27

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‌CHAPTER 27

30 March 1979 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Prem means love, brita means strength. Love is strength, the strongest phenomenon in existence, yet it is the most delicate one too. It is very fragile, vulnerable, soft, gentle, yet it is the strongest force in the world. It conquers everything, it is undefeatable. It is a paradox, and all that is true is always a paradox; truth exists in paradox. On the one hand it looks so soft, like a lotus petal; on the other it is as strong as a sword. And it is both together: its strength is part of its fragility; its fragility is part of its strength.

Once this is understood life starts having a different duality. Then one can trust love, one can go with it, one knows that love is going to be victorious. Maybe small battles are lost, but the war is won. Once this understanding deepens in the heart, that love is strong, one need not be violent, one need not be rude, rough. One need not be aggressive, one need not be egoistic, one need not be always on guard. One can become available to existence because one knows that love is fragile and strong both. It is receptive, totally receptive, feminine, and yet there is no power which is higher than it.

When Jesus says ‘God is love’ that’s what he means – that god is a feminine energy, god is more she than he.

Deva means divine; ‘fernando’ is a beautiful word; it means journey, venture, adventure. A divine adventure – that will be the full meaning of your name.

Life is not something static and given. Life is a pilgrimage. Life is in the seeking and searching. Those who think that just by being alive they have arrived will miss the whole point. Birth is only a beginning. and just a beginning. One can remain stuck there, millions are stuck there. They die exactly at the same spot where they were born; they don’t move at all. They are too concerned with

safety and security. Safety and security is in being stuck at a certain point, because that place is familiar to you.

It is dangerous to go into the unknown, but life belongs only to those who are constantly taking the challenge of the unknown, who are constantly alert and on the go. Then life is not static, then it has a dynamic quality to it: it is an exploration. And in that very exploration one becomes religious, because one comes across so many surprises and so many mysteries that it is impossible to miss the presence of god.

Satyam means the ultimate truth, lars is a form of laurence, the laurel; it is a symbol of victory. The full name will mean the ultimate victory of truth. Truth finally wins. It may be defeated many times but it cannot be ultimately defeated.

Lies can win many times but ultimately they can’t be victorious. In fact the lie can win only to the extent that it can pretend to be true. It has no legs of its own; it moves on borrowed legs. It creates the appearance of being true. Then it can succeed a little bit, but that too is really the success of the appearance of truth. not of the lie itself.

Truth is so tremendously beautiful that even its appearance can bring victory; what to say about its substance? Even its shadow sometimes brings victory.

The lie always pretends to be true. As far as the pretension continues it can win. The moment it is exposed. the moment it is known that it is a lie, it collapses, and with it collapses all the investment, all the energy, all the time, that was devoted to it. People live in lies, their whole life is invested in lies, and when death comes they stand naked before death, exposed to the very core. They have not known a single moment of victory, of fulfilment, of ripening, of richness. of contentment; because they are all parts of being victorious.

Remember it – not to invest in any lie. They are very promising and they are cheap. Truth is difficult to attain, but once attained it is yours. Even death cannot take it away from you; it cannot be stolen. you cannot be robbed of it.

Put your total energy into being true, authentic. Just be that which you are and risk everything for it. And don’t put any energy into any lie, because that is a sheer wastage, it is stupid.

This is what sannyas is all about: changing the gestalt. In ordinary life we go on pretending. We go on creating more and more masks; we go on becoming more and more artificial, arbitrary. Whatsoever is needed in the moment, we pretend to be that; we go on compromising. We never look far ahead; we are very short-sighted. We live just for this moment without having any vision of what life should mean to us. So We go on reacting. Our reactions are haphazard and the ultimate result is a mess. People end in a mess, that is the misery, and the reason is simple: they invest in lies.

A sannyasin is one who has decided not to invest in lies any more. The decision to live an authentic life is the fundamental of sannyas. It will be difficult because you will be living with people who are all inauthentic. If you try to be authentic you will be constantly in conflict; but that conflict is beautiful. That conflict is not destructive, remember; it is creative. it is a challenge. In fact it creates fire in you.

It makes you more alive, it makes you more intense; and the more intense and the more alive you are, the more integrated you become.

Truth integrates, truth consolidates. and ultimately truth wins. If one wants to be victorious in life – and who does not want it? – then one should befriend the truth and disconnect oneself from all kinds of lies. In the beginning it is difficult, but as you start moving with the truth it becomes more and more easy. Life becomes really simple finally because truth is simple; lies are complex. In the beginning only is it arduous but the end is very sweet.

Buddha used to say to his disciples: The lie is sweet in the beginning and bitter in the end; the truth is bitter in the beginning and sweet in the end.

So don’t go for the beginning; think of the end, think of the ultimate, the final result, the final outcome. of your life. Once you start meditating on the ultimate outcome of your life, you will become truthful, authentic. And that’s a great revolution, the only revolution there is.

Prem means love, doug is a form of douglas; it means a dark stream or a dweller by the side of a dark stream.

Your full name will mean Love, the dark stream; or love, the dweller by the side of a dark stream. When water is deep it becomes dark; when love is deep it also becomes dark. Darkness has a depth; that depth is missing in light. Light is shallow; darkness is deep. And all that is mysterious happens in the dark because it happens in the dimension of depth.

The seed has to go deep into the dark soil, then only can it disappear and a tree can be born. The child has to grow in the darkness of the womb of the mother. A poem is born in the deep, dark heart of the poet; so is the painting or music. All that is great is born out of darkness.

And love is the most mysterious experience of life. Those who are afraid of dark will be afraid of love too; those who are afraid of dark will be afraid of death too.

Love and death are almost synonymous because one who knows how to die can love, and one who knows how to love can die joyously.

Let your love become deeper and deeper, darker and darker, because that darkness has a light of its own. That darkness is not just darkness, it is not empty: it is luminous.

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