< Previous | Contents | Next >
CHAPTER 6
16 January 1975 am in Buddha Hall SADHU, WHO’S KIDDING WHO? THE FORMLESS IN FORMS,
AND FORMS WITHIN THE FORMLESS,
SO WHY WANDER AWAY
THEY SAY, “HE’S FOREVER YOUNG, IMMORTAL”. BUT THE INVISIBLE REMAINS UNEXPRESSED NO FAMILY, NO CHARACTER, NO COLOR,
YET PERMEATING EVERY BEING.
SOME SAY, “HE’S IN EACH ATOM AND THE WHOLE COSMOS;” OTHERS SAY, “HE HAS NO BEGINNING OR END.”
ONE SAYS, “ATOMIC, COSMIC – DROP THIS BULLSHIT!” KABIR SAYS, “HE’S BHAGWAN!”
VEDAS SAY, “BEYOND FORMS RESTS THE FORMLESS.”
WITH FORM OR NOT – FORGET IT, BLESSED WOMAN, AND SEE IN ALL HIS HOME.
NEVER TOUCHED BY HAPPINESS, SADNESS; DARSHAN DAY AND NIGHT.
COVERED IN LIGHT, SLEEPING ON LIGHT, HEAD RESTING ON LIGHT.
KABIR SAYS: “LISTEN, BROTHER SADHU, THE REAL MASTER’S LIGHT THROUGHOUT. TO CALL HIM HEAVY, I’M MUCH AFRAID.
TO CALL HIM LIGHT’S A LIE. WHAT DO I KNOW OF RAM?
THESE EYES HAVE NEVER SEEN HIM.
Life is simple and straightforward. In life nothing whatsoever is complicated. Existence is not a puzzle, but a man’s mind is very intricate, and you have made a simple and straightforward thing both complicated and involved. Life is simple and straightforward, and that is the very reason you are unable to attain to life, why you are unable to live life in the right way. If life were arduous the mind would have solved the problem, the mind would have found some way to unravel it.
Existence is just in front of you and you are seeking it somewhere else. Your ego does not enjoy seeking something that is near. It asks, “What fun is there in seeking something close-by? The ego does not like the idea of achieving something which is already achieved; getting that which it does not have, it considers a challenge.
The ego has a habit of turning the simplest of things into the most intricate of problems, and when it has moulded things to its own liking, it then takes them as challenges, as things to be achieved. You then become engrossed in solving the very dilemma you have invented yourself. But remember this – if there were any complications in life they would have already been solved. There are no complications in life, and so nothing is ever solved – even though you keep trying, birth after birth.
Preserve this fact in your heart – life is to be lived; it is not a problem to be solved. Life is not a mathematical problem to be solved. On the contrary, life is a poem to be sung, a dance, a celebration in which you have to participate. Don’t stand apart and think about life. Don’t ponder it. The current of life is a continuous flow. Get into life. Don’t stand aloof from it; if you do, your relationship with life, your roots into life will be severed to the same degree.
In these lines Kabir is asking, “To whom should I complain? Who is being deceptive? What is the deceit?” Had this disease been contracted from another the responsibility would be his, but you yourself are the cause of this disease; you yourself are the cause of this deception. The drama of your life is such that you first set up the situation yourself and then try to unravel it. First you create a problem, a puzzle, and then begin looking for ways to solve it; first you close your eyes and then grope about in the darkness. If someone is sleeping it is easy to awaken him, but if someone is lying awake and feigning sleep then how is he to be awakened? And so Kabir asks:
SADHU, WHO’S KIDDING WHO?
Kabir is asking, “What is the deception? Who is the author of this deception? Who should I name? Who should be held responsible for this?” If it were a thief and he were stealing your property, he could be caught – but you are the thief and you are the property owner too.
As the quintessence of life, bear this in mind: you will never be able to solve the complexities of your life until you realize that you yourself are the basis and the cause of your own deception. How can you solve it? On one hand you try to unravel your life and on the other hand you make it more complicated. And so the whole thing remains virtually as it was in the beginning; there is no progress at all. On one hand you construct a building and on the other you knock it down, and so the building is never built; it always remains incomplete. Throughout all your lives you have not made one iota of progress. You are still wandering in the same valley in which you have always wandered.
I have heard that Mulla Nasruddin was once living in a village in the hills. One evening while he was sitting on his verandah, a car drove up and stopped. The driver asked, “Which is the way to Manali? I have missed the road.”
Nasruddin explained the way in great detail; he also drew him a map. The driver thanked him and proceeded on his way. After three hours the driver arrived at Nasruddin’s door once again, a very harassed man. “You are a terrible man!” he said. “I followed your map explicitly, and after three hours’ driving I am back at the very same place!”
Nasruddin replied, “Yes, I know. Now I shall show you the right way. First of all I wanted to know whether or not you could follow instructions. This was your test. Now I’ll show you the right way.”
Even after so many births you always find yourself back where you started. Have you progressed as much as an inch since your childhood? It is a possibility you have lost something, but it is a certainty you have gained nothing; you may even have regressed a few steps. You have not progressed at all. If someone had been pushing you backwards it might be excusable, but no one else is responsible for the condition you are in. And remember, no one but you can reach there either. No one can push you ahead; no one can push you back. No one can mislead you; no one can lead you. Satan does not have the power to mislead you, nor does God have the power to lead you.
SADHU, WHO’S KIDDING YOU?
The beauty of all of this is that you are the only person involved in this drama. You are the actor, you are the director and you are the producer. The drama is your dream, your fantasy. Have you ever thought about who is acting in your dream? No one but you. Who is the director? No one but
you. Who is the author of the drama? No one but you. And who is the spectator? No one but you. That is why the enlightened ones have called this world SAMSAR, a dream. You are the basis of the dream, you are the root of the dream, you are the center of the dream. You are the spectator and you are the play.
SADHU, WHO’S KIDDING WHO?
Kabir is asking, “To whom should I complain? To whom can I tell my trouble? To whom can I cry about my sorrows?” You wander here and there asking everyone, “Which is the way out? Where is the key? Where is the door?” You are misleading yourself; you are deceiving yourself. Have you ever asked yourself these questions: “Do I sincerely desire to seek God? Is my search authentic? Is my desire keen? Is my desire sincere?”
Once it happened that a Buddhist monk was on the brink of death. He called all his disciples together and said to them, “I have been explaining to you the way to NIRVANA, to liberation. I have been telling you about the door to freedom. You have listened to me, but I don’t know whether you have understood me or not. You don’t seem to move; you don’t seem to make any progress whatsoever. You are still where you were when you came to me. In spite of the fact you have been listening to me for years you have not progressed the tiniest bit. Now I am about to leave this body, and so I ask those of you who are really in earnest about achieving liberation to raise your hands.”
He had thousands of disciples, and they had all gathered together when they heard his last moments had come. Now they began to look at each other. One disciple stood up, but did not raise his hand. Instead he said, “Please do not misunderstand. I do want to be liberated, but not just now. Yet please show me the way. I am busy with a few problems at present; there is some work as yet incomplete. Let me finish these things first. I shall try to follow the path you have shown me one day. I won’t have to worry then, because I will know the way.”
You always ask the way. You think it will be helpful to know it now so that you will be able to follow it when some future time comes. But do you really want to reach the goal? Have you ever really desired him, have you ever yearned for him with that sincere and powerful longing Shree Aurobindo calls ABHIPSA. He calls it ABHIPSA and not AAKAANKSHA even thought both words mean desire to show that it is not ordinary desire, to show that it is a special desire, the desire for God. AAKAANKSHA is of the mind; ABHIPSA is the inner call of life, the call that comes from every cell, from every fiber of the body.
You are like a man who keeps food and drink safely in the refrigerator and eats and drinks whenever he feels hungry or thirsty. But you do not even know what real thirst or real hunger is. Think of a man lost in a desert far away from civilization. The sun is tremendously hot, like fire, and the man is so thirsty he cannot even walk a single step. He is in great distress, like a fish out of water. Every particle of his body is clamoring for water. At such a moment thirst is not a fancy, as it is when someone feels thirsty at the sight of a Coca-Cola bottle; it is not like it is when someone feels hungry at the smell of some tasty morsel. This man’s thirst is not like this; it is not an ordinary thirst he can postpone for a time. This man’s thirst is a question of life and death; if the fire in his throat is not quenched within a few moments he is certain to die.
The desire one has at such a critical moment is called ABHIPSA by Shree Aurobindo. Have you ever longed for God with the intensity of desire that a thirsty man lying in the desert feels? Have you
ever yearned for God like that? Have you ever risked your life in search of truth? No? That is why Kabir asks:
SADHU, WHO’S KIDDING WHO?
You do not really long for God.
Now let us look at this question from the other side. If I say to you that I am opening the door to liberation for you right now, are you ready to enter? Will you not say to me, “Please wait a moment; I have to go home for a moment?” If you are ready you will enter immediately, without a second’s delay. But you will hesitate. You will say, “Many things are still to be done. Many desires are still to be fulfilled.” Your mind will argue; it will say, “Liberation is eternal. It is not going to disappear. Let me complete these few things first. They are here this moment; they will not be available again, but liberation will always be there. What is the harm if it waits a little? If I go there tomorrow or the day after, it is all the same. Let me enjoy this SAMSAR, this world of dreams, a little while longer.”
The dream of liberation is very sweet and so you say you are not ready to go. You are always asking the way, but you really don’t want to make a move; you only want to hear about it. And then you assure yourself that you are a sincere and honest person. “I am not irreligious,” you say, “I am longing for truth. But truth is not as easy to obtain as some toy. I shall have to work hard for countless births. Only then will I achieve it.” This is how you deceive yourself; this is how you protect yourself. There is no other barrier in your life except you. No one else is barring your way; you yourself are the wall. You have planted your own feet firmly in the ground and are making all kinds of fuss about liberation at the same time.
Your thirst is not the thirst of the desert. It is a false thirst, a deception. If one’s thirst is sincere, it is sufficient unto itself; nothing else is to be done. Then your thirst is so strong your whole body is one with it. And then the thirst itself becomes the door. When you call for God like this, he is not even an inch away. Your thirst is the path. Clamor after God with all your eagerness, with all your sincerity, and the meeting will surely take place.
SADHU, WHO’S KIDDING WHO?
But you are great actors. You play this game in such a way that you do not even know you are doing it. You want to have it all, the world as well as truth. You are very crafty. You are sailing in two boats at the same time, so naturally you will never reach anywhere. No one can sail in two boats simultaneously. And remember, these two boats – the boat of religion and the boat of the world – are sailing in opposite directions. You are like the laundryman’s dog; you belong neither to the house nor to the riverbank. It would be better if you were to belong totally to the world than to be like the laundryman’s dog.
If you belong totally to the world, the deception you are practicing will perish one day, because you will realize eventually that the world has no substance, that it can never bear fruit. But to avoid such a situation, you live partially in the world and partially in God at one and the same time. This is not the way to experience ABHIPSA, to experience that keen, inner desire for God. Be aware of your cunning. You have played this game more than enough. How long do you want this game to continue? Come out of it now!
Your mind is behind all this cunningness, behind all this play-acting. The mind has a habit of looking at things in parts, and this creates deception. Whenever you look at things in this way, deception is bound to occur. No matter where you are, always try to look at things in their totality. Your journey will begin from there. Don’t look at things in parts. When you see a child being born, know that, along with birth, death is also there. Celebrate the birth of a child and at the same time be sorry; it is also the beginning of death. When an old person dies, weep – but be pleased as well because it is the beginning of a new birth, of a new life.
Why is deception created when you look at things in parts? Deception is created because you consider the part as the whole. That is the deception. You create it yourself. Birth is not a false thing; it is not a deception. Death is not a deception either. But you think of birth as the whole thing and wish to obliterate all trace of death. You wish to forget death completely, and thus the deception is created. Happiness is not a deception, but you look at it as separate from misery, and then there is deception.
You look at the parts and claim each as the whole. If a man is happy and you ask, “How are you?” he will say, “I am very happy.” Such a person is living in deception. Misery is already waiting just around the corner. Misery is standing just behind the curtain and yet he says, “I am very happy.” He does not know that he will be miserable the next moment. Happiness is not a deception, but now he will tell everyone that happiness is a deception, that it is something false. But the real deception was in his eyes; they saw one half of the thing but did not see the other half.
If you tell someone, when happiness comes to you, misery is going to follow, he will be displeased with you and ask, “Why do you say such awful things?” If a child is born at someone’s house and you say, “Death is being born,” you will be considered quite rude and turned out of the house immediately. If an old person is about to die and you begin to dance in celebration, people will say, “What are you doing? Here we are, full of grief, filled with sorrow, and you are dancing! Are you taking revenge on us for something we have done to you in some past life? Why are you celebrating this event?” And if you reply, “This is the beginning of a new life,” who is going to listen to you? If a man is in misery and you embrace him joyfully, telling him, “This is the moment to be happy. Your misery will soon be followed by happiness,” he will immediately push you away and say, “What a man you are! Here I am, suffering, and you start talking about wisdom and spiritual knowledge! Where is this happiness? My heart is on fire! It is broken; it is in misery!”
When you catch hold of a part and claim it to be the whole, that is deception. You consider the insignificant as the most significant; you take the momentary for the everlasting. When you look at a thing as it is and take it to be something else, that is deception. Then you are the victim of an illusion. This is the essence of illusion, of what the Hindus call MAYA.
Always look at the opposite; always think of the opposite as being just nearby, as being close at hand. Know that death is hidden behind birth. Look at the unhappiness following happiness and look at the happiness following unhappiness, and then you will neither become excited in happiness nor wretched in misery. Then there will neither be smiles in your happiness nor tears in your unhappiness. Then you will begin to be beyond both. And to go beyond both is to approach truth. No sooner do you know both simultaneously than you begin to go beyond them. Now you know that neither happiness nor unhappiness, neither birth nor death, neither night nor day will last forever.
Everything comes and everything goes away. But you will last. The witnessing consciousness
will last. The witnessing nature will last. The witness will last. All will come and all will go, but experiences do not last. This is why Kabir says:
NOTHINGNESS DIES, THE SOUNDLESS DIES; EVEN THE INFINITE DIES.
A TRUE LOVER NEVER DIES. SAYS KABIR: KNOW THIS.
All experiences will die. Only the witness will remain. THE FORMLESS IN FORMS,
AND FORMS WITH IN THE FORMLESS, SO WHY WANDER AWAY?
Kabir says that people are perplexed, confused. Some say that God is without attributes, that he is absolute, and others say he possesses attributes. Some say he has form and others say he is formless. Some say he is the highest happiness; others, that he is the most blissful. And some consider him so evil that they are unable to accept his existence at all. All religions have their own views, their own opinions about God. All these beliefs are partial, incomplete, and those who entertain such partial beliefs will remain in deception. You may believe that God is blissful, but such a belief is partial – where would evil come from then? If God is all sweetness then where does the salt in life come from?
The Jews have a very rare book called the Talmud. It contains sentences the likes of which are not to be found in any other scriptures in the world. There are sentences like, “God is not nice. God is not your uncle. God is an earthquake.” Kabir has also said such things, things like, THE HOUSE OF LOVE IS NOT YOUR AUNTIE’S.
God is blissful as well as malevolent. Satan is not outside God; he cannot be. God is both. What you call good is in him, and what you consider as evil is in him also; both come from him. Both birth and death are in him. He is not only the rejoicing at the time of birth, he is also the tears at the time of death. He is darkness as well as light. Look at things in their totality, and don’t worry about what befalls you, because greater calamities will befall you when you see the whole. You will be in great difficulty because all smoothness will vanish from your life. Your intellect will vanish, your capacity for discrimination will disappear and your power of understanding will be uprooted. The ground under your feet will give way and you will tremble. God is both. He is both the earthquake and the blooming flower. When an earthquake occurs and hundreds of thousands of people perish, that is God too. He is everything – birth and death, night and day. God is all.
THE FORMLESS IN FORMS,
AND FORMS WITHIN THE FORMLESS.
So don’t say he is without form or that he is with form, because the opposites are present in both conditions. God is the ultimate unity of all opposites. All converge in him; all meet in him. Nothing is safe from him. He is the great ocean into which all rivers flow. The sinner and the saint become one in him.
The distinctions between sin and virtue, between sinner and saint, are our creations. And because of these distinctions we remain in illusion. We worship a saint and hate a sinner; we honor the good and condemn the bad. But God is both. He is as much in the bad man as he is in the good. Otherwise how could the bad man live? The bad man exists, and God looks after him.
THE FORMLESS IN FORMS,
AND FORMS WITHIN THE FORMLESS, SO WHY WANDER AWAY?
Kabir says that this is the path, that if you deviate from it, even a bit here or a bit there, you will be lost. To look at the whole is the path. So look at the whole as a whole. Whatever difficulties there may be; whatever impediments there may be; no matter how hard it may be for your logic, for your intellect; no matter how much your mind may tremble, you should not worry about anything else at all. You should simply try always to look at the whole.
The intellect always wants to make things smooth and easy. Arithmetic is smooth and easy; that is why our intellects are so very interested in it. Logic is straight and smooth and so the intellect takes a great interest in it as well. Poetry is not so straight, not so smooth, and the intellect is not so interested. Love is a total riddle and so the intellect never travels that road at all.
God is the ultimate unity of all opposites. “This cannot be,” the intellect argues. “How can anyone believe that night and day are one, that good and bad are one? How is it possible?” “It is impossible,” the intellect will say. “It can never be! How can you bring good and evil together? How can you bring night and day together?” It is not necessary to bring them together; they are already united. And here – there is no distinction at all. No one can say when the day is over and the night begins. Each is a part of the same circle.
We think of happiness and unhappiness as quite separate things. But have you ever watched the moment when either happiness or unhappiness begins? Have you ever observed the phenomenon? You will find that all happiness changes into unhappiness. There is no happiness in life that does not turn into unhappiness. And if indeed you could find it you would have completed a unique research; you would have accomplished something that has never been done before in this world. Nor will you be able to find any unhappiness which does not turn into happiness. You may have to wait a little while for it, but it will surely change.
All things change into their opposites. Youth turns into old age; beauty changes into ugliness. All things change thus. A flower falls and turns into dust, and out of that dust a tree is born. Everything is joined to its opposite. In actual fact nothing like “opposite” exists, but we say one thing is opposite to another just to express it, just to be able to indicate the change.
When you give up the idea of oppositeness, your intellect will stop working and your faith will be born. Your power of discrimination will cease to work and faith will take its place within you. The quality of faith is so powerful that faith can see the opposite of a thing at the same time. It can see both the thing itself and its opposite. The intellect is very weak; it does not have the capacity to see the thing and its opposite at the same time. The intellect sees in parts. And it avoids looking at something that seems beyond reason, at something that appears difficult. The intellect works in a logical way. It is like a gardener who keeps the front garden well-trimmed and tidy. In front of the house the dry leaves and withered flowers are all swept away. There, old age is unseen and death is unknown.
There was once a Zen monk who was an expert gardener, and so the king of that country sent his son to him. About a thousand gardeners worked in the king’s garden, and what the prince learned from the Zen monk he conveyed to the gardeners and they followed his instructions. The monk had said to the prince, “I shall come to see your garden in three years. That will be your test. Just keep on working according to my instructions.” The instructions were not difficult to follow. There were one thousand gardeners and so the garden grew very well.
After three years the monk came to examine the prince’s work. That day the garden looked superb. It was perfectly clean; not a dry leaf or fallen flower was to be seen on the ground. The king and his courtiers were also present. The monk, after looking all around, seemed disappointed. The prince grew quite nervous. He had followed the monk’s every instruction. He had done his best, he thought, so he asked himself what could possibly be causing the monk’s obvious displeasure. The monk went around the whole garden, growing progressively sadder and sadder. At last he said to the prince, “This will not do. You will have to study the art for three more years. This garden has been done in a totally wrong way.”
The prince said, “Please tell me what mistake I have made. I have followed your instructions to the very letter. I have done nothing that goes against your instructions.”
The monk replied, “That is the mistake. You have done everything according to my instructions. You have followed them completely. You have done everything so completely there is no room left for God’s own work. All there is to be seen all over is human effort. The mistake may appear small, but it is very significant because you have missed the point. I’ll correct it.”
He ran off and returned with a basketful of dry leaves from a pile of rubbish and threw the leaves on the ground. They were carried here and there by the wind and finally spread themselves all over the garden. Then the monk said, “Now the mistake is corrected. Green leaves alone do not make a garden. Where were all the dry ones?”
To think of youth alone is self-deception; one must think of old age at the same time. The prince had only used his intellect, and the intellect always looks at things from just one side. The prince had preserved the beautiful and removed the ugly.
But there is also ugliness in the garden of life. There are both the intelligent and the dull-witted, the seekers and the non-seekers, the saintly as well as the satanic. All of these exist in the garden of life. And the garden of life is so vast. If there were only seekers living in a society, then it would be like this garden of the prince – green only, just a human creation. God’s hand would not be evident there.
If you want to see God’s hand, God’s creation, you will find it in the jungle, not in a garden. If you want to see God’s handiwork, visit the jungle. Things grow there in such mysterious ways you will not be able to understand it. There is neither rhyme nor reason; there is no arithmetical calculation, no logical reasoning. Things grow there by their own life-force; they seek their own way. The beauty of the jungle cannot be found in a garden, because the jungle is the embodiment of the vastness of the omnipresent God. In us, the jungle can create a confidence in the ultimate. Opposites are always there. A garden is a lowly thing, a man-made creation. Everything there is certainly neat and well-groomed, but because of that it is dead.
Life is to be lived in opposites. Life is composed of opposites. And it is beautiful because of them. Whenever you dispense with an opposite your action may appear logical, but truth is lost, religion is lost.
THE FORMLESS IN FORMS,
AND FORMS WITHIN THE FORMLESS, SO WHY WANDER AWAY?
To see formlessness in form and form in formlessness is the straight way, Kabir says. Then you will not miss the path. Then there will never be any need to leave it, because it is the correct path. To remain the middle of opposites is the right path. And to remain alert while in the middle is the proper way.
If you choose one of the opposites you will be afflicted by intellect, and so both the believer and the non-believer remain in confusion. Neither of them is religious; what concern has the religious person with atheism or with theism? For the religious man there are just two alternatives – he is neither this nor that or he is both at the same time – but he is never one of them.
The religious person cannot be a theist. To be a theist is far too trivial; it means he must say “yes” and ignore “no”. How can “yes” help you on its own if you do not have the strength of conviction to say “no”? There is no force whatsoever in the “yes” of a man who cannot say “no”. But there is force in the “yes” of the man who can say “no”!
The person who cannot say “yes” and can only say “no” is also diseased. There is no meaning or substance in his “no” either. But the man who can say both “yes” and “no” simultaneously is able to experience the total truth about life. Unless this happens to you, you will remain in illusion. God expects both things to be in you at the same time. He expects the impossible from you; nothing less will do. This is why only extremely adventurous and daring people set out on the path to God. What greater adventure is there in life than seeing the opposites at the same time?
The theists thought that Kabir was not a theist and the atheists thought that he was not an atheist; the Hindus thought he was a Moslem and the Moslems thought he was a Hindu. Kabir remained in the middle. A religious man will always be a riddle to others, because sometimes he will say “yes” and sometimes he will say “no”.
Kabir was the essence of the Vedas themselves but at times he would speak out in opposition to them; Kabir was a buddha himself but at times he would say, NOTHINGNESS DIES. Kabir’s words
have been included in the GURUGRANTH of the Sikhs by the disciples of Nanak and yet Kabir says about AUM, THE SOUNDLESS DIES, EVEN THE INFINITE DIES. Kabir is a jungle. He is like a riddle; he is difficult to comprehend. Scholars have written volumes on Kabir and they have all tried to trim him, to turn him into a well-groomed garden; they have tried to bring him into line with their thinking. And these scholars are honored in the universities.
I have heard a story. There was once a king who was a great lover of birds. One evening a very strange bird came and sat on his windowsill. The king exclaimed, “What! Can such a bird as this exist!” Such a bird was impossible to find in the king’s realm. It was a bird of foreign origin, just passing by on its journey. It was tired and so it sat on the king’s windowsill for a rest. The king became worried it might leave and so he had it caught. He had its wings clipped, and reshaped like those of the birds of his country. The bird’s beak was quite large and so he also had it cut down to size.
During these operations the bird wept and screamed, trying to free itself, trying to get away, but the king would not allow it to go. “No matter what happens,” he said, “no matter how difficult it is, this bird must be made into the proper form and the proper shape. This poor bird does not know how birds should be. It seems he has never seen himself in a mirror. What kind of bird can have such wings and such a beak?” So he had the beak and wings clipped and made the strange bird into a model of a perfect bird. Then he said, “Now, dear bird, you can fly away.” But it had no strength to fly away. Crying and writhing, it died there on the spot. This is a Sufi story.
The scholars were after Kabir. They wanted to clip his wings, to interpret him according to their own ideas. And that is what they have done. But their Kabir is a dead Kabir; he is well-trimmed, but he is just a shell. There is no life in their Kabir, no substance. Whenever you do a lot of intellectual trimming you lose the substance of the thing you are altering.
You have become lifeless through excessive use of your intellect. You may not have trimmed anyone else with it but you are certainly doing it to yourself. You have a model, an ideal, and you try to become like that. There cannot be greater stupidity than this. Try to be like yourself. There is no one else like you. You don’t have to become like Buddha or Mahavir or Kabir; you have to become yourself. After your death God will not ask you, “Why did you not become like Kabir?” If he were to ask this question at all, he would ask it of Kabir; why should he ask it of you? He will not ask you, “Why did you not become like Mahavir?” Have you any obligation to become like Mahavir? If you trim yourself outwardly; if you become like Mahavir as some Jain monks do, or like Buddha as some Buddhist monks do, then you will die. These imitators are already dead. Your so-called sadhus and saints are like cadavers, and the reason is that they have not tried to become themselves, but have tried to become like someone else.
To be one’s own self is a rare phenomenon. Your wings are your wings; there is no formula as to how they should be. The only purpose of wings is to enable you to fly. That is enough. Their shape, their style, their aspect, their color – all these are perfect if they enable you to fly. It is wings that make you free. Wings will fly you into the sky. Make your consciousness into your own consciousness. And if you find a dense forest inside, do not be afraid. And do not listen to the advice of your intellect. It will advise you to trim your garden, to keep things neat and tidy. A tidy garden always becomes a prison; a vast jungle is needed for freedom. Freedom is a union of all opposites, a unity of all the opposites.
No one will be able to understand Kabir correctly. A believer in a God of formlessness will say that Kabir keeps on babbling on about God, saying things like A TRUE LOVER NEVER DIES, a believer in a God with form will ask what kind of a worshipper Kabir is because he says nothing to contradict the concept of formlessness. No one who tries to understand Kabir intellectually will agree with him, but if you set your intellect aside and then try to understand him, you will certainly find great light in him.
THE FORMLESS IN FORMS,
AND FORMS WITHIN THE FORMLESS, SO WHY WANDER AWAY?
Then Kabir says:
THEY SAY “HE’S FOREVER YOUNG, IMMORTAL.” BUT THE INVISIBLE REMAINS UNEXPRESSED.
Kabir is saying not to be confused by what is written in the scriptures; what is, what exists, cannot be written down, cannot be described. Some scriptures assert that God is formless and others insist that God has form, but don’t let these contradictions confuse you.
THEY SAY “HE’S FOREVER YOUNG, IMMORTAL.”
Kabir is saying, “Don’t be confused; don’t be perplexed by what is being said.” BUT THE INVISIBLE REMAINS UNEXPRESSED.
What God is cannot be said. Why? All words have been coined by the intellect, and they all share a certain peculiarity – none of them can describe anything completely. That is each word’s speciality. If you say that God is favorable you reject the unfavorable. And if you say he is unfavorable, you reject the favorable. Words can only describe things partially. And this is our helplessness. Words can only speak about parts. If you go into a shop and say to the shopkeeper,“Give me this and don’t give me this,” at the same time, then how will you strike a bargain? Saying.”Yes,” and, “No,” at the same time will not do.
Life functions on incomplete words because what you know as life is itself incomplete. It is man- made; to run it, the currency of words is needed. And it is essential that this currency, these words, be unambiguous, otherwise how could you lead your life? There would be anarchy and confusion. Your words should be quite clear and unambiguous so that whoever hears them can understand you correctly.
In life, we have to accept many untruths. When you were born you had no name. Then you were given a name, a label. It is a false label. You are known as Ram, or Krishna, or Rahim according to the name your family has given you. No one is born with a name; everyone is born nameless. But you cannot remain nameless after your birth. The postman would have to come and ask, “Where
is that man who has no name?” If there were only one person without a name there would be no difficulty. He would be know as ANAAM, as nameless. But if everyone were known as ANAAM, it would be extremely difficult to find the right person.
The police were once in search of a man who had committed a crime and they happened to learn that Mulla Nasruddin knew him well. So a policeman came to Nasruddin and said, “We have heard you know this person very well.”
Nasruddin exclaimed, “Very well? I don’t even know myself very well!”
The officer retorted, “We have not come here to discuss metaphysical questions. We only want to know if this man is fat or thin.”
Nasruddin thought for some time and then replied, “One could say he is both. He is neither fat nor thin. He is in the middle.”
He said, “Then forget about that. Is he tall or short?”
Nasruddin replied, “Don’t put me into a muddle. This man is of medium height.”
Then he asked, “Is there anything particular about this man that might help us distinguish him from others?”
Nasruddin replied, “He is just like any other human being. He has two eyes, a nose, ears. He has all these things. He is nothing special.”
The policeman said, “This is becoming very difficult,” and began to ask more direct questions. “Has he a moustache?”
Nasruddin said, “Yes, he has. He is a man; why shouldn’t he have a moustache?” “What is the moustache like?”
Nasruddin replied, “How can I tell you? He always keeps trimming it.”
This is what would happen. So although it is untrue, a name is required. In the world, in SAMSAR, people go through their entire lives with these untrue labels, with these adopted names. One’s name is a convenience; it is not a truth. Although language is needed to move in this world, language does not express truth. The truth cannot be expressed. If you try to do so, not only will you be perplexed but you will confuse others also.
Language is created for communication between people. God is not a person to be communicated with; he is not the object of some communication. There is not going to be any discussion whatsoever between you and truth. Language is not needed there at all. Only deep silence is essential. There, all words, all languages, all names and addresses are left behind. There, only the one you brought with your birth and will carry with you after your death will remain. There, all that has been done between birth and death is simply of no use. That is the difficulty; that is the rub.
BUT THE INVISIBLE REMAINS UNEXPRESSED.
No one can describe truth; no one can express it. No scriptures, no Vedas, no Koran can express it. They have tried. They have given hints. But all efforts have been to no avail. And no effort will ever succeed because language can only express the incomplete. It has only been created for that purpose. It does not aspire to express the whole.
Whenever you try to rise a bit above your ordinary daily experiences, you find it difficult to express things fully in words. The poet experiences this difficulty because what he wishes to say is of the higher strata, of the beyond, yet somehow he manages to say what he wants to. But the enlightened man has a far greater difficulty to face. He wants to describe the ultimate, and so he has to bring it down to a lower level and express it in the ordinary language of the market. And in doing so, everything that is important and substantial is lost. The whole form is changed and something else emerges.
THEY SAY “HE’S FOREVER YOUNG, IMMORTAL.” BUT THE INVISIBLE REMAINS UNEXPRESSED.
And then he says:
NO FAMILY, NO CHARACTER, NO COLOR.
Kabir says God has no caste, no form, no color; so how can you describe him? Whether you say he is without form or you say he is with form, both your statements are incomplete. All qualities are his and yet there is not a single quality in him.
Let us try to understand this in detail. It is absolutely correct to say that all forms are his, yet he has no form at all. He cannot be in all forms if he himself has any particular form. Because he assumes all forms so easily, it is therefore evident he has no form himself. He is formless and manifest in all forms.
When water is poured into a clay pot it assumes the shape of the pot, and if it is poured into a jug it assumes the shape of the jug. Water does not insist on having its own shape. If water insisted on having its own shape, it would not assume the shape of the jug. But if you make water so cold that it turns into ice, then it assumes a shape. If you were to try to put it into a jug then, the jug would break. The ice will not take the shape of the jug. Water does not insist on having any shape or form. Water is easy; it is not obstinate at all. If water is turned into vapor, then it attains to an almost formless state. Up to a short distance vapor can be seen, but then it becomes invisible.
Water has three forms. One is formless. It spreads into the sky, leaving no trace behind it; it cannot be found no matter how you try. The second form, the middle one, is that of water. It does not insist on having any particular shape but yet has some shape, because it assumes the shape of the container into which it is poured. The last form is that of ice. Ice is obstinate. A fluid thing like water can become as hard as stone!
You also have these three states. You either become obstinate like ice – and this is the condition of great ignorance – or you can be like water. This latter condition is the state of the wise man, of the man who is not yet fully awakened though he has achieved glimpses of consciousness. Now he is
no longer obstinate; now he will adopt the form of wherever it is he is placed. And third, we come to the condition of the fully enlightened man, to his condition when he is merged in the supreme consciousness. Now nothing remains to assume shape; now he is like vapor.
People often used to ask Buddha, “Where will you be when you leave this body?” Buddha used to reply, “I cannot go anywhere. I shall be lost, merged into the vastness of consciousness.” Meister Eckhard was a very wonderful Christian saint, and someone once asked him too, “When you leave the body, where will you be then?” Eckhart replied, “There is no need to be anywhere.” The listener could hardly have understood his answer, because his language was the language one uses to explain the nature of vapor.
Where does vapor go? Now the whole sky is its abode. Water has a certain place it must keep, but water is humble and adaptable and not hard as stone, like ice is. Water adopts the shape of the container into which it is put. And then there is the state of ice, the state of deep ignorance. The state of vapor is the state of supreme knowledge. The state of water is the state of the seeker. He has ceased being like ice and is preparing himself to be like vapor. As a seeker, he is standing in the middle. Can there be any form to God? He is all types of shapes and forms; he is in ice, in water and in vapor. All forms are his and yet he has no form at all.
YET PERMEATING EVERY BEING.
Then Kabir says:
SOME SAY, “HE’S IN EACH ATOM AND THE WHOLE COSMOS”; OTHERS SAY, “HE HAS NO BEGINNING OR END.”
People say God is in everybody as well as in the universe, but Kabir says God has neither beginning nor end. A body has a beginning and a body also has an end. So has a universe. All are created and all will disappear, but God has neither beginning nor end. This statement does not make clear what we want to say. These hints about him are not enough. Our minds grow confused; we arrive at the end of our wits. To describe him, our thoughts are impotent.
SOME SAY, “HE’S IN EACH ATOM AND THE WHOLE COSMOS”; OTHERS SAY, “HE HAS NO BEGINNING OR END”.
ONE SAYS, “ATOMIC, COSMIC – DROP THIS BULLSHIT!” KABIR SAYS, “HE’S BHAGWAN!”
Set aside the individual, the universe, the shape and the shapelessness, form and formlessness; set all these ideas aside and then say like Kabir, HE HAS NO BEGINNING OR END. If you are able to say something, then it will be about God. Raidas has said:
GOD IS NOT THE WAY YOU DESCRIBE HIM;
HE IS SOMETHING LIKE THIS AND SOMETHING LIKE THAT.
Kabir says you will not be able to say that he is with form or that he is without form; that he is the universe or the vastness or any such thing. Kabir says to stop saying anything. Then if you can say something, no matter what it is, it will be God.
In actual fact you will not be able to describe him at all; you will have to keep complete silence. He is that silence. Only silence can tell you what God is. No words can describe him; you will be speechless. You will be like the dumb man who tastes the sweet, is pleased, and smiles. He is not able to express the taste; he is only able to smile. You will be like that. But every fiber of your being will be smiling, because now there will be silence and emptiness from your side and wholeness from his. No sooner do you become empty than you are filled. Then God comes to dwell in you; then the guest has entered within. You will not be able to say what has happened, but your whole being will express the happening.
THE SWEETS OF A DUMB ONE – HE ENJOYS... AND SMILES.
And then:
VEDAS SAY BEYOND FORMS RESTS THE FORMLESS.
WITH FORM OR NOT – FORGET IT, BLESSED WOMAN, AND SEE IN ALL HIS HOME.
Kabir says the state of formlessness is beyond the state of form, that the state of formlessness begins where the state of having form ends. Formlessness begins where form ends.
WITH FORM OR NOT – FORGET IT, BLESSED WOMAN, AND SEE IN ALL HIS HOME.
In the original Hindi sutra, Kabir uses SOHAGIN for “blessed woman,” for the devotee. It is a very beautiful word. SOHAGIN is a woman whose husband is living, but Kabir uses this word in a spiritual sense, to indicate one who has achieved God. The opposite of SOHAGIN is ABHAGIN, a widow. Spiritually speaking, a widow is one who has not yet attained to him. Her search is still on. Your life is like that of a widow so long as you have not attained to him. The life of a widow is like a desert in which no springs of water flow, in which no flowers bloom. But no sooner do you achieve God than you become SOHAGIN, than you share the experience of Kabir:
KABIR SAYS: CLOUDS OF LOVE CAME ON ME SHOWERING; SOAKED THE HEART,
GREENING THE INNER JUNGLE.
Generally, the life of a worldly person is like that of a widow. Kabir has chosen a very good symbol. Imagine the condition of a widow. She once had everything, but now all her joy and sparkle have gone. This is why widows do not wear colored clothes; it is symbolic. There are no inner joys, no inner colors any more, so there is no question of showing any color on the outside. Her bangles are broken because the jingling sound of bracelets no longer suits her; all make-up is now finished for her as well. In the old days a widow even used to burn herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband.
Really speaking, you are not alive until you achieve God. Your life is like a funeral pyre; you are just like a widow sitting on the funeral pyre. You may keep on doing many things but there will be no music in your life. The music of life will only begin to play when your consciousness joins the dance of the supreme consciousness. Then there is rejoicing:
SAYS KABIR: I’M TO WED. AND THE MAN’S IMMORTAL!
Then your life will be tremendously valuable. It will be just as Kabir says: WHEN THE BRIDE MEETS HIS EMBRACE
THE GUESTS ALL FADE AWAY.
Then all of a sudden, all your worldly affairs – the shop, the services you perform, your other outside activities – seem pale in comparison, seem to be of no importance whatsoever. But at the present you are caught in the net of these worldly affairs, like a fish and so you forget your self. But no sooner does the lover come to you than all else pales, than all your confusion disappears. Such a condition is called SOHAGIN by Kabir. Kabir calls a BHAKTA, a devotee, a SOHAGIN.
Kabir says go beyond the Vedas – they are nothing but words, nothing but language, nothing but principles. They are just literature. Who can reduce to writing that which is beyond writing? Go beyond all written things.
WITH FORM OR NOT – FORGET IT, BLESSED WOMAN, AND SEE IN ALL HIS HOME.
Kabir is addressing the devotee, the lover of RAM. He tells the SOHAGIN to forsake both form and formlessness.
As soon as you give them up too, as soon as you give up duality, oppositeness, you will find him present in every place. Then there is a holy place in every atom; then there is worship in your every breath. Then everything is holy because he is everywhere – in the flowers and in the stones, in happiness and in misery, in birth as well as in death. Then you are no longer a tiny stream. You have met the ocean; you have fallen into the sea. You have become one with him.
AND SEE IN ALL HIS HOME.
Then Kabir says:
NEVER TOUCHED BY HAPPINESS, SADNESS;
DARSHAN DAY AND NIGHT. COVERED IN LIGHT, SLEEPING ON LIGHT, HEAD RESTING ON LIGHT.
KABIR SAYS: LISTEN, BROTHER SADHU, THE REAL MASTER’S LIGHT THROUGHOUT.
Kabir says that there, neither happiness nor unhappiness exists, so be careful. When you go in search of religion, honestly speaking you are in search of happiness. Understand that your search is not yet authentic; realize that it has not yet begun. You do not know what you are doing yet. You are creating SAMSAR, worldliness, even in religion.
ANAND, bliss, does not mean happiness. It does not mean great happiness either. It means there is neither happiness nor unhappiness, and so there is no antonym, no word opposite in meaning to ANAND, to bliss. It is a unique word. All words have antonyms, but there is none for bliss. There cannot be; it is symbolic for oneness, for where the two have disappeared. In bliss, there is neither happiness nor unhappiness, neither peace nor restlessness; in bliss, all dualities have gone and only God remains. And when neither happiness nor unhappiness exist for you, there is bliss twenty-four hours every day.
If God is lost to you it is because there is some curtain before your eyes. It may be happiness or it may be unhappiness, but each of them is a curtain. Your eyes become clear when neither is there. Then only God is seen the whole day long. Then you will not go to Mecca or to Kashi or to Kailash. Then for you, in the whole twenty-four hours, there will be no one but him. Every breath will be his breath.
COVERED IN LIGHT, SLEEPING ON LIGHT, HEAD RESTING ON LIGHT.
What is the condition of the SOHAGIN, of the devotee, at such a moment? That supreme light has become his bed, his blanket, his pillow.
KABIR SAYS: LISTEN, BROTHER SADHU, THE REAL MASTER’S LIGHT THROUGHOUT.
Such a SOHAGIN becomes a SATGURU, a true master, because his whole life is filled with the vision of God. Now his life is light, nothing but light; now he is totally light itself. But you are in total darkness at present.
Once Mulla Nasruddin was going on a pilgrimage. At a particular station he was arrested by the police. They suspected him of having something prohibited in his bedroll because he seemed to
be overly careful of it. Policemen are always of a suspicious nature. If you put your hand into your pocket frequently, a pickpocket will suspect there is something valuable there and will rob you. When there is nothing valuable in a man’s pocket, he never puts his hand into it to check.
Because Nasruddin was checking his bedroll frequently the police asked, “What is in your bedroll?” The Mulla replied, “Only things that are needed for sleeping. What else would their be in a bedroll?”
A policeman said, “Perhaps but we have our doubts. Open your bedroll.” It was opened. Everything the Mulla needed for sleeping was there, but there were also two bottles of wine. Jokingly, the policeman asked, “Do you use these as a covering or as part of your bed?”
The Mulla replied, “I use them as pillows.”
There is a world of darkness where unconsciousness is a pillow, a headrest. And darkness is your covering, your bed. You live, pressed between darkness and unconsciousness.
The condition of a sohagin is the opposite of this – he sees God all around him; he is surrounded by light. He sees God in every atom; he glimpses light in every particle of matter. That is why the enlightened ones have so often asserted that God is light, why the Koran, the Upanishads and the Bible all say that God is light. You will even see his light during the darkest night of the dark of the moon. Darkness no longer exists for you then; it was only there because your eyes were closed. When you awaken there is light all around; then the light of God becomes your bed, your blanket, your pillow.
KABIR SAYS: LISTEN, BROTHER SADHU, THE REAL MASTER’S LIGHT THROUGHOUT.
At such a moment the SOHAGIN becomes the SATGURU, the real authentic master. Yesterday he was in search; today he has achieved. Now his whole being – every atom, every breath, every beat of his pulse – is nothing but light.
It is an arduous task for you to see God – you have to prepare a receptacle to receive him; you must be fit enough to contain him. It is easy to see a master because he is the middle rung. He is something like you and yet something of him is not like you. If you only look at that which is like you, you will ask, “What is there in him? He is just a human being like me. Why should I bow down to him? Why should I surrender to him? Why? What is so special about him? He is just like me!” But if you set the likeness aside and look for that which is not like you; if you seek this lovingly and sincerely, very soon you will find it. And then a relationship between him and you will be formed. Now you will be able to accept him, because half of him is also like you. Now he can extend his hands to you; now he can help you.
The master is like a halfway camp on the climb to God. You will not be able to proceed on your pilgrimage directly or without help; in the halfway camp you will not only be able to rest, you will also be able to prepare yourself for the further journey. The master is food for the journey; he will prepare you. And then one day you will reach; you too will become light, nothing but light.
The master is a unique phenomenon; he is the greatest wonder in this world. He is just a human being, just an ordinary person, and yet he has something that is not human, that is out of the ordinary; he carries information of the other world. He has seen something special; he has seen some special light. And you can glimpse this light in his eyes.
But everything depends on you, on how you look at him, because his behavior and most of his habits are just like yours. If you can see only this you will be lost in it, and the door to further progress will remain closed to you. And you will be responsible. The trick to seeing the Master, to recognizing him, is to eliminate that in him which is also in you and to seek in him that which is not in you. If you can get to that, then seek his help. Then he will be an alchemist to you, and with his help you will begin to transform yourself. It is just like turning milk into curd – you just put a spoonful of curd into the milk. The master is like a spoonful of curd. Until yesterday he was just like you; he was milk too.
Bear the various stages of milk in mind. If you simply allow it to be, it turns sour – and everyone reaches this state at the time of his death unless he becomes curd in time. But for you to become curd it is necessary some curd be put into you; that will change your inner chemistry. With the Master’s help you will become curd, and then the rest of your journey will be smooth; then you will not need any help.
Then without anyone’s help, butter evolves out of the curd, and finally, without anyone’s help either, GHEE evolves out of the butter. But for the milk to be turned into curd in the first place a link is needed. That link is the spoonful of curd. A spoonful of curd must be added to you.
The master will also taste a little bitter; he will taste a bit sour as well. He will break you, he will smash you, he will completely transform the chemical processes within you, and you may feel a bit bitter, a little sour too.
If you just keep waiting, you will miss the opportunity; you will become sour milk. And it is very difficult to turn sour milk into curd; this is not the order of the process. Another birth will be needed; new milk will be needed. And then again, there will be all that waiting for the spoonful of curd. If you become mixed with curd before you turn sour, a transformation will take place in you. The master is like curd.
Kabir says:
COVERED IN LIGHT, SLEEPING ON LIGHT, HEAD RESTING ON LIGHT.
Then:
KABIR SAYS: LISTEN, BROTHER SADHU, THE REAL MASTER’S LIGHT THROUGHOUT.
And the last sutra:
TO CALL HIM HEAVY, I’M MUCH AFRAID. TO CALL HIM LIGHT’S A LIE.
WHAT DO I KNOW OF RAM?
THESE EYES HAVE NEVER SEEN HIM.
Here, Kabir is saying something very unique. When the whole of one’s consciousness is filled with light; when the whole of life is filled with light; when he is evident everywhere, a very strange thing happens – it becomes very difficult to describe what is being seen. It becomes difficult even to say that something is actually being seen; there is not even that much ego left. The observer and the observed have become so united, so at one with each other that there is no more distance. And without distance the eyes cannot see. That is why Kabir says:
TO CALL HIM HEAVY, I’M MUCH AFRAID. TO CALL HIM LIGHT’S A LIE.
You ask me what God is. I am afraid to say he is heavy. I am afraid to say he is heavy because you will misunderstand. You will misunderstand because he is also present in the smallest, in the lowliest. And if you hear me say he is heavy you will at once decide that he can be in the Himalayas but not in a grain of sand. You will decide he can be in holy people but not in sinners, because I say he is heavy, in the sky but not in the ground. Kabir says:
TO CALL HIM HEAVY, I’M MUCH AFRAID.
All the enlightened ones are afraid to speak to you, afraid to say anything to you. Before truth was achieved they were not afraid to talk to you, but after the achievement they are afraid to speak about him to the ignorant. And there is also the fear you will misunderstand what they say. If I say to you that God is lowly I will also be telling you a lie, because he is not lowly; he is not light. God is heavy; he is not insignificant at all. Yet I am also afraid to say he is heavy, because he is hidden in the lowly as well. He is like the Himalayas even in an atom. He is hidden in his total infinity even in the smallest and shallowest breath. There is great difficulty in trying to describe him. In his totality and wholeness he is even hidden in a sinner.
WHAT DO I KNOW OF RAM?
THESE EYES HAVE NEVER SEEN HIM.
This is the ultimate situation of an enlightened man; this is when he experiences the final helplessness. God is beyond description; God is beyond sight, and although He is present all around, although He is all-pervading, no eyes can see Him. All eyes are absorbed into His eyes; all light has merged into the greater light.
Sufi fakirs say that eyes are also part and parcel of light, of the sun. They say eyes exist so they can see the sun, so that one equal can see and know another equal. And the Sufis also say that when God’s great light is manifest your eyes are absorbed into it, just as ice is absorbed when it melts and mixes with water. When the eyes are absorbed and the person hidden behind the eyes is also absorbed, this is the point when Kabir says:
WHAT DO I KNOW OF RAM?
THESE EYES HAVE NEVER SEEN HIM.
As long as “I” is there, there is no God. And when God becomes manifest there is no “I”; “I” is lost. Along with the passing of the ego, of “I”, the eyes also disappear. In the English language there is only one sound for the words “eye” and “I”. To distinguish between them they are spelled differently, but it seems as if those who coined these words must have done it intentionally because both are pronounced alike. They also have a deep relationship. When “I” is lost, the eyes are also lost – and when the eyes are lost, “I” is lost too. That is why we pity the blind so much. We do not pity the deaf or the dumb or the lame as much as we pity the blind. We do not even pity the dead quite as much. The man who has no eyes has nothing; he is deprived of virtually everything.
Eighty percent of your ego is created by your eyes. Your eyes are primarily responsible for the ego, and so when the whole ego disappears the eyes disappear too.
WHAT DO I KNOW OF RAM?
THESE EYES HAVE NEVER SEEN HIM.
“So,” Kabir says, “anything I say about him will be incorrect.” TALE OF LOVE, UNTELLABLE.
NOT A BIT’S EVER TOLD.
THE SWEETS OF A DUMB ONE – HE ENJOYS... AND SMILES.
< Previous | Contents | Next >