27

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‌CHAPTER 27

27 April 1979 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Prem Sylvia. Prem means love, sylvia means goddess of the forest. Your full name will mean love goddess of the forest. Love has something to do with nature. Love can never be artificial, it can never be synthetic. If it is artificial it is not love; it is just politeness, a formality, an empty gesture with no meaning, with no significance.

Love also has something to do with wildness. It is wild. Love is never civilized, it cannot be civilized. In the very process of civilization it dies. It has to be spontaneous. It has to come from the deepest core of one’s be!ng. It cannot be imposed from above, from the outside.

And love is the only proof of God. Only the people who love, and love deeply, know something about God. Others may talk, may discuss, may argue, but they never know. Love is the way of knowing the presence of the divine.

Anand Wolfgang. Anand means bliss, wolfgang means the walk of a wolf. A wolf walks with great grace; its walk has the flavor of strength. The wolf is a very centered animal – very integrated, courageous, and very trustworthy. The sannyasin should also have all these qualities: the courage, the integrity, the centeredness and the grace.

Bliss brings all these qualities. If you become blissful grace comes of its own accord. A blissful person cannot be graceless. Because his inner being is in a dance, his outer also reflects the dance. Because his heart is singing, his whole vibe is that of a song. And the blissful person is not afraid of death, hence he has great strength, great courage. He is not afraid of death because he has known bliss; now death cannot take anything away.

The miserable person is very much afraid of death because he has not yet known any fulfillment and death may come any day and may destroy all possibilities. The miserable person lives in hope,

and death destroys hope. It cuts the cord – and suddenly, with no notice. The miserable person is constantly afraid of death.

The blissful person has no fear; in fact he never thinks of death. If it comes, good; if it doesn’t come, good. He has tasted life, he has known life, he has lived life. He is thankful to God. And in knowing and living life he has known something of eternity in him which cannot be destroyed, which is indestructible. That brings integrity.

John Satyarthi. John means God’s gracious gift, and satyarthi means a seeker of truth. To be a seeker of truth is the greatest gift of God – to be a pilgrim, to be in constant enquiry for truth. Then everything else is valueless. The very enquiry into truth gives you soul. When the enquiry is total you know what truth is. The fire of enquiry, the intensity of enquiry, burns all that is false, destroys all that is false, and then whatsoever remains is the truth. Truth is not something far away. It is just within you – mixed with many falsities, and the falsities are very very powerful. Unless your search for truth becomes more powerful they cannot leave you.

So one has to become totally involved. That’s what sannyas is all about: a total involvement with truth, a commitment to know truth.

Peter Bhartan. Peter means rock, solidity, determination, decisiveness. Peter was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, and he became the very rock for his message, for the message of the Master. He became the foundation of the temple. Bhartan means one who belongs to India. And remember, India is not something geographical; it is something spiritual, it is an inner space.

The India that exists on the outside is ordinary, just like any other country. But there is another India – the India of the Buddhas, Krishnas, Mahaviras. It has a great heritage of the seekers of truth and one of the greatest lineages of enlightened people in the world; no other country can claim that.

But that is something inner. It has nothing to do with the geography and the political map of India. In that sense Jesus is also Indian, and so is Mohammed. In fact wherever a spiritual person exists he is an Indian in that sense. One who enters into the inner space is an Indian.

That is going to be your work now: be decisive, be rocklike, and enter into your inner world like an arrow – not zigzag, but straight, direct, immediate. And with a decisive heart, miracles are possible.

[The new sannyasin says: I feel my heart wants to open totally, but my mind continues to play all the old games with me.]

That’s natural. Don’t be worried too much by it – that worry will become more of a problem. It is very natural that the mind will create disturbances – everybody’s mind does – but the mind is impotent. When the heart wants to open, it can at the most delay a little bit, that’s all; it cannot prevent it, because the heart has great strength. The mind has no strength. It can make much noise, that is true, and if you get lost in the noise it is very powerful.

The secret to make the mind impotent is: don’t get lost in it, just watch it. Go on seeing the games, all the games that it will play. It will play all the games possible. It will do its utmost, and it is natural, because when the heart opens totally, that is the death of the mind. The mind has the right to

protect itself, so it will try every possible way to protect itself. But if you go on insisting on remaining a witness to it, it is impotent; it has no power over you. The whole real power is in your heart, that is the source of your energy, and if it wants to open, nothing can prevent it. There is no power that can prevent it.

Just a little patience... Go on meditating, dancing, singing, feeling more. Be more sensitive to beauty, to joy, to friendship, to love – things that help the heart. Listen to music, watch the stars, go into the mountains. Do anything that helps the heart, and stop feeding the mind. And whenever the mind starts playing games, just be watchful... just be watchful. It will disappear.

Mary Anando. Mary means rebellion, anando means bliss. Rebellion brings bliss, only rebellion brings bliss. One has to become a rebel – a rebel against all that is imposed, a rebel against all that has been forcibly put on one’s being, a rebel against all ideologies, religions, philosophies; in short, a rebel against the mind. In that very rebellion the heart starts opening, and the opening of the heart is the opening of the lotus. The whole of life becomes full of fragrance.

That fragrance is known as prayer, as meditation, as gratitude, and that fragrance becomes the first glimpse of God.

Jolande Premo. Jolande is the violet flower; it symbolizes grace. And premo means love. Become a flower of grace and love; and they are not two things, not two separate things but one phenomenon. If you are loving, you are graceful; if you are graceful you cannot help being loving. They come together. They are twins, they are born together. Wherever one is found, the other is always following it like a shadow. Between the two you become a flower. And man has to become a flower.

Millions die without ever becoming flowers; they remain buds, closed. They never release their fragrance to the world, to the winds. They never sing their song, they never dance their dance. They simply go on fulfilling others’ expectations; they never do their own thing.

The only way to flower is to do your own thing. Whatsoever the cost and whatsoever the consequence, remember, that is your fundamental responsibility: to be yourself. Then flowering comes; it certainly comes, it inevitably comes.

Prem Christiane. Prem means love, christiane comes from the Greek root “creo”. Creo has many meanings. I would like you to remember one meaning: creo means touched. Your name will mean touched by love. That’s really the message of Christ.

Christiane also means a Christian, one who follows Christ. There is only one way to follow Christ and that way is to follow love – but that is the way to follow all the Buddhas.

There are not many religions in the world, there cannot be; there is only one religion, and the religion’s name is love. Christian, Mohammedan, Hindu – these are not religions; these are theologies. They have nothing to do with religion; in fact they are the barriers for the religion to happen in the world. Love is the only religion, and to follow love is to follow Christ, is to follow Buddha, is to follow me, is to follow yourself.

[A sannyasin, leaving, says: I’m afraid to stay.]

You will have to stay – afraid or not afraid! A few things are inevitable. The child is afraid to get out of the womb but he has to get out. Everybody is afraid to die but one day everybody has to die.

And that’s what is going to happen to each of my sannyasins: he will be afraid to stay here forever but he has to stay! Soon you will gather courage! Come and go a few times... Help my people there meanwhile!

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