Truth knows no fifty-fifty

Question 1:

What happened to Gautam Buddha and his teachings is almost the rule, not the exception.

The moment the master leaves his body, the disciples start compromising with the surrounding world to survive, to continue to exist.

And truth is something that cannot be compromised.

Just Gautam Buddha's teachings... five hundred years afterwards, there was not a single Buddhist in the whole of India. The greatest man who has ever walked on the earth, and the most refined teaching and the most clear perception of truth simply disappeared like a dream.

One wonders -- it has not happened to Christianity, it has not happened to Mohammedanism, it has not happened to Jainism. So the complexity of the phenomenon has to be understood.

The people who had followed Gautam Buddha refused to compromise. That was the cause of the disappearance of Buddhism from India. The Buddhists were either killed, burned alive or forcibly converted into Hinduism, or the fortunate ones escaped to the neighboring countries.

In a way, it was a blessing in disguise because the Buddhists who escaped India spread all over Asia and converted the whole continent to the teachings of Gautam Buddha.

But the problem was, they had learned something that a disciple should never learn: they had learned in India that if you insist for truth, crucifixion is the result. If you want to survive, you have to compromise with all kinds of lies which are prevalent.

What they did not do in India they did in China, they did in Japan, they did in Korea, they did in Ceylon. All over Asia they compromised with the local population, its superstitions, its ancient ideologies unfounded on truth, just created out of fear. But because they compromised with them, they survived. And it was not only that they survived, they became very respectable. Buddhism became the religion of the whole of Asia except India.

It is a very strange phenomenon, because Buddha was born here; all his great disciples were born here. Hundreds of people became enlightened under his guidance. The consciousness of this country reached the highest point in the presence of Gautam Buddha. And yet the moment Buddha was gone, the tremendous experience disappeared, evaporated -- because the people who remained behind were still not ready to betray their master. They were ready to die, but not to betray; they were not going to compromise.

And Hinduism took revenge with great vengeance -- because in the presence of Gautam Buddha.... Hinduism did not have the guts to encounter this man. Efforts were made.

Hindu pundits, scholars had gone to argue, but they were mere parrots. In the presence of Gautam Buddha, their borrowed knowledge proved completely inadequate for human growth.

The very presence of Gautam Buddha was enough to convince them that this man had experienced something that they had not experienced. What they were saying was simply repetition of old scriptures. What he was saying was a valid individual experience -- his own. And when the experience is your own, it has an authority.

Hinduism had to wait for Buddha's death. In his presence, it was impossible to argue in favor of superstitions. They had to wait for five hundred years; because after Buddha, his immediate disciples -- Sariputta, Moggalayan, Mahakashyap, Ananda -- and hundreds of others were filled with the same light, with the same silence. They created more living enlightened people. This continued for five hundred years.

Slowly slowly, it died out. Instead of the enlightened man, slowly slowly the scholar, the pundit became more important.

That was the time when Hinduism came with vengeance -- and certainly Hinduism is a far older religion. It had great scholars. The Buddhist scholars were amateurs, they could not withstand Hindu scholarship; they were defeated very easily.

Now, it was not their own experience.

These were the people who have written Buddhist scriptures. You will be surprised to know that every Buddhist scripture begins with the words `I have heard.' These people had not seen, these people had not experienced. These people had simply heard from others about the innermost reality, but it was only hearsay.

Hindus were more proficient scholars, almost ten thousand years old; very refined logicians, rationalists.

The poor Buddhist scholars could not manage to prove anything. They were defeated so utterly that they had to move back into the Hindu fold.

The Buddhist monks who had escaped from India learned a lesson: "If you don't have your own experience, then it is better to compromise to survive." They had burned their fingers in arguing for somebody else's experience.

They dropped argument. They started talking of the synthesis of all religions; they started spreading the idea that all religions are right. Nobody is wrong, the question of discussion does not arise.

And they were the first in the world to bring this idea that all religions are right. Naturally all religions respected these people -- they were not quarrelsome. Up to now every religion had been quarrelsome, arguing, proving that "We have got the truth; we are right and you are wrong."

And these were the first people who were saying, "Everybody is right. There are millions of paths, but the goal is one. There is no need for any argument. We may be moving on different paths, but we are moving towards the same goal."

The same has happened with Jainism in India, which was a contemporary religion to Buddha. Jainas are still in existence in India.

It is also a strange fact that Mahavira, their greatest teacher, and Buddha were contemporaries. In the presence of Gautam Buddha, Mahavira could not make any impact on the country. Yes, he had a small following, but Buddha loomed so large, he was such a huge tree that for three hundred years British scholars, historians, philosophers, thought that Mahavira was not separate from Gautam Buddha, that Mahavira was another name of Gautam Buddha. Because it is a title, just as `buddha' is a title. `Buddha' means the awakened one; `Mahavira' means one who has conquered. And they both had the same title of `Jaina' -- `Jaina' also means one who has conquered. Because the same title belonged to both, it was thought that Mahavira was not somebody separate.

It was just recently that scholars started feeling that this was not right, that these were two different people.

Buddha created so much impact, he overshadowed everybody -- but within five hundred years he disappeared.

Mahavira's followers are still in existence because Mahavira's followers compromised with the Hindus. They were not burned, they were not killed. They compromised so much that you cannot find much difference.

And they had to compromise because they are dependent on the Hindus for everything.

They are not a whole culture. If they need shoes -- they cannot make shoes and certainly they need shoes -- they will have to depend on the Hindus. They need their toilets to be cleaned; they cannot do that, they have to depend on Hindus.

It is a strange phenomenon that Jainism and Buddhism both arose as a revolt against Hinduism. Mahavira is very strongly against Hinduism, but Jainas compromised on every point -- because from where are you going to get your clothes? The weavers are either Hindu or Mohammedan. Who is going to make your houses? Who is going to cultivate food for you? -- because Jainas cannot even cultivate. It is against their religion, because plants have life, and if you cultivate you will have to cut plants and you will be doing violence.

So all the violence has to be done by Hindus; then naturally you have to be dependent on them, and you cannot argue, and you cannot insist that you have the truth. You have to say that everybody has the truth; just the languages are different, paths are different, ways are different, but the basic experience is the same.

Jainism survived.

The same is true about Mohammedanism, Christianity -- they have all compromised with the existing people.

Just a few months ago, the present pope visited India.

The Indian Christians are the low caste Hindus, converted to Christianity because of poverty. There is no other reason for their conversion -- they are poor, uneducated, and Christianity promises them....

But the pope was faced with great difficulties because the Hindus who have become converted cannot simply drop their habits of thousands of years. In the church they bring incense before Jesus Christ. And it was reported to him by the bishops and the cardinals..."What should be done? We try to prevent them but they don't listen. They bring flowers, they bring incense... not only that, in the church they repeat the mantra omkar."

And the pope agreed that they should be allowed; otherwise, they will desert.

This is something so deep in them... they cannot think that OM, the sound of OM can be anything other than the most spiritual thing. They are Christians, and OM has nothing to do with Christianity -- but basically they are Hindus. And the pope's concession is a compromise, it is cunning.

Tomorrow these people will start painting Jesus Christ in the color red, and you will have to accept it because without the red color no stone can become God. It has never happened in India.

When for the first time the British government made roads and milestones, they had no idea what they were doing. They painted the milestones red, because red shows from far away, it stands out against the greenery, is more clear. So they painted them red, and they were surprised that every milestone was being worshipped! The villagers came with flowers, incense... every milestone had become the monkey god Hanuman.

Their engineers tried to explain, that "These are not gods, these are milestones."

They said, "You don't know. We have been doing this for thousands of years. Any stone painted red becomes divine." They were very happy -- not happy because of the roads, they were happy because of the milestones.

Christianity has been compromising from the very beginning in every country. That has been its way of survival.

You will be surprised to know that Indian Christianity is older than the Vatican. Indian Christianity is the oldest in the world, because one of Jesus' closest disciples, Thomas, came to India.

It was difficult to convert Indians to any other religion. They have seen so much, they have heard so much about religion, they have so many beliefs... Thomas was at a loss in the beginning, but finally he managed to compromise.

He started dressing like a Hindu. If you see the pictures of Thomas, you will be surprised that he shaved his head just like a Hindu shankaracharya. And he started using the thread that Hindus use, and he also used the wooden sandals that Hindu monks were using to avoid leather. And he would wear just a small dhoti with no shirt on top, just like the old brahmins. He learned Sanskrit.

And seeing him, that he was just like a brahmin, so whatever he was saying must be right, many people started following. They were the first Christians.

But this is more businesslike, it is salesmanship. It is not real conversion; it is tricky, it is exploiting innocent people.

In every country Christianity has compromised with the local population. Whatever its religion was, Christianity has compromised with it, taken its principles, its behavior. It is because of this compromising attitude that Christianity has become the biggest religion in the world -- almost half of the world is Christian.

Truth cannot be so cheap. And truth cannot be so appealing to such a big mob.

The crowd psychology is, that whatever it believes should be accepted as true; then there is a possibility of fifty-fifty: "You believe something from us, we will take something from you."

But truth knows no fifty-fifty.

It has to be a hundred percent pure; otherwise it is worse than a lie.

So when I said to you, "Don't compromise" I was saying many things in that.

First, to compromise means that convenience and survival are more important to you than truth.

Secondly, it means that truth is not a revolution but a business, that it is not a transformation of your being but a social conformity.

Thirdly, it means that you will never find yourself on the path. Once you have learned to compromise, you have started going astray.

Not to compromise is one of the basic, essential principles to follow if you want to find truth in its purity and full glory.

And when I said this to you, certainly you heard rightly something more which was not said: "Please don't do it to me."

My whole effort is to make you individuals, courageous enough even to stand against the whole world. If you feel that you are right and you are experiencing the truth in your innermost core, then the whole world may be against you -- it does not matter. Then even crucifixion is nothing but a seal of validity.

A man who can go to his crucifixion laughing has proved beyond doubt that he knows something more than the mortal body.

Jesus seems to be wayward. At the crucifixion, on the cross, he was not joyous, he was not smiling, laughing. On the contrary, he was complaining. He was shouting at God, "Have you forsaken me?" Because his expectation was not crucifixion; his expectation was crowning. He is the only begotten son of God, how can God allow him to be crucified? A miracle is bound to happen.

But the miracle did not happen, because miracles don't come from outside. The miracle would have happened if he had smiled and laughed because he knew, that "You can only crucify a dead body, you cannot crucify my consciousness."

It has happened in the case of al-Hillaj Mansoor. He was laughing -- and his crucifixion was more cruel than Jesus' because Mohammedans are more violent, more fanatic than any Jew. They cut him piece by piece, it was not a single stroke. First they cut his legs, then they cut his hands, then they made him blind, then they made him deaf. They killed him piece by piece and still, to the very last, he was smiling.

And somebody asked, "Before they cut your tongue, we want to know -- why are you smiling?"

He said, "I am smiling because they are punishing somebody else. The body that they are punishing is not me."

This is the miracle.

It does not depend on God, it does not depend on anybody else. It depends on your experience.

al-Hillaj proves himself to be far closer to truth, just by his simple action. He is not grumbling, he is not saying to God that "This is not right that they are behaving in this primitive way with me and you are simply silent." He is not talking about God at all.

He is simply enjoying the whole thing and laughing at the stupidity of people. "You are punishing somebody else. And I have always been telling you that you cannot punish me, you cannot even touch me. Punishment is not the question at all."

When you heard, although I did not say it to you, "Don't do it to me" you heard rightly. I was just going to say it, but seeing that you heard it, I did not say it.

All these years it has haunted you that you heard it and I have not said it -- was it your imagination or was I really saying something without saying it?

No, it was not your imagination. I was saying it without saying it.

I say many things to you without saying them. I simply create the atmosphere by saying many other things in which you can hear the unsaid.

Because there are a few things which can only be whispered, not shouted. And there are a few things which cannot even be whispered but only indicated indirectly, only then are they beautiful.

Question 2:

One very fundamental thing has to be understood: a dream and a vision look alike, but they are two totally different phenomena.

A dream is a mind projection. It has no validity of its own. It is only a thought in picture form.

Small children cannot think in thoughts, but they can understand pictures; hence, in their books you will see big pictures, beautiful colors, and very little writing. Slowly slowly, as the child grows up, the pictures go on becoming smaller and the writing in his books increases. Finally, when he is in the university, pictures disappear and only writing remains. You may not have inquired why this is so....

If you give a child in a kindergarten school a book which has no pictures, he will not be interested at all, because he has not yet learned to think in words. But he can dream more perfectly than you can dream; he dreams so perfectly that once in a while you will find a child waking up in the morning and crying -- "Just now I had my bicycle. Where has it gone?" He was dreaming of riding on his bicycle, and as he opens his eyes he is in his bed and the bicycle is gone. And his dream is so clear that it is very difficult for him to make a distinction between the real bicycle and a dream bicycle; they look almost alike.

We are grown up, but our unconscious never grows, it remains a child.

So in sleep, when your conscious mind -- which has learned language, concepts, words -- is fast asleep, your unconscious starts dreaming. It is a child, so every thought form has to be translated by the unconscious mind into a picture form.

This is one of the great discoveries of Sigmund Freud, listening to your dreams. And he does the opposite process, translates your dream back from picture form into language, into concepts, into words. It needs a tremendous expertise. Still, nobody can be certain about it.

If you go to Sigmund Freud, each dream will end up as something sexual -- because that is his idea, that all sex is repressed.

It is true that much sexuality is repressed, but there are many other things also which are repressed. It is not only sex.

But it is a problem with inventors and pioneers particularly; they become so obsessed with their findings that they don't take note of other possibilities.

Freud's own disciple, Adler, went away from him just because Adler said that sex can be a part of repression, but that is not all. His own idea was that ambition, will to power, is far more important, and that a major part of your dreams concerns will to power.

For example, you dream that you have become a bird and you are flying. To Sigmund Freud it will symbolize only that you want the same sexual freedom as the birds and the animals, nothing else. But to Adler it will mean that flying upwards means you are ambitious, you want to become the prime minister.

But this is all guesswork.

Another disciple, Carl Gustav Jung, also went away from Freud because he was more interested in the ancient mythologies, and he thought that our dreams are part of our previous lives. So if you are a bird flying, he will interpret it that in some of your past lives you have been a bird.

Now what to do with these people, and how to decide?

The language of pictures cannot be precise. It is almost like a painting: many people can see and can decide its meaning in different ways.

Just as the child has a picture language, your unconscious has a picture language.

I am not interested in interpreting your dreams because it is such a rubbish job. You can go on interpreting for years and years, and the dreams will not come to an end -- every day, six hours every night you have to dream. And you have inexhaustible sources of dreaming.

And it is very quick -- the dream time is not the same as your ordinary time. Just reading your newspaper, you may fall asleep for a minute and you may see a dream which spreads for years; and when you wake up you look at your watch and just one minute has passed. You say, "My God, in one minute I saw a dream which is spread for a whole year, or even for years."

Dream time is totally different.

Up to now there has been no way to invent dream wristwatches, and perhaps there never will be a possibility, because there are lazy people and there are speedy people; some people are running fast, some people are simply sitting. In dreams also, the same differences exist: lazy people dream in a lazy way, speedy people dream in a speedy way; your dream reflects you. So I don't think there is any possibility of making a watch which can function for everybody. It is not possible, because everybody's dream speed is different.

Vision also appears to be just like dream, but it is not dream.

A vision is an objective phenomenon, it is not projected by your mind. You are seeing something, you are not projecting. In a certain clarity, your mind is capable of seeing things.

For example, I was traveling with one of my friends. He is a poet. We were in an air- conditioned bus, and it must have been nearabout ten o'clock in the night. And he suddenly heard, "Munna, Munna." Nobody else heard. I was sitting by his side, and he asked me, "Have you heard? Somebody is calling `Munna, Munna.'" I said, "I have not heard anything. You must be dreaming."

He said, "No, I am awake. I was smoking, I was not dreaming. And only my father calls me `Munna'. Nobody else calls me Munna, that is my childhood name. My mother, who used to call me Munna, has died. My father is the only person alive who calls me Munna; and nobody else even knows. And the voice was exactly like my father's."

I said, "Let us reach the destination and we can phone your house from there, to see what is the matter."

We reached Nagpur nearabout twelve o'clock, and we phoned and we found that the father had died at exactly ten o'clock. Perhaps at the time of death he remembered his only son, and remembered the name that he always used.

Now, this is not a dream. He had not seen anything, but he had heard; it is objective. And the father was almost sixty miles away, and a dying man cannot shout to reach sixty miles. And if he had shouted that loudly, then everybody in the bus would have heard it.

But only he heard it. Even I was not aware that his father called him `Munna'.

This is a vision... not visual, this is audio vision -- not video, Niskriya!

I may not come into your dreams -- and if I come it is your projection, I am not responsible for it. If I do anything, I am not responsible for it!

But I can come into a vision, and then the whole responsibility is mine.

The difference is very delicate.

The dream always happens when you are asleep.

The vision always happens when you are not asleep.

This is the first distinction: you are fully awake. And the vision always appears to be coming from outside, reaching to you. And sooner or later, you will find its validity, its reality.

The reality of dream you will never find. It is simple garbage, it is really the unwinding of the mind. The whole day the mind has to work, and it gets wound up, and needs unwinding to be fresh for tomorrow. So it is unwinding. Inconsistent things go on coming: you had been talking to somebody, you wanted to say something but you did not say it. Now that is hanging, it needs to be released -- in the dream it will be released.

The dream is a great help, a cleaning. It is not against you, it keeps you sane; otherwise, everybody will go insane. For six hours your mind goes on cleaning itself of every impression that has remained incomplete in the mind -- throws it off, prepares itself for tomorrow's work. But dreaming has no other significance.

Vision is a reality.

The dream is of the mind.

And the vision has a connection with the heart.

These things you will have to feel, because the differences are very very fine.

Whenever you are feeling something coming as a vision to you, be in a meditative mood, silent. Allow it to happen, be receptive; don't interfere, don't interpret. Just first let it be complete so that you can see it from the very beginning to the very end.

Most probably there will be no need of interpretation. Just seeing it in its completion will be enough; you will have the understanding. And then, soon some events will follow which will validate your vision.

Your dreams will never be validated by existence. So whatever you have seen was a vision -- you were awake.

And if you are silent, you can see things happening thousands of miles away. Space makes no difference. And you can see things which do not happen on the material level but happen on the level of consciousness. That's what you are mentioning, two levels.

Yes, it is true. I have to work on two levels: one is the level where you live, where you are, and one is the level where I am and I want you also to be.

From the top of a hill I have to come into the valley where you are; otherwise you won't listen, you won't believe the sunlit top. I have to take your hand in my hand and persuade you -- and on the way, tell stories which are not true! But they keep you engaged, and you don't create any trouble in walking; you go on, engaged with the story. And when you have reached the hilltop, you will know why I was telling long stories, and you will feel grateful that I told those stories; otherwise you would not have been able to travel that long, that far uphill.

It is something to be remembered: all the masters of the world have been telling stories, parables -- why? The truth can be simply said, there is no need to give you so many stories. But the night is long, and you have to be kept awake; without stories you are going to fall asleep.

Till the morning comes there is an absolute necessity to keep you engaged, and the stories the masters have been telling are the most intriguing things possible.

The truth cannot be said, but you can be led to the point from where you can see it. Now, the question is how to lead you to the point from where you can see it.

There is a story in Sarmad's life. He was teaching his students, his disciples, and suddenly he said, "Come on out of the class, something is happening." So they all came out.

A man was dragging a bull, but the bull was very powerful. The man was also powerful, but a bull is a bull. So although the man was dragging the bull... the man was being dragged!

Sarmad showed his disciples, "Look, this is the situation."

They said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "This is the situation between me and you, but I am not so stupid as this man."

And he said, "Listen! Are you taking the bull for the first time?"

The man said, "I am a new servant, and I come from the city and I don't know what to do... because I drag him one foot and he drags me four feet! It has been going on for hours, and I don't think that it is going to end."

Sarmad said, "You drop it! You don't understand the ways of the village, and particularly the language of bulls."

And he took a little grass, green and beautiful, and just walked ahead of the bull, without even touching the bull -- and the bull followed him. And Sarmad started walking faster, and the bull walked faster.

The man said, "This is great! He is not even dragging him, the bull is going on its own."

And Sarmad said, "You take this grass. Don't let him eat; otherwise, you will be in trouble. If he creates trouble, start running -- he will run with you, but you will reach home."

And he said to his disciples, "This is what I have been doing with you. All the parables, all the stories are nothing but green grass."

Visions should not be made an object of thinking. You should just wait, and life will provide you the right validity. Then accept it with gratitude.

Whatever you have seen was a vision, and it has been validated by life itself. Now there is no need to think about it.

If you start thinking, you will create a mess. And if you don't think, you will allow more visions to happen to you.

And a man of visions starts moving from the lower plane, from the valley, to the higher plane, towards the top, without much effort.

It is a good indication that you are ready.

Question 3:

The mind is a habit.

Even if there are moments when the heart is singing and the whole being is full of joy, the mind cannot leave its old habits. It will certainly ask what is happening.

Can't you allow things to happen without asking why? what?

Do you understand why we ask such questions?

The mind asks these questions because it wants to control your lifestyle, it wants to know everything that is going on. Nothing should happen which is beyond it; everything should be in its control. The mind is a great controller. And if everything remains in its control, it will be a tragedy because nothing great can happen to you.

Everything that is great, magnificent, is beyond mind.

And mind can never get the answer why, what, how.

You have to learn one thing: that it is not necessary to satisfy the mind about every experience.

Experiences of the heart, experiences of the being, experiences of the transcendental should not be made a point of inquiry. You should not ask why, you should enjoy them.

You should not ask what is happening, because if you insist on these questions the happening will stop. These questions are not your friends. Let the mind ask questions only when something is going wrong. You are sick, you have a headache, your stomach has cramps -- let the mind ask; that is the right realm for the mind.

But your heart is dancing -- what has the mind to do with it?

Just tell the mind, "Keep quiet, this is not your world. You look at your affairs. You should not go on poking your nose everywhere."

The heart is a higher reality.

The being is still higher, and there are realities higher than the being. Mind cannot ask questions about them, and no answer is possible.

You will have to learn some new ways, and you will have to drop some old habits.

So just make it a point, simple: if there is something wrong, you are miserable... misery is perfectly the right terrain where mind is needed. Without mind, you cannot create misery; it is the world of mind -- then ask why.

But it is strange: nobody comes to ask, "Why am I miserable?" But when the heart is dancing, people ask, "Why? What is happening?"

The reason is because your heart has not danced for centuries, so the experience is so new that you get scared. You start feeling perhaps you are a little bit crazy, getting old, senile.

What is happening? -- because the experience is new.

But remember, the mind's area of concern is only with anything going wrong. The mind has the right to ask and to find the right cause and to put things right.

But celebration, rejoicing, ecstasy -- mind has nothing to do with them. Just tell the mind, "You rest. Everything is going fine, you need not worry."

If you can teach the mind to ask the right questions and not to interfere in realms which are beyond it, you will have disciplined yourself for more and more, greater and higher experiences.

Question 4:

It is my work.

My work is to make you more and more aware, and when you become more aware you become aware of more problems.

Those problems were there before.

I don't create your problems, it is just that you were unconscious, you were not taking any note. Those problems were there.

It is just like a house which is in darkness, and many spiders are weaving their nests and scorpions are living and snakes are enjoying, and suddenly you bring light there. The light does not create the spiders or the scorpions or the snakes, but it makes you aware of them.

And it is good to be aware, because then the house can be cleaned; then you can avoid the snakes.

You have many problems which you are not seeing -- which in fact, you do not want to see. You go on postponing. You are so afraid of seeing those problems, because then you will have to solve them. But by postponing they are not solved; it is not so easy.

Problems are not letters written to George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw used to collect letters; he would not open them. He would open them on the first of every month, so for thirty days he would collect thousands of letters from all over the world. His date was fixed: on the first of every month he would open them. And he would go on throwing them, because most of them had already been answered. It was rarely that some letter was left that had not answered itself.

Somebody asked him, "This is a strange way...."

He said, "It is not strange, it is the simplest way. When somebody does not get an answer for two weeks, three weeks, he gets the answer that `This man is not going to answer.' He drops the hope.

"And most of those letters are useless anyway. I am not going to waste my whole month.

I have given them just one day -- and any really authentic letter that needs my attention, I answer. This way, I save my time, I save their time; otherwise they would have to read...

and this is such a difficult world that they would not only read they would reply also...

again you have to read it.

"It is better to finish it from the very beginning. It is a chain phenomenon, it can go on endlessly. And the more you allow it and then stop, the more it hurts. The first letter and it is finished -- it does not hurt. The man just understands that this man is not the type who answers letters."

But problems are not letters, and life is not George Bernard Shaw. You cannot postpone.

But people are postponing. They go on pushing them this way and that way, everywhere hiding them, thinking that some miracle... and things will settle down and problems will be solved. This is not going to happen. On the contrary, those problems will create their children. They will start finding boyfriends, girlfriends -- two problems meeting together and a third problem is produced, and you will be in more difficulty.

It is better to go on facing each problem as it comes by.

It is not sannyas that has created your problems. Sannyas has simply given you a little more awareness.

Your problems have always been there.

Sannyas has given you the opportunity to solve them.

And one should enjoy solving one's problems. It sharpens your intelligence. Each problem is a challenge. Each problem makes you more intelligent.

And the day you will not have any problems, your mind will come to its utmost clarity -- because no dust, no problem. Your mind becomes a mirror, so pure that it reflects reality.

Yes, it is my work.

But don't think that I am creating your problems.

I am just giving you insight, awareness, silence, so that you can see your problems and solve them.

Beyond Enlightenment