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Chapter title: Politics And Love
5 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall
Question 1
YOU SAID, "TEACHING IS THE BEST WAY OF LEARNING BUT YOU HAVE
ALSO SAID, "THE WORLD IS IRRELIGIOUS BECAUSE OF TOO MANY
PREACHERS. "WOULD YOU PLEASE SPEAK ON THE SUBTLE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN HELPING OTHERS AND TRYING TO CHANGE OTHERS.
THERE IS A VAST DIFFERENCE, and tremendously significant, between trying to change the other and helping him. When you help somebody you help him to be himself; when you try to change somebody you try to change him according to your idea. When you try to change somebody you try to make a carbon copy of him. You are not interested in him. You have a certain ideology, a fixed idea, an ideal. You change him according to the ideal. The ideal is more important, the real man is not important at all.
In fact, trying to change the other according to some ideal is very violent. It is aggression, it is an effort to destroy the other. It is not love, it is not compassion.
Compassion always allows the other to be himself. Compassion has no ideology, compassion is just a climate. It does not give you direction, it only gives you energy. Then you move. Then your seed has to sprout according to its own nature. There is nobody forcing anything on you.
When I say, "Go and help others," I mean: help them to be themselves. When I say, "The world is too irreligious because of too many preachers," I mean that so many people are trying to change, convert, transform others according to their own ideology. The idea should not be more important than the person. Even the whole humanity is not more important than a single human being. Humanity is an idea; a single human being is a reality.
Forget about humanity, remember the human being -- the real, the concrete, the throbbing, the alive. It is very easy to sacrifice human beings for humanity. It is very easy to sacrifice human beings for Islam, Christianity, Hinduism; it is very easy to sacrifice them for the idea of Christ, Buddha, Mahavir. Help, but don't sacrifice. Who are you to sacrifice anybody? Each individual is his own end.
Don't use him as a means.
That is the meaning when Jesus says: "The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Everything is made for man; man is the supreme value. Even God, the idea of God, is for man, and man is not for the idea of God. Sacrifice everything to man and don't sacrifice man to anything whatsoever. Then you help.
If you start sacrificing man, then you are not helping. You are destroying, you are crippling the other. You are violent, you are a criminal. So all your so-called mahatmas who try to change the other are criminals. One can just love, help, be ready to give unconditionally.
Share your being, but let the other move towards his own destiny. That destiny is unknown; nobody knows what is going to flower. Don't give a pattern, otherwise the flower will be crushed. And remember that each individual being is unique. There has never been such a being before and there is never going to be again. God never repeats, he is not repetitive. He goes on inventing.
If you are trying to make a man be like Jesus, you will be destructive. Jesus can never be repeated again. And there is no need. One is beautiful, many will just be boring. Don't try to make a man a Buddha. Let him become himself. That is HIS
Buddhahood. And neither you know, nor he knows, what he is carrying within himself. Only the future will show. Not only will you be surprised; HE will be surprised when his flower opens. Everybody is carrying a flower of infinite potentiality and power, of infinite possibility.
Help, give energy, love. Accept the other and give him a feeling that he is welcome. Don't give him a feeling of guilt, don't give him the idea that he is condemned. All those who are trying to change him give him a feeling of guilt, and guilt is poison.
When somebody says, "Be like Jesus!" he has denied you AS YOU ARE.
Whenever somebody says to be like somebody else, YOU are not accepted. You are not welcome, you are like an intruder. Unless you become somebody else, you will not be loved. What type of love is this which destroys you, and only when you become false, inauthentic...?
You can, authentically, only be yourself. All else will be false, all else will be just masks, personalities, but not your essence. You can decorate yourself with the personality of Buddha, but it will never touch your heart. It will never be related to you, it will not be connected with you. It will just be on the outside. A face, but never yours.
So whosoever is trying to make you somebody else and says, "I will love you if you become Buddha, Christ..." does not love you. He may be in love with Christ, but he hates you. And his love for Christ can also not be very deep, because if he has really loved Jesus, he would have understood the concrete uniqueness of every individual.
Love is a deep understanding. If you have loved one person, you have started a different quality of vision within you. Now you can see with a clarity. If you have loved Jesus, then whosoever comes before you -- you will see the reality of this man, of this concrete human being, of this potentiality herenow. And you will love this man, you will help this man to become whatsoever he can become.
You will not expect anything else. All expectation is condemning, all expectation is a denial, all expectation is a rejection. You will simply give your love -- for no reward, for no result. You will simply help, with no future in mind.
When love flows without any future, it is a tremendous energy. When love flows without motivation it helps, and nothing helps like it. Once you feel that even one single human being accepts you as you are, you feel centered. You are not unwelcome in this existence. At least one human being accepts you unconditionally. That gives you a grounding, a centering; that gives you a feeling that you are at home. And the more you are at home, the more you will be closer to God, because deepest in your heart is He. When you are close to yourself you are close to Him. When you are centered, you are IN Him.
When you are far away from yourself, you are far away from God. The distance between you and yourself is the distance between you and God, and there is no
other distance. So whosoever says, "Become somebody else," is throwing you away from God. You will become false, you will carry masks. You will have personalities, character, and a thousand other things, but you won't have a soul; you won't have the essential. You will not be an awareness, you will be a deception: a pseudo-phenomenon, not authentic.
So when I say help, teach, I'm not giving you the idea to teach them. I'm saying: just create a climate around people. Wherever you move, carry the climate of love and compassion, and help the other to be himself.
That is the most difficult thing in the world -- to help the other to be himself --
because that is against your ego. Your ego would like to make imitators of people. You would like everybody to imitate you; you would like to become the archetype and have everybody follow you. Then your ego would be very, very fulfilled. You would think of yourself as the blueprint and everybody just has to follow you. You become the center and everybody becomes the false.
No, the ego will not like the idea. It wants to change others according to you. But who are you to change anybody? Don't take that responsibility. That is dangerous; that is how Adolf Hitlers are born. They take the responsibility of changing the whole world according to them.
There is much difference between a Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler. But deep down, no difference at all, because both have ideas of changing the world according to them. One may be using violent methods, the other may be using nonviolent methods, but both are using methods to change the other according to themselves. One may be using the bayonet, the other is threatening you that "I will go on a long fast if you don't follow me." One may be threatening to kill you and the other may be threatening that he will kill himself "if you don't follow me", but both are using force, both are creating situations in which you can be forced to be something that you don't want to be, that you never wanted to be.
They both are politicians. Neither Hitler loves you, nor Gandhi loves you.
Gandhi talks about love, but he does not love. He cannot love, because the very idea -- the ideal of how you should be -- creates trouble. There is only one way of loving people: to love them as they are.
And this is the beauty: that when you love them as they are, they change. Not
according to you -- they change according to THEIR reality. When you love them, they are transformed. Not converted; transformed. They become new, they attain newer heights of being. But that happens in their being, and it happens according to their nature.
Help people to be natural, help people to be free, help people to be themselves, and never try to force anybody, pull and push and manipulate. Those are the ways of the ego. And that is what all politics is.
Question 2
IT IS BELIEVED THAT CHRIST WAS THE FIRST POLITICIAN OF LOVE IN
THAT HE TRIED TO SAVE THE WORLD BEFORE HE HAD SAVED HIMSELF, AND THAT WE ARE HIS CHILDREN: POLITICIANS OF LOVE, SEEKING
HEAVEN ON EARTH.
Politician, and Christ? Politics and love are impossible to be together. Love is anti-political; politics is anti-love.
I know politicians talk about love, but don't be deceived by their talk. They talk about peace and prepare for war. Never listen to what the politician says; always watch what he is doing. Whatsoever he says may be just a distraction, to distract you so you cannot see what he is doing. He goes on saying things absolutely contrary to what he is doing. That saying is a camouflage. It is a cover to hide.
That's why politicians go on talking -- so that you are not in any way helped to be aware of what they are doing. They distract by their talk. They don't communicate, they don't say much. In fact, they want to hide so that things are not known. They talk about peace and they all prepare for war. They talk about love and they all create hatred in the world.
But they are tricky, very diplomatic. When they say, "Love your country," they are saying, "Hate your neighbors." But they hide their hatred in the love of the country. When you say, "Love your motherland," nobody is going to raise any question about it. There is no question: everybody has to love his motherland.
But deep down in the teaching of the love of the motherland, they are preparing you for war. Then you start hating the neighbors: they don't belong to your nation, they don't belong to your race, they don't belong to your religion. Love your religion -- then what will you do with people who don't belong to your religion?
Of course, it has to be understood that you will hate them. If you love your religion, you will hate other religions; if you love your country, you will hate other countries; if you love your color, you will hate people who are of a different color. If you really want to love human beings you have to stop loving the country, you have to stop loving the religion. you have to stop loving your color. If you really want to love human beings you have to stop all political nonsense.
But they are very tricky -- diplomatic. They talk about love and they sow the seeds of hatred, they talk about nonviolence and they prepare you for violence.
They say they are preparing for war because without war. peace will be impossible. And they have talked such nonsense for so long that you don't even understand how contradictory they are. Then the whole humanity goes on moving in darkness.
Remember one thing: Christ is not a politician -- not even of love -- because politics is poisonous. It will poison love itself.
Christ is not a politician at all. I lad he been a politician, he would not have been crucified. Just a little diplomacy would have saved him. Just a little diplomacy: there was nothing much in it. But he was not a politician. That was the trouble.
He was very authentic and true, not diplomatic. He said whatsoever he felt.
Look: your so-called mahatmas are politicians. They try to live according to their principles, they try to BE according to their ideology. Whatsoever they preach, they try to live it.
Jesus is totally different. Whatsoever he lives, he preaches. There is the difference. A Mahatma Gandhi looks almost like Jesus. He's not. He tries to live whatsoever he preaches, but the preaching is important. He wants others also to live according to his preaching. and he himself tries to live according to his preaching.
Jesus is totally different. He says and preaches whatsoever he lives. When you preach whatsoever you live, you are exposed. You are open and vulnerable. You are true to yourself, but then you start becoming unfit with the society. Society is politics, it is diplomacy. Many things are not to be said, many things have to be said which are not true.
When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Jesus remained silent. He could have said something, he was an articulate man. He was a great poet in his utterances, he could have said something. And his whole life was depending on that. That was the last thing Pilate asked: "What is truth?" Jesus looked into his eyes and remained silent. Very undiplomatic, very nonpolitical. He embarrassed Pilate.
In that silence, Pilate felt very restless and uncomfortable. Jesus penetrated him deeply. His silence was something that he was saying from his heart.
But Pilate wanted words. Pilate was not asking, "Show me the truth!" He was asking, "What is truth? " He was asking for a definition. Jesus wouldn't give the definition because HE was truth -- and he was standing in front of him!
He looked into his eyes. He must have stirred his soul. Pilate became uneasy. He turned away from Jesus. He said to the priest, "Take this man away and do whatsoever you like. Crucify him."
I always think about it. In that moment, Pilate must have felt as if he was being crucified in silence. Just think about Jesus looking at you. All your falseness, all your masks, fall away because they cannot be there when Jesus looks at you.
Naked and nude you stand before him. Empty, with nothing.
Pilate was the governor-general of the Roman Empire. But inside, a poor man, a beggar. All that falseness cannot deceive Jesus; he penetrates deeply. All your worldly riches are useless. He looks deep down into you and the beggar is caught. The beggar starts becoming restless. This was not asked for.
If Jesus was a little diplomatic, he would have given a philosophical answer.
Pilate was a student of philosophy; he would have understood. Jesus could have convinced him, argued, persuaded. Pilate may have saved Jesus his life. But rather than saying anything he created a climate, a situation in which Pilate
became very restless.
Just think: Jesus is looking in you. Silence becomes embarrassing. This man seems to be dangerous, as if he is pushing a dagger in your heart. Suddenly Pilate must have felt the emptiness, the poverty that he was. He turned aside. He said to the priest, "Take this man away and do whatsoever you like." But he must not have slept that night, or even for months. Jesus must have haunted him.
A very nondiplomatic answer. Jesus should have said the same thing that Pilate believed. That would have been diplomacy. Politicians say only the things you already believe. Then you are with them. They don't disturb, they console. Their answers are like ointments.
Jesus' answer to the question, "What is truth?" -- his answer is like a wound in the heart. For his whole life Pilate must have been haunted by the silence. "What did this man mean? Why did he remain silent, why did he look so deeply within me?
Why?" In his dreams it must have become a nightmare.
Jesus was not a politician, not even of love. Love cannot be politics.
Love is simple, not complex. Politics is very complex and cunning. Love is intelligence; politics is stupidity. Only mediocre people get interested in politics.
Love is tremendous intelligence; it is understanding. When you love, you are transformed through it.
Politics is always concerned with the society, the nation, is always concerned with the collectivity. Love is always concerned with the individual. Love flows between two souls, there is no other way. Just like a river flows between two banks. Love flows between two souls. Love is individual, intimate, close.
It can flow between one individual and the whole existence, because the whole existence has a soul. That soul is God. But it cannot flow between one individual and society. Society is just a word. It cannot flow between one individual and humanity. Humanity is just a word. There is nobody to receive it, there is nobody to respond to it.
Jesus loved, but he was not a politician. And Jesus never tried to change the
society, remember. That was a misunderstanding on the part of the priests: that he was trying to change the society. He was not trying to change the society at all. He was trying to change the individual. And that, too, not according to his ideology, hut according to the individual's potentiality. There are a thousand and one instances.…
Jesus never condemns, Jesus never creates any guilt. Jesus never says, "That is sin. Don't do it." He reveals what is sin, but he never says it. He makes you understand what is sin, but he never gives you a dead dogma in the hand.
In life, dead dogmas are useless. Only an alive consciousness is useful because every moment the sin and the virtue changes. Something was a virtue in the morning. It may not be virtuous in the evening. It depends on you, on others, on circumstances. It is not a dead thing that you can carry with you. It is changing every moment. Unless you have a flexibility, a sensitivity to change with life, you will not be able to know what is sin. Every moment life goes on moving.
Something was virtuous in a certain moment. The same thing can become a sin in another moment. So no dogma is possible.
Jesus gives a sensitivity to people. an awareness, a mindfulness, a meditation, so that they can feel their way, so that they can understand every situation and respond accordingly. If you go deeply into Jesus you will understand only one thing: that to act with awareness is virtue and to act with unawareness is sin. Sin is not a quality of any act. Neither is virtue. Sin and virtue belong to the presence or absence of awareness. It is not WHAT you do which is sin or virtue. it is HOW
you do it: aware or unaware. It doesn't depend on the action. It depends, deep down, on the consciousness -- what quality you bring to it.
Jesus loved. That was one of his crimes: that hc loved. A rabbi should preach, he should not love. A religious man should become an example, and induce and seduce people to follow his example. He was not an example at all. In the ordinary sense, he was not creating any ideal of his own. He was simply helping people to be more prayerful, to be more mindful, to be more watchful. And he lived, and loved.
He lived like a very ordinary man. But with very extraordinary awareness. He lived like a Zen master. Jews could not understand him, or only later on. Hassids
would have understood, but they came very late. They would have understood him, they would have understood him absolutely. He was a Hassidic master, or a Zen master.
But his followers also misunderstood him. They thought that he was a politician and he had come to change the society. His enemies also misunderstood him.
The same has happened again and again. I am here. I am not interested in society at all, not a bit. But the politicians go on thinking that I'm planning in some way or other. I'm a conspirator and I'm planning something in secret way.s to change the society or the government. It is difficult to convince them that I'm not interested at all in their government or in their society. They can go on playing with these stupid toys. I'm not interested.
But they cannot understand because it is beyond them. They cannot see the point: that somebody is not interested in government, in governing people. They think there must be some deception; something is hidden behind it. They think my talk about religion -- changing the individual, loving the individual -- is just a facade. Behind it there must be politics. They can understand only politics, and they will see politics everywhere.
It is understood. I can understand it. They cannot go beyond their own minds. It is just like a pickpocket who comes to see a saint. He cannot see the saint, he only looks at the pockets. He is a pickpocket.
You walk on the road. Different people look at you in different ways. A shoemaker looks at your shoe and understands you according to the situation and the condition of the shoe. If the shoe is in a bad condition he knows that your economic position is not okay. If the shoe is not polished well he knows you may be unemployed. He need not see your face; he just Looks at your shoe.
If a man has been working on shoes for thirty, forty years, he becomes almost a psychologist. From the shoe he can say everything: what your financial position is, what your status in society is. Even what your mind is right now. When you are happy, you walk differently. When you are unhappy, you drag. The shoe can show that you have been dragging for long, as if you are pulling the whole load, the weight.
The shoe can show whether you are in love or not. Have you watched? When you are in love, you polish your shoes. Everything becomes significant. Some
human being has become interested in you. Now everything is significant. When nobody loves you, you become careless. Who bothers whether the shoe is gathering dust? Let it gather. Nobody is interested in you -- why should you be interested in the shoe?
A policeman has a different type of shoe than a schoolmaster. You can see the shoe and you will know which is which. The policeman has to be violent, his shoes will show that he is violent. A schoolmaster is just a schoolmaster. The shoes will tell the whole story.
A shoemaker looks at the shoe, a pickpocket looks at the pocket, a hairdresser looks at the hair. He knows whether you are a square or a hippy. Your hair will show it. And this is not new. In India one of the names of Krishna is Keshava.
Keshava means'long-haired'. He was the first hippy in the world.
When a politician looks at a Jesus, or at me, immediately his understanding is political. He becomes afraid, he thinks a competitor has come. But Jesus is not a politician, a man who knows love cannot be a politician. Why? -- because politics is ambition; love is nonambitious.
Politics is a way to rule over others. Love never wants to rule. The very effort to rule and possess and be powerful is violent. It is part of hatred. Love gives, and gives unconditionally. Love does not possess. Love is not a monopoly, is not a power-lust.
How can love be politics? Please don't use that word with Jesus. He's not interested in changing the society. He is interested in changing the heart, the heart of man. Maybe society is changed through it, but that is irrelevant. It can happen as a consequence, but that is not a concern.
If the heart of man changes, the society is bound to change, because with a different man a different society will arise. But that is a consequence. Jesus is not interested in that. His whole interest is in how the kingdom of God can be felt within. That's why he goes on insisting, "The kingdom of God is within." It has nothing to do with the without. Politics is without; religion is within.
Love gives, politics takes; love shares, politics has nothing to share. It tries to possess.
Question 3
OSHO, I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM. I FEEL LIKE I NEED GROUNDING AT SOME LEVEL. IS THERE NO PLACE FOR GROUNDING?
It is good that you don't know who you are, because all that you know will be wrong.
The depth of your being is indefinable. It has no name, no form. The innermost of your being is always unknown and unknowable. Socrates said, "Know thyself!" Not that you can know. He's saying: "Try to know yourself, and one day you will know that it is impossible to know." And when you come to a point where all knowledge disappears, and you stand in deep ignorance before yourself, that is the most beautiful experience, the greatest ecstasy.
Just think: if you can know yourself, by knowing you will become limited. You will become a commodity. By knowing about yourself you won't be happy; you will become very ordinary. Once known, you are finished with yourself. Then what will you do with it? Inquiry finished, you will be bored with yourself.
Your being is a mystery. The more you know, the less you know it. The deeper you go, the more you see the infiniteness. The depth is such that you cannot touch the bottom of it -- never. People who think they know themselves are very superficial. People of depth always become aware of something unknown. And it is beautiful because the unknown is always alive, the unknown is always infinite.
The unknown is eternal.
Socrates said, "Know thyself!" He means: try to know thyself. Not that you will be able to know. And after Socrates, a Roman, Marcus Aurelius, said. "Be thyself!" He is better than Socrates. To know thyself is impossible, but to be thyself is possible. There is no need to know. Just be. Knowledge is irrelevant; being is enough. Just BE yourself.
So don't try to find a definition of your being. It is impossible. Live it, you can. Know it, you cannot. But why be bothered about knowing? Is not being enough?
There is an urge. a deep urge, a curiosity to open and know every mystery. But that urge is going to fail as you move within. If you move without, that urge can be fulfilled -- a little. Science can fulfill your urge because something can be known about matter. But that, too, I say'just a little'. If you go deeper, there also the unknown comes to be encountered. The deeper you go, the more knowledge becomes shaky. The deeper you go, the more everything is blurred.
One of the greatest scientist of the West, Eddington, has written in his autobiography that "When I started, the whole world looked like a mechanism.
When I started working, searching, inquiring, the world looked like a great mechanism, and I had the idea that someday or other the mechanism would be known."
He thought that existence could be divided in two categories: the known and the unknown. Known: that which we have known; and unknown: that which we will know someday or other, it is only a question of time.
At the end of his life he said, "Now life appears to be divided into three categories: the known, the unknown, and the unknowable." This unknowable.…
The known and the unknown we can understand. It is only a question of time before the unknown can become known, because one day the known was unknown. But the unknowable? That which cannot be known, which is impossible to be known? With that category, religion enters in.
Then Eddington said, "Now as I look at the world, it doesn't look like a mechanism. Rather, it looks like a thought. Very mysterious." Had he lived a little longer. he would have certainly said that "Now it does not even look like a thought, because a thought has a structure, a logic. It looks like a poem or a song."
And a song just like birds sing in the morning. Beautiful -- but you cannot make anything out of it. Beautiful AND meaningless. Tremendously beautiful, it can be enjoyed. But the meaning? There is none.
This is my understanding: unless you can enjoy the meaningless, you will never become religious. God, to me, is the meaningless beauty that surrounds you, the meaningless song that is heard all around: the meaningless murmur of a brook, the meaningless whisper of the winds, the meaningless silence of the stars.
Tremendously beautiful, but meaningless. Why do I say meaningless? Because it is unknowable.
A thing remains meaningless unless it is known. Once you know, then it is meaningful. And I tell you, stars are mysterious, but they are nothing compared to your inner being. Rivers are mysterious, but they are nothing compared to your inner stream of consciousness. The Himalayas are mysterious, but nothing as compared to your inner peaks of ecstasy.
Be, rather than know. Marcus Aurelius looks to me to be of more and deeper understanding when he says, "Be thyself!" than Socrates when he says, "Know thyself!" Though I know well that you cannot be yourself unless you try the Socratic dictum: know thyself! Try to know. You will never be able to know, and by and by, you will drop the inquiry of knowing and you will start being.
Knowing is philosophy, being is religion.
One of the greatest American Christian theologians of this century, Paul Tillich, was once asked -- at the end of his life, somebody in Santa Barbara, a student, asked him -- "Sir, do you pray? "
He said, "No, I meditate."
But if you ask me, I will say, "No, I don't even meditate. I just am."
Prayer is duality: you and God. Without God you cannot pray: the other is needed. It is a dependence. Right is Tillich. He says, "No, I don't pray." The answer is not Christian, the answer is Buddhist. He says: "I meditate."
Meditation is a freedom -- freedom from God also, because-even He is not needed. You cannot pray without God, because to whom will you pray? To whom will you raise your head? To whom will you raise your eyes? To whom will you talk, with whom will the dialogue be? A God is needed. Maybe He is there or maybe He is not there -- that is irrelevant -- but prayer requires a God.
It is a dependence. Without God, the man who is praying will immediately stop praying. If there is no God -- or the news comes that He is dead, or has been assassinated or something like that, or just died of old age -- the man who is praying will immediately stop, will throw his rosary and will say, "Finished!
Now there is no point. To whom to pray? "
Prayer is a dependence. That is how Buddhism goes higher than Christianity.
Even if God dies, it will not disturb the man who is meditating. He will say, "It is okay. It matters not whether He is alive or not. It was never a requirement to me.
I am enough unto myself."
The man who meditates, meditates alone. But if you ask me, "Do you meditate, Sir? " I will say, "No, I don't even meditate. I just am" -- because in meditation some activity is involved. The other is not there, you are not in a dialogue, but you are doing something. The doing is there. The doing becomes the other: the doer and the doing. You are meditating.
Meditation is an action, you are doing something. Sometimes you meditate and sometimes you don't meditate. That is not worth much because something that sometimes is, and sometimes is not, cannot be your nature. Your nature is always there, it does not depend on any doing.
I just am. And that is the greatest prayer, that is the greatest meditation. That is what Zen masters say. If you ask them what they do they say, "We chop wood, we carry water. When we feel hungry we eat, and when we feel tired we sleep."
This is what I mean when I say I am. Even the dependence on doing something is no longer there.
Prayer needs the other, meditation needs action -- being needs nothing. And when you are in tune with that which needs nothing, then for the first time you are in tune; then for the first time you are grounded.
You ask me: "Osho, I don't know who I am." There is no need. There is no need to know who you are. The only need is: don't be anything else. just be that which you don't know you are. Lust be that. Don't move outside it. There is no need to know it because you ARE it already. Whether you know it or don't know it, makes no difference. Knowledge will not add anything to it. Not knowing will not take anything out of it, knowing will not add anything to it, so what is the point? You ARE!
Call the rose by another name, it remains a rose. Whether you know the name of
the rose or not, it remains a rose. And whether you call it'rose' or don't call it'rose', the rose is not bothered. It is. Emerson says somewhere in his diary that
"Outside my window the rosebush is blooming. The rosebush is not bothered with who it is. The roses are not comparing themselves with other roses of the past and they are not thinking of the future roses. Just in this moment they are with God. This day, they are with God."
In your being, you ARE God. I will not even say with God. In your being, just this very moment, you are God, you are divine. No knowledge is needed.
Don't be worried about it. Nobody has ever known who he is. He is! And all those who have said that they know are just repeating cliches. They must have read it in the scriptures. But those are only words. You can say: "I am BRAHMA,"
or "I am ATMAN," or "I am the supreme self," but these words are cliches. They are ugly. They don't say anything, they don't mean anything.
"I feel like I need grounding." Yes, that's good. You need it. But grounding has nothing to do with knowledge; grounding has something to do with being.
That's why I say Marcus Aurelius is better than Socrates when he says, "Be thyself!"
"Is there no place for grounding? " Place is part of space. Time and place are not there in being -- space and time both disappear there. You will be grounded only when you come to a certain state within: where you cannot say who you are, where you cannot say where you are, where you cannot say when you are.
Everything has stopped; time does not move. The clock may be moving: tick- tock, tick-tock; it may be moving. You can listen, but time does not move -- only the futile gesture of the clock. Something deep within you has stopped. That is the point I call'the point of no-when'.
And there is no space. You cannot say where you are, the where is irrelevant.
You cannot show on the map where you are. You are no more on the map, you don't belong to the map. You are no more part of the measured, you are no more part of the charted. You are transcendence.
You can look at space, but you are not in space; you can look at time, but you are not in time. Then you are grounded. This is what I call'being'; this is what Jesus calls'the kingdom of God': this is what Buddha calls'nirvana'.
Yes, you need grounding. But it would be better to say, "You are already grounded. You just need awareness." How can you be if you are not grounded?
You are already in God. I-low can you be otherwise? There is no other way to be, that is the only way there is. But you are not aware. Become more and more alert, watchful. No need to be worried about knowledge: who you are. Just become aware,
Whosoever you are: X,Y,Z -- that unknown acts. Whosoever you are, just become alert and aware. Let that unknown within you, or unknowable within you, not fall into a stupor and sleep. Awake it. Don't allow it to move into dreams anymore. Shake it out of sleep and suddenly you will see that you are already grounded. In fact, whatsoever is needed is already there. Just a turning about is needed.
That is what Jesus means when he says, "Return! The kingdom of God is at hand." He's talking about your hands. The kingdom of God is always at hand.
Just stretch your hand a little and you will be able to touch it. That stretching of the hand is what I mean by awareness.
Question 4
HAVING NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRULY FALL IN LOVE, TO
KNOW THAT SURRENDER, IS THAT KEEPING ME FROM TRULY FALLING
IN LOVE WITH YOU, BEING IN THAT MAD STATE OF LOVE? IS IT ENOUGH JUST TO FEEL QUIET LOVE, RESPECT -- THOUGH NOT NECESSARILY THAT ODD FORM OF INSANITY?
Don't be worried. Because you must be comparing yourself with others, that
creates the problem. This is YOUR odd kind of insanity.
Everybody has his own way of being in love. Never compare it. Somebody may be dancing, may be ecstatic and singing, and somebody else may be sitting silently with closed eyes. Both are mad in their own ways. Don't think that you are not mad and the one who is dancing is mad, because one who is dancing will think, "Are you mad? You have fallen in love and are still sitting with closed eyes? What are you doing there? Dance!"
Everybody has his own way of madness also. Just as nobody has the same face as you, nobody has the same eyes as you, nobody has the same fingerprints as you -
- nobody has the madness that you have. Everything is unique.
Everybody falls in love in his own way. And it is good; it has to be so. Never compare. With comparison the trouble arises. Then you feel that you are missing something. Your love is calm and quiet and respectful. Then you start thinking there must be something wrong. Why are you not so passionately in love? Why are you not like a storm, why are you blowing like a small breeze? But that is your way. And God needs both. Storm and storm and storm.… He also needs a little rest. A little breeze is always handy.
Don't be worried. This is how God is happening to you. Never compare. Just look within you and enjoy whatsoever is happening so it can happen more.
Enjoy it, delight in it, and it will happen more. You may become even more gentle; even the breeze may disappear and stop. It has happened that way also.
There are as many ways towards God as there are seekers. Everybody has his own way and there are no superways, remember -- no superhighways.
Everybody walks on his own path.
In fact, the path is not found ready-made. You create it by walking, and it disappears when you have gone on ahead. Nobody else can walk on it; it is never left behind. It is just like the birds flying in the sky. Once they have flown, they don't leave any footprints. Nobody can follow it. There is no need.
Don't compare. Be contented with yourself. Enjoy, delight -- help yourself to be
yourself. This is YOUR way. Question 5
I WAS NOT LOOKING FOR YOU, AND YET YOU FOUND ME. I WAS NOT
DESERVING. THERE ARE OTHERS I KNOW WHO HAVE TRIED HARDER TO
FIND THE TRUTH. WHY HAVE I BEEN SO LUCKY?
Because you are so humble.
It is possible that you may be trying hard, but the effort comes out of the ego.
You may not be trying, you may be simply waiting, but that waiting can come out of humbleness. Effort, with ego, will fail. Even no effort, with humbleness, will succeed. If you feel that "I was not looking for you, and yet you found me," if you feel "I was not deserving" -- that's how you have deserved it. That's how!
Feeling that you were not looking for me, I have found you. Your deep humbleness, deep humility, has created the situation. It is only in humbleness that a master is found, it is only in humbleness that the divine happens.
Your effort is of no use because it is YOURS. The'you' is too much. That will hinder the path.
Question 6
BEFORE YOU FOUND ME I HAD ALREADY RENOUNCED MY FAMILY.
RACE AND RELIGION. NOW IT HAS ALL CHANGED. I HAVE NEVER FELT
SO AFFECTED AS NOW, SINCE MY PARENTS AND SISTER ARE SANNYASINS TOO. SOMETHING SPECIAL AND INDESCRIBABLE HAS
HAPPENED BETWEEN ME AND THEM, I FEEL. AND IN JUDAISM I FIND
MYSELF AND ACCEPT MYSELF. WHAT IS HAPPENING?
This is what should happen.
Jesus says, "Hate your father, hate your mother, hate your brethren and sisters."
He cannot teach hate -- he must be using hate as a means towards real love. And this is what has happened. You had already renounced your family, race and religion, but that renunciation must have been out of ego. It was not a rebellion; it must have been a reaction. You must have done it without knowing what you were doing.
It may have broken you away from the family, but it didn't join you with the greater family of existence. It separated you from the family, but it simply separated you. It was just a divorce it was not a marriage to the greater. It was impotent.
Then you came to me. You became different. You meditated, you became a little more alert and then, by and by, your change became a magnetic force to your family also, whom you had renounced. Then your father, your mother, and your sister also came.
It simply happens that if you are changed you become a magnetic force. And of course, those who have been related to you very deeply are affected immediately. If one person in the family changes, the whole family is affected immediately, They may start defending. That, too, is the sign. They may start fighting. That, too, is a symbol that they are being affected. Now they cannot remain the same; something has to be done.
They came, they also changed, and you again became a part of your family, in a totally new dimension. The marriage has happened now in a totally new dimension. Now your family is just part of the greater family I'm creating -- of the greater sangha, the community that I'm creating. Now, through me, you have become joined again.
That's why Christians go on signing their signatures: "Yours in Jesus." That is very meaningful. Now there is no other bridge. If you love Jesus, Jesus has become the bridge. You may have been a friend to somebody. Then Jesus came to you. Now the friendship has taken on a totally different meaning, a different poetry. Now you are no longer directly related to the person. Jesus is always
somewhere by the corner, Jesus is always somewhere in between, flowing. Now the friend is no more an ordinary friend. He has also become divine through Jesus, and you say, "Yours through Jesus."
This will happen to you all by and by. You will be rejoined to the same family you renounced, through me.
Question 7
THE LAST FEW DAYS THIS HAPPENS: WHENEVER I FEEL I NEED TO BE IN
TUNE WITH MY CENTER, IMMEDIATELY I SEE THE IMAGE OF A VERY
CALM, DEEP LAKE SURROUNDED BY MOUNTAINS. ALL IS PEACE AND IN
DEEP HARMONY. I SEE MYSELF SITTING EITHER ON THE BORDER OF THE
LAKE OR ON THE MOUNTAINTOP -- JUST SITTING AND WATCHING IN CALM HAPPINESS. THERE ARE ALWAYS WHITE AND BLACK BIRDS
SILENTLY FLYING AROUND. THE PLACE IS NOT FROM THIS WORLD, AND YET IT IS FROM THIS WORLD. THE IMAGE CENTERS ME
IMMEDIATELY. I SEEM TO NEED IT, BUT STILL IT FEELS A BIT CHILDISH; AND ALTHOUGH IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE I AM DOING SOMETHING. I AM
YET DOING. PLEASE COMMENT.
This is good -- healthy and wholesome. This is one of the old meditation techniques. You may not be doing it knowingly, but you may have done it in some past life. It may have simply surfaced again. But it is one of the most beautiful techniques. As far as techniques go, this technique also goes.
Use it. And don't feel it is childish because all happiness is childish, all joy is childish, all delight is childish. Enjoy it; become a child. And when the work is
done, the technique will disappear. When the work is done, the picture of the lake and the mountains and the birds will disappear by and by. The picture will disappear but the calmness will remain. The lake will go but the rippleless lake of your consciousness will be left behind.
Enjoy it as much as you can. This has something to do with your past. You may have done it before. Now it has again surfaced. It happens: if people have been doing certain methods in their past lives and they have been left incomplete, when they meditate again, suddenly some technique erupts, surfaces, and possesses them completely. Then you are not doing it. It is happening.
And that is one of the most significant things to be understood. If a method happens to you without doing, that is the method for you. When you do something, it is different; when it HAPPENS, it is totally different. When it happens, it is nearer to the heart. When you DO. it is nearer to the head.
Allow it, enjoy it, let the scenic beauty of the lake completely surround you.
Forget yourself; be in it totally. It will center you. And once the work is done, all pictures will disappear. When only you are left -- the lake is no more, the birds are no more; nothing is there to be seen, only the seer is left -- then the real meditation happens. That's what I call'being', just being. That is the ultimate.
But this technique can be helpful. When it is happening by itself, it can be very helpful. Allow it. It is healthy and wholesome. And don't think it is childish. All beauty, all happiness, all ecstasy is childish. God is childish!
Come Follow To You, Vol 2 Chapter #7
Chapter title: He that heareth the word 6 November 1975 am in Buddha Hall MATTHEW I3
10 AND THE DISCIPLES CAME, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY SPEAKEST THOU UNTO THEM IN PARABLES?
11 HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO
YOU TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT TO
THEM IT IS NOT GIVEN.
12 FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL
HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER HATH NOT, FROM HIM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH.
18 HEAR YE THEREFORE THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER.
19 WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT, WHEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE, AND CATCHETH AWAY THAT WHICH WAS SOWN IN HIS HEART. THIS IS HE WHICH RECEIVED SEED BY THE WAY SIDE.
20 BUT HE THAT RECEIVED THE SEED INTO STONY PLACES, THE SAME IS
HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD, AND ANON WITH JOY RECEIVETH IT; 21 YET HATH HE NOT ROOT IN HIMSELF, BUT DURETH FOR A WHILE: FOR WHEN TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION ARISETH BECAUSE OF THE
WORD, BY AND BY HE IS OFFENDED.
22 HE ALSO THAT RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD; AND THE CARE OF THIS WORLD, AND THE
DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, CHOKE THE WORD, AND HE BECOMETH
UNFRUITFUL.
23 BUT HE THAT RECEIVED SEED INTO THE GOOD GROUND IS HE THAT
HEARETH THE WORD, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT; WHICH ALSO
BEARETH FRUIT, AND BRINGETH FORTH, SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD, SOME SIXTY, SOME THIRTY.
JESUS IS LIKE A DIAMOND. Every facet of him contributes to the brilliance of the whole. To the sorrowing, he brings solace; to seekers, he brings knowledge; to the poor, he brings the kingdom of God; to the rich, he brings poverty of the spirit; to the strong humility; to the weak, strength. He's many things, and he's different to each one who comes to him. He has many faces, many aspects, and it has to be so.
The same is with Buddha, the same is with all those who have awakened, because when they talk to YOU, or relate to YOU, they talk to you and they relate to you. They respond. They cannot give more than that which you can take: they cannot give you that for which you have not asked; they cannot give you that for which you are not ready. They can only give you that for which you have come.
It depends on you who Jesus will prove to you to be. He is a response, he reflects you. Remember this. Because of this, many complexities have arisen. Many people will give you different reports. They all are true -- and no one is totally true. They all talk only of facets, parts of Jesus that have been revealed to them.
Hence so many stories.…
Buddha died and immediately there was great turmoil amongst his followers.
The sangha divided into many parts. The community could not remain one because there were different reports -- as if Buddha was not one man but many.
He was one, absolutely one, but he reflected so many people that they knew him in different ways -- according to their capacity, according to their receptivity, according to their readiness. They all said different things. Not only different, but quite contradictory to each other. The community had to divide.
The same happened with Mahavir: the community had to divide. The same happened with Jesus: the community could not remain one. And the reason is: Jesus is different to different people. He has to be, he is just a pure mirror. You come and he reveals your face to yourself. He exists so that you can realize yourself, He has no other idea to force upon you, He has no idea at all, he is simply a helper. If you come to him in search of knowledge, he will reveal that to you. If you come to him in search of love, you will be benefitted by his compassion and love. If you come to him as a sinner, he will give you salvation.
But it depends on you; he echoes you.
This has to be understood. Then these sutras will be very simple.
AND THE DISCIPLES CAME, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY SPEAKEST THOU
UNTO THEM IN PARABLES?
The disciples were noticing that whenever he talks to the masses, he always talks in parables. Whenever he talks to them in privacy, he talks differently.
It has to be so. A disciple is different. A disciple is one who has committed his a]l. He's not just a follower. A follower is one who is impressed and still hesitating. And the ordinary masses are neither followers nor disciples. They may be curious to know who this man is, they may be intrigued by this man, they may be amused by this man -- a few of them may become followers later on and a few of the followers may become disciples later on -- but the masses are still not related to him.
They have come to him as curiosity seekers, just by the way. Somebody has told them, "Here comes Jesus. A great man, the son of God," and they got interested.
They may lose interest again, they may go on their paths and forget everything about him -- or. at the most, he may remain a beautiful memory -- but he will not be a transformation to them.
So these are the three types of people to whom Jesus is relating: the masses, the followers, and the disciples. The disciples are a chosen few. The disciples are those who have come to decide that this man is their salvation, and they have staked all that they had. Now they are ready to die for him. If they live, they will
live for him; if they die, they will die for him. Now there is no turning back. They have come to the point of no return. They watch this man, they love this man --
now this man has become their very life. The innermost secrets can only be revealed to these disciples.
The mysteries can be revealed only to those who are so ready that even if death is needed they will not shirk, they will not hesitate. And death is needed. To know the ultimate secret you will have to die, and until you die that ultimate secret cannot be born within you. To receive him, you will have to disappear. So only to these few disciples can the truth be revealed in its directness, in its immediacy.
To the followers: something of the truth, but not direct; something of the truth, but not immediate; something of the truth, but garbed; something of the truth, but hidden. They will have to work. Only then will they be able to know what has been said to them.
To the masses: just parables. Parables are faraway echoes of truth. If somebody insists, then there is a thread in the parable. I use the word SUTRA. It is a Sanskrit word. It means'the thread'.
It is very significant. When I say'these sutras', I mean'these threads'. If you catch hold of them, you can reach to the ultimate. They are like arrows from the ultimate which have reached to your heart. If you follow the path of the arrow backwards, you will reach to the ultimate. These are threads, sutras.
A parable is a sutra. It simply gives you a thread, a hint, an indication. A very subtle hint and a very delicate thread it gives to you. You have to be in search.
Then the parable, by and by, will reveal its treasure to you. It is not revealed on the surface. If you take the obvious as the actual, it will just be a beautiful story.
If you are deceived by the obvious, you will lose track of the hidden, The obvious is not the actual in the parable. In the parable it has many coverings. You will have to uncover; you will have to work hard.
I have heard a true story about a man who had parked his car in front of a supermarket. When he came back, his car was almost destroyed. Somebody has
crashed into the car: the front was completely gone. And there was no visible sign of the other car or the other man. His heart sank.
Then he found a small piece of paper tucked under the windshield wiper. He felt happy: the man had left his address and name. He took out the.scrap with trembling hands. He opened the paper. It was written on the paper: "While am writing this note to you, at least two hundred people are watching me, They all think that I am writing my name and address. I am not! " That was all. The obvious is not the actual. And they believed, those tWo hundred persons, that he had written his address and name and tucked the paper under the windshield.
The man is gone... those two hundred people are gone. Nobody bothered to see what he had written.
If you take a parable as the obvious, you will miss the whole point of it. The obvious i.s not the actual. The actual is hidden, very deeply hidden -- as if a diamond has been hidden in.side an onion. You uncover, you uncover: there are layers and layers of onion, and then the diamond is revealed.
A parable is a diamond hidden in an onion. The obvious is not the actual; the actual is totally different. A parable i.s a way of saying some truth of tremendous import, but in such a way that even a child can understand, can feel that he has understood. But a parable needs deep understanding to be discovered. A child can feel he has understood and even a very mature person may feel that something goes on eluding him. A parable is both simple and very complex. It is a story on the.surface; it is a secret within.
Jesus talked to the masses in parables, small stories. Ordinary people could understand them. And if you work on them, even extraordinary intelligences may miss the point. Nobody has talked like Jesus. His parables are the most beautiful in the whole history of the human mind.
Buddha tells stories, but they cannot be compared to Jesus' parables. Buddha's stories are plain. They say something, but whatsoever they say is obvious. They are not parables, they are stories. They are to explain something. He will say something and to make it explicit, he will tell a story. The story is secondary. The story can be dropped because he has asserted the truth first and then he explains the truth by a story. It is not a parable. When the truth is hidden in the story and is not asserted outside of it. then it is a parable.
Buddha's stories can be dropped, because whatsoever he has said in the stories he has said directly also. He will always say the truth first and then he will say the story -- to explain it. Buddha's stories are explanatory.
Jesus' parables are not explanatory. Whatsoever he wants to say, he says IN
them. You have to dig deep, you have to move inside the story. A parable is like a Chinese box: box within box, box within box. You go on and you find another smaller box inside. A parable has many layers, as many layers as there are types of man.
Gurdjieff uses the categorization of seven types of man. The first type, number one, is body-oriented. If he listens to the parable, he will only touch the body of the parable, the surface. The obvious will be the actual for him. He will listen to the story, he will enjoy the story, he will go home and tell the story to his children. They will also enjoy, and everybody will forget about it. It is a story: to be enjoyed.
Number two, the man who lives in his feelings, will suspect something deeper than the body. He will suspect some poetry in it, some romantic dimension will open to him. The parable will not be only a parable, a story; it will be a poem, a condensed poetry. He will enjoy it deeply. He will be thrilled, tears may come to his eyes. Or he may dance to it. But that's all. A good poem is also a good poem.
It does not transform you. It gives a thrill, and it is gone. It is like a breeze that comes, touches you, refreshes you, and then it is gone.
Man number three, the rational man, will try to understand the meaning. The parable will become philosophy to him. He will rationalize about it and around it. It will be a dry thing, but he will make a theory out of it.
These are ordinary categories: man number one, man number two, man number three. They're all here: you can find these three types everywhere. This is ordinary humanity, the masses.
Man number four is not confined to the body or to the feelings or to the reason. Man number four has risen above them. He has become an awareness, a watcher. He will understand the deep significance of the parable and the significance will
be life-transforming, He will become a follower. He may become, later on, a disciple. He may be transformed totally.
AND THE DISCIPLES CAME. AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY SPEAKEST THOU
UNTO THEM IN PARABLES?
"Why don't you say things directly? Why are you indirect and indirect? Why do you go around and around? Why not hit them directly and say things directly? "
One very well-known Christian preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick, has said that every man is an island. If you want to land on the island, you have to row around and around to find the right place for landing.
Yes, he's right. Every man is an island and if you want to make contact, real contact, you have to row around and around to find the right place and the right time to land. If you land from the wrong place you will be rejected; if you land in the wrong moment you will not be accepted. If you land from the right place, in the right moment, you will be a welcome guest; otherwise you will be an intruder. One h3s to wait. A parable is a going around and around the island of man to find from where to land.
But the disciples can't understand it. Why? Why does he speak in a different way to them? And whenever there are multitudes, why does he change his ways and start talking in roundabout language?
The disciples are those whose gates are open for Jesus. There is no need to go round and round. The disciples are those whose landings have been already found. They ARE in contact with Jesus; Jesus is always welcome, ALWAYS
welcome. They are waiting, intensely awaiting him. They have become just a deep waiting for him. He's the bridegroom: they have become his brides. Their hearts are open. There is no need to go around and around.
But for the masses, each man is an island and the landing has to be found. And the right moment.
WHY SPEAKEST THOU UNTO THEM IN PARABLES?
HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO YOU
TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT TO THEM
IT IS NOT GIVEN.
To whom is it given to know the mysteries of heaven? To whom is it not given? Those who seek, those who knock at the door of heaven -- it is given for them.
Those who are standing without knocking -- or those whose back is at the gate of heaven, or those who have become completely oblivious that heaven exists -- for them it is not given.
Unless you are moving in the direction of God, God cannot move in your direction. If you are moving against Him, how can He reach you? If you are closed to Him. how can He open you? If you are denying Him, how can He come and become a guest in your heart? No, then it i.s not given; heaven is not given to you.
Jesus said:
BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO YOU TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT TO THEM IT IS NOT GIVEN.
But they can turn, they can start moving in the direction of God. It takes the same energy whether you move against Him Or for Him; the same effort is needed. In fact, to move against Him needs more effort because then you are moving against the current. To move towards God needs no effort because then you are flowing with the stream. There is no need for any effort.
People think that when somebody attains to God it is a miracle. That is not right.
The miracle is that which is done by you -- that you have lost God. That's a miracle. That is something, a great achievement. It is so hard to go against, it needs so much effort, it needs so much struggle. And struggle for nothing, because in the end the hands are empty.
To achieve to God is to relax, to start flowing towards Him. You need not do anything. If you are just in a deep let-go, the river takes you over. God possesses you if you allow Him
"Repent, return, the kingdom of God is at hand." It has always been at hand, but you have become deaf to the message. You listen to it and yet you don't hear it.
You hear it sometimes, but you don't understand it. There are a few moments when you understand it also, but you never bring it to y our life. It never becomes existential. It remains a fragrance in the mind and then disappears.
HE ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN UNTO YOU
TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. BUT TO THEM
IT IS NOT GIVEN.
"That's why I have to talk in parables to them." Only parables can they understand, only through parables will a possibility linger around them. They will remember the parable and in some moment of tranquility, calmness, collectedness, the parable may start functioning. The seed will remain with them and when the rains come, maybe it will sprout. It will wait for the right moment... and someday the right moment will be there.
They may be feeling happy, or they may be feeling very calm and quiet, or they may be feeling relaxed. Suddenly they remember the parable, and some new meaning arises. It was not there when they heard it because a meaning depends on your being; it depends on you what meaning you give to a certain thing.
I was reading a story. Two psychiatrists lived in the same building. Every evening they would come back from their offices and they often rode on the same elevator together. The elevator man was very much intrigued by one thing that happened again and again. The first psychiatrist, as he got out of the elevator, would invariably turn back and spit on the other psychiatrist. The other would smile, calmly take his handkerchief out of his pocket and wipe his face, or the tie, or the coat. Sometimes the elevator man even heard that he would chuckle to himself.
He got more and more curious. One day he could not contain himself. As he was closing the door on the first psychiatrist he asked, "For heaven's sake, doctor, tell me why your colleague goes on doing this to you."
The other psychiatrist laughed and said, "Oh, I don't know. This is his problem.
How can I know? But why should
be bothered? Poor man, that is HIS problem."
Somebody spitting on your face.… Really, it is his problem; it has nothing to do with you. But you make it your problem. Then you are disturbed, then you are worried, then you start thinking of how to take revenge.
Can you see the point of the story? The meaning depends on you, the interpretation is yours. Even when somebody is spitting on your face you can laugh, you can smile -- you can even feel compassion for the poor man. He must be having a great problem, otherwise why?
A parable is just a seed given to you. How to uncover it, when to uncover it, will depend on you and your moods. Sometimes it happens that you may hear something today and you may not understand it. Years will pass and then suddenly one day you have understood it. Years have passed. What has happened in those years? You have changed. You have become more mature; you have gained more experience. You are no longer the same. The parable is the same, but you are no longer the same. Every moment you are changing, and a changed you will find a different meaning in the same parable.
Jesus talks to the masses in parables because they are not yet ready. Nobody knows when they will be ready. But something has to be given to them. A gift from Jesus: a parable. Right now they may be simply amused, simply delighted in hearing a beautiful story, but while they are delighting, the parable is entering within them.
Unaware, they have opened their heart. The parable will be there then. It will wait for its timing, its season. It will wait for the man to be ready. Then one day -
- after years, and sometimes even after many lives -- the parable will come to a flowering, and the truth that the seed carried will be revealed.
To those who are ready, the truth can be said right now. They will hear it and they will understand it. But for those who are not ready, something has to be given to them also.
Then Jesus says a very paradoxical thing, one of the most paradoxical that he ever uttered -- but very significant. Always remember, whenever you find a paradox in Jesus, Lao Tzu, Krishna, remember, something very, very significant, tremendously significant, is being asserted. The greater the truth, the more difficult it is to assert it in ordinary language. A paradox has to be used for it because a paradox is a unity of dualism. It contains the opposites. And greater truths always contain the opposites.
Jesus said:
FOR WHOSOEVER HATH...
Listen to it well!
FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER HATH NOT, FROM HIM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH.
Looks very cruel -- unkind, hard. We would have thought just the opposite: give to those who don't have, and if you want to take away, take away from those who already have too much. Jesus says just the reverse. He says: to those who have, more will be given: and those who have not, even that which they have will be taken away. This is one of the most fundamental laws. This is so.
In ordinary life, in the worldly life, just the opposite law functions. In ordinary life this is how we think: that a poor man should be given more. If you take away from the rich, nothing is wrong; but if you take away from the poor and give it to the rich -- can you conceive anything more wrong than this? You give to the healthy and take away from the sick?
Out of this law, communism is born. Communism says: give to those who don't have and take away from those who have. As far as this world goes it is okay, but in the other world, the kingdom of God, it is totally different. Only to those who have will more be given. And from those who don't have, will be taken
away even that which they have. Why?
If you meditate, more meditation will be happening to you. If you don't meditate, even those few moments which happen on their own of calm, of quiet, will be taken away. If you are getting crystallized within you, the whole existence will help you to be deeper in crystallization. Everything will help to integrate you. If you are not getting crystallized and you are becoming a bigger and bigger crowd every day, everything will help to make you become even a greater crowd.
Whatsoever is happening to you in the inner world, existence helps it.
Whatsoever. If you are growing inside, God helps you to grow more. If you are falling apart, getting split. getting fragmented, the whole helps you to become more fragmented. In the inner world you have to earn; you cannot get anything without earning it. You cannot get anything without working hard for it. You cannot get anything unless you deserve it.
FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER HATH NOT, FROM HIM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH.
Jesus said to his disciples: "You have something. I give you more, I add more to it." More can be given only when you have something, because if you don't already have something, you will not be able to absorb the more that is given to you.
If you don't have anything of the inner consciousness and I give to you, it will be lost. It will be a wastage. To absorb that which is given by Jesus or Buddha, or by any master, you need a foundation. If you don't have the foundation already, nobody is going to give to you because that is sheer wastage. It may even prove dangerous. Whatsoever you get without earning it will be a danger to you because it will never become a part of you. It will be a burden. It can crush you, but it cannot help you to grow.
The more you absorb, the more will be flowing towards you. If you don't have, nothing can be added to it.
HEAR YE THEREFORE THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER.
And Jesus told them a parable:
WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT, THEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE. AND CATCHETH AWAY THAT WHICH WAS SOWN IN HIS HEART. THIS IS HE WHICH RECEIVETH SEED BY THE WAY SIDE.
Jesus is saying something which is very meaningful, but he is saying it in the language that was prevalent in those days. The language has become out of date now. But Christians go on insisting on it. That creates a very embarrassing situation. The meaning will never be obsolete, but language always becomes obsolete; it is no longer in fashion.
Jesus says:
WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT NOT, THEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE -- THE DEVIL.
That is the language of those days. I here is no devil, there is no personality.
There is neither personality in the devil, nor in God. Both are impersonal phenomena. But this is a way of saying something. And beautiful, very poetic. It is a parable.
Jesus says: "If you hear the kingdom of God" -- the word, the news, the good news -- "and you don't understand it, immediately the devil enters your heart and takes it away." This is just a way of saying something. Try to understand it.
Science, today's science, has come to know many mysteries of life, without understanding them. They have come to know, but they have not understood.
The secret of atomic energy was known: immediately the devil entered: it could not help humanity. Such a great secret... it could not help. On the contrary it became destructive: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And there is every fear that it may
destroy the whole humanity. A secret is known, but not understood.
Whenever you know something, you attain to some power because knowledge gives power; knowledge is power. What will you do with the power if you don't understand? If you understand it, the power will be absorbed by you; the power will give you light. The power will become silence, the power will become a deep calm. The power will become humility, humbleness -- it will kill your ego.
But if you don't understand, then the power will become the ego. Then that power will become destructive to others. Then you will try to possess others; then the power will become political. That is the devil.
Let me say it in a new language. Whenever you don't understand a new secret, it becomes political: the devil enters in. When you understand. it becomes religious. Then God enters in. All that is known without understanding will always go into the hands of the politicians. They are the evilest forces in the world; they are always in search of more power. Scientists are serving politicians, not knowing what they are doing.
Unless you are deeply prayerful and meditative, any power that you attain is going to serve wrong purposes. That is the meaning of Jesus: WHEN ANYONE HEARETH THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM -- the word of the kingdom is the greatest secret to penetrate to the innermost core of existence -
- and understandeth it not, THEN COMETH THE WICKED ONE, AND CATCHETH AWAY THAT WHICH WAS SOWN IN HIS HEART. And he will
be poorer because of it; he will be poorer than he was before. At least before, the
wicked one had not entered in him.
People come to me -- sometimes for wrong reasons. I can understand, because people are wrong. How can they come for right reasons? I have to persuade them, by and by, to be here with me for right reasons.
Otherwise they can be here for wrong reasons. They come to me to attain more power. I have to persuade them that power is not good. "Rather, you work for silence."
Silence doesn't seem to be so attractive as power. Power is foolish but looks very attractive to the ego. They ask me, "If we meditate, will we become more
powerful? If we meditate, will SIDDHIS come to us, will powers come to us? Will we be able to do miracles?"
This is coming to me for wrong reasons. This is all foolish, because even if you can do miracles, what is going to happen? You may attract a crowd, you may be worshipped, but you will remain in the ego. Crowds may come around you, but God will be far away.
Those who have been working deeply in the world of consciousness -- Patanjali or others -- have always warned disciples that sometimes, even without seeking, power comes on your path. Then beware! Don't start using it, because if you start using it, you will be distracted by it. Now you are no longer moving towards God. Now your path has changed; now you have taken a different track. You will be lost there.
THIS IS HE WHICH RECEIVETH SEED BY THE WAY SIDE. If you throw
seeds and they fall by the side of the road, they will not be able to sprout. People will be always walking on them; they will be destroyed.
BUT HE THAT RECEIVED THE SEED INTO STONY PLACES, THE SAME IS
HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD, AND ANON WITH JOY RECEIVETH IT; YET HATH HE NOT ROOT IN HIMSELF, BUT DURETH FOR A WHILE: FOR
WHEN TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION ARISETH BECAUSE OF THE WORD, BY AND BY HE IS OFFENDED.
Then there is a second type who receives the word with joy -- but in a stony place. Your head is that stony place. You can listen to truth and receive it in the head. Head is very rocky, stony; it has no soil to help the seed to grow. You may rejoice that you have understood, but that understanding is not going to last very long. Sooner or later, that understanding will disappear.
Don't be intellectuals when you are near a man like Jesus or Buddha. They are not teaching philosophy and they arc not teaching any doctrine. They are teaching life... and life can be received only in the heart, not in the head.
The first, who Jesus calls THIS IS HE WHICH RECEIVETH SEED BY THE WAY
SIDE, has not even received in the head. He simply listens. He listens from one ear and it goes out by another. He never receives anywhere; he's the worst. The second is a little better. He receives, hut receives in a stony place: in the head.
The word enters into the head and becomes his reasoning, becomes an argument, a doctrine, a belief, a philosophy. Then, too, he may rejoice in it; he may be happy that he has understood. There are many here around me who think they have understood, and the seed has fallen in a stony place.…
YET HATH HE NOT ROOT IN HIMSELF -- in the head there is no soil and the seed cannot find roots -- BUT DURETH FOR A WHILE -- the seed will remain there for a while -- FOR WHEN TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION ARISETH
BECAUSE OF THE WORD, BY AND BY HE IS OFFENDED.
Sooner or later, if the word has been understood, your life will start changing.
You will become rebellious, you will start fa]ling off the society track. You will not be so much with the society as out of it. You will become a stranger in your own land. Then there is going to be trouble, persecution, tribulation.
And then... then you will betray the word. Because reason is not enough. Reason can carry the word if it is comfortable and convenient, but when trouble arises the reason will drop it and betray it. Only the heart can carry the word even when there is trouble, hardship. Even if death faces you, then too the heart will carry it. Only then can the seed have roots.
HE ALSO THAT RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD; AND THE CARE OF THIS WORLD, AND THE
DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, CHOKE THE WORD, AND HE BECOMETH
UNFRUITFUL.
Then there is one more type who heareth the word and who understands it in the reason -- or even allows a little of it to drop in the heart -- but he RECEIVED
SEED AMONG THE THORNS. His heart is not pure, his heart is not solely and wholly devoted to the kingdom of God. He has a thousand and one desires, and there are many weeds growing in the heart. The seed is lost in those thorny bushes.
Unless God becomes your only goal, THE only goal; unless God alone challenges you and all desires drop. He becomes the only desire: unless He is your only love and there is no competitor to it -- you will lose the seed. You will not be able to grow and become a vast tree of the divine. It will not be possible.
You have many desires. Maybe God is also one desire in it. You have many loves. Maybe God is also one of them. But God cannot be one amongst many.
Either He can be the only one or He will not be. You cannot divide your heart.
Sometimes people come to me and they say they have some other master. I tell them, "It is good. You go to your master, don't come to me. Or if you come to me, then come to me. Then forget your old master. If you are happy with your old master, if things are growing, go back with my blessings. If things are not growing -- as there is every possibility; otherwise why should you have come to me? -- then be courageous and drop completely out of the old relationship."
To be with a master, one needs to be wholly with him. Unless your heart is available to me completely and totally, the seed will fall in a thorny bush where many other plants are growing, and the seed may not have a chance to grow. The whole soil of your heart has to be cleared and cleaned before the seed can be sown.
HE ALSO THAT RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD; AND THE CARE OF THIS WORLD, AND THE
DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES, CHOKE THE WORD, AND HE BECOMETH
UNFRUITFUL.
BUT HE THAT RECEIVED SEED INTO THE GOOD GROUND IS HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD, AND UNDERSTANDETH IT; WHICH ALSO
BEARETH FRUIT, AND BRINGETH FORTH, SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD, SOME SIXTY, SOME THIRTY.
Then there is the right person who receives the word in the heart, where no thorns and thorny bushes are growing -- where only one plant of the divine is received, where only one love exists and only one ambition and only one desire.
Then your heart has become the temple.
These are the four possibilities. Jesus says, "These are the people who come to me. I have to talk in parables so everybody receives according to his understanding." Somebody may be just enjoying the parable. Good!... but it does not go very far. Some will receive it in their reason, in their heads. Good as far as it goes, but it will not last long. Soon, whenever there is trouble, they will betray.
The last night, when Jesus took leave from his disciples, one disciple followed him. Jesus had been caught, had been made a prisoner. The enemy was taking him to prison. One disciple followed. He said, "Lord, I will come with you wherever you go."
Jesus said, "You don't know. Before the morning, before the sun rises, you will have denied me three times."
But the disciple said, "Never! I will never deny you. How can I deny you? I will never betray you. Even if I am killed, I'm ready."
Then he followed Jesus in the crowd. Somebody seeing him -- that there is some stranger -- asked, "Who are you?"
He said, "I come from another town." He said, "Are you a follower of Jesus?"
The disciple said, "No, I don't know who Jesus is."
Jesus looked back and he said, "The sun has not risen yet." Nobody understood,
but the disciple understood.
Then again, when they were reaching near the prison, somebody again looked at this man and said. "Why are you following us? Who are you? " They thought he was a spy or somebody.
He said, "I am a stranger and just out of curiosity, to see what is happening, I'm following you."
"So you don't belong to Jesus? "
He said, "Who is this Jesus? I have never even heard of him.' Jesus looked back and said, "Yet the morning is far away."
Again at the gate of the prison somebody asked and the disciple again denied --
three times before the sun had risen. The disciple must have understood the word in the stony place, in the head. The head cannot sacrifice. Only the heart can sacrifice.
Unless you are ready to sacrifice your all, God cannot become a truth to you. He demands all, not a small bit less. He demands you totally. That is the challenge.
Only the heart is mad enough to do that; the head is too clever. It can give a little, but it always holds much back. It can come out a little, but the major part remains inside: watching. seeing, calculating whether it is worth it. It is always ready to withdraw if things go too far.
People were with Jesus when he was hailed as the son of God and the multitudes were there. But when he was crucified, those masses disappeared. Nobody was there. Only a few disciples were there, and even those disciples were hiding in the Crowd of the enemies. When Jesus was crucified, only three women came near. That is symbolic: that only the heart can come near in such moments.
If Jesus was going to be enthroned, then all the disciples would have been near.
In fact, there would have been a great competition. They had even been asking Jesus before he died: "Lord. when you will reach heaven and sit by the right side of God, please tell us what will be our positions? Who will be sitting by your
side, and who will be next? " Ambitious heads, ambitious minds, ambitious egos.
If Jesus was going to be enthroned, then they would have been in great competition to be near him.
But he was crucified. Hiding in the crowd, they were watching. If some miracle happened, then they would rush and declare that "We are the closest to him, the most intimate to him." But nothing happened. He simply died like an ordinary man, just an ordinary man. And he was so capable of curing others. He had raised the dead from the graves and he could not save himself. He had cured incurable diseases, he had done all sorts of miracles. The disciples were waiting: if some miracle happened and Jesus attained to glory and to God -- if God came down and saved His son, the only begotten son; if the crucifixion became an enthronement and he was declared the king of the world -- they would have rushed. But nothing happened, no miracle. Jesus died like an ordinary man.
This was the miracle: that he accepted. Whatsoever the will of God was, was going to be his will. He accepted it in totality. "If he wants me to be killed on the cross, perfect. Then that is what is to be the case. Then that has to happen."
He dropped his ego and will completely. In that moment, the greatest miracle happened.
But it was so deep, so inner, that the disciples could not see it. Only three women reached Jesus, to take his body from the cross.
This is symbolic. The heart came close even when he was dead, crucified, with nothing to give. The heart is always with. In glory, in success, in failure -- the heart is always with. The head is with you when you succeed. When you fail, the head fails you. It escapes. It is cunning, it knows when to be with somebody and when not to be. It withdraws, it simply denies. "Who is this Jesus? I have not even heard the name."
Three poor women, one of them a prostitute, Mary Magdalen, came to take possession of the body. They brought down the body of Jesus from the cross.
Whether crucified or enthroned makes no difference for the heart. The heart is not a calculator, the heart is not a Jew. The heart can stake all and all. That's why the heart becomes the door of God.
That is the fourth possibility. Then the seed reaches to the right soil.
... AND BRINGETH FORTH, SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD, SOME SIXTY, SOME
THIRTY.
Much harvest comes out of a single seed. Remember, when Jesus gives you something, he is just giving you a seed. If you give it a chance to grow in your heart, it will become an hundredfold, even a thousandfold.
You cannot understand whatsoever jesus is giving you until it grows in you. A seed looks just like a pebble. It does not look like a diamond -- an ordinary pebble. Sometimes the pebble may even look more colorful, more precious. But the pebble remains a pebble: it has no potentiality, it is dead. Even a diamond has no potentiality. But a seed.… That is the difference. The pebble is dead, the diamond is dead, but the seed is alive. It can grow, it can become more, and more, and more. An hundredfold, a thousandfold -- and then millions of seeds will come and they can again grow an hundredfold, a thousandfold.
It is said that one single seed can fill the whole earth with greenery. Just a little time is needed. And if you give more time, a single seed can fill the whole universe with greenery, with flowers. Such is the potentiality of a seed.
When Jesus talks to you, he is not giving you flowers. He's giving you seeds. You might have wanted to get flowers because their value is obvious, but he gives you seeds because he knows that a flower is just on its deathbed. A flower is at its last stage; a seed has not even begun yet. A seed is infinite potentiality; the flower is exhausted.
That is the difference between an awakened one and the so-called pundits, rabbis. They give you flowers: exhausted. You can enjoy them a little, decorate your room for a while, but the flower is exhausted. A Buddha, a Jesus, a Krishna
-- they giVe seeds. That's why a rabbi can be very famous in his time, but then he is forgotten. A pundit may be very famous when he is alive, but when he is gone, he is gone. Jesus lives and lives and lives; Buddha goes on living. They give seeds. Millions of flowers come out of them and millions of seeds. They continue; there is a continuum of life.
A parable is a seed. It depends on you how it will unfold itself. You can lose it like a dead thing if you hear it and don't understand. Or you can lose it if you hear it and understand only by the intellect. Then it falls on stony ground. Or you can lose it by understanding, even giving it a place in the heart, but amongst so many bushes. No, Jesus wants your whole heart. Nothing less will do. It is a total commitment.
When you come to me to be initiated, it is a total commitment. It is a risk. You are taking a jump into the unknown. So only courageous, very courageous people can move onto the path. Only those who dare. It is risky and dangerous. You have never known it before. You will be moving for the first time, so you don't know.
I was reading a story. In a desert it happened: a man came to a place where he was feeling very thirsty. There was a hand-pump by the side of the road. He went near, very hopeful, and there was a small note hanging with the handpump. On the note it was written: "Please. The road traffic is almost nil; years pass before some traveller comes by. The pump is in order, but for years nobody uses it, so first you will have to put water in it. I have hidden a big bottle full of water under the white rock. Please don't drink it. If you drink even a part of the water, then there will not be enough for the pump to start. Trust me. If you put all the water in the pump it will function and there will be enough water coming out for you. And remember, before you leave, fill the bottle again and put it under the rock." The note was signed -- and the date on it was twenty years before. For twenty years.…
The man ran to the white rock. The bottle was there. Many people had passed, but everybody had trusted the man. There was every possibility that you may have thought: who knows if this man is mad or crazy? Or is just a practical joker, playing a joke on you? If you put in the water, who knows? -- the water may be lost and the pump may not start. You are thirsty, amidst a desert; for miles there is no town. It is dangerous and risky to trust. And it is somebody unknown. You don't know who this man is. He has signed his name, but who is he? But everybody followed. This is trust.
And this man also followed. It is moving into the unknown: he was dying of thirst -- all temptation was there to drink the water first. Who knows? And this water can save him! It is absolutely clear that this water can save him. TO pour the water in the pump... maybe it will be lost, and the pump won't work. It is a
desert land.… Who knows? -- the pump might have been working when the last man came and it may not be working now. This is taking a risk; life is at stake.
But he poured the water. With trembling hands. with fear, with death near.
When you come to me and I.say something of the unknown. you have to trust me. There is no other way. And it is dangerous. Who knows? -- this man may be just a practical joker, he may be just playing a joke. Or maybe he is mad, crazy. It is a risk.
To walk with Jesus is a risk, to go with him is a risk, because wherever he is leading you have never been. The path is unknown, the goal is unknown. Only the heart can take that much risk because the heart is innocent, innocent like a child.
BUT HE THAT RECEIVED SEED INTO THE GOOD GROUND...
The heart is the good ground. And the good news can be received only in the good ground.
Jesus says: "That's why I talk in parables." The parable can be understood according to the man. He can understand it according to himself. If he has something within him, then the parable will hit that source and will give much.
If he has nothing in him, the parable will be lost.
If you don't have the base, the parable will not reveal the source of power to you
-- because then the wicked one enters, and you are possessed by the devil. Then the ego becomes more strong and rather than helping, you have been harmed.
A parable is beautiful: it gives you only that much which you can take. It never gives you more. But if you are ready -- or someday you will be ready -- then it starts giving you more and more and more.
I have heard that when President Abraham Lincoln was choosing people for his cabinet, one of his advisors suggested the name of a certain man. Abraham declined. The advisor asked why. Lincoln said, "I don't like his face." This can't be a reason! The advisor said, "But he's not responsible for his face. At least that should not be a reason. What can he do about it? He is helpless."
Lincoln said, "No. After the age of forty, every man is responsible for his face."
I agree with him. Absolutely true. After the age of forty, you are responsible for your face. It is the way you have lived, loved, worried. It is the way that you have behaved, related. It is how miserable you have allowed yourself to be, or how ecstatic. It is your autobiography. But after the age of forty.
You are responsible for your face. But I would like to tell you something more.
You are responsible for your soul also, not only for the face. Because you are whatsoever you have chosen to be. It you are miserable, this is your choice; if you are in deep darkness, that too is your choice. Unless you choose to return, God will not be available. Not that He is not available -- He is always available -
-
but He is helpless.
Face Him, turn back, look at the source, and suddenly He showers on you. Yes, remember this fundamental law: FOR WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL
BE GIVEN, AND HE SHALL HAVE MORE ABUNDANCE: BUT WHOSOEVER
HATH NOT, FROM HIM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH.
Come Follow To You, Vol 2 Chapter #8
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