bishops, the priests, started saying: "Why?

Why do you allow sinners to be with you? Why do you eat with them, why do you sleep with them? Why are so many outcasts following you?"

Jesus said, "It is bound to be so. I come for those who are sick. The sick seek the physician; those who are already healthy, they need not. Go and think about it."

Jesus said: "I have come for the sick, for the ill. I have to support them and I have to make them strong. I have to bring light to them, I have to bring life to them again, so that their energy becomes dynamic and flowing."

No, Jesus is a light that does not show darkness. In fact, when the light is there, darkness disappears. Darkness is not shown by light; it disappears by light.

This is the difference. If a priest is there, he will show darkness. He is not a light; he cannot destroy darkness. He will make you feel guilty. He will create sinners -

- he will condemn and he will make you afraid of hell. He will create a greed and a desire for heaven and its awards. At the most he can create more fear and more greed in you. That's what heaven and hell are: projections of fear and greed.

But when a Jesus, a sage, appears, darkness is simply destroyed. When the light is there, darkness is not shown. Darkness simply is not, because darkness is nothing but the absence of light.

If there is darkness in the room and I give you a lamp and tell you, "Go. And take the lamp with you, because with the lamp it will be easy to see the darkness..." If you go in darkness, how will you be able to see the darkness? -- it looks logical.

But absurd! Darkness can be seen only when there is no light. If you take the light with you, you will never be able to see darkness, because once the light is there, darkness is no longer there.

Jesus simply destroys darkness, he destroys guilt. He creates hope, he creates confidence and trust. People who have been condemned for long, have lost all hope. They have accepted their sin, they have accepted their ugly life, and they know that nothing can be done now. They can only wait for hell. They have accepted that they are going to be thrown in hell and they have to suffer.

Jesus comes and helps people to come out of their closed darkness. He says,

"There is no hell." He says, "Come out. Except for your ignorance, there is no hell; except for your own closedness, there is no hell. Come out of it, flow again.

Unfreeze and melt, and live life again. Come in the sunlight. God is available."

That's why he says, "Return, the kingdom of God is at hand." He does not say that if you are a sinner then returning will take much time, and if you are a respectable religious man then returning will take less time, no.

Just think of the whole thing as if you have dreamed a long dream that you are a sinner. Somebody else in the same room is dreaming that he is a saint. Will it take a longer time for you to get out of your sleep than it will take for one who is dreaming that he is a saint? The saint and the sinner both have been dreaming.

They will take the same time to awaken from their sleep.

Paradoxically, sometimes it may take a little longer time for the saint, because he is having such a beautiful dream. He does not want to come out of it. The sinner is already in a nightmare. He would like to come out; he is crying, shrieking, that somehow he should come out of it. He is making every effort to come out. The dream is not beautiful, the dream is ugly. He is in hell. But the saint may not want to be disturbed. He would like to turn over to the other side and sleep a little more.

Remember, when you feel happy, returning is difficult; when you feel unhappy, returning is easy. That's the meaning of the saying: "There are blessings hidden in misfortunes, hidden in curses." When somebody is happy and everything is running smoothly, who bothers to transform oneself? When one is sad, in deep sorrow, in misery, in tears, then one would like to come out of it. Suffering is also good because it gives you an opportunity to awaken, to come out of your sleep.

Nothing is wrong if you can use it rightly. Even poisons can be used as medicines and they can become life-enhancing.

If you feel guilty, try to see why you are feeling guilty. Yes, man is helpless.

Right! And man is ignorant -- that is right, too. In his ignorance he has done many things which were not as they should be -- that, too, is right. Accept this helplessness, this ignorance, and pray. Let your tears come down, confess, repent, say to God, "I was helpless, I was ignorant, and I could not do better. And I still cannot do better, unless you help. As I am, I will again go wrong. As I am, I will again betray you. I cannot rely on myself. Help me. Only your grace can save me."

That's what Jesus' whole teaching is: ask for God's grace, don't believe in yourself

-- because that very belief has been your whole undoing.

No, he never created guilt in anybody. He tried to free people from guilt.

The last question but one:

Question 8

OSHO, HOW?

Now. And there is no 'how' to it.

And the last question:

Question 9

OSHO! OSHO! OSHO!!!...???

That is the way. If you can cry, if you can pray, if you can call from your very innermost core, the divine is always available. The divine is always close; it is just that you have not called, that you have not knocked at his door. Jesus says,

"Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you. Ask, and it shall be given...."

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #5

Chapter title:... And Who Are My Brethren?

4 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

MATTHEW 12

46 WHILE HE YET TALKED TO THE PEOPLE, BEHOLD, HIS MOTHER AND

HIS BRETHREN STOOD WITHOUT, DESIRING TO SPEAK WITH HIM.

47 THEN ONE SAID UNTO HIM, BEHOLD, THY MOTHER AND THY

BRETHREN STAND WITHOUT, DESIRING TO SPEAK WITH THEE.

48 BUT HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HIM THAT TOLD HIM, WHO IS

MY MOTHER? AND WHO ARE MY BRETHREN?

49 AND HE STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND TOWARD HIS DISCIPLES, AND

SAID, BEHOLD MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN!

50 FOR WHOMSOEVER SHALL DO THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN

HEAVEN, THE SAME IS MY BROTHER, AND SISTER, AND MOTHER.

LUKE I4

25 AND THERE WENT GREAT MULTITUDES WITH HIM: AND HE TURNED, AND SAID UNTO THEM,

26 IF ANY MAN COME TO ME, AND HATE NOT His FATHER, AND

MOTHER, AND WIFE, AND CHILDREN, AND BRETHREN, AND SISTERS, YEA, AND HIS OWN LIFE ALSO, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.

27 AND WHOSOEVER DOTH NOT BEAR HIS CROSS, AND COME AFTER

ME, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE

THOMAS CARLYLE ONCE SAID about one of his friends that he was born a man and died a grocer. Everybody is born great and dies very small. Everybody is born like a god and almost always dies like a dog. What happens in between?

Why is man crippled by life? One should hope that man grows to greater dimensions, grows to greater heights, grows to greater life -- what Jesus calls'life abundant' -- but that rarely happens. As it happens usually, man starts shrinking.

The moment man is born he starts shrinking, becoming smaller and smaller and smaller. This has to be understood.

When a child is born he has no identity. He simply is. That'is-ness' is vast, it has magnitude, it has no limitation. The child has no name yet, the name cripples; the child has no identity, the child does not know who he is. That is his greatness, that is his vastness. He is one with existence, he is not yet separated. He has no boundary, no finitude.

A child has no character. That is his beauty, Character kills. The more character you have, the smaller you have become. Character is an armor around you, it defines you. And every definition is a death. Let me repeat: every definition is a death; only the undefined is alive.

The child has a body, but he has no form. In his consciousness no form yet exists.

Even if you put a mirror before the child he will not recognize himself. He will look at the mirror, but he will not recognize that he is reflected there because he does not know yet who he is. That is his innocence. Then things start gathering around: the name, which becomes an imprisonment; the form, the identity. The religion, the society, the color, the nation -- they all become confinements. Now the child is shrinking, the vastness of the sky disappearing. Clouds are gathering and they go on suffocating your being. By the time you die, you were already dead long before.

That is the meaning of these sutras: that if one is to attain to one's real glory again, one has to become indefinable, one has to lose character.

It will be very difficult to understand me. I say that one has to lose character because character is what gives you limitations. Character is a fixity, a frozenness. Unless the character melts and you start flowing again, unless you become unknown to yourself and unpredictable.... Nobody, not even you yourself, knows what is going to happen in the next moment. You start living moment to moment. The calculation is gone. the planning disappears, you float like a white cloud in the sky: moving but without any motivation; moving but not knowing where you are going; moving but remaining in the moment, so totally herenow that past and future make no sense, only present is meaningful.

Then what will be your identity? Who will be you? You cannot say anything about it; it is unutterable. That is what Buddha calls the inner emptiness: ANATTA, no self; that's what Jesus calls the kingdom of God. Something mysterious that you are. Not that you have to become -- you are already that.

It happened in the Second World War in a Japanese concentration camp. The guards of the concentration camp had come to know that the arrival of the American army was imminent. Any moment they could reach and Japan would be defeated. They became afraid for their own lives. They unlocked the doors and fled to the woods.

But those who were imprisoned in the camp never came to know that now the doors were not locked. They were still imprisoned. The guards had gone, the locks were unlocked, but the prisoners were still prisoners. They were already free, but they did not know about it. The next day when the liberators came they had only to announce to them that "You are already free. We have to do nothing."

This is what I say to you: that you are already free. The guards have never been there except in your imagination and the locks were never locked. You have seen a dream and you are imprisoned in it. This is the only good news that Jesus brings to you or I bring to you: that you are already free.

Not that you have to become free. All your imprisonment is just a mental attitude. You call yourself a Hindu or a Christian or a Mohammedan. Not that you are a Christian. How can you be a Christian and how can you be a Mohammedan? How can just a mere ideology confine you, how can just words make prisons for you? To such a vital energy, to such a vital reality, how can just mere words -- Hinduism, Christianity -- become imprisonments? Impossible.

But you believe in them. Then the impossible becomes possible. You think of yourself that you are this or that. That very thinking makes you this or that. But you are not. In the innermost core of your being you remain total freedom, absolute freedom.

Now, try to enter these sutras. They are very delicate and there is every possibility of misunderstanding them. Jesus has been misunderstood on many points. One of the points is covered by these sutras.

People have been finding fault with him because of these sutras. On the one hand he goes on talking about love -- he even says, "God is love" -- and on the other hand he goes on saying such contradictory things. How can a man of love say these things? But he has said them. So there is every possibility that they have not been understood rightly. Let us try....

WHILE HE YET TALKED TO THE PEOPLE, BEHOLD, HIS MOTHER AND HIS

BRETHREN STOOD WITHOUT, DESIRING TO SPEAK WITH HIM.

THEN ONE SAID UNTO HIM, BEHOLD, THY MOTHER AND THY

BRETHREN STAND WITHOUT, DESIRING TO SPEAK WITH THEE.

BUT HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HIM THAT TOLD HIM, WHO IS MY

MOTHER? AND WHO ARE MY BRETHREN?

AND HE STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND TOWARD HIS DISCIPLES, AND

SAID, BEHOLD MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN! THIS IS MY MOTHER

AND THESE ARE MY BROTHERS.

Up to now, whatsoever he has said can be understood. The next sutra is really very dangerous. He says:

FOR WHOMSOEVER SHALL DO THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN

HEAVEN, THE SAME IS MY BROTHER, AND SISTER, AND MOTHER.

AND THERE WENT GREAT MULTITUDES WITH HIM: AND HE TURNED, AND SAID UNTO THEM,

IF ANY MAN COME TO ME, AND HATE NOT HIS FATHER, AND MOTHER, AND WIFE, AND CHILDREN, AND BRETHREN. AND SISTERS, YEA, AND

HIS OWN LIFE ALSO, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.

AND WHOSOEVER DOTH NOT BEAR HIS CROSS, AND COME AFTER ME, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.

He says: "If any man come to me and hate not his father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, he cannot be my disciple." A man who has always been talking about love -- why so suddenly does he talk about hate? The word'hate'

does not fit on the lips of Jesus. The man seems to be contradictory, paradoxical, but that is only an appearance. We have to go deep. If Jesus says'hate' he must mean something. And he means....

First: man is born as part of the divine, as part of the totality, the whole. The child in the mother's womb is not in the mother's womb: the child is in the womb of the whole. Mother is nothing but part of the whole. Mother is the nearest part of the whole, but the child exists in the divine, in the totality. He does not know the mother; he simply exists. Then he is born, he is separated from the mother.

But even while separate from the mother, he has not yet got an identity. He cannot say'I am'. Still the purity of'am-ness' continues.

Then by and by, he will start loving the mother. The moment he starts loving the mother he will forget the wholeness of'am-ness', the totality. Love of the mother will become oblivion of the total. Then he starts loving the father -- he forgets the total completely. Then his brothers, sisters.... Then a family is created, a small family, and he has forgotten the great family of existence.

Unless his consciousness shifts again from the mother, from the father, from the brothers and sisters, and the whole gestalt changes -- again he looks at the whole and the whole becomes the family, again he lives with the stars and the trees are the rivers and the ocean and the sands -- he will not'be able to follow Jesus; you will not be able to follow me. Because what is the meaning of following Jesus?

The only meaning is to shift the focus of consciousness. If you have fallen in love with a family, you have to go beyond that love. Otherwise that very love, that very attachment, will not allow you to enter into the greater whole.

When he says'hate' he simply means: don't love. When he says'hate' he uses a very strong word: to emphasize. Because love has made you part of a small family, only hate can again make you a part of the whole. But by'hate' he does not mean'hatred'. By'hate' he simply means: annihilate the love, the attachment.

In India we have been using the word ASUKTI RAG: attachment, being colored by the attachment. Be nonattached, renounce. Renounce the small so that you can find the whole. And this is the beauty: that if you renounce the part, the small family, and attain to the great family, suddenly you will realize that the small family is there in the great. Because where will it go? In the small family, the great family is not there; but in the great family, the small family is there.

When the whole earth becomes your home, your home is included in it. But when your only home is your home, the whole earth is not included in it. When the whole sky becomes yours, the small sky that you used to think is yours is there.

The greater includes the smaller, the smaller cannot include the greater. Your father, your mother, your children, your wife, will be there -- not as your mother, as your father, as your wife, but as gods. In fact, you have not taken anything away from them. On the contrary, you have given something to them. Before they were ordinary human beings; now they will be divine. Your renunciation has not destroyed anything. On the contrary, it has revealed much. Lose the small so that you can gain the whole, and that small will be regained again, in greater glory.

But in the beginning it will seem that you are moving away from love, because that is the only love you know: the love of the family, the love of the country.

That is the only love you know. And it is a false love because unless the love includes the whole it can never be satisfactory. Love is vast and can only be fulfilled by the vast.

Unless you love God, you will love in vain. Your love will create frustrations, it will never give you a contentment. Love needs such a vast phenomenon to fill it that only God can do that. No father, no mother, no wife, no children, no brother, no sister, no friend can do that -- unless God comes to you as a father, or your father appears to you to be a god.

Unless the wife becomes the whole, or the whole become.s the wife, you will not be fulfilled. That's why there is so much misery because of love. You love the part and you expect the whole. That's the misery. You love the small and you want the great. It cannot be fulfilled. Hence, frustration. Whenever you fall in love with a man, you expect something divine. Every lover expects it. And when it is not delivered you are hurt, and you feel you have been cheated. Then the misery of love arises.

Expectations are great and the reality is very tiny. You expect from the wrong sources: you want a small stream to become the ocean. It cannot, it is helpless.

When your eyes are open to the reality, and the dream disappears and the honeymoon is over... a small tiny stream. And you were thinking of the ocean!

Now you are crestfallen, frustrated, wounded deeply in the heart.

Love wounds because you expect the whole from the part. And this is the only love that you know. This love is not exactly love. It is attachment. There is a greater love which arises only when your eyes are open to the vast, to the infinite, to God.

When Jesus says'hate' he simply says: whatsoever your love is, is worth nothing.

Move to the opposite, move to the other extreme. Drop all this nonsense that you call love. It is not love. It may be fear -- fear of loneliness -- but it is not a sharing of being. It is a game of the ego, and love cannot be a game of the ego. You drop all this -- and by dropping all this, tremendous possibilities open.

First, if you drop all so-called love -- the love of the father, the mother, the brother, the sister, the family, the wife -- if you really drop it, suddenly your identity will be lost. Who will be then, who will be you then? If somebody asks you right now you say, "I am somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's husband, somebody's father. This is my religion. This is my country. This is the group I belong to." You have something to say about yourself.

Think: if you belong to no country, if you belong to no sect, no church, no denomination; if you have cut all bonds from your family -- father, mother, wife -

- and you are absolutely alone, who are you then? How will you say who you are? By cutting the attachments you have killed your ego.

That is the meaning of Jesus. He says: through your attachments, your ego exists and gets nourishment. Cut all the attachments and suddenly the ego collapses. It has nowhere to stand, nothing to be supported by. Suddenly it collapses, and in that collapse you are born for the first time. For the first time you are YOU -- not somebody's son, not somebody's husband, not somebody's father. For the first time you are simply there, in your absolute nakedness, purity, innocence. You are undefined, all definitions gone. Suddenly you start throbbing with a new heart; you become part of the whole. That small family that was surrounding you and creating a boundary is no more there.

You became small because of the attachment to the family. You become vast once that attachment is transcended. That's why Jesus uses a very strong word. He says HATE because less than that won't do.

Listen:

WHILE HE YET TALKED TO THE PEOPLE, BEHOLD, HIS MOTHER AND HIS

BRETHREN STOOD WITHOUT, DESIRING TO SPEAK WITH HIM.

Many more things have to be understood. Jesus knows well that his mother and his brothers don't understand him. They think, really, that he has gone a little crazy. Their own brother and he thinks of himself as the son of God! Just think about your brother. If he starts thinking that he is the son of God and always talks about God who is in heaven, naturally you will think that he has gone out of his mind. You will seek the help of a psychiatrist; you will give him electric shocks to bring him back to earth.

Jesus' relatives thought that he was beside himself; he was a little eccentric, crazy, mad. When he went to his village, people would simply laugh, they would ridicule. At the most they were amused: "Look, this son of the carpenter Joseph --

and now suddenly he thinks that he is the son of God!" And they know well whose son he is. Just a few years before, he was working with his father in the workshop: carrying wood from the forest, helping his father. And now suddenly he has gone mad. "Poor Jesus!"

That was the idea of his family also. They felt pity for him. So when somebody said, "Your brothers and your mother are waiting without, desiring to speak with you," he knows what they are going to speak to him about. He knows that their whole effort is somehow to bring him back home and make him normal.

This is one of the problems with humanity. People you call normal are not normal at all, but they are in the majority. A Buddha always looks abnormal. A Jesus looks abnormal. In a sense he is, because he doesn't behave like you, he doesn't follow the ordinary rules. He does not fit with the society, he is a misfit.

And to allow him, creates a suspicion in your mind: if he is right, then you are wrong. That creates a doubt and a trembling. He must be wrong, he must be proved wrong. He must have somehow gone wrong somewhere. Of course the ordinary is thought to be normal -- and the normal is thought to be the norm -- so the exceptional, the unique, looks abnormal.

Even psychoanalysts think that Jesus was neurotic. Many books have been written against Jesus, proving that he was neurotic, that he was not in his senses.

Look at what he was saying! Of course if suddenly someone amongst you declares that he is the son of God, you will start laughing. What does he mean?

Jesus knows well what they want to talk about. And they have not come to HIM.

They have come only to the son of Joseph, which he is no more. He was, but since John the Baptist initiated him into a different life -- changed and converted him to a new plane of consciousness, initiated him, led him into a new door to existence -- since then he is no longer the same.

When Buddha came back to his home after twelve years, his father could not believe that he had become enlightened. He said, "Drop all this nonsense! You can befool others, but you cannot befool me. I have given birth to you, I have known you from the very beginning. Drop this game and come back home. I am your father and because I love you my doors are yet open for you. Though you don't deserve! You are an escapist. In my old age you escaped. You are my only hope. Come back home!"

Of course the father cannot see what has happened. He is too full of his own ideas, too full of his memories, his remembrance of this boy who was born to him. And now suddenly he has become a Buddha, enlightened, attained to truth?

If he had been somebody else's son the father might have looked again, might have watched, observed, might have been more open; but this is his own son.

The eyes are full of tears, anger, attachment, memories. The eyes are clouded by the past; he cannot see the reality that is standing before him.

Buddha laughed and he said, "Just look at me. I'm not the same one who left your house. Somebody else comes to you. That man is dead! I'm totally new."

The father looked again and then said, "You cannot deceive me. You are the same. I know you well. I know you more than you can know yourself."

Jesus knows what they want to talk about. And they don't want to talk to him, the reality that he is now. They want to talk to someone who exists no more.

Jesus disappeared that day in the River Jordan when John the Baptist initiated him into a different life. The man who used to be there has disappeared. The house is old, but the resident has changed. The same person doesn't live in the same body. The body is the same, but a new consciousness has entered. A new consciousness abides there and they have come to talk to the old, who is no more.

THEN ONE SAID UNTO HIM, BEHOLD, THY MOTHER AND THY

BRETHREN STAND WITHOUT, DESIRING TO SPEAK WITH THEE.

BUT HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HIM THAT TOLD HIM, WHO IS MY

MOTHER? AND WHO ARE MY BRETHREN?

This new consciousness -- call it'Christ' -- this new consciousness says, WHO IS

MY MOTHER? AND WHO ARE MY BRETHREN?

Unless you can see two personalities -- one of Jesus, which is no more; and one of Christ, which has come like a dove and has entered his soul -- you will not be able to understand these sentences. These sutras become very simple once you see that this man Jesus is no more the Jesus who used to be.

It happens many times to my sannyasins. When they want to go back to their homes they become a little apprehensive. They come to me and they say, "It is going to be difficult. My father won't understand me, my mother will not be able to see what has happened. When I go back they will not be able to see the fact: what has happened to me."

I tell them, "Don't be worried. You simply go and you remain new. Don't try in any way to behave like the old." That has to be remembered because the temptation will be there. I he mother is there, the father is there, the brothers are there, the whole milieu of the old, and the temptation will be that even if you have changed why create a disturbance for them? Just act like the old.

But if you act like the old, that will be a deep disturbance for you. That will be a deception, that won't be authenticity. And in that way you are not going to help your family. That way you will be untrue to them.

Be true. Even if they misunderstand in the beginning, accept that misunderstanding. It is natural. But you remain the one that you have become.

Don't act; remain true. Sooner or later they will understand, and once they understand, your reality will start transforming them also. Reality is a great force.

This happens many times. One sannyasin from England just wrote to me that "I was afraid, notwithstanding whatsoever you had said. I was afraid and as I came nearer to England my fear was tremendous. My father is very stubborn" -- as fathers are-"and I thought: he won't understand, he won't even listen. He will think that I am mad and he will try and force me to go to a psychoanalyst.'What has happened? Why are you wearing orange?' He is an old Christian, orthodox.

It will be almost a shock."

But he had to go back so he went. Now he has written: "They were shocked. They couldn't believe it. But as you had said, I tried not to be tempted to act. I remained true. And for the first time, after three or four days, they relaxed. Now for the first time something has transpired between me and my parents, something which I can call love -- which has never been there before. Fear was there, but not love. And they are asking me questions: what has happened to me?

And they have even tried to meditate! " -- which he thinks is a miracle. He thinks that I must be doing something from here.

I'm not doing anything from here. Your truth, your authenticity, has a great power in it. Truth transforms not only you. Wherever you move, with whomsoever you relate, if you are true you become a great force.

Jesus knows that they have not come for him. They are not yet ready. They don't understand that a discontinuity has happened in the life of Jesus. The old is gone and the new has come, and they are not in any way related.

That is the problem: when the new comes, the new is absolutely new. It is not a modified form of the old. When the old goes, it goes totally. There comes a gap, a silence, an emptiness.

The old goes and the new comes -- the body remains the same. Nobody will be able to see what has happened, but everybody will FEEL something has happened. Even you yourself will become aware, by and by, that you are no longer the old.

Recognition takes time. Sometimes months, sometimes years. Recognition takes time, but by and by you become aware that "I am no longer the same person I used to be." When this realization surrounds you, you flower. A different grace becomes available to you. The old man lives under the law; the new man lives under love. The old man lives in the society; the new man becomes a peak of absolute aloneness. The old man lives in the past, in the future; the new man lives only in the present. The new man has a presence, a different quality of being. A magnetism, a charisma.

HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HIM THAT TOLD HIM, WHO IS MY

MOTHER? AND WHO ARE MY BRETHREN?

AND HE STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND TOWARD HIS DISCIPLES, AND

SAID, BEHOLD MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN!

He has created a new community.

Buddha called his community SANGHA. Buddha says to his disciples to seek three refuges. When anybody comes to surrender he has to surrender to three things. He says: "I surrender to Buddha, I surrender to sangha, I surrender to DHAMMA." Buddha is the alive, the presence herenow. But he will not be there always. Sooner or later he will disappear, just as a lamp disappears and then you cannot find where the flame has gone. Buddha will disappear -- this body cannot contain him for long, because the body is mortal and he is immortal. The vehicle is weak, the vehicle cannot persist for long. Sooner or later the body will fall and the flame will disappear. Then to whom will you surrender? So Buddha says, "I am creating a community: the sangha."

Sangha is a community of those who live with the same attitude, who live a life in common, who commune with each other. It is a community, a community of seekers on the same path, a community of those who have been in love with the same Buddha, whose love joins them together.

The community is a group. When the buddha is there you can look at him -- he can be helpful, he can guide you, he can take you out of your misery and darkness -- but when he is gone, then there is only one possibility: you should join together to help each other. A few will be a little ahead, a few will not be so.

A few may be lagging behind, a few may be marching forcibly, a few may just be fast asleep; but if there is a community, then those who are lagging behind can also be helped. The community can take care of them: the community can think about them, can love them, can help them, can guide them. When a Buddha is alive there is no need, but when the Buddha is gone a community is the only refuge.

Jesus was creating a community. This community is not the church, remember; this community is not a sect, remember. This community is a family of fellow seekers, not of fellow believers. When you believe, the community becomes a sect. When you seek, then it is a community. A community is an alive phenomenon of those who are all seeking together and helping each other.

There is a parable in India that once it happened that a great fire broke out in a forest. Two men were helpless there in the forest, they couldn't get out of it, because one was blind and another was crippled in the legs. The crippled one could not run: he could see, but he could not run. The blind one could run fast, but he couldn't see. So they formed a community. They talked to each other and they said, "We can help each other." So the blind man took the crippled man on his shoulders. They became one man. The blind could walk, the crippled could see. They helped each other. They came out of the fire; they were saved. Separate they would have died; together they found the way out.

A community is a community of blind people and crippled people. When a Buddha is there, there is no need. But when Buddha is gone, the master is gone, then the source of life disappears. The whole forest is on fire and everywhere there is darkness. Somebody is crippled and somebody is blind -- everybody lacks something. But everybody also has something. Then the community can arise.

That is the family of Jesus. He says:

AND HE STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND TOWARD HIS DISCIPLES, AND

SAID, BEHOLD MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN!

"And then," Buddha says, "a time comes when the community will also become dead. It will become a sect." The family of Christ will become Christianity; the family of Buddha, the sangha of Buddha, will become Buddhists. Dead: fellow believers, not fellow seekers. Nobody is going anywhere; they simply believe.

The community is not a community at all now. They talk, they discuss, but nobody is ready to risk anything, to search, to inquire.

Then, DHAMMA. Then you have to take refuge, you have to surrender and take refuge, only in the pure principle of dharma. The pure principle, the basic law: what Lao Tzu calls tao, what Buddha calls DHAMMA, what Jesus calls the kingdom of God. Then you have to surrender to the unknown.

It will be difficult because Buddha is visible; you can touch him. The community is also visible. Not so enlightened as Buddha, but some fragments of life, some fragments of light, are carried by the community. You can put them together, a certain light can be created. But when the community has become a sect, a dead religion, an organization and not a brotherhood....

Remember, a brotherhood is not an organization. A brotherhood may be organized, but it is not an organization. It is fluid. A brotherhood is organized because of love: organization is a by-product, a consequence. But an organization is simply organization. It is forced, rigid. It exists not because of love but because of law.

Then one has to look to God, whom you cannot see anywhere, whose address is not known, whose whereabouts are absolutely unknown.

Jesus says:

BEHOLD MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN!

"This is my family, my community in which I am spreading my being, with whom I am sharing my new life, with whom I am sharing my new vision and my new eyes."

FOR WHOSOEVER SHALL DO THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN

HEAVEN, THE SAME IS MY BROTHER, AND SISTER, AND MOTHER.

"Whosoever is ready to follow the path of God -- he is my mother, he is my brother, he is my sister." Jesus is saying, "Only those who are related to God are related to me. Now, no other relationship is possible."

Even if Jesus' mother wants to be related to him again, she cannot be related just because of the old relationship. She will have to seek a new relationship, and that new relation ship is possible only if she becomes attuned to God. Only through God, via God, can you be related to Jesus.

There is no other way.

If you come to me and you are really a seeker of truth, you immediately become related to me. Otherwise there is no relationship. Only via God -- you cannot be related to me directly. All direct relationship is impossible now. Unless you seek that which I have found, there is no possibility. There is no possibility at all.

It happens: many times people ask me -- just a few days before, Vivek was asking me -- "Why do we never see any of your college friends, your school friends, coming to you? Why don't they come?"

In the first place, I never had many friends because from the very beginning only if somebody was a seeker was there a possibility of any friendship. There was no other way to relate to me. So -- very few friends. But even those are lost, because unless they now relate to my new reality there is no possibility. Either I have to come down to relate to them, which is not possible, or they have to come up --

which is difficult.

By and by, they have disappeared. They continue to think about me as of old, but that man is no more there; that man is dead. They would like to relate to me as of old, but that man is dead. How can you relate to a dead man?

So it becomes embarrassing for them. If they come, it becomes embarrassing.

They don't know what to talk about, what to say. If they say something of the past and then they look at me, the whole thing looks absurd. It carries no meaning. At the most I can listen, but I cannot say a single word. Then they feel awkward.

They used to come; by and by they dropped. But my family has not dropped me.

They have tried hard to cope with me. And they have tried hard to feel my new reality. That's a rare phenomenon. Jesus was not so fortunate as I am.

FOR WHOSOEVER SHALL DO THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN

HEAVEN, THE SAME IS MY BROTHER, AND SISTER, AND MOTHER.

AND THERE WENT GREAT MULTITUDES WITH HIM: AND HE TURNED, AND SAID UNTO THEM,

IF ANY MAN COME TO ME, AND HATE NOT HIS FATHER, AND MOTHER, AND WIFE, AND CHILDREN, AND BRETHREN, AND SISTERS, YEA, AND

HIS OWN LIFE ALSO, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.

Unless you deny your worldly family, you cannot be part of a spiritual family.

Unless you deny the ordinary ties of the body, you cannot move into the world of the spirit. You have to leave behind the world of matter, the world of the body, to move into the world of the spirit.

AND WHOSOEVER DOTH NOT BEAR HIS CROSS, AND COME AFTER ME, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.

And until you die, you cannot follow. You have to die so that the new can be born in you. It can be born only when you are gone. It is not a question of transforming you, it is not a question of improving you, it is not a question of making something better of you. Howsoever better you are made, improved, modified, you will remain the same.

Your ego can be more polished. It can even be taught to be humble. You can be taught to be simple: you can live naked, with no clothes. You can be taught to be nonpossessive: you can leave the whole world. But if you remain the same, your non-possessiveness will not help much; your nakedness will not help much.

Your nakedness will become a new clothing for the ego.

Now the ego will be satisfied that "I have renounced all. I don't possess anything.

I have left my family" -- but the'I' will continue. And the'I' has to drop. Unless the'I' disappears, you will not be empty enough for the divine to enter. You will not have enough space for Him.

That is the meaning of Jesus when he says: AND WHOSOEVER DOTH NOT

BEAR HIS CROSS, AND COME AFTER ME, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE. To be a disciple is to die in the master and to relive in the master. It is to drop totally dead in the master so that his life flame can give you a new light and a new life.

Until you die, nothing is possible. And that is the great fear. You would like to be improved, you would like to become better. Then don't come to a man like Jesus.

He is not interested in bettering you, he is not interested in renovating the old house. He says, "We will demolish and we will make a new one," because if you renovate an old house it remains the old. It may deceive others, but it cannot deceive you. You know it is the old. The foundations remain the old, the structure remains the old. You polish it, you color it, you whitewash it -- a few patches here and there -- and then you think everything is new. It is not.

In life, never try to renovate, because something is fundamentally wrong. The base is wrong, the whole foundation is wrong. And on that foundation, you will remain wrong.

So I'm not interested in you becoming more religious, no. I'm not interested in you becoming more moral, no. I am not interested in you attaining a beautiful character, not at all. I am interested in you dying, so that a newness rushes in you. Only on your death is resurrection possible. And that which will resurrect will be the divine. That will be the divine!

Once you are ready to die, moral/immoral, sinner or saint, are all irrelevant.

Once you are ready to die, you have become capable. You open the door. You say to God, "Come in! "

But remember, God comes from the same door from where death comes in. If you are afraid of death you will remain afraid of God. God and death are two names of one phenomenon. If you are afraid, you interpret God as death. If you accept, you interpret death as God. Death itself becomes the beloved.

You wait. You wait as you would wait for your beloved. And death comes dancing! There is nothing like it. No longer can you conceive of anything which can transcend the beauty of it. Death becomes the beloved. Then death's garb is no more there. God is revealed!

This has to be done every moment, because every moment death knocks at your door. Every moment when you exhale, death knocks. Exhalation is death, inhalation is life. The first thing a child has to do is to inhale and the last thing the old man dying will do will be to exhale. With exhalation, death; with inhalation, life.

And this is happening every moment. Whenever you inhale, you are becoming alive again; whenever you exhale, again death. Death, life, death, life: that's how you move. They are two wings or two legs, two aspects of you. If you really die with each exhalation -- you relax and you surrender -- then with each inhalation you will revive. And you will feel such freshness that even the dew in the morning will be jealous! You will feel freshness such as the stars in the night feel.

That is eternal life. One who has learned the secret of how to die moment to moment has learned the secret of how to live eternally. Now death is impossible.

Death is possible only if you resist it. It is in your resistance that death exists.

Resistance is ego, death exists because of the ego. If you surrender, death disappears. Surrender is the key.

Jesus says:

AND WHOSOEVER DOTH NOT BEAR HIS CROSS, AND COME AFTER ME, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.

Not only does the father have to be denied, and the mother, and the sister and the brothers, but you have to deny your life also. Your life has to be denied so that God can live within you and through you. Both cannot live together within you, remember. Either you or God. You would like to also give Him a small room somewhere in your house, a small temple in a far corner of the house. You would like Him to live there, but that is not His way. He wants the whole house or nothing. This trick don't do.

I was staying with a friend. In the morning I saw him going to the garage. I asked him, "Where are you going?"

He said, "We have made a temple in the garage." They live in a palace and their God lives in the garage! Whom do you think you are befooling? And he was very happy. He thinks he is a very religious man.

The God lives in the garage, He's not even a welcomed guest. Even with a guest you behave well, even with a poor relative you behave well. Even a poor relative will feel offended if you put him in the garage. The God lives in the garage! He was very happy and he said, "We have made a very beautiful temple there. You come and see."

I said, "God cannot be there so I'm not coming. You go and do whatsoever you want to do, but this is not prayer."

God comes to you only when you completely give in, when you are completely empty and you say, "I am no more. Now you can come in." When you have vacated the throne, then only is He enthroned.

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #6

Chapter title: Politics And Love

5 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

Question 1

YOU SAID, "TEACHING IS THE BEST WAY OF LEARNING BUT YOU HAVE

ALSO SAID, "THE WORLD IS IRRELIGIOUS BECAUSE OF TOO MANY

PREACHERS. "WOULD YOU PLEASE SPEAK ON THE SUBTLE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN HELPING OTHERS AND TRYING TO CHANGE OTHERS.

THERE IS A VAST DIFFERENCE, and tremendously significant, between trying to change the other and helping him. When you help somebody you help him to be himself; when you try to change somebody you try to change him according to your idea. When you try to change somebody you try to make a carbon copy of him. You are not interested in him. You have a certain ideology, a fixed idea, an ideal. You change him according to the ideal. The ideal is more important, the real man is not important at all.

In fact, trying to change the other according to some ideal is very violent. It is aggression, it is an effort to destroy the other. It is not love, it is not compassion.

Compassion always allows the other to be himself. Compassion has no ideology, compassion is just a climate. It does not give you direction, it only gives you energy. Then you move. Then your seed has to sprout according to its own nature. There is nobody forcing anything on you.

When I say, "Go and help others," I mean: help them to be themselves. When I say, "The world is too irreligious because of too many preachers," I mean that so many people are trying to change, convert, transform others according to their own ideology. The idea should not be more important than the person. Even the whole humanity is not more important than a single human being. Humanity is an idea; a single human being is a reality.

Forget about humanity, remember the human being -- the real, the concrete, the throbbing, the alive. It is very easy to sacrifice human beings for humanity. It is very easy to sacrifice human beings for Islam, Christianity, Hinduism; it is very easy to sacrifice them for the idea of Christ, Buddha, Mahavir. Help, but don't sacrifice. Who are you to sacrifice anybody? Each individual is his own end.

Don't use him as a means.

That is the meaning when Jesus says: "The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Everything is made for man; man is the supreme value. Even God, the idea of God, is for man, and man is not for the idea of God. Sacrifice everything to man and don't sacrifice man to anything whatsoever. Then you help.

If you start sacrificing man, then you are not helping. You are destroying, you are crippling the other. You are violent, you are a criminal. So all your so-called mahatmas who try to change the other are criminals. One can just love, help, be ready to give unconditionally.

Share your being, but let the other move towards his own destiny. That destiny is unknown; nobody knows what is going to flower. Don't give a pattern, otherwise the flower will be crushed. And remember that each individual being is unique. There has never been such a being before and there is never going to be again. God never repeats, he is not repetitive. He goes on inventing.

If you are trying to make a man be like Jesus, you will be destructive. Jesus can never be repeated again. And there is no need. One is beautiful, many will just be boring. Don't try to make a man a Buddha. Let him become himself. That is HIS

Buddhahood. And neither you know, nor he knows, what he is carrying within himself. Only the future will show. Not only will you be surprised; HE will be surprised when his flower opens. Everybody is carrying a flower of infinite potentiality and power, of infinite possibility.

Help, give energy, love. Accept the other and give him a feeling that he is welcome. Don't give him a feeling of guilt, don't give him the idea that he is condemned. All those who are trying to change him give him a feeling of guilt, and guilt is poison.

When somebody says, "Be like Jesus!" he has denied you AS YOU ARE.

Whenever somebody says to be like somebody else, YOU are not accepted. You are not welcome, you are like an intruder. Unless you become somebody else, you will not be loved. What type of love is this which destroys you, and only when you become false, inauthentic...?

You can, authentically, only be yourself. All else will be false, all else will be just masks, personalities, but not your essence. You can decorate yourself with the personality of Buddha, but it will never touch your heart. It will never be related to you, it will not be connected with you. It will just be on the outside. A face, but never yours.

So whosoever is trying to make you somebody else and says, "I will love you if you become Buddha, Christ..." does not love you. He may be in love with Christ, but he hates you. And his love for Christ can also not be very deep, because if he has really loved Jesus, he would have understood the concrete uniqueness of every individual.

Love is a deep understanding. If you have loved one person, you have started a different quality of vision within you. Now you can see with a clarity. If you have loved Jesus, then whosoever comes before you -- you will see the reality of this man, of this concrete human being, of this potentiality herenow. And you will love this man, you will help this man to become whatsoever he can become.

You will not expect anything else. All expectation is condemning, all expectation is a denial, all expectation is a rejection. You will simply give your love -- for no reward, for no result. You will simply help, with no future in mind.

When love flows without any future, it is a tremendous energy. When love flows without motivation it helps, and nothing helps like it. Once you feel that even one single human being accepts you as you are, you feel centered. You are not unwelcome in this existence. At least one human being accepts you unconditionally. That gives you a grounding, a centering; that gives you a feeling that you are at home. And the more you are at home, the more you will be closer to God, because deepest in your heart is He. When you are close to yourself you are close to Him. When you are centered, you are IN Him.

When you are far away from yourself, you are far away from God. The distance between you and yourself is the distance between you and God, and there is no other distance. So whosoever says, "Become somebody else," is throwing you away from God. You will become false, you will carry masks. You will have personalities, character, and a thousand other things, but you won't have a soul; you won't have the essential. You will not be an awareness, you will be a deception: a pseudo-phenomenon, not authentic.

So when I say help, teach, I'm not giving you the idea to teach them. I'm saying: just create a climate around people. Wherever you move, carry the climate of love and compassion, and help the other to be himself.

That is the most difficult thing in the world -- to help the other to be himself --

because that is against your ego. Your ego would like to make imitators of people. You would like everybody to imitate you; you would like to become the archetype and have everybody follow you. Then your ego would be very, very fulfilled. You would think of yourself as the blueprint and everybody just has to follow you. You become the center and everybody becomes the false.

No, the ego will not like the idea. It wants to change others according to you. But who are you to change anybody? Don't take that responsibility. That is dangerous; that is how Adolf Hitlers are born. They take the responsibility of changing the whole world according to them.

There is much difference between a Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler. But deep down, no difference at all, because both have ideas of changing the world according to them. One may be using violent methods, the other may be using nonviolent methods, but both are using methods to change the other according to themselves. One may be using the bayonet, the other is threatening you that "I will go on a long fast if you don't follow me." One may be threatening to kill you and the other may be threatening that he will kill himself "if you don't follow me", but both are using force, both are creating situations in which you can be forced to be something that you don't want to be, that you never wanted to be.

They both are politicians. Neither Hitler loves you, nor Gandhi loves you.

Gandhi talks about love, but he does not love. He cannot love, because the very idea -- the ideal of how you should be -- creates trouble. There is only one way of loving people: to love them as they are.

And this is the beauty: that when you love them as they are, they change. Not according to you -- they change according to THEIR reality. When you love them, they are transformed. Not converted; transformed. They become new, they attain newer heights of being. But that happens in their being, and it happens according to their nature.

Help people to be natural, help people to be free, help people to be themselves, and never try to force anybody, pull and push and manipulate. Those are the ways of the ego. And that is what all politics is.

Question 2

IT IS BELIEVED THAT CHRIST WAS THE FIRST POLITICIAN OF LOVE IN

THAT HE TRIED TO SAVE THE WORLD BEFORE HE HAD SAVED HIMSELF, AND THAT WE ARE HIS CHILDREN: POLITICIANS OF LOVE, SEEKING

HEAVEN ON EARTH.

Politician, and Christ? Politics and love are impossible to be together. Love is anti-political; politics is anti-love.

I know politicians talk about love, but don't be deceived by their talk. They talk about peace and prepare for war. Never listen to what the politician says; always watch what he is doing. Whatsoever he says may be just a distraction, to distract you so you cannot see what he is doing. He goes on saying things absolutely contrary to what he is doing. That saying is a camouflage. It is a cover to hide.

That's why politicians go on talking -- so that you are not in any way helped to be aware of what they are doing. They distract by their talk. They don't communicate, they don't say much. In fact, they want to hide so that things are not known. They talk about peace and they all prepare for war. They talk about love and they all create hatred in the world.

But they are tricky, very diplomatic. When they say, "Love your country," they are saying, "Hate your neighbors." But they hide their hatred in the love of the country. When you say, "Love your motherland," nobody is going to raise any question about it. There is no question: everybody has to love his motherland.

But deep down in the teaching of the love of the motherland, they are preparing you for war. Then you start hating the neighbors: they don't belong to your nation, they don't belong to your race, they don't belong to your religion. Love your religion -- then what will you do with people who don't belong to your religion?

Of course, it has to be understood that you will hate them. If you love your religion, you will hate other religions; if you love your country, you will hate other countries; if you love your color, you will hate people who are of a different color. If you really want to love human beings you have to stop loving the country, you have to stop loving the religion. you have to stop loving your color. If you really want to love human beings you have to stop all political nonsense.

But they are very tricky -- diplomatic. They talk about love and they sow the seeds of hatred, they talk about nonviolence and they prepare you for violence.

They say they are preparing for war because without war. peace will be impossible. And they have talked such nonsense for so long that you don't even understand how contradictory they are. Then the whole humanity goes on moving in darkness.

Remember one thing: Christ is not a politician -- not even of love -- because politics is poisonous. It will poison love itself.

Christ is not a politician at all. I lad he been a politician, he would not have been crucified. Just a little diplomacy would have saved him. Just a little diplomacy: there was nothing much in it. But he was not a politician. That was the trouble.

He was very authentic and true, not diplomatic. He said whatsoever he felt.

Look: your so-called mahatmas are politicians. They try to live according to their principles, they try to BE according to their ideology. Whatsoever they preach, they try to live it.

Jesus is totally different. Whatsoever he lives, he preaches. There is the difference. A Mahatma Gandhi looks almost like Jesus. He's not. He tries to live whatsoever he preaches, but the preaching is important. He wants others also to live according to his preaching. and he himself tries to live according to his preaching.

Jesus is totally different. He says and preaches whatsoever he lives. When you preach whatsoever you live, you are exposed. You are open and vulnerable. You are true to yourself, but then you start becoming unfit with the society. Society is politics, it is diplomacy. Many things are not to be said, many things have to be said which are not true.

When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Jesus remained silent. He could have said something, he was an articulate man. He was a great poet in his utterances, he could have said something. And his whole life was depending on that. That was the last thing Pilate asked: "What is truth?" Jesus looked into his eyes and remained silent. Very undiplomatic, very nonpolitical. He embarrassed Pilate.

In that silence, Pilate felt very restless and uncomfortable. Jesus penetrated him deeply. His silence was something that he was saying from his heart.

But Pilate wanted words. Pilate was not asking, "Show me the truth!" He was asking, "What is truth? " He was asking for a definition. Jesus wouldn't give the definition because HE was truth -- and he was standing in front of him!

He looked into his eyes. He must have stirred his soul. Pilate became uneasy. He turned away from Jesus. He said to the priest, "Take this man away and do whatsoever you like. Crucify him."

I always think about it. In that moment, Pilate must have felt as if he was being crucified in silence. Just think about Jesus looking at you. All your falseness, all your masks, fall away because they cannot be there when Jesus looks at you.

Naked and nude you stand before him. Empty, with nothing.

Pilate was the governor-general of the Roman Empire. But inside, a poor man, a beggar. All that falseness cannot deceive Jesus; he penetrates deeply. All your worldly riches are useless. He looks deep down into you and the beggar is caught. The beggar starts becoming restless. This was not asked for.

If Jesus was a little diplomatic, he would have given a philosophical answer.

Pilate was a student of philosophy; he would have understood. Jesus could have convinced him, argued, persuaded. Pilate may have saved Jesus his life. But rather than saying anything he created a climate, a situation in which Pilate became very restless.

Just think: Jesus is looking in you. Silence becomes embarrassing. This man seems to be dangerous, as if he is pushing a dagger in your heart. Suddenly Pilate must have felt the emptiness, the poverty that he was. He turned aside. He said to the priest, "Take this man away and do whatsoever you like." But he must not have slept that night, or even for months. Jesus must have haunted him.

A very nondiplomatic answer. Jesus should have said the same thing that Pilate believed. That would have been diplomacy. Politicians say only the things you already believe. Then you are with them. They don't disturb, they console. Their answers are like ointments.

Jesus' answer to the question, "What is truth?" -- his answer is like a wound in the heart. For his whole life Pilate must have been haunted by the silence. "What did this man mean? Why did he remain silent, why did he look so deeply within me?

Why?" In his dreams it must have become a nightmare.

Jesus was not a politician, not even of love. Love cannot be politics.

Love is simple, not complex. Politics is very complex and cunning. Love is intelligence; politics is stupidity. Only mediocre people get interested in politics.

Love is tremendous intelligence; it is understanding. When you love, you are transformed through it.

Politics is always concerned with the society, the nation, is always concerned with the collectivity. Love is always concerned with the individual. Love flows between two souls, there is no other way. Just like a river flows between two banks. Love flows between two souls. Love is individual, intimate, close.

It can flow between one individual and the whole existence, because the whole existence has a soul. That soul is God. But it cannot flow between one individual and society. Society is just a word. It cannot flow between one individual and humanity. Humanity is just a word. There is nobody to receive it, there is nobody to respond to it.

Jesus loved, but he was not a politician. And Jesus never tried to change the society, remember. That was a misunderstanding on the part of the priests: that he was trying to change the society. He was not trying to change the society at all. He was trying to change the individual. And that, too, not according to his ideology, hut according to the individual's potentiality. There are a thousand and one instances....

Jesus never condemns, Jesus never creates any guilt. Jesus never says, "That is sin. Don't do it." He reveals what is sin, but he never says it. He makes you understand what is sin, but he never gives you a dead dogma in the hand.

In life, dead dogmas are useless. Only an alive consciousness is useful because every moment the sin and the virtue changes. Something was a virtue in the morning. It may not be virtuous in the evening. It depends on you, on others, on circumstances. It is not a dead thing that you can carry with you. It is changing every moment. Unless you have a flexibility, a sensitivity to change with life, you will not be able to know what is sin. Every moment life goes on moving.

Something was virtuous in a certain moment. The same thing can become a sin in another moment. So no dogma is possible.

Jesus gives a sensitivity to people. an awareness, a mindfulness, a meditation, so that they can feel their way, so that they can understand every situation and respond accordingly. If you go deeply into Jesus you will understand only one thing: that to act with awareness is virtue and to act with unawareness is sin. Sin is not a quality of any act. Neither is virtue. Sin and virtue belong to the presence or absence of awareness. It is not WHAT you do which is sin or virtue. it is HOW

you do it: aware or unaware. It doesn't depend on the action. It depends, deep down, on the consciousness -- what quality you bring to it.

Jesus loved. That was one of his crimes: that hc loved. A rabbi should preach, he should not love. A religious man should become an example, and induce and seduce people to follow his example. He was not an example at all. In the ordinary sense, he was not creating any ideal of his own. He was simply helping people to be more prayerful, to be more mindful, to be more watchful. And he lived, and loved.

He lived like a very ordinary man. But with very extraordinary awareness. He lived like a Zen master. Jews could not understand him, or only later on. Hassids would have understood, but they came very late. They would have understood him, they would have understood him absolutely. He was a Hassidic master, or a Zen master.

But his followers also misunderstood him. They thought that he was a politician and he had come to change the society. His enemies also misunderstood him.

The same has happened again and again. I am here. I am not interested in society at all, not a bit. But the politicians go on thinking that I'm planning in some way or other. I'm a conspirator and I'm planning something in secret way.s to change the society or the government. It is difficult to convince them that I'm not interested at all in their government or in their society. They can go on playing with these stupid toys. I'm not interested.

But they cannot understand because it is beyond them. They cannot see the point: that somebody is not interested in government, in governing people. They think there must be some deception; something is hidden behind it. They think my talk about religion -- changing the individual, loving the individual -- is just a facade. Behind it there must be politics. They can understand only politics, and they will see politics everywhere.

It is understood. I can understand it. They cannot go beyond their own minds. It is just like a pickpocket who comes to see a saint. He cannot see the saint, he only looks at the pockets. He is a pickpocket.

You walk on the road. Different people look at you in different ways. A shoemaker looks at your shoe and understands you according to the situation and the condition of the shoe. If the shoe is in a bad condition he knows that your economic position is not okay. If the shoe is not polished well he knows you may be unemployed. He need not see your face; he just Looks at your shoe.

If a man has been working on shoes for thirty, forty years, he becomes almost a psychologist. From the shoe he can say everything: what your financial position is, what your status in society is. Even what your mind is right now. When you are happy, you walk differently. When you are unhappy, you drag. The shoe can show that you have been dragging for long, as if you are pulling the whole load, the weight.

The shoe can show whether you are in love or not. Have you watched? When you are in love, you polish your shoes. Everything becomes significant. Some human being has become interested in you. Now everything is significant. When nobody loves you, you become careless. Who bothers whether the shoe is gathering dust? Let it gather. Nobody is interested in you -- why should you be interested in the shoe?

A policeman has a different type of shoe than a schoolmaster. You can see the shoe and you will know which is which. The policeman has to be violent, his shoes will show that he is violent. A schoolmaster is just a schoolmaster. The shoes will tell the whole story.

A shoemaker looks at the shoe, a pickpocket looks at the pocket, a hairdresser looks at the hair. He knows whether you are a square or a hippy. Your hair will show it. And this is not new. In India one of the names of Krishna is Keshava.

Keshava means'long-haired'. He was the first hippy in the world.

When a politician looks at a Jesus, or at me, immediately his understanding is political. He becomes afraid, he thinks a competitor has come. But Jesus is not a politician, a man who knows love cannot be a politician. Why? -- because politics is ambition; love is nonambitious.

Politics is a way to rule over others. Love never wants to rule. The very effort to rule and possess and be powerful is violent. It is part of hatred. Love gives, and gives unconditionally. Love does not possess. Love is not a monopoly, is not a power-lust.

How can love be politics? Please don't use that word with Jesus. He's not interested in changing the society. He is interested in changing the heart, the heart of man. Maybe society is changed through it, but that is irrelevant. It can happen as a consequence, but that is not a concern.

If the heart of man changes, the society is bound to change, because with a different man a different society will arise. But that is a consequence. Jesus is not interested in that. His whole interest is in how the kingdom of God can be felt within. That's why he goes on insisting, "The kingdom of God is within." It has nothing to do with the without. Politics is without; religion is within.

Love gives, politics takes; love shares, politics has nothing to share. It tries to possess.

Question 3

OSHO, I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM. I FEEL LIKE I NEED GROUNDING AT

SOME LEVEL. IS THERE NO PLACE FOR GROUNDING?

It is good that you don't know who you are, because all that you know will be wrong.

The depth of your being is indefinable. It has no name, no form. The innermost of your being is always unknown and unknowable. Socrates said, "Know thyself!" Not that you can know. He's saying: "Try to know yourself, and one day you will know that it is impossible to know." And when you come to a point where all knowledge disappears, and you stand in deep ignorance before yourself, that is the most beautiful experience, the greatest ecstasy.

Just think: if you can know yourself, by knowing you will become limited. You will become a commodity. By knowing about yourself you won't be happy; you will become very ordinary. Once known, you are finished with yourself. Then what will you do with it? Inquiry finished, you will be bored with yourself.

Your being is a mystery. The more you know, the less you know it. The deeper you go, the more you see the infiniteness. The depth is such that you cannot touch the bottom of it -- never. People who think they know themselves are very superficial. People of depth always become aware of something unknown. And it is beautiful because the unknown is always alive, the unknown is always infinite.

The unknown is eternal.

Socrates said, "Know thyself!" He means: try to know thyself. Not that you will be able to know. And after Socrates, a Roman, Marcus Aurelius, said. "Be thyself!" He is better than Socrates. To know thyself is impossible, but to be thyself is possible. There is no need to know. Just be. Knowledge is irrelevant; being is enough. Just BE yourself.

So don't try to find a definition of your being. It is impossible. Live it, you can.

Know it, you cannot. But why be bothered about knowing? Is not being enough?

There is an urge. a deep urge, a curiosity to open and know every mystery. But that urge is going to fail as you move within. If you move without, that urge can be fulfilled -- a little. Science can fulfill your urge because something can be known about matter. But that, too, I say'just a little'. If you go deeper, there also the unknown comes to be encountered. The deeper you go, the more knowledge becomes shaky. The deeper you go, the more everything is blurred.

One of the greatest scientist of the West, Eddington, has written in his autobiography that "When I started, the whole world looked like a mechanism.

When I started working, searching, inquiring, the world looked like a great mechanism, and I had the idea that someday or other the mechanism would be known."

He thought that existence could be divided in two categories: the known and the unknown. Known: that which we have known; and unknown: that which we will know someday or other, it is only a question of time.

At the end of his life he said, "Now life appears to be divided into three categories: the known, the unknown, and the unknowable." This unknowable....

The known and the unknown we can understand. It is only a question of time before the unknown can become known, because one day the known was unknown. But the unknowable? That which cannot be known, which is impossible to be known? With that category, religion enters in.

Then Eddington said, "Now as I look at the world, it doesn't look like a mechanism. Rather, it looks like a thought. Very mysterious." Had he lived a little longer. he would have certainly said that "Now it does not even look like a thought, because a thought has a structure, a logic. It looks like a poem or a song."

And a song just like birds sing in the morning. Beautiful -- but you cannot make anything out of it. Beautiful AND meaningless. Tremendously beautiful, it can be enjoyed. But the meaning? There is none.

This is my understanding: unless you can enjoy the meaningless, you will never become religious. God, to me, is the meaningless beauty that surrounds you, the meaningless song that is heard all around: the meaningless murmur of a brook, the meaningless whisper of the winds, the meaningless silence of the stars.

Tremendously beautiful, but meaningless. Why do I say meaningless? Because it is unknowable.

A thing remains meaningless unless it is known. Once you know, then it is meaningful. And I tell you, stars are mysterious, but they are nothing compared to your inner being. Rivers are mysterious, but they are nothing compared to your inner stream of consciousness. The Himalayas are mysterious, but nothing as compared to your inner peaks of ecstasy.

Be, rather than know. Marcus Aurelius looks to me to be of more and deeper understanding when he says, "Be thyself!" than Socrates when he says, "Know thyself!" Though I know well that you cannot be yourself unless you try the Socratic dictum: know thyself! Try to know. You will never be able to know, and by and by, you will drop the inquiry of knowing and you will start being.

Knowing is philosophy, being is religion.

One of the greatest American Christian theologians of this century, Paul Tillich, was once asked -- at the end of his life, somebody in Santa Barbara, a student, asked him -- "Sir, do you pray? "

He said, "No, I meditate."

But if you ask me, I will say, "No, I don't even meditate. I just am."

Prayer is duality: you and God. Without God you cannot pray: the other is needed. It is a dependence. Right is Tillich. He says, "No, I don't pray." The answer is not Christian, the answer is Buddhist. He says: "I meditate."

Meditation is a freedom -- freedom from God also, because-even He is not needed. You cannot pray without God, because to whom will you pray? To whom will you raise your head? To whom will you raise your eyes? To whom will you talk, with whom will the dialogue be? A God is needed. Maybe He is there or maybe He is not there -- that is irrelevant -- but prayer requires a God.

It is a dependence. Without God, the man who is praying will immediately stop praying. If there is no God -- or the news comes that He is dead, or has been assassinated or something like that, or just died of old age -- the man who is praying will immediately stop, will throw his rosary and will say, "Finished!

Now there is no point. To whom to pray? "

Prayer is a dependence. That is how Buddhism goes higher than Christianity.

Even if God dies, it will not disturb the man who is meditating. He will say, "It is okay. It matters not whether He is alive or not. It was never a requirement to me.

I am enough unto myself."

The man who meditates, meditates alone. But if you ask me, "Do you meditate, Sir? " I will say, "No, I don't even meditate. I just am" -- because in meditation some activity is involved. The other is not there, you are not in a dialogue, but you are doing something. The doing is there. The doing becomes the other: the doer and the doing. You are meditating.

Meditation is an action, you are doing something. Sometimes you meditate and sometimes you don't meditate. That is not worth much because something that sometimes is, and sometimes is not, cannot be your nature. Your nature is always there, it does not depend on any doing.

I just am. And that is the greatest prayer, that is the greatest meditation. That is what Zen masters say. If you ask them what they do they say, "We chop wood, we carry water. When we feel hungry we eat, and when we feel tired we sleep."

This is what I mean when I say I am. Even the dependence on doing something is no longer there.

Prayer needs the other, meditation needs action -- being needs nothing. And when you are in tune with that which needs nothing, then for the first time you are in tune; then for the first time you are grounded.

You ask me: "Osho, I don't know who I am." There is no need. There is no need to know who you are. The only need is: don't be anything else. just be that which you don't know you are. Lust be that. Don't move outside it. There is no need to know it because you ARE it already. Whether you know it or don't know it, makes no difference. Knowledge will not add anything to it. Not knowing will not take anything out of it, knowing will not add anything to it, so what is the point? You ARE!

Call the rose by another name, it remains a rose. Whether you know the name of the rose or not, it remains a rose. And whether you call it'rose' or don't call it'rose', the rose is not bothered. It is. Emerson says somewhere in his diary that

"Outside my window the rosebush is blooming. The rosebush is not bothered with who it is. The roses are not comparing themselves with other roses of the past and they are not thinking of the future roses. Just in this moment they are with God. This day, they are with God."

In your being, you ARE God. I will not even say with God. In your being, just this very moment, you are God, you are divine. No knowledge is needed.

Don't be worried about it. Nobody has ever known who he is. He is! And all those who have said that they know are just repeating cliches. They must have read it in the scriptures. But those are only words. You can say: "I am BRAHMA,"

or "I am ATMAN," or "I am the supreme self," but these words are cliches. They are ugly. They don't say anything, they don't mean anything.

"I feel like I need grounding." Yes, that's good. You need it. But grounding has nothing to do with knowledge; grounding has something to do with being.

That's why I say Marcus Aurelius is better than Socrates when he says, "Be thyself!"

"Is there no place for grounding? " Place is part of space. Time and place are not there in being -- space and time both disappear there. You will be grounded only when you come to a certain state within: where you cannot say who you are, where you cannot say where you are, where you cannot say when you are.

Everything has stopped; time does not move. The clock may be moving: tick-tock, tick-tock; it may be moving. You can listen, but time does not move -- only the futile gesture of the clock. Something deep within you has stopped. That is the point I call'the point of no-when'.

And there is no space. You cannot say where you are, the where is irrelevant.

You cannot show on the map where you are. You are no more on the map, you don't belong to the map. You are no more part of the measured, you are no more part of the charted. You are transcendence.

You can look at space, but you are not in space; you can look at time, but you are not in time. Then you are grounded. This is what I call'being'; this is what Jesus calls'the kingdom of God': this is what Buddha calls'nirvana'.

Yes, you need grounding. But it would be better to say, "You are already grounded. You just need awareness." How can you be if you are not grounded?

You are already in God. I-low can you be otherwise? There is no other way to be, that is the only way there is. But you are not aware. Become more and more alert, watchful. No need to be worried about knowledge: who you are. Just become aware,

Whosoever you are: X,Y,Z -- that unknown acts. Whosoever you are, just become alert and aware. Let that unknown within you, or unknowable within you, not fall into a stupor and sleep. Awake it. Don't allow it to move into dreams anymore. Shake it out of sleep and suddenly you will see that you are already grounded. In fact, whatsoever is needed is already there. Just a turning about is needed.

That is what Jesus means when he says, "Return! The kingdom of God is at hand." He's talking about your hands. The kingdom of God is always at hand.

Just stretch your hand a little and you will be able to touch it. That stretching of the hand is what I mean by awareness.

Question 4

HAVING NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRULY FALL IN LOVE, TO

KNOW THAT SURRENDER, IS THAT KEEPING ME FROM TRULY FALLING

IN LOVE WITH YOU, BEING IN THAT MAD STATE OF LOVE? IS IT

ENOUGH JUST TO FEEL QUIET LOVE, RESPECT -- THOUGH NOT

NECESSARILY THAT ODD FORM OF INSANITY?

Don't be worried. Because you must be comparing yourself with others, that creates the problem. This is YOUR odd kind of insanity.

Everybody has his own way of being in love. Never compare it. Somebody may be dancing, may be ecstatic and singing, and somebody else may be sitting silently with closed eyes. Both are mad in their own ways. Don't think that you are not mad and the one who is dancing is mad, because one who is dancing will think, "Are you mad? You have fallen in love and are still sitting with closed eyes? What are you doing there? Dance!"

Everybody has his own way of madness also. Just as nobody has the same face as you, nobody has the same eyes as you, nobody has the same fingerprints as you -

- nobody has the madness that you have. Everything is unique.

Everybody falls in love in his own way. And it is good; it has to be so. Never compare. With comparison the trouble arises. Then you feel that you are missing something. Your love is calm and quiet and respectful. Then you start thinking there must be something wrong. Why are you not so passionately in love? Why are you not like a storm, why are you blowing like a small breeze? But that is your way. And God needs both. Storm and storm and storm.... He also needs a little rest. A little breeze is always handy.

Don't be worried. This is how God is happening to you. Never compare. Just look within you and enjoy whatsoever is happening so it can happen more.

Enjoy it, delight in it, and it will happen more. You may become even more gentle; even the breeze may disappear and stop. It has happened that way also.

There are as many ways towards God as there are seekers. Everybody has his own way and there are no superways, remember -- no superhighways.

Everybody walks on his own path.

In fact, the path is not found ready-made. You create it by walking, and it disappears when you have gone on ahead. Nobody else can walk on it; it is never left behind. It is just like the birds flying in the sky. Once they have flown, they don't leave any footprints. Nobody can follow it. There is no need.

Don't compare. Be contented with yourself. Enjoy, delight -- help yourself to be yourself. This is YOUR way.

Question 5

I WAS NOT LOOKING FOR YOU, AND YET YOU FOUND ME. I WAS NOT

DESERVING. THERE ARE OTHERS I KNOW WHO HAVE TRIED HARDER TO

FIND THE TRUTH. WHY HAVE I BEEN SO LUCKY?

Because you are so humble.

It is possible that you may be trying hard, but the effort comes out of the ego.

You may not be trying, you may be simply waiting, but that waiting can come out of humbleness. Effort, with ego, will fail. Even no effort, with humbleness, will succeed. If you feel that "I was not looking for you, and yet you found me," if you feel "I was not deserving" -- that's how you have deserved it. That's how!

Feeling that you were not looking for me, I have found you. Your deep humbleness, deep humility, has created the situation. It is only in humbleness that a master is found, it is only in humbleness that the divine happens.

Your effort is of no use because it is YOURS. The'you' is too much. That will hinder the path.

Question 6

BEFORE YOU FOUND ME I HAD ALREADY RENOUNCED MY FAMILY.

RACE AND RELIGION. NOW IT HAS ALL CHANGED. I HAVE NEVER FELT

SO AFFECTED AS NOW, SINCE MY PARENTS AND SISTER ARE

SANNYASINS TOO. SOMETHING SPECIAL AND INDESCRIBABLE HAS

HAPPENED BETWEEN ME AND THEM, I FEEL. AND IN JUDAISM I FIND

MYSELF AND ACCEPT MYSELF. WHAT IS HAPPENING?

This is what should happen.

Jesus says, "Hate your father, hate your mother, hate your brethren and sisters."

He cannot teach hate -- he must be using hate as a means towards real love. And this is what has happened. You had already renounced your family, race and religion, but that renunciation must have been out of ego. It was not a rebellion; it must have been a reaction. You must have done it without knowing what you were doing.

It may have broken you away from the family, but it didn't join you with the greater family of existence. It separated you from the family, but it simply separated you. It was just a divorce it was not a marriage to the greater. It was impotent.

Then you came to me. You became different. You meditated, you became a little more alert and then, by and by, your change became a magnetic force to your family also, whom you had renounced. Then your father, your mother, and your sister also came.

It simply happens that if you are changed you become a magnetic force. And of course, those who have been related to you very deeply are affected immediately. If one person in the family changes, the whole family is affected immediately, They may start defending. That, too, is the sign. They may start fighting. That, too, is a symbol that they are being affected. Now they cannot remain the same; something has to be done.

They came, they also changed, and you again became a part of your family, in a totally new dimension. The marriage has happened now in a totally new dimension. Now your family is just part of the greater family I'm creating -- of the greater sangha, the community that I'm creating. Now, through me, you have become joined again.

That's why Christians go on signing their signatures: "Yours in Jesus." That is very meaningful. Now there is no other bridge. If you love Jesus, Jesus has become the bridge. You may have been a friend to somebody. Then Jesus came to you. Now the friendship has taken on a totally different meaning, a different poetry. Now you are no longer directly related to the person. Jesus is always somewhere by the corner, Jesus is always somewhere in between, flowing. Now the friend is no more an ordinary friend. He has also become divine through Jesus, and you say, "Yours through Jesus."

This will happen to you all by and by. You will be rejoined to the same family you renounced, through me.

Question 7

THE LAST FEW DAYS THIS HAPPENS: WHENEVER I FEEL I NEED TO BE IN

TUNE WITH MY CENTER, IMMEDIATELY I SEE THE IMAGE OF A VERY

CALM, DEEP LAKE SURROUNDED BY MOUNTAINS. ALL IS PEACE AND IN

DEEP HARMONY. I SEE MYSELF SITTING EITHER ON THE BORDER OF THE

LAKE OR ON THE MOUNTAINTOP -- JUST SITTING AND WATCHING IN

CALM HAPPINESS. THERE ARE ALWAYS WHITE AND BLACK BIRDS

SILENTLY FLYING AROUND. THE PLACE IS NOT FROM THIS WORLD, AND YET IT IS FROM THIS WORLD. THE IMAGE CENTERS ME

IMMEDIATELY. I SEEM TO NEED IT, BUT STILL IT FEELS A BIT CHILDISH; AND ALTHOUGH IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE I AM DOING SOMETHING. I AM

YET DOING. PLEASE COMMENT.

This is good -- healthy and wholesome. This is one of the old meditation techniques. You may not be doing it knowingly, but you may have done it in some past life. It may have simply surfaced again. But it is one of the most beautiful techniques. As far as techniques go, this technique also goes.

Use it. And don't feel it is childish because all happiness is childish, all joy is childish, all delight is childish. Enjoy it; become a child. And when the work is done, the technique will disappear. When the work is done, the picture of the lake and the mountains and the birds will disappear by and by. The picture will disappear but the calmness will remain. The lake will go but the rippleless lake of your consciousness will be left behind.

Enjoy it as much as you can. This has something to do with your past. You may have done it before. Now it has again surfaced. It happens: if people have been doing certain methods in their past lives and they have been left incomplete, when they meditate again, suddenly some technique erupts, surfaces, and possesses them completely. Then you are not doing it. It is happening.

And that is one of the most significant things to be understood. If a method happens to you without doing, that is the method for you. When you do something, it is different; when it HAPPENS, it is totally different. When it happens, it is nearer to the heart. When you DO. it is nearer to the head.

Allow it, enjoy it, let the scenic beauty of the lake completely surround you.

Forget yourself; be in it totally. It will center you. And once the work is done, all pictures will disappear. When only you are left -- the lake is no more, the birds are no more; nothing is there to be seen, only the seer is left -- then the real meditation happens. That's what I call'being', just being. That is the ultimate.

But this technique can be helpful. When it is happening by itself, it can be very helpful. Allow it. It is healthy and wholesome. And don't think it is childish. All beauty, all happiness, all ecstasy is childish. God is childish!

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #7

Chapter title: He that heareth the word

6 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

MATTHEW I3

10 AND THE DISCIPLES CAME, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY SPEAKEST

THOU UNTO THEM IN PARABLES?

11 HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO

YOU TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT TO

THEM IT IS NOT GIVEN.

12 FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL

HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER HATH NOT, FROM HIM

SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH.

18 HEAR YE THEREFORE THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER.

19 WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, AND

UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT, WHEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE, AND

CATCHETH AWAY THAT WHICH WAS SOWN IN HIS HEART. THIS IS HE

WHICH RECEIVED SEED BY THE WAY SIDE.

20 BUT HE THAT RECEIVED THE SEED INTO STONY PLACES, THE SAME IS

HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD, AND ANON WITH JOY RECEIVETH IT; 21 YET HATH HE NOT ROOT IN HIMSELF, BUT DURETH FOR A WHILE: FOR WHEN TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION ARISETH BECAUSE OF THE

WORD, BY AND BY HE IS OFFENDED.

22 HE ALSO THAT RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE THAT

HEARETH THE WORD; AND THE CARE OF THIS WORLD, AND THE

DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, CHOKE THE WORD, AND HE BECOMETH

UNFRUITFUL.

23 BUT HE THAT RECEIVED SEED INTO THE GOOD GROUND IS HE THAT

HEARETH THE WORD, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT; WHICH ALSO

BEARETH FRUIT, AND BRINGETH FORTH, SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD, SOME SIXTY, SOME THIRTY.

JESUS IS LIKE A DIAMOND. Every facet of him contributes to the brilliance of the whole. To the sorrowing, he brings solace; to seekers, he brings knowledge; to the poor, he brings the kingdom of God; to the rich, he brings poverty of the spirit; to the strong humility; to the weak, strength. He's many things, and he's different to each one who comes to him. He has many faces, many aspects, and it has to be so.

The same is with Buddha, the same is with all those who have awakened, because when they talk to YOU, or relate to YOU, they talk to you and they relate to you. They respond. They cannot give more than that which you can take: they cannot give you that for which you have not asked; they cannot give you that for which you are not ready. They can only give you that for which you have come.

It depends on you who Jesus will prove to you to be. He is a response, he reflects you. Remember this. Because of this, many complexities have arisen. Many people will give you different reports. They all are true -- and no one is totally true. They all talk only of facets, parts of Jesus that have been revealed to them.

Hence so many stories....

Buddha died and immediately there was great turmoil amongst his followers.

The sangha divided into many parts. The community could not remain one because there were different reports -- as if Buddha was not one man but many.

He was one, absolutely one, but he reflected so many people that they knew him in different ways -- according to their capacity, according to their receptivity, according to their readiness. They all said different things. Not only different, but quite contradictory to each other. The community had to divide.

The same happened with Mahavir: the community had to divide. The same happened with Jesus: the community could not remain one. And the reason is: Jesus is different to different people. He has to be, he is just a pure mirror. You come and he reveals your face to yourself. He exists so that you can realize yourself, He has no other idea to force upon you, He has no idea at all, he is simply a helper. If you come to him in search of knowledge, he will reveal that to you. If you come to him in search of love, you will be benefitted by his compassion and love. If you come to him as a sinner, he will give you salvation.

But it depends on you; he echoes you.

This has to be understood. Then these sutras will be very simple.

AND THE DISCIPLES CAME, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY SPEAKEST THOU

UNTO THEM IN PARABLES?

The disciples were noticing that whenever he talks to the masses, he always talks in parables. Whenever he talks to them in privacy, he talks differently.

It has to be so. A disciple is different. A disciple is one who has committed his a]l. He's not just a follower. A follower is one who is impressed and still hesitating. And the ordinary masses are neither followers nor disciples. They may be curious to know who this man is, they may be intrigued by this man, they may be amused by this man -- a few of them may become followers later on and a few of the followers may become disciples later on -- but the masses are still not related to him.

They have come to him as curiosity seekers, just by the way. Somebody has told them, "Here comes Jesus. A great man, the son of God," and they got interested.

They may lose interest again, they may go on their paths and forget everything about him -- or. at the most, he may remain a beautiful memory -- but he will not be a transformation to them.

So these are the three types of people to whom Jesus is relating: the masses, the followers, and the disciples. The disciples are a chosen few. The disciples are those who have come to decide that this man is their salvation, and they have staked all that they had. Now they are ready to die for him. If they live, they will live for him; if they die, they will die for him. Now there is no turning back. They have come to the point of no return. They watch this man, they love this man --

now this man has become their very life. The innermost secrets can only be revealed to these disciples.

The mysteries can be revealed only to those who are so ready that even if death is needed they will not shirk, they will not hesitate. And death is needed. To know the ultimate secret you will have to die, and until you die that ultimate secret cannot be born within you. To receive him, you will have to disappear. So only to these few disciples can the truth be revealed in its directness, in its immediacy.

To the followers: something of the truth, but not direct; something of the truth, but not immediate; something of the truth, but garbed; something of the truth, but hidden. They will have to work. Only then will they be able to know what has been said to them.

To the masses: just parables. Parables are faraway echoes of truth. If somebody insists, then there is a thread in the parable. I use the word SUTRA. It is a Sanskrit word. It means'the thread'.

It is very significant. When I say'these sutras', I mean'these threads'. If you catch hold of them, you can reach to the ultimate. They are like arrows from the ultimate which have reached to your heart. If you follow the path of the arrow backwards, you will reach to the ultimate. These are threads, sutras.

A parable is a sutra. It simply gives you a thread, a hint, an indication. A very subtle hint and a very delicate thread it gives to you. You have to be in search.

Then the parable, by and by, will reveal its treasure to you. It is not revealed on the surface. If you take the obvious as the actual, it will just be a beautiful story.

If you are deceived by the obvious, you will lose track of the hidden, The obvious is not the actual in the parable. In the parable it has many coverings. You will have to uncover; you will have to work hard.

I have heard a true story about a man who had parked his car in front of a supermarket. When he came back, his car was almost destroyed. Somebody has crashed into the car: the front was completely gone. And there was no visible sign of the other car or the other man. His heart sank.

Then he found a small piece of paper tucked under the windshield wiper. He felt happy: the man had left his address and name. He took out the.scrap with trembling hands. He opened the paper. It was written on the paper: "While am writing this note to you, at least two hundred people are watching me, They all think that I am writing my name and address. I am not! " That was all. The obvious is not the actual. And they believed, those tWo hundred persons, that he had written his address and name and tucked the paper under the windshield.

The man is gone... those two hundred people are gone. Nobody bothered to see what he had written.

If you take a parable as the obvious, you will miss the whole point of it. The obvious i.s not the actual. The actual is hidden, very deeply hidden -- as if a diamond has been hidden in.side an onion. You uncover, you uncover: there are layers and layers of onion, and then the diamond is revealed.

A parable is a diamond hidden in an onion. The obvious is not the actual; the actual is totally different. A parable i.s a way of saying some truth of tremendous import, but in such a way that even a child can understand, can feel that he has understood. But a parable needs deep understanding to be discovered. A child can feel he has understood and even a very mature person may feel that something goes on eluding him. A parable is both simple and very complex. It is a story on the.surface; it is a secret within.

Jesus talked to the masses in parables, small stories. Ordinary people could understand them. And if you work on them, even extraordinary intelligences may miss the point. Nobody has talked like Jesus. His parables are the most beautiful in the whole history of the human mind.

Buddha tells stories, but they cannot be compared to Jesus' parables. Buddha's stories are plain. They say something, but whatsoever they say is obvious. They are not parables, they are stories. They are to explain something. He will say something and to make it explicit, he will tell a story. The story is secondary. The story can be dropped because he has asserted the truth first and then he explains the truth by a story. It is not a parable. When the truth is hidden in the story and is not asserted outside of it. then it is a parable.

Buddha's stories can be dropped, because whatsoever he has said in the stories he has said directly also. He will always say the truth first and then he will say the story -- to explain it. Buddha's stories are explanatory.

Jesus' parables are not explanatory. Whatsoever he wants to say, he says IN

them. You have to dig deep, you have to move inside the story. A parable is like a Chinese box: box within box, box within box. You go on and you find another smaller box inside. A parable has many layers, as many layers as there are types of man.

Gurdjieff uses the categorization of seven types of man. The first type, number one, is body-oriented. If he listens to the parable, he will only touch the body of the parable, the surface. The obvious will be the actual for him. He will listen to the story, he will enjoy the story, he will go home and tell the story to his children. They will also enjoy, and everybody will forget about it. It is a story: to be enjoyed.

Number two, the man who lives in his feelings, will suspect something deeper than the body. He will suspect some poetry in it, some romantic dimension will open to him. The parable will not be only a parable, a story; it will be a poem, a condensed poetry. He will enjoy it deeply. He will be thrilled, tears may come to his eyes. Or he may dance to it. But that's all. A good poem is also a good poem.

It does not transform you. It gives a thrill, and it is gone. It is like a breeze that comes, touches you, refreshes you, and then it is gone.

Man number three, the rational man, will try to understand the meaning. The parable will become philosophy to him. He will rationalize about it and around it. It will be a dry thing, but he will make a theory out of it.

These are ordinary categories: man number one, man number two, man number three. They're all here: you can find these three types everywhere. This is ordinary humanity, the masses.

Man number four is not confined to the body or to the feelings or to the reason.

Man number four has risen above them. He has become an awareness, a watcher.

He will understand the deep significance of the parable and the significance will be life-transforming, He will become a follower. He may become, later on, a disciple. He may be transformed totally.

AND THE DISCIPLES CAME. AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY SPEAKEST THOU

UNTO THEM IN PARABLES?

"Why don't you say things directly? Why are you indirect and indirect? Why do you go around and around? Why not hit them directly and say things directly? "

One very well-known Christian preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick, has said that every man is an island. If you want to land on the island, you have to row around and around to find the right place for landing.

Yes, he's right. Every man is an island and if you want to make contact, real contact, you have to row around and around to find the right place and the right time to land. If you land from the wrong place you will be rejected; if you land in the wrong moment you will not be accepted. If you land from the right place, in the right moment, you will be a welcome guest; otherwise you will be an intruder. One h3s to wait. A parable is a going around and around the island of man to find from where to land.

But the disciples can't understand it. Why? Why does he speak in a different way to them? And whenever there are multitudes, why does he change his ways and start talking in roundabout language?

The disciples are those whose gates are open for Jesus. There is no need to go round and round. The disciples are those whose landings have been already found. They ARE in contact with Jesus; Jesus is always welcome, ALWAYS

welcome. They are waiting, intensely awaiting him. They have become just a deep waiting for him. He's the bridegroom: they have become his brides. Their hearts are open. There is no need to go around and around.

But for the masses, each man is an island and the landing has to be found. And the right moment.

WHY SPEAKEST THOU UNTO THEM IN PARABLES?

HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO YOU

TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT TO THEM

IT IS NOT GIVEN.

To whom is it given to know the mysteries of heaven? To whom is it not given?

Those who seek, those who knock at the door of heaven -- it is given for them.

Those who are standing without knocking -- or those whose back is at the gate of heaven, or those who have become completely oblivious that heaven exists -- for them it is not given.

Unless you are moving in the direction of God, God cannot move in your direction. If you are moving against Him, how can He reach you? If you are closed to Him. how can He open you? If you are denying Him, how can He come and become a guest in your heart? No, then it i.s not given; heaven is not given to you.

Jesus said:

BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO YOU TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT TO THEM IT IS NOT GIVEN.

But they can turn, they can start moving in the direction of God. It takes the same energy whether you move against Him Or for Him; the same effort is needed. In fact, to move against Him needs more effort because then you are moving against the current. To move towards God needs no effort because then you are flowing with the stream. There is no need for any effort.

People think that when somebody attains to God it is a miracle. That is not right.

The miracle is that which is done by you -- that you have lost God. That's a miracle. That is something, a great achievement. It is so hard to go against, it needs so much effort, it needs so much struggle. And struggle for nothing, because in the end the hands are empty.

To achieve to God is to relax, to start flowing towards Him. You need not do anything. If you are just in a deep let-go, the river takes you over. God possesses you if you allow Him

"Repent, return, the kingdom of God is at hand." It has always been at hand, but you have become deaf to the message. You listen to it and yet you don't hear it.

You hear it sometimes, but you don't understand it. There are a few moments when you understand it also, but you never bring it to y our life. It never becomes existential. It remains a fragrance in the mind and then disappears.

HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO YOU

TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. BUT TO THEM

IT IS NOT GIVEN.

"That's why I have to talk in parables to them." Only parables can they understand, only through parables will a possibility linger around them. They will remember the parable and in some moment of tranquility, calmness, collectedness, the parable may start functioning. The seed will remain with them and when the rains come, maybe it will sprout. It will wait for the right moment... and someday the right moment will be there.

They may be feeling happy, or they may be feeling very calm and quiet, or they may be feeling relaxed. Suddenly they remember the parable, and some new meaning arises. It was not there when they heard it because a meaning depends on your being; it depends on you what meaning you give to a certain thing.

I was reading a story. Two psychiatrists lived in the same building. Every evening they would come back from their offices and they often rode on the same elevator together. The elevator man was very much intrigued by one thing that happened again and again. The first psychiatrist, as he got out of the elevator, would invariably turn back and spit on the other psychiatrist. The other would smile, calmly take his handkerchief out of his pocket and wipe his face, or the tie, or the coat. Sometimes the elevator man even heard that he would chuckle to himself.

He got more and more curious. One day he could not contain himself. As he was closing the door on the first psychiatrist he asked, "For heaven's sake, doctor, tell me why your colleague goes on doing this to you."

The other psychiatrist laughed and said, "Oh, I don't know. This is his problem.

How can I know? But why should

be bothered? Poor man, that is HIS problem."

Somebody spitting on your face.... Really, it is his problem; it has nothing to do with you. But you make it your problem. Then you are disturbed, then you are worried, then you start thinking of how to take revenge.

Can you see the point of the story? The meaning depends on you, the interpretation is yours. Even when somebody is spitting on your face you can laugh, you can smile -- you can even feel compassion for the poor man. He must be having a great problem, otherwise why?

A parable is just a seed given to you. How to uncover it, when to uncover it, will depend on you and your moods. Sometimes it happens that you may hear something today and you may not understand it. Years will pass and then suddenly one day you have understood it. Years have passed. What has happened in those years? You have changed. You have become more mature; you have gained more experience. You are no longer the same. The parable is the same, but you are no longer the same. Every moment you are changing, and a changed you will find a different meaning in the same parable.

Jesus talks to the masses in parables because they are not yet ready. Nobody knows when they will be ready. But something has to be given to them. A gift from Jesus: a parable. Right now they may be simply amused, simply delighted in hearing a beautiful story, but while they are delighting, the parable is entering within them.

Unaware, they have opened their heart. The parable will be there then. It will wait for its timing, its season. It will wait for the man to be ready. Then one day -

- after years, and sometimes even after many lives -- the parable will come to a flowering, and the truth that the seed carried will be revealed.

To those who are ready, the truth can be said right now. They will hear it and they will understand it. But for those who are not ready, something has to be given to them also.

Then Jesus says a very paradoxical thing, one of the most paradoxical that he ever uttered -- but very significant. Always remember, whenever you find a paradox in Jesus, Lao Tzu, Krishna, remember, something very, very significant, tremendously significant, is being asserted. The greater the truth, the more difficult it is to assert it in ordinary language. A paradox has to be used for it because a paradox is a unity of dualism. It contains the opposites. And greater truths always contain the opposites.

Jesus said:

FOR WHOSOEVER HATH...

Listen to it well!

FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL

HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER HATH NOT, FROM HIM

SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH.

Looks very cruel -- unkind, hard. We would have thought just the opposite: give to those who don't have, and if you want to take away, take away from those who already have too much. Jesus says just the reverse. He says: to those who have, more will be given: and those who have not, even that which they have will be taken away. This is one of the most fundamental laws. This is so.

In ordinary life, in the worldly life, just the opposite law functions. In ordinary life this is how we think: that a poor man should be given more. If you take away from the rich, nothing is wrong; but if you take away from the poor and give it to the rich -- can you conceive anything more wrong than this? You give to the healthy and take away from the sick?

Out of this law, communism is born. Communism says: give to those who don't have and take away from those who have. As far as this world goes it is okay, but in the other world, the kingdom of God, it is totally different. Only to those who have will more be given. And from those who don't have, will be taken away even that which they have. Why?

If you meditate, more meditation will be happening to you. If you don't meditate, even those few moments which happen on their own of calm, of quiet, will be taken away. If you are getting crystallized within you, the whole existence will help you to be deeper in crystallization. Everything will help to integrate you. If you are not getting crystallized and you are becoming a bigger and bigger crowd every day, everything will help to make you become even a greater crowd.

Whatsoever is happening to you in the inner world, existence helps it.

Whatsoever. If you are growing inside, God helps you to grow more. If you are falling apart, getting split. getting fragmented, the whole helps you to become more fragmented. In the inner world you have to earn; you cannot get anything without earning it. You cannot get anything without working hard for it. You cannot get anything unless you deserve it.

FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL

HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER HATH NOT, FROM HIM

SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH.

Jesus said to his disciples: "You have something. I give you more, I add more to it." More can be given only when you have something, because if you don't already have something, you will not be able to absorb the more that is given to you.

If you don't have anything of the inner consciousness and I give to you, it will be lost. It will be a wastage. To absorb that which is given by Jesus or Buddha, or by any master, you need a foundation. If you don't have the foundation already, nobody is going to give to you because that is sheer wastage. It may even prove dangerous. Whatsoever you get without earning it will be a danger to you because it will never become a part of you. It will be a burden. It can crush you, but it cannot help you to grow.

The more you absorb, the more will be flowing towards you. If you don't have, nothing can be added to it.

HEAR YE THEREFORE THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER.

And Jesus told them a parable:

WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, AND

UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT, THEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE. AND

CATCHETH AWAY THAT WHICH WAS SOWN IN HIS HEART. THIS IS HE

WHICH RECEIVETH SEED BY THE WAY SIDE.

Jesus is saying something which is very meaningful, but he is saying it in the language that was prevalent in those days. The language has become out of date now. But Christians go on insisting on it. That creates a very embarrassing situation. The meaning will never be obsolete, but language always becomes obsolete; it is no longer in fashion.

Jesus says:

WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, AND

UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT, THEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE -- THE

DEVIL.

That is the language of those days. I here is no devil, there is no personality.

There is neither personality in the devil, nor in God. Both are impersonal phenomena. But this is a way of saying something. And beautiful, very poetic. It is a parable.

Jesus says: "If you hear the kingdom of God" -- the word, the news, the good news -- "and you don't understand it, immediately the devil enters your heart and takes it away." This is just a way of saying something. Try to understand it.

Science, today's science, has come to know many mysteries of life, without understanding them. They have come to know, but they have not understood.

The secret of atomic energy was known: immediately the devil entered: it could not help humanity. Such a great secret... it could not help. On the contrary it became destructive: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And there is every fear that it may destroy the whole humanity. A secret is known, but not understood.

Whenever you know something, you attain to some power because knowledge gives power; knowledge is power. What will you do with the power if you don't understand? If you understand it, the power will be absorbed by you; the power will give you light. The power will become silence, the power will become a deep calm. The power will become humility, humbleness -- it will kill your ego.

But if you don't understand, then the power will become the ego. Then that power will become destructive to others. Then you will try to possess others; then the power will become political. That is the devil.

Let me say it in a new language. Whenever you don't understand a new secret, it becomes political: the devil enters in. When you understand. it becomes religious. Then God enters in. All that is known without understanding will always go into the hands of the politicians. They are the evilest forces in the world; they are always in search of more power. Scientists are serving politicians, not knowing what they are doing.

Unless you are deeply prayerful and meditative, any power that you attain is going to serve wrong purposes. That is the meaning of Jesus: WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM -- the word of the kingdom is the greatest secret to penetrate to the innermost core of existence -

- and understandeth it not, THEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE, AND

CATCHETH AWAY THAT WHICH WAS SOWN IN HIS HEART. And he will be poorer because of it; he will be poorer than he was before. At least before, the wicked one had not entered in him.

People come to me -- sometimes for wrong reasons. I can understand, because people are wrong. How can they come for right reasons? I have to persuade them, by and by, to be here with me for right reasons.

Otherwise they can be here for wrong reasons. They come to me to attain more power. I have to persuade them that power is not good. "Rather, you work for silence."

Silence doesn't seem to be so attractive as power. Power is foolish but looks very attractive to the ego. They ask me, "If we meditate, will we become more powerful? If we meditate, will SIDDHIS come to us, will powers come to us?

Will we be able to do miracles?"

This is coming to me for wrong reasons. This is all foolish, because even if you can do miracles, what is going to happen? You may attract a crowd, you may be worshipped, but you will remain in the ego. Crowds may come around you, but God will be far away.

Those who have been working deeply in the world of consciousness -- Patanjali or others -- have always warned disciples that sometimes, even without seeking, power comes on your path. Then beware! Don't start using it, because if you start using it, you will be distracted by it. Now you are no longer moving towards God. Now your path has changed; now you have taken a different track. You will be lost there.

THIS IS HE WHICH RECEIVETH SEED BY THE WAY SIDE. If you throw seeds and they fall by the side of the road, they will not be able to sprout. People will be always walking on them; they will be destroyed.

BUT HE THAT RECEIVED THE SEED INTO STONY PLACES, THE SAME IS

HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD, AND ANON WITH JOY RECEIVETH IT; YET HATH HE NOT ROOT IN HIMSELF, BUT DURETH FOR A WHILE: FOR

WHEN TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION ARISETH BECAUSE OF THE

WORD, BY AND BY HE IS OFFENDED.

Then there is a second type who receives the word with joy -- but in a stony place. Your head is that stony place. You can listen to truth and receive it in the head. Head is very rocky, stony; it has no soil to help the seed to grow. You may rejoice that you have understood, but that understanding is not going to last very long. Sooner or later, that understanding will disappear.

Don't be intellectuals when you are near a man like Jesus or Buddha. They are not teaching philosophy and they arc not teaching any doctrine. They are teaching life... and life can be received only in the heart, not in the head.

The first, who Jesus calls THIS IS HE WHICH RECEIVETH SEED BY THE WAY

SIDE, has not even received in the head. He simply listens. He listens from one ear and it goes out by another. He never receives anywhere; he's the worst. The second is a little better. He receives, hut receives in a stony place: in the head.

The word enters into the head and becomes his reasoning, becomes an argument, a doctrine, a belief, a philosophy. Then, too, he may rejoice in it; he may be happy that he has understood. There are many here around me who think they have understood, and the seed has fallen in a stony place....

YET HATH HE NOT ROOT IN HIMSELF -- in the head there is no soil and the seed cannot find roots -- BUT DURETH FOR A WHILE -- the seed will remain there for a while -- FOR WHEN TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION ARISETH

BECAUSE OF THE WORD, BY AND BY HE IS OFFENDED.

Sooner or later, if the word has been understood, your life will start changing.

You will become rebellious, you will start fa]ling off the society track. You will not be so much with the society as out of it. You will become a stranger in your own land. Then there is going to be trouble, persecution, tribulation.

And then... then you will betray the word. Because reason is not enough. Reason can carry the word if it is comfortable and convenient, but when trouble arises the reason will drop it and betray it. Only the heart can carry the word even when there is trouble, hardship. Even if death faces you, then too the heart will carry it. Only then can the seed have roots.

HE ALSO THAT RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE THAT

HEARETH THE WORD; AND THE CARE OF THIS WORLD, AND THE

DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, CHOKE THE WORD, AND HE BECOMETH

UNFRUITFUL.

Then there is one more type who heareth the word and who understands it in the reason -- or even allows a little of it to drop in the heart -- but he RECEIVED

SEED AMONG THE THORNS. His heart is not pure, his heart is not solely and wholly devoted to the kingdom of God. He has a thousand and one desires, and there are many weeds growing in the heart. The seed is lost in those thorny bushes.

Unless God becomes your only goal, THE only goal; unless God alone challenges you and all desires drop. He becomes the only desire: unless He is your only love and there is no competitor to it -- you will lose the seed. You will not be able to grow and become a vast tree of the divine. It will not be possible.

You have many desires. Maybe God is also one desire in it. You have many loves. Maybe God is also one of them. But God cannot be one amongst many.

Either He can be the only one or He will not be. You cannot divide your heart.

Sometimes people come to me and they say they have some other master. I tell them, "It is good. You go to your master, don't come to me. Or if you come to me, then come to me. Then forget your old master. If you are happy with your old master, if things are growing, go back with my blessings. If things are not growing -- as there is every possibility; otherwise why should you have come to me? -- then be courageous and drop completely out of the old relationship."

To be with a master, one needs to be wholly with him. Unless your heart is available to me completely and totally, the seed will fall in a thorny bush where many other plants are growing, and the seed may not have a chance to grow. The whole soil of your heart has to be cleared and cleaned before the seed can be sown.

HE ALSO THAT RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE THAT

HEARETH THE WORD; AND THE CARE OF THIS WORLD, AND THE

DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, CHOKE THE WORD, AND HE BECOMETH

UNFRUITFUL.

BUT HE THAT RECEIVED SEED INTO THE GOOD GROUND IS HE THAT

HEARETH THE WORD, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT; WHICH ALSO

BEARETH FRUIT, AND BRINGETH FORTH, SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD, SOME SIXTY, SOME THIRTY.

Then there is the right person who receives the word in the heart, where no thorns and thorny bushes are growing -- where only one plant of the divine is received, where only one love exists and only one ambition and only one desire.

Then your heart has become the temple.

These are the four possibilities. Jesus says, "These are the people who come to me. I have to talk in parables so everybody receives according to his understanding." Somebody may be just enjoying the parable. Good!... but it does not go very far. Some will receive it in their reason, in their heads. Good as far as it goes, but it will not last long. Soon, whenever there is trouble, they will betray.

The last night, when Jesus took leave from his disciples, one disciple followed him. Jesus had been caught, had been made a prisoner. The enemy was taking him to prison. One disciple followed. He said, "Lord, I will come with you wherever you go."

Jesus said, "You don't know. Before the morning, before the sun rises, you will have denied me three times."

But the disciple said, "Never! I will never deny you. How can I deny you? I will never betray you. Even if I am killed, I'm ready."

Then he followed Jesus in the crowd. Somebody seeing him -- that there is some stranger -- asked, "Who are you?"

He said, "I come from another town."

He said, "Are you a follower of Jesus?"

The disciple said, "No, I don't know who Jesus is."

Jesus looked back and he said, "The sun has not risen yet." Nobody understood, but the disciple understood.

Then again, when they were reaching near the prison, somebody again looked at this man and said. "Why are you following us? Who are you? " They thought he was a spy or somebody.

He said, "I am a stranger and just out of curiosity, to see what is happening, I'm following you."

"So you don't belong to Jesus? "

He said, "Who is this Jesus? I have never even heard of him.'

Jesus looked back and said, "Yet the morning is far away."

Again at the gate of the prison somebody asked and the disciple again denied --

three times before the sun had risen. The disciple must have understood the word in the stony place, in the head. The head cannot sacrifice. Only the heart can sacrifice.

Unless you are ready to sacrifice your all, God cannot become a truth to you. He demands all, not a small bit less. He demands you totally. That is the challenge.

Only the heart is mad enough to do that; the head is too clever. It can give a little, but it always holds much back. It can come out a little, but the major part remains inside: watching. seeing, calculating whether it is worth it. It is always ready to withdraw if things go too far.

People were with Jesus when he was hailed as the son of God and the multitudes were there. But when he was crucified, those masses disappeared. Nobody was there. Only a few disciples were there, and even those disciples were hiding in the Crowd of the enemies. When Jesus was crucified, only three women came near. That is symbolic: that only the heart can come near in such moments.

If Jesus was going to be enthroned, then all the disciples would have been near.

In fact, there would have been a great competition. They had even been asking Jesus before he died: "Lord. when you will reach heaven and sit by the right side of God, please tell us what will be our positions? Who will be sitting by your side, and who will be next? " Ambitious heads, ambitious minds, ambitious egos.

If Jesus was going to be enthroned, then they would have been in great competition to be near him.

But he was crucified. Hiding in the crowd, they were watching. If some miracle happened, then they would rush and declare that "We are the closest to him, the most intimate to him." But nothing happened. He simply died like an ordinary man, just an ordinary man. And he was so capable of curing others. He had raised the dead from the graves and he could not save himself. He had cured incurable diseases, he had done all sorts of miracles. The disciples were waiting: if some miracle happened and Jesus attained to glory and to God -- if God came down and saved His son, the only begotten son; if the crucifixion became an enthronement and he was declared the king of the world -- they would have rushed. But nothing happened, no miracle. Jesus died like an ordinary man.

This was the miracle: that he accepted. Whatsoever the will of God was, was going to be his will. He accepted it in totality. "If he wants me to be killed on the cross, perfect. Then that is what is to be the case. Then that has to happen."

He dropped his ego and will completely. In that moment, the greatest miracle happened.

But it was so deep, so inner, that the disciples could not see it. Only three women reached Jesus, to take his body from the cross.

This is symbolic. The heart came close even when he was dead, crucified, with nothing to give. The heart is always with. In glory, in success, in failure -- the heart is always with. The head is with you when you succeed. When you fail, the head fails you. It escapes. It is cunning, it knows when to be with somebody and when not to be. It withdraws, it simply denies. "Who is this Jesus? I have not even heard the name."

Three poor women, one of them a prostitute, Mary Magdalen, came to take possession of the body. They brought down the body of Jesus from the cross.

Whether crucified or enthroned makes no difference for the heart. The heart is not a calculator, the heart is not a Jew. The heart can stake all and all. That's why the heart becomes the door of God.

That is the fourth possibility. Then the seed reaches to the right soil.

... AND BRINGETH FORTH, SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD, SOME SIXTY, SOME

THIRTY.

Much harvest comes out of a single seed. Remember, when Jesus gives you something, he is just giving you a seed. If you give it a chance to grow in your heart, it will become an hundredfold, even a thousandfold.

You cannot understand whatsoever jesus is giving you until it grows in you. A seed looks just like a pebble. It does not look like a diamond -- an ordinary pebble. Sometimes the pebble may even look more colorful, more precious. But the pebble remains a pebble: it has no potentiality, it is dead. Even a diamond has no potentiality. But a seed.... That is the difference. The pebble is dead, the diamond is dead, but the seed is alive. It can grow, it can become more, and more, and more. An hundredfold, a thousandfold -- and then millions of seeds will come and they can again grow an hundredfold, a thousandfold.

It is said that one single seed can fill the whole earth with greenery. Just a little time is needed. And if you give more time, a single seed can fill the whole universe with greenery, with flowers. Such is the potentiality of a seed.

When Jesus talks to you, he is not giving you flowers. He's giving you seeds. You might have wanted to get flowers because their value is obvious, but he gives you seeds because he knows that a flower is just on its deathbed. A flower is at its last stage; a seed has not even begun yet. A seed is infinite potentiality; the flower is exhausted.

That is the difference between an awakened one and the so-called pundits, rabbis. They give you flowers: exhausted. You can enjoy them a little, decorate your room for a while, but the flower is exhausted. A Buddha, a Jesus, a Krishna

-- they giVe seeds. That's why a rabbi can be very famous in his time, but then he is forgotten. A pundit may be very famous when he is alive, but when he is gone, he is gone. Jesus lives and lives and lives; Buddha goes on living. They give seeds. Millions of flowers come out of them and millions of seeds. They continue; there is a continuum of life.

A parable is a seed. It depends on you how it will unfold itself. You can lose it like a dead thing if you hear it and don't understand. Or you can lose it if you hear it and understand only by the intellect. Then it falls on stony ground. Or you can lose it by understanding, even giving it a place in the heart, but amongst so many bushes. No, Jesus wants your whole heart. Nothing less will do. It is a total commitment.

When you come to me to be initiated, it is a total commitment. It is a risk. You are taking a jump into the unknown. So only courageous, very courageous people can move onto the path. Only those who dare. It is risky and dangerous. You have never known it before. You will be moving for the first time, so you don't know.

I was reading a story. In a desert it happened: a man came to a place where he was feeling very thirsty. There was a hand-pump by the side of the road. He went near, very hopeful, and there was a small note hanging with the handpump. On the note it was written: "Please. The road traffic is almost nil; years pass before some traveller comes by. The pump is in order, but for years nobody uses it, so first you will have to put water in it. I have hidden a big bottle full of water under the white rock. Please don't drink it. If you drink even a part of the water, then there will not be enough for the pump to start. Trust me. If you put all the water in the pump it will function and there will be enough water coming out for you. And remember, before you leave, fill the bottle again and put it under the rock." The note was signed -- and the date on it was twenty years before. For twenty years....

The man ran to the white rock. The bottle was there. Many people had passed, but everybody had trusted the man. There was every possibility that you may have thought: who knows if this man is mad or crazy? Or is just a practical joker, playing a joke on you? If you put in the water, who knows? -- the water may be lost and the pump may not start. You are thirsty, amidst a desert; for miles there is no town. It is dangerous and risky to trust. And it is somebody unknown. You don't know who this man is. He has signed his name, but who is he? But everybody followed. This is trust.

And this man also followed. It is moving into the unknown: he was dying of thirst -- all temptation was there to drink the water first. Who knows? And this water can save him! It is absolutely clear that this water can save him. TO pour the water in the pump... maybe it will be lost, and the pump won't work. It is a desert land.... Who knows? -- the pump might have been working when the last man came and it may not be working now. This is taking a risk; life is at stake.

But he poured the water. With trembling hands. with fear, with death near.

When you come to me and I.say something of the unknown. you have to trust me. There is no other way. And it is dangerous. Who knows? -- this man may be just a practical joker, he may be just playing a joke. Or maybe he is mad, crazy. It is a risk.

To walk with Jesus is a risk, to go with him is a risk, because wherever he is leading you have never been. The path is unknown, the goal is unknown. Only the heart can take that much risk because the heart is innocent, innocent like a child.

BUT HE THAT RECEIVED SEED INTO THE GOOD GROUND...

The heart is the good ground. And the good news can be received only in the good ground.

Jesus says: "That's why I talk in parables." The parable can be understood according to the man. He can understand it according to himself. If he has something within him, then the parable will hit that source and will give much.

If he has nothing in him, the parable will be lost.

If you don't have the base, the parable will not reveal the source of power to you

-- because then the wicked one enters, and you are possessed by the devil. Then the ego becomes more strong and rather than helping, you have been harmed.

A parable is beautiful: it gives you only that much which you can take. It never gives you more. But if you are ready -- or someday you will be ready -- then it starts giving you more and more and more.

I have heard that when President Abraham Lincoln was choosing people for his cabinet, one of his advisors suggested the name of a certain man. Abraham declined. The advisor asked why. Lincoln said, "I don't like his face." This can't be a reason! The advisor said, "But he's not responsible for his face. At least that should not be a reason. What can he do about it? He is helpless."

Lincoln said, "No. After the age of forty, every man is responsible for his face."

I agree with him. Absolutely true. After the age of forty, you are responsible for your face. It is the way you have lived, loved, worried. It is the way that you have behaved, related. It is how miserable you have allowed yourself to be, or how ecstatic. It is your autobiography. But after the age of forty.

You are responsible for your face. But I would like to tell you something more.

You are responsible for your soul also, not only for the face. Because you are whatsoever you have chosen to be. It you are miserable, this is your choice; if you are in deep darkness, that too is your choice. Unless you choose to return, God will not be available. Not that He is not available -- He is always available --

but He is helpless.

Face Him, turn back, look at the source, and suddenly He showers on you. Yes, remember this fundamental law: FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL

BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER

HATH NOT, FROM HIM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH.

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #8

Chapter title: The fear of happiness

7 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

Question 1

OSHO, WILL I KNOW WHEN I AM READY TO FACE YOU?

YOU WILL FACE ME; knowledge will come later on. Not the otherwise -- not that knowledge will come first and then you will face me. Knowledge will not precede; reality will precede. Knowledge is a shadow: it follows. Once you start thinking that knowledge precedes, you are in a mess. I will tell you one story: One evening a monk knocked at the doors of a Zen monastery. He wanted to stay over for the night. He was tired, hungry. I he host opened the door, but rather than greeting him by a hello or good evening, he encountered him with a Zen koan -- very famous. He said: "What is your original face, the face that you had before your father and mother were born? "

The monk took off his sandal from his foot and hit the host hard on the face. The host stepped back, bowed down and said, "Welcome, you are welcome. Your understanding is tremendous."

Then they had dinner. In the cold night they were sitting by the fireplace chitchatting, and the guest asked, "Have you got the answer yourself or not? The koan that you asked me -- have you got the answer of it yourself or not?"

The host said, "I am not that fortunate. No, I have not got the answer. But I recognized it when you gave me the answer. Because I have read so much about Zen, and heard so much about Zen, I could recognize the immediacy of your answer. You didn't hesitate for a single moment, you didn't think it. It came out of your totality. It was not from the head -- that much I could recognize."

The guest didn't answer. He continued sipping his tea. But then the host became a little suspicious. He looked again at the face of the guest and he found there was something he didn't like. So he asked again, "Please, tell me: do you really know the answer? Have you got the answer? "

The guest started laughing, he starting rolling on the mat in deep mirth. He said,

"No, sir. I have also read too much about Zen and heard too much about Zen."

If knowledge becomes too much, that becomes the barrier. You can know without knowing. That is the danger of knowledge. You can know, not knowing at all. Deep inside you remain ignorant, but on the surface you know everything that can be known.

You can deceive others, but the greater danger is that someday you may be deceived by yourself, you may deceive yourself. Then all possibility for growth stops.

Never be bothered about knowledge. The whole quest should be for reality, for that which is. You should not be worried about it. That is the difference between theology and religion: theology goes on talking about God; religion TALKS God, not about. The'about' is the realm of theology. The priests, the preachers, they go on talking about and about. Religion is not talking about reality. Religion TALKS

reality.

You ask me, "Will I know when I am ready to face you?" You will face me first; then you will know. Knowledge always follows. It is a recognition when the real thing has happened. You will not know God before knowing Him. You will know Him first and then, as a shadow, knowledge will follow. You will recognize later on what has happened. The happening is first; recognition is later.

Sometimes it may take much time to recognize, because mind is stupid.

Sometimes it may take much time to recognize. It may happen many times in your life -- you may have attained a few moments of tremendous reality, authenticity, but you couldn't recognize them. They are lost in the desert. Before you could recognize them they were gone, and then there were other things: the mind became engaged. You missed.

This is my observation: that you cannot find a single human being on the whole of the earth who has not had some moments of reality. In spite of yourself, sometimes the glimpse comes to you, because it is not only you who is seeking reality -- the reality is also seeking you. It is not only that you need God: God is in tremendous need of man. You cannot be without Him; He cannot be without you.

You can forget Him, but He cannot ever forget you. You may be standing with your back towards Him, but He goes on trying to reach you. Your hands may be very small; His hands are not small. He can reach you wherever you are, even in the seventh hell. And He goes on groping for you, remember this.

That's why many times -- not because of you, in spite of you -- a glimpse happens. But you cannot recognize it. Many people have religious experiences but they cannot recognize them as religious. Sometimes they are aesthetic experiences. No true aesthetic experience can be other than religious.

When you see a beautiful face of a man or a woman or a child, if really you are struck by the beauty, the experience is not only aesthetic; it is religious. In that moment of beauty, God has looked at you through that face; God has revealed himself to you through that face. Through those eyes, the depth of existence has tried to communicate with the depth of your being. Depth has talked to depth, there has been a dialogue. It has not only been aesthetic.

Suddenly one morning you are light and graceful. You are fresh and unburdened. The past is no more haunting you and the future has not yet started. You look at the sky, a vast emptiness, and everything stops within you.

You also become a vast emptiness. It is not just an aesthetic experience; it is religious. Beauty is truth... and truth is beautiful!

Sometimes you hear music and the mind stops. The music surrounds you, you are drowned in it. You are no more there. Just a transparent presence: the music goes through and through. In that moment, it is not only music that is happening; it is religion. But you don't recognize it.

You think religion happens only in the church, where dead priests go on beating around the bush? In fact, the church is the last place for religion to happen. It is a graveyard; God is not alive there. A church is full of dead gods. They were alive once, somewhere in the past. They are just histories now.

When Jesus walked on earth, around him religious experiences were happening.

But now Jesus is a dead myth. He's worshipped in churches, preached about and about, but he's not there.

The church, the temple, is the last place for religion to happen, for God to penetrate you. He comes to you in more alive ways. He comes through the wife, through the child, through the husband, through the friend. Sometimes, even through the enemy. Flowers and ocean and sand and the mountains and the stars and the birds: He comes in a thousand and one ways, but always alive.

He's life; you can forget the name'God'. The word has become very dirty -- drop it! Just call Him life, that will do; call Him existence or being, that will do. If truth seems too harsh, call Him love, that will do. If truth has been too much monopolized by philosophers, drop it. Love is perfectly beautiful.

Wherever you have had any poetic experience, wherever your heart has become a.small poem -- something throbbed within you, something unknown -- there is religion. Recognition may take time. Sometimes for lives you may not be able to recognize. And when you recognize you will simply laugh, you will go mad with Laughter, because in that recognition many other things which were left unrecognized will also be recognized.

I have heard about a Zen monk -- the story is simply unbelievable! He worked hard. His master had given him a koan, a Zen puzzle to work out. The koan was: if one hand claps, what will be the sound? Not two hands clapping with each other; just one hand clapping in emptiness. What will be the sound? Try to hear it.

He tried and tried, but he couldn't hear it. Years passed. He would go to the master, he would always bring something that he had heard, and the master would reject it immediately. Even before he had said anything, the master would say, "No! Don't bring any.stupidity here. Go back. Work hard."

It is said that twelve years passed and the master never even gave an appreciative look. He was harsh and the disciple lost his heart, he lost his nerve.

He escaped from the monastery.

Where to go? -- he had no home. And the people at home wouldn't accept him, because once you become a monk and you live in a monastery for twelve years, coming back home is failing. It is not respectable. The whole town would laugh at him, that he had failed, and his family would feel bad. Better not to go to them.

Then where to go? He was just standing in the town, an unknown city, not knowing whore to go, what to do. A woman looked from the window. I he monk was standing there... he was a beautiful man. The woman called him. Not knowing who she was.... And even if he had known, there was no problem now.

The woman, who was a prostitute, called him, and he went to live with her.

The prostitute fell in love with him. She danced and she played music. She was a great singer, a great musician, a great dancer, and he forgot everything that he had learned for twelve years with his master, the Zen koan and all, completely forgot -- as if everything was erased, as if he had never been to the monastery.

He was making love that night to the woman -- I have never come across as beautiful a story as this -- and when he came to the climax, suddenly he heard one hand clapping! In deep love there comes a moment where two become one.

The two energies meet: yin and yang, man and woman. The man disappears and the woman disappears; there is no yin and no yang. A circle, a non-duality.

Suddenly, the koan was solved! He HEARD the sound of one hand clapping. It is said that he jumped out of bed, jumped out of the window.

The woman couldn't believe it: "What are you doing? Have you gone mad? "

He said, "Let me go to my master first. It has happened!"

He went to the master and, wonder of wonders, the master was waiting outside the temple for the disciple. He said, "So it has happened? This is no time to come and see me. Two o'clock -- in the middle of the night!"

The master was waiting for him. Before it happens to the disciple, the master knows. If you are tuned with the master, if you have really surrendered to the master, when it happens to you it will happen to your master also. The master lives, many times, many satoris through his disciples. His own satori is complete: he has arrived. But many times through his disciples.... Whenever a disciple arrives again, he again arrives through him. Again, the same dance.

Life is God, love is God. Remember this much, and don't be worried about knowledge.

"Will I know when I am ready to face you?" You will face me. You will jump out of the bed, you will jump out of the window and you will rush. And you will not know what is happening. That happening is greater than you. How can you know it? It is vaster than you. How can you comprehend it? You are just a drop in it; it is oceanic. But later on, when everything is settled again and you are at home with this ecstasy, this satori, SAMADHI, then the mind comes back.

Recognition starts, thinking starts.

Recognition is of the mind; the realization is not of the mind. In the deep moment of realization, the mind stops. The phenomenon is such, and so unknown, that the mind cannot function, cannot cope with it. When it has gone, then the mind comes back. Then it starts looking and watching and thinking and brooding.

Then suddenly a recognition arises: so it has happened?

So it has happened? The mind cannot believe in it because the mind is a doubter.

But it has to believe it. Believe it or not, it has happened.

Recognition will follow realization. you will know when it has happened, but you will not know beforehand. And there is no need. If you know beforehand, your knowledge will become the barrier. So please don't be concerned about Question 2

HOW CAN I SERVE YOU?

Just be yourself. There is no other service to me.

Just be yourself; that's how you can serve me. That's how you have already served me -- if you are yourself. My whole effort is to help you to be yourself. If you are centered, rooted, grounded, if you have come to a point where you are not worried to become somebody else, where the ambition to become somebody else has dropped -- when there is no desire to move into the future, when the present is enough unto itself; when you are deeply contented as you are; when you can thank God, when you can be grateful and there arises no complaint; when your whole heart is simply full of gratitude -- you have served me. There is no other way.

Of course it would have been easier if I had given you some other ways to serve me, because those things you can do. You can come and massage my feet. That won't help; that is not of much use. That is not going to lead you anywhere. You may feel happy, but that happiness is not bliss.

My whole effort is: fall back on yourself. Don't move into the future and don't be motivated by the future. If THIS moment becomes your total reality, you have come close to me, the closest that one being can come to another. By being yourself, you will be near me; by trying to be something else, you will go far away.

Don't be imitators. The mind is an imitator, because it is easier to play the game of imitation than to become authentically true. Many ideas have been given to you: become like a Buddha, become like Jesus. become like Krishna -- as if you have to become everybody else EXCEPT yourself. As if God is only against you.

He's for Krishna, for Christ, for Mahavir, for Buddha -- only against you. Then why does He create you? Then He seems simply foolish. Why does He go on creating you? If He's interested in Buddha, Hc can create Buddhas. Why you?

It would be simpler. He can go on creating Buddhas... like Ford cars. They go on coming through the assembly line: one car after another: one Buddha after another. That will be good. But God is not interested in it. He never creates Buddha again, have you observed? He never creates, He never bothers to create, a Jesus again. Why?

There is no need to repeat. All repetition is dead. He goes on creating the new, the novel. He creates you! He's more interested in you than in creating more Buddhas or more Christs. And remember, He will not repeat you either, so while you are here, be true and authentic. Be your.self.

I have heard one story. One American made a beautiful teacup and then he wanted to mass-produce it. But to mass-produce it in the States would have been very expensive, so he sent it to Japan to be mass-produced.

In transit, the cup handle was broken. The Japanese, as you know, are perfect imitators. They mass-produced it exactly as it was: with a broken handle. They repeated it exactly as it was!

This has been going on. God goes on creating the new, God goes on creating the novel, God goes on creating you, and the imitators in the churches and temples go on saying, "Be like Jesus. be like Buddha, be like this." And in transit, everybody's handle is broken!

The transit: two thousand years. Even if Jesus comes back, he will not be able to recognize the Jesus that is worshipped in the churches. Impossible. Jesus was totally a different man -- alive! Churches go on worshipping somebody who was never there. It is their invention.

Why do I go on speaking on Jesus, Buddha or Krishna, or Zarathustra or Lao Tzu? This is the reason: I would like to bring you Jesus as he was before the transit: unbroken, complete -- before the priests entered.

In one of my friends' house, there's a very valuable painting: a seventeenth-century painting of a great master -- very precious. He loves it so much that he's always afraid to even clean it. Something may be destroyed; it is old and very fragile.

But much dust had gathered on it and an expert had to be called. When the expert started cleaning it, a new problem arose: the paint started peeling off. The expert was very worried. He said, "Should I stop? "

I was staying with the friend. I said, "Don't stop. You go ahead." The friend was not there, otherwise he would have stopped the man.

But he said, "It may be destroyed."

I said, "Don't be worried. You just go ahead, because I can see something else behind the painting."

And it was so. When the paint peeled off, it was discovered that the real painting was hidden behind. Some other painter had just tried to improve on the master.

There were two paintings, and the real came out only when the imposed painting and the paint peeled off. Then everybody was happy. But the risk was there!

When I talk on jesus, I am trying to peel off the paint with which Christianity has tried to improve upon the original face of the master. But it is natural in transit.

Things change.

You be true to yourself. Never try to be anybody else. That is the only sin I call sin. Accept yourself! Whatsoever you are, you are beautiful. God accepts you; you also accept yourself. He created you in His own image. He trusts; He has committed himself in your being. Don't betray Him, don't become imitators.

That is the only way you can serve me: by being yourself. Be thyself! Suddenly you will be close to me, the closest that is possible. By being imitators, by trying to be somebody else, you falsify your being; you become a traitor. All ideals are treacherous and all ideals are betrayals.

I don't teach you any ideal, and I don't want you to become anything that is not intrinsic to you. You don't know who you are; that is the difficulty in being oneself. One has to remain content with the unknown.

I have heard: When the apostle, Paul, reached Athens, he told the people of Athens, "You are good, you are great in your thinking, you have given the greatest philosophies to the world. But one thing I have observed: I have seen one temple in your city which is devoted to the unknown God. Inside there is no statue -- just inscribed on a marble:'This temple is devoted to the unknown God.'"

Paul said, "This is not enough: an unknown God. This is not sufficient. Your foundation is incomplete. I give you the known God, because only with the known God is a foundation possible. Your culture, your civilization, lacks foundation."

But I tell you, only the unknown God IS the God. Once you are devoted to a known God you have started falsifying already, because the known will be knowledge, the known will be part of your mind. Buddha is known -- easy to imitate. Jesus is known -- easy to imitate. YOU are unknown. And I teach you to remain true to the unknown God.

The known is easy. You can tackle it; you can cope with it. To move into the unknown needs much courage, needs daring. And religion is the greatest adventure. It is not a consolation, it is not a convenience, it is not respectability. It is to move into the unknown, the uncharted, and to risk life.

What Paul said to the Greeks is dangerous. This man Paul talks sense but is very dangerous. You will also feel that a known God is better than an unknown God, because with the known we can relate easily; with a map we can move easily.

But I tell you again and again, there is no better way to be lost than to have a map.

In the world of truth, all maps are false, because the truth is undefined and remains indefinable. Defined, it becomes untrue. That's what Lao Tzu means when he says: "The truth cannot be said. Once said, it is no more the truth."

God IS unknown. Or, it would be even better to say, the unknown is God. And that unknown resides in you, abides in you. If you want to serve me and to be close to me, be close to your unknown God which is within you. Serve that unknown God which is within you, help that unknown God to be: to expand, to become, to flow, to flower.

Question 3

THE STRANGEST THING HAS HAPPENED: I FEEL HAPPY! MY PROBLEMS

SEEM TRANSPARENT, AND I FEEL MORE AND MORE ALIVE. YOU TALK

ABOUT THE NEED TO DIE. HOW CAN MY HAPPINESS LEAD ME

THROUGH'THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL'?

This is from Sambuddha. Now, Sambuddha, please don't try to create new problems.

This is how the mind functions. Even if you are happy, you feel uneasy. You, and happy? -- impossible. Something must have gone wrong; it doesn't fit with the idea that you have of yourself. You, and happy? You must have gone mad, or you must be imagining, or this man, Rajneesh, has hypnotized you. You, and happy? -- impossible.

Now, Sambuddha, don't try to create new problems. Forget all that I say about dying, because in the happiest moments one dies. The death I am talking about is not the death of misery; the death I am talking about is not the death of suffering, is not the death of agony. The death I am talking about is the death of ecstasy, the death of pure bliss, the death when you are so happy that you explode and simply disappear.

But don't be worried about it. It will come by itself; it is already on the way. If you become worried and you become concerned about'why I am so happy'....

"The strangest thing has happened: I feel happy! " If you become worried about it. soon the happiness will disappear and you will fall back to your old state of mind.

Enjoy it. Move deeply into it. Dare! The mind has become so miserly and so miserable that when happiness happens. then too it clings to its old past. It is afraid to move. How to be happy? How to laugh? Even if it laughs, it laughs halfheartedly. Even if it moves, it moves ready to withdraw any moment if something goes wrong. And happiness wants you to be totally in it. It claims you totally!

Enjoy it, move into it, be possessed by it, and in that possession will be death.

Totally possessed by happiness, the ego dies.

I don't teach suffering. I don't teach sacrifice, I don't teach renunciation. I teach the death that comes out of bliss; the death that comes at the highest peak of happiness; the death that comes when you are dancing, singing, loving; the death that comes when you are possessed by the whole and the ocean drops into the drop. Of course, the drop dies. Such a tremendous phenomenon: the ocean dropping in the drop. How can the drop live now? But what is the point of living? It the drop tries to live, that wi]l be a real death. If the drop disappears in the ocean.... This is what Jesus calls'life, and more abundant life'.

Allow it! Very difficult. People go on seeking happiness but when it comes, they close their doors. People go on seeking love, but when it knock.s at the door, they hide somewhere in the closet. People go on seeking friendship and when somebody comes near, they become panicky; they become afraid.

What is the fear of happiness? The fear of death. What is the fear in love? The fear of death. What is the fear of freedom? The fear of death. The ego is afraid.

The ego can remain in misery., it can remain even in the seventh hell, but even a slight breeze of happiness and the house of the ego starts falling, collapsing.

Nothing kills like happiness, nothing kills like ecstasy; but that risk is worth taking because only after that death does real life arise. You disappear. Then God lives in you.

Question 4

WHY IS RELIGION A DIRTY WORD FOR ME, AND WHY DOES IT

THREATEN ME FAR MORE HERE IN POONA THAN IT EVER DID BEFORE?

Religion HAS become a dirty word. It has been used too much and abused too much. It has passed through thousands and thousands of hands. It is just like an old coin or an old currency note which has been passing through many hands and has become dirty. Everything used too much becomes dirty -- not only religion.

All beautiful words have become dirty.'God','love','ecstasy' -- all have become dirty. The reason is natural, obvious. Because the words are so beautiful, humanity tends to use them too much. Just look at advertisements and you will find all the beautiful words -- used for cigarettes, soaps, cars, furniture. All beautiful words. The advertisement for a cigarette can even say that the cigarette is ecstatic. Now, a beautiful word is being dirtied.

Every film, every movie, is thought to be'marvelous','fabulous'. If everything is fabulous, and every movie is fabulous, then nothing is fabulous. The word does not mean much now. If you say something is fabulous, it doesn't mean anything.

It simply means that you have been listening to TV too much!

All beautiful words become dirty because the mind tends to use them more and more, for every and any thing. Religion has become dirty....

It is the oldest thing in the world. There is a controversy about which profession is the oldest. Prostitutes and priests are the two competitors. I have also been thinking about it and I cannot conceive of how prostitutes can come before priests. Impossible! Unless the priest is there, how is prostitution imaginable?

Impossible. The priest must have come first. He must have condemned sex; then prostitution follows. He must have condemned it so much that the whole thing becomes very attractive.

Religion HAS become a dirty word. but remember well: when a word is dirty, that does not mean that the thing that is denoted by the word is dirty. Religion, the word, may have become dirty, but religion, the thing, is still fresh and will always remain fresh.

You can use another word for it. Any word will do; that is not a problem.

Remember, just because a word has become dirty, don't throw away the thing itself. That will be throwing out the baby with the bath water. The bath water has become dirty -- true, throw it! -- but at least save the baby. If you can save the baby, there is no trouble.

Churches have made it dirty. They have made a profession out of it, they have corrupted it. They made it so low because they had to bring it to the masses.

They made it very cheap, as if there is no need on your part to do anything. They come and give you the Bible free; they go on throwing religion on you, they go on imposing. They don't ask even your permission. They are intruders, pretenders. They have corrupted it.

But they have not corrupted religion as such. They have corrupted only the word. Forget the word, but don't forget the reality that is indicated by it.

That may be the cause: "... and why does it threaten me more here in Poona?"

Because I am not concerned about the word; I am concerned about religion itself.

It threatens more. If you go to a church you will come back intact. As you had gone in, you will come out: the same. But if you come to me, you cannot go back the same.

If you really come close to me, in that very coming you will be transformed and changed. You may escape, you may get afraid, scared, but you will never be the same again. I will go on haunting you wherever you are. I will come in your dreams, I will follow you like a shadow.

The fear is real, the threat is real. When you go to a church, the priest is a false threat. He may thunder, but the threat is false. He may shout at you in the name of God, but the threat is false.

I have heard: it happened in a Zen temple. One morning there was a great earthquake -- as it happens in Japan. Half the temple collapsed. The priest, who had been pretending that he was a real Zen man, immediately gathered his disciples and said, "Look. Now you must have observed what is the real quality of a real Zen man. The earthquake was there, but there was not even an iota of fear in me. Have you observed? I remained as if nothing had happened. Not only that, you must have seen that after the earthquake stopped, I went to the kitchen because I was thirsty, and I drank a big glass of water. Did you observe that my hand was not trembling at all while I was holding the glass?"

One disciple smiled. The priest felt annoyed. He said, "What is funny in it? Why are you smiling? "

The disciple said, "Reverend sir, it was not a glass of water. It was a big glass of soy sauce that you drank!"

When you want to show off, from somewhere or other the reality is bound to leak.

Go to a priest. His talk is okay -- never more than okay, just okay -- but if you look into the reality of the man, there is no fear. He is just like you. He may pretend... and you may even pretend that whatsoever he is pretending is true.

That's how it goes on. Pretensions need mutual cooperation. Hc pretends that he is a great master, you pretend that you are a great disciple. He accepts your pretension; you accept his pretension. That's how both are satisfied mutually.

And things remain the same.

When you are here, you are really near a danger point. I AM a dangerous man.

You should be alert about it. Come close to me with full awareness -- there IS

danger. I am not a priest. I'm not teaching religion here; I'm ready to give it to you. It is not a teaching, it is a transmission.

In churches you have learned that the words'religion','God' -- they have all become dirty. Then you come to me and you start realizing that those words may have become dirty, but something is hidden behind them which is ever fresh, ever green, ever alive and capable of changing you totally. Then the fear arises.

Just the other day, Atmada wrote me a letter, a beautiful letter, saying, "Why are you so worried about this Jesus being crucified? It is good that this idiot was crucified! Why are you worried about it? "

In fact, this is all that the priests have done. Trying to force Jesus on you, trying to be aggressive, intruders on your being, somehow trying to convert you to Jesus, they have dirtied the very name of this beautiful man. Trying to prove that he is the greatest wise man in the world, they have only been able to magnify his defects and nothing else.

That's why Atmada writes to me that he was an idiot. I know that he was, but that is how a wise man always is.

That point has to be understood. A really wise man is a synthesis of whatever you call wisdom, and idiocy. He is as simple as an idiot and as complex as any wise man can be.

You can look at him from both sides. If you look at him from one side. he will look like an idiot. You can find in Jesus all the things that you can find in idiots.

Read Feodor Dostoevski's book, THE IDIOT. It is about an idiot, but in that idiot you will find all the beautiful qualities that Jesus has: the innocence, the quality of no-mind, the quality of trust. Never a doubt arises. These are all idiotic qualities. You call a man an idiot if he trusts everybody and anybody; you call a man an idiot if you go on deceiving him and he still goes on trusting you. You go on deceiving him and he goes on trusting you. You cannot create doubt in him because he has no mind.

A man like Jesus is also like an idiot. Not because he has the same state of idiocy; he has come to the same state from a very different dimension. the circle is complete: he has again become a child.

The idiot is below mind, Jesus is above mind -- both are no-minds. The idiot has got no mind. Jesus and Buddha also have got no minds, but there is a difference.

They HAD, and they found out that to have a mind is foolish. They dropped it: they have become idiots voluntarily. They are not stupid. They are idiots because they are wise.

Yes, I know: Jesus, Lao Tzu, Buddha, look like idiots. In India we have a word for the idiot which comes from Buddha. It is BUDDHU. The word is derived from Buddha himself. Buddha: BUDDHU. BUDDHU means'idiot' and BUDDHA means'the awakened man'. How can both these words be together?

When Buddha died, his impact was tremendous. Thousands and thousands of people became followers. Thousands and thousands of people were sitting under Bodhi trees with closed eyes, meditating. People would call to them:

"BUDDHUS, go home! What are you doing? Don't be a BUDDHU. Do something, go home. Your wife is suffering, your children are hungry. Don't be an idiot! Don't be a BUDDHU!"

I know, Jesus is so innocent that he looks foolish. But that foolishness is tremendously precious.

I am also idiotic, Atmada. And whatsoever I am teaching is teaching you to be so simple and trusting that you also become idiots in a sense. But that idiocy is the supreme awareness, that idiocy is supreme wisdom. Polarities meet: dualities disappear.

In a Jesus, you will always find a paradox: he's opposites together. You will find in him qualities which are feminine, you will find in him qualities which are absolutely male. They meet and mingle, and they have become one. In him, the feminine and the male have become one; the wise man and the fool have become one. The polarities have disappeared. The contradiction is no more a contradiction; it is a synthesis.

Difficult for the mind to understand. The mind is a doubter the mind is skeptical.

And the mind thinks that it is very intelligent. Mind is stupid, mind is mediocre.

It has nothing to do with intelligence. Intelligence is a totally different flowering of your being; it has nothing to do with mind. Mind is just a mechanism; it is a computer, a bio-computer. Very complex, but still a mechanism. It has nothing to do with intelligence.

Intelligence comes within you only when you have become so unidentified with the mind that you can see that mind is separate and you are separate. In that state, intelligence happens. That intelligence will be both wise and foolish.

That is the mystery of a Jesus. That is the paradox, the poetry.

Question 5

THE PEAKS ARE GETTING PRETTY WONDERFUL, BUT THE VALLEYS ARE

DEEPER AND DARKER THAN EVER. FINDING BALANCE SEEMS

IMPOSSIBLE. WHAT TO DO?

There is no need to do anything. You are not to find balance, balance will find you. You simply move. When the valley comes, you go into the valley. When darkness surrounds you, enjoy it, feel blissful in the velvety touch of it. Move into it, into the infinite magnificence of it. Darkness has a soothing quality which no light can have. The valley is a rest: like the night, like death.

No need to try to find balance. The balance will find you. You simply move into the valley. When the valley comes, you accept it. You not only accept it, you welcome it. You enjoy it, you delight in it -- darkness is beautiful. And when the valley goes and you move towards the peak, that too is perfectly beautiful. That is beautiful: the light, the morning, the sun.

But don't cling to either. Clinging creates trouble; through clinging, anguish comes. If you cling to the peak and you say, "I would not like to go to the valley again," then you will be in trouble. Then at the very peak you have created the valley. Then, already, the suffering has started. You are afraid: fear has entered, the agony is already there. You are no longer happy. You have destroyed the peak.

When you are in the valley you will suffer that "now the valley has come." You will suffer the valley, and you will not be able to enjoy the peak. This is the ordinary situation.

When you are happy, you become afraid. Is this happiness going to stay or will it be gone? Now fear eats away at your happiness like a worm and poisons it. You are happy and yet you are not happy. Something is already dead: you have become apprehensive of the future. When you are unhappy, of course, you are unhappy. When you are happy you cannot be happy, so how can you be happy when you are unhappy? The whole life becomes a vicious circle of unhappiness.

Now, listen! When you are at the peak, dance. I know, and you know, that the peak is not going to last forever. There is no need. If it lasts forever, it will be such a tension that you will not be able to tolerate it. It will be such an excitement that you will not find any rest in it. It will be dangerous, it will kill you. No need for it to last forever. But while it lasts, dance, enjoy, sing -- knowing well that it is going to he lost again. Knowing it, one has to enjoy it even more before it is lost.

And remember, this is the miracle: when you enjoy it more it lasts longer. When you are happy in it and dancing, it forgets to go away from you. It lingers with you. When YOU don't cling to it, it clings to you. This is the whole secret.

And when it is gone, then too it is not gone. It has given you such a deep blissfulness that now you go into the valley and you can rest in darkness. Then the valley becomes relaxation and the peak becomes enjoyment. Then the peak becomes the day and the valley becomes the night: then the peak becomes activity and the valley becomes passivity.

One has to enjoy the night also. That is the only way to enjoy the day. And if you enjoy the day, a great night comes with great rest. It refreshes you, rejuvenates you.

Always remember: the greater the peak, the greater will be the valley. Otherwise how can the peak be greater? If you go to the Himalayas you will find that the greater the peak the greater the valley. If you are afraid of the valley, then don't ask for the peaks. Then move on plain ground. There will be no peak and no valley.

That is the most miserable life: where there is no peak, no valley. One simply vegetates. It is not a life. One simply drags. It is a monotony. It is not a dialogue; it is a monologue. A dialogue needs duality, a dialogue needs contradiction, a dialogue needs polarity, a dialogue needs paradox. And within the paradox, you move from one pole to another.

Don't be worried about balance. Balance will seek you; I will see that balance seeks you. You simply do this much: while on the peak, dance; while in the valley, rest. Accept the valley; accept the peak. Both are parts of the one whole and you cannot deny one part. They are two aspects of the same coin.

Remember, one who enjoys more is bound to suffer more because he becomes very sensitive. But suffering is not bad. If you understand it rightly, suffering is a cleansing. If you understand it rightly, sadness has a depth to it which no happiness can ever have. A person who is simply happy is always superficial. A person who has not known sorrow and has not known sadness, has not known the depths. He has not touched the bottom of his being; he has remained just on the periphery. One has to move within these two banks. Within these two banks flows the river.

And I tell you, balance will seek you if you accept both and you live both.

Whatsoever happens, you welcome it. Suddenly. one day you will see that balance has come. And when balance comes to you, it is something totally different than that balance which you can force upon yourself.

If you force the balance, it will be a.sort of control. A control is always artificial, a control is always ugly. Control has a violence in it. It is forced, artificial. When balance comes to you, it is a happening. Suddenly it descends on you. Heavens open and the spirit of God, like a dove, descends in you.

All that is great always comes. All that YOU make is always small, petty. It is never great. All that you do is going to be lesser than you. All that is great -- you have to allow it. Balance will find you. God will find you. You just be ready.

And this is readiness: to accept whatsoever comes, to accept it with gratefulness.

Even sorrow, even sadness. even the valley... dark.

Question 6

OSHO, THE OTHER DAY YOU LOVINGLY TOLD ME TO BE MORE

CONCERNED ABOUT MYSELF AND LESS ABOUT OTHERS. THANK YOU

OSHO. I GOT THE POINT. AND YET I MUST ASK ONE MORE QUESTION

NOT TO DO WITH ME BUT WITH YOU. WHAT EXACTLY IS HAPPENING

WITH YOU? EVERY MONTH YOUR BODY IS BECOMING MORE SENSITIVE

IN EVERY WAY AND THE PHENOMENON. EVEN TO MY STATE OF

UNAWARENESS, IS AWESOME. CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR

CHANGES?

This is from Chaitanya Sagar. Good that he says this is the last question that he is asking not about himself!

I can understand your worry, your concern. The fact is simple. After the age of thirty-five life starts declining. Thirty-five is the peak: if you are going to live for seventy years, thirty-five is the peak. After thirty-five you start declining. It is now downhill.

If somebody becomes enlightened after thirty-five -- as Buddha became at forty, Mahavir became at forty -- then he can live a little longer, because he was already downhill. Enlightenment will not disturb the body more than it was already disturbed.

If you become enlightened before the age of thirty-five then there is danger.

Shankara became enlightened before the age of thirty-five. He died at thirty-three. When you are going uphill and life is moving strong -- and you become enlightened -- the connection between you and the body is disrupted. It has almost always happened that people who have become enlightened before thirty-five have not survived up to thirty-five. Difficult. The body and you become so separate that the uphill task becomes very difficult.

It is just like: you were going uphill and suddenly you see that there is no more petrol in the tank of the car. The uphill task becomes almost impossible. Now you get out and you have to push the car uphill. Very difficult. But if you become aware when the car is going downhill that there is no more petrol, there is no trouble. In fact. there is no need for petrol. The car can go without petrol.

Shankara died at thirty-three. Buddha lived up to eighty; Mahavir also lived up to eighty. It has to be understood. I should have died before thirty-five in fact.

Somehow I have been pulling. That'somehow' can be understood.

I have dropped out of life by and by; I have dropped all activity. Whatsoever energy my body has, I am using for you, that's all. Otherwise I have dropped all activity: stopped moving, stopped travelling -- I have almost stopped everything.

I come out just to see you in the morning and in the evening. Otherwise I have become completely inactive. absolutely passive. Whatsoever small energy is there, I am using it as economically as possible.

So every day my body is going to become more and more fragile, more and more sensitive. My ship is ready -- any moment I can depart. I am lingering on the bank for you a little while more. That's why I'm in a hurry. You have time to ask useless questions. I don't have time to answer them.

You have time to waste. My time is finished. So if you really want to use this opportunity, don't miss a single moment. Don't hesitate, and don't put your halfheart in the effort. When I am gone, you will repent and you will be very sorry, but then nothing can be done. While I am still here, use every opportunity that I am giving to you and don't waste a single moment. I HAVE what you are seeking. I can pour it into you, but your cup is not ready.

The thing is like this: you come to me and I have a full kettle of tea. And you are thirsty. I would like to give it to you, but I cannot pour it in your hands. It will burn you. I have to wait, because you will have to produce your cup. And that cup can be produced only from your innermost core of being.

Only your innermost being can become the cup. Only then can I pour whatsoever I have got. I am waiting for you so that you can produce the cup.

You are thirsty I know, and I have that which can quench your thirst, but the cup is not ready.

So don't ask such questions. Rather, look at me and try to understand.

Just the other night one sannyasin was saying, "How can you help us when you yourself are not well in the body?" True. If I am not well in the body, how can I help you? Looks absolutely logical. But do you know: was Buddha well in the body?

No enlightened person has ever been well in the body -- cannot be! -- because the being with the body is disrupted, the bridge is broken. The body goes on moving on its own, and the being goes on residing in it, but the energy that was given by the identification is not given.

You live as one with your body. I live as two. My body is just like my clothes --

absolutely separate. It is a miracle that it is functioning.

Buddha had to keep a physician continuously with him because every moment was danger. The physician was not for HIM. His work was done; he had achieved. The physician was for those who were still thirsty. He had something which could quench their thirst. The physician was for them.

If the doctor comes to see me, it is not for me. It is for you. If I see that there is no point and I cannot help you, this very moment I can disappear.

But many of you are working hard. I have the largest number of sannyasins that is possible in this twentieth-century world: almost fifteen thousand all around the world. They are all working hard. If they can succeed, we will release one of the greatest energies. spiritual energies, in the world.

I have to wait, and I have to linger on -- whatsoever the body says. The body says: "It is time, the ship is ready. You can go." The house is ready to collapse, but I am holding it.

Don't waste my time in anything. Use it if you can. This is the trouble: that you may not understand now, but later on, when you understand, I will not be there.

Then that understanding will not be of much help. It will simply give you deep anguish. and sorrow, and agony.

While I am here, it you understand me, it can become your ecstasy. When I am gone, it will be just an agony.

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #9

Chapter title: He that soweth the good seed

8 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

MATTHEW 13

34 ALL THESE THINGS SPAKE JESUS UNTO THE MULTITUDE IN

PARABLES; AND WITHOUT A PARABLE SPAKE HE NOT UNTO THEM: 36 THEN JESUS SENT THE MULTITUDE AWAY, AND WENT INTO THE

HOUSE: AND HIS DISCIPLES CAME UNTO HlM, SAYING, DECLARE UNTO

US THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD.

37 HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, HE THAT SOWETH THE GOOD

SEED IS THE SON OF MAN;

38 THE FIELD IS THE WORLD; THE GOOD SEED ARE THE CHILDREN OF

THE KINGDOM; BUT THE TARES ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE WICKED

ONE;

39 THE ENEMY THAT SOWED THEM IS THE DEVIL; THE HARVEST IS THE

END OF THE WORLD; AND THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS.

40 AS THEREFORE THE TARES ARE GATHERED AND BURNED IN THE

FIRE; SO SHALL IT BE IN THE END OF THIS WORLD.

41 THE SON OF MAN SHALL SEND FORTH HIS ANGELS, AND THEY

SHALL GATHER OUT OF HIS KINGDOM ALL THINGS THAT OFFEND, AND

THEM WHICH DO INIQUITY;

42 AND SHALL CAST THEM INTO A FURNACE OF FIRE: THERE SHALL BE

WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH.

43 THEN SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN IN THE

KINGDOM OF THEIR FATHER. WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM

HEAR.

44 AGAIN, THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO TREASURE HID IN A FIELD THE WHICH WHEN A MAN HATH FOUND, HE HIDETH, AND FOR

JOY THEREOF GOETH AND SELLETH ALL THAT HE HATH, AND BUYETH

THAT FIELD.

THE OTHER DAY I WAS READING a few lines of Stephen Crane's. I would like to read them to you:

A man said to the universe, "Sir, I exist."

"However," replied the universe, "the fact has not created in me a sense of obligation."

Man can exist in two ways. One, that the whole celebrates him; one, that the whole welcomes him; one, that the whole feels blessed because of him -- and the other, that the whole feels cursed.

Man can live a life of goodness, truth and beauty; and man can live a life of untruth, evil and ugliness. Man is free to live and to choose. Man is a tremendous freedom; that is his innermost nature. Nothing is forced. Hence the beauty of the adventure, and hence the danger also. You have to choose. Your choice will determine your being, your choice will become your destiny. On each step, every moment, you have to decide who you are.

People come to me and they ask who they are. It is not a question of inquiry because the being is not a static thing waiting to be discovered by you. The being has to be created moment to moment. That is the only way to discover it.

You create yourself moment to moment. You are not born as a fixed entity, but only as a infinite potentiality. You are born as a seed, not as a tree. You are born open, not closed. That opening is tremendous. You will have to choose every moment who you are going to be. Your decision is your destiny. And unless you live life so that the whole feels blessed, you are not religious.

A religious life is a life of spontaneity. A religious life is a life of flow, of dynamism. A religious life is a life of prayer.

Prayer is the supreme good. Let me explain to you what prayer is.

It is not something that you do; it has nothing to do with doing. It is something that you become, by and by. It is something that you live; it is something that surrounds you like a climate. It is something like a deep gratitude. Looking at the trees, or looking at the sea, or looking at the grass, a tremendous urge arises in you to say thank you. That is prayer.

Not that you say it. It is not in the saying but in the very urge, in the very mood that you would like to say, unconditionally: "Thank you." Not knowing to whom your thank-you is addressed... not knowing who is the creator of the morning, and the evening, and the stars, and the moon, and the sun... not knowing whose hands are hidden behind every grass-leaf and who is smiling in every dewdrop -

- not knowing at all.

Knowledge is ugly; not knowing is beautiful. Remember, not knowing is not ignorance. Not knowing is ultimate knowledge. It transcends even what you call knowledge. Not knowing is innocence. In deep innocence, a thank-you arises; unaddressed, not knowing to whom you are addressing. But that is not the point.

Deep within your being, in your depths, you feel gratitude.

Prayer is the feeling of the unknown presence. That feeling of the unknown presence becomes reverence. And prayer has to be just like breathing. It is not that you do it and you are finished with it. It is something that goes on and on and on like breathing. Awake or asleep, it surrounds you; it throbs within your heart. It becomes almost YOU; there exists no separation.

A life of prayer is what I call a good life. A life of gratitude is what I call a religious life.

This life of spontaneity, of flow, does not know what sin is. Sin comes from knowledge. That is the meaning of the Biblical story. When Adam ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, he sinned. Then he was thrown out of the Garden of Eden.

This story has no parallel, this story is simply unique. BECAUSE he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge....

No other religion has emphasized, in such a crystal clear way, that knowledge is sin and unless you become like children again, you will not become good. Unless you again drop all knowledge and you become innocent, uncorrupted by knowledge, you will not be accepted back. The source will go on rejecting you.

Not that the source wants to reject you. But the way you behave, through knowledge, you create the situation for your own rejection. God has to expel Adam and Eve. Not that He wanted to -- He must have wept, because they were His children -- but He was helpless.

Whenever you create the feeling of helplessness in the whole, you commit sin.

Whenever you force the whole to reject you, you commit sin. Whenever you force the whole to throw you out of the garden, you commit sin.

Sin is behaving in a cunning way, behaving as if you know. Sin is to be self-complacent, sin is to think that you are enough unto yourself. A child is not enough unto himself, a child is helpless. A child does not know anything; he acts out of innocence. Then it is good. The moment you start acting out of knowledge, it is sin.

Try to understand the import of what I'm saying. I'm saying that if, out of knowledge, you live a virtuous life, it is not virtuous. You can have character out of knowledge, you can have a quality of morality out of knowledge, but then it is not moral'When you are still eating the fruit or the tree of knowledge.

Deep down, your so-called saints are sinners, because they still go on getting nourishment from the tree of knowledge. The real sage is innocent. He acts -- but not because of the commandments, because all commandments are sin. He acts out of his totality; he responds in the moment.

He does not act out of the mind. To act out of the mind is to sin, to act out of the mind is to be thrown out of the garden, out of the kingdom of God. Once you accept the mind as your source of activity, you have denied God. And in your denial of God, you are denied.

Whenever you act out of the mind your act is going to be fragmented, because mind is a split phenomenon. Mind is not one: it is many, it is a multitude. Its names are legion. Whenever you act out of the mind, only a part acts -- against the whole. Whenever you act out of no-mind....

Sometimes you act -- you know that there are moments when you act out of no-mind. You are walking. You have gone for a long morning walk or evening walk.

and suddenly a snake crosses the path. You don't have time to think. Mind needs time; mind is a time process. You don't have time to think. If you think, you will be finished! The snake is there and the snake is not going to wait for you to think.

The snake acts out of no-mind; you will be in danger if you believe in mind. But you will act out of no-mind. You will simply jump.

Remember -- and watch! You will jump first, and then you will think about what has happened. That jump comes out of your totality; it is not of the mind. That jump is a spontaneous total. It is here and now. It has nothing to do with past, nothing to do with future. It has no past, no future. it is absolutely here, now.

The duality of good is the quality of an act which comes out of your totality. You fall in love: you see a man or a woman and suddenly, in spite of you, something happens. Your total being responds in a new way. Even you are surprised! You throb, you sing, you have a dance within you, as if clouds have separated and you have seen the source of light. In a single moment.... In fact, that moment is not a part of time. In fact, it is a'no moment' -- as if time has stopped. Something has taken possession of you. This is out of no-mind.

Whatsoever is like love is good. That's why Jesus says, "God is love." He's not.saying that God is loving. He's simply showing a quality: that God has the same quality as love.'Good' is love; good has the same quality as love.

All that comes from the mind is from the devil -- DEVIL is just a way of saying it

-- because the mind separates. Let mc define devil as one who separates, and God as one who unites. God and devil are both ways of speaking. They are not entities, they are symbols.

Just a few days before, I read a beautiful story of DuBois'. I would like you to listen to it and try to understand it:

It was one o'clock and I was hungry. I walked into a restaurant, seated myself, and reached for the bill of fare. My table companion rose. "Sir," said he, "do you wish to force your company on those who don't want you?"

"No," I said. "I wish to eat."

"Are you aware, sir, that this is social equality?"

"Nothing of the sort, sir. It is hunger," I said, and I ate.

The day's work done, I sought the theater. As I sank into my seat, the lady next to me shrank and squirmed. "I beg pardon," I said.

"Do you enjoy where you're not wanted?" she asked coldly.

"Oh, no," I said.

"Well, you are not wanted here."

I was surprised. "I fear you are mistaken," I said. "I certainly want the music, and I like to think the music wants me to listen to it."

"Oh sir," said the lady, "this is social equality."

"No, madam," said the usher. "It is the second movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony."

After the theater, I sought the hotel where I had sent my baggage. The clerk scowled. "What do you want?"

"Rest," I said.

"This is a white hotel," he said.

I looked around. "Such a color scheme requires a great deal of cleaning," I said.

"But I don't know that I object."

"We object! " said he.

"Then why -- " I began, but he interrupted.

"We don't keep niggers," he said. "We don't want social equality."

"Neither do I," I replied gently. "I want a bed."

I walked thoughtfully to the train. "I will take a sleeper though Texas. I'm a little bit dissatisfied with this town."

"Can't sell you one."

"I only want to hire it," said I, "for a couple of nights."

"Can't sell you a sleeper in Texas," he maintained. "They consider that social equality."

"I consider it barbarism," I said, "and I think I will walk."

Walking, I met another wayfarer who immediately walked to the other side of the road where it was very muddy. I asked his reason.

"Niggers is dirty," he said.

"So is mud," said I. "Moreover, I am not as dirty as you, vet."

"But you are a nigger, aren't you?" he asked.

"My grandfather was so called."

"Well then?" he answered triumphantly.

"Do you live in the south?" I persisted pleasantly.

"Sure," he growled. "And starve there."

"I should think that you and the Negroes should get together and vote out starvation."

"We don't let them vote! We?"

"Why not?" I said in surprise.

"Niggers is too ignorant to vote."

"But," I said,'I am not so ignorant as you."

"But you are a nigger?"

"Yes, I am certainly what you mean by that."

"Well then?" he returned with that curiously inconsequential note of triumph.

"Moreover," he said, "I don't want my sister to marry a nigger."

I had not seen his sister, so I merely murmured, "Let her say no."

"By God, you shall not marry her even if she said yes!"

"But I don't want to marry her," I answered, a little perturbed at the personal turn.

"Why not?" he yelled, angrier than ever.

"Because I am already married. And I rather like my wife."

"Is she a nigger?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well," I said again, "her grandmother was called that."

"Well then?" he shouted in that oddly illogical way.

I gave up. "Go on," I said, "either you are crazy or I am."

"We both are," he said as he trotted along in the mud.

Mind is crazy; mind is mad. Mind creates divisions, fragments. Mind creates nations, races -- white and black, poor and rich. Mind is the devil. When you can feel that you are one with all, you have gone beyond mind. To feel one with all, to feel a unison, is to be good. And to act out of that oneness is to be religious.

A religious man has no character. A religious man has a spontaneity. A religious man has a moment to moment contact with the whole. That contact is never lost.

He lives prayerfully. A nonreligious man may be apparently good, moral, he may have a character, but he is frozen, dead. He acts out of that character: out of the mind, out of knowledge, out of rules. He is never in contact with the whole; he is always out of step. That's what I call'devil'; that's what I call'bad'.

And that's what Jesus means by this parable. He has not been understood, he has been very much misunderstood. But if you can carry this feeling of what good is and what bad is, you will be able to go deep into this parable.

ALL THESE THINGS SPAKE JESUS UNTO THE MULTITUDE IN PARABLES; AND WITHOUT A PARABLE SPAKE HE NOT UNTO THEM:

THEN JESUS SENT THE MULTITUDE AWAY, AND WENT INTO THE

HOUSE: AND HIS DISCIPLES CAME UNTO HIM, SAYING, DEC]ARE UNTO

US THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD.

Jesus always talked in parables. A parable is a poetic way of saying things which cannot be said in prose. It is a very feeling way of saying things from the heart --

things which cannot be expressed by the head. A parable is a way of talking in pictures, not in words.

Have you ever observed that children always understand pictures? That's why, in children's books, you have to have many colored pictures. Text, not much; pictures, many. First they understand the pictures, and then they understand the text.

In your dreams, you are again living in parables. You have pictures and pictures and pictures -- the text is not much. Your unconscious understands only pictures.

Your conscious has become trained for language, words, but your unconscious is still that of a child.

When Jesus, a man like Jesus, is talking, he is trying to bridge something between himself and your unconscious. He is not a preacher. When a preacher talks to you, he talks in concepts. He is trying to communicate from one head to another head. When a man like Jesus, Buddha or Zarathustra talks, he is trying to communicate something from his innermost depth to your innermost depth. He always uses parables.

A parable becomes a picture. Logic is not needed to understand it. If you can love sympathetically, that will do: if you can listen sympathetically, that will do.

If you can listen in deep trust, that is enough: no logic is needed. The parable will manifest itself, will surround you, will become part of your being. You may forget the message, but you will never forget the parable. It will be deeply imprinted it will remain within you forever and ever. Stories have a way of penetrating to the innermost core.

ALL THESE THINGS SPAKE JESUS UNTO THE MULTITUDE IN PARABLES; AND WITHOUT A PARABLE SPAKE HE NOT UNTO THEM:

THEN JESUS SENT THIS MULTITUDE AWAY. AND WENT INTO THE

HOUSE: AND HIS DISCIPLES CAME UNTO HIM, SAYING, DECLARE UNTO

US THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD.

He must have used that parable with the multitude, with the crowd. The disciples wanted to know what he means. The disciples wanted to know the exact significance of the parable.

HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, HE THAT SOWETH THE GOOD

SEED IS THE SON OF MAN:

THE FIELD IS THE WORLD; THE GOOD SEED ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE

KINGDOM: BUT THE TARES ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE WICKED ONE; THE ENEMY THAT SOWED THEM IS THE DEVIL: THE HARVEST IS THE

END OF THE WORLD; AND THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS.

AS THEREFORE THE TARES ARE GATHERED AND BURNED IN THE FIRE; SO SHALL IT BE IN THE END OF THIS WORLD.

THE SON OF MAN SHALL SEND FORTH HIS ANGELS, AND THEY SHALL

GATHER OUT OF HIS KINGDOM ALL THINGS THAT OFFEND, AND THEM

WHICH DO INIQUITY;

AND SHALL CAST THEM INTO THE FURNACE OF FIRE: THERE SHALL BE

WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH.

THEN SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN IN THE

KINGDOM OF THEIR FATHER. WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM

HEAR.

A simple parable, but very significant. Move step by step into it: HE THAT SOWETH THE GOOD SEED IS THE SON OF MAN.

THE SON OF MAN has a very particular meaning in the Jewish literature. It is used only for the prophets. Ordinarily, whomsoever you call human beings are not yet human beings. They have the potentiality to be, but they have not actualized it. They are just like seeds. They have not yet sprouted, they have not yet bloomed. Their fragrance is just a possibility; it is not yet actual.

Jews call a man'son of man' if he has become perfectly actualized: the perfect man. He is no more just potential. He has bloomed, flowered. 'The son of man'

is a very, very respectful expression. It is next only to'son of God'. And unless you become son of man, you will not be able to become son of God. First become actualized human beings: real, authentic, true. Then the next step becomes possible. Then you can transcend humanity and you can become son of God.

Again and again, Jesus uses for himself'son of man' -- more than he ever uses'son of God'. Rarely does he use'son of God' -- often he uses the expression'son of man' -- because for those who have not become even human beings, the son of God is a myth. They cannot understand it. You can understand only that which has become in some way actual within you; you can understand only that which has become part of you.

You are part-human beings. When Jesus says'son of man', at least a part within you can respond that yes, he is true. A part within you can trust him. But when he says'son of God', he's moving in some direction about which you are completely oblivious. You have not known it, you have not even heard about it.

It makes no sense to you.

So he uses the expression'son of God' only very rarely, only with very close disciples who are growing, by and by, into divinity; whose hands are touching the divine, who have been groping and now they have come to the door; who have attained a small glimpse of the ultimate. Only then he uses'son of God'.

Otherwise he says'son of man'.

HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, HE THAT SOWETH THE GOOD

SEED IS THE SON OF MAN.

One who has become actualized, one who has become really human -- how will you know him? Because this crystallization will be his innermost phenomenon, you will not be able to see it. You will not be able to look within him: you will not be able to understand what has happened within him. That will remain a mystery to you, it will remain hidden. But one thing you can watch, one thing you can see and understand, and that is: HE THAT SOWETH THE GOOD SEED

IS THE SON OF MAN.

You will see through his acts, through his words, even through his gestures, that he is sowing the seed of good. Whatsoever he does, howsoever he moves -- even walking. sitting, sleeping -- he is continuously sowing seeds of good. His whole life is nothing but a showering of good seeds all around. Wherever he moves, he goes on sowing good seeds.

Not that he thinks about it deliberately, not that he plans about it, not that he makes any effort about it, not that he has become very skilled in a certain discipline -- no. Spontaneously.... He cannot help it. That's how he is. That's how it happens to him; that's how his whole being functions now. Goodness/good deeds/good is the functioning of one who has become actualized.

Remember, you have been taught just the opposite. You have been taught: become good in your acts, so that you can realize yourself. That is wrong; that is looking at the thing from the wrong end. The real teachers have not said that.

They have said just the opposite. They have said: become actualized. and you will find that your acts have become good.

The character is not to be cultivated. A cultivated character is immoral, howsoever moral it appears. A cultivated character is a bondage, it is an imprisonment. and whomsoever you call men of character are all frozen: dead people, blocked. They need to be melted so that they can flow again.

They may be good, but they stink. They may be good, but it is very difficult to live with them. They may be good, but they are very paralyzing to others --

crippling. If you live with them, they will become a heavy weight on your chest.

They will c rush you and destroy you. They are destructive.

When you are really in contact with a good man, a good man whose goodness is not forced and cultivated, but one who has realized his potentiality and now the goodness flows.... It is just like the fragrance of a flower which ha.s opened.

When the flower opens, the fragrance spreads. Not otherwise. Otherwise you call just have a plastic flower that you can spray with perfume. A character that has to be maintained, controlled, is like sprayed perfume. The flower is not real.

Jesus says: HE THAT SOWETH THE GOOD SEED IS THE SON OF MAN.

Recognize that he is the son of man. You will be able to know it from his acts. He does not act through morality, through discipline. He acts out of his heart. You cannot see his heart without seeing his acts. That is your blindness.

And never try to follow the acts of good people. That's how the whole world has become almost dead -- a great graveyard. I was just reading a few days before that Paul, St. Paul, said to his people: "I imitate Christ. You imitate me. That is the way."

This is dangerous teaching. This man Paul has completely misunderstood. He says "I imitate Christ. You imitate me." He says: "Do whatsoever I do. That's the way." These are the people who destroy the message of Christ completely.

If you imitate, you will remain false. You may become Christ-like, but you will not be a Christ. You may become Buddha-like, but you will not be a Buddha, You will be just a pseudo-Buddha, a false thing, an untrue thing. That is not going to make you blissful, and that is not going to create a sense of obligation in existence.

HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, HE THAT SOWETH THE GOOD

SEED IS THE SON OF MAN. This is the way you will recognize him, that's all.

THE FIELD IS THE WORLD; THE GOOD SEED ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE

KINGDOM; BUT THE TARES ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE WICKED ONE.

How to translate this WICKED ONE -- the devil, the beelzebub, the satan -- into today's twentieth-century language? I call it: the mind.

Buddha is more modern, more contemporary than Jesus. Buddha will never say this. He will say the mind corrupts, not the devil.'Devil' is a symbolic way of saying the same thing.

But dangerous. Because then in Christianity, the devil became very, very important; and in the Christian mind, the devil became a reality. God also became a personalized reality. They are not persons; they are both interpretations of a certain inner phenomenon.

the inner phenomenon is that your being can function in two ways: either through the mind or through the no-mind. If you work through the mind, that is what Jesus calls THE WICKED ONE. If you work through the no mind, then you function through your nature. That's what Buddha calls nirvana: selflessness, ANATTA, enlightenment.

You are separate from the mind. Once you know how to function without the mind, how to bypass it, how to put the mind aside, then you are functioning in the totality, WITH the totality. Then you are in tune with it. Then you are not like an island. You have surrendered and you have become part of the mainland, the continent. Then you are not separate from existence. It is not that YOU exist: then God exists in you. Then the ego has disappeared like a dewdrop in the morning sun.

THE FIELD IS THE WORLD; THE GOOD SEED ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE

KINGDOM; BUT THE TARES ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE WICKED ONE: THE ENEMY THAT SOWED THEM IS THE DEVIL --

The devil is not outside you. It is very tempting to think of him as outside, because then you can throw all the responsibility on him and you can become completely free of the responsibility. People have always been using scapegoats to throw their responsibilities on.

Whatsoever is wrong with you, you will always find some cause for it in somebody else. Somebody says something and you feel angry. Now you think that he has insulted you. In fact, you have become angered -- not that he has insulted you. If you were a little more aware, there would have been no anger, and then there would have been no insult either.

You throw responsibility. One feels good just putting the responsibility on others' shoulders. This is one of the oldest ways that the human mind has always been defending itself. Once you can say and argue that somebody else is responsible, you can relax and you can be yourself, whatsoever you are. There is no need to transform yourself.

But if you see that the devil is within and that there is no point in throwing out the responsibility on somebody else -- you are the problem -- then to live with the problem becomes difficult. To live with the problem becomes almost impossible. A moment comes when you have to drop it; it is too much. It is foolish and stupid to carry it. You are not benefitted by it; you are simply crushed under the weight.

Never throw the responsibility on some devil outside. The devil is within -- as much within as God is within. If you function through the mind, this is the devil.

If you function without mind -- if you function through meditation, no-mind -- it is God. God is a function of you. The devil is also a function of you.

If you function unaware, unalert, not remembering yourself, you have allowed the devil to enter in you. And remember, I am not being anthropomorphic at all.

There is nobody outside who enters within you. These are only ways of speaking.

THE ENEMY THAT SOWED THEM IS THE DEVIL; THE HARVEST IS THE

END OF THE WORLD; AND THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS.

AS THEREFORE THE TARES ARE GATHERED AND BURNED IN THE FIRE; SO SHALL IT BE IN THE END OF THIS WORLD.

THE SON OF MAN SHALL SEND FORTH HIS ANGELS, AND THEY SHALL

GATHER OUT OF HIS KINGDOM ALL THINGS THAT OFFEND, AND THEM

WHICH DO INIQUITY;

AND SHALL CAST THEM INTO A FURNACE OF FIRE: THERE SHALL BE

WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH.

THEN SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN IN THE

KINGDOM OF THEIR FATHER. WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM

HEAR.

Jesus is saying that the good survives and the bad dies. Jesus is saying that the good is eternal and the bad temporary. Jesus is saying that the good remains and the bad is momentary. This has to be understood.

Forget his words, they have become out of date. Christians go on talking about these words and explaining them. The words are dead. What he says is very significant, and will always remain significant, but the language has to be changed.

Listen to how different it sounds if I say: good is that which is to survive. Maybe temporarily it is defeated, but eventually, finally, it wins. In India we say:'SATYA MEVA JAYATE... truth wins, eventually.' Maybe in the moment the lie appears to win, but that cannot be so, finally. A lie is a lie and will be exposed someday or other. It cannot become eternity. Just think: how can a lie become eternity? It has no roots in existence, it has no being of its own. Even if it exists for the moment, it has no being of its own. Even if it exists for the moment, it has to borrow its being from some truth.

That's why, whenever you assert a lie, you defend it. You argue for it, you try to prove it, and you like to say that "This is truth." You are trying to borrow being and life from truth... for the lie. But a borrowed life is a lie. For a moment it may deceive, but it cannot deceive eternally; it cannot deceive for ever and ever.

Someday or other, it is bound to be exposed.

A lie is a lie, and cannot become true. And a truth is a truth, maybe hidden for the moment, misunderstood -- not heard, heard wrongly, interpreted wrongly --

but a truth is a truth. A diamond is a diamond. It may be lost in the mud, but it is not the mud and it cannot become the mud. Finally, it has to be discovered.

Truth is eternal. Or, it will be better if we say it just the other way around: that which is eternal is true.

Don't cling to anything which is not eternal. Otherwise you are living with a lie.

And all the time that you lived with it is simply wasted. The lie will be exposed and you will find y our hands empty.

Jesus is saying that, in the end, good survives and all that is bad dies in fire, is destroyed. So look, watch your life. What are you sowing? The world is a field, life is an opportunity. What are you sowing?

Are you sowing love or are you sowing only lust' If yOU are sowing only lust, in the end you will come to know. And you will have to repent much, because that lust was just a momentary fantasy: ungrounded, without any roots. It was just in the mind. Love? Then you can rely upon it. Then you are building your house on a rock, not on the sand.

What are you accumulating in the world? Possessions? things? wealth? Then you are deceived by the devil: by the mind, by ambition, desire.

Or are you trying to realize who you are? The real wealth.'I he only thing that can be possessed is your being, because you already possess it. Nothing else can be possessed. If you are searching for one thing that you can possess and can be yours -- and can be yours for ever and ever, even death cannot take it away from you -- then you are sowing the seeds which Jesus calls THE CHILDREN OF THE

KINGDOM.

If you are a little alert.... And I hope that you are. Otherwise you cannot be near me; you cannot be here. A part of you has become alert. Hence, you are here. A part has become awake. Just watch from that corner which has become lighted.

Just look at your past. Do you find anything which can be eternal, which can be existential for ever and ever? If not, then your life has been wasted. Don't go on repeating it. Jump out of the vicious circle, stop that wheel. If you think that yes, there is something which can be eternal, then water it. Protect it; help it to grow.

That is how one finds one's religion. It is not found in the Bible, it is not found in the Gita or Koran. It is found in one's own experience. Watch, observe, and go on separating the good seeds from the bad. Before God rejects them, please, you reject them. Don't carry anything with you that is to be thrown in the fire. Don't carry anything with you that is going to die.

It is going to be hard, arduous, to separate yourself from false things, because you have attached so much significance to false things. You go on wasting your life for things of no import -- childish.

A man goes on accumulating wealth. He goes on thinking that someday in the future he is going to live; right now he is preparing. But that preparation is never fulfilled. One day, suddenly, he dies. The accumulated wealth is there and somebody else will become the possessor. This man wasted his whole life. He could have lived, he could have lived beautifully -- because, in fact, if you want to live, all that is needed is already given to you.

Let me repeat it: if you want to live, all that is needed is already given to you.

There is no need to prepare. All preparation is a postponement, all preparation is a trick of the devil -- the mind. The mind says: how can you live now? How can you dance? First you need a marble floor; then you can dance.

So first have a marble floor. Then you can dance. Do you see the fallacy in it? If you want to dance, the beach is enough; the earth is enough. If you want to dance, you can dance anywhere, anytime. Every moment is as good as any other.

Nothing else is needed. Only life is needed in you, and that is there. You need a flowing life, that's all. To dance, that's all that's needed. Not even a training for dancing is needed. Life itself is the dance. You just allow it to happen.

You want to sing? Then for what are you waiting? You want to love? Then for what are you postponing? This is the only moment there is, and this is the only life there is. Forget about the future and start being alive here and now. And remember, if you are alive this moment, the next moment you will find yourself more alive, because the next moment is born out of this moment.

And if you miss this moment, a great punishment is there. Not that somebody who goes on punishing you is sitting there on a golden throne in heaven, If you miss this moment and you don't dance, by and by you lose the capacity to dance.

That is the punishment. That is the only punishment; there is nobody who is punishing you.

If you pray this moment, you are rewarded, because the next moment a great prayer is waiting. If you don't pray this moment, you lose the capacity to pray.

By and by, you become absolutely incapable of praying. Then you go and ask people how to pray, how to meditate, how to love.

Just look at the absurdity of the questions: how to love? how to pray? how to meditate? how to live? Absurd questions... but they show the poverty, the inner poverty of man. He has been postponing everything, and by and by he has forgotten. Every child knows how to Fay, and every child knows how to love, and every child knows how to dance, and every child knows how to live. Every child comes complete, with everything ready. One just has to start living.

Have you seen? If you are crying and a small child is watching, he will come near you. He cannot say much, he cannot argue you out of your crying, but he puts his hand on your hand. Have you felt the touch? Never again will anybody touch you like that, like a child can touch. He knows how to touch. Later on, people are simply cold, hard. They touch, but nothing flows from their hands.

When a child touches you -- the tenderness of it, the softness of it: the message --

he pours his whole being in it.

Everybody is born complete to live. And the more you live, the more capable you become of life. That is the reward. The less you live, the less capable you are.

That is the punishment.

The religion you have to seek is within you. You have to watch your life moment to moment and drop all that seems to be momentary. It may be very exciting, but futile in the end. Drop it! Look deep into those moments which may not be so exciting. The eternal cannot be very exciting, because that which has to be for ever and ever has to be very silent, peaceful. Blissful, of course, but not exciting.

Deeply blissful, but with no noise around it. More like a silence than like sound.

You will have to grow in awareness so you can sort it out. Otherwise, in the end, you will find that you have lived a futile life. That's what Jesus calls THE TARES

OF THE FIELD.

WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR.

AGAIN, THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO TREASURE HID IN A FIELD; THE WHICH WHEN A MAN HATH FOUND, HE HIDETH, AND FOR

JOY THEREOF GOETH AND SELLETH ALL THAT HE HATH, AND BUYETH

THAT FIELD.

Yes, that is how it is. Once you come to know the eternal, the essential, the infinite, once you have come to feel it, then you are ready to go and sell all that you have been possessing, that you have been accumulating. Then you are ready to sell everything just to have this treasure of eternity.

I will repeat it again:

AGAIN, THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO TREASURE HID IN A FIELD; THE WHICH WHEN A MAN HATH FOUND, HE HIDETH, AND FOR

JOY THEREOF GOETH AND SELLETH ALL THAT HE HATH, AND BUYETH

THAT FIELD.

This is what my sannyas is all about.

Seek the eternal. Whatsoever the cost, stake all for it and you will not be a loser.

Try to save that which you have accumulated and you will be lost. Says Jesus:

"Those who.save their lives, lose them: and those who are ready to lose them, attain to life -- to life abundant."

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #10

Chapter title: Every moment god knocks

9 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

Question 1

HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON A WALL HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT

FALL ALL THE KING'S HORSES AND ALL THE KING'S MEN COULDN'T

PUT HUMPTY DUMPTY TOGETHER AGAIN.

IT IS NOT ABOUT HUMPTY DUMPTY, It is about you. It is about humanity, the human mind: the fragmented human mind which is not a unity but has become a crowd -- a crowd fighting amongst itself, a crowd continuously in war. Look at your own mind and you will find the Humpty Dumpty there. There is no center in your mind. No master exists there, only servants. And each servant has the false idea that he is the master. Each servant has few moments when he is enthroned. He becomes the master: he behaves like a master and promises like a master. Then the next moment his kingdom is gone. Another servant has taken over. The other servant does not even know who the first servant was. He has never heard what the first servant has been promising. How can he fulfill the promises?

When you love a woman or a man, you promise a thousand and one things which you cannot fulfill. You say, "I will be yours for ever and ever." The next moment, when the love has withered. you do not have even a memory of what you had said. If somebody reminds you, you will shrug your shoulders. You will say, "I must have said it in spite of me. I must not have been in my right senses. I was intoxicated, hypnotized." Or, you will say, "Those words were only poetry.

They don't mean much."

For one moment, when you are in love, the servant'love', the emotion'love', sits on the throne, has become the king. The next moment, when love is gone and hate is enthroned, you are totally different. This goes on, the wheel goes on moving. Each moment, go within. You will find a new king being enthroned and the old being thrown out.

You only think that you are. While this state of the mind, this Humpty Dumpty state continues, you cannot say meaningfully that you are. You are a multitude.

It happened: a man came to Jesus and wanted to become his disciple and follow him to the very end of his life. Jesus asked him: "First, please tell me: what is your name? who are you? " In that impact, in that shock, in that light, in that dazzling light of Jesus, the man became aware that he is not. Who will follow?

Who will go with Jesus to the very end of life?

A thought is not a permanent thing. By the time you become aware of it, it has gone. It has faded, withered away. Another thought takes its place. It is a continuous process.

He became aware that he is not. He became aware that he has not one single name. He looked at Jesus and in that impact he said, "My name? You ask my name? My name is legion -- a thousand and one are my names. And I don't know really which one is mine."

Watch your life for twenty-four hours. A thousand and one persons you will find within yourself. Then you will become aware that you are not, yet. You are yet unborn; you are still in the womb. The body has come out of the womb, but not the soul. As a body you are born; but as a soul, not yet. As yet, you are hesitating to be born; as yet, you are afraid to be born. As yet, you have not decided to be born.

Each birth is preceded by a death. You are born as a body outside the womb. The life of inside the womb dies before you are born to the life of the outside. And you can be born as ONE, only when all the Humpty Dumptys in you die, when all thoughts disappear, when all moods disappear. When the sky is no more clouded, is empty -- when you are empty -- the Humpty Dumpty disappears.

When I talk about emptiness, remember, I'm not talking about a negative emptiness. Whenever I say'empty', I mean so empty that you are full. The sky is empty AND is full. Full of itself, empty of the clouds. Empty of the foreign element, full of its own nature.

When you are empty of all thoughts, then you are. When you are empty of all moods, then for the first time you are born, resurrected. Then the son of man that Jesus talks about is born. You have become perfect.

Right now you are a crowd, a madhouse. And yes, it is true: HUMPTY DUMPTY

SAT ON, A WALL. You are also sitting on a wall from where any moment you can fall. The ego always goes on finding a higher and higher place to sit; it wants to be at the peak.

HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON A WALL. The ego is always sitting on the wall.

And the higher the wall goes, the more dangerous is going to be the fall.

HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL. Whenever the ego falls, it falls tremendously -- because it was rising and rising. higher and higher, There comes a point where you cannot balance yourself at that height. The whole life is a politics to reach higher and higher. The whole life is a desire and ambition to attain to the highest peak, the Everest -- higher than anybody else. But then when you fall, it is going to be a great fall.

HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL/ALL THE KING'S HORSES/ AND

ALL THE KING'S MEN/COULDN'T PUT HUMPTY DUMPTY/TOGETHER

AGAIN. Then nobody can put you together. ALL THE KING'S HORSES AND

ALL THE KING'S MEN.... Even if the whole world is engaged in putting you together again, it is impossible. The job is impossible.

Every day I encounter people who would like me to put them together.

Impossible! Nobody can put you together, because that togetherness will again be putting you on a wall. That togetherness will again be of the false. That togetherness will again be like a dream, and beneath it the fragments will be continuously fighting; the war will continue.

Yes, somehow it can be managed. That is what psychoanalysts go on doing in the West. They are putting Humpty Dumpty together. Whenever somebody has a fall from the wall.... The wall may be Washington, or the Wall Street of New York; it may be Madison Avenue, or Delhi, or Moscow -- the wall may be anything. Whatever gives you a feeling that you are somebody, is the wall.

Whenever somebody falls, psychoanalysts try to put him together. That is what they call'making him normal again'. He has become abnormal. Now he cannot hold his parts together: the parts are moving away from him, from each other.

He's like a cloud dispersing. They force him from every side; they put him back.

They pull him to the earth, they try somehow to give him a readjustment.

This is where western psychoanalysis and eastern approaches differ, and differ tremendously. In the East, if you go to a Buddha, he is not going to put you together. He will say, "Blessed you are that you fell. Now, leave those parts there.

No need to put them together. It is good, it is God's blessing that you became maladjusted" -- because only in deep maladjustment does a possibility of revolution exist.

When you are adjusted you are not even aware that you are wasting your life --

in the club, in the marketplace, or even in the temple. If you are a respectable citizen that means you are still sitting on the wall. You have not yet had the great fall. Respectable citizen: respected by people, your integrity well-known.

And what sort of integrity is possible to you? It cannot be more than a facade! a camouflage, a false face. The face seems to be one, but behind the mask there are a thousand and one masks hidden. The fall is imminent, any day.

Then psychoanalysts will come together. All the king's horses and all the king's men will try to put you together, they will try to bind you together. But they are not helping you. They are really trying to make you normally abnormal, ordinarily mad, lukewarm mad, so you can fit with the other mad people who are around. They will give tranquilizers, they will give you electric shocks, they will do many things to help you to be back to your own self. And you don't have any self. You never had!

A great fall is a great blessing. Don't try to put the parts together. Leave them there and escape. If you come to a Buddha, he will say, "Leave those parts there, Good that they have fallen apart. Now you rise beyond them." You come out of that Humpty Dumptyness, uncorrupted by it. You become a sky.

Don't be bothered about the clouds. Don't be bothered about thoughts. Become awareness. In awareness, you are not put together. Suddenly, you realize that you have always been together. That Humpty Dumptyness was only on the periphery. Inside, the deepest core, the kernel of your being. has always been one. It has never been otherwise, but you are unaware of it.

When you come to me, I am not here to put you together. In fact, if you come to me feeling that you ARE together, I will push you: push you hard, to the brink of the wall, so you have a great fall. Once scattered, there is a possibility. Once scattered, you can transcend. You can watch what has happened.

The real, innermost core is one. That's what we call ATMAN the supreme self.

That's what we call'Christ'. Jesus is Humpty Dumpty: Christ is the center, Gautama Siddhartha is the Humpty Dumpty; Buddha -- that is the innermost center. Vardhman is Humpty Dumpty; Mahavir is the center.

Question 2

I FEEL EMPTY... AND A DEEP YEARNING. AND THERE SEEMS NO WAY TO

LET GO

Remain with it.

There are two types of emptinesses. One, negative emptiness; another, positive emptiness.

Negative emptiness is a loneliness. You miss the presence of something or somebody. You are not enjoying the purity of aloneness. You are missing.... The wife has died and now you feel empty. Her presence was a sort of filling, her presence was giving you a feeling of fullness. Now she is dead. Now you feel empty, you miss her. This emptiness is negative.

Then there is a positive emptiness. Positive emptiness does not miss the absence of somebody else. On the contrary, it cherishes, relishes, the presence of oneself.

When you are sitting alone -- just enjoying yourself, just delighting in being --

you are empty, but this emptiness is positive.

The negative emptiness is of the devil and the positive emptiness is of God. Both are empty, but there is a tremendous difference in quality. One has to move towards the positive emptiness. And this is what is happening.

"I feel empty... and a deep yearning. And there seems no way to let go." There is no need. Just allow this emptiness; don't try to change it. That's how the mind enters again from the back door.

The Humpty Dumpty has gone out. Now, remain with this emptiness. Relish it!

It is beautiful; there is nothing like it. It is innocence; it is silence; it is stillness; it is virginity. When the Humpty Dumpty goes out for the first time, because you have never known this positive emptiness -- you have always known the negative emptiness -- you misinterpret. You think this, too, is empty: the same negative emptiness. You want to come out of it.

There is no need. Relax in it: BE it. Allow it, and don't try in any way to change it or modify it.

Difficult! This is the death, the real death out of which the resurrection comes.

This is the cross, the real cross. And everybody has to carry it daily. And not only to carry it daily, but dancingly -- welcoming it, feeling a deep gratitude.

When you enter into this emptiness for the first time, you feel that this is the same emptiness. Natural, because you have never known it before. Allow it, remain with it -- that's what I would like to say to you. Don't try in any way to think beyond it. Be it! Suddenly the focus changes, the gestalt changes. The attention shifts: you look into it and it is no longer loneliness; it is aloneness. It is no longer isolation; it is infinite presence. You have disappeared... and in that disappearance, God has appeared.

God and you are just gestalts. If you are there, God remains hidden. When you disappear, He becomes manifest. When you come back again, He becomes hidden. Your very presence hides Him; your presence functions as a cloud.

Enjoy it, allow it... love it. And remain more and more in it. Whenever you have time, don't waste it anywhere. Close your eyes; be empty. Soon the beauty of it will be revealed to you. By and by, you will have a taste of the new wine: absolutely new, because you have not known it before. Though it has always been there, you have never contacted it before. It will intoxicate you, it will make you ecstatic. You will be transformed through it.

So don't try to find a way out. There is no way out of it because it is ALL. You cannot go anywhere else. The only way out is that you can bring Humpty Dumpty back in. The only out is that the mind starts functioning again, in fear.

You gather thoughts around, you make relationships; you go to the marketplace, you get lost in the crowd. Then you are not empty, but you have missed -- you have missed the door that you have been seeking for lives.

Question 3

I FEEL EMPTY. I CRY. WHAT'S NEXT?

This emptiness is negative. Otherwise you will not cry; you will laugh. This emptiness is like loneliness, not like aloneness. This emptiness is not a deep presence; it is simply absence. This emptiness is only death, and there is no resurrection in it.

That's why the crying comes. You are filling your emptiness by crying, by tears.

That is a trick of the mind. And that's why the question arises: "What's next?" --

because when you feel negatively empty, you want to fill it with something. You are hankering for something to happen: some relationship, some achievement, some lottery... something to happen. "What next? "

Emptiness, when it is negative, is never at ease with itself. It is thinking of the future. It is hoping that in the future this emptiness will not be there "and I will be fulfilled".

Emptiness, when it is negative, creates future. Emptiness, when it is positive, has no future to it. There is nothing next to it; you have arrived home. There is nothing next to it. It is enough unto itself.

This type of emptiness. negative emptiness, has to be dropped. It has not come out of meditation; it is coming out of life's frustrations. It has not come out of love; it is coming out of the frustration that lust gives to everybody. It is a by-product of failure.

Positive emptiness happens when you are in a deep inner contentment; negative emptiness happens when you are deeply frustrated. Your life seems meaningless. Whatsoever you do, you go on doing like a robot, mechanically.

There is no romance in it. You drag your life; there is no dance to it. You cannot sing, you cannot be happy, you cannot celebrate.

Drop this type of emptiness! And this type of emptiness can be dropped only if you try to change the negativity towards positivity. Meditate more, and meditate without expectations. Love more, and love without expectations.

If you expect anything out of love, or meditation, you will get only frustration, and negative emptiness will happen. If you love for the sheer joy of it, if you meditate for the sheer delight of it and you don't have any result in mind -- you are not goal-oriented -- then there comes an emptiness which is positive. You start feeling full. You start feeling, for the first time, that you ARE. Being is felt, and that being is tremendously beautiful, blissful. It is SATCHITANANDA: it is existence, it is consciousness, it is bliss.

Always remember to beware of the negative. Move from the negative towards the positive; and when the positive happens, then stay with it. Then allow it.

Open yourself to it totally, be vulnerable to it -- all doors and windows open so it can come from everywhere and it can drown you completely. Then it becomes a resurrection.

Question 4

WHAT IS DIVINE WILL, AND HOW DOES IT ACT THROUGH THE

SURRENDERED INDIVIDUAL?

This is an intellectual question. Futile. Rot. It arises in the intellect because the intellect cannot understand. Remember always, intellect is not intelligence. You cannot find more stupid a thing than intellect.

Intellect is not intelligence. Intelligence is existential, intellect is borrowed. You don't know what divine will is, you don't know what a surrendered individual is

-- hence, the question.

The question is like this: if you have not known what light is and you ask, "When we bring light in the room, does it have to fight with darkness to destroy it? " Or,

"When we bring light into the room, how much time does it take for darkness to leave the room?"

The question is absurd because you know, stupid because you know. The question looks stupid because you know that darkness has no existence of its own. When you bring light in, it is not that darkness goes out. Close all the doors and see! Put guards on the doors and see! Ask them, "Have you seen darkness going out?"

When you bring light in, the very presence of light is the death, because darkness has no existence of its own. It is just the absence of light. When light is there, darkness is not there. In fact, it has never been there. It was just an absence.

That's why you cannot bring darkness. If you need a little more darkness in your room you cannot bring it. You cannot go to the neighbor and ask for some, you cannot bring it in bags, you cannot force or persuade it to come.

You cannot do anything directly with darkness. Have you observed the fact that if you want to do anything with darkness you will have to do something with light, not with darkness? If you want more darkness, you will have to put curtains on the windows. You are doing something with light, so that light cannot come in; that's all. If you want more darkness, then you have to put the light off. If you don't want darkness, you have to put light on. But you do something with light, you cannot do anything with darkness. It is an absence, it is nonexistential.

Now look at the question: "What is divine will, and how does it act through the surrendered individual?" A surrendered will is divine; an unsurrendered will is not divine. Other than the surrendered will there is no will somewhere else which is divine.

A surrendered will is divine; an unsurrendered will is not divine. An unsurrendered will is the ego and a surrendered will is the absence of the ego.

When the ego disappears, how can the individual exist? With the disappearance of the ego, the individual also disappears, dies.

It is not that there is a surrendered individual and a divine will working through him. A surrendered individual is the divine will. Now he is no more. Only God is. He has vacated, he has become empty. In that emptiness, God has entered. He is no more there.

This word'individual' is very beautiful, but it has been very much misused.

Individual means'indivisible': that which cannot be divided. You should not be called individuals, that is wrong language. You are DIVIDUALS, you can be divided. Only God is individual. When the DIVIDUAL disappears, the individual is. But there is no duality. It is not you, and God functioning through you. That is again the ego.

One day a Gandhian came to me and he said, "Mahatma Gandhi used to say that'I am just an instrument of the divine will.' But Krishna says,'I am God'; Jesus says,'I am God'; Mansoor says,'I am God'. The seers of the Upanishads say,'AHAM BRAMHASMI... I am the absolute.' " The Gandhian said to me:

"These people look egoistic. Gandhi is humble."

I told him, "Don't be deceived by the appearance. In fact, Gandhi is egoistic when he says,'I am an instrument of the divine.' The ego is there, functioning now as an instrument. If the ego is gone, then even that much difference is not possible: that God is doing something through me. That difference is not possible when the ego has gone completely. Then it is not God coming through something within you. YOU are God. You are not an instrument; you have become God himself."

This is very difficult to understand. When Krishna says, "I am God!" it looks egoistic. It sounds egoistic; Gandhi sounds more humble, less egoistic. But don't be deceived by the appearance. Gandhi is more egoistic. Of course the ego is very humble, very pious -- you can call it religious -- but it is there: polished, decorated, refined. And a refined poison is more poisonous, a refined ego is more dangerous.

Krishna can say, "I am God," because he is not. In fact, it is not Krishna saying, "I am God." It is God saying, "I am." Krishna is not there. He appears to Arjuna because our eyes are blind. He appears to us because we cannot see. When Krishna says, "I am God," we think it is Krishna saying, "I am God." In fact, Krishna is no more there. It is God saying, "I am! I am! " -- that's all.

Question 5

IS SURRENDER A LEARNING PROCESS OR A HAPPENING?

For you, it is going to be a learning process. For me, it is a happening.

If I say it is a happening, you will say, "Then what can we do? We have to wait" -

- and you will wait as you are. It has not happened up to now because, the way you are, it cannot happen. You will wait in the same way. It will never happen.

I know it is a happening, but it happens in right moments. It happens when you are in a tuned existence. It happens when you are harmonious, when you are not a chaos, a conflict, but in a deep harmony.

Yes, it cannot be learned. Because who will learn it? You? -- you are the barrier.

And a learned barrier is even more of a barrier than an ignorant one. Who will practice it? All that is practiced is practiced by the ego. The ego is strengthened through all practices. So you cannot, in fact, learn it. You have to allow it.

But that allowing has to be learned! You have to give way, and you are very stubborn. All that can be learned is a learning in a negative sense. Just like giving way: allowing, not resisting. These things have to be learned. Once you have learned these things, surrender happens.

Surrender is nothing that you can do... but you can prevent. This has to be understood. It is just like you are sitting in your room: it is dark and the doors are closed. The light is waiting outside. You open the doors. When you open the doors, the light comes in. Not that you bring it in. How can you bring it in? There is no way. How can you bring the light in? You just open the door: it comes in.

Coming-in happens, but the opening of the door has to be done. That is the negative part of it.

You have to learn how to let go, you have to learn how to relax, you have to learn how not to resist, how not to be stubborn, how not to be negative when God knocks at your door. How to say YES and not say NO -- that has to be learned.

And remember, God knocks every moment. Every beat of the heart may be His knocking. Every time you breathe in, He goes in; and every time you move, He surrounds you. He is always by the corner. Jesus goes on saying: "Return, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand." AT HAND is the emphasis.

Surrender cannot be learned, it is a happening. And it is good that it is a happening. If you could learn it, it would be less than you. It is such a vast phenomenon. It is not like a drop falling in the ocean. It is just the reverse: the ocean falling in the drop, God descending in you.

You just have to be not trembling and afraid, that's all. When He comes you say,

"Yes, come in. Welcome." Bow down. Open the doors of your heart, be vulnerable. Let Him move through and through you.

You can learn how to let go; you cannot learn how to surrender. When you are in a let-go, suddenly one day.... Nobody can predict when. Don't be concerned about it; the'when' is irrelevant. When you are waiting, in a let-go, one day the tuning happens. By and by, you are becoming one with the whole; the fear is disappearing. You are no longer defensive, you are no longer afraid. You say,

"Everything is welcome."

That's why I go on telling you: learn to say YES more. And watch: your NO is too much. In fact, your very tendency is always to say NO. You say YES, but very reluctantly; you say NO with great gusto. Your NO has power; your YES is almost impotent. You have to say it, that's why you say. If there was any possibility to say NO, you would have said NO.

Become a yea-sayer. Not only verbally, but existentially. Allow more and more yes in your being. That's what I call being a theist. A theist is one who says yes. A moment comes when he says YES even to suffering, even to pain, even to death.

Then you are completely vulnerable. You are not defending yourself: you have no armor around you; you are totally naked. In that moment, someday, sometime, somewhere, tuning happens. You are in tune with the whole, and the whole drops in you. It is a happening.

You cannot learn it. And it is good that you cannot learn it, otherwise you would make it a technique. It is not a technique. Finally, all that is beautiful, true and good is nontechnical. You cannot make a technology out of it. That's what religions have been doing -- trying to create a technology -- and they have destroyed everything beautiful.

A prayer is nontechnical. It is a heart-to-heart talk. Or, a silence between two hearts. It is a deep understanding, a reverence. A feeling of the presence of the unknown all around, a deep reverence. You may not say a single word. In fact, how can you say anything? When you are really in deep reverence, all words look useless; all words look like a disturbance. When the silence and the music of silence surrounds you, to say a word will be foolish. You are in deep awe.

Everything stops. Then, there is prayer.

Churches and temples go on teaching you prayer. They tell you how to do it. It cannot be done that way. That way you can learn something which is absolutely false, pseudo. All that is great, all that is beyond, happens. It is nothing to do with your doing.

But don't misunderstand me and don't think: then what is the point of doing anything? Meditating, praying -- what is the point? No, I am simply saying: you will have to meditate, you will have to pray, you will have to do many things to prepare yourself. When the cup is ready, God pours himself in you. You cannot force Him to pour himself, that's perfectly true, but you have to prepare the cup.

You will have to produce the cup from your heart.

He is already pouring. It has never been otherwise. He is raining, He is pouring, but your cup is not ready. Or, even if it is ready, it is upside down. He goes on pouring, and you remain empty. You are doing a SHIRSHASAN, a headstand.

He goes on pouring but your cup cannot receive. It is not in the right position where contact is possible.

Learn how to be a cup. Learn how to put the cup rightside up.

Question 6

OSHO, WHAT IS IT THAT I CAN GIVE TO YOU? AND WHAT IS IT THAT I CAN TAKE OF YOU? AND WHO AM I?

"What is it that I can give to you? " You can give me nothing. And what is it that you can take of me? You can take nothing. But your nothingness is negative, and my nothingness is positive.

"And who am l?" Between these two nothingnesses -- just a momentary wave between these two banks of nothingness. Between the nothingness which is negative and the nothingness which is positive, you ARE. Just a wave.

Try to understand this. You cannot give me anything because you have nothing.

I can give you everything, because I also have nothing. And between these two is your ego: just a trembling, just a wave, a tension. If you receive me, the ego will disappear. If you are ready to receive me, you would have already surrendered the ego.

To move from a nothingness which is negative towards a nothingness which is positive is to move from the world to God. Between the two is the ego.

Question 7

WHEN YOU TALK OF THE ECSTASY THAT IS AVAILABLE NOW, WHICH

WILL BECOME OUR AGONY WHEN YOU ARE GONE, I FEEL SO

INADEQUATE AND IMPOTENT THAT I JUST FEEL THAT ALL I CAN DO IS

BANG MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL.

It will not help your head! The wall may become enlightened...!

Banging of the head won't do, but dropping of the head can do. Banging: the head always wants to do it. That's what you are doing your whole life -- banging heads, fighting. Don't try to bang. Just drop it, be headless.

Try it as a meditation. It is one of the most beautiful tantra meditations. Walk, and think that the head is no more there -- just the body. Sit, and think that the head is no more there -- just the body. Continuously remember that the head is not there. Visualize yourself without the head. Have a picture of yourself enlarged -- without the head. Look at it. Let your mirror be lowered in the bathroom so when you see, you cannot see your head -- just the body.

A few days of remembrance, and you will feel such weightlessness happening to you, such tremendous silence, because it is the head that is the problem. If you can conceive of yourself as headless.... And that can be conceived, there is no trouble in it. Then more and more, you'll be centered near the heart.

Just this very moment you can visualize yourself headless. Then you will understand what I am saying immediately. There will not be a gap between what I say and what you understand. It is the head creating the whole nonsense in between.

But please don't bang it against the wall, because the wall might not like it. The wall might not be ready yet to get enlightened. Bang it with emptiness, not with the wall. Then it drops.

To be headless is to be meditative. To be completely headless is to attain to the unattainable. Your head is your madness. If you can conceive of yourself without the head, all madness

will disappear. Just try it. Give it a try. It is one of the most potential methods.

Question 8

IS IT POSSIBLE TO BECOME ENLIGHTENED IN A DREAM?

Not only possible -- whenever it happens, it always happens in a dream.

Whatsoever you think is your waking consciousness, that too is not waking; that too is dreaming. While sitting here in front of me, do you think you are awake? I don't see it. I can hear your snore. And if you listen minutely, you will be able to hear it yourself: a deep snoring inside, a deep sleep -- and dreams and dreams.

In sleep, only dreams can happen. That's what we have been insisting in this country continuously: that your world is illusory, it is MAYA. When Shankara says the world is MAYA, he's not talking about HIS world. He's talking about YOUR world. Because in sleep, how can you know that which is real? The sleep distorts. A totally different world is created by sleep: a world of dream.

Whatsoever you call your life is made of the same stuff as dreams. It is dreamstuff.

So whenever you become awakened and enlightened, it will always be in a dream. Buddha became enlightened -- or Jesus, or Zarathustra, or Lao Tzu -- they all became enlightened in a dream. The dream was shattered; they awoke out of sleep. They looked around: the dream was never found anywhere; it was a totally different thing. That's what they call God, nirvana, truth, brahma, the kingdom of God. That's what they call it. It is not your world; it is a waking.

Enlightenment is just an awakening out of sleep. It is to become aware.

You are lost in your dreams. Your subjectivity is completely engulfed by the dreams. It is just like when you go to see a movie. You know well that there is nothing on the screen. Still, you get deceived. When the movie starts, the screen is full of pictures. Just a play of light and darkness, just very subtle dream-stuff, and you are lost. You forget yourself. You forget the spectator, you become part of it. Sometimes you cry and weep when some tragedy happens on the screen.

Sometimes you laugh; sometimes you become very tense. You follow all that is happening on the screen. There is nothing happening, but for two, three hours, you are completely lost.

This is what life is..For seventy years, eighty years, you are completely lost.

Buddha is one who becomes awakened in a movie house and suddenly shakes himself and understands that there is nothing -- only a wide screen covered with white and black shades; just covered with false, dreamlike stuff. He laughs -- not at what he is seeing; he laughs at himself -- and comes back home. There is no point being there now. He has understood. He is no more a part of sleep; he has become awakened.

Try this. One day, go to the movies and watch how you become so unaware that that which is not real starts becoming real. Then bring yourself back and back, again and again. Become aware. Give a jerk to the body, look again, and remember it is a white screen and there is nothing there. Then again watch.

Within seconds you are again gone. Again your consciousness has been taken possession of by the dreamstuff. Again you are enjoying, or moving with the story. Remember again!

This is the same process that a Buddha is doing in the world. A movie house can be a perfect meditation place if you can remember. The day you can remember continuously for three hours that there is nothing.... And remember, don't repeat this: that there is nothing. That won't help. It has to be KNOWN that there is nothing. You have to remember constantly that you are a witness, you have to watch that you are not affected by anything happening there.

When three-dimensional movies came for the first time, they created a stir in the world. When a new three-dimensional movie was shown for the first time in London.... A horse was coming, running. People got scared. It was a three-dimensional movie; the horse was almost real. People even gave way for the horse to pass by. It looked so real!

Your reality is just a three-dimensional dream. One has to awake. And awakening is always bound to be in a dream, so it matters not what type of dream you are seeing.

That's why I say there is no need to change the dream. You can wake up wherever you are. You may be seeing yourself as a sinner, a criminal; you may be in a prison. Or, you may be thinking of yourself as a great mahatma. You may be in a temple being worshipped by thousands and thousands of people. It makes no difference. The mahatma is as much in a dream if he believes what he is seeing and if he's affected by the worship that is being done to him. If somebody insults him and he feels angry, annoyed, then he is in a dream as much as the sinner in prison.

It is not at all relevant to change the dream: to first become a mahatma instead of a criminal. From the sinner you become a saint. It is foolish. Why waste time when you can wake up directly from wherever you are? You can become enlightened while you are imprisoned, you can become enlightened directly from where you are. You are a sinner, okay -- because sin is as much a dream as all your sainthood. The awakening is the same.

In the night, you dreamt that you are a murderer. By the morning, when you wake up, you are not worried. You don't go on saying, "I will repent. I have been a murderer in my dream." You simply laugh at the whole thing. You don't condemn yourself, because it was a dream. Or, you see in a dream that you have become a great mahatma, a great soul: a saint, worshipped by millions. In the morning when you wake up, you don't go on telling people how great a mahatma you were in the dream!

There is a Zen story. A great master woke up in the morning. He called his chief disciple and said, "Come to me. I had a dream, I will tell it to you. Interpret it."

If the disciple was a Freud or a Jung or an Adler, he would have been tremendously happy, and he would have immediately started interpreting the dream. But the disciple was a meditator, not a Jung, not a Freud. He said, "You wait. Don't talk rubbish. I will bring water so you can wash your face."

He brought a bowl of water. While the master was washing his face, another disciple passed. The master said, "Come here. I had a dream. Would you like to interpret it?"

The disciple looked. He said, "Wait. The tea is ready and I will bring you a cup of tea. Then you will come to your senses!" A dream is not worth even interpretation.

The master was happy. It is said he danced that day. He said, "At least two disciples...." He said, "If you had interpreted my dream, I would have thrown you out of my monastery" -- because a dream is nonsense, and then trying to interpret it is even a higher nonsense.

What the disciples did was the best interpretation. The first one brought a bowl of water and said to the old master, "You just wash your face so that you become more awake."

The other brought tea. "Just drink tea, a little hot tea, and that will bring you back to your senses. You will be more conscious."

Consciousness is needed, not interpretation. All dreams are the same: there are not good dreams and bad dreams. How can there be good dreams and bad dreams? Both are unreal. In unreality you cannot make a distinction between good and bad. Moral, immoral; sinner, saint -- all are dreams. Don't try to change one dream for another. All are chains. Steel or gold, it doesn't matter.

Wake up! All the awakened ones are just standing there with bowls of water and a hot cup of tea....

Question 9

WHEN YOU WERE SAYING YESTERDAY THAT IT IS OUR OWN CHOICE, OUR OWN DECISION WHATEVER HAPPENS TO US -- THEN SUDDENLY IT

DAWNED ON ME THAT REALLY IT IS SIMPLE: SIMPLE TO BECOME

POSITIVE, SIMPLE TO LET THE OLD PATTERNS DIE, SIMPLE TO BE, EVEN

NATURAL FOR ENLIGHTENMENT TO HAPPEN. IS THIS'WAKING UP'?

It is just thinking about waking up. A little more, one jump more.

Don't be deceived by it. It is good as far as it goes, but it does not go very far, or far enough. It is good that you understand it, but it is still an intellectual understanding. Good -- at least you have not misunderstood. Feel blissful for it, feel fortunate. You have not misunderstood. That's what I'm saying: that it is simple, simple to be. But don't think that this is already waking up.

I am talking about food. I am talking about it; you are understanding it. Then, the search for food begins. Don't try to eat the menu; it is not food. Don't try to enjoy the map so much that you completely forget about the goal. The map is not the territory. Even a beautiful picture of the Himalayas, perfectly true to it, even that is not the Himalayas.

But good that you have understood. This is waking up: you have understood the point. Now let the point become your very being. Don't allow it to remain in the intellect, because sooner or later, if it remains there too much, it will be a dead concept. Let it become existential.

Yes, it is simple. It is so simple that you can become awakened this very moment.

Don't ask how, because once you ask how then it is no longer simple; then it becomes difficult. Because of your'hows' there are people who go on answering you. You ask how; they show you the way. In fact, there is no way: it is a pathless path. In fact, there is no how to it. It is just an understanding, a turning in.

If you have understood the point, live it. Because only through living will it become a concrete reality.

Question 10

YOU SAID THAT MIND IS THE DEVIL: "DROP IT!" OH, BUT A MAN OF A CIVILIZED, COMPLEX SOCIETY OF TODAY, LIKE ME, FEELS HIM SELF

SURROUNDED AND LOST IN MIND AND MIND AND NOTHING ELSE.

HOW TO PROCEED? MOREOVER, IF ONE GOES WITH AN INNOCENT, CHILDLIKE MIND INTO THIS WORLD, HE WILL PROBABLY BE CHEATED.

Be cheated. It is worth it. What have you got that you are so much afraid of being cheated? A naked fakir -- worried where he will dry his clothes if he takes a bath.

Be cheated! You have nothing.

This idea that "... with an innocent childlike mind into this world, he will probably be cheated," is already cunning, clever, calculating. If you want to become childlike, even then you calculate what will happen? A child is just a child. Whatsoever happens, happens.

And I tell you, if you allow yourself to be cheated, in the end you will find that those who were cheating you were really the victims. They have been cheated.

They could not take anything from you because, in the first place, you had nothing.

When death knocks at your door, you will be happy that you allowed people to cheat you rather than cheating them. Because there are only two possibilities: either you cheat or you allow people to cheat you. There is no other possibility. If you think: "I will not cheat others, but I will not allow anybody to cheat me," you have the wrong attitude. You don't understand what you are thinking, It is impossible.

The only way not to be cheated is to cheat. Ask Machiavelli, he knows. Ask Kautilya or Chanakya, they know. Machiavelli says: "The only way to defend yourself is to attack." He is exactly your cunningness, embodied. He is the incarnation of cunningness. But he's saying a perfectly logical thing: if you want not to be cheated, cheat. That is the only way not to be cheated; there is no other way. But I tell you, if you cheat people, in the end you will find that you have been doing much and your hands are empty.

When Alexander was dying he told his people, "My hands should be hanging out of the coffin, outside it."

They were worried. They said, "This has never been done. What are you thinking, and why? Why should your hands be hanging out of the coffin?"

He said, "So that people can see that I am going empty handed." A great understanding dawned on him. But very late, when nothing could be done. He had been accumulating the things of the world, he had become almost the conqueror of the world, and at the end he realized that his hands were empty.

Hands will always be empty if you go on cheating people. Once you understand that there is nothing to fear, let them cheat. In their cheating you, they are not very clever; they are simply foolish.

And the more you allow them to cheat you, the more you trust them, the more a different kind of treasure will open its doors to you. It is available only to a childlike consciousness -- innocent.

Question 11

OSHO, WHAT IS INNOCENCE?

[Osho was silent, a long silence. The audience laughed... and the discourse ended.]

Come Follow To You, Vol 2

Chapter #11

Chapter title: And come, follow me

10 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall

LUKE 18

18 AND A CERTAIN RULER ASKED HIM, SAYING, GOOD MASTER, WHAT

SHALL I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?

19 AND JESUS SAID UNTO HIM, WHY CALLEST THOU ME GOOD? NONE IS

GOOD, SAVE ONE, THAT IS, GOD.

20 THOU KNOWEST THE COMMANDMENTS, DO NOT COMMIT

ADULTERY, DO NOT KILL, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE

WITNESS, HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER.

21 AND HE SAID, ALL THESE HAVE I KEPT FROM MY YOUTH UP.

22 NOW WHEN JESUS HEARD THESE THINGS, HE SAID UNTO HIM, YET

LACKEST THOU ONE THING: SELL ALL THAT THOU HAST, AND

DISTRIBUTE UNTO THE POOR, AND THOU SHALT HAVE TREASURE IN

HEAVEN: AND COME, FOLLOW ME.

23 AND WHEN HE HEARD THIS, HE WAS VERY SORROWFUL: FOR HE

WAS VERY RICH.

24 AND WHEN JESUS SAW THAT HE WAS VERY SORROWFUL, HE SAID, HOW HARDLY SHALL THEY THAT HAVE RICHES ENTER INTO THE

KINGDOM OF GOD!

25 FOR IT IS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO GO THROUGH A NEEDLE'S EYE, THAN FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

26 AND THEY THAT HEARD IT SAID, WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?

27 AND HE SAID, THE THINGS WHICH ARE IMPOSSIBLE WITH MEN ARE

POSSIBLE WITH GOD.

MAN IS A PARADOX. He is on the way: that s why he has to be a paradox. He has not yet arrived. The departure has happened, but the arrival is yet to come.

Man is a process. Man is not yet a being, man is still becoming. Hence the paradox. The world of the animals is left behind, the departure has happened, but the world of the gods has not yet been achieved.

Man is just a bridge between these two -- the past and the future -- and there is a constant tension. The past pulls him back, the future calls him forth. Man is always in anxiety. What to do? The anxiety is very deep: to be or not to be?

Because of this, man is bound to remain contradictory unless he transcends humanity. A part of man will remain in the past and a part of man will remain in the future, the yet unborn. These two will go on continuously fighting within the heart of man: the good and the bad, or the night and the day, life and death, or whatsoever you want to call it -- the polarity.

Because of this polarity, whatsoever you do is only halfhearted. It never gives satisfaction. You cannot withdraw from it and you cannot be committed to it totally. You love, but the love is half-hearted. Nothing happens out of it; you remain the same. You meditate, but the meditation is halfhearted. Nothing happens out of it, because you have never moved in it totally. All happening is possible only in total involvement: when you are not left behind, when you have moved completely, utterly completely. There is no holding back... a jump. In that jump the past disappears, the future disappears. Just here and now, being arises.

That being is what we mean by'God'. You carry that possibility within you, but you go on fighting within the opposites. Because of this fight and turmoil you cannot see who you are, you cannot feel that which you are already, Deeply hidden within your own being is the truth. The enemy is within and the friend is also. The beloved is within and the wicked one also is within you. This has to be understood, because the very understanding will become a freedom, a liberation.

One of Jesus' very significant parables has been lost completely. Just a reference is made to it in LUKE, but the complete parable is not in any of the authorized gospels, not even in the fifth gospel of Thomas. Some hidden sources, some secret societies, have continuously been meditating on that parable. I would like to tell it to you. The parable is so significant that it may be because of its significance that it has not been included in the authorized gospels. The parable seems to be dangerous. The implications of it are of tremendous import and significance.

The parable is about someone secretly sowing weeds in a wheat field while the master and his servants slept. The servants were all for cutting them quickly out, but the master said that at harvest time one could more effectively separate the wheat from the tares.

The servants consulted together, saying, "It would be much better to pull out those weeds right now rather than wait, but we must obey the master even when he is wrong. In the meantime, let us look for the enemy who would do this evil thing to our master who is so kind to everyone and doesn't deserve this treatment."

They quietly inquired and made a search of the whole region, but they could not find anyone; they could not find the enemy.

One of the servants came privately to the chief steward at night saying, "Sir, forgive me, but I can no longer bear to conceal my secret. I know the enemy who sowed the tares. I saw him do it."

At this, the chief steward was astonished and full of anger. But before punishing him, he demanded of the servant why he had not come forward sooner.

"I dared not," cried the servant. "I scarcely dared to come and tell you this even now. I was awake the night the weeds were sown, I saw the man who did it. He walked past me, seemingly awake and yet asleep. He did not appear to recognize me, but I recognized him."

"And who was he indeed? " asked the chief steward in great excitement. "Tell me so he can be punished."

The servant hung his head. Finally, in a low voice, he replied, "It was the master himself."

And the two agreed to say nothing of this to any man.

The enemy is not outside. If it was outside, it would not have been difficult to get rid of him. You could have escaped. But you cannot escape from the enemy because it is within.

The beloved, the friend, is also not outside. Otherwise you could have searched, and once found by one man, there would have been no difficulty for others to follow. Just as it happens in science: the truth is outside.

Scientific truth IS outside. One man discovers, and the discovery becomes part of human knowledge. Then each and everybody knows about it. Einstein may have worked for twelve years to com e to the truth of the theory of relativity, but once he knew it, it became a co m m on inheritance. Even a schoolchild can learn it.

Whosoever is ready now, need not waste time. Within minutes and hours it can be learned. It is always there.

The truth of science is outside, but the truth of religion is within. Jesus m ay have discovered it, but his discovery will remain personal. It cannot be transferred to anybody else. Buddha may have discovered it, but the discovery will disappear w hen Buddha disappears. Each and every seeker will have to find the truth again and again, individually.

Religious truth is personal. Religious truth cannot be borrowed; it has to be sought. Every seeker has to work it out on his own. You cannot stand on anybody else's shoulders, you cannot inherit it. It has to be earned.

Both are within: the animal and the god. That creates the problem. Sometimes you get identified with the divine in you. Then everything flows beautifully.

Then you feel a warmth all around you, all over you. Then you feel a calm, a deep tranquility. Then you feel ecstatic. Everything seems to be a blessing.

Everything fits together with the whole, everything falls in line. A deep contentment surrounds you, descends in you. You are at home.

Whenever you get identified with the divine, you feel happy. Whenever you get identified with the wicked one, you become unhappy; you become miserable. All your misery and all your happiness is just an identification: either with the divine part or with the devil part. Both are within you. The religious m an has to go beyond both. It is not only that he has to dis-identify himself fro m the devil.

That has to be done, but he should also dis-identify himself from even the god.

Identification, in itself, is the trouble.

With the wicked one, you will be miserable. That is the myth of hell: one who has gone so deeply into an identification with the dark, with the devil, that his whole life has become a hell -- just a long misery, with no end in view.

You have to get dis-identified with the dark part, but everybody wants to do that. The real problem arises when teachers like Jesus and Buddha say to get dis-identified with the good also, because, deep down, identification itself is the problem, not the object of identification. Then happiness also disappears, just as misery disappears.

Whatsoever is left behind -- that'x' quality -- is bliss. It is neither misery nor happiness. It is totally different from both. It is indefinable, it is elusive. You cannot catch hold of it. The more you try, the more it will escape you. But you can live it. That'x' quality can be lived.

The identification has to go. Don't get identified with anything. Remain a watcher, remain a witness. Whatsoever happens, happens to you, but you are not it. Remember that. Remind yourself continuously.

Sadness has come. It has happened to you; it is not you. The moment you remember this, suddenly you will see a distance arising between you and the sadness. It does not affect you anymore. When you lose awareness, it affects you; when you gain awareness, there is a distance. The more awareness rises to a higher peak, the more the distance becomes greater and greater. A moment comes when you are so far away from your sadness that it is as if it is no longer there.

The same has to be done with happiness also. It will be difficult, because one wants to cling to happiness. But if you want to cling to happiness, you are sowing the seeds of unhappiness.

That's how this parable is of tremendous significance. The master himself -- in his sleep, in his unawareness -- came to the field, the wheat field, and sowed the seeds of weeds. In his deep sleep..He must have been a somnambulist; a person who walks in his sleep and does things. In the morning he started asking, "Who has done this?"

You have been doing things to yourself. In the morning when you become awake you ask, "Who has done this? " and you start searching for the enemy. The enemy is within, the enemy is just your unconsciousness.

There is a Sufi parable that is just like this parable: A man was very worried because every night somebody would enter his garden and destroy the garden. He did everything that could be done to protect it.

Guards were posted all around the boundary, but never was anybody seen to go into the garden in the night. Everything was done, but nothing helped. The garden was being destroyed every day.

He went to a Sufi master, thinking that the master must have the quality of seeing faraway things. The master closed his eyes and said, "You do one thing.

Fix the alarm on your alarm clock for two o'clock in the night."

The man said, "How is this going to help? My guards are continuously watching and patrolling around the house."

The master said, "There is no need to argue. You simply do what I say. You fix the alarm for two o'clock. Then come the next day. Whatsoever happens you relate to me."

The man was suspicious, but he tried it.

Two o'clock, when the alarm went off, he became awake. He was standing in his garden, destroying his plants.

He was a somnambulist. We all are. You have been sowing seeds and in your deep darkness -- in your night, in your sleep, in your unawareness, unconsciousness -- you have been throwing the seeds and destroying your own field.

You love somebody, and then you start possessing him. Now tares are entering.

You love, and then you become jealous. Now weeds are growing. You love, and for trivial things you get angry. You love: for nothing at all -- meaningless, petty things -- hate arises. Now the wheat is getting mixed with tares.

When you love you feel happy. Every love starts with a deep happiness, a celebration, and every love ends in deep sadness.

The other day I was reading a poem by T. S. Eliot. The poem ends with these lines:

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS NOT WITH A BANG BUT WITH A WHIMPER.

This is how everything ends. Your love, your meditation, your virtue. Not even with a bang but with a whimper.

Continuously you are contradicting yourself. Whatsoever you do, you undo it.

With one hand you build the house; with another you destroy it. Watch, be alert, and the more alert you are, the more you will see that there is nobody else working against you. There is no devil working against you; the devil is within you. And there is no God helping you. That God is also within you. If you go beyond both, the good and the bad, you yourself become that God.

These sutras of Jesus have to be understood with deep sympathy. You can listen to them without sympathy. Then you will hear them, but they will not become part of your heart. Only in deep sympathy you become open. These sutras are seeds. They have much in them which can grow if the right soil in the heart allows them to grow, if you help them to grow. They are just indications, gestures. If you allow them to grow, they can become your very life-style.

AND A CERTAIN RULER ASKED HIM, SAYING, GOOD MASTER, WHAT

SHALL I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?

To inherit? Exactly there, the man went wrong. In that word'inherit' he lost contact with Jesus. The eternal life cannot be inherited. It is not like a fortune or a worldly kingdom. You have to earn it; everybody has to earn it and seek it. You cannot inherit it. The father cannot give it to the son, the master cannot give it to the disciple, the lover cannot give it to the beloved, no. There is no way of inheriting it.

Worldly things can be inherited because when a man dies, he has to leave all his worldly possessions here. He cannot take them with him. But when a man of spirituality dies, he leaves nothing here. His treasure goes with him; it cannot be inherited.

A CERTAIN RULER ASKED -- he was a ruler, a very rich man -- SAYING, GOOD MASTER, WHAT SHALL I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE? The first thing to remember is that you cannot get it from somebody else. You have to earn it.

There is a story in Mahavir's life. A great king came to visit him. The king was a great conqueror, he had almost become the ruler of the whole country. He knew only one language: the language of war, the language of conquering. He had conquered everything that was worth conquering; he had become the richest man in the country. Now somebody said that all these worldly possessions are of no use unless you conquer the inner kingdom. "Unless you attain DHYANA, SAMADHI, unless you attain inner ecstasy, these are useless."

So he said, "From where can I get it? You just show me the place; I will conquer it." He knew only one language: of conquering.

Ecstasy cannot be conquered. On the contrary, you have to allow it to conquer you. You cannot conquer it; you have to surrender to it. It conquers you. You cannot possess it, you have to allow it to possess you. That is the only way. But that was a language he had never known.

Somebody said, "Mahavir is right nearby, staying in the forest. You go to him. He has attained." So the king went there with a great army -- the man knew only one language.

He surrounded the forest. Then he approached Mahavir. He thought, "If he surrenders without a fight, it is okay." So he went to Mahavir and he said, "I have come to conquer the kingdom you have attained, the kingdom of inner ecstasy."

Mahavir laughed. He said, "Good, your desire is good. But you seem to be absolutely unaware of what you are asking. It cannot be conquered by you. I HAVE got it here, but I cannot give it to you and you cannot conquer it."

The king said, "You don't be worried about it. You just show me where it is. You cannot give it? What do you mean? That you don't want to give it to me? I can force you to give it. I have not come across anything which cannot be conquered.

You simply show me where it is."

Mahavir must have felt a deep compassion in his heart for this man. Foolish, stupid, but that's how humanity is. He said, "You do one thing. There is no need to come to me. In your own capital there is a very poor man and he may want to bargain with you. He has also attained. You go to him."

The king had never heard the name of that poor man, but he said, "I will go." He went to that poor man. He was really a beggar, but with the same light in his eyes as Mahavir, with the same fragrance around him, with the same innocence.

He was sitting under a tree. The king said, "You are part of my kingdom and whatsoever you have attained -- give it to me! Whatsoever you want in return, I am ready to give. Even if you want my whole kingdom, I will give it to you. But bring out, give me, your SAMADHI."

The man laughed. He said, "I can give you my life, it is in your hands, but I cannot give you SAMADHI. Not that I don't want to give it, but the very nature of it is such that it cannot be given. You will have to earn it."

The king said, "But I have never earned anything. I am a conqueror. Whatsoever I need, I simply conquer it. I'm not a businessman; I never earn anything. I am a KSHATRIYA, a warrior."

The beggar said, "But here, your swords won't do, nor your army. Here you will have to go alone, because it is a going inward. You have to go to your own center. And it cannot be given because you already have it. It has only to be known, discovered."

Our ignorance is the only reason that we don't have it. Not that we don't have it -

- it has been always there -- but we have forgotten it. We have become oblivious to it, our eyes have become clouded. The vision has lost the crystal clarity that is needed to rediscover it.

Have you watched? Sometimes you are trying to remember somebody's name.

You know it, and still it is not coming. You feel very puzzled. You say it is just on the tip of the tongue. You say, "I KNOW it," but if somebody insists, "If you know it, then why don't you tell it?" you say, "But it is not coming."

Have you watched this emptiness? You know the name, you know that you know it, but there is a gap. But that gap is not empty, that gap is not passive.

That gap is very active, intensely active. That gap is searching, that gap itself is in search for the forgotten name.

And another thing if you watch: somebody suggests some name and you say,

"No, it is not that." This is beautiful. You don't know what is true, but you know what is false. You say, "That is not it." Somebody suggests some other name. You say, "No, even that is not it. I know what it is!" The gap is not just a dead gap; it is dynamic. It knows what is false, it knows what is not true, but it has forgotten the truth.

So if somebody is teaching you a false god, you will immediately understand.

There is no problem about it. If somebody is giving you a false thing, you will immediately understand it. You don't know what is true, you don't know what is truth, but you can immediately feel what is untrue, because the truth is hidden within you. You may have forgotten it, but you have not forgotten that it is there.

That's why, whenever you hear truth, suddenly something in you immediately perceives it. It is not a question of time. Others who cannot perceive it will think that you have been hypnotized. Argue, reason, think about it, brood then believe.

But whenever you hear truth, the very quality of it is such that immediately it fills your gap, because your own truth has been called.

Whenever you hear a truth, it is not coming from the outside. The outside is just an opportunity for the inside to open. Immediately, you know that this is true.

Not that you can argue about it, not that you can prove it, not that you are convinced by it, no. You are transformed by it, not convinced. It is a conversion, not a conviction.

AND A CERTAIN RULER ASKED HIM, SAYING, GOOD MASTER, WHAT

SHALL I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?

Inherit? It cannot be inherited.

AND JESUS SAID UNTO HIM, WHY CALLEST THOU ME GOOD?

The man has said GOOD MASTER. You cannot deceive a man like Jesus. He was trying to flatter him: GOOD MASTER. In fact, to call him a master is enough because goodness is intrinsic to a master. To call him a good master is a repetition. A master, by being a master, is good. It is just flattery.

The man is a man of the world. He knows his manners. If you want something from somebody, you have to flatter and buttress him. The man was trying the ordinary diplomatic ways. The man may have been a disciple of Dale Carnegie: GOOD MASTER. When you are after somebody and you want something, you have to behave in such a way that he can be persuaded.

But you cannot deceive a man like Jesus, because he sees through and through you. He knows that you don't even know that he is a master, you don't believe that he is a master. But you call him GOOD MASTER.

AND JESUS SAID UNTO HIM, WHY CALLEST THOU ME GOOD? NONE IS

GOOD, SAVE ONE, THAT IS, GOD.

How can man be good when man is by nature divided? Man is both good and bad, man is a polarity: a paradox, a contradiction. This has to be understood.

Even the greatest saint has within him the sinner. And the reverse is also true: the greatest sinner has a saint within him. Emphasis differs, but a saint is a sinner also and a sinner is a saint also. Maybe the saint was a sinner in the past, maybe the sinner will be a saint in the future. The only emphasis is in time, otherwise there is no difference.

Only the emphasis differs. Real saints know it; only false, pseudo-saints don't know it. A pseudo-saint believes that he is simply saintly; there is no sinner in him. He is wrong, because where will the sinner go? Maybe the sinner has become inactive, non-functioning, but it is there. It can function any moment, it can uncoil any moment.

Go and behave with a saint the way he has not been expecting you to behave, and immediately you will see a different face arising. Immediately you will see that the man is annoyed, angry. He's no more that saintly man he was.

Something has changed. You worship him, touch his feet, and he is smiling. He has a different face.

Try the same thing sometimes with a sinner, a criminal. Go and touch his feet and just look at him. His face becomes saintly. When somebody touches your feet, you have to be a saint. What else can you do? And when somebody insults you, you have to be a sinner. What else can you do? Maybe ninety-nine percent a saint is a saint, but one percent the sinner is there. All great saints are aware of it.

Jesus says:

WHY CALLEST THOU ME GOOD? NONE IS GOOD, SAVE ONE, THAT IS, GOD.

But there comes a point of transcendence. And those who transcend both the sinner and the saint -- them we have been calling sages.

A saint is a very ordinary phenomenon. A sage is extraordinary. The sage is the transcendental. He's neither saint nor sinner. Remember, if you are trying to become a saint and trying to drop your sinner, the dropped sinner will remain hanging in your unconscious. A hangover will be there. If you are trying to become a sinner, then deep down, somewhere in the unconscious, the saint will wait to be realized sometime in future.

This happens: that saints go on dreaming about sins that they have forced themselves not to do. The dreams of saints are ugly because they are substitutions, and the dreams of sinners are very beautiful. Sinners always dream that they have become saints. A sinner can dream that he has become a Buddha, sitting under the Bodhi tree. But saints, so-called saints, are afraid of sleep. In sleep, their dreams reveal their inner reality. They have eloped with somebody's wife -- because the dream is that part which you have been denying in your life.

A sage does not dream, because he has no polarity. He's just a witness. When you become a witness in your life, life becomes absolutely simple. I'm not talking about the simplicity that you can discipline yourself into. I'm talking about the simplicity that comes by being alert and aware, that comes automatically, spontaneously. And when you are aware, dreams drop. A moment comes when sleep becomes dreamless.

When sleep is dreamless, the day becomes thoughtless. They go together. Then a man is just like a small child, a newborn babe. Jesus says that is the quality which is needed if you want to enter into the kingdom of God.

Jesus said:

THOU KNOWEST THE COMMANDMENTS, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT KILL, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR

THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER.

Jesus said to that man, "You know the commandments. Follow them. If you want to enter into the kingdom of God, the eternal life, you know the commandments.

Every child knows them: DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT KILL, DO

NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR THY FATHER AND

THY MOTHER."

AND HE SAID, ALL THESE HAVE L KEPT FROM MY YOUTH UP.

This is very meaningful. Jesus gave him the law because the man was too worldly. He was even trying to flatter Jesus: GOOD MASTER. And the man was too worldly because he was thinking to INHERIT eternal life. He knows only one language: of this world. The other world -- he has not even heard about it.

Jesus told him to follow the law, the commandments of Moses. AND THE MAN

SAID, ALL THESE HAVE I KEPT FROM MY YOUTH UP. What is the meaning of it?

The meaning is that you can follow all the commandments and still you will be missing the kingdom of God. Commandments are a lower-grade phenomenon.

The law is for those who are unaware; love is for those who are aware. Love is the higher law; law is the lower love. Law is followed by moralists; love is followed by people who are religious. Religion is not law, it is love.

Law has a discipline to it; it is a forced thing. It makes you robot-like. You move like a train moves on the track. Law moves in a fixed, routine way. It is mechanical.

Love has no outer discipline to it. Love is freedom. You move like a river, not like a railway train. You move like a river. By your own movement, you create the path. The path is not fixed. Anytime, the river can change it. Love is like a river, a freedom.

Love is a great responsibility because you are free and there is no outer discipline to keep you under control. There is only an inner feeling. Only that inner feeling gives you a discipline.

With law, you are always following a dead routine. It becomes part of your mechanical mind. You need not be responsible. You need not even bother about it; it becomes automatic. It is just like when you learn typing. You have to worry about it in the beginning, but then by and by it becomes a robot-like phenomenon. Then you can go on talking and typing, you can go on singing and typing. Your mind can think a thousand and one thoughts, and you can go on typing.

It is just like driving. When you start driving you have to be very alert because there is danger everywhere. But once you know how to drive, you can even have a few moments of sleep. That happens. Drivers who have been driving the whole night start sleeping for a few seconds between two and four o'clock. They are not even aware of it. Even when their eyes close they go on seeing the road because their eyes are so focused on the road that the road has become a part of them.

They can close their eyes and they go on seeing the road. They think that since they are seeing the road, they must be alert. Fifty percent of all accidents happen between two and four. Sometimes this too happens: that a driver becomes so attuned to driving that he can sleep with open eyes. Then it is even more dangerous. His eyes are open and he is fast asleep. And still he goes on driving.

Law has to be practiced. Love has to be lived not practiced. Love is as if you are moving in a wilderness. By your walking you create the path; the path is not already there waiting for you. It is a tremendous responsibility.

Jesus talked about the law. He must have seen the man, that he is a worldly man, a man of this world. He can follow the law.

But the man said: "All these I have been following and yet nothing has happened." But by just following the law, nothing happens. You can become perfectly moral but you will not become religious. Religion has nothing to do with law; it has something to do with grace and love. Religion has nothing to do with the rules that we have invented.

Those rules are social things. They are needed. They are just like rules of traffic:'keep to the left'. It has no ultimacy about it. If you keep to the right you are not committing a sin, but you will create trouble for yourself and others, because others are keeping to the left. If the whole country decides'keep to the right' then there is no problem: you keep to the right. In America, they keep to the right. In India, you keep to the left. When an American drives on an Indian road, it is dangerous because his mind is fixed: keep to the right. Both are good, nothing is wrong in it. Both are utilitarian; they are not ultimate. Love is ultimate. It has no utility about it.

Jesus talked about the law. "Follow the law!" The man might be able to understand that.

But the man said, "I have been doing all these things and nothing has happened."

Through law, nothing happens. Through law you live a comfortable life, convenient, but no revolution is possible through law.

If you don't follow the law you may be in trouble. If you follow the law you will not be in trouble, but no transformation will happen; you will not become a luminous soul. That has nothing to do with the law.

NOW WHEN JESUS HEARD THESE THINGS, HE SAID UNTO HIM, YET

LACKEST THOU ONE THING: SELL ALL THAT THOU HAST, AND

DISTRIBUTE IT UNTO THE POOR, AND THOU SHALT HAVE TREASURE IN

HEAVEN: AND COME, FOLLOW ME.

Jesus said, "If you have done all these things then only one thing is left that you have not done. That is, love." Love means sharing. Love means giving, without any thought of return, of reward. Whatsoever you have, give to those who don't have it. Share your being, distribute yourself.

YET LACKEST THOU ONE THING: SELL ALL THAT THOU HAST, AND

DISTRIBUTE IT UNTO THE POOR, AND THOU SHALT HAVE TREASURE IN

HEAVEN: AND COME, FOLLOW ME.

If you have fulfilled the law and nothing has happened, then try to fulfill the higher commandment of love. Jesus says, "Moses gave you the law, I give you love. Moses brought you the law, and I bring you a higher law of grace."

AND WHEN HE HEARD THIS, HE WAS VERY SORROWFUL: FOR HE WAS

VERY RICH.

When a poor man hears this -- "Go and distribute all that you have" -- he may not feel sorrowful because he has nothing to give. He can say, "Yes, I am already poor and I have nothing to give." But a rich man who has much.... The more you have, the more miserly you become. The more you have, the more you cling to it and protect it. The more you have, the more afraid; the more you have, the less willing to share it. A poor man can share easily. The problem arises with a rich man.

Ordinarily we would think it should be otherwise, just the reverse: a rich man has so much that he can share. But he cannot share, because he has so much and he is afraid. If he shares he will be losing. A poor man has nothing to lose. That's why poor people are more loving than rich people. They can afford love because they have nothing to lose.

If you go into the villages of India, people are very poor but very loving. They don't have much -- in fact they don't have anything -- but they will always be ready to share. They will invite you to eat with them. They may not have enough for two, but they will always be willing to share it.

A rich man is bound to become sorrowful. He has so much. How can he just go and sell everything and distribute it? His whole identity is with riches: he is somebody because of all that he has. Remember, having becomes a substitute for being. If you have much, you think you are much. And once having is thought to be like your being it becomes difficult to share, because the less you have, the less will become your being. One clings because riches give you a feeling that you are full. If riches are gone, you will be empty.

Only in deep emptiness does God descend. Only in emptiness the door opens.

You are so full of worldly things that there is no space for the divine to enter in you. Jesus is simply saying, "Create a space. Create love."

Love and space always go together. Whenever you have too many things around you, love is suffocated and dies. It is very rare to find a man who is rich AND

loving -- very rare.

People know it well. If you are a son of a rich man you know, if you are a wife of a rich man you know, if you are a husband of a rich woman you know that rich people are not loving. They are always afraid. Love seems dangerous because when you love you have to share. That is the fear.

AND WHEN HE HEARD THIS, HE WAS VERY SORROWFUL: BECAUSE HE

WAS VERY RICH.

AND WHEN JESUS SAW THAT HE WAS VERY SORROWFUL, HE SAID, HOW HARDLY SHALL THEY THAT HAVE RICHES ENTER INTO THE

KINGDOM OF GOD!

FOR IT IS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO GO THROUGH A NEEDLE'S EYE THAN

FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

ONE OF THE MOST PREGNANT SUTRAS OF JESUS: FOR IT IS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO GO THROUGH A NEEDLE'S EYE -- which is impossible, but Jesus says even that is easier -- THAN FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER INTO THE

KINGDOM OF GOD.

Why is it so difficult? Because the more you possess, the less you can love. And love is the door. Or, the less you can love, the more you start possessing things.

Things become a substitute.

Let us try to understand it. A child is born. If the mother loves him, psychoanalysts have been studying, much research has been done -- if the mother loves him, the child never drinks too much milk, never, because he knows, it is a tacit understanding, that the mother is always available and she's always ready to share. So what is the fear? If the mother loves the child, the child will drink only as much milk as is needed. If the child is loved, you will never see a big belly in the child. The child will be proportionate. In fact the mother will be constantly worried that the child is not eating or drinking or taking as much food as needed. But the child has understood that whenever the need arises, the mother is there. He can rely on love.

But if the mother does not love the child, then he is afraid for the future. Love is not there, the tacit understanding is not there, so whenever he gets the opportunity he will eat as much as he can, he will drink as much milk as he can.

Now he is already becoming a miser; he has already started accumulating things

-- in the body. He's afraid. Who knows about tomorrow? This mother is not reliable; he has to accumulate for emergencies. So he will accumulate fat, eat more.

People who have not been loved in their childhood continue to eat more. No dieting can help unless love arises. They will eat; eating has become a substitute for love. If somebody loves them, they will immediately see that their overeating has stopped.

Love and food both come from the mother's breast. The first experience of love is from the mother's breast and the first experience of food is also from the mother's breast. So love and food become associated. If there is less love, it has to be substituted for by more food,

If love is enough, you can afford not to eat much. There is no need. Have you watched it? Whenever you fall in deep love, hunger disappears. You don't feel hungry. Love fulfills so deeply that you feel full. Then one starts eating less and less.

One woman was talking to me. She was very puzzled. Her husband had died and she told me, "One thing I have been keeping a secret. I have not told it to anybody because nobody will understand. But you may understand, so I'm telling you. And I will be unburdened whether you understand or not. But please don't tell this to anybody."

I said, "What has happened?"

She said, "When my husband died, at night I felt so hungry. The corpse was Lying in the house.'What will people think if I go to eat?' The whole family was awake, relatives had come and many friends were there together. And I felt such a deep hunger, such as I have never felt."

So she had to go in her own kitchen like a thief. In darkness, she ate. And now, since then, she has been feeling guilty. "My husband had died. Was that the time to feel hungry? His corpse was Lying there. I was like a thief, eating in darkness in my kitchen." She asked me, "What happened?"

I said, "It is a simple fact. The person you loved died. Immediately, you felt empty. Now that emptiness had to be filled by something."

Since then I have been talking to many people and I have come to the conclusion that whenever you are sad, you eat more. Whenever you are in a deep sorrow, you feel more hungry. Whenever you are happy, flowing, cheerful and loving, and love is showering on you, who bothers to eat much? Even a small amount of food is enough nourishment then, because love is giving so much nourishment.

People who can't love will always become misers: possessive, accumulators of things. People who accumulate things can't love, and those who can't love -- how can they enter into the kingdom of God? Yes, Jesus is right: FOR IT IS EASIER

FOR A CAMEL TO GO THROUGH A NEEDLE'S EYE THAN FOR A RICH

MAN TO ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

Not that Jesus is condemning riches. He is condemning possessiveness. If this man, hearing that Jesus said to go and distribute all, would have said, "Wait! I am going, and I will distribute all. Then I am coming to follow you," there is every possibility Jesus would have said there is no need. If the man was ready to share, he may have remained a rich man AND entered the kingdom of God. The question is not of riches; the question is of possessiveness. Riches are not blocking the way. Possessiveness is blocking the way.

AND THEY THAT HEARD IT SAID, WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?

People must have become very much apprehensive about themselves. Jesus says,

"It is impossible for a rich man to enter." The people ask: WHO THEN CAN BE

SAVED? -- because everybody is a little rich, more or less. Everybody has something, everybody has accumulated something. Nobody is so poor that he has nothing. And nobody is so rich that he has everything.

Even the poorest has his own clinging, and the richest yet has his own ambitions.

Even a beggar is rich because he has something which he clings to. It may be just a begging-bowl, but it doesn't matter whether it's a kingdom or a begging bowl.

The question is not of the objects you possess; the question is whether you are possessive. You can have a kingdom non-possessively, and you can be a beggar and very possessive.

So when Jesus says that a rich man cannot enter into the kingdom of God, he's talking about the man who is possessive, who is miserly, the man who is closed and cannot share, the man who cannot participate in life -- who remains afraid and becomes an island unto himself, who separates himself from the whole and becomes a closed thing, who remains in a cocoon. This man is what Jesus means by a rich man.

And they heard and asked: WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?

AND HE SAID, THE THINGS WHICH ARE IMPOSSIBLE WITH MAN ARE

POSSIBLE WITH GOD.

That's what Jesus brings to the world: the law of grace.

He said, "That is not the point. Who can be saved is not the point." If it depends on humanity, then nobody is capable of being saved. If it depends on you, then again and again you will find something within you which will be a hindrance.

But once you understand your helplessness -- and once you cry, and once you raise your eyes towards the sky and ask for His help -- then that which is impossible with man becomes possible with God.

Jesus says: "Ask, and it shall be given. Knock, and the doors shall be opened unto you." But because of your ego, you have not even knocked. Because of the ego, you have not even asked. That's why things are impossible.

If you are helpless and a prayer arises in your helplessness, immediately the impossible becomes possible. But the ego has to be dropped. Only then, grace functions. Grace functions only when the ego is not there. When you are empty, suddenly you are no more a part of the world of gravitation. You have become part of the world of grace.

I was reading Emerson. He says a very beautiful thing. He says sin is not just breaking the law. "Sin is not just breaking the law, but failing to discover the adventure at the very heart of living." It is not just a question of breaking the law that makes you become a sinner. You become a sinner if you are not adventurous, if you are not continuously in search of your innermost being. If you are not continuously in search of a higher and higher bliss, if your life is not an adventure in living, if you have become a dead fossil -- you drag on -- then it becomes a sin.

One of the great Christian thinkers, Fosdick, was asked once, "What is sin?"

In a very humorous way he said, "Sin is three things: the three letters of the word sin.'S' stands for stinking stupidity, stubbornness, skepticism;'N' for nagging negativity, nervousness, neurosis, narcissism, nihilism; and between the stinking'S' and the nagging'N' is'I' -- the ego."

Once you drop that'I', sin disappears. Then there is no sin. But that'I' is very stubborn. It is stupid... but very reluctant to go.

Just the other night I was reading a poem by Howard Nimrov:

"You have lost your religion," the rabbi said.

"It was not much to keep," said I.

"You should affirm the spirits," said he, "and the communal solidarity."

"I don't feel so solid." I said.

"We are the people of the Book," the rabbi said.

"Not of the phone book," said I.

"Ours is a great tradition," said he, "and a wonderful history."

"But history is over," I said.

"We Jews are creative people," the rabbi said.

"Make something then," said I.

"In science and in art," said he, "violinists and physicists have we."

"Fiddle and physic, indeed," I said.

"Stubborn and stiff-necked," the rabbi cried.

"The pain you give me," said I.

"Instead of bowing down," said he, "you go on in your obstinacy."

"We Jews are that way," I replied.

But not only Jews are that way. Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, Jains --

everybody is that way. Obstinate, reluctant, resistant, stubborn. One goes on fighting, fighting for the ego which is killing you. One goes on saving the ego which is a poison in your system. One goes on seeking ways and means of how to rationalize that you are not an egoist: how to protect the ego, how to compete with it, for it, how to struggle for it.

There are only two types of people in the world. One, those who go on protecting their ego. They are protecting their own death, they are protecting all that is foolish and stupid, they are protecting their ignorance. Then they go on being miserable and they ask how to be happy. Then there is the other type, very rare people, who see the whole thing, the whole stupidity of it: that'I' is the only problem.

Not that God is not there, not that bliss is not possible. Things which are impossible for man are possible for God, but then you have to disappear completely. You have to give way; you have to bow down, surrender.

In that surrender, what Jesus calls poverty -- the inner poverty of the spirit --

arises. What Buddha calls emptiness. In that emptiness, you are open. The breeze of God can flow through you, and birds of God can sing within you, and the rivers of God can dance within you. But then you not there.

You are the only problem. There is no other problem. All other problems are by-products of the basic problem. The basic problem is the ego. 'Jesus on the cross'

is a symbol that the ego has to be crucified. The third day after Jesus died on the cross, he was resurrected. A totally different being. Luminous. Not made of matter, but made of spirit; not born out of the earth, but out of heaven. A totally different type of being. But that happened only when'Jesus' died. Before that, he was son of man. After that, he was son of God.

And everybody has to pass that cross. Jesus goes on saying, "Come, follow me.

But every day you will have to carry your cross... until you die."

Right he is. That truth is a universal truth. It has nothing to do with Jesus, Buddha, Mahavir, Zarathustra. Even when they were not in the world, this truth was there. And it will always be so. When people have completely forgotten about Jesus and Krishna, the truth will remain the same. Jesus, Krishna or Buddha -- they don't bring the truth to the world; they simply rediscover it. They simply reveal it again, they uncover it. Then again, because of our egos and ignorance, the curtain falls on it.

Everybody has to pass through the death which brings resurrection. A rich man, one who possesses much, is afraid to lose what he possesses, because if he loses it, the ego will be lost. The'I' will disappear. Then comes fear; one starts trembling. If the'I' disappears, then what is the point? Then who will enter the kingdom of God?

One day I was talking to a man -- a very intelligent man, a professor in a certain university -- and he said, "I can understand. But if I disappear, then what is the point? Then who will enter in the kingdom of God? Then it is better to be here."

I told him George Bernard Shaw's last words. Just a few minutes before he died, he opened his eyes and he said, "I would like to go to heaven. But if I am not the first there, then it is better: I will choose hell. But I want to be first at any cost.

Even hell is good if I am first there! And if I am number two, even heaven is not worth it."

The'I' always wants to be the first. If you can enter heaven without the'I', it seems pointless. With the'I', even hell seems to be meaningful.

What is this'I'? Have you ever watched, have you ever brooded, meditated, have you ever closed your eyes and observed where it is? You will not find it anywhere. It is just a thought, a concept. It is not there anywhere, it is not a reality. It is an illusion.

If you can see the illusion: that it is not there, you have simply believed in it.... It was needed. It has a social function. It was needed just like you need a name. The name is not real; it has been given to you. When you came into the world, you came without a name. You were perfect. Nothing was lacking. But the name was needed, because otherwise how could others call you, how could others address you? A name was needed. The name has a function.

The same is true with the'I'. When a person is born, he has no ego. The name is for others to call one and the'I' is to call oneself. If you are talking about yourself, how will you talk? You have to use something. That'I' is just a linguistic device.'I'

is to use for yourself; your name is to be used by others. Both are linguistic devices.

Language is society. Silence is God. In deep silence, all names disappear, all words disappear. Language itself disappears. And this is the paradox: then, for the first time, you are -- in your reality, in your intrinsic reality, in your authentic reality. When you are not, only then you are. When you are, you simply appear to be. You are not.

Jesus said to that man:

YET THOU LACKEST ONE THING: SELL ALL THAT THOU HAST, AND

DISTRIBUTE UNTO THE POOR, AND THOU SHALT HAVE TREASURE IN

HEAVEN: AND COME, FOLLOW ME.

That is the only way to follow Jesus or Buddha. You cannot follow unless you love so deeply that you are ready to share everything and all. Not only things.

You are ready to share your being.

The courage to love is the greatest courage. That is the only way to follow Jesus, that is the only way to become a Christian. By going to church every Sunday you don't become a Christian, by reading the Bible every day you don't become a Christian, but by sharing your love you become a Christian. But that Christianity has nothing to do with Christianity. That Christianity is the essential religion.

That is essential Hinduism also, that is essential Judaism also. That is the essential religion itself.

Love is the essential religion. Law is to live with man; love is to live with God.

Follow the law because you are part of the society. Follow love, because you are even more a part of God.

Society is temporary. God is eternal. Society is just made by man; it is just a human creation. Be part of it: follow the law. That is necessary, but not enough.

Needed, but it can't be a fulfillment. Follow the law, but live love. That is the only way to follow Jesus.

His invitation is open: COME, FOLLOW ME. But if you are egoistic, you will not hear the invitation. If you are too possessive, miserly, afraid, you will not be able to step into the world of love. But I tell you, unless you step into the world, you have not lived at all. There is no life except love, and there is no God except love.

Love is the SUMMUM BONUM.

Table of Contents

Chapter title:

Chapter title: Politics And Love

Chapter title: The fear of happiness

Chapter title: Every moment god knocks