[Note: This is a translation from the Hindi Neo-Yoga Sutras, which is in the process of being edited. It is for research only.]My Beloved Ones,
Yesterday, I talked of four sutras of Yoga. Today, I would like to talk to you on the fifth sutra. The fifth sutra of Yoga is: What is in the atom, is in the whole; what is in the micro, is in the macro; what is in the smallest, is in the biggest; what is in the drop, is in the ocean. Yoga has always declared this sutra, but science has only recently supported it. Nobody had even thought that an atom may be containing so much energy in it; that so much may be hidden in the smallest part, in the almost nothing, that everything could be blasted away.
The splitting of the atom has proved this insight of Yoga to be scientific. The atom is not even visible to the eyes but in the invisible atom is contained such a vast energy.
This explosion is possible. In man, the atom of the soul is not visible but enormous energy is hidden in it and an explosion of God is possible. This is the meaning of Yoga's declaration that in the micro is present the macro, that in every particle is present God. Why might Yoga have emphasized this sutra?
Firstly, because this is the truth. And secondly because if once it is remembered that in the micro is hiding the macro, the way is paved for man to remember his own self potential. There is no reason for man to feel that he is small. There is no reason for even the smallest to feel small.
It is necessary at this point to keep in mind the opposite side also that even the vastest, the biggest does not need to be filled with ego because even the smallest possesses the same. If an ocean becomes full of ego, it is madness because what it has is also possessed by a small drop. There is no reason for even the tiniest to feel inferior and there is no reason for even the biggest to be full of ego. Neither inferiority has any meaning nor superiority has any meaning. They both are meaningless. This is the conclusion of this sutra.
Man wastes his life in the trap of only two things. Either he suffers from an inferiority complex or he suffers from a superiority complex.
Now Adler has made the word "inferiority complex" so popular. So, either man suffers from an inferiority complex and constantly feels that he is nothing.... You may have heard the famous phrase of Omar Khayyam: "Dust unto dust"; that dust returns into dust and there is nothing else to it.
If inferiority complex gets hold of a man, he becomes sick in his very depths. If someone starts living as if he is nothing, his very survival becomes difficult. He is dead even while living. There are very few people who keep alive till their death; most people die earlier than their deaths. Generally it is that they are buried at the age of seventy, the dying has already happened much earlier. There are gaps of thirty years, forty years or even fifty years between the dying and the burying.
The day one finds he is feeling inferiority... and if you look at the immensity spread all around you, you are bound to feel inferiority. What is the status of a man? Nothing. He appears like a straw on the waves of the ocean. Neither he has any power nor any direction. So, if such an inferiority grips the mind, one's life becomes sad and dead even while living; it becomes ashes. Fire becomes dull. And if your own life is dull and extinguished inside, the flame of your own lamp is extinguished, what will you do even with the light of the sun? Sun carries no significance for you.
It is necessary to remember that the whole immensity exists within man; it is necessary to remember that the Divine exists within man, so that he does not become inferior. And the interesting thing is that in order to destroy his inferiority complex, man falls into the fantasies of a superiority complex. He starts finding ways to suppress the inferiority complex. When he feels inferior inside, he starts making wealth so that having amassed the wealth he may show the world and may feel himself too that not only am I not nothing, I am quite something. The inferiority complex rushes and man starts climbing thrones so that standing on the throne he may declare, "Who says I am nothing? I am something." Inferiority itself becomes the race for superiority. So, all the people who go in the mad race of becoming superior are necessarily suffering from an inferiority complex inside.
Adler has said many amazing things. His statements are significant. He has said that often those who come first in running races, are the people who limped in their childhood. And those who become very skillful in music are those who were a little hard of hearing in their childhood. And those who become presidents, prime ministers, are often those who sat on the back benches in school. Because of that hurt of inferiority they set out to prove to the world that they are something; they want to show that they are something. Hence, if a politician suffers from inferiority, there is nothing strange in it. A worm goes on eating him up inside that he is nothing. And it hurts the mind, it puts one in difficulty, causes him to run.
When Lenin sat on a chair, his legs did not reach the ground. The upper part of his body was long and his legs were short. When he sat on a chair, his legs could not normally touch the ground. Hitler was a man of very ordinary intelligence, an ordinary soldier in the army. And he was turned out from there also as unfit. Stalin was the son of a shoemaker, and Lincoln was also the son of a shoemaker.
If we take a look at the past of the politicians of the world, we will be simply surprised. The hurt of inferiority felt somewhere in their childhood has become their race. They started running madly. And as long as they did not climb some peak, they did not feel contented. By climbing the peak they showed to the world that they were something, but certainly in themselves they were nothing. Hence all positions, all riches, all fame, become meaningless to the one who aquires them. When he stands up on the throne, he finds that he is the same -- he has achieved the throne alright, but he has remained the same. And the worm of inferiority goes on eating him up. Hence even the biggest of positions do not bring any contentment. The race still remains there to go further ahead.
And when someone asked Alexander: "I have heard you want to conquer the whole world. But have you ever thought what you would do after conquering the world? Because there is only one world." Then, I have heard, Alexander became very sad and he said, "I haven't thought of that. You are right, if I conquer the whole world, what would I do next? Where is there another world?" Because even after conquering the whole world, there is no escape from the inferiority which must have gripped Alexander's mind. There is no escape even if there was another world and he conquered that too. It is the inverted inferiority complex which becomes a superiority complex.
So, a man who displays arrogance deserves pity because he suffers from inferiority. Just an accidental push from someone and he says: "Don't you know who I am?" The poor man is suffering from inferiority. One who gets angry for trivial matters, one whose ego gets hurt for every little thing -- someone is laughing on the way and he presumes that people are laughing at him -- know that he is suffering from an inferiority complex. This anguish throws him in the mad race of becoming superior.
Inferiority is a disease. Superiority which comes to suppress the inferiority is a greater disease. Many times, the medicine proves to be more dangerous than the disease itself. So, Yoga wants to remind us of the other side also. It actually says that if there is any God, he too need not be filled with an ego that he is something, because that which he has, the smallest particle of dust has also. Hence, on one side, even small particles of dust need not feel inferior and on the other side, even God need not be caught up by superiority. And only when one is free of inferiority and superiority both does he gain balance. This declaration of Yoga is an effort to free man of his deep psychological disease. But it is not only an effort to cure the psychological disease, it is the truth also. Neither the small has any reason to weep nor the absolute has any reason to become egoist. Here, one who appears to be very big and one who appears to be very small, they all have similar treasure.
Jesus has told a small anecdote. One day a very rich man engaged some laborers in his garden. Then at noon time, some more laborers approached the rich man and they said they wanted work. The rich man engaged them also to work in the garden. When the sun was going down some more laborers came to the rich man and asked for work. The rich man engaged them also to work. Then just as the sun was about to set some other laborers came and the rich man engaged them too to work. Then the day was over and the wages were given to all the laborers for that day. The rich man gave equal wages to all of them. Those who had come in the morning, they stood up in anger. They said, "It is unjust. We have been working since morning. Some people came in the afternoon and a few came just when we were about to finish the work, and equal wages to all -- it is unjust!" The rich man asked, "What you have received, is that too little for your work?" They said, "No, that's more than enough for our work. But what about those who came so late ?" The rich man said, "In the kingdom of God, neither is anybody early nor anybody late, all are equal."
Yoga is saying the same thing. What it is saying is that even a particle of dust has no reason to grieve, and God himself has no reason to be filled with ego. In the play of this life, neither is anybody ahead nor anybody behind; neither is anybody big nor anybody small. Yoga shows the supreme in the trivial and the trivial in the supreme, shows the ocean in the drop and the drop in the ocean. This is the truth also, as I said. And now science too is saying very strange things.
When Rutherford first split the atom, a very strange experience came to light, which was that even the atom of least mass is similar to the solar world of the great suns. In the smallest atom there is a center and there are electrons that go on spinning around the center. The speed of this spinning is similar to the high speeds of the planets Earth and Mars and Jupiter going around the sun. And the energy hidden at the center of the atom is similar to that of the energy of the sun. It is as if a miniature solar family resides in the atom. The difference is of the quantity only, there is no difference in quality.
So, science has started saying what the oldest sutra of yoga says. Perhaps you remember it: "The macrocosm is in the microcosm." This is what the scientist Rutherford and his colleagues say. The whole cosmos is present in a tiny microcosm. That cosmos is in such a small form in the microcosm that even seeing it is not possible. It is only inferred that it is. It is only through inference that we know that it spins.
The difference is quantitative. It is like saying, the difference between two and four is the same as the difference between twenty and forty. The same is the difference between two hundred and four hundred. The same is the difference between twenty million and forty million. The proportion is the same between all the figures. Only the figures have expanded, the proportion remains the same. Exactly in the same manner, the difference between the macro and micro is that of proportion.
Understanding is truth one should keep in mind two things: an inferiority complex is madness, a superiority complex is greater madness. One should understand it well. It is madness to think of oneself as nothing, it is also madness to think of oneself as something.
Yoga says: Inferiority or superiority have no access to that which you are. You should know only this much -- that you are. This much is enough. Its other meaning is: do not compare yourself. There is no sense in it. Do not compare at all. There is no point in comparing. If you compare two and four to twenty and forty or twenty million and forty million, it makes no difference, they are equal; their proportion is equal. Hence, comparison is meaningless.
Hence yoga says: Do not compare a drop and the ocean because a drop is nothing but a small ocean. Also do not give any chance to the ocean to be full of ego because ocean is nothing but an expanded drop. The difference is only in their expanse.
Now scientists think that soon, perhaps by the end of this century, we will be able to reduce or increase the expanse of things.
I have heard a story of the twenty-first century that one man alights at a railway station. There appears to be no luggage with him, only something of the size of a matchbox was there near the berth where he had been sitting. After getting down from the train, he started shouting for some twenty porters to come. A co-passenger said, "There seems to be no luggage with you. What would you do with twenty porters?" The man said, "All my luggage is in that matchbox." The co-passenger asked: "You need twenty porters for that? Can't you lift it?" The man opened the matchbox size thing and showed that there was a car kept inside it. All the others said, "This is a toy car for children to play with -- you can carry it." The man told them that it was not a toy car for children to play with, that it was a real car, just condensed so that it can be transported in a small space. "Once I reach home, it will be re-expanded."
Now scientists say that iron can be contracted more. As we contract the balloon, similarly iron can also be contracted and expanded because everything is a unity of atoms and there is enough space between the atoms; that space can be made smaller or larger. So it can happen that a complete railway train can be put into a small matchbox and then expanded again. The day this starts happening -- it has already been experimented on, and it will be in use on a larger scale in due course of time -- the day it starts happening, will there be any sense in comparing a drop with the ocean? The ocean can be condensed into a drop and a drop can be expanded to be an ocean. Man can be expanded to be God and God can be shrunk to be man. It has almost happened. Yoga has been saying for a long time that the difference between things is only of expanse, there is no other difference. Big and small are nothing but different expanses.
This is the fifth sutra and a very significant one, because once this is understood, where will your inferiority go? Where will your superiority go? Where will you keep it? Why would you carry the burden? You will simply throw it in one motion and go ahead on your path. And after that day if someone shows conceit, you will laugh and if someone pretends inferiority and wags his tail in front of you, then also you will laugh. You will say to the man wagging his tail not to labor unnecessarily. You will say to the arrogant, "Why are you giving trouble to your body? There is no need."
All things are in their place. All things have their own nature. And all nature is incomparable; there is no meaning in comparison at all. There is no purpose in it.
The sixth sutra of yoga: It is not that all that appears tiny is only a receiver, a beggar, and all that appears immensely vast is only a giver. It is not so. Giving and receiving, the beggar and the emperor are simultaneously there in all.
Recently, a French scientist Astron has developed a small instrument which is going to prove very revolutionary in the field of yoga. This instrument of Astron measures the amount of energy that is entering man each moment from the cosmos.
It is very interesting that when you are happy, this energy enters into you more and when you are sad, it enters less. This instrument of Astron is very precious. If you are sad, all your doors and windows are closed and shrunken -- less energy penetrates you. You also may have experienced that sadness causes shrinking. This is why a sad man says, "Do not talk to me, don't provoke me, let me sit in a corner, let me sleep in a corner, let me die." He closes the door, darkens the room. A Sad man shrinks. A Blissful man likes to share. A happy man becomes restless if he is alone; he runs away to someone to share his happiness.
We all know that when Buddha was unhappy, he went to the forest and when he became blissful, he returned to the town. When Mahavira was unhappy he went to the forest and when he became blissful, he returned to the town. Have you asked why a sad man goes to the forest? He shrinks, he is afraid of even meeting someone. A happy man flows like the current of a river, longs to share with all. Happiness would like to be shared, happiness is a sharing. Without sharing, happiness becomes heavy. Sadness wants to shrink -- hence a sad man remains alone. A happy man finds so many friends; a sad man becomes an island -- nobody likes even to stand near him. He also does not want anybody to stand near him. A happy man becomes a continent; a sad man becomes a small island, closed in himself, alone in himself, isolated.
The instrument of Astron shows that when a sad man stands in front of it, very little energy from the cosmos showers on him, but when a happy man comes, the energy from the cosmos is entering into him from all sides -- as if all the dams have broken and energy is overflowing into him from all sides. Yoga has been saying this for a long time. Yoga has been saying that the doors and the windows of man are in his own hands, for him to keep open for God or to keep closed.
Leibniz was a great mathematician. He used to say that man is a "monad". Monad is his word and it means windowless. Man is such a house which has no doors and no windows -- he is a closed house. And Leibniz used to say that even if you extend your hands in this closed house, they do not reach out, they reach only the walls of your own house. You simply do not reach out to the other. All men are closed in themselves. Normally a sad man is a "monad.". And it seems that Leibniz must have been a sad man or the people he knew and considered must have been sad people. Perhaps he never came across a yogi, a meditator, because a yogi is entirely an opposite kind of man. If we coin any word as antonym to monad, it is the word 'opening'. Monad means windowless, doorless. If we coin some word for a yogi, we will have to say "wall-less". There arises no question of windows and doors, a yogi turns the whole house into a door. Hence he removes all the walls and comes under the open sky, so that the whole may shower directly upon him. Not just shower, it becomes one with him. Hence yoga's emphasis on peace, on bliss, on silence, on selfishness.
Now the instrument of Astron shows that when a man stands in silence, the quantity of showering energy increases and when he speaks, talks, thinks, then the quantity of energy decreases. When he stands peacefully the energy starts showering in plenty; when he stands restless and is tense, worried, then energy starts coming in less quantity. That is why yoga thought of silence or peace or bliss as paths to realize God because through them you become more open: all windows and doors become open. Gradually they fall off. Then walls too fall off. Then you have come under the open sky.
Astron's instrument not only records that energy is coming from without, it also records that each moment the energy is being responded to by the man; man too is releasing waves of energy each moment. We are not only receiving from God, we are giving also. And do not think only that if God does not exist, you cannot be there. The contrary is also true, if you are not there, God also cannot be there. Do not think that only the ocean gives water to the clouds, keep it in mind that clouds return the water to the ocean through rivers. The ocean not only gives, it takes also. The ocean not only takes, it gives also. And rivers not only receive, they give also. Wherever there is taking, there is giving also. And it is balanced, taking and giving is equal. If this balance is disturbed it is a mistake and life becomes complicated. Hence it is very necessary to understand this sixth sutra of yoga rightly.
I call that man a Yogi who returns as much as he takes and the account is always clear. When Kabir says at the time of his death, "I leave behind my cloak intact," it has some meaning in it. Its meaning is that taking and giving are all balanced and clear. There is neither any debit nor any credit in the account, everything is cleared, and thus I leave. There is no debt left. It is not that I have only taken and not given anything.
We all do take but are not able to give, are not able to share. If we are miserly even in taking, then in giving we are bound to be miserly. We do not even take with open mind, there also we keep the doors closed. Certainly there is great difficulty in giving.
As I said that more is received in happiness, similarly in happiness more is given also. In silence, more is received, in silence more is given too.
In fact, when someone becomes absolutely peaceful and silent, he becomes like echo-points you may have seen on mountains. You call out and the mountain immediately returns it. You speak in an empty temple, the sound reverberates, returns and showers back on you. Whatsoever comes to a man who has attained to emptiness, silence and meditation, is immediately echoed back. He is taking and giving each moment. There is no gap between his taking and giving. It is like the waves touching the shore and being returned at once while the ocean stands debt free each moment. As much as it takes, it gives back; whatever it takes, it gives back.
What I said is that Astron's instrument also shows how much energy is flowing out of you, how much energy-waves are going out of you. From a sad man, minimum energy waves go out. A sad man stands holding himself back. From a worried man, much less energy waves go out. A worried man's energy starts circling and buzzing within himself, like whirlpools in the water. He starts thinking the very same things again and again that he has thought thousands of times. He starts ruminating; he starts chewing the cud like a buffalo. She has eaten the food, then bringing it back she starts chewing, again she starts chewing, again and again and.... The chewing the cud of a buffalo has its use also because a buffalo eats much at once, then spends time chewing. But the chewing that a worried man does is entirely meaningless -- it has no meaning at all. He starts thinking the same thing millions of times. What does it mean? It means a sick whirlpool has formed within him. Now it is all beyond his control, now he has become obsessed. Now he is thinking the same thing a thousand times -- he also thinks that he is thinking unnecessarily, but he goes on thinking all the same. Energy has stopped flowing out, it has started spinning within him. Such a man will become sick, he will become sick in the spiritual sense.
Energy should come in and also go out. And it should have always the inner balance; taking in and giving out should be equal. Then the relationship which forms between man and God is beyond description. Then the relationship is straight, and then it is not that man is at the feet and God at the head. Then man becomes God and God becomes man. Then God becomes the devotee and the devotee becomes God. Then all differences and gaps disappear because no taking and giving transactions remain unfinished. Even God cannot say anything forcefully, because whatever was taken, has been given back. There is nothing unfinished.
In unhappiness, in restlessness, in anxiety, we neither give nor do we take, we simply shrink and get closed and life-sources become dry. It is the same as a well which may say, "Now I will not take water from the ocean. Now I close all my streams that feed water to me. Also nobody needs to lower his bucket in me because now I will not give also." Naturally, one who stops taking will stop giving also, otherwise it will go on drying up. And one who stops giving will stop taking also, otherwise he will burst, he will not survive. Both the things will have to be done simultaneously. But remember, a well which will say to the ocean that now I do not take from you , and will say to the village-people that now I do not give to you, will only rot and stink and become dirty. Its freshness will be destroyed, its life will be lost.
We all have become such wells. In the eyes of Yoga, we are rotting wells, not the alive wells that take from the ocean and give it back to the ocean. Those who come to the well for water in their small pots are nothing but mediums for the ocean. They will send it back up to the ocean and the well will become fresher and fresher. Yoga's saying is amazing, that if one gives as much as he takes, then he is that much alive. The more one takes and the more one returns, in the same proportion one becomes the center of more life-energy, the more thrill, the more dance, the more intensity of life manifests in him. Consider Krishna or Buddha, Mahavira or Christ -- what is the reason that they seem to be full of such enormous life-energy? There is only one reason -- that they have no miserliness in taking, they have no miserliness in giving. They take also on a big scale, they give also on a big scale.
I would like to mention to you a phrase of Jesus... and Jesus is one of those few great Yogis on the earth who have left behind some precious sutras. Jesus' saying is: "It will be taken away from the one who protects. It will be taken away from the one who has little and more will be given to the one who has much."
He is saying a very contradictory thing. We would say what an injustice! Give to the one who has nothing. Why give to the one who already has enough? If we do not give to the one who has much, it is all right. But Jesus is talking about something of deeper significance. He is saying that the more energy one has the more he will be given; the less energy one has the less he will be given. The reason for not being given is that the person who has less is sitting with his doors and windows closed -- that's why he has less. He has been miserly in giving, that's why he has lost in taking also, he is worn out and he cannot take.
I have heard a story that a man in a village read in some book that money attracts money. He was a poor man, he had one rupee. He thought that if money attracts money I must go to some place where there is a lot of money so that I may keep my rupee near it and my rupee may pull to itself lots of rupees. He went to the city and reached the shop of a rich merchant. It was evening time and all the rupees from the sales were being counted. Sitting on the step of the shop the man started tinkling his rupee. He tinkled the rupee for quite a long time but no other rupee was drawn to it. Then he thought perhaps the distance was too much. So, he threw his rupee on the pile of the rich merchant's rupees. He waited for some time to see his rupee come back with other rupees. But it did not happen. Then he said to the merchant, "The book is incorrect -- please return my rupee." The merchant asked, "Which book?" He said, "I read in a book that money attracts money." The merchant said, "The book was right, the rupees have pulled the rupee, you go to your home. Mad man, can one rupee pull so many rupees! That book was right, money has pulled money. You go to your home now and never even by mistake say that the book was wrong." And that poor man never said again to anyone that the book was wrong because the book was proved to be right.
The miraculous principle of which Jesus is talking -- is that if you want to be full of the divine then be a giver of the divine; share and get, preserve and lose. If you save, you will lose. If you lose, you will get. The sutras seem to be contradictory but Yoga knows the reason for these sutras. The reason is, the more we empty ourselves, the more space we create for the divine. The more the divine descends in us, the more we are full of bliss caused by sharing it, emptying it, and we give in abundance.
Thus this sixth sutra says that here, one is neither solely a giver nor solely a receiver. Here, one is neither solely a beggar nor solely a king. And if one wants to be solely a king, he will be in difficulty. And if one wants to be solely a beggar, he will also be in difficulty. Here, beggar and king are within the same man. One hand gives and the other hand receives. And a hand will be able to receive only as much as the other hand has given, and the other hand will be able to give only as much as has been taken by the one hand.
Ah! Could we understand this, the whole structure of our lives would change. Then, we will not prove to be possessors of things, because one who holds onto things remains poor. The more strongly one holds, the more poor one remains. One should know the art of renouncing. One should know the art of giving, because the art of giving is the only way of getting. The more empty we are, the more capable and worthy of receiving we become. Those who are empty, they will become full. Those who are already full of possessiveness, holding themselves, will remain empty. Lakes get filled, the mountains remain empty. It rains on the mountains too but the water does not stay on them, they are already full. The lakes are empty, so even if it does not rain on them, then too there is nothing to worry about, the water from the mountains comes to the lakes running and fills them. Lakes are empty, it is their secret.
If one goes on becoming empty, in every respect, one will go on becoming full. And if one goes on becoming full, in every respect one will go on becoming empty. Both are two sides of the same coin. And if someone goes on begging from the divine, remember one thing, he will not be able to make any contact with the divine. We have no contact because temples are our prayer houses where we only beg. There we are beggars. Our prayers become false because our prayers are the prayers of beggars who go there only to beg.
Remember, when we go to beg, we are not giving any value to the divine, we are giving value to the same things we want and ask for.
One man came to me and he said, "Previously I did not believe in God, but now I do." I asked him, "Have some of your demands been fulfilled?" He asked me how I knew. I told him, "Seeing your face it does not look as if you have traveled even a bit towards the divine. Certainly some demand has been fulfilled." He said, "Truly, my son could not get a job, so I prayed and gave an ultimatum to God that if my son does not get a job within one month, I will never believe in you. And my son got a job, so now I believe firmly."
Now for this man, his son's job is more valuable than God. If his son loses his job, God too will lose his place. He too will become useless. He too will have no meaning for this man. This man will go and kick him and ask him to leave the throne, enough is enough.
We go to God only with prayers to fulfill our demands. Remember, one who goes to God for giving, only his prayers carry meaning. One who goes to God for giving, only he connects. It is not that one who goes to give, does not get, he gets plenty. But it is the giver who gets. It is taken away from him who demands. This is why Jesus says, he who has less, it will be taken away from him. The moment one is ready to give, he becomes entitled to receive -- because for giving, the doors of the heart have to be opened. And it is through these doors that one gets. And one who is afraid of giving, has to keep the doors closed lest thieves may come, beggars may come, someone may beg at the doors. He has to keep all his windows and doors shut. His doors are closed and he demands from inside the house that give me this, give me that. Even if God comes to the door to give, the man does not open his door in the fear that who knows, some beggar may have come; someone may have come to beg.
I have heard that God jokes many times like this. He comes to someone's doors in the form of a beggar. Then recognition is complete that this man is not worthy of getting, because one who is not even capable of giving yet, cannot be worthy of receiving. Naturally, God cannot ask for wealth from you. Naturally, God cannot ask for a house from you, because the house is not yours. Tomorrow you will not be here and the house will be here. And the wealth is not yours, it is in your hands today; tomorrow it will be in somebody else's hands. God can ask for only one thing, and that is you -- only you are worth asking for. Hence Yoga says one who is ready to give oneself, becomes entitled to get all.
... Only if we can give ourselves, only if we can let go of ourselves, only if we can say: "Thy will be done, take me!"
There is a small memoir in the life of Vivekananda. When Vivekananda's father died, there was so much poverty in his home that often there was not enough food for both mother and son. So, Vivekananda would tell his mother, "Today I am invited to a friend's house, I will go there." In fact there was no invitation, no nothing, he would just roam around on the roads and later return home. Otherwise the food was so little that his mother would feed him and would remain hungry herself. So, he would return home with an empty stomach but happy and laughing saying loudly, "It was a wonderful meal! Such delicious food dishes were cooked!" He would enter the house talking of those food stuffs that were nowhere cooked for him, that he had not eaten anywhere.
When Ramakrishna came to know of this, he said, "How mad you are! Why don't you ask God and all will be taken care of." Vivekananda said that it will be too ordinary a thing to talk about eating and drinking with God. Still Ramakrishna asked him to ask at least once and see. He sent Vivekananda inside the temple. One hour passed, one and a half hours passed, Vivekananda came out from the temple and was very blissful and estatic. He came out dancing. Ramakrishna asked, "Did you get it? Did you ask for it?" Vivekananda said, "Get what?" Ramakrishna said, "I had told you to put forward your demand. What makes you return so blissful?" Vivekananda said, "I forgot that completely "
This happened several times. Ramakrishna would send him in and when Vivekananda came out of the temple, he would inquire about it. Then Vivekananda would remember what he had been sent in for. Ramakrishna said, "Are you mad or something? Because while going inside, you promised me that you will ask." Vivekananda would say, "When I go in, there remains not even a faint memory that I have to ask God for something. On the contrary, a feeling of giving arises in me, that I should give myself to Him. And when I give myself, there is such bliss, so much of it that there is neither hunger, nor thirst, nor the need to ask" Vivekananda could not ask. It was not possible for him.
Until now no truly religious person has asked for anything from God. And those who have asked, it ought to be understood well that they have nothing to do with religion. The religious man has only given.
Jesus was crucified. On the night before the crucifixion, his frends said to him in the garden, "Tell God; ask him what you want." Jesus remained laughing. Then the morning came when he was to be crucified and his friends were telling him again and again that he should ask his God not to let it happen. But Jesus only laughed. Then he was hanged on the cross. Nails were being hammered in his hands when a voice came from his mouth, he let go and let himself be hung on the cross. Then it was not a cross, it had become a symbol of God. Now he could give himself. He hung on the cross.
Hanging on the cross became a symbol. And it is an extraordinary symbol that those who want to go to the divine, they should have the courage to hang themselves, their 'I', on the cross.
But man is dishonest; there is no end to his dishonesty. Christian priests are roaming around the whole world hanging golden crosses on their necks! Ask them whether the neck is hung on the cross or the cross is hung on the neck? But man is deceptive. Jesus got hanged on the cross, his followers are wandering around hanging a tiny cross on their necks. Even a cross can be turned into an ornament -- man is so dishonest! He forgets the very idea of giving, he forgets the very idea of effacing himself, he keeps remembrance only of getting!
Yoga says, one receives in the same proportion as one has given; and one gets the same thing that has been given. If you give life, you will get life; if you give yourself, you will get the self in its totality; if you give the ego, you will get the soul, if you give this non-significant personality, you will get the ultimate individuality, if you give this mortal body, you will get the immortal body. Whatever is given, the same will be received. And what could we have worth giving? We have a mortal body, a false ego, an idea that I am something -- this is all we have, this we will give. By giving this, the authentic -- my real being comes in return; I get my real and immortal body.
Hence, keep Yoga's sixth sutra well in your attention: giving itself is receiving; to efface oneself is to be, because here even a drop gives to the ocean. But when some drop gives itself to the ocean, have you ever observed? When the drop gives itself to the ocean, it attains the ocean, immediately the drop becomes the ocean!
Kabir has said a very marvellous thing. He has said that seeking and searching, finally I disappeared; it so happened that the drop had fallen into the ocean, now how can it be found? But after sometime Kabir wrote another phrase and told his friends, "Forget the previous phrase as some mistake has happened there."Now I say a more real thing to you, that the ocean has fallen into the drop. Had the drop fallen into the ocean, perhaps something could have been done to find the drop again, but now the ocean has fallen into the drop, now there is no way to find the drop. Now how can it be taken out?
When a drop falls into the ocean, it appears to us from the drop's side that it is falling into the ocean, but when it has fallen, then the drop realizes that it is the ocean that has actually fallen into it. When a man effaces himself, he feels that he is effacing himself, but as he is effaced, he immediately realizes that a meeting with the divine has happened -- it is not that I lost something, I gained.
One of Buddha's young disciples got enlightened and Buddha told him, "Now you have attained, go and show the path, the door, through which you entered to the people. Go and tell people about that temple where limitless bliss is resounding." That disciple said, "I was waiting for your order. I will leave today. I will share what has been attained." Buddha asked, "Where will you go, in which direction?" The disciple, whose name was Poorna said, "There is a dry part of Bihar called Sookha, that is where I will go -- so far no one has taken your message there." Buddha said, "Do not go there. I will not advise you to go there because the people there are not good. In fact that is why so far no one has gone there." Poorna said, "What is the need for me to go to some place where people are good? Please only allow me to go to Sookha." Buddha said, "Let me ask you three questions, then you can go."
The first question I ask you is, "The people are wicked there, they are cruel, they are foolish. If they abuse you, what will happen to your mind?" Poorna said, "You know perfectly well what will happen to my mind. The same that would happen to your mind. My mind will say, "How good these people are that they only abuse, they do not beat me up. They could have beaten me up." Then Buddha said, "Poorna, know that they will also beat you. They are very bad people, they will beat you. When they beat you, then what will happen to your mind?" Poorna said, "The same that would happen to your mind. I will be thankful that existence is kind; these people are good that they do not kill me. They could have killed me." Buddha said, "Now let me ask the last question. If they do kill you, what will be your last thought while dying?" Poorna said, "You are asking in vain. You know very well that the same will happen to me as would happen to you in such a situation. While dying, I will go thanking them that these are good people, they releived me of this life in which some mistake was possible."
Buddha said, "You have become a religious man, you can go anywhere. Now the whole earth is paradise for you and all homes are temples and each eye is the eye of the divine. "Yoga lays the foundation for such a vision.
I will talk to you on more sutras tomorrow. Some questions have come, some more questions may come by tomorrow, then all questions can be answered together.
You listened to my talk with such love, I am grateful. Let me give you two pieces of information for the morning. Only those freinds should come in the morning who want to do the meditation; remember, only those who want to do the meditation. Do not come to watch. Nothing can be known by watching, only by doing can it be known. Also watching causes disturbance to the meditators. Those who come, should come after bathing, and silently they should come and take their seats here. Do not use words at all, so that the environment of the place can become helpful and conducive for going into meditation.
You listened to my talk with such love, I am grateful. I offer my salutations to the divine sitting within all of you, please accept my salutations.
Osho's Commentary
Yesterday, I talked of four sutras of Yoga. Today, I would like to talk to you on the fifth sutra. The fifth sutra of Yoga is: What is in the atom, is in the whole; what is in the micro, is in the macro; what is in the smallest, is in the biggest; what is in the drop, is in the ocean. Yoga has always declared this sutra, but science has only recently supported it. Nobody had even thought that an atom may be containing so much energy in it; that so much may be hidden in the smallest part, in the almost nothing, that everything could be blasted away.
The splitting of the atom has proved this insight of Yoga to be scientific. The atom is not even visible to the eyes but in the invisible atom is contained such a vast energy.
This explosion is possible. In man, the atom of the soul is not visible but enormous energy is hidden in it and an explosion of God is possible. This is the meaning of Yoga's declaration that in the micro is present the macro, that in every particle is present God.
Why might Yoga have emphasized this sutra?
Firstly, because this is the truth. And secondly because if once it is remembered that in the micro is hiding the macro, the way is paved for man to remember his own self potential. There is no reason for man to feel that he is small. There is no reason for even the smallest to feel small.
It is necessary at this point to keep in mind the opposite side also that even the vastest, the biggest does not need to be filled with ego because even the smallest possesses the same. If an ocean becomes full of ego, it is madness because what it has is also possessed by a small drop. There is no reason for even the tiniest to feel inferior and there is no reason for even the biggest to be full of ego. Neither inferiority has any meaning nor superiority has any meaning. They both are meaningless. This is the conclusion of this sutra.
Man wastes his life in the trap of only two things. Either he suffers from an inferiority complex or he suffers from a superiority complex.
Now Adler has made the word "inferiority complex" so popular. So, either man suffers from an inferiority complex and constantly feels that he is nothing.... You may have heard the famous phrase of Omar Khayyam: "Dust unto dust"; that dust returns into dust and there is nothing else to it.
If inferiority complex gets hold of a man, he becomes sick in his very depths. If someone starts living as if he is nothing, his very survival becomes difficult. He is dead even while living. There are very few people who keep alive till their death; most people die earlier than their deaths. Generally it is that they are buried at the age of seventy, the dying has already happened much earlier. There are gaps of thirty years, forty years or even fifty years between the dying and the burying.
The day one finds he is feeling inferiority... and if you look at the immensity spread all around you, you are bound to feel inferiority. What is the status of a man? Nothing. He appears like a straw on the waves of the ocean. Neither he has any power nor any direction. So, if such an inferiority grips the mind, one's life becomes sad and dead even while living; it becomes ashes. Fire becomes dull. And if your own life is dull and extinguished inside, the flame of your own lamp is extinguished, what will you do even with the light of the sun? Sun carries no significance for you.
It is necessary to remember that the whole immensity exists within man; it is necessary to remember that the Divine exists within man, so that he does not become inferior. And the interesting thing is that in order to destroy his inferiority complex, man falls into the fantasies of a superiority complex. He starts finding ways to suppress the inferiority complex. When he feels inferior inside, he starts making wealth so that having amassed the wealth he may show the world and may feel himself too that not only am I not nothing, I am quite something. The inferiority complex rushes and man starts climbing thrones so that standing on the throne he may declare, "Who says I am nothing? I am something." Inferiority itself becomes the race for superiority. So, all the people who go in the mad race of becoming superior are necessarily suffering from an inferiority complex inside.
Adler has said many amazing things. His statements are significant. He has said that often those who come first in running races, are the people who limped in their childhood. And those who become very skillful in music are those who were a little hard of hearing in their childhood. And those who become presidents, prime ministers, are often those who sat on the back benches in school. Because of that hurt of inferiority they set out to prove to the world that they are something; they want to show that they are something. Hence, if a politician suffers from inferiority, there is nothing strange in it. A worm goes on eating him up inside that he is nothing. And it hurts the mind, it puts one in difficulty, causes him to run.
When Lenin sat on a chair, his legs did not reach the ground. The upper part of his body was long and his legs were short. When he sat on a chair, his legs could not normally touch the ground. Hitler was a man of very ordinary intelligence, an ordinary soldier in the army. And he was turned out from there also as unfit. Stalin was the son of a shoemaker, and Lincoln was also the son of a shoemaker.
If we take a look at the past of the politicians of the world, we will be simply surprised. The hurt of inferiority felt somewhere in their childhood has become their race. They started running madly. And as long as they did not climb some peak, they did not feel contented. By climbing the peak they showed to the world that they were something, but certainly in themselves they were nothing. Hence all positions, all riches, all fame, become meaningless to the one who aquires them. When he stands up on the throne, he finds that he is the same -- he has achieved the throne alright, but he has remained the same. And the worm of inferiority goes on eating him up. Hence even the biggest of positions do not bring any contentment. The race still remains there to go further ahead.
And when someone asked Alexander: "I have heard you want to conquer the whole world. But have you ever thought what you would do after conquering the world? Because there is only one world." Then, I have heard, Alexander became very sad and he said, "I haven't thought of that. You are right, if I conquer the whole world, what would I do next? Where is there another world?" Because even after conquering the whole world, there is no escape from the inferiority which must have gripped Alexander's mind. There is no escape even if there was another world and he conquered that too. It is the inverted inferiority complex which becomes a superiority complex.
So, a man who displays arrogance deserves pity because he suffers from inferiority. Just an accidental push from someone and he says: "Don't you know who I am?" The poor man is suffering from inferiority. One who gets angry for trivial matters, one whose ego gets hurt for every little thing -- someone is laughing on the way and he presumes that people are laughing at him -- know that he is suffering from an inferiority complex. This anguish throws him in the mad race of becoming superior.
Inferiority is a disease. Superiority which comes to suppress the inferiority is a greater disease. Many times, the medicine proves to be more dangerous than the disease itself. So, Yoga wants to remind us of the other side also. It actually says that if there is any God, he too need not be filled with an ego that he is something, because that which he has, the smallest particle of dust has also. Hence, on one side, even small particles of dust need not feel inferior and on the other side, even God need not be caught up by superiority. And only when one is free of inferiority and superiority both does he gain balance. This declaration of Yoga is an effort to free man of his deep psychological disease. But it is not only an effort to cure the psychological disease, it is the truth also. Neither the small has any reason to weep nor the absolute has any reason to become egoist. Here, one who appears to be very big and one who appears to be very small, they all have similar treasure.
Jesus has told a small anecdote. One day a very rich man engaged some laborers in his garden. Then at noon time, some more laborers approached the rich man and they said they wanted work. The rich man engaged them also to work in the garden. When the sun was going down some more laborers came to the rich man and asked for work. The rich man engaged them also to work. Then just as the sun was about to set some other laborers came and the rich man engaged them too to work. Then the day was over and the wages were given to all the laborers for that day. The rich man gave equal wages to all of them. Those who had come in the morning, they stood up in anger. They said, "It is unjust. We have been working since morning. Some people came in the afternoon and a few came just when we were about to finish the work, and equal wages to all -- it is unjust!" The rich man asked, "What you have received, is that too little for your work?" They said, "No, that's more than enough for our work. But what about those who came so late ?" The rich man said, "In the kingdom of God, neither is anybody early nor anybody late, all are equal."
Yoga is saying the same thing. What it is saying is that even a particle of dust has no reason to grieve, and God himself has no reason to be filled with ego. In the play of this life, neither is anybody ahead nor anybody behind; neither is anybody big nor anybody small. Yoga shows the supreme in the trivial and the trivial in the supreme, shows the ocean in the drop and the drop in the ocean. This is the truth also, as I said. And now science too is saying very strange things.
When Rutherford first split the atom, a very strange experience came to light, which was that even the atom of least mass is similar to the solar world of the great suns. In the smallest atom there is a center and there are electrons that go on spinning around the center. The speed of this spinning is similar to the high speeds of the planets Earth and Mars and Jupiter going around the sun. And the energy hidden at the center of the atom is similar to that of the energy of the sun. It is as if a miniature solar family resides in the atom. The difference is of the quantity only, there is no difference in quality.
So, science has started saying what the oldest sutra of yoga says. Perhaps you remember it: "The macrocosm is in the microcosm." This is what the scientist Rutherford and his colleagues say. The whole cosmos is present in a tiny microcosm. That cosmos is in such a small form in the microcosm that even seeing it is not possible. It is only inferred that it is. It is only through inference that we know that it spins.
The difference is quantitative. It is like saying, the difference between two and four is the same as the difference between twenty and forty. The same is the difference between two hundred and four hundred. The same is the difference between twenty million and forty million. The proportion is the same between all the figures. Only the figures have expanded, the proportion remains the same. Exactly in the same manner, the difference between the macro and micro is that of proportion.
Understanding is truth one should keep in mind two things: an inferiority complex is madness, a superiority complex is greater madness. One should understand it well. It is madness to think of oneself as nothing, it is also madness to think of oneself as something.
Yoga says: Inferiority or superiority have no access to that which you are. You should know only this much -- that you are. This much is enough. Its other meaning is: do not compare yourself. There is no sense in it. Do not compare at all. There is no point in comparing. If you compare two and four to twenty and forty or twenty million and forty million, it makes no difference, they are equal; their proportion is equal. Hence, comparison is meaningless.
Hence yoga says: Do not compare a drop and the ocean because a drop is nothing but a small ocean. Also do not give any chance to the ocean to be full of ego because ocean is nothing but an expanded drop. The difference is only in their expanse.
Now scientists think that soon, perhaps by the end of this century, we will be able to reduce or increase the expanse of things.
I have heard a story of the twenty-first century that one man alights at a railway station. There appears to be no luggage with him, only something of the size of a matchbox was there near the berth where he had been sitting. After getting down from the train, he started shouting for some twenty porters to come. A co-passenger said, "There seems to be no luggage with you. What would you do with twenty porters?" The man said, "All my luggage is in that matchbox." The co-passenger asked: "You need twenty porters for that? Can't you lift it?" The man opened the matchbox size thing and showed that there was a car kept inside it. All the others said, "This is a toy car for children to play with -- you can carry it." The man told them that it was not a toy car for children to play with, that it was a real car, just condensed so that it can be transported in a small space. "Once I reach home, it will be re-expanded."
Now scientists say that iron can be contracted more. As we contract the balloon, similarly iron can also be contracted and expanded because everything is a unity of atoms and there is enough space between the atoms; that space can be made smaller or larger. So it can happen that a complete railway train can be put into a small matchbox and then expanded again. The day this starts happening -- it has already been experimented on, and it will be in use on a larger scale in due course of time -- the day it starts happening, will there be any sense in comparing a drop with the ocean? The ocean can be condensed into a drop and a drop can be expanded to be an ocean. Man can be expanded to be God and God can be shrunk to be man. It has almost happened. Yoga has been saying for a long time that the difference between things is only of expanse, there is no other difference. Big and small are nothing but different expanses.
This is the fifth sutra and a very significant one, because once this is understood, where will your inferiority go? Where will your superiority go? Where will you keep it? Why would you carry the burden? You will simply throw it in one motion and go ahead on your path. And after that day if someone shows conceit, you will laugh and if someone pretends inferiority and wags his tail in front of you, then also you will laugh. You will say to the man wagging his tail not to labor unnecessarily. You will say to the arrogant, "Why are you giving trouble to your body? There is no need."
All things are in their place. All things have their own nature. And all nature is incomparable; there is no meaning in comparison at all. There is no purpose in it.
The sixth sutra of yoga: It is not that all that appears tiny is only a receiver, a beggar, and all that appears immensely vast is only a giver. It is not so. Giving and receiving, the beggar and the emperor are simultaneously there in all.
Recently, a French scientist Astron has developed a small instrument which is going to prove very revolutionary in the field of yoga. This instrument of Astron measures the amount of energy that is entering man each moment from the cosmos.
It is very interesting that when you are happy, this energy enters into you more and when you are sad, it enters less. This instrument of Astron is very precious. If you are sad, all your doors and windows are closed and shrunken -- less energy penetrates you. You also may have experienced that sadness causes shrinking. This is why a sad man says, "Do not talk to me, don't provoke me, let me sit in a corner, let me sleep in a corner, let me die." He closes the door, darkens the room. A Sad man shrinks. A Blissful man likes to share. A happy man becomes restless if he is alone; he runs away to someone to share his happiness.
We all know that when Buddha was unhappy, he went to the forest and when he became blissful, he returned to the town. When Mahavira was unhappy he went to the forest and when he became blissful, he returned to the town. Have you asked why a sad man goes to the forest? He shrinks, he is afraid of even meeting someone. A happy man flows like the current of a river, longs to share with all. Happiness would like to be shared, happiness is a sharing. Without sharing, happiness becomes heavy. Sadness wants to shrink -- hence a sad man remains alone. A happy man finds so many friends; a sad man becomes an island -- nobody likes even to stand near him. He also does not want anybody to stand near him. A happy man becomes a continent; a sad man becomes a small island, closed in himself, alone in himself, isolated.
The instrument of Astron shows that when a sad man stands in front of it, very little energy from the cosmos showers on him, but when a happy man comes, the energy from the cosmos is entering into him from all sides -- as if all the dams have broken and energy is overflowing into him from all sides. Yoga has been saying this for a long time. Yoga has been saying that the doors and the windows of man are in his own hands, for him to keep open for God or to keep closed.
Leibniz was a great mathematician. He used to say that man is a "monad". Monad is his word and it means windowless. Man is such a house which has no doors and no windows -- he is a closed house. And Leibniz used to say that even if you extend your hands in this closed house, they do not reach out, they reach only the walls of your own house. You simply do not reach out to the other. All men are closed in themselves. Normally a sad man is a "monad.". And it seems that Leibniz must have been a sad man or the people he knew and considered must have been sad people. Perhaps he never came across a yogi, a meditator, because a yogi is entirely an opposite kind of man. If we coin any word as antonym to monad, it is the word 'opening'. Monad means windowless, doorless. If we coin some word for a yogi, we will have to say "wall-less". There arises no question of windows and doors, a yogi turns the whole house into a door. Hence he removes all the walls and comes under the open sky, so that the whole may shower directly upon him. Not just shower, it becomes one with him. Hence yoga's emphasis on peace, on bliss, on silence, on selfishness.
Now the instrument of Astron shows that when a man stands in silence, the quantity of showering energy increases and when he speaks, talks, thinks, then the quantity of energy decreases. When he stands peacefully the energy starts showering in plenty; when he stands restless and is tense, worried, then energy starts coming in less quantity. That is why yoga thought of silence or peace or bliss as paths to realize God because through them you become more open: all windows and doors become open. Gradually they fall off. Then walls too fall off. Then you have come under the open sky.
Astron's instrument not only records that energy is coming from without, it also records that each moment the energy is being responded to by the man; man too is releasing waves of energy each moment. We are not only receiving from God, we are giving also. And do not think only that if God does not exist, you cannot be there. The contrary is also true, if you are not there, God also cannot be there. Do not think that only the ocean gives water to the clouds, keep it in mind that clouds return the water to the ocean through rivers. The ocean not only gives, it takes also. The ocean not only takes, it gives also. And rivers not only receive, they give also. Wherever there is taking, there is giving also. And it is balanced, taking and giving is equal. If this balance is disturbed it is a mistake and life becomes complicated. Hence it is very necessary to understand this sixth sutra of yoga rightly.
I call that man a Yogi who returns as much as he takes and the account is always clear. When Kabir says at the time of his death, "I leave behind my cloak intact," it has some meaning in it. Its meaning is that taking and giving are all balanced and clear. There is neither any debit nor any credit in the account, everything is cleared, and thus I leave. There is no debt left. It is not that I have only taken and not given anything.
We all do take but are not able to give, are not able to share. If we are miserly even in taking, then in giving we are bound to be miserly. We do not even take with open mind, there also we keep the doors closed. Certainly there is great difficulty in giving.
As I said that more is received in happiness, similarly in happiness more is given also. In silence, more is received, in silence more is given too.
In fact, when someone becomes absolutely peaceful and silent, he becomes like echo-points you may have seen on mountains. You call out and the mountain immediately returns it. You speak in an empty temple, the sound reverberates, returns and showers back on you. Whatsoever comes to a man who has attained to emptiness, silence and meditation, is immediately echoed back. He is taking and giving each moment. There is no gap between his taking and giving. It is like the waves touching the shore and being returned at once while the ocean stands debt free each moment. As much as it takes, it gives back; whatever it takes, it gives back.
What I said is that Astron's instrument also shows how much energy is flowing out of you, how much energy-waves are going out of you. From a sad man, minimum energy waves go out. A sad man stands holding himself back. From a worried man, much less energy waves go out. A worried man's energy starts circling and buzzing within himself, like whirlpools in the water. He starts thinking the very same things again and again that he has thought thousands of times. He starts ruminating; he starts chewing the cud like a buffalo. She has eaten the food, then bringing it back she starts chewing, again she starts chewing, again and again and.... The chewing the cud of a buffalo has its use also because a buffalo eats much at once, then spends time chewing. But the chewing that a worried man does is entirely meaningless -- it has no meaning at all. He starts thinking the same thing millions of times. What does it mean? It means a sick whirlpool has formed within him. Now it is all beyond his control, now he has become obsessed. Now he is thinking the same thing a thousand times -- he also thinks that he is thinking unnecessarily, but he goes on thinking all the same. Energy has stopped flowing out, it has started spinning within him. Such a man will become sick, he will become sick in the spiritual sense.
Energy should come in and also go out. And it should have always the inner balance; taking in and giving out should be equal. Then the relationship which forms between man and God is beyond description. Then the relationship is straight, and then it is not that man is at the feet and God at the head. Then man becomes God and God becomes man. Then God becomes the devotee and the devotee becomes God. Then all differences and gaps disappear because no taking and giving transactions remain unfinished. Even God cannot say anything forcefully, because whatever was taken, has been given back. There is nothing unfinished.
In unhappiness, in restlessness, in anxiety, we neither give nor do we take, we simply shrink and get closed and life-sources become dry. It is the same as a well which may say, "Now I will not take water from the ocean. Now I close all my streams that feed water to me. Also nobody needs to lower his bucket in me because now I will not give also." Naturally, one who stops taking will stop giving also, otherwise it will go on drying up. And one who stops giving will stop taking also, otherwise he will burst, he will not survive. Both the things will have to be done simultaneously. But remember, a well which will say to the ocean that now I do not take from you , and will say to the village-people that now I do not give to you, will only rot and stink and become dirty. Its freshness will be destroyed, its life will be lost.
We all have become such wells. In the eyes of Yoga, we are rotting wells, not the alive wells that take from the ocean and give it back to the ocean. Those who come to the well for water in their small pots are nothing but mediums for the ocean. They will send it back up to the ocean and the well will become fresher and fresher. Yoga's saying is amazing, that if one gives as much as he takes, then he is that much alive. The more one takes and the more one returns, in the same proportion one becomes the center of more life-energy, the more thrill, the more dance, the more intensity of life manifests in him. Consider Krishna or Buddha, Mahavira or Christ -- what is the reason that they seem to be full of such enormous life-energy? There is only one reason -- that they have no miserliness in taking, they have no miserliness in giving. They take also on a big scale, they give also on a big scale.
I would like to mention to you a phrase of Jesus... and Jesus is one of those few great Yogis on the earth who have left behind some precious sutras. Jesus' saying is: "It will be taken away from the one who protects. It will be taken away from the one who has little and more will be given to the one who has much."
He is saying a very contradictory thing. We would say what an injustice! Give to the one who has nothing. Why give to the one who already has enough? If we do not give to the one who has much, it is all right. But Jesus is talking about something of deeper significance. He is saying that the more energy one has the more he will be given; the less energy one has the less he will be given. The reason for not being given is that the person who has less is sitting with his doors and windows closed -- that's why he has less. He has been miserly in giving, that's why he has lost in taking also, he is worn out and he cannot take.
I have heard a story that a man in a village read in some book that money attracts money. He was a poor man, he had one rupee. He thought that if money attracts money I must go to some place where there is a lot of money so that I may keep my rupee near it and my rupee may pull to itself lots of rupees. He went to the city and reached the shop of a rich merchant. It was evening time and all the rupees from the sales were being counted. Sitting on the step of the shop the man started tinkling his rupee. He tinkled the rupee for quite a long time but no other rupee was drawn to it. Then he thought perhaps the distance was too much. So, he threw his rupee on the pile of the rich merchant's rupees. He waited for some time to see his rupee come back with other rupees. But it did not happen. Then he said to the merchant, "The book is incorrect -- please return my rupee." The merchant asked, "Which book?" He said, "I read in a book that money attracts money." The merchant said, "The book was right, the rupees have pulled the rupee, you go to your home. Mad man, can one rupee pull so many rupees! That book was right, money has pulled money. You go to your home now and never even by mistake say that the book was wrong." And that poor man never said again to anyone that the book was wrong because the book was proved to be right.
The miraculous principle of which Jesus is talking -- is that if you want to be full of the divine then be a giver of the divine; share and get, preserve and lose. If you save, you will lose. If you lose, you will get. The sutras seem to be contradictory but Yoga knows the reason for these sutras. The reason is, the more we empty ourselves, the more space we create for the divine. The more the divine descends in us, the more we are full of bliss caused by sharing it, emptying it, and we give in abundance.
Thus this sixth sutra says that here, one is neither solely a giver nor solely a receiver. Here, one is neither solely a beggar nor solely a king. And if one wants to be solely a king, he will be in difficulty. And if one wants to be solely a beggar, he will also be in difficulty. Here, beggar and king are within the same man. One hand gives and the other hand receives. And a hand will be able to receive only as much as the other hand has given, and the other hand will be able to give only as much as has been taken by the one hand.
Ah! Could we understand this, the whole structure of our lives would change. Then, we will not prove to be possessors of things, because one who holds onto things remains poor. The more strongly one holds, the more poor one remains. One should know the art of renouncing. One should know the art of giving, because the art of giving is the only way of getting. The more empty we are, the more capable and worthy of receiving we become. Those who are empty, they will become full. Those who are already full of possessiveness, holding themselves, will remain empty. Lakes get filled, the mountains remain empty. It rains on the mountains too but the water does not stay on them, they are already full. The lakes are empty, so even if it does not rain on them, then too there is nothing to worry about, the water from the mountains comes to the lakes running and fills them. Lakes are empty, it is their secret.
If one goes on becoming empty, in every respect, one will go on becoming full. And if one goes on becoming full, in every respect one will go on becoming empty. Both are two sides of the same coin. And if someone goes on begging from the divine, remember one thing, he will not be able to make any contact with the divine. We have no contact because temples are our prayer houses where we only beg. There we are beggars. Our prayers become false because our prayers are the prayers of beggars who go there only to beg.
Remember, when we go to beg, we are not giving any value to the divine, we are giving value to the same things we want and ask for.
One man came to me and he said, "Previously I did not believe in God, but now I do." I asked him, "Have some of your demands been fulfilled?" He asked me how I knew. I told him, "Seeing your face it does not look as if you have traveled even a bit towards the divine. Certainly some demand has been fulfilled." He said, "Truly, my son could not get a job, so I prayed and gave an ultimatum to God that if my son does not get a job within one month, I will never believe in you. And my son got a job, so now I believe firmly."
Now for this man, his son's job is more valuable than God. If his son loses his job, God too will lose his place. He too will become useless. He too will have no meaning for this man. This man will go and kick him and ask him to leave the throne, enough is enough.
We go to God only with prayers to fulfill our demands. Remember, one who goes to God for giving, only his prayers carry meaning. One who goes to God for giving, only he connects. It is not that one who goes to give, does not get, he gets plenty. But it is the giver who gets. It is taken away from him who demands. This is why Jesus says, he who has less, it will be taken away from him. The moment one is ready to give, he becomes entitled to receive -- because for giving, the doors of the heart have to be opened. And it is through these doors that one gets. And one who is afraid of giving, has to keep the doors closed lest thieves may come, beggars may come, someone may beg at the doors. He has to keep all his windows and doors shut. His doors are closed and he demands from inside the house that give me this, give me that. Even if God comes to the door to give, the man does not open his door in the fear that who knows, some beggar may have come; someone may have come to beg.
I have heard that God jokes many times like this. He comes to someone's doors in the form of a beggar. Then recognition is complete that this man is not worthy of getting, because one who is not even capable of giving yet, cannot be worthy of receiving. Naturally, God cannot ask for wealth from you. Naturally, God cannot ask for a house from you, because the house is not yours. Tomorrow you will not be here and the house will be here. And the wealth is not yours, it is in your hands today; tomorrow it will be in somebody else's hands. God can ask for only one thing, and that is you -- only you are worth asking for. Hence Yoga says one who is ready to give oneself, becomes entitled to get all.
... Only if we can give ourselves, only if we can let go of ourselves, only if we can say: "Thy will be done, take me!"
There is a small memoir in the life of Vivekananda. When Vivekananda's father died, there was so much poverty in his home that often there was not enough food for both mother and son. So, Vivekananda would tell his mother, "Today I am invited to a friend's house, I will go there." In fact there was no invitation, no nothing, he would just roam around on the roads and later return home. Otherwise the food was so little that his mother would feed him and would remain hungry herself. So, he would return home with an empty stomach but happy and laughing saying loudly, "It was a wonderful meal! Such delicious food dishes were cooked!" He would enter the house talking of those food stuffs that were nowhere cooked for him, that he had not eaten anywhere.
When Ramakrishna came to know of this, he said, "How mad you are! Why don't you ask God and all will be taken care of." Vivekananda said that it will be too ordinary a thing to talk about eating and drinking with God. Still Ramakrishna asked him to ask at least once and see. He sent Vivekananda inside the temple. One hour passed, one and a half hours passed, Vivekananda came out from the temple and was very blissful and estatic. He came out dancing. Ramakrishna asked, "Did you get it? Did you ask for it?" Vivekananda said, "Get what?" Ramakrishna said, "I had told you to put forward your demand. What makes you return so blissful?" Vivekananda said, "I forgot that completely "
This happened several times. Ramakrishna would send him in and when Vivekananda came out of the temple, he would inquire about it. Then Vivekananda would remember what he had been sent in for. Ramakrishna said, "Are you mad or something? Because while going inside, you promised me that you will ask." Vivekananda would say, "When I go in, there remains not even a faint memory that I have to ask God for something. On the contrary, a feeling of giving arises in me, that I should give myself to Him. And when I give myself, there is such bliss, so much of it that there is neither hunger, nor thirst, nor the need to ask"
Vivekananda could not ask. It was not possible for him.
Until now no truly religious person has asked for anything from God. And those who have asked, it ought to be understood well that they have nothing to do with religion. The religious man has only given.
Jesus was crucified. On the night before the crucifixion, his frends said to him in the garden, "Tell God; ask him what you want." Jesus remained laughing. Then the morning came when he was to be crucified and his friends were telling him again and again that he should ask his God not to let it happen. But Jesus only laughed. Then he was hanged on the cross. Nails were being hammered in his hands when a voice came from his mouth, he let go and let himself be hung on the cross. Then it was not a cross, it had become a symbol of God. Now he could give himself. He hung on the cross.
Hanging on the cross became a symbol. And it is an extraordinary symbol that those who want to go to the divine, they should have the courage to hang themselves, their 'I', on the cross.
But man is dishonest; there is no end to his dishonesty. Christian priests are roaming around the whole world hanging golden crosses on their necks! Ask them whether the neck is hung on the cross or the cross is hung on the neck? But man is deceptive. Jesus got hanged on the cross, his followers are wandering around hanging a tiny cross on their necks. Even a cross can be turned into an ornament -- man is so dishonest! He forgets the very idea of giving, he forgets the very idea of effacing himself, he keeps remembrance only of getting!
Yoga says, one receives in the same proportion as one has given; and one gets the same thing that has been given. If you give life, you will get life; if you give yourself, you will get the self in its totality; if you give the ego, you will get the soul, if you give this non-significant personality, you will get the ultimate individuality, if you give this mortal body, you will get the immortal body. Whatever is given, the same will be received. And what could we have worth giving? We have a mortal body, a false ego, an idea that I am something -- this is all we have, this we will give. By giving this, the authentic -- my real being comes in return; I get my real and immortal body.
Hence, keep Yoga's sixth sutra well in your attention: giving itself is receiving; to efface oneself is to be, because here even a drop gives to the ocean. But when some drop gives itself to the ocean, have you ever observed? When the drop gives itself to the ocean, it attains the ocean, immediately the drop becomes the ocean!
Kabir has said a very marvellous thing. He has said that seeking and searching, finally I disappeared; it so happened that the drop had fallen into the ocean, now how can it be found? But after sometime Kabir wrote another phrase and told his friends, "Forget the previous phrase as some mistake has happened there."Now I say a more real thing to you, that the ocean has fallen into the drop. Had the drop fallen into the ocean, perhaps something could have been done to find the drop again, but now the ocean has fallen into the drop, now there is no way to find the drop. Now how can it be taken out?
When a drop falls into the ocean, it appears to us from the drop's side that it is falling into the ocean, but when it has fallen, then the drop realizes that it is the ocean that has actually fallen into it. When a man effaces himself, he feels that he is effacing himself, but as he is effaced, he immediately realizes that a meeting with the divine has happened -- it is not that I lost something, I gained.
One of Buddha's young disciples got enlightened and Buddha told him, "Now you have attained, go and show the path, the door, through which you entered to the people. Go and tell people about that temple where limitless bliss is resounding." That disciple said, "I was waiting for your order. I will leave today. I will share what has been attained." Buddha asked, "Where will you go, in which direction?" The disciple, whose name was Poorna said, "There is a dry part of Bihar called Sookha, that is where I will go -- so far no one has taken your message there." Buddha said, "Do not go there. I will not advise you to go there because the people there are not good. In fact that is why so far no one has gone there." Poorna said, "What is the need for me to go to some place where people are good? Please only allow me to go to Sookha." Buddha said, "Let me ask you three questions, then you can go."
The first question I ask you is, "The people are wicked there, they are cruel, they are foolish. If they abuse you, what will happen to your mind?" Poorna said, "You know perfectly well what will happen to my mind. The same that would happen to your mind. My mind will say, "How good these people are that they only abuse, they do not beat me up. They could have beaten me up." Then Buddha said, "Poorna, know that they will also beat you. They are very bad people, they will beat you. When they beat you, then what will happen to your mind?" Poorna said, "The same that would happen to your mind. I will be thankful that existence is kind; these people are good that they do not kill me. They could have killed me." Buddha said, "Now let me ask the last question. If they do kill you, what will be your last thought while dying?" Poorna said, "You are asking in vain. You know very well that the same will happen to me as would happen to you in such a situation. While dying, I will go thanking them that these are good people, they releived me of this life in which some mistake was possible."
Buddha said, "You have become a religious man, you can go anywhere. Now the whole earth is paradise for you and all homes are temples and each eye is the eye of the divine. "Yoga lays the foundation for such a vision.
I will talk to you on more sutras tomorrow. Some questions have come, some more questions may come by tomorrow, then all questions can be answered together.
You listened to my talk with such love, I am grateful. Let me give you two pieces of information for the morning. Only those freinds should come in the morning who want to do the meditation; remember, only those who want to do the meditation. Do not come to watch. Nothing can be known by watching, only by doing can it be known. Also watching causes disturbance to the meditators. Those who come, should come after bathing, and silently they should come and take their seats here. Do not use words at all, so that the environment of the place can become helpful and conducive for going into meditation.
You listened to my talk with such love, I am grateful. I offer my salutations to the divine sitting within all of you, please accept my salutations.