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‌CHAPTER 16

18 December 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means divine, indu means splendour – divine splendour. And always think in that dimension – the dimension of splendour, beauty, blessing, benediction, the dimension of grace. If one can be full of the sense of beauty, one is full of God.

Aesthetics should be the only religion; poetry and dance should be the only prayer. To be creative should be the only way to God, because he is the creator; the moment you create, you are full of him. But down the ages the situation was just the opposite: uncreative people were thought to be saints... utterly uncreative people. Their only merit was that they were masochists, that they were destroying themselves, that they were murderous towards their own being, that they were efficient in torturing themselves.

These people were not only uncreative, these people were pathological too, they were suffering from mental illnesses. They were not even normal but they were thought to be saints. The more a man was capable of torturing himself, the greater saint he became. That was a nightmare. And it is good that all those religions no more have a hold on humanity, are no more relevant to the human heart. It is good; a nightmarish chapter has ended. The future will have to find a different kind of religion – a religion of creativity, a religion of joy and celebration, and a religion which is basically aesthetic.

If a man only keeps alert about beauty, all will happen. Then you cannot be violent because violence is ugly; you cannot torture yourself or anybody else, because torture is ugly. Once you start living beauty in Life, all else becomes possible, easily possible. Then all that is ugly becomes immoral and morality becomes a totally new dimension, the dimension of beauty. That is the meaning of your name, Indu – indu means splendour. Everybody is carrying that splendour in the heart. It has to be released, the imprisoned splendour has to be released!

And that’s my whole work here: to help you to bloom. I am not here to impose any idea on you. I don’t know what kind of flower you are going to become. I don’t dictate that you have to be a lotus

or you have to be a rose; that is immaterial. Whatsoever you are going to be, whatsoever: a known flower, unknown flower, a wild flower – that doesn’t matter. You should bloom, and whatsoever is hidden inside you should surface. In that very surfacing life is fulfilled.

[A sannyasin who is leaving for the west asks about her three-year-old daughter’s illness. The daughter has febrile convulsions. The doctors recommend three years on sedatives. She does not agree with this treatment and is trying homeopathy and acupuncture which has helped.]

First do these things, homeopathy is good, acupuncture is good, but if at any time convulsion happens, then you have to follow the doctor. First you can try all these; these may be helpful and there will be no need.But if it happens a second time – it may not happen, mm? – then don’t

be stubborn. But this time you can just do homeopathy; and acupuncture may be of immense help, mm? because it has something to do with the inner electric roots,.meridians.

Convulsions happen because the inner meridians are not functioning rightly in that moment; maybe there is a short-circuit or something. So acupuncture will be of great help. Homeopathy is perfectly good – you can give it; there is no harm in it. But pay more attention to acupuncture. If after a year or any time it happens again, you have to listen to the doctor, don’t go according to your feeling, mm?

[A sannyasin has to leave because her mother is sick and in a coma.]

Come back soon, mm? because this coma can continue for a long time. And particularly in America, it can go on and on, mm? because people go on giving medicines and oxygen and this and that. Then there is no end to it. The person goes on vegetating; it can continue for years. So just see the situation. If the doctors have any hope then let them work it out, otherwise, after two, three months it is absolutely meaningless to keep the patient hanging.

The patient needs to die. We should forget our attachment and things, mm? – because it is a torture. He is neither alive nor dead, just in a limbo and a very torturous statea kind of long nightmare.

We should not torture people that way. At least a man has a right to die naturallybut in America it

is difficult to die naturally.

So just go and see. For one, two months, it is okay, but if you feel that the coma continues, then persuade your father to help the mother die.

A handkerchiefAnd this is for your mother. Just keep it on her heart; if something is possible she

will come back. If nothing is possible, then say good-bye, mm?

[A sannyas couple are at darshan. The man says: I’ve been here and I feel I’ve changed, and I feel I haven’t changed.]

That’s true, both are true. When you really change you will always feel that you have not changed. Only superficial changes look like changes, real changes don’t look like changes. This is a paradox but has to be understood. Why don’t real changes look like changes? The real changes don’t look like changes because they make you what you already are. In a way you change because the false drops. In a way you have not changed at all because the real has been manifested, has been

expressed. It is not really a change: you have always been that. So if you look at the reality of it you will feel that nothing has changed and if you look back, in the memory, then you will feel much has changed.

It is like waking in the morning: when you wake up in the morning has anything changed? No, because you know you are yourself, but much has changed. If you look into the memories of the dreams and the nightmares that you were having just a few minutes before, they have all disappeared. The superficial has dropped, the non-essential has dropped, but the essential is you, and you have always been this.

So it always happens. If a person says, ‘I have changed and I feel that great change has happened, then not much has happened yet. But if something has really happened, the person will always report in this paradoxical way: he will report, ’Much has changed and nothing has changed.’ And he will feel confused about what is true. Both are true, simultaneously both are true.

[The woman says: I feel like I’ve dropped back into a lot of my patterns that I came with. Leaving, I seem to be turning back into the person I was when I came.]

That happens, mm? just because in leaving you start thinking again of the old world, the people, the situations, and the mind starts immediately supplying the old patterns. You left, for example, six months ago, your friends, your world. When you start thinking to go back you have to start from where you left them.

But that is nothing to be worried about; that is a natural process. Just don’t get into those patterns. Watch the mind bringing them; remain observant of it, don’t become identified. And when you are back home, just for seven days one has to be alert, because those seven days are the most dangerous days. The mind will tend to behave in the old pattern because those are known patterns. They are convenient, you are well-acquainted with them, they are comfortable, your friends know about them, so there will be no trouble, they are trouble-free. The mind would like to act in that way.

For seven days you have to be alert, and whenever you see the mind acting in the old way, immediately drop it and act in the new way. It will be uncomfortable for you, for your friends, but all growth is through discomfort. And it is only a question of one week. If for one week you can remain alert then things will start flowing. Just those seven days are crucial.

So prepare for that. When you reach there and you meet a friend, don’t behave the way you used to behave; do something new. Even if you have to innovate it, do something new. Anything will do! Do something new so that the person feels that you have changed and so that you can feel that you have changed.

For seven days go on doing new things, saying new things, behaving in a little abnormal way. Let them laugh, and you also laugh, but for seven days try to be new, and you will be surprised: after seven days you will find the new is far more superior to the old; it always is. But one has to become acquainted with the new.

It is just like you purchase a new car. It has a different kind of gear; for a few days you have to get adjusted to it. You forget that it is new and again you start behaving as if it is the old car, and it is not.

Now you have a new mechanism in your mind. If you use it, it will become more and more deep in you; if you don’t use it and you start using your old car, then it will die. t is so new, it is so fragile.…

Always remember one thing: whenever it is a question of choice between the old and the new, always choose the new, whatsoever the cost, and you will never be a loser. Choose the old and you have chosen death, and you have rejected life.

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