Jin Khoja Tin Paiyan #13

In truth, a human being has seven kinds of bodies. One body is the one we can see—the physical body. Behind it is the second, the etheric body—call it the space body. Behind that, the third, the astral body—the subtle body. Behind that, the fourth, the mental body—the manas body. Behind that, the fifth, the spiritual body—the atmic body. Behind that, the sixth, the cosmic body—the Brahman body. And behind that, the seventh, which we can call the nirvana body—the bodyless body, the ultimate.

If we understand a little about these seven bodies, the whole talk about kundalini will become clear.

The physical, the feeling, and the subtle body
In the first seven years only the physical body is formed. In the first seven years of life only the physical body develops; the other bodies remain in seed form, as possibilities, but they are not yet available in a developed way. Hence the first seven years are years of imitation; in those seven years no intelligence, no feeling, no desire truly develops—only the physical body.

Some people never go beyond those seven years; they remain just a physical body. There will be no difference between such a person and an animal—animals too have only the physical body developed; the others remain undeveloped.

In the second seven years the feeling body develops, the etheric or space body. Hence the second seven years are the years of emotional development. Sexual maturity comes at fourteen for that reason; it is a condensed form of feeling. Some people remain stuck at fourteen—their age goes on increasing, but they have only two bodies.

In the third seven years, up to twenty-one, the subtle body develops. After the feeling body, in the third the capacities of reason, thought, and intelligence develop.

Hence no court in the world will punish a child before seven, because the child has only the physical body; one treats a child as one treats an animal. The child cannot be held responsible. And if a child has done a sin or a crime, it will be taken to be in imitation of someone else; the original culprit will be someone else.

The development of thought in the third body
After the second body—after fourteen—a certain maturity arises, but it is sexual maturity. Nature’s work is complete by then. So for the development of the first and second bodies, nature gives full help; but with the development of the second body man does not become truly human. The third body—where thought, reason and intelligence develop—is the fruit of education, culture, civilization. Hence nations generally give the vote at twenty-one.

There is a current struggle in some countries to grant voting rights at eighteen. That is natural—because as humanity is evolving, the seven-year thresholds are shrinking. Menstruation which used to come at thirteen or fourteen is now appearing at eleven in America. The demand for voting at eighteen indicates that what used to complete at twenty-one is completing earlier for many—by eighteen.

Ordinarily it takes up to twenty-one for the third body to develop. Most people then stop and remain there until death; the fourth, the mental body, does not develop.

What I call “psychic” is the realm of the fourth body—the manas body. It has wondrous experiences. Just as a person with undeveloped intellect cannot enjoy mathematics—though mathematics has its own joy. An Einstein can be as enraptured in mathematics as a musician on the veena, as a painter with color. For Einstein, mathematics is play, not work—but for that, intelligence must develop to where mathematics becomes play.

Infinite dimensions open with each body
Whichever body we develop opens infinite dimensions. One who has not developed the feeling body and is stuck at seven will end his taste for life at eating and drinking. A nation dominated by first-body people will have no culture beyond the tongue.

A nation dominated by second-body people becomes sex-centered—its poetry, music, films, theater, paintings, houses, cars—everything becomes sex-centric, filled with lust.

A civilization in which the third body develops properly becomes filled with intellectual inquiry and thought. Whenever the third body becomes significant for a society, great intellectual revolutions happen. In the time of Buddha and Mahavira, Bihar was such a place—there was a large group available with the capacity of the third body. Hence eight men of the stature of Buddha and Mahavira were born in that small region, and thousands of talented people.

In the time of Socrates and Plato, Greece was in a similar condition. In the time of Confucius and Lao Tzu, China too. Strikingly, these great ones all appeared within about five hundred years world-wide. In that span, humanity’s third body reached great heights.

But commonly people stop at the third; after twenty-one there is little further development.

The super-sensory functions of the fourth, mental body
Remember, the fourth body has its own unique experiences—just as the first, second and third do. Hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance—these are possibilities of the fourth body. One can relate beyond the barriers of time and space; read another’s thoughts without words, or send one’s thoughts; without saying a thing something can enter the other and become a seed; one can travel outside the body—astral projection; one can know oneself as separate from this body.

The fourth, the manas or psychic body, has immense possibilities that we hardly develop—because there are many dangers here, and much possibility of falsity. The subtler things become, the greater the possibilities of the false.

A man may or may not actually go out of the body—he can also dream of going out. Apart from oneself there is no other witness. Hence there is great room for deception; from the fourth body onward the world becomes subjective. Before that it is objective.

If I have money in my hand, you can see it, I can see it, fifty people can see it. It is a common reality in which we can all participate and verify—is there money or not? But you cannot participate in my world of thoughts, nor I in yours; the private world begins there. Where the private world begins, danger begins—because the external criteria for truth and validity fall away.

The real world of deception starts with the fourth body. Deceptions before that can be caught. And it is not that one who deceives in the fourth body always knows he is deceiving. That is the big danger! He can deceive unknowingly—himself and others. He may not know because things have become so fine and private that he himself has no touchstone to verify whether what is happening is really happening or is imagination.

Gains and dangers of the fourth body
So humanity tried to save itself from the fourth body. Often those who used it were defamed and condemned. In Europe thousands of women were burned as witches, because they had workings of the fourth body. In India, hundreds of tantrics were killed for the same reason—because they knew secrets that felt dangerous. They could know what is going on in your mind; they could know from outside where something is kept in your house. Across the world the fourth body was taken to be a kind of black art—a dark magic where there is no telling what may happen! We tried our best to stop humanity at the third body because of the dangers of the fourth.

The dangers were there; but with danger came equally wondrous benefits. Instead of forbidding, there should have been inquiry—ways to test and verify. Now we have scientific instruments and a greater understanding; pathways can be found. For example, some ways have already been found. I was just reading yesterday.

Until recently it was not established whether animals dream. How to know unless an animal tells you? With humans we know because in the morning one can say, “I had a dream.” Since the animal cannot say, how to find out? With great difficulty a way was found. A man worked for years on monkeys to check whether they dream.

Now, this is very private—fourth-body territory—yet he devised a check worth understanding. He began showing films to monkeys—projecting a movie on a screen. As the film started he would give the monkey an electric shock from below. He fitted a switch on the chair and trained the monkey that whenever it got a shock, it should press the switch and the shock would stop. He trained it: film begins, shock comes, press the switch, the shock stops. Then he let the monkey sleep in that chair. When the dream began, the monkey felt alarmed in its sleep—afraid the shock might come—because for it the dream and the movie on the screen are the same. Instantly it pressed the switch. Repeating this experiment, it became clear that whenever the monkey was dreaming, it would press the switch. Thus a means was found to test from outside even a deep inner phenomenon like dreaming in monkeys who cannot report it.

Similarly, seekers found ways to test from the outside in the fourth body. And now it can be decided whether what happened was true or false; whether it was authentic or illusory; whether the kundalini experience you had in the fourth body was real or fake. Merely being psychic does not make it false; there are false psychic states and true psychic states. So when I say it belongs to the manas, the mental, that does not mean it is false. In the mental realm there can be truth and there can be falsehood.

You had a dream at night. The dream is a truth because it happened. But in the morning you can also recall a dream you did not have and say you had it; that is false. Many say, “I do not dream.” There are thousands who believe they do not dream. They do dream; we now have many ways to check that they dream through the night, but in the morning they say, “We did not dream.” What they say is false—though they do not know. They simply do not retain the memory. The reverse also happens: in the morning you can imagine a dream you never had and claim you had it—that will be false.

Calling something a dream does not make it false; dreams have their own reality. There can be false dreams and true dreams. By “true” I mean that which actually happened. And even then you hardly can report a dream exactly in the morning. There are very few who can give an accurate report.

Hence in the old world, one who could report his dream exactly was highly valued. It is difficult to report a dream precisely. The main difficulty is that the sequence in which you dream is different from the sequence in which you recall. When we watch a film we see it from the beginning forward. A dream is recalled backwards. What happened first in the dream will surface last in memory because it is buried deepest. When you wake, the last segment is in your hand and you begin to remember backwards. This is like reading a book from the last page and every word becomes jumbled. So you go only a little way back; beyond that it is all confused. To remember and report accurately is an art. We generally report wrongly; we report what did not happen to us. Much is lost, much is altered, much is added.

The fourth body—dreams are its occurrence.

Yogic powers, kundalini, chakras, etc.
The fourth body has great possibilities. All the “siddhis” described in yoga are arrangements of the fourth body. Yoga constantly warns not to get entangled in them—the greatest fear being the many avenues of falsity and the great possibilities of going astray. And even if they are real, they have no spiritual value.

So when I said kundalini is psychic, I meant it is an event of the fourth body. Hence a physiologist who dissects this physical body will not find any kundalini in it. Surgeons and doctors will say, “What nonsense are you talking! There is no such thing in this body—no chakras anywhere.”

They belong to the fourth body. But the fourth is subtle—cannot be grasped physically. Yet there are corresponding points where that body and this body align. Imagine seven sheets of paper and a pin piercing all seven so that a hole appears at one place through all. Now suppose the hole disappears from the first sheet. Still, the spot corresponding to the holes on the other sheets exists on the first; you will not find a hole by examining the first sheet, but there is a corresponding point such that if you place a finger there, it will be at the exact place corresponding to the holes on the third and fourth.

So the chakras and kundalini spoken of are not in this physical body as such; in this body there are only corresponding points. Hence an anatomist is not wrong if he denies—he will not find kundalini or chakras here. They are in another body. But their corresponding points can be located in this one.

Kundalini: a phenomenon of the mental body
Kundalini is a phenomenon of the fourth body; therefore I said it is psychic. And when I say that this psychic, this mental, can be of two kinds—false and true—my point will become clear. It will be false when you merely imagine it, because imagination too belongs to the fourth body.

Animals cannot imagine. Hence their past is little and they have no future. That is why animals are carefree; worry arises from a sense of the future. Animals see death around them every day, but they cannot imagine, “I will die.” So there is no fear of death in them. Even among humans, many do not really think, “I will die.” They see, “someone dies, someone dies,” but “I will die” does not arise—because their imaginative span in the fourth body has not become wide enough to see far.

This means imagination too can be true or false. True imagination is simply our capacity to see what is not yet; to foresee possibilities. False imagination is to assume as present what will never be.

If imagination is used rightly, science arises—because science begins in imagination. For thousands of years man imagined flying in the sky. Whoever imagined this must have been very imaginative. If no one had imagined it, the Wright brothers could not have built an airplane. Thousands imagined and declared the possibility—and slowly the possibility manifested, discovery happened. For thousands of years we imagined reaching the moon. That was imagination—and it found its place. But that imagination was authentic, not on the path of falsity; it was on the path of a truth that could be discovered tomorrow.

So a scientist imagines and a madman imagines. If I say madness is imagination and science is imagination, do not think they are the same. The madman imagines in ways that can never harmonize with the objective world. The scientist imagines in ways that harmonize with it; and where it does not yet harmonize, there is full possibility that it can.

Thus in all the possibilities of the fourth body there is always the fear that one may miss and enter a false world. Therefore, before entering the fourth body, it is always good to go without expectations. Because the fourth body is the manas, the mental.

If I need to go down from this building in reality, I will need stairs or a lift. But if I wish to go down in thought, I can do it sitting here—no lift, no stairs needed.

The danger with thought and imagination is that nothing needs to be done—one only has to think—so anyone can “descend.” If one goes in with expectations, one will descend into exactly what one expects. The mind will say, “You want to awaken kundalini? All right—it has awakened!” You will begin to imagine, “It is rising, rising,” and the mind will certify, “Completely awakened,” and the matter is finished—kundalini attained, chakras opened, this happened, that happened.

But there is a touchstone to check it. That touchstone is that with each chakra opening there will be radical changes in your personality. Those changes cannot be imagined because they belong to the objective, manifest world.

Radical transformation through kundalini awakening
For example: if kundalini has awakened, you cannot drink alcohol. Impossible. Because the manas body is affected first by alcohol; it is very delicate. You will be surprised to know: if a woman and a man drink, the man is never as dangerous under alcohol as the woman becomes. Her mental body is even more delicate; it is affected so quickly that it goes beyond her control.

Hence traditionally women have kept away from intoxicants more than men. In this matter they had not claimed equality—but now they do; it will be dangerous. The harm that did not happen through men’s drinking will happen through women’s drinking.

So, if kundalini has awakened in truth, it will not be proven by your saying or even subjective experiencing, because similar experiences can happen in falsity. It will be proven by your objective personality—immediate differences will begin to appear.

That is why I continually say: conduct is the touchstone—not a means, but a criterion that something inside has happened. With each genuine experiment, certain things will start happening inevitably. For the fourth body: once its power awakens, no intoxicant can be taken. If it still can be, and there is relish in it, know you have fallen into the idea of a false kundalini.

Similarly, once kundalini awakens, the tendency to violence departs absolutely—not merely the act of violence, but even the tendency. The urge to harm another can exist only so long as your kundalini has not awakened. The day it awakens, the other no longer appears as “other” to you—you cannot harm them. Then you will not have to “refrain” from violence; you simply will not be able to be violent. If you still have to restrain yourself, know it has not yet awakened. If even after “opening your eyes” you still walk by groping with a stick, know your eyes have not opened—no matter how much you claim they have. Your stick, your groping, your fearful walking show the eyes are closed.

Character undergoes radical change. All the great vows (mahavrata) become effortless. Then know it is indeed authentic—psychic, yes, but authentic. And now you can move ahead—only the authentic can go further; the false cannot. And the fourth body is not the destination; there are more bodies.

Miracles begin with the fourth body
I said few people develop the fourth body. That is why “miracles” happen in the world. If we all developed the fourth body, miracles would cease instantly. It is like this: if up to fourteen the body developed but the intellect did not, a man who could do calculations would appear miraculous.

It used to be like that. A thousand years ago, if someone announced the date of a solar eclipse, it was miraculous—only a supreme knower could say it. Today we know a machine can say it—it is only mathematics. No astrology, no prophecy, no great gnosis required—a computer can tell, not only for a year but for millions of years ahead. A computer can even tell when the sun will cool, because it’s all calculation—how much heat it emits, how fast it loses it, how much it has stored—so in how many thousand years it will cool. Today that does not seem miraculous because we have all developed the third body. A thousand years ago, to say “On such and such night next year there will be a lunar eclipse” was miraculous. When the eclipse occurred, you had to believe the man was supernatural.

The miracles happening today—someone materializes a talisman, ash falls from a photo—these are very ordinary things for the fourth body. Because we do not have it, they look like great miracles.

It is like this: you stand under a tree, I am sitting atop it. I say, “An hour from now an ox-cart will come along this road.” I can see it—I am higher up; you, under the tree, cannot. You say, “You speak miracles! I cannot see any cart. Are you a prophet? I cannot believe it.” But an hour later the cart arrives and you touch my feet: “Master, you are a great seer.” The only difference is that I sit a little higher where the cart became present to me an hour earlier. I am not speaking of the future—I am also speaking of the present, only that between your present and mine there is an hour’s distance because of height.

The deeper the body one stands in, the more miraculous one appears to those standing in the lower bodies. Their rules are unknown to us—and so magic appears; miracles occur—by a little development of the fourth body.

If we are to end miracles, they won’t end by explanation. Just as we give education of the third body so everyone can understand math and language, we will have to educate the fourth body and make people capable of such things. Then miracles will disappear; before that they cannot. Someone or other will exploit them.

The fourth body develops up to twenty-eight—another seven years. Few develop it.

The fifth, the Self body
The fifth body is very precious—the spiritual or atmic body. If life develops rightly, it should be developed by around thirty-five.

But that is far away—most do not even develop the fourth. Hence “soul” for us is talk; behind the word there is no content. When we say “wall,” there is content behind the word; we know what a wall is. Behind the word “soul,” there is no content because the soul is not our experience. It is the fifth body. Only if kundalini awakens in the fourth can one enter the fifth; otherwise not. Since the fourth is unknown, the fifth remains unknown. Even the fifth only a few come to know. Some stop there and say, “The journey is complete. We have attained the soul; all is attained.”

Even then the journey is not complete.

Those who stop at the fifth deny God; they will say there is no Brahman, no God—just as those who stop at the first body deny the soul. The materialist says, “The body is all; when the body dies, all dies.” Similarly the spiritualist who stops at the fifth says, “The soul is all; beyond it there is nothing—the ultimate state is the soul.” But it is still the fifth body.

The sixth, the Brahman body, and the seventh, the nirvana body
The sixth body is the Brahman body—the cosmic body. When one develops the soul and is willing to lose even that, one enters the sixth. If humanity were to evolve scientifically, this should become natural by around forty-two.

And the seventh should by forty-nine. The seventh is the nirvana body—the bodyless state. It is the ultimate. Only emptiness remains there—shunyata. Not even Brahman remains. Nothing remains—everything has ended.

Hence when Buddha was asked what happens there, he would say, “Like a lamp going out—what then?” The flame is gone—do you ask where it went, where it now abides? It is simply gone.

Nirvana means the going out of the lamp. So Buddha says, nirvana happens. Up to the fifth, there is the taste of moksha, liberation—because the bonds of the four lower bodies fall and the soul is utterly free.

Moksha is the experience of the fifth body.

If one stops at the fourth, then there is the experience of heaven and hell—that belongs to the fourth.

If one stops at the first, second, or third, then this life between birth and death is all; there is nothing after.

If one goes to the fourth, then after this life there is the life of heaven and hell—endless possibilities of joy and sorrow.

If one reaches the fifth, the door of moksha opens.

If one reaches the sixth, there is the possibility beyond moksha—Brahman; there is neither bound nor free—whatever is, one has become one with it. “Aham Brahmasmi”—I am Brahman—is the possibility of the sixth.

And one step more—the last jump—where neither “I” nor “Brahman” remains; where there is neither I nor thou; where there is nothing; where there is the total, absolute void—that is nirvana.

Each seven years a body develops
These are the seven bodies. By forty-nine the whole cycle completes; hence around fifty was taken as a point of revolution. Up to twenty-five there was one life-arrangement. In those twenty-five years the effort was to develop the necessary bodies up to the fourth—the mental body; if one reached the fourth, one’s education was complete. Then, in life, the search for the fifth. And by fifty—within the next twenty-five years—attain the seventh. Therefore at fifty another point of revolution—vanaprastha, turning one’s face toward the forest; turn away from society and the crowd. And seventy-five was yet another point—sannyas—turn even from oneself. In the forest the “I” still remains; at seventy-five, leave that too.

If in householder life all seven bodies are experienced and developed, everything afterwards becomes easy and joyous. If not, it becomes difficult—because each age is aligned to the growth of a particular body. If the physical body is not made healthy by seven, then in some sense one will remain ill all life; at best one can manage not to be sick, but never be truly healthy—because the basic foundation of the first seven years has wavered. When we lay the foundation of a house, if it remains weak, it is very hard to fix it at the summit; it should have been strong at the base.

So the first seven years must give full arrangement for the physical body. If in the second seven the feeling body does not develop rightly, twenty-five sexual perversions will arise; it will be very hard to correct them. That is precisely the time for preparation. Each rung has its assured season. An inch or two of deviation is another matter, but there is a window.

Developing each body in time is necessary
If sexuality does not develop by fourteen, the whole life will pass in some trouble or other. If intelligence does not develop by twenty-one, there are very few means left to develop it later.

We accept this for the earlier bodies; hence we take care of the physical, send to school, and so on. But the later bodies too are bound to their seasons. Missing them brings great difficulty. A man at fifty begins developing a body that should have been developed at twenty-one. The energy he had at twenty-one he does not have at fifty. Unnecessary difficulty is created, and much more labor is required for what would have been easy earlier. It becomes a long and hard path. Another difficulty: at twenty-one he was standing at the right door; between twenty-one and fifty he has wandered in so many bazaars that now he is not even near the door where he stood by nature at twenty-one; where a slight knock would have opened it—now he must find that door again. He has seen so many doors that recognizing the right one is hard.

Hence up to twenty-five there is a need for a very well-planned arrangement for children—so that they are brought at least to the fourth. After the fourth everything is easy; the foundations are poured, now the fruiting begins. From the fifth, fruits appear; by the seventh they are complete. There may be some delay here and there, but the foundation should be solid.

Two or three more points to note.

Male and female across the four “electrical” bodies
Up to the fourth body there is a polarity of male and female. If someone is a man, his physical body is male—positive. But his second, the etheric or feeling body, is feminine—negative. Positive and negative cannot exist alone; they complete a circuit together. A woman’s gross body is negative. Hence a woman cannot be sexually aggressive; she cannot rape a man. She can suffer rape but cannot commit it; without his consent she cannot do anything to him. A man’s body is positive; he can be aggressive.

Negative does not mean zero or inferior; in electrical terms it means “reservoir.” The woman’s body preserves energy—great power is conserved there—but it is passive, not active.

Therefore women do not do great outer “creation”—no great poems, no great paintings, no scientific discoveries in the outer sense; they wait. They create children.

A man’s gross body is positive. But wherever there is positive, behind it must be negative, otherwise it cannot be stable. Together they make the whole circuit. So the man’s second body is feminine; the woman’s second is masculine.

Hence another interesting fact: the man appears physically stronger, but behind him stands a delicate, feminine body. His strength flashes in moments, but in long endurance he loses to the woman, for behind her stands the positive body.

Thus resistance—the capacity to endure—is greater in women. If the same disease strikes a man and a woman, the woman can endure it longer. Women bear children—if men had to, they would know. Perhaps then no need for birth control—he would simply stop. He cannot bear so much pain, for so long. In a moment of anger he can throw a stone, but he cannot carry a child for nine months and raise it for years. His gross strength is more, but behind it he has a delicate body that makes sustained endurance difficult. Hence women fall ill less; their life expectancy is greater. That is why we keep a five-year gap at marriage; otherwise the world would be filled with widows. We choose a twenty-year-old man and a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl, so the five-year difference evens out, otherwise the man would die earlier and widows multiply.

At birth, 116 boys are born for every 100 girls. By fourteen, the numbers equalize because boys die more, girls less; their resistance is stronger—coming from that body behind.

Further: the man’s third body, the subtle, is again masculine; his fourth, the mental, is feminine. For the woman it is the reverse.

Up to the fourth there is a male-female division; the fifth is beyond sex.

With self-realization, this world has no men and women. But until then, there are.

One more thought: since every man has a woman within and every woman has a man within, only if by chance a woman finds a husband who matches the man within her, does marriage succeed—and a man a wife who matches the woman within him—otherwise it does not.

Without the development of the first four bodies, marriage fails
Hence ninety-nine out of a hundred marriages fail, because we have not yet discovered the deeper key to success—how to probe so that the inner bodies match. Until the whole science of these bodies becomes clear, marriage will continue to fail—whatever outer arrangements we make.

If a young man, and a young woman, reach at least the awakening of kundalini before marriage, it becomes easy to choose the right partner. Before that it is never easy—because then, knowing their inner bodies, they can choose the right outer bodies.

Therefore, those who knew arranged that up to twenty-five one lived in brahmacharya and developed the four bodies—and only then marriage. Before that, marriage not—because whom will you marry? What are you looking for? Which woman will satisfy? A man is seeking the woman within; a woman the man within. If by chance the match happens, one is content; otherwise discontent remains. Then a thousand distortions arise—he seeks a prostitute, a neighbor’s wife, here and there; the trouble grows. And the more the intellect develops, the greater the trouble. If one stops at the second body, there is no trouble; the whole trouble starts with the development of the third, the intellect. If only the second, the feeling body develops, one is satisfied with sex alone.

So there were two paths: either keep one in brahmacharya up to twenty-five and bring him to the fourth body—and then marriage; or do child marriage, before the intellect develops, so he stops at sex and never gets into the complications. Then the man-woman relationship remains purely animal—there is no possibility of love.

In countries like America, where education has greatly developed the third body, marriages will break—they cannot be saved. The third body says, “There is no inner match.” Divorce becomes natural.

Right education: the development of the four
Only when these four bodies are developed do I say education is right. Right education means it takes you up to the fourth. No education can take you to the fifth—you must go yourself. But up to the fourth, education can take you; there is no difficulty.

The fifth is precious; after that the journey becomes private—sixth and seventh are your own inner pilgrimage.

Kundalini is a possibility of the fourth body. Has my point reached you?

There is no good use of bondage, because bondage itself is a bad thing; and the deeper the bondage, the worse it is. So psychic binding is very bad. If someone puts a chain on my hand, that is manageable; it can only hold my physical body. But if someone throws a chain of love over me, more trouble begins; that chain goes deeper. It goes deeper, and breaking it is not so easy. If someone throws a chain of reverence, it goes deeper still; to break it becomes almost an unholy act—impious. It becomes more difficult.
So all bondages are bad; and mental, psychic bondages are worse.

The right medium for shaktipat
The one who serves as a vehicle in shaktipat will not want to bind you. If shaktipat is happening, that person will not wish to bind you; if he wants to bind, he is not a fit vehicle at all. Yes, but you can bind yourself. You can bind yourself; you can fall at his feet and say, ‘Now I will not leave you; you have obliged me so much.’ In that moment alertness is needed. Great alertness is needed so the seeker on whom shaktipat happens can save himself from bondage.
But if it is clear to you that any bondage becomes a weight on the spiritual journey, then grace will not bind; grace will also unfasten. If I become grateful to you, why should that become a bondage? Where is the need for bondage in it? In fact, if I cannot express my gratitude, perhaps an inner bondage remains—that I could not even say thank you. But to say thank you means the matter is complete.

Security—the search of the frightened
Grace is not a bondage; the feeling of grace is a feeling of supreme freedom. But we try to bind ourselves because there is fear within. We wonder: will we be able to stand alone or not? Let us tie ourselves to someone. Forget the other; when a man passes through a dark lane, he starts singing loudly to himself. Hearing his own voice loudly, his fear lessens. His own voice! If it were someone else’s voice, at least there would be someone present; yet even his own voice gives the illusion of confidence that there is nothing to fear.
So man is frightened and starts clutching at anything. And if a drowning man finds even a straw, he will grab it with closed eyes. Though a straw cannot save him from drowning; it only drowns along with the drowning man. But in fear, our mind wants to clutch. All binding is of fear. So whether it is a guru or anyone else, we will grab hold. By clinging we want to feel safe. A kind of security.

Only in insecurity does the soul grow
The seeker must avoid security. For the seeker, security is the greatest entanglement. If even for a day he desires security and says, ‘Now I will be safe in someone’s refuge; behind someone there is no fear. Now I cannot go astray; I have found the right station. I will not go anywhere; I will sit here,’ he has gone astray—because for the seeker there is no security. For the seeker, insecurity is a benediction; the more insecurity, the more the soul has the chance to expand, to become strong, to become fearless. The more security, the more arrangements for the seeker to become weak; he will be that much more impotent.

Use support only to become supportless
Taking support is one thing; continuing to live on support is quite another. Support is given precisely so that you can become supportless; support is given so that you no longer need support.
A father is teaching his son to walk. Have you noticed: when a father teaches his son to walk, the father holds the son’s hand; the son does not hold it. But after a few days, when the boy has learned a little walking, the father lets go, and the boy grabs. If you see a father walking, and the boy is holding the hand, understand he has learned to walk but is still not letting go; and if the father is holding the hand, understand walking is still being taught—letting go would be dangerous; it cannot be done yet. And of course the father will want the hand to be free as soon as possible; that is why he is teaching.
And if a father becomes so attached that he enjoys his son’s holding his hand forever, that father has become an enemy. Many fathers become so. Many gurus too. They miss. The very purpose for which they gave support is lost. They create the crippled who will now walk with their crutches. They enjoy it—‘You cannot walk without my crutch.’ It gratifies the ego. But a guru who is gratified in his ego is no guru at all.
But the boy too may keep holding on—because he is afraid he may fall. ‘How will I walk without the father?’ So it is the guru’s work to shake off his hand and say, ‘Now you walk. And don’t worry; fall a few times, it is fine—get up again. After all, to learn to get up, one has to fall. And to remove the fear of falling, it is necessary to fall a few times so that then you no longer fall.’
We may feel like grabbing someone’s support—and then binding arises. That is not to be created. A seeker must proceed with the awareness that he is not searching for security; he is searching for truth, not for security. And if you want to seek truth, you will have to drop the idea of security. Otherwise untruth often provides great security—and quickly. Then the security-seeker clutches at untruth. The seeker of convenience never reaches truth, because it is a long journey. He fabricates untruth here itself and sits thinking he has found it. And the matter ends.

Why blind faith
Therefore any kind of bondage—and the bondage to a guru is especially dangerous, because it is a spiritual bondage. The phrase ‘spiritual bondage’ is itself contradictory: spirituality means freedom; there is no meaning in spiritual slavery. Yet in this world there are more people enslaved ‘spiritually’ than in any other way. There is a reason: the fourth body, whose development makes spiritual freedom possible, is absent. They are developed only up to the third body.
That is why you will often see a man who is a high court chief justice, or a university vice-chancellor, sitting at the feet of some downright ignorant fellow. And seeing him, a thousand ignoramuses sit behind—‘When the high court justice is sitting, the vice-chancellor of a university is sitting, then who are we!’ But they do not know: this man’s third body is highly developed; his intellect has been greatly cultivated, but with regard to the fourth body he is utterly uncultured; that body is not there. And since he has only the third body, after thinking and arguing and reasoning he is tired and now resting. And when intellect gets tired and rests, it does very unintelligent things. When anything is exhausted and resting, it tends to turn upside down. This is the great danger.
Therefore you will find them in ashrams; high court judges will certainly be there. They are tired, harassed by intellect; they want to be rid of it. They close their eyes and believe in anything unintelligent, irrational. They say, ‘We have thought too much, debated too much, argued too much—nothing came of it; now let us drop it.’ So they latch on to anyone. And seeing them, the unintelligent crowd behind says, ‘If such intelligent people are there, we too should latch on.’ But as far as the fourth body is concerned, they are absolute nobodies.
So if in some person the fourth body has developed even a little, the greatest intellectual will sit clutching his feet—because he has something in which the intellectual is utterly impoverished.
Because the fourth body is undeveloped, binding arises. The mind wants to grab someone—grab the one in whom it is developed. But by grabbing him it will not develop; by understanding, it can develop. And grabbing is a device to avoid understanding—‘Why bother to understand? We will just hold your feet. When you cross the Vaitarani, we will too. We will make you our boat; we will sit in it; when you reach, we too will reach.’

Blind imitation to escape the labor of sadhana
Understanding is painful. To understand, you will have to change yourself. Understanding is an effort, a sadhana. It is a labor; it is a revolution. In understanding there will be a transformation; the old will change; the new will have to be created. Why take so much trouble! The one who knows—we will just grab him; we will follow behind him.
But in this world no one can reach truth by following someone else; there you have to arrive alone. The path itself is deserted. The path itself is solitary. Therefore any kind of bondage is an obstacle there.
So learn, understand; take whatever glimpses you can from wherever you can—but do not stop anywhere. Do not make any place your destination, do not grab anyone’s hand and say, ‘Now it is fine; we have arrived.’ You will meet many who will say, ‘Where are you going? Stay with me!’ Many will be there who...
This is the second part. As I said, a frightened man wants to bind himself to someone; and some frightened people also want to bind others—that, too, gives them a feeling of fearlessness. The person who feels, ‘I have a thousand followers,’ begins to feel, ‘I have become a knower—otherwise how would I have a thousand followers! When a thousand people believe in me, surely I know something; otherwise why would they believe?’
It is a strange thing that becoming a guru often happens out of just this mental inferiority—that, ‘I have ten thousand disciples, twenty thousand!’ Then the ‘guru’ gets busy increasing disciples—‘I have seven hundred sannyasins, a thousand sannyasins, so many disciples’—he is busy expanding. Because the more the expansion, the more he is reassured that, ‘Surely I know—else why would a thousand people believe in me!’ This argument circles back and convinces him that he knows. If those thousand disciples were lost, he would feel, ‘Gone!’ Meaning, ‘I do not know.’

Where there is bondage, there is no relationship
Great psychological games go on. Be alert to those games—from both sides; the game can be played from both sides. The disciple can bind, too; and the disciple who binds himself to someone today will bind someone else tomorrow, because this is a chain-linked affair. He becomes a disciple today and tomorrow a guru—how long will he remain a disciple! Today he grabs someone; tomorrow he will get someone to grab him. Chain-linked slaveries.
But the deeper cause is the undeveloped fourth body. If the concern is to develop that, you will be able to be free. Then there will be no bondage.
This does not mean you will become inhuman, that you will have no relationships with people; it means just the opposite. In fact, where there is bondage, there can be no relationship. If there is bondage between husband and wife—we even say, ‘They are bound in the bond of marriage!’ Invitations are sent: ‘My son and daughter are being bound in the thread of love.’ Where there is bondage, there can be no relationship—because what relationship can there be in slavery?

Relationship is that which frees
Someday in the future some father will surely send an invitation saying, ‘My daughter is becoming free in someone’s love.’ That makes sense—that now somebody’s love is setting her free in life; no bondage will remain upon her; she is becoming free in love. And love should free. If love also binds, then what in this world will free? Who will?
And where there is bondage, everything becomes suffering, becomes hell. Outwardly faces remain; inside everything becomes filthy. Whether it is guru–disciple, father–son, husband–wife, or two friends—where there is bondage, there is no relationship. And if there is relationship, bondage is meaningless. It seems as if we relate only with those to whom we are bound; but in truth, we relate only with those with whom we have no bondage at all.
That is why it often happens that you cannot say to your own son what you can say to a stranger. I have been astonished to learn that a wife cannot say something to her husband and yet can say it to a stranger on a train whom she does not know at all and met only an hour ago.
In truth, where there is no bondage, there arises an ease for relationship. That is why you behave more graciously with a stranger than with the familiar. There is no bondage there, so only relationship can be. But with the familiar you never behave so graciously, because there is bondage. Even a greeting there seems like a chore.
Therefore a guru–disciple relationship can exist—and all relationships are sweet—but there can be no bondage. And relationship means that it frees.

The wondrous Zen masters who do not bind
One precious thing about the Zen masters is this: if someone comes to learn from a Zen master, when he has learned the master will say, ‘Now go to my opponent; spend some time learning there.’ Because one aspect you have come to know; now understand the other aspect.
Then the seeker will wander for years among different monasteries. He will go and sit with those who oppose his master, sit at their feet and learn from them too—because his master will say, ‘It may be that he is right; go there and understand the whole thing. And who knows who is right? It may be that what emerges from both of us together is right—or it may be that what remains after cutting both of us away is right. Therefore go, search for that.’
When a country’s spiritual genius develops, this is what happens; then things do not form into bondages.
I wish this could happen in this land; the day it does, many consequences will follow—that no one binds anyone but sends him on a long journey: go. And who knows what the ultimate will be! But the one who sends you in this way—even if tomorrow all his teachings seem wrong to you—he himself will not seem wrong. The one who tells you, ‘Go, search elsewhere—it may be I am wrong,’ it may happen that someday all his words seem wrong to you, yet you will remain grateful; that man will never seem wrong. Because he was the one who sent you.
Right now the conditions are such that everyone is stopping you. One guru stops you: ‘Do not listen to anyone else!’ The scriptures write: do not go to another’s temple! Even if you must die crushed under the feet of a mad elephant, do not take refuge in another temple—lest something there fall into your ears!
Even if everything such a man says were right, the man himself is wrong. And there can never be gratitude toward him—because he made you a slave, crushed you, killed you.
If this enters your awareness, then there can be no question of bondage.

Yes, there won’t be.
Exploitation in the name of shaktipat

It is possible; in the name of shaktipat a great deal of spiritual exploitation can happen. In fact, wherever there is a claim, there will be exploitation. Wherever someone says, “I will give you something,” he will also take something—because giving, as such, does not happen without taking. If someone says, “I am giving,” he will also take back from you. The coin can be anything—he may take it as money, as respect, as reverence—in some form he will take. Where there is giving—insistently, claimfully—there will be taking too. And the one who claims to give will take more than he gives. Otherwise, why would he need to shout in the marketplace?

In truth, he is “giving” the way a fisherman puts dough on a hook—because fish won’t eat a bare hook. Perhaps some day fish can be persuaded to swallow a naked hook; so far, no fish eats a bare hook. You have to put dough on it. Yes, the fish will eat the dough—and lured by the promise of dough it comes near the hook. In the hope of dough it gulps down the hook as well. Only after swallowing does it discover that the dough was useless; the hook was the reality. But by then the hook has already pierced.

Beware of claim-making gurus.
So wherever there is a claim—someone saying, “I will do shaktipat, I will give you knowledge, I will take you into samadhi, I will do this, I will do that”—wherever there are such claims, become alert. Because a man of that realm is not a claimant. Even if you go to such a person and say, “Because of you, shaktipat happened to me,” he will say, “You are mistaken; I don’t even know—how could it happen because of me! If it happened, it must have been because of God.” Even if you go to offer thanks, it won’t be accepted that it happened because of him. He will say, “It must have happened because of your own readiness. You are in some illusion; it must have been by God’s grace. Where am I in this! What worth do I have! Where do I come in!”

Jesus was passing through a village, and people brought a sick man to him. Jesus embraced him and he was healed. The man said, “How can I thank you, because you have cured me.” Jesus said, “Don’t talk like that; thank the One who deserves thanks! Who am I? Where do I come in?” The man said, “There is no one here except you.” Jesus replied, “Neither you nor I are here; what Is, you cannot see—that alone is doing everything. He has healed you!”

Now, how will such a person exploit? To exploit, you must bait the hook with dough. This one won’t even concede that the dough is his—let alone the hook. There is no way in.

So wherever you see claims—the seeker should—be careful right there. Where someone says, “I will do this, it will happen like that,” he is preparing you; he is awakening your demand; he is provoking your expectations; he is quickening your desire. And when you become desire-ridden, when you say, “Give me, Master!” then he will start demanding from you. Very soon you will discover that the dough was on the outside; the hook was inside.

Therefore, where there are claims, tread cautiously; it is dangerous ground. Where someone is sitting to become a guru, don’t take that path—there is a risk of getting entangled. So how should a seeker be safe? Simply avoid claims, and you will be safe from everything. Don’t look for the person who says he can give. Otherwise you will get into trouble—because that person is also looking for you, the one who can be trapped. They are all roaming about; he too is roaming, asking, “Who needs something?” Don’t ask, don’t accept claims. And then…

Become a vessel; don’t search for a guru.
What you have to do is something else: the preparation you must make is within yourself. And the day you are ready, the event will happen—through any medium whatsoever. The medium is secondary; it is only like a peg. The day you have a coat, will it be difficult to find a peg? You will hang it anywhere. Even if there is no peg, you will hang it on the door. If there is no door, you will hang it on a branch. Anything will serve as a peg. The real question is the coat.

But we don’t have the coat, and the peg is claiming, “Come here, I am the peg!” You will get caught. You don’t have the coat—what will you do by going to a peg? The danger is that you yourself might end up hanging on the peg, because you have no coat. Therefore, seek your own receptivity, your own worthiness; make yourself such that one day you can receive the grace. Then you need not worry; that is not your concern.

That is why what Krishna says to Arjuna is exactly right. He means just this. He says: Do your action and leave the fruits to God; you need not worry about them. If you worry about the fruits, your action is obstructed. Because worrying about the results, it seems: why act—first worry about the fruit! It makes you think, “What should I do? Let me first see what the fruit will be.” And then error becomes certain. So the only concern is action; keep making yourself worthy. The day your capacity is complete—just as the day a seed’s capacity to sprout is complete—everything meets. When the bud is fully ready to blossom, the sun appears. There is no obstacle there. The sun is always ready. But if you don’t have the bud ready to bloom and the sun rises, what will happen? So don’t search for the sun; deepen your bud. The sun is always out; it becomes available immediately.

An empty vessel is filled.
In this existence, no vessel remains empty even for a moment; whatever kind of receptivity there is, it is filled instantly. In truth, becoming receptive and being filled are not two events—they are two sides of one event. If we pump the air out of this room, other air will immediately fill the empty space. These are not two steps: the moment we remove it here, the new air starts rushing in there. Such are the laws of the inner world: the moment we are ready here, from there what our readiness demands begins to descend.

But our difficulty is that we don’t become ready, and our asking begins; then for false asking, false supply also appears. I get quite puzzled—such people puzzle me. A man comes and says, “My mind is very disturbed; I want peace.” I talk with him for half an hour and ask, “Do you really want peace?” He says, “Peace—what I really need is for my son to get a job; that’s the reason for the disturbance. If he gets a job, everything will be fine.” This man came saying he wanted peace—but he doesn’t need peace; he needs something else that has nothing to do with peace. He needs his son to get a job. He has come to the wrong person.

The secret of the shopkeepers of religion.
Now the one who has set up a shop in the marketplace says, “Need a job? Come here! We will get you a job—and peace too. Whoever comes here gets a job; whoever comes here sees their wealth increase; whoever comes here, their shop begins to thrive.” And around that shop you will find ten people who say, “My son got a job; my wife was saved from dying; my court case turned from loss to victory; piles of wealth gathered for me.” Those ten you will find around the shop.

It is not that they are lying. It is not that they are hired hands. It is not that they are touts of the shop. No, nothing like that. When a thousand people come to a shop seeking jobs, ten will get them. Those who get them stay on; nine hundred and ninety go away. Those who stay keep spreading the word; gradually their crowd grows.

So every shop has authentic claimants standing by. When they say, “My son got a job,” there is no falsehood in it; he is not a bought man. He came too; his son did get a job. Those who didn’t get it have gone away; they are searching for another guru—from whom they might get it. They have gone wherever they thought they’d get it. Only those remain here who got something. They return every year, on every festival; their crowd goes on growing. And around this man a class forms which becomes “conclusive proof”: “So many have received—why shouldn’t I?” This turns into the dough, and the hook is hidden within. And people get caught.

Don’t ask at all; otherwise getting trapped is certain. Don’t ask; prepare yourself. And leave it to God that on the day it is to happen, it will happen; if it doesn’t, we will understand that we were not yet worthy.

After authentic shaktipat, the wandering ends.

The real point is this: you feel the need to take it many times only when shaktipat hasn’t happened. You feel the need to take it from many people only when what you took earlier went to waste—when it didn’t happen. If it has happened, the matter is finished. The reason you feel the need to take it again and again is that the medicine hasn’t worked; the illness stands where it was. Naturally, then you change doctors. But the one who is cured doesn’t ask whether to change doctors or not; the one who isn’t cured says, “Should I go to another doctor? What should I do?” He changes ten, twenty doctors.

So, first: if even a single ray of shaktipat has become available, there is no need to change. That question simply doesn’t arise. If it has not become available, then you do have to change—and people keep changing. And if it has ever become available from one, then it will keep becoming available from anyone; it makes no difference. They are all different mediums coming from the same source—so there is no difference. Whether light comes from the sun, from an oil lamp, or from an electric bulb, it doesn’t matter; the light is one. If the event has happened, then there is no difference and no harm.

But don’t go about searching for this—this is what I am saying: don’t go chasing it. If it comes to you while you are walking on the path, offer thanks and move on. Don’t seek it. If you seek, there is danger—because then it is the claimants you will encounter! You won’t meet the one who could have given; you will meet the one who says, “We give.” The one who can give will meet you the very day you are not searching but have become ready. He will meet you that very day.

So seeking is wrong; demanding is wrong. Let the happening happen—let it go on happening. And if light comes from a thousand directions, there is no harm. From every side it will confirm the same original source.

The original source is the Divine
Yesterday someone told me: he had gone to a sadhu and said, “Knowledge should be one’s own.” The sadhu replied, “How can that be? Knowledge is always someone else’s—such-and-such muni gave it to such-and-such muni, and he gave it to another.” Even Krishna in the Gita says: it came from him to him, from him to him. So Krishna too does not have his own.

I said to him: Krishna does have his own. But when he says “from him it came to him,” he is saying: this knowledge that is mine, that has happened to me, did not happen only to me—it had happened earlier to a certain person as well; and the proof is that it happened to him and he told another; and it happened to that other, and he told yet another. But telling did not make it happen; the happening enabled the telling. So it has happened to me, and now I am telling you—Krishna is saying this to Arjuna. But it is not that my telling will make it happen to you; rather, when it happens to you, you too will be able to tell someone.

Don’t go around asking for it from another; it is not something that comes from someone else. Prepare yourself for it. Then it will be found in many places—everywhere. And one day, when the event happens, you will feel: “How blind I was! That which was coming from all sides—why could I not see it?”

A blind man passes by a lamp, he passes by the sun, he passes by electricity, yet he does not receive light. And one day, when his eyes open, he says: “How blind I was! How many places I passed through—everywhere there was light—and I did not see! And now I see it everywhere.”

So the day the event happens, you will see the same everywhere. And until it has not happened, wherever you see it, bow to it; wherever you see it, drink it in. But don’t go asking like a beggar; truth cannot be given to a beggar. Don’t demand it. Otherwise some shopkeeper will show up in between, saying, “We provide,” and then a spiritual exploitation will begin. Walk your own path—keep preparing yourself, keep preparing yourself—wherever it is found, take it; offer thanks and move on.

Then the day it becomes fully available to you, you won’t be able to say, “I received it from so-and-so.” That day you will say, “How astonishing! I received it from everyone; whomever I came close to, I received from all!” And then the final gratitude is toward the Whole; it no longer remains toward any one person.

The limits of influence received from another

Yes, yes—it will indeed lessen. In fact, anything you receive from another will keep diminishing; it is only a glimpse. You are not to depend on it. One day you have to awaken it within yourself; only then will it not fade. Truly, all influences will grow faint, because influences are foreign, alien, external.

I threw a stone. The stone has no power of its own. I threw it; the force was in my hand. To the extent my hand exerted force, the stone will travel and then fall. But while the stone is slicing through the air, the stone may think, “Now I’m cutting the air; nothing can bring me down.” It doesn’t know it has gone under an influence, from someone’s shove, another’s hand behind it. It will fall fifty feet away—fall it will! Any influence that comes from another will always have a limit. It will fall.

The only advantage of an influence coming from another is this: in that faint glimmer you may discover your own original source—then it is right. I strike a match; there is light. But how long will my match burn? You can do two things now. You can stand here in the dark and depend on my match—“we will live by this light now.” Not even a moment will pass; the match will go out, and then pitch darkness again. That’s one possibility. Or: I strike a match, there is a little light in the dense darkness, you instantly see the door and run out. You did not remain dependent on my match; you went out. Whether my match burns or goes out no longer concerns you; you have reached where the sun is. Only there can something be steady.

So all such happenings have only one use: understand and do something within yourself; do not stop for them. If you keep waiting, the match will be struck and extinguished again and again. Slowly a conditioning will set in. Then you will become dependent on this very match. You will wait in the dark—“when will it be lit?” And when it lights you will wait—“now it’s about to go out, about to go out; now it’s gone, now it’s gone; now it will be dark again.” Just this cycle will be created. No—when the match is lit, do not stop at the match; it has been lit so that you can see the path and run—get out, as far beyond the darkness as you can.

Having glimpsed, walk your own path

From another we can take only this much benefit. But we cannot take a permanent benefit from another. Yet this is no small benefit—it is a great benefit; even that much coming from another is itself a wonder. Therefore, if the other is wise, he will not tell you to stay. He will tell you: the match is lit—now run! Do not linger here now, otherwise the match will go out any moment.

But if the other tells you, “Now stay. Look, I lit a match in the dark! No one else lit it—I did! Now take initiation from me; now stay here, don’t leave—swear an oath! Now this relationship will remain; it cannot be broken. I alone lit the match! I alone showed you in the dark! Now you won’t go to someone else’s match, will you? You won’t look for any other light? Do not stop by any other guru, do not even listen—now you are mine!”—then danger has arrived.

So‑called gurus who show a glimpse and then bind

Better it would have been if this man had not lit the match. He has done great harm. In the dark you might have searched; by bumping and stumbling somehow, some day you would have reached the light. Now, because you have clutched at this match, great difficulty has arisen—where will you go?

And it is just as certain that this match is not his own; he has stolen it from somewhere. It is a stolen match. Otherwise by now he would have known it is meant to send one outward, not to stop someone, not to keep him sitting here. It is a stolen match. That is why he is now running a match-shop; now he says, “Whomever we show a glimpse to will have to remain here; now they cannot go anywhere.”

Then it’s the limit! Darkness used to hold you back; now this guru begins to hold you back. Darkness, at least, could not stretch out its hands to stop you. The restraint of darkness was entirely passive. But this guru will actively stop you; he will grab your hand, plant his chest in your way, and say, “You are deceiving us! You are betraying us!”

Just now a girl came and told me that her guru said to her, “Why did you go to him? It is just like a wife leaving her husband!” The guru tells her that just as wifely or marital fidelity is to one, in the same way, to leave one’s guru and go to another is a great sin!

This fellow with the stolen matches will now make do with matches. And matches can be stolen; there is no difficulty in that. In the scriptures many matches are available; someone can steal them.

What does “able to burn” even mean? In fact, the delight of darkness is such. The delight of darkness is such that one who has never seen light cannot even decide what it is that is being called “burning.” You understand? One who has never seen light—it is very hard for him to be sure what exactly you are saying is burning. Only after light will he know what you were lighting and what you were not lighting—whether it was burning at all, or whether, with eyes closed, you were convincing him, “It’s lit.” All that will be known when light is seen; only then will you know. The day light is seen, that day ninety-nine out of a hundred gurus turn out to be companions of darkness and enemies of light. It becomes clear they were great enemies; they were all agents of the devil.