11

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‌CHAPTER 11

24 February 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Ramteerth was an indian mystic – one of the most beautiful of this century. So read something about him... you can find the books. Just go through them, that’s all – they will be helpful.

[A sannyasin says she is going up and down, and she feels that when she is down she should do something about it]

There is no need to do anything, and there is no way to do anything. Once you understand it, you accept it. All doing is a form of rejection. All doing is a way of escaping.

When you feel happy, the valley part of it, the unhappiness, is bound to come – it is just the other aspect of the same phenomenon. You cannot avoid the unhappiness part. And the more you try to avoid it, the more unhappy it will look. You try to escape it by being occupied. But nothing is going to help, because anything that you do while you are unhappy is going to create more unhappiness – because the mind creates itself.

And this is the dilemma: when people are happy, they don’t bother to do anything. They will not meditate, they will not pray, they will not even bother about love – because one is perfectly okay, so why bother? And when people are unhappy, they want to do a thousand and one things, but whatsoever they do they will create more unhappiness. They are sowing wrong seeds.

So one thing to be understood – while unhappy, relax, rest. There is nothing to be done, nothing at all. Don’t make any relationships, because an unhappy person seeks someone who will sympathise with her unhappiness, and sympathy is not a good thing... it is not love. One who has sympathised with you when you were unhappy will feel you are obliged to him and will expect something in return.

So you don’t do anything. Keep as quiet and immobile as possible. If you can sit quietly for one hour only, just gazing at the wall and not doing anything, you will see that the unhappiness is disappearing.

And not only this unhappiness will disappear, but future seeds too. You will not be creating any more unhappiness.

When you are happy, do something – make a relationship, meditate, pray, dance, share. If you do something when you are happy, you are sowing seeds of happiness. More happiness will be coming. This is one thing.…

The second thing is that because you hanker for happiness, unhappiness cannot be totally avoided. It can be lessened, minimised, and the way to do that is not to do anything. Simply watch it, with not even a judgement that this is bad. It is there – what can you do? One simply watches, indifferent, aloof.

But still a few moments of unhappiness will come, and they will go only when your hankering for happiness goes. That is the second step: when you are happy, forget all about happiness and don’t cling to it. It comes or goes – perfectly okay. Its going is also needed, otherwise it will tire you too much. When happiness leaves you it simply says that now you should retire from doing. Unhappiness is the night part; happiness, the day part.

If you don’t cling to happiness, if you just enjoy and share it and forget about it when it comes, by and by you will see that those moments of unhappiness have disappeared. But they disappear only when the desire to be happy disappears. Then one simply lives. There is no happiness or unhappiness. One is calm and quiet and collected.Everything is peaceful, silent.

So just do these two things, and don’t be worried. It is good. [A sannyasin asks: Would show me your divine form?]

All forms are divine. There is no form which is not divine. The very idea to think of a divine form different from other forms is wrong. The form that you are seeing is divine. Your own form is also divine – otherwise is not possible.

God is not a separate entity. k is the very quality of existence. The very is-ness is divine. But if you are seeking some divine form, from the very beginning you have taken a wrong route. You will never come across it, and you will live a very frustrated life.

Show me any form which is not divine. How is it possible – that something can be without being divine? That’s why in the eastern countries even the devil is thought to be divine, because if he is, he is bound to be divine. Once you understand this, the whole of life becomes holy.

This is true religion – when the whole of life is sacred. Wherever you look is God, whatsoever you touch is God. You eat God, you drink God, you breathe God. You are God.

Be a good god, that’s all. As people say ‘Be a good guy’, I say ‘Be a good god’. (laughter) [The Enlightenment Intensive group were present at darshan.

[A group member says: I saw that whatever I am, I choose to be. I have absolute freedom.]

Absolutely. That is the greatest insight that can happen to a man.

[The groupmember continues: ... but I also felt that insight only goes so far, you know... But I saw for me to actually be this energy, to be this freedom... there is still in me a little bit of resistance to the flow. And that’s me, that’s what I am – the resistance. That’s terrifying, that’s really frightening to me; that’s to die.]

That too is your choice – that you go to a point and then you are stuck. That too is your choice – not to go beyond that. Not that freedom is stuck. You choose not to go beyond it. You see the point? Freedom is total, unconditionally, absolutely.

And you feel frightened. That too is your choice. These are all games that you choose. You also choose to deceive yourself, otherwise the game will be very futile. First you choose a certain game – of hide-and-seek – and then you choose to deceive yourself, so that you never come to know that this is a game. If you come to know that this is a game, the whole point is lost.

Wherever you move, and whatsoever you find, finally it is your choice. So never create a duality – that this is me, or this is the ego that is holding me back. No, that too is your freedom. You have chosen that way – and there is nothing wrong in it if you have chosen it. The only thing is, choose with full awareness.

Basically freedom is what one enjoys. If you are forced into heaven then it will be a hell for you. Man is born just as a possibility – nothing is certain. Existentialists say that man is born without any essence. He is born just as an existence. When a seed is born, it has some essence in it, a blueprint. The seed cannot choose – it is in bondage. It is going to be in a certain way, and it cannot do anything about it. The seed cannot say that now I will be a lotus seed, I don’t want to be a rose. The seed has brought its whole existence, unmanifested, in it – that is its whole essence. The seed is a slave.

A dog is born. He will never be anything else but a dog. His doggishness is already fixed; he has a pattern. You cannot say to a dog to be a true dog – he always is. You can say to a man that he is not enough of a man, but you cannot say it to a dog – it will be ridiculous. A dog is always perfectly a dog. He is never incomplete.

A man can be almost an animal or almost an angel. There are millions of possibilities. When a child is born, nothing is certain – whether he is going to be an Adolf Hitler or a Jesus Christ. It will depend on his choice. He is born as pure existence. The essence will be created by him. Through millions of choices, by and by he will create himself. Everybody basically fathers and mothers themselves. You create yourself continuously – and that creation is never a bondage.

If you want to change, you can immediately, this moment. A saint can become a sinner, and a sinner can become a saint – this moment. The past cannot hold you. That is the dignity of man – nothing holds. If you decide to remain with your past, that’s your choice. If you decide to break from it, nobody can prevent you. In a single moment all the past can disappear. You can become almost new. The slate can be cleaned completely, and you can start again from ABC.

This is one of the greatest insights, and on it much depends. So look at it, watch it. Try to find out exactly how it functions; how this freedom that you are, functions.

This freedom is creative. Out of nothing this freedom goes on creating millions of forms, but everything is basically your choice. Nobody is pushing or pulling you. If you allow somebody to force you, that’s your choice. If you allow somebody to push you, that is your invitation. But finally it lies in your hands.

People come to me and say they would like to surrender – but that is their choice. The freedom remains intact. It is never corrupted. Whatsoever you do – you become a murderer, a thief – your freedom remains uncorrupted. It was your choice. You can move beyond it, you can undo it. No act can become a bondage, and no act can force you into another act.

Once you understand this freedom, you simply feel tremendously blissful. This freedom is God. That’s what I mean when I say that you are all gods. You are creating yourselves out of nothing, just as God created the world out of nothing.

You came into the world with no being, just a possibility. You played around with many possibilities and settled for a few things, but those few things are not your destiny. You can detach yourself again. You can move in a new direction, towards a new destiny. By and by as more understanding arises, you will come to know that finally freedom is your nature, your destiny.

That’s why in India we call the ultimate state ‘moksha’ – total freedom, just total freedom. Allow that insight to penetrate you as deeply as possible, mm? It has been very good.

[Another groupmember says: I’m just really aware and appreciative of what a fabulous space I’ll be leaving in.]

It is fabulous. Go on living in it, and when you go back, take that space with you. And wherever you are, you can live in that space. So don’t forget and leave it here. Take it with you. Let it be in your luggage. It is weightless, so there is no trouble. Good!

[A group member says: ... it was painful... I had diarrhoea... I had some good moments... knowing much more about who I am. But I shall don’t know who I am in my totality.]

Sometimes it can be very painful because it re-opens many wounds about which you have become completely oblivious, which you have completely forgotten. One really suffers.

And diarrhoea and dysentery can come out of it, because those wounds are near the stomach. They are not in the physical body, but the subtle body corresponding and close to the stomach. When the subtle body is stirred and its wounds opened, they affect the physical body, and the stomach is the first victim.

But in a way it is good. In a few days you will feel that you are becoming very healthy – more than you have ever felt before. A sense of tremendous well-being will come in a few days – as if you are cleaned and some burden has disappeared from the body. You will feel so beautiful. You may not be aware yet what has happened in the group. It happens many times that only later one becomes aware of what has happened.

Soon you will feel a sense of well-being surrounding you. You will feel as if the body has disappeared, that you are weightless. You will feel that everything is good; that you are blessed and you can bless the whole of existence. Immediately that happens, you have to come and tell me, because that day you will understand what happened in the group.

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