11

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‌CHAPTER 11

11 June 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means divine or godly, and kalyani means one who brings blessings. The full name will mean: one who brings divine blessings... and each of us has the power to become a blessing to the world. The same energy can become destructive and a curse. The energy is the same; whether it becomes destruction or creation depends on one’s choice. The energy in itself is neutral – you can use it this way or that. Millions of people have decided to be destructive because they think that if they are destructive to others they are not going to be destructive to themselves. They think that to protect themselves, to be safe, to be secure, the only way is to be destructive to the world, to others. But their whole logic is against nature; it doesn’t happen, it can’t happen. If you are destructive to others you will be destructive to yourself. Whatsoever you are to others, you will be to yourself.

That is one of the most fundamental laws of life: if you hate others, you will hate yourself; if you hate yourself, you will hate others. If you love yourself, you will love others and vice versa. We cannot divide our life: we cannot be hateful towards others and loving towards ourselves, that’s impossible. There is no demarcation possible because life is an undivided whole. One who begins in love, one who becomes a blessing to others, finally comes to know that he has become a blessing to himself. By giving to others, you get. Life only goes on responding. If you sing a song, it comes back enhanced... enhanced a thousandfold.

Become a blessing – that is the way to be blessed. In every possible way avoid being destructive to anybody, and slowly slowly you will see your misery disappearing. And when there is no misery, there is bliss. Bliss is our nature. It is just that we have created so much misery around ourselves that we cannot see what is natural, what is already there.

So this is going to be your work: become a blessing. Keep constantly aware of that: never be a curse to anybody. Nothing else is needed. All will happen of its own accord if you can do only this much.

[A sannyasin asks if he can hang another pendant around his neck instead of the mala and locket.] Then you won’t be a sannyasin...

If you want to hang many things around you, you can – that is up to you. But what I have given you has some meaning in it. It is a bridge between me and you. It will help you in many ways. You will need the bridge. There will be moments when you will need me. Without it the connection will be lost.

So it is not a question of your choice, that you have to decide what to hang around your neck; it is not a question. Sannyas simply means that now you will be listening to me. It is a decision to drop your old mind. Now, that’s how the mind wants to come back – it is just an excuse. And the mind is very cunning: it can create great excuses. It can give explanations to you of ‘Look, that is only of one moment, and this thing changes, so it is more flowing.’ But in reality one moment contains all – it is eternal. And the flow is only apparent. The real is eternal; there is no flow in it. It has always been as it is, it is always the same. Its taste is the same. Only forms change, but that which is hidden behind it is unchanging. Waves change and the ocean remains the same, and the deeper you go into the ocean, the less change. At the very core of your being nothing ever changes. The wheel goes on changing, but the wheel depends on something unchanging at the centre. That picture is that unchanging centre; it is not of the wheel, of the changing wheel.

That picture has nothing to do with me – that picture is essentially of samadhi.

Deva means god, Tarshita means watched by, the full name will mean: watched by god. Start living as if you are being watched continuously... and that’s the truth too! God is following everybody – like a shadow, invisible, but those invisible eyes go on following everybody. Wherever you are, god is very close by, always available, because who knows? – any moment you may start searching for him. He cannot leave you for a single moment.

Once this vision settles in your heart, it will change your whole life. And the change comes without any effort, because if you are watched by god you have to be graceful, you have to be elegant, you have to be aware, you have to be loving, you have to be beautiful... because he is the beloved.

[A sannyasin asks about an energy she experiences which makes her feel restless. When she feels it, she starts to pull out her eyelashes. This has been happening since she was nine, and she says she doesn’t know how to change it.]

You have to do just one thing: whenever it happens again – you feel restless and you feel the desire to pull out your eyelashes – just stand and start dancing or jogging. Immediately do something. The energy takes possession and wants to do something, and it has become accustomed to doing only one thing. It may have been just an accident in the beginning, but then it has become a pattern.

You can only break it not by repressing it but by channelling it into new activity. So whatsoever is possible – if you are alone and you can dance, dance. If you are so sad that you cannot dance, sing a sad song. Shout, be angry, say things... jog. If you cannot do anything – you may be with people, working in an office and you may not be able to do anything – just make your fists tight, clench them as much as you can and then relax them, clench and relax, clench and relax. Just seven times and the energy will have moved.

You have to give it a new direction, that’s all, mm? Otherwise it has become a set routine. And because you don’t want to pull out your eyelashes, you have become too obsessed. Whenever the energy is there you start thinking ‘Now, I will pull out my eyelashes, and I don’t want to do it! This is a self-defeating process – I don’t want to do it,’ but you know that you will do it. So you are against it and yet pulled towards it, and the more against it you are, the more you will be pulled by it. Because anything that you inhibit, that you don’t want to do, becomes attractive; it takes on a charm, it becomes enchanting. Then you have to do it – it has become an obsession.

Just change the direction. Do something, something has to be done. And don’t make a pattern again: do different things at different times. Whatsoever is possible in the situation, do it. Within three months it will disappear. But remember again: don’t make another pattern, otherwise that will become the obsession. So go on changing – sometimes dance, sometimes jog, sometimes run, sometimes shout, sometimes sing, sometimes just clench your fists... and it will go.

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