posted January 02, 2008 09:32 PM            

This is a very strange saying, but very significant also. It looks strange because man is not real, he lives in falsity. So whatsoever he does, it is going to be false.

If you pray you will pray for the wrong reasons; if you fast you will fast for the wrong reasons -- because you are wrong. So the question is not what is right to do, the question is how to be right in your being. If your being is right, then whatsoever you do will be right automatically; but if your being is not right, not centered, not authentic, then whatsoever you do, it is going to be wrong.

Finally everything depends not on what you do, but on who you are. If a thief goes to pray his prayer is going to be wrong, because how can prayer be born out of a heart that has been deceiving everybody -- stealing, lying, harming? How is prayer possible out of the heart of a thief? It is impossible. The prayer can change you, but from where will the prayer come? It will come from you. If you are sick, your prayer is going to be sick.

Mulla Nasruddin once applied for a job. In the application he mentioned many qualifications. He said, "I stood first in my university, and I was offered the vice-presidency of a national bank. I refused because I am not interested in money. I am an honest man, a true man. I have no greed, I'm not bothered about the salary; whatsoever you give me will be okay. And I love work -- sixty-five hours per week."

When the superintendent who was conducting his interview looked at his application, he was surprised and said, "Lordy! Don't you have any weaknesses?"

Nasruddin said, "Only one: I am a liar!"

But that one covers all the rest. No need to have any other weakness, one is enough. There are not many weaknesses in you, you have only one weakness -- out of that one all are born. And you have to remember your weakness, because that is going to follow you wherever you go like a shadow; whatsoever you do, it is going to color it.

So the basic thing in religion is not what to do, the basic thing is what to be. 'Being' means your innermost core, 'doing' means your surface activities on the circumference. 'Doing' means your relationship with others, with the outer world, and 'being' means you as you are, unrelated, as you are within.

You can be without doing anything, but you cannot be without the being. Doing is secondary, dispensable. A man can remain inactive, not doing anything, but a man cannot be without being -- so being is the essence. Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, they all talk about being; and the temples, churches, mosques, organizations, sects, the so-called gurus and teachers and priests, they all talk about doing. If you ask Jesus, he will talk about your being and how to transform it. If you ask the pope of the Vatican he will talk about what to do, about morality. Morality is concerned with doing, religion with being.

This distinction has to be kept as clear as possible, because everything else depends on it. Whenever a person like Jesus is born we misunderstand him. And the misunderstanding is because we miss this distinction: he talks about the being, and we listen to him and interpret as if he is talking about doing.

posted January 02, 2008 09:35 PM            

JESUS SAID TO THEM: IF YOU FAST YOU WILL BEGET SIN FOR YOURSELVES .

And we have always heard that religion teaches fasting, because it has been told again and again that when you fast you are purified through it. The whole religion of the Jainas depends on fasting. If they hear this saying from Jesus they will say, "This man is dangerous, and the Jews did well to crucify him!"

The Jews were also disturbed: such sayings are rebellious and their whole morality would be lost. If you say to people: IF YOU FAST YOU WILL BEGET SIN FOR YOURSELVES -- fasting becomes a sin! -- AND IF YOU PRAY YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED. Have you ever heard that if you pray you will be condemned? Then what is religion? We think religion is going to church and praying to God, and Jesus says:

IF YOU PRAY YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED; AND IF YOU GIVE ALMS YOU WILL DO EVIL TO YOUR SPIRITS.

The strangest of sayings, but very meaningful. Jesus is saying that as you are you cannot do anything right. The emphasis is not on fasting or not fasting; the emphasis is not on giving alms or not; the emphasis is not to pray or not -- the emphasis is: whatsoever you are right now, as you are, everything will go wrong.

Can you pray? You can go to the temple because that is easy, but you cannot pray. Prayer needs a different quality; that quality you don't have, so you can only deceive yourself that you are praying. Go and look in the temple at people who are praying: they are simply deceiving themselves, they don't have that quality of prayerfulness. How can you pray? And if you have the quality of prayerfulness, what need is there to go to the temple or the church? Wherever you are prayer is: you move, you walk -- and it is prayer! You eat, you love -- and it is prayer! You look, you breathe -- and it is prayer! Because the quality of prayerfulness is always there, it is just like breathing. Then you cannot be in a moment of non-prayer. But then there is no need to go to the temple or to the church. Churches and temples exist for those who want to deceive themselves, for those who have no quality of prayer and still would like to believe that they are praying.

One man was dying, a sinner. He had never been to the temple, never prayed, never listened to what the priests said, but at the moment of death he became afraid. He asked the priest to come, he begged. When the priest came there was a crowd. Many people were around because the sinner was a great, successful man; he was a politician, he had power, he had money. So, many people had gathered.

The sinner asked the priest to come near because he wanted to say something in private. The priest came near and the sinner whispered in his ear, "I know that I am a sinner and I know well that I have never gone to church, I am not a churchgoer. I am not a religious man at all, I have never prayed, so I know well that the world is not going to forgive me. But help me, and give me a little confidence and tell me that God will forgive me! The world is not going to forgive me, that I know, and nothing can be done about it now -- but tell me one thing: that God is going to forgive me!"

"Well," said the minister, the priest, "perhaps he will, because he didn't get to know you the way we have come to know you. Perhaps he will, because he does not know you the way we have come to know you."

posted January 02, 2008 09:36 PM            

What is fasting? How can you fast? And why do people fast? Jesus' saying is very deep, deeper than any assertion of Mahavira about fasting. Jesus is saying a very deep psychological truth, and the truth is that the mind moves to the extreme: a person who is too obsessed with food can fast easily. This will look strange, paradoxical, that a person who eats too much can fast easily, that a person who is too greedy for food can fast easily. But only that type of person can fast easily. A person who has always been balanced in his diet will find it almost impossible to fast -- why? To answer this we have to go into the physiology and psychology of fasting.

First physiology, because that is the outer layer. If you eat too much you collect too much reserve, you collect too much fat. Then you can fast very easily, because fat is nothing but a reservoir, it is a reserve. Women can fast more easily than men, and you know it. If you look around at people who go on fasts, particularly Jainas, you will find that if one man fasts, then four or five women can fast: that is the ratio. The husband cannot fast but the wife can. Why? -- because the feminine body accumulates more fat, and it is easier if you have much fat on you, because on a fast you have to eat your own fat. That's why you lose one or two pounds in weight every day. Where does that weight go? You are eating yourself, it is a sort of meat-eating.

Women can fast easily -- they collect more fat than men, that's why their bodies are more round. For them there is not so much difficulty. Fat people can fast very easily, they can go on diets, they are always in search of diets. A man, an ordinary healthy man, can collect so much fat that for three months he can fast and he will not die; ninety days -- that much reserve can be collected. But if you are lean and thin -- that means if you have been eating in a balanced way, only that much which is needed for the day-to-day activity of the body, and you have not collected much fat -- you cannot fast. That is why the cult of fasting is always around rich people, never the poor.

posted January 02, 2008 09:36 PM            

Now, in America, fasting and the cult of fasting will develop rapidly. It is developing already because America has become so rich and people are eating so much that now, from somewhere, fasting has to come in. In America all the cults of fasting are growing fast -- they may have different names but, physiologically, your body must have more fat than is needed, then fasting is easy.

Secondly, psychologically, you must be obsessed with food. Food must be your obsession: you must be eating too much, eating and eating, and thinking about eating more and more. That type of mind one day gets fed up with food and thinking about food. If you think too much about anything you will get fed up with it. If you get too much of anything you will get fed up with it. Then the opposite becomes attractive: you have been eating too much, now you need to fast. Through fasting you will be able to eat again with taste, the appetite will come back -- that is the only way.

And mind has a basic law: that it can move to the opposite very easily, but it cannot remain in the middle. Balance is the most difficult thing for the mind, extremes are always easy. If you are an overeater you can become a faster, because that is another extreme -- but you cannot remain in the middle. You cannot be on the right food, the right diet. No! Either this side or that -- mind always leans to the extreme. It is just like the pendulum of a clock: it goes to the right, then to the left, then to the right; but if it stops in the middle then the clock stops, then there is no possibility for the clock to move. If your mind stops in the middle then thinking stops, then the clock stops. But if you go to the extreme, sooner or later the opposite will again become meaningful, attractive, and you will have to go to the opposite.

Jesus understands this well, very well. And he says: IF YOU FAST YOU WILL BEGET SIN FOR YOURSELVES.

What is sin? In Jesus' terminology the extreme, to move to the extreme is sin. To remain just in the middle is to be beyond sin. Why? Why is it sin to move to the extreme? To move to the extreme is sin because in the extreme you have chosen half and half has been denied -- and the truth is whole. When you say, "I will eat too much," you have chosen half. When you say, "I will not eat at all," you have again chosen half, you have chosen something. In the middle there is no choice: you feed the body, and you are not obsessed either this way or that; you are not obsessed at all, you are not neurotic. The body gets its needs, but you are not overburdened by its needs.

This balance is going beyond sin. So whenever you have an imbalance you are a sinner. Jesus' idea is that a person who is too much in the world is a sinner, but if he moves to the other extreme, renounces the world, becomes too much against the world, then again he is a sinner. A person who accepts the world, without choosing this way or that, transcends it.

Acceptance is transcendence. Choice means you have entered in, your ego has come in, now you are fighting.

posted January 02, 2008 09:37 PM            

Either you are after women and then sex continuously moves in the mind, or you become against them and then too sex moves in the mind. If you are existing for sex, then sex will be the only thing in the mind, the smoke. If you are against it, an enemy, then again sex will be in the mind -- because friends you remember, but enemies you remember more. Sometimes friends can be forgotten, but enemies never, they are always there; how can you forget your enemy? So people who go on moving in the world of sex are filled with sex. And go to the monasteries, look in the monasteries where there are people who have moved to the other extreme -- they are continuously with sex, their whole mind has become sexual.

Eat too much, become obsessed with food as if your whole life exists to eat, then continuously there will be food in the mind. Then fast, then too continuously food will be in the mind. And if something is continuously on the mind, it becomes a burden. The woman is not the problem, the man is not the problem -- sex continuously on the mind is the problem. Food is not a problem: you eat and it is finished; but food on the mind continuously then it is a problem.

And if there are many things on the mind continuously, the mind is dissipating energy; the mind becomes dull, bored, so burdened that life seems just meaningless. When the mind is unburdened, weightless, fresh, then intelligence happens, then you look at the world with a fresh eye, with a fresh consciousness, unburdened Then the whole existence is beautiful -- that beauty is God. Then the whole existence is alive -- that aliveness is God. Then the whole existence is ecstatic, every moment of it, every bit of it is blissful -- that bliss and ecstasy is God.

God is not a person somewhere waiting for you; God is a revelation in this world. When the mind is silent, clear, unburdened, young, fresh, virgin -- with a virgin mind God is everywhere. But your mind is dead, and you have made it dead through a particular process. That process is moving from one extreme to another, then again moving from this extreme to another, but never staying in the middle.

posted January 02, 2008 09:37 PM            

Wherever you are it makes no difference: the opposite extreme becomes the other side and becomes attractive, because distance creates attraction. You can't imagine the attraction of sex for a man who is trying to be celibate -- you cannot imagine! You cannot imagine the attraction of food for a man who is fasting. You cannot imagine because that is an experience: continuously one thing in the mind -- food, sex. And this can go on to the very end. Even when you are dying, if some extreme is there you will be obsessed.

How to be at ease and relaxed? Don't move to the extreme, that's the meaning of the saying. Don't move to the extreme! Jesus knows well that you are food addicts -- don't go on a fast, that is not going to help.

IF YOU FAST YOU WILL BEGET SIN FOR YOURSELVES; AND IF YOU PRAY YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED.

What is prayer? Ordinarily we think prayer is asking for something, demanding, complaining: you have desires and God can help you to fulfill them. You go to God's door to ask for something, you go as a beggar. For you prayer is begging, but prayer can never be begging; prayer can only be a thankfulness, a gratitude. But these are totally different: when you go to beg, your prayer is not the end, it is just a means. The prayer is not significant because you are praying to get something; that something is significant, not prayer. And many times you go and your desire is not fulfilled. Then you will drop praying, you will say "Useless!" For you it is a means.

Prayer can never be a means, just as love can never be a means. Love is the end: you love, not for something else; love in itself has an intrinsic value -- you simply love. It is so blissful. Nothing is beyond it, there is no result to be sought through it. It is not a means to some end, it is the end. And prayer is love -- you simply go and enjoy it, not asking, not begging.

Prayer itself, intrinsically, is so beautiful, you feel so ecstatic and happy, that you simply go and give thanks to the divine that he allowed you to be, he allowed you to breathe, he allowed you to see -- what colors! -- he allowed you to listen, he allowed you to be aware. You have not earned it, this is a gift. You go to the temple with a deep thankfulness, just to give thanks: "Whatsoever you have given me, it is too much. I never deserved it!" Do you deserve anything? Can you find that you are deserving in any way? If you were not here, could you say that some injustice had been done to you? No! All that you have got is simply a gift, it is out of the divine love. You don't deserve it.

God overflows with his love. When you understand this a quality is born in you: the quality of being grateful. Then you simply go to give him your thanks, then you simply feel gratitude. Gratitude is prayer, and it is so beautiful to feel grateful that nothing can be compared to it, there is nothing in comparison to it. Prayer is the climax of your happiness, it cannot become a means to some other end.

Jesus says: AND IF YOU PRAY YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED, because your prayer will be wrong. Jesus knows well that whenever you go to the temple you will go to beg something, to ask for something. It will be a means, and if you make prayer a means, it is a sin.

What is your love? because through love you can understand what happens in prayer. Do you love a person -- really? Do you love, or does something else exist there? A mutual gratification? When you love a person, do you really love the person? Do you give out of your heart, or do you just exploit the other in the name of love?

You use the other in the name of love. It may be sexual, it may be some other use, but you use the other. And if the other says, "No, don't use me!" will your love continue to be there, or will it disappear? Then you will say, "What is the use?" If the other appreciates you, if a beautiful woman appreciates you, your ego is fulfilled. A beautiful woman looks up to you and you feel for the first time that you are a man. But if she does not appreciate you, does not look up to you, love disappears. If a beautiful man, a strong man, looks up to you as a beautiful woman, appreciates you continuously, you feel gratified because ego is fulfilled.

posted January 02, 2008 09:38 PM            

But look at lovers: they don't seem to be happy -- only in the beginning when they are just planning, unknowingly, unconsciously throwing nets to catch each other; but their poetry and their romance and all their nonsense is just to catch the other. Once the fish is caught then they are unhappy, then they feel as if they are in a bondage. Each other's ego becomes a bondage, and both try to dominate and possess each other.

This love becomes condemnation. If your love is wrong your prayer cannot be right, because prayer means love to the whole -- and if you have been a failure in love with an ordinary human being, how can you succeed in your love with the divine?

Love is just a step towards prayer; you have to learn. If you can love a human being, you know a secret. The same key is to be used with the divine, millions of times magnified and multiplied of course. The dimension is great but the key remains the same. 'Love' means this is the end, and there is no ego in it. When you are egoless there is love. Then you simply give without asking, without any return. You simply give because giving is so beautiful, you share because sharing is so wonderful -- then there is no bargain. When there is no bargain, no ego, love flows -- then you are not frozen, then you melt. This melting has to be learned because only then can you pray.

Jesus says to his disciples: IF YOU PRAY -- and the emphasis is on you -- YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED -- he knows his disciples very well -- AND IF YOU GIVE ALMS YOU WILL DO EVIL TO YOUR SPIRITS.

Have you ever observed what happens inside you when you give something to a beggar? Is it out of kindness or is it out of ego? If you are alone on the street and a beggar comes you say, "Go away!" -- because there is nobody to see what you are doing to the beggar, your ego is not in any way hurt. But beggars also know the psychology; they will never ask you if you are alone on the street and there is nobody around, they will bypass you -- this is not the right moment. But if you are moving with some friends, they will catch hold of you.

In the market when many people are looking they will catch hold of you, because now they know that if you say no, people will think, "You are so unkind, so cruel." So then you give something to save your ego. You are not giving to the beggar, it is not out of kindness. And remember well that whenever you give, the beggar will go and tell other beggars that he deceived you, he befooled you. He will laugh because he also knows why you have given. It is not a question of kindness.

Kindness gives for a different reason: you feel the misery of the other, you feel it so deeply that you become part of it. Not only do you feel the misery, you also feel the responsibility that if one man is miserable, you are responsible somehow -- because the whole is responsible for the parts: "I am helping a society which creates beggars. I am helping a society, a type of government, a structure, which creates exploitation; I am part of it and this beggar is a victim." You feel not only kindness, you feel responsibility: you have to do something. And if you give to this beggar, you will not want him to be thankful to you. Rather, you should be thankful to him if it is out of kindness, because you know this is nothing.

The society continues and you have much investment in the society which creates this beggary. And you know that you are part of this establishment in which poor people exist, because the rich cannot exist without the poor. And you know well that you also have ambitions to become rich; you feel the whole guilt, you feel the sin. But then giving is totally different. If you feel that you have done a great thing because you have given two paise to this beggar, then Jesus says, YOU WILL DO EVIL TO YOUR SPIRITS because you don't know what you are doing.

posted January 02, 2008 09:38 PM            

It happened once: A Zen master lived in a cottage on a faraway hill, many miles away from the town. One fullmoon night a thief entered. The master became very worried because there was nothing that could be stolen except one blanket, and he was wearing that blanket, so what to do? He became so worried that when the thief came in he put the blanket just by the door and hid himself in a corner.

The thief looked all around but in the dark he couldn't see the blanket -- there was nothing. Dejected, frustrated, he was going to leave. So the master shouted, "Wait! Take that blanket! And I am very sorry, because you came such a long way, the night is cold, and there is nothing in this house. Next time you come please inform me beforehand. I will arrange something. I am a poor man, but I will make some arrangements so you can steal. But have pity on me, otherwise I will feel very upset: you take that blanket -- and don't say no!" The thief could not believe what was happening. He was apprehensive; this man seemed strange, nobody had behaved this way before. He simply took the blanket and ran away.

The master wrote a poem that night. Sitting by his window -- the night is cold, the full moon is in the sky -- he wrote a poem, and the gist of the poem was "What a beautiful moon! I would like to give this moon to that thief!" And tears were flowing from his eyes, he was weeping and crying and feeling, "That poor man came from so far away!"

Then the thief was caught. There were other crimes against him, and this blanket was also found with him. That blanket was very famous -- everybody knew that it belonged to that Zen master. So the Zen master had to go to court. The magistrate told him, "Simply say that this blanket is yours, and it is enough. This man has stolen this blanket from your hut -- just say yes, that's all."

The master said, "But he never stole it, he is not a thief! I know him well. Once he visited me, of course, but he has not stolen anything; this is my gift, this blanket I have given to him. And I still feel guilty that there was nothing else to give. The blanket is old, almost worthless; and this man is so good, he accepted it. Not only that, in his heart there was thankfulness towards me."

posted January 02, 2008 09:39 PM            

AND IF YOU GO INTO ANY LAND AND WANDER IN THE REGIONS; IF THEY RECEIVE YOU, EAT WHAT THEY SET BEFORE YOU, AND HEAL THE SICK AMONG THEM.

Two things Jesus says to his disciples: first, "Whatsoever they give, receive it, don't make conditions."

Jaina monks could not go out of the country. Buddhism spread so much -- almost half the world became Buddhist -- but Jainas remained confined to this country, and not more than three million. Mahavira and Buddha were of the same caliber, so why couldn't Jainas send their message outside? -- because of the Jaina monk. He will not go, he has conditions: a particular type of food, prepared in a particular way, given to him in a particular manner. How can he go out of the country? Even in India he can move only through those towns where Jainas live, because he will not accept food from anybody else. Because of this food addiction Mahavira became useless for the world, the world was unable to use a great man.

Jesus says to his disciples: GO INTO ANY LAND AND WANDER IN THE REGIONS; IF THEY RECEIVE YOU, EAT WHAT THEY SET BEFORE YOU -- don't make any conditions that you will eat only a certain type of food.

Your movement in the world should be unconditional. If you make conditions you become a burden. That's why Jesus' disciples have never been a burden: they will eat whatsoever is given to them, they will wear whatsoever clothes they can get, they will live in all types of climate, with all types of people, they will mix with everybody. That's why Christianity could spread like a fire: it is because of the attitude of the disciple -- he is unconditional.

And Jesus says to do only one thing: AND HEAL THE SICK AMONG THEM. He doesn't say, "Teach them what truth is." No! That is useless! He doesn't say, "Force them to believe in my message." That is useless! Simply "Heal the sick because if a person is sick, how can he come to understand truth? How can he understand it? When his soul is sick, how can he receive my message? Heal the sick! Make him whole, that's all." Once he is whole and healthy he will be able to understand truth, he will be able to understand Jesus.

"Be servants, healers -- just help people to be healed." Psychologically everybody is ill. Physiologically everybody may not be ill, but everybody is ill as far as mind is concerned, and a deep healing is needed in the mind. Jesus says: "Be therapists, go and heal their minds."

Try to understand what the problem is with the mind: divided it is ill, undivided it is healed. If there are many contradictory things in the mind it is ill, it is like a crowd, a mad crowd. But if there is only one thing in the mind it is healed -- because through the one a crystallization happens. Unless the mind is brought to one it will remain ill.

There are certain moments when your mind also comes to the one. Certain moments sometimes accidentally happen: one morning you get up, it is early, everything is fresh and the sun is rising; the whole thing is just so beautiful that you become concentrated. You forget the market you have to go to, you forget the office you have to go to, you forget that you are a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Christian, you forget that you are a father or a mother or a son -- you forget this world. The sun is so beautiful and the morning is so fresh, you get into it, you become one. For a single moment, when you are one, the mind is whole and healthy, you feel a bliss surging all over your being. It can happen accidentally, but you can also make it happen consciously.

Whenever the mind is one, a higher quality expresses itself and the lower immediately settles itself. It is just like in a school: when the principal is in the school, then the teachers are working well and the students are learning well and there is order. But when the principal has gone out, then the teachers are the highest authority, and then there is not so much order because the teachers are at liberty. A lower energy starts functioning: they will start smoking, they will go and take tea and they will start gossiping. Still, if teachers are there, the students are disciplined. But a class becomes a chaos if the teacher goes out; it is a crowd, a mad crowd. The teacher enters the class -- suddenly everything changes, a higher force has entered, the chaos disappears.

The chaos simply showed that the higher force was absent. When there is no chaos, when there is harmony, it simply shows that the higher force is present. Your mind is in chaos -- a higher point is needed, a higher crystallization is needed. You are just like schoolchildren, a class, a mad class, and the teacher is not there. Whenever you become concentrated, immediately a higher function enters.

posted January 02, 2008 09:39 PM            

There is no center as you are, there is no center yet -- and a man without a center is ill. A healthy man is a man with a center. Jesus said, "Give people centers!" so whatsoever the chaos around you, the center remains there, you remain centered twenty-four hours a day; something remains continuous. That continuum will become your self.

Look at it in this way: there are three layers of existence. One layer is of objects, the objective world; all around, your senses report about it -- your eyes see, your ears hear, your hands touch. The objective world is the first layer of existence, and if you get lost in it you remain content with the most superficial. A second layer exists within you, the layer of the mind: thoughts, emotions, love, anger, feelings -- that is the second layer. The first layer is common -- if I have a stone in my hand you will all be able to see it -- it is a common objectivity.

When you see me, you never see me, you only see my body; when I see you, I never see you, I see only your body. But nobody can see what is inside your mind. Another person can see your behavior: how you act, what you do, how you react. He can see anger on your face, the redness, the cruelty that takes over, the violence in your eyes, but he cannot see the anger within your mind. He can see the loving gesture that you make with the body, but he cannot see the love. And you may only be making a gesture, there may be no love. You can deceive others just by acting, and that is what you have been doing.

Your body can be known by everybody else, not your mind. The objective world is common and that is the world of science. Science says that is the only reality because, "We can't know about your thoughts -- whether they exist or not nobody knows. Only you say they do, but they are not common, objective; we cannot experiment with them, we cannot see them. You report them but you may be deceiving us -- or you may be deceived, who knows?" Your thoughts are not things but you know well that they exist. Not only do things exist, thoughts also exist. But thoughts are personal, private, they are not common.

The outer layer, the first layer, the reality on the surface, creates science. The second layer, of thoughts and feelings, creates philosophy, poetry. But is this all? Matter and mind? If this is all then you can never be centered, because mind is always a flux. It has no center: yesterday you had certain thoughts, today you have other thoughts, tomorrow you will have other thoughts again; it is like a river, there is no center in it.

In the mind you cannot find any center: thoughts change, feelings change, it is a flux. So you will always remain ill, ill at ease, you can never be whole. But there is also another layer of existence, the deepest. The first is the objective world -- science and its world; the second is the thought-world -- philosophy and poetry, feelings, thoughts. Then there is a third world which is of religion, and that is the world of the witness -- the one who looks at the thoughts, the one who looks at the things.

That one is one, there are not two. Whether you look at a house or you close your eyes and look at the picture of the house inside, the looker remains the same. Whether you look at anger or you look at love, the looker remains the same. Whether you are sad or happy, whether life has become a poetry or life has become a nightmare, makes no difference -- the looker remains the same, the witness remains the same. The witness is the only center, and this witness is the world of religion.

When Jesus says, "Go and heal people," he is saying, "Go and give them their centers, make them witnesses. Then they will neither be involved in the world, nor involved in their thoughts; they will be rooted in their being." And once you are rooted in the being then everything changes, the quality changes -- then you can pray.

posted January 02, 2008 09:39 PM            

That is what Mahavira's fast is, totally different. You will sometimes forget the body so much that you will not notice that there is hunger; you will move away from the body so much that the body will not be able to inform you that you are hungry. The word for fast in Sanskrit is very beautiful; that word is upawas. The word carries no sense at all of food or no food, it has nothing of fasting in it, nothing at all, the word simply means 'living nearer to yourself'. Upawas means 'living nearer to yourself', 'being nearer to yourself'. A moment comes when you are so centered that the body is completely forgotten, as if there is no body. Then you cannot feel the hunger and fasting happens; but it is a happening, it is not a doing.

You can remain in this centering for many days. It happened to Ramakrishna: he would go into ecstasy and for six or seven days he would remain as if dead, his body would not move, it kept the same gesture -- if he was standing he would continue standing. Disciples would have to make him lie down, and they would have to feed him forcibly with some water, some milk -- but it was as if he were not there. This is a fast: because you are no longer in the body.

Being in the body, you are no longer in the body. But you cannot do this. How can you do it? -- because all doing is through the body, you have to use the body to do anything. This fast cannot be done because this fast means bodilessness. This can happen: it happens to a Mahavira, to a Jesus, to a Mohammed; it can happen to you too.

Jesus says:

GO AMONG THE PEOPLE. EAT WHAT THEY SET BEFORE YOU, AND HEAL THE SICK AMONG THEM. FOR WHAT GOES INTO YOUR MOUTH WILL NOT DEFILE YOU, BUT WHAT COMES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, THAT IS WHAT WILL DEFILE YOU.

This is a very significant saying. Don't bother too much if the food is not pure, or if a sudra has touched it, or if a woman who is having her period has passed by and her shadow has defiled it. The question is not what you take in, the question is what you bring out -- because what you bring out, that shows your quality; how you transform what you take in, that's the thing.

A lotus is born in the mud; the mud is transformed and becomes a lotus. The lotus never says, "I will not eat this mud, this is dirty!" No, that's not the question. If you are a lotus nothing is dirty. If you have the capacity of a lotus, if you have the transforming power, the alchemy, then you can remain in the mud and a lotus will be born. And if you don't have the quality of a lotus, then even if you live in gold, only mud will come out of you. What goes in is not the point. The point is that if you are centered in your being, whatsoever goes in is changed, is transformed; it takes your quality of being and comes out.

posted January 02, 2008 09:40 PM            

So Jesus says, "Remember what comes out of you, don't bother much about what goes in." And this has to be remembered by you too, otherwise your whole approach can go wrong. If you continuously think about what goes in, then you never develop that capacity of being which can transform things. Then the whole thing becomes outward: pure food, this type of food and that type of food; nobody should touch you, you are a brahmin, a pure soul. Then the whole thing becomes nonsense! The real thing is not what comes in, the real thing is to remember that you have to transform it.

It happened to Shankaracharya: he was in Benaras, and one morning he went to take his ritual bath in the Ganges, thinking -- the old brahmin type of mind -- that the Ganges can make you pure. When he was coming back after taking his bath, one untouchable, one sudra, touched him. He became very angry and he said, "What have you done? I will have to go and take another bath. You have defiled me!"

It is said that the sudra replied, "Then your Ganges is worthless because if the Ganges purifies you, and right now, fresh, purified, you come and I touch you and you become defiled -- I am greater than your Ganges?"

And the sudra continued, "What type of knower are you? because I have heard you say that in everyone the one exists. So allow me to ask a question: whether the touch of my body has defiled you? If so, that means my body can touch your soul. But you say the body is illusion, just a dream, and how can a dream touch the reality? And how can a dream defile the reality? That which is not, how can it defile that which is? Or, if you say that not my body, but my soul has defiled you, because a soul can touch a soul, then am I not Brahman, am I not that one you talk about? Then tell me, who has defiled you?"

It is said that Shankara bowed down and said, "Up to now I was only thinking about the one, it was just a philosophy. Now you have indicated the right path, now nobody can defile me. Now I understand: one exists, only one exists, and the same is in me and the same is in you." Then Shankara tried very hard to find out who this man was. He could never find out, it was never discovered who that man was. It may have been God himself, it may have been the very source but Shankara was transformed.

posted January 02, 2008 09:40 PM            

I hope you will understand this strange saying. Misunderstanding is easy, and with persons like Jesus misunderstanding is always possible, understanding almost impossible -- because they speak truths, and truths are always paradoxical because you are not ready to listen, not centered.

You understand through the mind and the mind gets mixed up, confused, and it interprets -- then this saying becomes dangerous. I must tell you that this saying has not been recorded in the authorized version of the Bible. It has been left out, because what he is saying is dangerous! It is recorded, but not in the authorized version, not in the Bible Christians believe in. But when Jesus was speaking many other people were recording and this record has survived. It was just found twenty years ago in a cave in Egypt.

All these sayings which we are discussing belong to that recording. They are not from the authorized version, because the authorized version can never be right -- it is impossible. Once you organize a religion the spirit dies; organized, a thing is dead. And then there are also vested interests. How can the pope of the Vatican say: IF YOU FAST YOU WILL BEGET SIN FOR YOURSELVES? Then nobody would fast. AND IF YOU PRAY YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED? -- then nobody would pray. AND IF YOU GIVE ALMS YOU WILL DO EVIL TO YOUR SPIRITS? -- then nobody would give donations. Then how could this big organization, the church, exist?

Christians have the biggest organization: Catholic priests alone number twelve lakhs -- thousands and thousands of churches all over the earth. Catholic Christianity is the richest organization; not even governments are so rich because every government is bankrupt. But the pope of the Vatican is the richest man, with the greatest organization all over the world, the only international state -- not so visible, very invisible, but with millions of people working under it.

How can this happen? It all happens through donations, and if Christians learn that Jesus says, "Don't give, you will do evil to your spirits"? And these churches are made to pray in, so if people come to know that Jesus says, "Don't pray, otherwise you will commit sin," who will go to pray there? And if there is no prayer, if there is no fasting, no ritual, no donations, then how can the priests exist? Jesus takes the very foundation out of all organized religion -- then Jesus can be there, but there can be no Christianity.

This saying is not recorded in the authorized version, it must have been left out. You can also misunderstand it, but if you can feel what I am saying you will understand. He is not against prayer, he is not against fasting, he is not against giving and sharing -- he is against your false faces.

The real must come out of your being. First you must change and be transformed, only then whatsoever you do will be good.

Somebody asked Saint Augustine, "What should we do? And I am not a very learned man, so tell me in short, in as few words as possible."

Augustine said: "Then there is only one thing to be said: Love! And then whatsoever you do will be right."

If you love, of course, then everything becomes right; but if you don't love, then everything goes wrong.

Love means, be egoless. Love means, be centered. Love means, remain blissful. Love means, be grateful. This is what the meaning is: live through your being, not through your acts, because acts are on the surface, being is in the depth.

Let things come out of your being. Don't manage and control your actions, transform your being. The real thing is not what you do, the real thing is what you are.

posted January 02, 2008 10:36 PM            

THE SIXTH SAYING

JESUS SAID: THE KINGDOM IS LIKE A SHEPHERD WHO HAD ONE HUNDRED SHEEP.

ONE OF THEM WENT ASTRAY WHICH WAS THE LARGEST.

HE LEFT BEHIND THE NINETY-NINE, HE SOUGHT FOR THE ONE UNTIL HE FOUND IT.

HAVING TIRED HIMSELF OUT, HE SAID TO THE SHEEP: I LOVE THEE MORE THAN THE NINETY-NINE.

One of the most puzzling problems has been: what will happen to the sinners, those who have gone astray? What is the relationship between the divine and the sinner? Is the sinner going to be punished? Is there going to be a hell? ... Because all the priests have been insisting that the sinner is going to be thrown into hell, he is to be punished. But can God punish anybody? Is there not compassion enough? And if God cannot forgive, then who will be able to forgive?

Many answers have been given, but Jesus' answer is the most beautiful. Before we enter into this saying many other things have to be understood; they will give you the background.

Whenever we punish a person, whatsoever rationalizations we may like to make, our reasons are different; and remember the distinction between reason and rationalization. You may be a father or a mother, and your child has done something of which you don't approve. It doesn't matter whether he has done something right or wrong, because who knows what is right and what is wrong? But you disapprove and whatsoever you disapprove of becomes wrong. It may be, it may not be, that is not the point -- whatsoever you approve of is right. So it depends on your approval and disapproval.

And when a child goes astray, is doing something wrong in your view, you punish him. The deep reason is that he has disobeyed, not that he has done something wrong; the deep reason is that your ego feels hurt. The child has been in conflict with you, he has asserted himself. He has said no to you, the father, the authority, the powerful one, so you punish the child. The reason is that your ego is hurt and punishment is a sort of revenge.

But the rationalization is different: you say that it is because he has done wrong and he has to be put right -- unless he is punished how is he going to be put right? So he should be punished when he moves in a wrong way, and he should be rewarded when he follows you. That's how he is to be conditioned for a right life. This is the rationalization, this is how you talk about it in your mind, but this is not the basic unconscious reason.

The unconscious reason is totally different: it is to put the child in his place, to remind him that you are the boss and he is not the boss, that you will decide what is wrong and what is right, that it is you who are going to give him direction; that he is not free, that you possess him, that you are the owner -- and if he disobeys then he will suffer.

If you ask the Depth Psychologists they will say that in all behavior this distinction between reason and the rationalization has to be understood well. Rationalization is a very cunning device -- it hides the real reason and gives a false thing to you, but looks absolutely okay on the surface. And this is happening not only between a father and a child, a mother and a child, it is also happening between society and those children who have gone astray. That's why prison exists, the law exists -- it is a revenge, a revenge taken by society.

Society cannot tolerate somebody who is rebellious, because he will destroy the whole structure. He may be right: Athens could not tolerate Socrates, not because he was wrong -- he was absolutely right -- but Athens could not tolerate him because if he had been tolerated then the whole structure of the society would have gone, been thrown to the dogs; then the society could not have existed. So Socrates had to be sacrificed to society.

posted January 02, 2008 10:37 PM            

Society cannot tolerate this so it will punish you. But it also rationalizes: it says this is just to put you right, it punishes you for your own good. And nobody ever bothers whether that good is ever achieved or not. We have been punishing criminals for thousands of years, but nobody bothers whether those criminals are ever transformed through our punishment or not. Criminals go on increasing: as prisons increase, prisoners increase; the more laws, the more criminals; the more courts, the more punishments. The result is absolutely absurd -- more criminality.

What is the problem? The criminal can also feel that it is a rationalization, that he is punished for doing wrong -- really he is punished because he has been caught. So he also has his rationalization: next time he has to be more cunning and more clever, that's all. This time he has been caught because he was not alert, not because he has done wrong. Society proved more clever than him, so next time he will see -- he is going to prove himself more cunning, clever, intelligent, and then he will not be caught. A prisoner, a criminal who is punished always thinks that he is punished, not for the thing he has committed, but because he has been caught. So the only thing he is going to learn from the punishment is not to be caught again.

So whenever a prisoner comes out of prison he is a better criminal than ever: he has lived with experienced people inside the prison, with more advanced adepts who know much, who have been punished much and who have suffered long -- who have been caught -- and who have been deceiving in many, many ways; who are very advanced on the path of crime. Living with them, serving them, becoming a disciple to them, he learns; he learns through experience that next time he is not to be caught. Then he is a better criminal.

Nobody is stopped by punishment, but society goes on thinking that it is because the wrong has to be stopped that we punish. Both are wrong: society has some other reason -- it takes revenge. And the criminal, he also understands -- because egos understand each other's language very easily, howsoever unconscious -- the criminal also thinks, "Okay, I will take revenge when my time comes, I will see." Then a conflict exists between the criminal's ego and society's ego.

Is God the same? -- just like a justice, a magistrate, just like a father or a boss? Is God also cruel in the same way as society is? Is God also the same deep down, an egoist as we are? Will he take revenge if you disobey? Will he punish you? Then he is no longer divine, then he is just an ordinary man like us.

This is one of the profoundest problems: how will God behave with a sinner who has gone astray? Will he be kind? Then there are other things implied. And if he wants to be just, he cannot have compassion, because justice and compassion cannot exist together. Compassion means unconditional forgiveness, but it is not just, because it is possible.... A saint prayed continuously his whole life, never did anything wrong; was always afraid of moving beyond the boundary, lived in his own confinement, created an imprisonment for himself; never did anything wrong, remained virtuous his whole life; never allowed himself any enjoyment of the senses, was very austere. And then there was another man who lived, indulged, did whatsoever came to his mind; went wherever his senses led him, enjoyed whatsoever the world gave; did all types of things, all types of sins -- and then both reached the divine, both reached God's world.

What will happen? If the saint is not rewarded and the sinner is not punished, it will be very unjust. If both are rewarded, that too will be unjust, because the saint will think: "I have lived a good life, but nothing special is given to me for it." If the sinner is also rewarded in the same way, then what is the use of being a saint? The whole thing becomes futile. Then God may be compassionate, but he is not just.

posted January 02, 2008 10:39 PM            

A magistrate should not have a heart, otherwise his justice will waver. He should not have any kindness in him, because kindness will become a barrier to doing justice. A man who is just must become like a computer, just a head: laws, rewards, punishments -- no heart enters into it, no feeling should be allowed. He should remain a spectator, unfeeling, as if there is no heart in him. But then a difficult problem arises, because for centuries we have been saying that God is both just and compassionate; kind, loving, and yet just. Then it is a contradiction, a paradox -- how to solve it?

Jesus has one answer, and the most beautiful. Now try to understand his answer. It will be difficult because it will go against all your preconceptions, against all your prejudices, because Jesus is not a believer in punishment. Nobody like Jesus can be a believer in punishment, because deep down punishment is revenge. A Buddha, a Krishna, a Jesus, they cannot believe in punishment. Rather, on the contrary, they can drop the very quality of justice from God. But compassion cannot be dropped, because justice is a human ideal, compassion is divine. Justice has conditions attached to it: "Do this and you will achieve this. Don't do that, otherwise you will miss this." Compassion has no conditions.

God is compassionate. And to understand his compassion we have to start from the sinner.

JESUS SAID: THE KINGDOM IS LIKE A SHEPHERD WHO HAD ONE HUNDRED SHEEP. ONE OF THEM WENT ASTRAY, WHICH WAS THE LARGEST. HE LEFT BEHIND THE NINETY-NINE, HE SOUGHT FOR THE ONE UNTIL HE FOUND IT. HAVING TIRED HIMSELF OUT, HE SAID TO THE SHEEP: I LOVE THEE MORE THAN THE NINETY-NINE.

Absurd, illogical -- but true. Try to understand: THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS LIKE A SHEPHERD WHO HAD ONE HUNDRED SHEEP. ONE OF THEM WENT ASTRAY, WHICH WAS THE LARGEST. It is always so -- the one who goes astray is always the best. If you are a father and you have five children, only the best child will try to resist and deny you, only the best child will assert himself. The mediocre ones will always yield to you, but the one who is not mediocre will rebel, because the very quality of his mind is rebellious. Intelligence is rebellious: the more intelligent, the more rebellious. And those who are not rebellious, who are yea-sayers, are almost dead; you may like them, but they have no life in them. They follow you not because they love you, they follow you because they are weak, they are afraid, they cannot stand alone, they cannot stand against -- they are weaklings, impotent.

Look around: people whom you think are good are almost always those who are weak. Their goodness does not come out of their strength, it comes out of their weakness. They are good because they cannot dare to be bad. But what type of goodness is this which comes out of weakness? Goodness must come out of overflowing strength, only then is it good, because then it has life, a floodlike life.

So whenever a sinner becomes a saint, the saintliness has its own glory. But whenever an ordinary man becomes a saint because of his weakness, the saintliness is pale and dead, there is no life in it. You can become a saint out of weakness -- but remember, then you will miss. Only if you become a saint out of your strength will you reach. A man who is good because he cannot be bad is not really good. The moment he becomes stronger he will become bad; give him power and power will corrupt him immediately.

This happened in this country: Gandhi had a great following, but it seems that the goodness of his followers came out of weakness. They were good when they were not in power, but when they came to power, when they became the rulers of this country, then the power corrupted them immediately.

Can power corrupt a powerful man? Never, because he is already powerful. If power could corrupt him, power would have corrupted him already! Power corrupts only if you are weak and your goodness comes out of weakness. Lord Acton has said, "Power corrupts and corrupts absolutely!" But I would like to make it conditional; this statement is not unconditional, not categorical, it cannot be. Power corrupts if goodness comes out of weakness; if goodness comes out of strength, no power can corrupt. How can power corrupt if you know it already, when it is there already? But it is very difficult to find from where your goodness comes. If you are not a thief because you are afraid of being caught, the day you become certain that now nobody can catch you, you will become a thief -- because then who will prevent you? Only your fear was preventing you; you were not going to murder your enemy because you knew you would be caught. But if a situation arises where you can murder the man and you cannot be caught, you cannot be punished for it, you will murder him immediately. So it is only through weakness that you are good.

But how can goodness arise out of weakness? Goodness needs overflowing energy. Goodness is a luxury, remember, saintliness is a luxury -- it comes out of affluence. When there is too much energy, so much that you are flooded with it, then you start sharing it. Then you cannot exploit because there is no need. Then you can give out of your heart because you have so much that really you are burdened. You would like to share and renounce, you would like to throw everything and give all your life as a gift.

When you have something you would like to give it -- remember this law: you cling to something only when you don't really own it; if you own it you can give it. Only when you can give something happily are you the owner. If you are still clinging to it, then deep down you are afraid and you are not the master of it. You know deep down that it does not belong to you, and sooner or later it will be taken away from you. That is why you cannot give. So only when a person gives his love does he show that he has love; only when a person gives his whole life does he show that he is alive. There is no other way to know it.

Out of weakness much goodness appears. It is an appearance, it is a false coin, and a false coin is just like a paper flower or a plastic flower. Whenever a tree flowers it flowers only because it is flooded with too much energy. Flowers are luxuries -- a tree flowers only when it can afford to. If water is not given in the right proportion, if fertilizers are not given in the right proportion, if the soil is not rich, then the tree may have leaves but it cannot have flowers.

There is a hierarchy: the highest can exist only when there is energy to move to the highest. If you are not fed well, intelligence will disappear first because that is a flowering. In a poor country the real poverty is not of the body, the real poverty is of intelligence, because if the country is very poor intelligence cannot exist -- it is a flowering. Only when all the bodily needs are fulfilled does energy move higher; when the bodily needs are not fulfilled, the energy moves to fulfill the bodily needs first, because the base has to be protected first, the root has to be protected first. If there is no root there cannot be any flowering; if there is no body then where will the intelligence exist? And compassion is even higher than intelligence, and meditation still higher.

posted January 02, 2008 10:41 PM            

Don't give water to the tree and first the flowers will disappear, then the leaves will disappear; then the branches will die and only at the last moment will the roots die -- because with roots things can come up again, so the tree will protect its roots. The root is the lowest, but the lowest has to be protected because it is the foundation. When good days come, when the rains come and there is water, then again the root can sprout, again the leaves will come, and again there will be a flowering. This same hierarchy exists in you.

Be good out of your energy, never be good out of your weakness. I am not saying be bad... because out of weakness, how can you be either? Badness needs energy as much as goodness. You cannot be bad, you cannot be evil without energy, and you cannot be good without energy -- because both are real. Then what can you be without energy? You can just have a false face: you will not be anything, you will just be a facade, a deception, a ghost, not a real person -- whatsoever you do will be ghostlike. And this is what is happening. Then you will create a false goodness, a false saintliness. You will think you are a saint because you have not committed any sin, not because you have attained the divine.

When you attain the divine it is an achievement, a positive energy achievement. Then you become godlike, and then there is no effort to be godlike -- it flows spontaneously. You can resist being bad, but that is negative. When you resist, the desire is there; and if the desire is there to do evil, you have committed it -- it makes no difference. That is the difference between sin and crime.

Crime has to be an act. You can go on thinking about committing crime, but no court can punish you because no court has authority over the mind, only over the body -- a crime has to be an act. I can go on thinking of murdering the whole world, but no court can punish me just because I go on thinking about it. I can say I enjoy it, but I have not murdered anybody, it has not become an act. Action comes under the law, not thought, and this is the difference between crime and sin.

Sin doesn't make any distinction between your acts and your thoughts: if you think, the seed is there; whether it sprouts in the act or not is not the problem. If it becomes an act then it will be a crime. But if you have thought it you have already committed the sin -- for the divine you have become a criminal, you have gone astray. But this is the point to be understood, a very difficult one: that those who go astray are always more powerful than those who remain on the path.

Those who go astray are always the best. Go to a madhouse and see: you will find the most intelligent people have gone mad. Look at the past seventy years of this century: the most intelligent people have gone mad, not the mediocre ones. Nietzsche, one of the best intelligences ever born, went mad, had to go mad -- he had so much energy; so much energy that it could not be confined, so much energy that it had to become a flood; it could not be a gentle stream, he could not channel it -- it was like an ocean, wild. Nietzsche went mad, Nijinsky went mad. Look at the seventy years of this century and you will find the best, the cream, the very best went mad, and the mediocrities were sane.

This looks very absurd: mediocrities are sane and genius goes mad. Why does a mediocre person remain sane? No energy to move astray. A child becomes a problem child when he has overflowing energy, he has to do something or other. Only a bloodless child remains in the corner; if you say to him, "Repeat Ram, Ram, Ram," he will repeat it, if you give him a rosary he will do it. But if the child is really alive then he will throw away the rosary and he will say, "This is stupid! I'm going to play and I'm going to climb in the trees, I'm going to do something!"

Life is energy. Only a bloodless, anemic mind will not go astray, cannot, because it is difficult to afford that much energy, it is difficult to move to that extreme, to that abyss. But those who go astray -- if they are ever found -- they become buddhas. If Nietzsche had ever gone into meditation he would have become a buddha. He had the energy to become mad, so he had the energy to become enlightened -- it is the same energy, only the direction changes. A potential buddha will become mad if he is not going to become a buddha -- where will the energy go? If you cannot be creative, energy becomes destructive. Go to the madhouses: you will find the most intelligent men there; they are mad only because they are not mediocre; they are mad because they can see further than you, deeper than you. And when they see deeper than you, illusions disappear.

The whole of life is such a puzzling thing that if you can see deeper it will be very difficult to remain sane, very difficult. One remains sane because one cannot see: you see only two percent of life, and ninety-eight percent, psychologists say, has been closed, because if you come to see it, it will be such a flood that you will not be able to tolerate it -- you will go insane, berserk.

posted January 02, 2008 10:42 PM            

One enlightened person was passing, and Valmiki, a murderer, a man who lived by theft, caught hold of this enlightened man. The enlightened man said, "What are you going to do?"

Valmiki said, "I am going to rob you of all that you have!"

The enlightened man said, "If you could do that I would be happy, because I have something very inner -- steal it, you are welcome!"

Valmiki could not understand it, but he said, "I am concerned only with outward things."

The enlightened man said, "But they won't help much. And why are you doing this?"

Valmiki replied, "Because of my family, for my family -- my mother, my wife, my children -- they will starve if I don't do this; and I only know this art."

So the enlightened man said, "Bind me to a tree so I cannot escape, and go back and tell your mother and your wife and your children that you are committing sin for them. Ask them if they are ready to share the punishment. When you are before God, when the last judgment comes, will they be ready to share the punishment?"

For the first time Valmiki started thinking. He said, "You may be right. I should go and ask."

He went back, asked his wife, and she said, "Why should I share the punishment? I have not done anything. If you do anything it's your responsibility."

And his mother said, "Why should I share it? I am your mother, it is your duty to feed me. I don't know how you bring the bread, that's your responsibility."

posted January 02, 2008 10:46 PM            

JESUS SAYS: ONE OF THEM WENT ASTRAY, WHICH WAS THE LARGEST.

Only those who are great, who are the best, go astray. The sinners are the most beautiful people in the world -- gone wrong, of course. They can become saints any moment. Saints are beautiful, sinners are beautiful, but the people who are just in between, they are ugly... because impotence is the only ugliness: when you don't have any energy, when you are already a dead thing, a corpse, somehow carrying yourself, or having others carry you.

Why do the best, why do the great go astray? There is a secret to be understood: the process of growth is that first you have to attain the ego. If you don't attain to a crystallized ego surrender is never possible. Looks paradoxical, but this is how it is. First, you have to attain a very crystallized ego, and then you have to drop it. If you don't attain to a crystallized ego, surrender can never happen to you. How can you surrender something which you have not got?

A rich man can renounce his riches, but what should a beggar do? He has no riches to renounce. A great scholar can throw his intellect, but what will a mediocre person do? How can he throw it when he has not got it? If you have knowledge you can renounce it and become ignorant, humble; but if you don't have any knowledge, how can you renounce it?

Socrates could say, "I don't know anything." This is the second part: he knew much, then he realized that all knowledge is useless. But this cannot be attained by a person who has not moved like Socrates. The intellect has to be trained, knowledge has to be gained, the ego has to be crystallized; this is the first part of life. When you have the riches, then you can renounce them -- the difference is great.

A beggar on the street and Buddha on the street are both beggars, but the quality differs absolutely: Buddha is a beggar by his own will. He is not forced to be a beggar, it is his freedom. Buddha is a beggar because he has tasted riches and found them futile; Buddha is a beggar because he has lived through desire and found it futile, useless. Buddha is a beggar because the kingdom of this world has failed. So Buddha's beggary has a richness about it -- no king can be so rich, because he is still half way round and Buddha has completed the circle.

But a beggar who has never been rich also standing on the road... his begging is simply begging, because he does not know the taste of riches. How can he renounce a desire which he has not fulfilled? How can he say that palaces are useless? He has no experience of them. How can he say that beautiful women are worthless? He cannot say that because he has not known beautiful women. Only experience can give you the key to renounce. Without experience you can console yourself, and many poor people, poor in many ways, do that.

If you don't have a beautiful wife you go on saying, "What is there? The body is just the body, and the body is mortal and it is the abode of death." But deep down, deep down the desire remains, and desire can go only when experience has happened, when you have come to know -- this is a consolation. A poor man can console himself that there is nothing in palaces, but he knows there is; otherwise, why is everybody mad for riches? And he himself is obsessed and mad: in his dreams he lives in palaces, in his dreams he becomes the emperor. But in the daytime, when he is a beggar on the street, he goes on saying, "I don't bother, I don't care, I have renounced!" This consolation is of no use; it is dangerous, it is false.

The first part of life for a rightly maturing person is to attain the ego; and the second part, then the circle becomes complete, is to renounce it.

posted January 02, 2008 10:48 PM            

The sinner may be seeking independence from the society, from the mother, from the father -- but the sinner is seeking independence and ego in a wrong way. The saint is also seeking independence, but in a right way. The ways are different, but wrong ways are always easier. To become a saint is difficult, because to become a saint you must have been a sinner first. Try to understand this: to be a sinner you need not be a saint first, but to be a saint you need to be a sinner first. Otherwise, your saintliness will be poor, it will not be rich; it will be flat, pale, it will not be alive; it will be a summer stream, not a flooded river.

ONE OF THEM WENT ASTRAY, WHICH WAS THE LARGEST.

As far as I know, the word 'largest', in the world of sheep, carries the meaning of 'the best'. Because the largest sheep is the best sheep -- it carries more wool, it carries more fat, so it costs more to purchase -- if you sell it you will gain more. The larger the sheep the better, the smaller the sheep the poorer. 'Largest' means the best -- and the best went astray. It is symbolic.

The shepherd left behind the ninety-nine -- they were not worthwhile.

Why does Jesus always choose the shepherd and the sheep? It is very meaningful, his symbology is meaningful: the whole crowd of mediocre minds is just like sheep, they live in a crowd. Look at sheep moving on the road: they move as if they have a collective mind, not like independent beings -- hugging to each other, huddled, afraid to move alone. They move in a crowd.

I have heard: one school teacher was asking a small boy whose father was a shepherd, "If there are ten sheep and one jumps over the fence around your house, how many will remain behind?"

The boy said, "None!" The teacher said, "What are you saying? I am giving you an arithmetical problem to solve -- what are you saying? Ten sheep were there, one has jumped out; how many are left behind?"

The boy said, "You may know arithmetic, but I know sheep -- none!" ... Because sheep have a collective mind, they move as a crowd: if one jumps, they will all jump.

The shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep behind and went in search of the one sheep who had gone astray.

Jesus always says that God will go in search of the sinner, not in search of the mediocre, the middle class -- because the mediocre one is not worthwhile, he has not earned that much worth. And, moreover, he is always on the path, so there is no need to seek him, no need to search for him -- and he cannot go astray. That's why the shepherd left ninety-nine sheep in the forest, in the dark night, and went in search of the one who had gone astray: because this one had become individual, this one had attained the ego; the other ninety-nine were without egos, they were a crowd.

Look at your whole being: is it still a crowd, or have you become an ego? If you have become an ego, then God will be in search of you because it is worthwhile -- you have to be sought, you have to be found. You have gained half the circle, and now the other half is surrender; now the other half can be attained through God. Only you can do the first half, the other half will be completed by the divine. When you have an ego, then somewhere, in some form, God is in search of you because you have done your part, you have become an individual. Now, if you lose individuality you will become universal.

This is the difference: before individuality you are just a crowd -- not universal, just a crowd, the local crowd. Then you attain individuality, you go astray; you become independent, you become an ego -- and then when you lose this ego you become the ocean, you become the whole.

posted January 02, 2008 10:50 PM            

A society exists as a crowd. You can turn it into an army immediately, with no trouble. That's why Hitler could succeed in turning his whole country into an army camp. Mao has succeeded in turning his whole country into an army camp. The society lives just on the boundary, you can switch it immediately: a little discipline and the society can be turned into a military camp. There is no individuality because individuality is not allowed, you should not assert yourself. This is the sheeplike crowd, the sheeplike mind.

Have you got any consciousness of your own? Or do you simply live as a part of the society you were born in? You are a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian, a Sikh, a Jaina -- but are you a man? You cannot say that you are a man, because a man has no society. A Socrates is a man, a Jesus is a man, a Nanak is a man -- but not you! You belong, but a man belongs to no one, he stands on his own feet. That is what Jesus says: The best goes astray. And once the best goes astray, the shepherd... left behind the ninety-nine, and he sought for the one until he found it.

You go on praying for God but he is not in search of you, that's why you miss him. First become yourself, then he will be in search of you. There is no need to seek God -- and how can you seek him? You don't know the address, you don't know his abode. You only know meaningless words and theories; they will not help.

I have heard that one priest arrived in a new town. The taxis were on strike and he had to reach the church, because he had to deliver the sermon that evening. So he asked a small boy where the church was and the boy led him there. When he reached the church he thanked the boy and said to him, "I am very grateful that you helped me -- not only did you show me, you came with me. If you are at all interested in knowing where God is, come this evening to my sermon, my talk. I am going to talk about the way to the abode of the divine."

The boy laughed and he said, "You don't know the way to the church; how will you know the way to the divine? I'm not coming!"

But I tell you, even if you know the way to the church it makes no difference. Everybody knows the way to the church, but that makes no difference because the church is not his abode, it has never been! You cannot seek him because you don't know him. He can seek you because he knows you -- and this is one of the basic teachings of Jesus: that man cannot reach the divine, but the divine can reach man. And he always reaches whenever you are ready.

So the question is not to seek him, the question is just to be ready and wait. And the first readiness is to become individual, 'to go astray'. The first thing is to be rebellious, because only then do you gain the ego. The first thing is to go beyond the crowd -- that is what going astray means: to go beyond the clearcut, formulated, limited scope of the society, because beyond it is the wilderness, beyond it exists the vastness of God.

The society is just a clearing in the forest. It is not real, it is man-created. All your laws are man-created; whatsoever you call virtue, whatsoever you call sin, is just man-created. You don't really know what virtue is. This word 'virtue' from the Latin origin is very beautiful: the word from the Latin means 'powerful'; it doesn't mean 'good', it means 'virile', it means 'powerful'.

Be powerful, assert yourself, stand on your own. Don't fall a victim to the crowd. Start thinking, start being yourself. And follow your lonely path -- don't be a sheep!

Ninety-nine sheep can be left in the forest -- there is no fear about them. They will not be lost because they will huddle together, so they can be found any moment. The problem is not with them but with the one, the best, who has left the fold. Whenever a sheep can leave the fold it means power exists there, and the sheep is not afraid of the forest, not afraid of the wild animals, not afraid at all; the sheep has become fearless -- only then can she leave the fold. And fearlessness is the first step of being ready.

Ego is the first step to surrender. It looks absolutely paradoxical. You will think that I am mad, because you think that humbleness is needed. I say, no! -- first ego is needed, otherwise your humbleness will be false. First ego is needed -- sharp, sharp like a sword. That will give you a clarity of being, a distinctness, and then you can drop it; when you have it you can drop it. Then a humbleness comes and that humbleness is totally different: it is not the humbleness of the poor, it is not the humbleness of the weak -- it is the humbleness of the strong, it is the humbleness of the powerful. Then you can yield, but not before that.

HE LEFT BEHIND THE NINETY-NINE, HE SOUGHT FOR THE ONE UNTIL HE FOUND IT.

And remember you need not go to seek God, he will come to you. Just become worthy and he will find you, he has to make a path towards you. The moment someone somewhere becomes crystallized, the whole divine energy moves towards him. He may reach you as an enlightened man, he may reach you as a master, as a guru -- in millions of ways he can reach you. But how he reaches you is not the point -- that is for him to worry about, it is not for you to worry about. First attain the ego, be ready, become individual, and then the universal can happen to you.

HAVING TIRED HIMSELF OUT, HE SAID TO THE SHEEP: I LOVE YOU MORE.

The one who has become rebellious, God loves him more. Priests will say, "What nonsense! One who has gone astray, God loves him more?" The priests cannot believe it, but this is how it happens. Jesus is the lost sheep, Buddha is the lost sheep, Mahavira is the lost sheep. The crowd goes on moving in its mediocrity, while a Mahavira, a Buddha and a Jesus are sought out -- God rushes towards them.

posted January 02, 2008 10:51 PM            

And how to be ready? Become individual, be a revolutionary. Go beyond the society, be fearless, break all chains, all relationships. Be alone and exist as if you are the center of the world. Then God rushes towards you, and in his rush your ego is lost, the island disappears into the ocean -- suddenly you are no more.

First the society has to be dropped -- and that is the inner mechanics -- because your ego can exist only with the society. If you go on dropping the society, there will come a moment when the ego will be alone because the society has been dropped. But then without the society the ego cannot exist, because society helps you to exist as an ego. If you go on dropping the society, by and by the base is dropped. When there is no 'thou' the 'I' cannot exist. At the final stage 'I' disappears because 'thou' has been dropped. When there is no 'you', 'I' am not. The 'you' has to be dropped, then the 'I' drops. But by dropping 'you' first, the 'I' becomes sharper, crystallized, centered, beautiful, powerful. Then it is consumed -- this is the rush of the divine.

Jesus was crucified because of these sayings. He was making people rebellious, he was teaching them to go astray. He was saying that God loves the one who has gone astray -- the sinner, the rebel, the egoist. The Jews could not tolerate it, it was too much. This man had to be silenced: "This man has to be stopped -- he is going too far, he will destroy the whole society!" He was creating a situation in which the priests would not be able to stand, the church would dissolve.

He was against the crowd -- and the crowd is all that is around you -- and the crowd became panic-stricken. They thought, "This man is the enemy, he is destroying the very base. Without the crowd how can we live?" By going and teaching the ninety-nine sheep to go astray, they will huddle together more. And if you go on teaching them they will take revenge, they will kill you, they will say, "Enough is enough!"

We live in the crowd, we are part of the crowd. Alone we cannot exist. We don't know how to be alone, we always exist with the other. The other is needed, it is a must. Without the other who are you? Your identity is lost.

This is the problem: ninety-nine sheep create all religions, and the real religion happens only to the one sheep who has gone astray.

Be courageous! Move beyond the clearing, go to the wild. Life is there, and only then will you grow. There may be suffering, because there is no growth without suffering. There may be a cross, crucifixion, because without it there is no maturity. Society may take revenge through crucifixion -- accept it. That is bound to happen, because when the one sheep comes back the ninety-nine will say, "This is the sinner! This sheep went astray, this one is no part of us, this sheep doesn't belong to us!"

And those ninety-nine sheep will be absolutely unable to conceive that the shepherd is carrying that sheep on his shoulders -- because this is the lost sheep and it has been found.

Jesus says the shepherd will go back to his home, he will call his friends, and he will have a feast because a sheep was lost and a sheep has been found. Jesus says whenever a sinner enters into heaven there is rejoicing, because a sheep has been lost and a sheep has been found.

posted January 03, 2008 09:42 PM            

JESUS SAID: THE KINGDOM OF THE FATHER IS LIKE A MAN, A MERCHANT, WHO POSSESSED MERCHANDISE AND FOUND A PEARL.

THE MERCHANT WAS PRUDENT. HE SOLD THE MERCHANDISE AND BOUGHT THE ONE PEARL FOR HIMSELF.

DO YOU ALSO SEEK FOR THE TREASURE WHICH FAILS NOT, WHICH ENDURES, WHERE NO MOTH COMES NEAR TO DEVOUR AND WHERE NO WORM DESTROYS.

If you look without, the world of the many exists; if you look within, then the world of one. If you go outside you may achieve much, but you will miss the one. And that one is the very center; if you miss it you have missed all. You may attain much but that much will not count much in the end, because unless one attains to oneself nothing is attained.

If you are a stranger to yourself, even the whole world will not fulfill you. If you have not got into your own being, then all the riches will make you even poorer. This happens: the more riches you have, the more poverty you feel because now you can compare; with outer riches, the inside in comparison looks poorer and poorer and poorer. Hence the paradox of the rich man: the richer he gets, the poorer he feels; the more he has, the more he feels that he is empty -- because the inner emptiness cannot be filled by outer things. Outer things cannot enter into your being. The inner emptiness can be filled only when you achieve yourself, when you attain to your being. Make a clear distinction: the world outside is the world of the many, but the one is absent there -- and that one is the goal. That one is within you, so if you are searching outside you will miss. Nothing will be of much help; whatsoever you do, you will be a failure.

The mind will go on saying, "Attain that! -- then you will be fulfilled." When you attain it, the mind will again say, "Attain something else, then you will be fulfilled." The mind will say, "If you are not succeeding it means you are not making enough effort. If you are not reaching, you are not running fast enough." And if you listen to the logic of the mind -- which looks logical but it is not -- then you will go on running and running and running, and in the end there will be nothing except death.

The many is the realm of death, the one is the realm of the deathless. The seeker has to be sought, not in outside objects but in your subjectivity; you have to turn within. A conversion is needed, a turning, an absolute about-turn is needed, so the eyes which see outside start seeing within. But how will this happen?

Unless you are totally frustrated with the world, this cannot happen; if even a slight hope remains, you will go on moving. Failure is great and with the failure of the many a new journey starts. The sooner you fail in the outside world the better, the sooner you get totally frustrated the better -- because failure in the outside becomes the first step towards the inner.

Before we enter this sutra of Jesus, many more things have to be understood. Who is the wise man? The one who is ready to lose all for the one. And who is the fool? He who has lost himself and purchased ordinary things, who has sold the master and filled his house with useless things.

I have heard, once it happened: A friend of Mulla Nasruddin became very, very rich. And when somebody becomes rich he wants to go back to his old friends, old neighbors, old village, to show what he has attained. So he came from the capital to his small village.

Just at the station he met Mulla Nasruddin and he said, "Nasruddin, do you know, I have made it! I have become very, very rich, you cannot even conceive! I have a palace with five hundred rooms, it is a castle!"

Mulla Nasruddin said, "I know a few people who have houses with five hundred rooms."

The friend said, "I have two eighteen-hole golf courses, three swimming pools and acres and acres of greenery!"

Nasruddin replied, "I know one man in the other town who has two golf courses and three swimming pools."

The rich man said, "In the house?"

Nasruddin said, "Listen -- you may have made much money, but I have also not done too bad: I've got donkeys, horses, pigs, buffaloes, cows, chickens."

The other man started laughing and he said, "Nasruddin, lots of people have donkeys, horses, cows, chickens...."

Nasruddin stopped him in the middle and said, "In the house?"

But whatsoever you get -- whether it is eighteen-hole golf courses, three swimming pools and five hundred rooms, or donkeys, horses and cows -- whatsoever you can get outside will not make you rich, because really the house remains empty, you remain empty. Nothing enters into the house, these things remain outside because they belong to the outside -- there is no way to put them in. And poverty is within. Had it been outside, then there would have been no problem.