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‌CHAPTER 26

28 March 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Prem means love and arudha is the last stage of sannyas, the perfect renunciation, where one transcends all disciplines, where one goes beyond all rules, where one follows no code, where one lives absolutely spontaneously, where one lives moment to moment not thinking of the consequences at all. That is the last stage of sannyas, renunciation.

And to me love is the last stage of sannyas because love also knows no laws, no rules. Love is beyond rules, beyond laws, beyond disciplines, because it has its own discipline. It need not depend on any other external thing: it has its own inner order and there is no need for any other order.

We need an external order because we are lacking the internal: we need somebody else to discipline us because our innermost core is undisciplined. When the inner discipline is born then one can simply throw all external discipline; there is no need for it. It is as if a cripple walks on crutches, then one day he is touched by a miracle. He is healed and he throws his crutches; now there is no need for them.

There is a story in Jesus’ lifeHe healed one man who was a cripple. When the man was healed

he took his crutches and was trying to take them back home. Jesus called him, saying, ‘Why are you carrying your crutches? Throw them because they are no more needed.’ Just out of old habit...

So when you become understanding there is no need for any discipline; your understanding is your discipline, your law. And love is that understanding. When you love, you cannot do wrong, it is impossible to do wrong. How can you do wrong?

When you don’t love, even if you think that you are doing good, you will not do good; even your good is going to prove poisonous. And when you love nothing can be poisonousthe very touch of love

transforms poison into nectar.

Anand means bliss, koshen means body – body of bliss. And that is our real body. The body that consists of matter is just for an overnight stay; it is not our real body. Even the body that consists of thoughts, the mental body, that too is not our real body.

In India we have been searching deeply into human existence and we have come across five bodies. The first is the physical body: we call it ‘anamayakosha’ – the body that is made out of food. Second, the vital body: the ‘pranamayakosha’ – this is made of breath. Third body, the mental body: ‘manomayakosha’ – it is made of mind stuff, thoughts, dreams, imagination, hope, memory.

And the fourth: ‘vigyanmayakosha’ – the consciousness body. When you start witnessing your thoughts you are in that body. When you look at your thoughts the looker who is looking at the thoughts is the fourth body. That too is not yet you... coming closer home, every step is coming closer.

The vital body is closer than the physical body, the mental body is still closer than the vital body, and this body of consciousness is very very close. Hence all techniques of meditation use the consciousness body because it is very close and it has to be used as a bridge.

Beyond this body is the bliss body – ‘anandmaya-kosha’. This body which consists only of bliss, pure bliss, is you! That is your eternal body... that you never lose. When you are unconscious you live in the physical body only; when you become a little conscious you start feeling the vital body. That’s why yoga uses the vital body, the pranayama, to make the vital body so strong that you can feel that it is separate, different, totally different from the physical body.

We almost live unaware of it. We breathe but we don’t breathe consciously, we breathe but we don’t breathe enough. So the second body remains a very weak body and the physical body remains too dominating and over-powering.

If you become a little more conscious you become aware of your thoughts, otherwise they are rushing. When people first come to meditate here they are not aware of their thoughts at all. When they meditate they start thinking that something bizarre is going on. So many thoughts have never been in their minds, and they come to me, saying, ‘What is happening? I was never so confused and I was never so full of thoughts. I was hoping that I would be less in the mind and now it feels I am more in the mind.’ They become aware... it has been always so but they were not aware.

And when you become aware the mind starts un-stressing – mm? it has been always in stress – coiled up energy, pent-up energy. When you start becoming alert about it, it starts uncoiling, unstressing and everything starts bubbling up, starts surfacing.

If you become a little more aware you come to the witness who can watch these thoughts. And if you become such a witness – so deeply rooted in the witness that thoughts disappear, because when the witness is perfect thoughts simply disappear; they don’t get any energy from anywhere; the whole energy becomes concentrated in the witness so they starve and die – in that moment is the transformation.

Suddenly the witness who was looking at the thoughts – and there are no more thoughts and there is nothing to look at – turns in, starts looking in, and there is the fifth body, the ‘anandmayakosha’, the

bliss body. That’s what we are searching for; knowingly, unknowingly, that is the search. Animals. trees, birds, man, everybody is searching for that which is really our abode.

[A sannyasin says: I’m worried about my mother... Well, two days ago her final letter came saying ‘Enough – I am finished. Your philosophy is too different now. I don’t understand you any more’. And then suddenly I’m going home.]

Don’t be worried: just go home. It is very natural and very difficult for parents to understand what is happening to you. It is so rare, and everybody has lived with a certain idea of religion, philosophy, church.

And suddenly you go so far away, to such distant pastures.

The very terminology is unknown to them. They cannot understand what sannyas is, what in the world you are doing. And when you cannot understand, the thing looks almost crazy: because you cannot figure out what it is, it looks crazy. When you cannot understand a language it looks all nonsense because the sense comes from your understanding.

The english word ‘barbarian’ came from the romans. They called the whole world barbarian: whosoever would not speak roman was a barbarian. Because he could not understand the language he was not a human being at all!. How can a human being be without knowing their language? You cannot be human: you are a barbarian.

The word ‘barbarian’ means one who goes on, ‘bah, bah, bah...’ – meaningless!

And there are many languages: philosophy is a language, religion is a language, and of course people are very very emotionally involved. If you are a born Christian, the parents know the language of Christianity, they understand Christ – not because they understand Christ but because they have been brought up in that particular terminology so they are acquainted with it; acquaintance is thought to be knowledge.

Jews could not understand Jesus because he was saying something new; he was alien, a stranger.

So try to understand your mother’s difficulty. It is not really your difficulty, it is her difficulty. So just go home. For a few days don’t argue. Mm? just play the tapes, let them listen, put the books out, let them look at them. Just sometimes sit silently and meditate, let them feel your energy. Let them see that you have not gone mad

The first thing that they would like to be certain about is that you have not gone mad. Once they are settled about that things will start changing; then they will start approaching you with an open heart. Once they see that you have become even saner, you are more silent, your energy is more loving, you have more understanding, the problems will disappear.

Within a week your mother will start enquiring about meditation and sannyas. So don’t be worried; go with hope! You may be able to convert her!

And when she says that she is finished, she is not finished! Whenever somebody says ‘I am finished with you’, that simply shows that he is angry, not finished at all, because if someone is really finished he will not even bother to say that he is finished with you. Finished means finished!

When somebody says ‘I am finished with you – enough is enough!’, it is not yet enough. She wants to be finished with you, that’s certain. She wants it to be enough, but it is not enough – it never is. A mother is never finished, cannot be.

So simply go lovingly, understandingly. And the difficulty is theirs, not yours; keep it in mind. So if they get angry it is pardonable; if you get angry it cannot be forgiven. You have created the difficulty for them: you have taken sannyas, you have been meditating, you have gone astray.

They have not created any trouble for you, you have been creating trouble for them, so it is for you, it is your responsibility to help them understand. And they will understand because so many thousands of sannyasins ate going back and parents understand, they are ready to understand... just a little help.

So just go and for seven days no argument, mm? If they argue simply laugh, smile, enjoy, mm? but don’t hit back because argument becomes a distance; arguments never join people together. They can create such an abyss – unbridgeable sometimes. So never depend on arguments; they are never a bridge. Only love is the bridge.

If they argue and become angry and shout at you and say things, simply enjoy it. They love you, that’s why they are doing this; otherwise, who bothers? They care, that’s why they are doing this. Keep this in mind and within seven days you are going to be the winner. Mm? nothing to be worried about.

[A sannyasin says: If my energy is moving, my awareness or my consciousness isn’t there. If I’m concerned with my awareness or my consciousness, my energy is not there. I just don’t know what I need or which way to go.]

So the first work has to be done on energy, mm? For a few days forget your awareness because if you work on both, both will be disturbed. First completely relax and move into energy, mm? No need for consciousness right now.

When the energy has started flowing perfectly, when you feel that you are really enjoying energy and the flow is tremendous, tell me again, mm? Then we will start exploring the work on awareness.

Awareness right now will be a disturbance. Awareness needs great flowing energy as a prerequisite, it is a presupposition for awareness. Awareness can only ride on high energy. If energy is not moving, is frozen, then awareness is very difficult and there is unnecessary conflict and struggle and not much is achieved.

So first work with energy. Put aside awareness as if that is not your work right now. Mm? first things first.

If energy is there awareness can be brought very easily; if energy is not there awareness cannot be brought. And both will function together but only at a later stage, not right now. A moment comes when energy and awareness have no conflict; they cooperate, they become one. But right now there is a conflict; in the beginning it is always so.

So relax, dance, sing and move with the energy, mm? Good.

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