24

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‌CHAPTER 24

24 May 1979 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Veet means beyond, Shastro means scriptures. Truth is beyond all scriptures, beyond all words, beyond all theories, philosophies. That is one of the most fundamental things to remember because man gets lost in words, and words can prove very dangerous, very fascinating, very alluring, very hypnotizing.

The word “God” has become so important that people are ready to die for it or to kill for it. And the word “God” is not God, the word is merely a word. You can call God by another name: Mohammedans call it Allah, Hindus call it Ishwar. There are three thousand languages on the earth and each language has many names for God. Sufis have one hundred names for God and Hindus have one thousand names for God. Hindus have devoted a whole scripture just to names – Vishnu Sahasranam: One Thousand Names of God.

God is not a word but an experience. One need not believe in it; one has to be open to existence to feel it. It is a feeling, not a thought. But down the ages man has been deceived by the so-called learned people, pundits, scholars, priests. Their whole business has depended on creating more and more complicated theories about God. And God is a simple experience, so simple that it is indefinable.

It is like the color yellow. If somebody asks you “What is yellow?” what can you say more than that yellow is yellow? It is indefinable. You can point out to him a yellow flower but that is not defining it.

It is so simple that no definition is possible. Defini-tion is possible only when something is complex, complicated. And the priests have played upon words.

There is an ancient parable that George Gurdjieff used to tell his disciples again and again. Once it happened that a few ants, explorer ants, discovered a picnic party in the forest. They had never seen

such beautiful food; they were wild ants – they had never smelt anything like this. It was ecstatic! They had never seen such color. They went berserk. But it was their duty and their work to inform the community, so they rushed back. They informed the community about the colors and the flavors and the food and the taste. Just seeing their ecstasy and the way they were describing it there was a panic, pandemonium. All the ants became so excited that all work stopped and they were all talking about food and flavor and color.

The elders became anxious, concerned. This was too dangerous! The peace of the community was in danger. So they told the other ants “Wait! Let us first go and see what is the matter and then we will bring the right message to you and tell you what has to be done.”

They went and they found that the explorer ants were right: the food was really absolutely unknown. Even in their long lives they had never seen or heard of such a thing. Not even in their beautiful ancient stories was such food mentioned not even in their mythology. It was simply incredible! They were really afraid that to tell other ants would become a danger: they would come and they would go mad. They would not be able to bear such ecstasy. Some way had to be found.

They found a way. On a paper napkin they made a map of the table on which the food was arranged. They colored the map. They rubbed the food on the paper so a little smell started coming and then they carried the map to the community. And the map was enough: the community went mad! They jumped and danced and they searched over the whole map. They talked about the lines and the beautiful curves and the colors and the smell. And they completely forgot about asking where the real thing was.

It is said they are still arguing about the map, still searching on the map and trying to find the food. It must be hiding somewhere there because the smell is there.

Yes, words can carry a little smell, a little flavor. When Buddha says something the word carries his flavor. For centuries it carries something alive, something vibrant in it. When Jesus speaks the poetry will go on resounding down the ages. But even the words of a Jesus or a Buddha are mere words, maps – not the real food. One has to be beyond them. Maps are good if they help you to go beyond. They are dangerous if you become obsessed too much with them.

That is the meaning of your name: go beyond all scriptures.

Veet means going beyond, gyan means knowledge – going beyond all knowledge.

God cannot be known. God can be lived, loved, but cannot be known. Knowledqe is a superficial relationship. Knowledge exists between the subject and the object. The knower and the known have to be separate; only then is knowledge possible. But with God we are not separate, we are one. The subject and the object are the same. The observer is the observed, the knower is the known. Hence no knowledge is possible.

We are part of God and God is part of us. We are manifestations of God – there is not even an inch’s difference. We have forgotten the fact, that is true; we have no remembrance of it, that is true. But just by forgetting it nothing is changed. You may forget your eyes but they are there; you may forget your hands but they are there. In some deep ecstasy you may forget your body but it is there. In sleep you forget every day but in the morning you find it again: it is there.

We are a metaphysical sleep: we have forgotten who we are. Hence we try to know God. That is utter nonsense! And because we cannot know we decide that God does not exist: if he had been there we would have known. We start with a wrong step and we automatically reach a wrong conclusion.

From the very beginning it has to be understood: God cannot be known because we are it. We can realize God, we can be it, but we cannot know it.

Hence the path towards God is not of knowledge but of meditation, not of learning but of unlearning, not of knowledge but of wisdom. And wisdom is not knowledge. Wisdom is utterly empty of all knowledge. Knowledge is like dust covering a mirror; wisdom is a mirror without any dust. Wisdom simply means that you are so silent, so without mind, so without noise, that that which is reveals itself on its own, is reflected.

The stance of a knower is a wrong beginning. Be a lover, not a knower. And that’s what sannyas is all about. I teach love. I teach life. I don’t teach knowledge, I am not a teacher of knowledge. I will help you to unlearn whatsoever you know. I will take all that you know away from you. I will unburden you. I will destroy your knowledge so that you can be freed from its bondage. And the moment one comes to a point of unlearning is the moment of revelation. When the mind is utterly absent, God is absolutely present.

[To a recently arrived sannyasin

Feel at home. Be as relaxed as possible, because things happen only when you are relaxed. If you are tense nothing happens. To be tense means to be closed; to be relaxed means to be open, vulnerable.

This is an energy-field. If you are open, vulnerable, you will soak up energy. It will sink deep into you, it will reach to your very core. You have to be here like a sponge. So just feel very relaxed, as if no worry exists, no world exists, no problems exist. For these few days that you will be here be utterly calm and quiet.

There is nothing to attain, nothing to achieve, no goal to reach. Enjoy moment to moment the sheer joy of being. And much is going to happen.

[To a sannyasin on his first visit]

Just be totally here and allow me to reach the innermost core of your being. Don’t resist, don’t come in the way. Don’t stand between me and you. Remove yourself, and then things start happening so easily, without any effort. And when things happen without any effort they have a tremendous beauty, just like a bud opening and becoming a flower.

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