Es Dhammo Sanantano #27

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commentaryEnglish: "All seek knowledge, yet only those reach knowledge who rightly understand the mathematics of stupidity. The real question is not how to attain truth; for truth is that which is already given. The real question is not how to find the sun; for the sun is that which is already risen. The real question is: how have you distanced yourself from truth? The real question is: how did you turn your back on truth? The real question is: how did you close your eyes when the sun is present and you fell into darkness.\n\nThe search for truth is negative. Remove the obstacles from the path. The spring is ready each instant to flow; the rock set upon the spring must be moved. Therefore, the one who goes seeking the spring will not find it. The one who properly seeks the rock—where it is, what it is—and succeeds in removing it, will find the spring.\n\nWherever you are, however you are, you stand within truth. Truth is your very nature. With every breath it comes in; with every breath it goes out. It is not proper to say that you breathe; it is more proper to say that truth has breathed within you. It is not proper to say that Paramatma is within you; it is more proper to say that you are within Paramatma. It is He who has taken the heartbeat in your heart. He who has flowed in your veins as blood. He is your body, He is your mind, He is the sky of your consciousness.\n\nIt has never been lost; it is forgotten, a lapse of remembrance. If it were lost, search would be impossible. If it is forgetfulness, remembrance can be brought back. It rests right upon your tongue. It is only a matter of a slight calling.\n\nHence the great value of name-remembrance. Remember His name—just a little; it has never truly been forgotten. There is only a thin veil of forgetfulness; remove it and you will meet. Therefore the awakened ones did not say, 'How shall truth be attained?' They said only this: 'How have you clutched the untruth?' If only you can understand this much; drop the untruth. Truth is already attained.\n\nTherefore it is essential to understand the mathematics of stupidity, for that is the very rock. If you analyze stupidity properly, nothing else remains to be done.\n\nThe first foundation of stupidity is that it never accepts, 'I am stupid.' There the edifice of stupidity begins. Stupidity devises a thousand strategies to prove, 'I am not stupid.' You too have done this. Everyone has done this.\n\nSo first grasp this sutra: you must awaken regarding this. If stupidity is within you, you must accept it. In its very acceptance, half its life-breath departs. The foundation is removed. The house begins to wobble. The legs are broken. Stupidity becomes lame. Stupidity walks on the borrowed legs of knowledge of truth. It has no legs of its own. Therefore the stupid man is always busy proving that 'I am not stupid.' In that effort he protects his disease.\n\nConsider a little: you are ill, and if you persist in saying, 'I am not ill,' and you tell the physician, 'I am not ill at all,' then your treatment will not be possible. No cure will be found. Then you have made your disease your very soul. The first thing is diagnosis; a right recognition that the disease is disease.\n\nIt pains the ego greatly to accept, 'I am stupid.' Call someone stupid and see! No one will thank you; he will shower abuses. We protect that which is our death. We safeguard, with a thousand devices, that which is a noose on our neck.\n\nThe stupid man argues greatly to rescue himself. He can say, 'There is no God,' and he can find arguments. At most, say only this: 'I do not know.' The first journey of intelligence has begun. Say only this: 'I do not know.' And if only this much becomes known, it is enough. How will you say, 'There is no God'? On what basis will you say it? But the stupid man says, 'There is no God.' In truth he is afraid of God’s challenge. If God is, then I must search. If God is, then I will have to die. If God is, then I will not be.\n\nFriedrich Nietzsche wrote in a letter: 'Either God can be, or I can be; so it is only proper that God should not be. I am—that much is clear, certain: I am. Then God will not be. Two swords cannot remain in one sheath.' So Nietzsche wrote. 'How can I and God both be in this existence? If God is, I am erased.'\n\nThus, to protect his ego, the stupid man will say, 'There is no God.' He needed to say only this much: 'I do not know. This expanse is infinite; who knows where God may be hidden? I do not know.'\n\nOne kind of stupid will say there is no God. Another kind of stupid will say there is God. They also do not know. As much stupidity lies in saying 'There is no God,' exactly so much lies in saying 'There is God.' How do you know? If only you knew, nothing would remain to be done. You do not know, and you say, 'There is God'! This too, from the reverse side, is merely a device to assume a knowledge you do not have.\n\nOne atheist way of preserving stupidity; one theist way of preserving stupidity. If only atheists were stupid, it would not be a great danger; they are few. Theists are just as stupid. So understand how you have protected your stupidity. Say only this much: 'I do not know—whether God is or not—who can say?'\n\nThe rishis of the Vedas have said: 'We do not know who made the world! He who made it, he alone would know. And who knows—perhaps he too does not know!' They must have been most wondrous people. 'We do not know how this world came to be; how manifestation occurred; how from the empty sky so many variegated forms arose; how this expansion of expression happened! We do not know. He who made it, he would know. And who knows—he too may not know!'\n\nSuch courage is not found in any scripture but the Vedas—'Who knows, he too may not know!' Because to say—listen a little, it is subtle—to say, 'He knows,' is indirectly to say, 'I know.' Who is saying 'He knows'? He himself is not saying so. I say, 'God made the world; and he knows the reason for creating the world, why he created it.' But it is I who say this. This statement is mine. This God too is mine; this notion of God as creator is mine; and that this God knows—this too is my knowledge.\n\nThe Upanishadic rishi of the Vedas said a marvelous thing: 'Who knows—perhaps he too does or does not!' He left no foothold for the ego to stand upon. You cannot save your ego either by denying God—for the Vedic rishi does not say 'There is no God'; he says only, 'I do not know.' Nor does he say, 'God does not know'; he says only, 'Who knows whether he knows or not—only he would know.' Thus, neither in denying God is the ego saved, nor in accepting God is the ego saved.\n\nThink a little, meditate a little; then you will find, at such a moment you begin to dissolve, to scatter like smoke. When nothing at all is known, how will you be preserved? Your being survives under the cover of knowledge. 'I know'—that is the way the 'I' survives. Some survive by believing, some survive by becoming theists, some by becoming atheists. But as long as you are, the rock remains.\n\nAnd then how much protection you grant it! If you are a theist and someone says, 'There is no God,' you are ready to kill or die. You think you are protecting God! Does God need your protection? You are protecting your stupidity. You are ready to kill or die. You are protecting your stupidity.\n\nIf someone says, 'There is no God,' you should say: 'Who knows! Perhaps it is so. I do not know. How can I refute? How can I affirm? Who am I? What is my capacity?' To see your real situation in such a way that no false support remains, no shelter of false notions remains—then you will find: there is no place left for stupidity to survive. This rock will clear. Removing it will not be difficult. Right now even if someone comes to remove it, you do not allow it.\n\nStupidity is very vocal and very argumentative. It has its philosophy, its systems. And the tricks that stupidity invents are so skillful that the most skillful man can be deceived by them.\n\n'I have understood the world’s reality—\nYet I keep amusing my heart.'\n\nIf one had truly understood the world’s reality, would he amuse the heart?\n\n'I have understood the world’s reality—\nThe truth of samsara is known; then would anyone still amuse the heart?\nYet I keep amusing my heart.'\n\nIt is like this: you have awakened, you have recognized that the dream is only a dream, yet you keep watching. How is that possible? You have awakened, you have recognized that what is in your hand is pebbles—not diamonds and jewels—yet your fist remains clenched.\n\n'Yet I keep amusing my heart.'\n\nWho is there to amuse the heart? No, the first line is false. But you also do not wish to admit that you have not known the world’s reality. People go on saying, 'I have known everything. There is no substance in the world.' Then why, how are you entangled? Where are you entangled? No, you do not wish to admit that you do not know.\n\n'I have understood the world’s reality—\nYet I keep amusing my heart.'\n\nDo not give such deceits. If you have not understood, understand that you have not understood. If you have understood, then no one amuses the heart. When the matter is seen, when it is truly seen, that which you call 'heart' and its amusements do not remain. They survive only in your unknowing. They survive only in your shadowed darkness. When the light of truth surrounds you, no darkness can remain nearby.\n\nKeep in mind: these words are not for someone else; they are for you—directly for you. See carefully how you have saved your stupidity. Each person’s ways are different.\n\n'Behold the colors of joy, but be not assured—\nPerhaps even this is some form of sorrow.'\n\nMuch revelry is afoot.\n\n'Behold the colors of joy, but be not assured—\nBe not reassured. Consider a little, look a little consciously.\nPerhaps even this is some form of sorrow.'\n\nPerhaps this too is a way to hide sorrow. Perhaps sorrow is hiding here as well. Do not be deceived in haste. Seeing a flower, do not be quick—there may be a thorn concealed. In every flower thorns are hidden; and in every joy tears reside; and behind every day night is crouched; and wherever you have known pleasure, there you have always found pain. Wherever pleasure arises in thought, know it at once—\n\n'Perhaps even this is some form of sorrow.'\n\n'Laugh, O flowers, laugh while the garden is in spring—\nUntil you have news of your own sorrow.'\n\nLaugh. Spring has come, flowers have bloomed. Bloom! Laugh—until you know that very soon the fall comes; very soon you will dry up.\n\nRemember: if sorrow came only as sorrow, who would be so stupid as to be sorrowful? If the thorns came straight as thorns, and not hidden behind flowers, who would be so mad as to be pricked? If darkness came straightforwardly, and not hidden behind lights, who would be so mad as to give lodging to darkness within?\n\nNo; at the gates of hell hangs the nameplate of heaven. People go thinking they go to heaven—they end up in hell, that is another matter! Do not be deceived by nameplates. Those places you have taken as temples of God—there is great likelihood they are shops of the devil. And those you have taken as revelries, as festivals—perhaps they are only arrangements to forget oneself, attempts at oblivion.\n\nThe unhappy man devises a thousand strategies to avoid the memory of sorrow. And one who does not remember his sorrow, has he ever set out in search of truth? Why would he set out? Buddha went in search of truth because he saw: life is sorrow; because he saw: behind life death follows. Life could not deceive him. He recognized death within life’s covering.\n\nLook carefully around you: those whom you call living—within all of them the skeleton of death is hidden. From every side death peeks, but she has made very colorful masks. The thorns are covered by roses. That is the hindrance. Otherwise who would remain so long in darkness? Who would wander so long in ignorance?\n\n'Just as fresh milk does not curdle at once—Buddha has said—so an evil deed does not bring fruit at once. Like a fire covered with ashes, it smolders and follows the fool.'\n\nFresh milk does not curdle at once; it takes a little time. Likewise, an evil deed does not bring its fruit at once; it takes a little time; it ripens.\n\nSo when you act, you act with some other expectation. Hope is the whole net of delusion. When you sow the seed, you think you are sowing mango; when the fruit comes, it proves bitter. And stupidity is that you cannot connect fruit and seed. You do not see that there is any relationship between the two.\n\nIn Africa there are primitive tribes. Until the beginning of this century they did not know that children are born through sexual intercourse. They did not know because it takes nine months for a child to be born. And then, not every intercourse produces a child. How would they know? The interval is sufficiently large. So they had no idea that children are born through sex. They thought that children are born by God’s grace; the hand of deities is in it. For thousands of years children were born, and they did not come to know that there is any relation to intercourse. Between sowing the seed and the fruit’s arrival there is a gap of nine months.\n\nIn life there are even greater gaps. Today you do something; sometimes years are taken. The work begins, the chain begins today, but the womb matures, grows larger; many months pass before birth.\n\n'Just as fresh milk does not curdle at once, so an evil deed does not bring fruit at once. Like a fire covered with ashes, it smolders and follows the fool.'\n\nMistaking ash for ash alone, you have carried embers. Within are embers. Even ash is a cooled ember. Wherever there is ash, be cautious. All your life’s sorrow—you have sown it yourself. Today you reap. You blame others.\n\nUnderstand: someone insults you, and you feel humiliated, but an insult cannot humiliate anyone. Insult has no such power. You are humiliated because you have sown seeds of ego. You have taken yourself to be something. You have strutted. Then when someone insults, his insult cracks open your seed of ego.\n\nAs a seed lies in the earth, rain falls and it splits, sprouts. On empty ground, rain cannot split a seed. A seed is needed. Where there is no seed, rain will fall and pass; the ground will remain as it was.\n\nYou have nurtured ego—we nurse it daily. We decorate it, groom it. The more you have decked and adorned your ego, the more an insult will wound you. The degree of your decoration decides how deep the insult will hurt. Do not hold the insulter guilty. Search within—why did the insult touch you? The insult could have passed right through without touching you. If there were no curtain of ego within, the insult would come and go. It would be only a bare sound, echoing in emptiness and lost. You would hear it, you would understand it, but there would be no reaction. As someone lowers a bucket into an empty, dry well, it will rattle hollow and return; it will not draw water. If there is no water, how will it return filled?\n\nWhen someone insults you, he lowers a bucket into your well. If there is no ego within, it will rattle, sound, and return. Perhaps the insulter too will gain awareness seeing you silent and unperturbed. Perhaps he too will be transformed. He will surely regret. His eyes will grow moist. He is human, not stone. However hard he may be, he is human, not rock. He will think, he will pause: what happened? Only the echo of his own insult will come back to him. His own insult will return and pierce him. When you hold the insult inside, it does not return, it does not pierce; you even snatch away from that man the chance to repent. And you think he made you miserable. No one can make you miserable. You were prepared to be miserable.\n\n'Just as fresh milk does not curdle at once...'\n\nYour preparation takes time. Ego too is infantile in childhood, young in youth, fully ripe in old age. A child does not care. You may abuse him; he listens and goes on playing. You say he is innocent. Not innocent—his ego is not yet strong enough for abuse to hurt. A youth will get entangled; he will be ready to kill or be killed. His ego is young too; the milk has curdled! And do not even speak of the ego of the old.\n\nThat is why it becomes difficult to live with the old. One’s own sons begin to find it difficult to live with their father. The egos of the old become very strong. That is the earning of an entire life. A lifetime curdling the milk. In every way trying to be 'something'. The old become very difficult, burdensome. You all have experience of being near the old. The rope may be burned, but its twists remain. Death draws near; they are approaching the end; all will be lost; yet like a lamp that flares before going out, just so before dying the ego becomes very strong.\n\nRemember, if you live asleep, the same will happen within you. You will not be able to escape that process. A little awakening is needed. A little seeing is needed.\n\nThread one sutra into your memory as tightly as you can: if you are miserable, the cause is you; if you are happy, the cause is you. Do not seek causes outside.\n\nStupidity seeks causes outside and goes astray.\n\nWisdom seeks causes within and comes to balance.\n\nEverything is within you—pleasure, pain, and going beyond pleasure and pain.\n\n'Whatever knowledge the fool has, it serves only his harm. It drags down his mind and destroys his white part (the auspicious).' \n\nIt is not that the fool has no knowledge. This is the great amusement. You think the fool is one who has no knowledge; not so. Among fools you will find great scholars. Stupidity remains inside; scholarship becomes a covering above. And stupidity is made resplendent. Perfume is sprinkled upon stupidity and its fragrance begins to come. Gold plating is laid upon stupidity, jewels studded. Stupidity too adorns itself with erudition.\n\nBuddha says: 'Whatever knowledge the fool has...'\n\nIt is not that he has none. But you will find one thing: his knowledge serves only his harm. The sword in his hand wounds himself. With the same knowledge that could have become a boat to cross the ocean of life, he makes a millstone to hang at his neck. That knowledge drowns him. If scripture falls into the fool’s hand, it is a sword in the fool’s hand. Weapon or scripture in the fool’s hand is self-destructive. He will harm himself.\n\nNow think a little: whatever knowledge you have hoarded, how have you used it? Have you used it to protect your stupidity, or to dissolve it? In that light, have you burned your darkness, or have you preserved it?\n\nIf you have used knowledge rightly, you will accept your ignorance. If you have misused knowledge, you will hide your ignorance and proclaim your knowledge. And once the delusion possesses you that you know, you have fallen thousands of miles away from the realm of knowing.\n\n'Fear that evening which, under the shade of stars,\nArrives carrying a lovely darkness.'\n\nKeep your gaze on the stars, lest you be deceived!\n\n'Fear that evening which, under the shade of stars,\nComes with a dense darkness as well. If your eyes stay on the stars, you will be deceived.\nIt carries a beautiful darkness.'\n\nA very sweet darkness comes along. You remain entangled in the stars; darkness surrounds you from all sides.\n\nFear those scriptures behind whose words—behind their lovely darkness, their beautiful words—stupidity finds shelter.\n\nThere is a tale in the Upanishads: Uddalaka’s son, Shvetaketu, returned home with knowledge; he returned from the university. The father saw him from afar coming along the village path. The morning sun had risen. But the father grew very sad, for he had thought the boy would return humbled; he was returning very puffed up. Arrogance sends news thousands of miles ahead. Arrogance raises ripples all around it. He was not arriving as one who has known; he was arriving having hoarded knowledge on top while stupidity remained within. He was arriving a pundit, not a knower. Learned, not wise. No flame of understanding was lit; he had brought the burden of dark scriptures. The father became sad.\n\nThe son arrived. Uddalaka asked: 'What have you learned?'\n\nHe said, 'I have learned everything. I have left nothing.' This is the statement of stupidity. He listed how many scriptures he had learned. All the Vedas he had memorized. All the Upanishads he knew. History, geography, the Puranas, poetry, logic, philosophy, religion—'I have learned all. I have left nothing. I have passed all the exams. I have returned with a gold medal.'\n\nThe father said, 'But have you known that one thing by knowing which all is known?' He said, 'What one? What are you talking about?' The father said, 'Have you known yourself—that by knowing which all is known?' Shvetaketu fell silent, saddened. He said, 'Of that one there was no mention there.'\n\nThen the father said, 'You must go again. For in our lineage we have not been Brahmins by birth alone; we have been Brahmins by knowing Brahman. Such is our lineage. My father also sent me back in the same way. One day I too came home puffed up, thinking I knew all. I bowed at my father’s feet, but I had not bowed. Within, the thought was: I know more than father. But my father became sad and said: Go back. Have you known that one by knowing which all is known? He said to me: In our lineage we have not been Brahmins by birth; by knowing Brahman we have been Brahmins. You must go back, Shvetaketu.'\n\nShvetaketu had to go back. Only when he returned having known that one could he return home. But then he came in an altogether different manner. Then everything changed. Then he came as emptiness arrives. Then he came so softly that even the sound of his footsteps was not. Then he came as though humility had touched its last depths. He came effaced. And the one who came effaced, he alone arrived. He came having lost himself.\n\nNo longer was there the burden of scripture; there was the weightless state of truth. There was no mob of thoughts now; there was the lamp of meditation. Within, a vast emptiness. He returned having built a temple within. Within, a sanctuary had taken birth.\n\n'Whatever knowledge the fool has, it serves only his harm.'\n\nWhatever the fool learns, he is not transformed by that learning; he does not change himself. Rather with that learning he strengthens his old ways. Better he had not known. At least the flexibility of ignorance would have remained! Now the stiffness of knowledge has come, and knowledge too has not been attained. The illusion of knowing has come; nothing has been known.\n\nAll the knowing of the fool is borrowed. Unless there is living bodha, living illumination—unless you yourself taste the flavor of truth—do not understand that you have known. Know that the journey yet remains; the goal has not come.\n\nHow does the fool harm himself with his own knowledge?\n\nMany come to me; they recite Upanishadic sayings; they have the Gita by heart. Say anything to them, they reply, 'We know.' I ask them, 'Then why have you come? If you already know, why trouble yourself? What is the reason for coming here?'\n\nThey say, 'No, the mind felt like it, we came out of curiosity. We want to learn meditation.'\n\nI say, 'You know the words of the Upanishads. These words do not arise without meditation. They are born in meditation. They do not come from books.'\n\nIf only they came from books, how simple it would be! What complexity would remain in life? If God were found through books, what could be easier? They come from meditation.\n\nSo I tell them: 'If you want to learn meditation, kindly put these verses aside. Empty the space. These words will not let meditation happen. This thought that you already know will not let you set out upon the journey of knowing. The one who thinks he has arrived—why would he walk?'\n\nThey argue, they give reasons: 'Scripture is a guide; scripture is support.' Then I say: 'You have held to this support all your life. You have not arrived yet—when will you awaken? How much more time will you grant for the test? Has the test not been long enough already?'\n\nBut it is very difficult to admit, 'I am ignorant.' Very difficult. And without this admission no one can enter the world of meditation.\n\n'Whatever knowledge the fool has serves only his harm. It drags down his mind and destroys his white part (shuklansh).' \n\nJust as there is night and day, so within you also are two aspects, one of the auspicious and one of the inauspicious. That inauspicious aspect lives on borrowing. It has no wealth of its own.\n\nThe devil lives on borrowed capital. Understand this; it means the devil lives by deceiving you that he is God. When you speak a lie, you can do so only by assuring the other that it is truth; when you swear that it is truth. A lie can function only by borrowing the aura of truth; there is no other way. And it can function only so long as the other remains under the illusion of its truth. The moment it is known to be false, it falls there and then. It cannot move an inch further.\n\nIf in the world everyone spoke lies and it became an accepted fact that only lying is the currency of life, lie would die. Lie could not function. No one would believe it. Lie can function only if it gives the semblance of truth.\n\nRemember, that dark corner within you can survive only so long as it gives you the semblance of light; otherwise it will be erased. You will have long ago thrown it away. You can walk with a rock tied to your neck only so long as you imagine it is not a rock but the Koh-i-noor. You can wear chains only so long as you think they are ornaments. You can live in the prison only so long as you think it is a home, your own home. The world can hold you only so long as you imagine that the world is truth, the world is Paramatma.\n\n'I know well the end of the tale of love—\nYet let me make a little more futile effort still.'\n\nYou know the end of what you call love. You know the end of that love-story. Other than hells it has taken you nowhere. Yet your dark corner keeps saying—\n\n'Yet let me make a little more futile effort still.'\n\nNow think: when you have known that this is a futile effort, will you still continue a little longer? No, you have not truly known. The thought that this effort is futile is itself borrowed. Your actual belief is that this effort has meaning. Success may still arrive. A ray of hope still remains.\n\nA renowned man of great repute, known across the land, thousands follow him—he came to meet me. He said, 'I know everything—that anger is bad—yet anger happens. I know attachment is bad—yet attachment happens. I know greed is bad—yet greed happens. What to do now?'\n\nI said to him: 'First accept that you do not know. Has there ever been a case where one knew fire burns and yet thrust his hand into it? Has such ever happened? It happens otherwise: once burnt by hot milk, one blows even on buttermilk. Who thrusts his hand when he knows fire burns? No, you do not know.'\n\nHe said, 'No, I do know. What are you saying? All my life I have been explaining this to others, and you say I do not know!'\n\nI said, 'You must have explained to others; and others must have explained to you; but you do not know. Someone whispered these things into your ear; and you are whispering them into others' ears. Those whom you have explained it to must also think they understand, and their obstacle will be the same: "What shall we do? We know anger is bad, but anger happens."'\n\nSuch knowledge is impotent. What is its meaning? What value? Do you know there is a wall and yet you try to pass through it—with futile effort! Does anyone with eyes do so? You say your eyes are sound, and you know this is a wall—yet what to do? Please show me a way to keep myself from going through it; my head keeps striking. The one who knows goes through the door. The one who does not know tries to go through the wall. He neither knows, nor has he eyes.\n\nBut stupidity lives on borrowing. You have heard the words of the scriptures and taken them as knowledge. Perhaps reason has grasped them. Just as someone studies cookbooks and understands everything about food—yet hunger will not be appeased. Hunger will remain. And he says, 'I know everything about food; then why does hunger keep arising? Why does hunger not stop?'\n\nWhat has knowing cookery to do with the cessation of hunger! Food is needed. And you must eat it; that Buddha ate—what of that? His hunger was appeased. That Krishna ate, that Mohammed ate—their hunger was appeased. Fortunate were they that they did not get entangled in cookbooks. They prepared their own food. You are unwise. You carry scriptures. You sit atop words. You have memorized words parrot-like; you repeat them. Repeat them often enough and you will fall under the delusion that you know. Do not repeat a lie too often; the danger is that by much repetition even a lie begins to look like truth.\n\nAdolf Hitler wrote in his autobiography: 'I have known this much difference between truth and lie—that lies repeated often become truth.' There is not much more difference. And he speaks rightly. He himself repeated many lies throughout his life. He persuaded a very intelligent race, the Germans, that he was right.\n\nAt first people laughed. They mocked. But he went on repeating; he did not care. He repeated with great self-confidence. He lifted his fists and repeated. Slowly, when someone repeats with such force, others also begin to repeat. The whole nation came to believe. Very foolish things were believed. He threw the whole world into the fire of war. And the irony is that he himself did not believe at first; but when others believed, seeing the glow of belief in their eyes, he too began to believe.\n\nAll politicians, when they begin their journey, are very wavering. They themselves do not believe. Then slowly, as the crowd comes to believe, they too begin to believe. Between one and the other, a lie, by repetition, becomes truth.\n\nReflect a little: how many lies have you believed. When you were born you did not know whether God is or not. Born in a Hindu home—Hindu conditioning; born in a Muslim home—Muslim conditioning. What was repeated to you, you memorized. Now you keep repeating that. Are you a gramophone record or a man? Do you still call yourself Hindu or Muslim? Walk a little carefully. Who told you there is God? Who persuaded you there is not? Who gave you the ways of living? Who colored your conduct? Someone else! Are you Atman, are you consciousness, or a lump of clay that others gave you ways, shapes, forms?\n\nBeing a gobar-Ganesh will not do. The birth of the soul happens only when you begin to live on cash and drop borrowings.\n\n'Whatever knowledge the fool has serves only his harm. It drags down his mind; it destroys his white part.'\n\nAnd slowly he comes to take darkness itself as light. Slowly he takes lies as truth. He takes notions of truth as the experience of truth. He takes repetition of scripture as Samadhi. Then he has gone astray. Then it is very difficult for him to return. His knowledge itself becomes harmful to him.\n\n'Let me gain a false eminence; let me become leader among monks; the head of monasteries; be worshipped in householders' homes; let both laymen and monks take what I do as authority; let all matters of what to do or not do be under me—thus the fool’s resolve increases desire and pride.'\n\nThese words Buddha spoke to the bhikkhus. Buddha mostly spoke to monks. Just as I too would like to speak increasingly to sannyasins only. Because there is pleasure in speaking only to those ready to change. One who has only come to listen—out of curiosity or even out of great inquisitiveness—speaking to him is a waste of time. And not only a waste—there is danger too. The fool may catch hold of these words, fill his memory, and then imagine he has known. No benefit accrued; great harm occurred.\n\nBuddha spoke only to bhikkhus. Bhikkhu means one who has shown readiness to stake life; who has come not out of curiosity but out of ardent longing; who says, 'I am ready to change. I have seen through the dreams of life; I am ready to break them. One thing I have recognized: as I am, I am wrong. To be right, whatever is to be done, I am ready to do.'\n\nLet the world laugh—no matter. What the world calls profit may slip from the hand—no matter. What the world calls wealth and success—I have seen: there is no wealth there, no success there. I have come empty-handed. Now wherever wealth is, I am ready to search there. If the path is difficult—let it be. If the journey is long—let it be. Such a caravan—only with them is there pleasure in speaking; with them is there something worth saying.\n\n'Let me gain a false eminence...'\n\nBut even among them some come in such ways. They become monks, they take sannyas, yet they do not abandon old habits. Even for wrong reasons you can become a sannyasin. If even this is ego—if you take sannyas so that ego is gratified—that 'I am no ordinary man now; I am not a householder; I am a sannyasin.' If this gives rise to pride within, the miss has happened. The ego is the house; whoever lives in the ego is the householder. He who goes beyond ego is the renunciate. Then even if he lives in a home it makes no difference.\n\n'Let me gain a false eminence; become leader among monks...'\n\nEven as a renunciate, competition! Even as a renunciate, the same race—to stand ahead, to put others behind. There too ego and jealousy—the miss has happened. And surely, one who wants to stand ahead cannot be at peace. One who wants to stand ahead cannot be free of uproar. In truth, to stand ahead, being troublesome is necessary.\n\nI was a guest in a village. It was 15th August. The schoolchildren brought out a procession in the village; they were lined up in order. The smallest boy ahead, then taller, then taller, in sequence. The line was perfect; only one boy, who was at the very front with the flag, stood outside this sequence.\n\nI asked one of the boys, 'Why is he not placed in the sequence? Is he your leader?' He said, 'Not a leader; but if we put him anywhere else, he pinches people. So we had to give him the flag and put him ahead.'\n\nYour politicians are just such—pinchers! Do not put them inside anywhere; it is troublesome. They must be put in front. Although they carry the flag and strut, the sole reason for their being ahead is that they are mischievous. If you must be ahead, there is no way to be free of disturbance; you must be disturbing.\n\nEgo lives by all kinds of disturbances. Disturbances are its food. In peace it dies. Peace is its death. If you become non-troublesome, ego finds no place to stand.\n\n'I, O Seamab, have shone like the sun in darkness—\nIf I am not, the world will feel a lack.'\n\nFrom the absence of one, the world feels no lack. Alexanders come and go; the world goes on its way. From the absence of one, no lack is felt. But ego thinks in such language: 'I am indispensable, inevitable. Without me how will the world move? What will become of the moon and stars?'\n\nRemember: you were not, and the world went on. You will not be, and it will go on. This brief flutter of your being—do not make it an upheaval. Soften this brief being so much that it becomes almost like non-being. You were not before; again you will not be. This little interval of turmoil—let it pass with such peace as if there was non-being before, is non-being now, and will be non-being ahead; then you will experience your nature.\n\nThis brief opening of the eyes in life—through it recognize your non-being. A steady current of non-being flows within you. Yesterday you were not; tomorrow again you will not be. In this brief today given to you to be, recognize that beneath it a steady current of non-being is still flowing. That very non-being is to know oneself. That very non-being is to recognize Paramatma. Buddha has called it Nirvana.\n\n'Let me gain a false eminence; become leader among monks; become head of monasteries; be worshipped in householders' homes; let laymen and bhikkhus alike take my acts as authority; let all do and don’t be under me—thus the fool’s resolve increases desire and pride.'\n\nIf a fool takes even sannyas, sannyas becomes an ornament upon his stupidity. If a fool prays, prayer becomes a decoration for ego. If a fool goes to the temple, he goes looking around to see whether people have seen him or not. If a fool worships in the temple, he does it with great noise so that the whole village comes to know: I am not ordinary—I am one who worships, who prays. Otherwise, prayer need not be loud. Paramatma understands even the mood of your heart. Why shout? Why create uproar? What is there to say? There is nothing to say. Sit bowing before Paramatma. Helpless, thirsty, surrender yourself into His hands.\n\nNo—but until there is a chariot-procession, a pageant, there is no joy in fasting. And until there is honor and reception for prayer, who is ready to pray?\n\nI have heard: the Queen of England was to come to a church. A rich man phoned the priest: 'I have heard that next Sunday the Queen herself is to come to the church. Is this true? If it is, keep a seat for me in the first row.' The priest said, 'What certainty with kings and queens? One thing is certain: God will come. Kings and queens—who knows whether they will come or not? One thing is certain: God will come. He came before, he will come now as well. If your eagerness is for God, we will keep a seat in the first row.' The man said, 'All right, then never mind. Who is eager for God? But if the Queen sees me sitting in the first row...'\n\nI have heard another story: the King of Sweden once went to a church. There was a great crowd of worshippers; the church was jam-packed, not an inch free. He was very pleased. He told the priest, 'I am happy that people are so religious.' The priest said, 'Your Majesty, you are mistaken. This church is always empty. I do not know why they are here today. They must have come because of you, not because of God. And these very loud prayers—they are being made to be heard by you. Behind these prayers lies politics, not religion.'\n\nIf a fool takes sannyas, he does so for wrong reasons. If a fool takes vows, he takes them for wrong reasons. And those who preach to fools also know this secret. They encourage their stupidity.\n\nTake a small vow and you will be greatly honored. Take the vow of celibacy and the applause resounds. Those who clap also know that the clapping is more valuable to you than celibacy. These claps will be remembered. Then you will fear that if the vow breaks, the honor may be lost. That is why your society gives so much respect to sadhus and sannyasins. The reason for respect is that because of the respect they are sadhus; if respect goes, sannyas too goes.\n\nYou worship their ego so that since they have become sannyasins, they remain so. They have become so for this very reason; they remain so for this very reason. Think a little: in India there are about one crore sadhus and sannyasins. If a crore sannyasins were true, what lack would remain in this country’s destiny? But their being results in nothing; only some disturbance.\n\n'Let us go live now where no one is,\nWhere there is no companion in talk, no one who shares our tongue.'\n\nSuch a place is hard to find. Wherever you go, where you can go, others can go. Such a place is hard to find outside. You are a man; if you can reach there, another man can reach there.\n\n'Let us go live now where no one is—\nWhere there is no companion in talk, no one who shares our tongue.'\n\nOutside, such a place cannot be found; only within can it be found.\n\nIf the fool seeks solitude, he seeks it outside. If the wise seek solitude, they seek it within. Outside is the world. Wherever you go, wherever—even if you go to the moon and stars—there will be world. Wherever you are, there will be world. Go within! For as you go within, you begin to dissolve. That is why people are afraid of going within.\n\nMeditation is death. Silence is death. There boundaries begin to scatter. As you go within, language does not reach there—there is no companion in talk, no one who shares your tongue. Once language is gone, you cannot even speak to yourself. Where all is silent, where the realm of silence is, there alone is your solitude.\n\nIf a fool seeks solitude, he goes to the jungle; if the wise seek solitude, they go into themselves. If a fool renounces, he renounces objects; if the wise renounce, they renounce possessiveness, not objects—they renounce the grip. If a fool leaves householding and home, he leaves the house of clay. If the wise leave home, they leave the desire to build a home. They accept insecurity and drop the disturbances of security.\n\n'One road is of profit, another road is of Nirvana.'\n\nThis saying is unique.\n\nBuddha says: 'The road of profit is one thing, the road of Nirvana is another.'\n\nThe fool always keeps the account of profit—even when going in the direction of Nirvana.\n\nPeople come to me; they ask, 'If we meditate, what will be the benefit?' What to say to them? It is profit that does not allow meditation. Profit has struck you down. Profit has made you mad, deranged. And even here you come asking, 'If we meditate, what will be the profit? If we take sannyas, what will be the profit?' The perspective of profit itself is the disease; you bring it here too. You cannot do anything without profit! You ask, 'Why seek God? What will be the benefit?' The language of wealth does not leave you. The language of greed does not leave you.\n\n'If this is not the weakness of the hand of desire,\nThen what shall we call the raising of the hands in prayer?'\n\nFirst, you beg in the world: profit, profit. Then you go to the temple and spread hands before God. The begging continues.\n\n'If this is not the weakness of the hand of desire—\nThose hands raised after prayer—are they not the same hand of craving?'\n\nUnderstand: the world means the tendency to ask. The world means the tendency to accumulate. The world means the tendency of greed. The world means you cannot live in non-greed. You cannot accept life’s beauty, truth, and auspiciousness as supreme value. You want a value even for that. You ask, 'If I do merit, what will I get in heaven?' Your scriptures tell you what you will get—greedy people heard, greedy people wrote. You ask, 'If I go on pilgrimage, what profits will I gain?' Your scriptures tell you—greedy people heard, greedy people wrote. The limit of greed!\n\nI was at the Kumbh fair at Prayag, sitting by the riverbank. A priest was instructing his disciples, 'Give a penny here and you will get a crore-fold there.' A crore-fold! Keep a little arithmetic at least. Even in the world there are limits to greed. This is a big lottery. From a penny, a crore-fold? Even gamblers do not give such assurances. But the promises of heaven can run because no one ever comes back to report—'I found that even the penny I had was lost.'\n\nBut how much greed you are arousing! The meaning behind it is that those gathered have nothing to do with God. They have come to find a trick to multiply a penny into a crore. This is what they were doing in the world; then what was theft? What was robbery? What was exploitation? Then why abuse the shopkeeper? Why condemn the hoarder? The same is ongoing here too.\n\nSo all religions advertise lotterylike, more and more. They say that if you walk our path, if you buy this lottery ticket, not only a crore-fold, but ten crores! It is tall talk. There is no cost in saying so. Why one crore—say ten crores. Say billions and trillions. As far as numbers run—no obstruction. No proof.\n\nIn Surat there is a small community of Muslims. Their guru gives a letter stating, 'This man gave such-and-such donation in God’s name.' When the man dies, they place that letter on his chest in the grave.\n\nOne of that community came to meet me while I was in Surat. He asked, 'What do you say about this?' I said, 'Go and open a grave or two; you will find the letters lying right there.' He said, 'You have said rightly. It had not occurred to me. Letters written to God—"this man did this much, take care, give him a place near in heaven."' \n\n'One road is of profit, another of Nirvana. The Buddha’s listener, the bhikkhu, recognizing this rightly, should never welcome honors and should go on increasing viveka (love for solitude).' \n\n'That too is the hand of desire that we call the hand of prayer—\nAnd what we call God is the recoil of our own ego.'\n\nThat too is craving which we call prayer. And what we call God is not God, it is the remorse of our sins.\n\nYou are frightened by your sins; so you fabricated God. The God you call upon is your remorse for your sins; it is not the real God. You have invented him because you have done so much—across births and births, so many chains, so many sinful acts—now someone is needed who will forgive. You will not be able to do it. What will you do now? You have done so much—so many sinful acts—now someone is needed who is great compassion. So you sit in the temple and say, 'O purifier of the fallen! The business of being fallen I have done; the business of making pure you do.' Now you say: 'I have shown my capacity for sin; now you show your compassion.'\n\nIt is your remorse for sin. Understand this a little: if there were no sin in your life, what need of God? If there were no sin in your life, what need of prayer? Then your life itself would be prayer. No separate need of prayer would remain. In your every breath there would be the fragrance of prayer. In your every movement the melody of prayer, the color of prayer. Prayer would bloom in your being. What need of separate prayer? Because sin has been, prayer is needed. What need to remember God separately? His remembrance would permeate your every breath. But what you now call God is only remorse.\n\n'That too is the hand of desire that we call the hand of prayer—\nAnd what we call God is the recoil of our own ego.'\n\nIt is the repentance of your own ego that you call God; you have strengthened your ego so much that now someone is needed before whom you may surrender. And the real God appears when this perspective of greed, this bookkeeping, falls away.\n\n'One road is of profit, another of Nirvana.'\n\nWhat then is the road of Nirvana?\n\nBirds are singing. Ask: what is the profit? Why are they singing? No newspaper will publish it; no Bharat Ratna or Padma awards will be given; no university degrees; no bank balances will increase. Ask: why are birds singing? Ask: why have flowers bloomed? No answer will come.\n\nFlowers have bloomed to bloom. Birds sing to sing. Singing is such an immeasurable joy—it is its own end; an end, not a means. The blooming of the flower is consummation, the last destination; beyond it there is nothing.\n\nThe road of greed turns everything into a means. The road of Nirvana takes each thing as an end. Nothing is a means to something else.\n\nYou turn everything into a means. Even when the mother loves the son she binds hopes—'He will grow up, earn wealth.' There you miss. Love for the son could have been the road of Nirvana.\n\nThe wife loves the husband; sometimes she begins to love excessively and the husband gets frightened. Surely she will put her hand into his pocket. Otherwise who cares for each other? When something is to be extracted—new ornaments, new saris—then the wife is filled with excessive love for the husband. Even love becomes a means; it ceases to be Nirvana. Greed has perverted everything. Greed has committed adultery with all.\n\nThere is another way to see life—where each thing is its own goal; there is no goal beyond. Where this very moment is the destination, and there is no other destination. Love for love’s sake; meditation for meditation’s sake.\n\nYou become non-violent, you take brahmacharya—only as means to go to heaven. You serve someone—and your eye remains whether God is watching or not: how much service, whether it has been recorded.\n\nThe road of greed is one; the road of Nirvana is another. The meaning of the road of Nirvana is that every moment of your life becomes an end in itself. The bliss of brahmacharya is such that you would ask for no heaven beyond. It is clear that you have not known the bliss of brahmacharya; therefore you want its fruit. Otherwise brahmacharya becomes futile toil, useless trouble.\n\nYou fast, and now you say, 'In heaven a place is needed.' A fast has its own joy. If done rightly—if you know how—it has supreme joy. It will be found in fasting itself. That peace, that simplicity which descends during a fast; that weightlessness, the sprouting of wings which descends during a fast; the feeling of inward cleanliness, the filling of freshness—what descends in fasting is complete in itself. No need to go elsewhere. No question of asking for more. He who has fasted, has found.\n\nThe joy of prayer is complete in prayer. If after praying you spread your hands to ask, you reveal only this much: the prayer was false. You found nothing in prayer—now you spread your hands? You even do prayer for a purpose? Prayer was a trick to coax God? Prayer like flattery!\n\nIn Sanskrit, prayer is called stuti—flattery: 'You are great, you are mighty, you are this, you are that'—words of expedience. When there is need, we say them; when there is no need, who remembers!\n\nSo in sorrow, God is remembered. In pain, talk of God begins. In happiness, all is forgotten. The very word 'stuti' is dirty—flattery! The wish to gain something! You are coaxing God by calling him big, bigger—you swell his ego. You say to him, 'See, I have called you so great—now prove you are so great.' When the prayer is fulfilled, it will be proven you are great; then we will call you greater. Whom are you playing with? You are projecting your stupidity into God.\n\nThis is how you are handled. When someone wants something from you he says, 'Ah! No one like you; you are a great soul.' After all this he says, 'I just need five rupees as a loan.' Now you are a little embarrassed; he called you a great soul—your prestige is at stake. Would you lose your greatness for five rupees? Give them, at most he will take them. He said this for this very reason. If you give, he will smile going down the stairs: 'Nicely done—made a fool of him.'\n\nYou understand the language of ego, so you think God too understands that language. This is not the road of Nirvana; it is the road of greed.\n\nPrayer is so beautiful in itself, so full in itself, so complete; there can be no greater fullness. Whoever has danced in prayer, sung the song—upon him the rain of nectar has poured. He is filled; his bowl is filled. No need to spread the bowl. The fruit of prayer is not after prayer; it is in prayer; it is inherent in prayer. Therefore, Narada said in the Bhakti-sutra: 'Bhakti is its own fruit; not a means, the end.'\n\nBut if you remain full of greed, you will even pray; the rain will even fall; and yet you will remain untouched. Paramatma will come even to your door, and your eyes will remain fixed on his pocket. You will not gain entry into the heart of Paramatma.\n\n'A ray of the sun sprinkled warmth upon the door—\nYet that inner, extinguished place of receptivity stayed extinguished.'\n\nThe sun’s ray will come to your door, sprinkle its warmth, and go.\n\n'A ray of the sun sprinkled warmth upon the door—\nYet that inner, extinguished point remained quenched.'\n\nBut you remained quenched. You remained buried under your ego, your constriction, your greed—so you remained buried. The ray came—and went.\n\nAll transformation is the shift from greed to the road of Nirvana. There is no greater revolution than this; this is the great revolution. There is only this one revolution in this world—the change from greed to the path of Nirvana.\n\nAsk not in life 'for what'; live. And let each moment become its own destination; then the secret of the rays will open; then the fragrance of flowers will rise towards you; then you will see life with altogether new eyes. Everything was; but because of your greedy eyes you were blind. Everything was already given—nothing was lacking; nothing is lacking even now; nothing will ever be lacking. You were blind only because of the eyes of greed.\n\n'Sometimes I changed my way—and the earth’s dance changed;\nSometimes I breathed with a pause—and the age stood still.'\n\nAll depends on you. All depends on your way of seeing.\n\nThe world means: the divine seen through the eyes of greed—then it appears as world. Paramatma means: the world seen through the eyes of Nirvana—then he appears as Paramatma. It is the same.\n\nAmong the Zen sages there is a saying: the world and Nirvana are one. It seems like an inverted statement, but it is not inverted at all. Truth is one; the ways of seeing are two. All depends upon the way of seeing.\n\nOnce it happened that I was sitting with a friend on a bench in a garden. I was a university student then. It was evening; dusk had fallen. In the distance a girl seemed to be approaching. That friend made some lustful remarks towards her. As she came nearer he became a little restless. I asked, 'What is the matter? You are a little shaky!' He said, 'Let us wait a bit; I fear this might be my sister.'\n\nWhen she came closer and came under the street lamp—she was indeed his sister.\n\nI asked, 'What now? This girl is the same—only hazy in twilight, lust arose; you did not recognize, lust arose. Now she has come near; now search within—does any lust remain?' He said, 'Other than remorse nothing remains. I am sad that such words came from my mouth.' I said, 'Remember, the whole thing is perspective. It might also happen that if she came even closer it would turn out she is not your sister—then the view will change again; then lust will again find place.'\n\nTruth is one. When you see with the eyes of greed, it becomes world. When you see with the eyes of Nirvana, it becomes Paramatma.\n\n'Sometimes I changed my way—and the earth’s dance changed;\nSometimes I breathed with a pause—and the age stood still.'\n\nThis bustle you see in the world, this uproar you see—it appears so because within you there is uproar. If there it becomes peaceful, you will suddenly find peace everywhere. One who is peaceful within finds peace everywhere. One who is silent within finds silence everywhere. One who is blissful within finds bliss everywhere.\n\nThis night of sorrow is only the spread of your within. This hell you have sown; it is the fruit of your perspective. You need not change this; you need to change your seeing. With the change of vision, the creation changes.\n\n'In the musician-soul a new raga stretched its limbs—\nOn the string long deprived, that tune awoke.\nFrom the veil of the instrument burst a storm of sound—\nIn the rhythm of the dance an altogether new world swayed.'\n\nAs a veena lay untouched, and you moved your fingers—the sleeping raga burst forth; so with the change of your perspective a sleeping raga bursts. With your breath pausing a little, with you becoming a little peaceful, a little meditative, the whole world becomes another mystery.\n\n'In the musician-soul a new raga stretched its limbs—\nOn the string long deprived, that tune awoke.'\n\nUntil now you are like a sitar asleep, untouched; like night—dawn has not come.\n\n'From the veil of the instrument burst a storm of sound—\nIn the rhythm of the dance an altogether new world swayed.'\n\nHere within you dance—and the whole cosmos around you begins to dance. Here you become Krishna—and there the rasa is adorned.\n\n'Judge not today the measure of my intoxication—\nIn the desolate heart a strange festival of stars has arisen.'\n\nThen you can say: Do not quantify. This morning that has come, this new raga that has arisen—now do not measure! There is no measure for my ecstasy.\n\n'Judge not today the measure of my intoxication—\nIn the desolate heart a strange festival of stars has arisen.'\n\nIn the desert of the heart has come the spring.\n\nReligion is the search for this spring. The perspective of Nirvana is the formula to attain it.\n\nEnough for today.",
tagsEnglish: "Osho, meditation, truth, ignorance, stupidity, ego, ahamkar, Paramatma, Atman, Nirvana, Zen, Upanishads, Vedas, Dhammapada, awareness, mindfulness, remembrance, nama smaran, obstacles, rock and spring, surrender, desire, greed, prayer, bhakti, knowledge vs wisdom, scholar, pandit, humility, confession, atheism, theism, Nietzsche, diagnosis, acceptance, karma, cause and effect, suffering, joy, silence, inner solitude, aloneness, detachment, nonattachment, letting go, no mind, shunya, emptiness, witness, devotion, brahmacharya"
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