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‌CHAPTER 8

8 March 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means divine and raga means melody – a divine melody. And each heart is carrying a melody in it just as each bud is carrying fragrance. Man’s heart is a bud and carries a melody in it. And unless this bud opens and flowers man is never happy, cannot be happy before it. It is good that he cannot be happy without it, otherwise growth will stop immediately. So one has to allow this heart-flower to open.

It is carrying a deep melody and once it bursts forth it bursts forth in a thousand and one songs. Great creativity, joy, celebration arises out of it; then life is a pleasure, a delight. Before it life is just a desert, a misery, a darkness. With the heart opening everything is immediately transformed: where there was sadness comes happiness, where there was misery comes bliss; where there was death before, for the first time one becomes aware of life.

In that melody one becomes aware of the presence of god, never otherwise. One can go on searching for god and will never find. In fact the more you search, the more you will miss. But if you can sing a song that you are meant to sing, immediately god becomes present.

You have to bring the offering of your heart; only then is he available.

Deva means god and nirup means formless. God is formless: although all forms are his, he has no form himself. That’s why he can express himself in so many forms. His formlessness is a sort of liquidity so he can mould himself into any form. He can become a tree, a cat, a man, a woman, a rock. He is a formless liquidity so any form is possible, although he himself has no form; that’s why any form is possible. If you have a form you cannot move into another form; the form becomes a fixation. god is not in any way fixed; he is flowing in all directions.

That’s why people who ask ‘Where is god?’ ask a wrong question. Where is he not: everywhere, he is. You cannot point him out because all that is, he is. How to indicate him, by what to indicate wherever you look he is.

But I can understand what the problem is: when you look at the tree, the tree is there; when you look at the river, the river is there; when you look at the man, the man is there. You ask where is god? You want god also to be specific like the tree, like the man, like the river. You ask for a definition of god. You are asking for the form of god, and he has no form. It is beautiful that he has no form otherwise things would be very ugly. Then there would be no freedom in existence.

The utter freedom is because he has no form, so he can become anything and he can be anything; he can go on slipping out of forms and taking new forms. He is more like a cloud. You are looking at a cloud; it looks like an elephant and by the time you have become aware of it, it is no more an elephant; it has changed. So if you want to see him you can see him anywhere, but if you ask for a form you will miss. That’s how many religious people miss; the Christian has a christian form of god, a certain idea of how god should be; with a white beard, old, ancient, sitting on the throneif god

comes in any other form, the Christian will not recognise him.

The Hindu has another form – a god like Krishna, playing on his flute, dancing with girls. The Christian cannot conceive of a god that way; ‘What type of god is this!’ And the Hindu cannot conceive of the old, ancient-looking god with a long white beard, sitting on the throne. ‘How can god be ancient,’ the Hindu says; ‘How can he be old? He is eternal youth!’

And the Christian says, ’How can he be young? Because he is so mature, so wise; the young are foolish. Youth is the time of foolishness, all sorts of stupidities, madnesses; how can god be young? And he is the ancient-most: even when the world was not, he was! So he is the ancient-most. And both seem logical but in fact god has no form. The Hindu has imposed one idea, the Christian has imposed another idea. Then there are other people; Buddhists have imposed another idea. They cannot think of god as dancing – god dancing seems to be just inconsistent, a self-contradiction. god should be silent like Buddha; unmoving, undisturbed.

What is he doing with girlfriends? God should be so mature, so high, so beyond all mundane things of life. What is he doing with girls? He cannot be in the illusion of the body, he cannot be in the illusion of love, he cannot be in the illusion of beauty; he is beyond all illusions. They have another sort of god; they impose another idea, and so on and so forth.

There are three hundred religions on the earth, so naturally there are three hundred forms of god, and each religion has many small sects and sub-sects so they have their forms – a little bit different here and there; all true and none true. All are true in the sense that god is available in any form and nobody is really true because god has no form.

And this is an indication for you; whenever you are looking at the tree forget the form and look for the formless. It will be difficult in the beginning. The form is there too much; how can you look for the formless? The tree has a shape, a colour and everything. The tree is a particular tree, a pine tree or a cedar; how can you forget the form?

But try; just sitting and looking at the tree, forget the form. Think more of the formless energy that is

expressing itself as the green tree, as flowers, as leaves, as branches. Think of the energy that is flowing, the juice, the sap that is flowing in the tree.

And in the same way look at a man and a woman and a child and an old man; forget the form. Try to put the form aside and look into the formless, and soon one day, you will see that the window has opened and you have looked into the formless. That day will be of great illumination to you.…

Holding a rock, close your eyes and feel the formlessness of it. And you will be able to because it is there; it is more there than the form. Form is just the outermost thing; the formless is the innermost core. The formless is the soul of things; the form is just the matter. The formless is the real being.

So one has to just scratch reality a little: form is skin-deep. Scratch, and immediately flows the formless. And when you scratch everywhere and you find everywhere the same formlessness – in the church, in the temple, in the mosqueWhen a Hindu is praying you find that he is bowing down

to the formless, when the Christian is in the church praying he is bowing down to the formless... when you see that, all religions become one unity. Then you start understanding the essential religion which has no adjective – Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan. And then the whole existence become an infinite energy – moving, changing, in a process, taking a thousand and one forms like the sea. How many waves and how many forms! And every form comes for a moment and disappears the next moment. That is exactly how existence is.

Prem means love, anushthan means exploration – exploration into love.

That’s what life is for: to explore all the possibilities of love. And god is the highest possibility of love. If you explore all the possibilities of love you will come to know everything.and god too, because

god is the highest peak of love.

So the real search is the search into the energy of love. There are many people who search for god and hold their love; they will never find. Only love can find god. One who represses love, hoards love, cripples love, will never attain to god. It is only through love that we start becoming divine.

The more we melt into love, the more god melts into us. The more we disappear into love, the more god starts penetrating into our being. A moment comes when we are completely annihilated by love, effaced. That very moment god enters into the innermost shrine of our being.

So the highest peak of love is the meeting point with god. To me, the only worthwhile search, the only worthwhile exploration, is the exploration into love. So explore all the possibilities of love in all the forms. And don’t hoard love! Sometimes one wants to be miserly, a hoarder; those are the moments which I call irreligious. Never be a miser: even give to those who don’t give love to you.

That is the meaning when Jesus says ‘Love your enemies’, because if you don’t love your enemies, one possibility remains unexplored and a great possibility remains unexplored. If you love only the friend there is nothing much: everybody loves the friend. That’s very ordinary; love cannot go very high.

When you love the enemy love transforms you – then it is no more ordinary love; it is something superb, extraordinary.

Jesus says that if someone hits you on one side of the face, give him the other cheek too. It is not only to be a formal, bodily thing; the other cheek has to be given in deep love and gratitude. ‘If somebody takes your coat, give him your shirt too,’ he says, ‘with great love.’ Explore all the possibilities of love.

There is a jaina story.…

A jaina monk is taking a bath in the river and he sees a scorpion drowning so he takes the scorpion in his hand, puts it on the bank. Of course the scorpion bites him hard. And as many insects, man included, are foolish, the scorpion is also foolish. If you prevent any insect from going anywhere it will rush in the same direction again... the ego.

The scorpion is drowning but he rushes into the water again and the monk takes it again out of the water. The scorpion again bites him hard.

A fisherman is watching all this and he says, ‘Are you a fool? He will kill you! And why are you worried? – let him die!’

And the monk said, ‘It is his nature to bite and to give poison; it is my exploration into love. It is my work, it is my sadhana, to love even the scorpion. Let him do his work, I will do my work. Now it is a great challenge to see who wins! If I let him drown he has won and I am defeated. My love was not enough – it was only so-so, only up to a certain extent; it was not the whole way.’

So explore all the possibilities of love. Never avoid any possibility of love and god will not be far away.

Deva anurup: It means in the image of god. Deva means god, anurup means in the image of. And god has created man in his own image. We may not recognise it, hence we suffer and are miserable. The day we recognise that we are made in the image of god, tremendous is the joy. We have never looked into our own nature, into who we are, and we go on seeking and searching everywhere. Only one place we never look – that is withinwards. If we look there we always find – whosoever has ever looked there has found – that we are made int he image of god.

Maybe our consciousness is very small but the same god is reflected in our consciousness. It is like a full moon night: the full moon is reflected all over the world, in the ocean, big ocean, in the small pond, but it is the same, the image is the same.

So Buddha or Christ, Moses, you, anybody else – it does not make any difference; maybe our consciousness is very small, a small pool, but that doesn’t make any difference: it is the same moon that is reflected in it.

Our divineness is equal, we are equal in our divineness. Everything is unequal: the body is different, the mind is different, talents are different, intelligence is different, strength is different. Except for our divinenes, everything is different.

If communism exists anywhere, it exists only in our godliness. Everything else is unequal and the claims of communism are just false; no two men are equal. And the irony of it is this – that they are

the ones who deny god, who say that god doesn’t exist... and god is the only possible communion where we are almost equal.

In everything elseSomebody has more physical power, somebody has more intellectual power,

somebody is more artistic, somebody is a mathematical genius, somebody is a musician. How can you say that Mozart can be equalled or Wagner can be equalled or Michelangelo can be equalled? Marx cannot be equalled himself; he has a rare genius in him.

In everything man differs and is unequal; equality is false. On only one thing is man not different – and that is his divineness.

Once we start feeling it, a great quality arises. Then you pay respect to everybody. Nobody is higher, nobody is lower; all comparisons disappear.

This is the meaning of ‘anurup’.

[A couple are having relationship problems. She says she would like to surrender to him so that the relationship can stay beautiful.]

No, just don’t surrender for that; then it is tricky...

That’s why I want you to make it completely clear to yourself. Sometimes you can surrender for a certain outcome; then it is not surrender. And it will not help much – only for a few days will it be good – because basically you are not surrendered. Just for a certain situation you surrender; it is conditional and the conditional cannot help for long. For a few days things may be good; again things will get stuck.…

And one thing has to be understood... and this isfor everybody in the ashram; sooner or later I

have to talk to the whole communityAll the communities that developed, that have developed in

history, die very soon. I would not like that to happen to this community. And the reasons for their death are two: sex and money.

Either money becomes the problem – that somebody goes on a money trip, somebody starts hoarding money. A few people become powerful, money-wise, then the community is divided; then politics arise.

Or the community has to depend for the money on the outsiders; then too the community cannot last very long, because whey should outsiders go on paying for you? A moment has to come when the community has to be independent. So money-wise a community has to be independent. And a community has to run in such a way that nobody becomes a hoarder of the money.

The second and deeper problem is sex. When people start living in a community, that becomes a problem. Today you are going with [your girlfriend]; tomorrow you start feeling like going with... somebody else, or she starts feeling to move with somebody else. Then what to do? There is a split. If you start fighting and clashing everything becomes disturbed.

So about sex one has to be very very alert in a community. If somebody wants to move with somebody else, it’s okay; don’t make much fuss about it. It is very simple... it is nothing to be

worried about. A community has to be settled about it – that sex will be there more or less. And the jealousy, the old jealousy which has destroyed the whole humanity, should not be carried here.

And nothing is wrong! If he feels interested in some other woman and that woman is interested in him, it is perfectly good; what is wrong in it? If you feel interested in somebody you have to move. If he remains with you for considerations – that you will be hurt, that it is not good, that it doesn’t look good, what will people say, that it is immoral or against the rules – then he will be with you but he will not be happy because he will not be in love. And deep down, from the back door he will start finding ways to approach the other woman because his love will be flowing that way. He will take revenge with you in a thousand and one ways because you are the barrier; otherwise he would have been happy.

And the more he finds out ways to escape from you and find somebody else, the more suspicious you will become and will be after him, and you will become more and more heavy; a vicious circle is created.

Nothing is wrong in it. One has to be very floating. In this community sooner or later we will have to decide about it, and I have... I am thinking how to start it. The very idea that something is wrong in it is wrong! What is wrong in it? If he feels interested in a woman and she feels interested in him and they feel happyMaybe the happiness will stay only for a few days, but even then what is wrong in

it? If one partner out of a couple feels to move out things have to be made very easy. He should not be forced in any way – subtle or gross. Crying, weeping, you can force him; fighting, being angry, disturbing everything, you can force him. He can settle: ‘Okay. It is not worth that much.’ But what is the point? Here we are not trying to make an orthodox society. We want it to be a family, a real family. And if it has to be a real family, single families have not to be helped here; you follow me? If [each person] has their own family, it will not be one family. It can be one family only when nobody has a particular focused family: people are fluid and they can mix and meet and move easily. And what type of love is this if it cannot give freedom? So be free, and if out of freedom you stay together, beautiful! But for no other reason should you stay together; that much courage is needed. If out of freedom you stay together – out of freedom you decide to be with him, he decides to be with you totally out of freedom, for no other reason at all – then it is perfectly beautiful; then it is surrender to each other, trust. But if some other strings are pulled it is not going to help much and it will not make you happy and will not make him happy. So think about it. There is no hurry. I would like you to be really happy, I would like everybody to be really happy. And this is how people are unhappy. These are the tricks of how people become entangled into unhappiness.

And my feeling is that people cannot stay too long with each other because people have not that quality of consciousness; to stay long with a person you need to be in love with her or his consciousness. If you are in love with the body, sooner or later you start feeling fed up with the body. It is known, familiar; a new body attracts more.

If you are in love with the mind, that too sooner or later is explored. Then one is stuck; there is nothing else to know any more. Now it is the sameevery day. The mind starts hankering for some

new experience.

The mind is always for the new and goes on seeking sensation, thrills, kicks. Unless two persons have met at the point of consciousness, things can be good only for a few days. I’m not saying anything is wring if they are good for a few days; even if something is good for a few days, good.

So talk together and be totally open. I want to start something from you because I will have to face this problem every day. So be true... absolutely true!... naked. Say what your mind is.

If you are surrendering only just to keep him away from [someone else], say so; that’s honesty and that’s love. Tell him that you are not so interested in your being together; you are much more interested in [his] not going anywhere else. If it is so, say so.

And let him also say everything – about why he is settling with you. Just because he doesn’t want to create a fuss about it, a rumour about it, everybody will be talking about it, he does not want a scandal – is that why? Or he does not want to hurt you because he has loved you and he would not like you to be unhappy; is that why he is settling? But that’s not much! How long can he settle for that? He is settling for wrong reasons.

So put all your cards out, and if out of that freedom you stay together, stay, otherwise don’t – no need.

[The man of the couple says: The last two days I had a clarity which I’ve never had in my life before... As soon as I came into darshan it vanished.]

Then it is not! That’s what I am trying to do; that’s why I have done that I have to make everything so clear to you that if your clarity is clarity, only then will it be there. It can be a deception, it can be illusory; I’m not saying it is...

If it is clarity it will remain; if it is not clarity it will go – and it is better to know deeply whether it is or not.

You will gain much out of it. If it remains it will be tremendously valuable; if it goes, then too it is good. Nothing is wrong. Don’t try to keep it. If it is there, it will be there. Whatsoever I am doing will not disturb it. I want to disturb it! If it can be disturbed it is better to disturb it, otherwise it will be disturbed within a week, so why waste that time?

I know – we want convenience; you were feeling convenient. For me convenience is not the thing... something deeperConvenience is very superficial.

It happens to couples many times: they think that now the surrender has happened, now we will trust each other, now the moment has come – and again within two days it is gone.

So tonight again just sit together. If it were real clarity I must have made it more clear. Then you would not be disturbed by what I am saying; you would be strengthened. If you are disturbed, then it was not worth much; let it go. But don’t try to force it, don’t try to throw it. Simply see, and whatsoever happens is good. Just wait for it to clear itself.

So if it was a real thing that happened it will come with more vitality from an even deeper core and everything will become clear. A few things will be burned completely and it will be something which is going to stay then.

I have to do this many times...

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