An Eternal Recurrence

The first question:

Question 1:

The question is from Somendra.

It is the same drama enacted again and again; the script remains the same, only the actors change.

Friedrich Nietzsche has a very beautiful theory about it: the theory of eternal recurrence. It may not be true in the details, but the idea is significant and profound.

It is like seasons - summer comes, followed by the rains, and then comes winter and again summer.

In summer there will be summer flowers; in the rains there will be rain flowers; in winter there will be winter flowers. No single flower will ever be repeated, but the essential idea will be repeated again and again. It is an eternal recurrence.

The story is the same. In its basics it is never different. It may be Krishna or Christ, Mahavira or Mohammed... actors change, different players participate, but the essential core of it is eternally the same. So when you move deeply in meditation - as Somendra is doing every day - and when the mind is almost stopping - as he says in his question - you become aware of many things which were already there, but of which you were not aware.

Jesus is very deep in the Western consciousness. He is an archetype. Whenever you see something closely resembling it, your unconscious will release the archetype to your conscious. Because Somendra has lived as a Christian for many lives, Christ has gone very deep into his consciousness.

He cannot remember Krishna, he has no relationship with Krishna. That symbol, that metaphor, does not exist in his unconscious mind. If he had been a Hindu for many lives, then he would have felt as if it was the time of Krishna. Or if he had been a Buddhist for many lives, then he would have felt the presence of Buddha. But it is the same. Buddha's body is different from Jesus' body, but what is hidden behind the body is not different - that inner purity, that inner innocence, that primal innoCenCe is the same.

In Somendra's unconscious, Jesus is very deep. And Jesus will be felt by many of you for another reason also. Although Somendra was not there in Jesus' time, there are many people here who were. The greater number of my sannyasins are Jews. It is not accidental, it can't be accidental.

Jews don't exist in India - not at all. So many Jews reaching me - there must be something profound in it. They have missed Jesus and an unconscious search continues. And in a very unconscious way they are smelling something here. This time they don't want to miss. More and more Jews will be coming. That time they missed; it was difficult to accept Jesus in those days.

In these two thousand years much has happened. Jesus is more relevant now, more in tune with human consciousness now. Because Jesus was a Jew it was very difficult for Jews to accept him - as it is difficult for Hindus to accept me. Mind plays strange games. It somebody is born into your religion it becomes very difficult for your ego to accept him as enlightened. Or if somebody is born in the same village as you, it becomes even more difficult. Or if you have been studying with somebody in the same school and suddenly the rumour arises that he has become enlightened or has been chosen by God as his prophet. you will reject the idea outright. You know the man from his childhood, you know him in and out - how can he become the chosen one of God? While you are there, how can God choose him? How can God dare? If he was going to choose. he would have chosen you. It becomes very difficult for the ego.

India is going to miss me for the simple reason that I have been born here. This accident is going to be a calamity for India. You don't see many Indians here. You may not have looked at it in this way.

Why are they not here? It is very difficult for their egos to accept me, particularly Jainas - the small religious group of Jainas in India. It was an accident that I was born a Jaina. You will not find them here. Sometimes you will find a few Hindus here, but the number of Jainas will be smaller. And even smaller will be the number of that particular sect - in the Jaina sect there is this smaller sect - to which I belonged in this accidental birth.

The number of Jainas is very small - thirty lakhs in India - and among Jainas there are many sects.

One sect, a very small sect, is SAMHIYA - the word comes from samadhi - those who only believe in samadhi. It is the same word that has become SANMI in Japanese, and later on satori. You will rarely find a SAMAHIYA here, impossible. There are only a few thousand. They all know me, they are well-acquainted with me, but that is the problem - because of that they cannot come here.

India is going to miss. Apart from India, nobody is going to miss; everybody else will be more in tune with me.

Jews have come in great numbers. They have the feeling that something is happening here. The same drama is being enacted again in the twentieth century - something of Christ's consciousness.

And they can accept me more easily than they could ever have accepted Jesus. He was a Jew, a carpenter's son - it was almost impossible to accept him.

More of you by and by will start feeling a kind of DEJA VU, as if this is no longer the twentieth century, as if these twenty centuries have suddenly disappeared from your consciousness, as if you are again in the days of Jesus in Jerusalem walking with him, or by Galilee moving with him, or in Bethlehem. To many of you that dream will unfold, because to understand me, that will be the closest metaphor for the Western consciousness.

No Hindu will ever feel that something of Christ is happening here. It he ever comes to feel anything, he will feel Krishna. No Buddhist will feel something about Christ. If he ever feels anything, he will feel something about Buddha. These are archetypes, metaphors in the unconscious, and when you come closer to your depth you start releasing the poetry of your soul.

So Somendra is right. He says: RECENTLY, MIND ALMOST STOPPING, I HAVE SUDDENLY FELT MYSELF AND EVERYTHING AROUND ME TO BE EXISTING EXACTLY IN JESUS' TIME.

AND THERE HAS BEEN A VERY STRONG SENSE OF JESUS HIMSELF. COULD YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PHENOMENON?

It is tremendously significant. Go deeper into it. Don't give any resistance to it. This will also disappear. Just as the conscious disappears, one day the unconscious also disappears. But to live in unconscious metaphors is better than to live in the conscious, because they are deeper. And he is perfectly right in saying 'mind almost stopping', because if it stops absolutely then even Jesus will disappear. These are all mind things ultimately; all words, all metaphors, are mind things. Just a little of the mind is left - be ready, Somendra, to drop that too. But there is no hurry, and don't be impatient, and don't fight with it. It is going on its own, it is on its deathbed.

The second question:

Question 2:

The question is from Vandana.

This is something to be understood by everybody.

Satya is in a laughing space. Something is stirring in her. She is not the laughing type, she is the crying type. When she came here, whenever she would come to me she would start crying. Tears were easier for her. Now suddenly tears have disappeared and laughter has arisen - and such a mad laughter that she goes on laughing for hours. It has almost become painful to her. The whole night she goes on laughing.

Naturally one becomes afraid. What is happening? For no reason at all? She has not been the laughing type, so her whole life she has repressed her laughter. Her type was the crying one, the sad. Now suddenly the type is changing, swinging from one polarity to another polarity. Before it stops in the middle and a balance arises, it has to go to the other polarity.

Her whole life she repressed laughter, unknowingly. Now the repression has disappeared, the lid has been taken off. Now she cannot cry, the tears are there no more. The whole life's laughter is coming up with a vengeance! It is almost hysterical. But it is a beautiful space because it is an indication of a great change, a transformation, an alchemical change. Tears are becoming laughter.

Soon laughter will also disappear. As tears have disappeared, laughter will disappear. Then she will come to the exact middle; then there will be great balance, an equilibrium. That equilibrium is the goal.

Neither the negative nor the positive is the goal, because both are half. Yes, if you have to choose between the negative and the positive, choose the positive. That is a lesser kind of evil, that's all.

But if you have a choice between tranquillity and the positive, then choose tranquillity. Then the positive is nothing, then the positive is almost negative in comparison to tranquillity. If there is only one choice - tears or laughter - then laughter is good. But if there is a choice of being silent, then tears and laughter both have to be dropped. One becomes silent.

She will soon come to that silence. After this storm of laughter, there will be a great silence. It always comes after the storm. This is a release, a release of repressed laughter. It has to be taken off her consciousness. It is being taken off, and she is pouring like anything.

Now Vandana says: AFTER TODAY'S DISCOURSE I MET SATYA ON THE STAIRS. SHE WAS LAUGHING. I WANTED TO SOB, BUT FELT I MUST LIGHTEN UP AND LAUGH, THAT SHE WAS POSITIVE AND I WAS NEGATIVE. I LAUGHED A LIE. COULD I BE TRUE TO MYSELF AND MEET HER IN THAT MOMENT?

Yes, there is no other way to meet anybody. Meeting is possible only if you are true, because only two true persons meet. Satya is laughing, and logically Vandana thought, 'If I also laugh there will be a kind of dialogue. We will be both in the same space. '

But how can you be both in the same space? Her laughter is true, your laughter is a lie. These are not the same thing. A true laughter and a laughter that is not true are poles apart. How can you meet? Truth and falsity can never meet. If Vandana had sobbed, as she was feeling, there would have been a meeting. But that looks illogical - somebody is laughing and you start crying? That looks illogical. It looks like you are going in a different direction. Then how will there be a meeting?

But let me tell you, you are not going in a different direction. It you are being true and she is being true, you are going in the same direction. It does not matter what kind of truth is happening to you.

If Vandana had cried great tears, if she had wept as she was feeling, if she had been true to her feeling, there would have been a meeting; then the laughter and the crying are not opposite because both are true. Only two truths can meet; only two truths can have a dialogue.

But she missed the point, as many of you would have missed. The logical mind says, 'She is laughing, and if I cry then we will fall apart. Then how will there ever be a communion between us?'

And then the mind said, 'She is positive and you are negative.' That doesn't matter. You can meet a positive person through your negativity. The only thing needed is the same earth of truth, the same ground of truth.

Positive and negative can meet. In fact, they meet beautifully. In fact, it happens sometimes that positive and positive cannot meet and negatiVe and negative cannot meet, because they don't have the pull of the opposite. There is a kind of homosexuality when positive and positive are there and when negative and negative are there. Meeting is more easy and more enriching when it is heterosexual. Laughter and crying can meet very beautifully. That is the meeting of man and woman, day and night, life and death.

You can ask the scientist, the physicist... he will say, 'Only opposite poles meet. The positive repels the positive; the negative repels the negative. Only negative and positive meet.' If you bring two positive magnets close they will repel each other; if you bring one negative and one positive together they will join together in a marriage.

So the only thing needed is truth. Don't be worried about the positive and the negative. Don't listen to the logical mind, because the logical mind is absurd. Life is bigger than logic.

Just see... Vandana feeling like crying and crying and Satya laughing - both are true. Then there is a common ground, then they are moving in the same direction, then they can hold hands. Satya may go on laughing and Vandana may go on crying, but there will be a kind of marriage in that moment, there will be great communion in that moment - both are being true. Remember, it is only truth that connects. It is only truth that bridges.

Don't be worried about the negative and the positive. The only thing that has to be remembered always is authenticity. All falsehood creates barriers.

The third question:

Question 3:

People are so fake because it pays, it is a good policy. If you are true, you will be in danger. You can be true only in a true society where truth is respected, loved. This society exists through lies. Here truth is not respected, here truth is crucified, here truth is killed. Lies are enthroned. That's why politics becomes so important in this world - because politics is the game of lies. And the politicians become the most important people in the world. They should be the last. They become the first because this world - this whole society - is based on lies. And if you live with liars and you will live with this falsehood all around you, you have to be fake. It pays, it is economical, it is safe. It protects you - otherwise people will be against you. If you are true and they are all living through lies, they cannot tolerate you.

From the very beginning a child starts learning that lies pay. If the child tells the truth, he is beaten; if the child tells the truth, it creates a kind of embarrassment for the parents. If the child is being truthful, nobody is for him, everybody is against him. If he is Lying, then he can protect himself. A lie becomes a kind of umbrella. And if he is Lying in tune with the parents' lies, then there is no problem at all. He can exist very smoothly. And children are very perceptive, sensitive; they learn whatsoever they see around.

I have heard....

Returning after a lengthy absence to his family's spot on the beach, the youngster found them preparing to leave.

'Come along,' said the mother, 'we are going to a restaurant for a good dinner.'

'I am not hungry,' said the boy. 'I have eaten seven ice cream cones and three frankfurters.'

'Where on earth did you get seven ice cream cones and three frankfurters?' asked his astounded mother. 'You didn't have any money.'

'I didn't need money. I just wandered all around the beach crying as if I was lost.'

'Crying as if I was lost.... ' Now the child has learned a great trick. If the child pretends that he is lost, it pays. And that is the whole secret of why people are fake - it pays. Whenever you are true, it harms you. And who is there to harm himself, and for what? The lie is a survival measure.

I have heard....

An art collector chanced upon a painting bearing the signature 'Picasso'. He purchased it immediately, hoping that it would prove to be very valuable. But a nagging doubt about the possibility of its being a forgery compelled him to seek out Picasso's home.

After much waiting he finally gained a moment of Picasso's time, and showed him the painting.

'It is a fake!' snapped the great painter, and slammed the door shut.

The collector was crestfallen and determined not to be taken in again. However, some time later, he came across a different painting, also bearing the signature 'Picasso'. He carefully researched the history of this painting and purchased it only after fully documenting its authenticity. However, even with legal proof that this was a genuine Picasso, he still felt a twinge of doubt, and resolved to satisfy his doubts by again visiting him.

When he finally gained a moment of Picasso's time, the great painter took one look at the painting, and said, 'It is a fake!'

'But, Picasso,' pleaded the art collector, 'I researched this painting thoroughly. I can prove that you yourself painted it.'

To this Picasso replied, 'I often paint fakes.'

It happens. Even a painter starts learning what sells. Not all Picasso's paintings are originals. More of them are fake, although they have been painted by him. Then what does he mean by saying that it is a fake? He is simply saying that he is just copying it from his other paintings; it is not original, it is a copy. It does not matter who is copying - somebody else or Picasso himself.

It almost always happens that when a person gets a Nobel Prize he never produces anything original afterwards. He goes on repeating his old story in new ways. Because it has paid so much, he is stuck. He thinks it sells so he goes on writing the same thing again and again. It has never happened, up to now, that after getting a Nobel Prize, a poet or a novelist has been able to do anything original again. The Nobel Prize is a kind of death knell, the person is finished - because now he knows what pays, now he has found the secret of success, now he has the key, so why bother trying other keys? They may not be so successful. Why bother about other directions and dimensions of creativity? One knows the right way to do a thing, so one goes on doing the right thing again and again and again, and becomes fake.

People are false because they have found a key. They know what makes life secure, comfortable, convenient, safe - although convenience, comfort, safety, security, don't bring any kind of blessing.

They bring all kinds of miseries, they don't bring any happiness in life. Happiness comes only through being original. Unless you have your original face you will never be blessed.

But to have your original face you will have to pass through many inconveniences, discomforts. The path is arduous. Keep it in mind that whenever you face a choice between convenience and joy, always choose joy, otherwise you will become fake. Whenever you have a choice between comfort and some adventure, choose the adventure, howsoever arduous, otherwise you will become a fake.

Whenever you have a choice between security and insecurity, let insecurity be your love. Never choose security. Security makes people dead and dull. A perfectly secure person is already in his grave, he is no longer alive. If you are alive there is bound to be insecurity - the more alive, the more insecure.

A really totally alive person lives moment to moment in insecurity. But then there is great thrill. And he is always on the verge of the unknown and he is always moving into something mysterious. The mysterious cannot be secure. Don't depend on bank balances, don't depend on marriage, don't depend on a comfortable and well-paying job, don't depend on family, society and state. People who have depended on those things are all around. You can see them - how dead they are, how dragging is their life, how sad are their eyes. Not a single song is in their heart and you will never feel any dance in their feet. Impossible. You can go on searching in their life and you will find desert and more desert, not a single oasis. Love does not bloom; celebration they have not known.

I have heard....

An Indian died - a very religious man, ritualistic, formal. He had been doing all the kinds of things that the scriptures commanded. So he was very, very certain of reaching paradise. When he reached there he looked through the door and he was surprised. The paradise looked almost like India, no difference, none at all.

So he asked the angel standing at the gate, 'What is the matter? It looks almost like India, I don't see any difference. Paradise is almost like our land, our country.'

And the man standing on the door said, 'What are you talking about? And why do you go on bowing down to me? This is not paradise and I am not an angel!'

This story is beautiful.... It is hell and the man standing on the door is not an angel but the Devil! But hell will look like India. Hell will look like anything that you have become accustomed to. If you are a German then hell will look like Germany, if you are Japanese then hell will look like Japan, if you are English then hell will look exactly like England.

Hell is that which you know. Meditate over it: hell is that which you are acquainted with; hell is the past, the known, the well-trodden path. Heaven is something unknown, something that you cannot compare with your past, cannot compare with your experience, there is no comparison. It is utterly new! Utterly! Absolutely! It is discontinuous. You have never known anything like it.

But if you live a life of comfort and convenience and ritual and formality and lies, if you live a fake life, a pseudo life, you live in hell. And you will be living in hell in the future too. You are creating it around yourself. Shake yourself up and get out of your dull and dead so-called life. Start living again. And don't think about what pays! It is always the wrong thing that pays in this world. The right thing never pays because there are no more people who can pay for the right thing. If you do something wrong you will be paid very much.

Just think, a poet is not paid, but a general is. And the general is doing the wrong thing - killing people. He is a murderer. The soldier is paid, not a painter. Those who bring death into the world, they are paid. Can't you see it? The army people are the well-paid people. They are the butchers and murderers, but they are the most well-paid, well-fed. They live in good houses, have all the facilities of life. Look at the poet who goes on singing songs of love - he will be a beggar. Think of the musician who brings music to your door - he is a beggar. All that is right is not paid; it cannot be paid. The world is so wrong. The politicians are highly paid, highly respected. The newspapers are continuously full of their news. Have you ever seen anything else than politics in the newspapers?

And these are the most mischievous people in the world. These are the people who make the earth a hell. But they are the well-paid people.

Remember, if you think in terms of payment, you will be fake. If you want to be paid in this world with comfort, luxury, you will have to be fake. If you really want to be alive, then don't bother whether it pays or not. If it pays, good; if it doesn't pay, good.

But then you will be living a life of great enrichment. You may not be rich, but your life will be enriched. You may not have fame, but you will have joy; you may not be known in the world, but you will be known to God. And that is all that is worth anything.

And I am not saying that you all have to carry your crosses on your shoulders continuously. No, I am not saying that. I never demand the impossible. When you live with false people there is no need to create unnecessary conflict either. Avoid. Go on searching for your life, your original face, but there is no need to be in conflict every day, every moment - otherwise it becomes a problem, an unnecessary wastage of energy. Follow the rules of ordinary life, just as one follows the rules of a game. On the roads in India they say: Keep to the left - so keep to the left. It is nothing of any importance. In America they keep to the right. That too is perfectly okay. When in America keep to the right, when in India keep to the left. And if some mad country exists somewhere where you have to keep in the centre, keep in the centre. Don't be worried.

But always know that this is nothing fundamental. It has nothing to do with any truth. It is a convenience. And when there are so many people.... You need not create incon-venience for others. You are at freedom to create all kinds of inconveniences for yourself - that is your freedom - but you need not create inconveniences for others.

I have heard....

The great maestro, Toscanini, was as well-known for his ferocious temper as for his outstanding musicianship. When members of his orchestra played badly, he would pick up anything in sight and hurl it to the floor. During one rehearsal a flat note caused the genius to grab his valuable watch and smash it beyond repair.

Shortly afterwards, he received from his devoted musicians a luxurious, velvet lined box containing two watches - one a beautiful gold timepiece, the other a cheap one on which was inscribed: For rehearsals only.

So keep that in mind. When you are moving in the world, moving with people, there is no need to carry your cross. There is no need to go on shouting loudly that you are a martyr or a Jesus or a Mansoor, there is no need. Follow the rules of the game. It is just a game.

But remember always that the game should not become your whole life. That's all I would like my sannyasins to remember. That's why I don't take you out of society. Never has it been done before.

For a single reason it has never been done before - the reason was that Buddha would not allow his sannyasins to live in the world. The problem was that if the sannyasin was to be true, it would be difficult to live in the world - because with people you have to be polite, formal, many times. In life you cannot continuously remember that you have to be true; people are so false. Just out of compassion, out of politeness, sometimes you may have to keep yourself quiet, not to say a word - because if you say something it is going to hurt people unnecessarily. Or sometimes you will have to do something which is not true. You can't be absolutely yourself when you are living with so many people. So Buddha said to his sannyasins, 'Leave the world. Sacrifice your relationships to be true.'

Others who decided to live in the world sacrificed their truth to live in relationship.

Both are lopsided. You can leave the world, but then you will be leaving many opportunities to grow.

You can go to a Himalayan cave and sit there. Of course there will be no need to lie because there will be nobody to lie to, nobody to talk to, nobody to relate to. You will be alone in the cave, you will be perfectly true, you can have your original face - but then you don't have any opportunities as challenges to provoke you into growth. You are out of life, and only in life do people grow.

Life is a great opportunity. In the cave you will be secluded, all alone, dull and dead. You will again become dead because you will not have any possibility of responding. Yes, you will not be telling any untruth, but to whom are you going to say the truth? You will not be angry, right, but you will not be loving either. So this is something meaningless. Anger is dropped but love also disappears. So the old kind of sannyasin becomes cold. They don't have any anger - a good thing - but they don't have any love. And that can't be praised.

It is as if a person was afraid of illness so he committed suicide. Now he will never be ill, that's true, but he will never be alive either. This is throwing the baby out with the bath water. I am not in support of it.

But up to now these have been the two alternatives given to humanity. One is to leave the world, to shrink into yourself - that is a kind of dull life again. Or, to live in the world and be false, because it is too troublesome to be true.

I am giving you the golden mean: live in the world and don't be of the world. You will need to be very, very alert - more alert than Buddha's sannyasins. They did not need to be alert, they could go to sleep in their caves. You will have to be very, very alert, and you will have to keep two watches - one for rehearsals only, and one, the real one, for yourself. You will have to become a great actor.

But when you act consciously you are not fake. When a conscious act is there and you know that it is just an act, then it is not going to destroy your life. But when you forget that this is an act and you become identified with it, then you become worldly.

So the old definition of the worldly is to live in the world, and the definition of the non-worldly is to not live in the world to get out of it. My definition is different. The worldly is one who gets into his act and becomes unconscious and forgets that this is an act. It is as if you are playing on the stage, acting some role. For example, you are in a drama playing the role of Jesus or Pontius Pilate and you forget that it is a role, and when the curtains fall and you come home you come as Pontius Pilate or Jesus Christ. Then you will be in trouble.

It has happened sometimes. Once it happened to an actor who was playing Abraham Lincoln continuously for one year around the United States. Every day the party travelled from one town to another town, and he was Abraham Lincoln. One year is a long time. He got mixed up. After one year he forgot his real identity, who he was, and he started saying that he was Abraham Lincoln.

At first people thought he was joking, but then it became serious. He came home but he came as Abraham Lincoln. His wife tried to persuade him to get out of his role, his father tried to convince him that he was not Abraham Lincoln, but he wouldn't listen. And he wouldn't wear ordinary clothes either, he would wear the clothes that he had been wearing on the stage. And he would walk like Abraham, he would stutter like Abraham, and his face had also become like Abraham's. For one year he was pretending and pretending and pretending. It became so difficult that they had to bring him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist tried hard, from one direction and another, but he wouldn't say anything else except 'What are you saying? Have you gone mad? I am Abraham Lincoln!' There was no way....

They have a lie-detector mechanism in America which they use in the courts. The person concerned stands on the mechanism unaware that there is a mechanism underneath. It is like a cardiogram- type thing. It makes a graph of your heartbeats. When you are speaking the truth there are smooth lines, when you are suddenly ready to speak an untruth there is a gap - because the heart knows something else. And the graph is broken. So when you lie it can be seen in the graph. The graph becomes shaken or broken.

For example, if somebody asks you, 'What is the time on your watch?' you look and you say, 'Nine o'clock.' There is no need to lie. The graph is running smoothly. And if somebody asks, 'How many people are here?' you count and you say, 'Ten.' There is no need to lie. The graph is going smoothly.

Then the person asks, 'Are you the murderer of this man?' Your heart says, 'Yes!' because it knows, and you say 'No.' So there is a conflict between the heart and you, and that conflict shakes the graph. Then it can be shown where you lied.

So the psychiatrist suggested that this Abraham Lincoln be put on the lie detector. There only would they be able to see whether he was lying or not. Now the man who was Abraham Lincoln had got fed up with all kinds of treatments and psychiatry and medicine and tranquillisers, and all kinds of suggestions and everybody pretending to be wise and patronising him. So he decided that day that although he was Abraham Lincoln it was better to say he was not. 'Be finished with it! Inside I know that I am, but for the outside I will just tell them and be finished with it. Otherwise life will become a problem!'

Standing on the lie detector, they asked him different questions and he answered. Then they came to the real question - they asked, 'Are you Abraham Lincoln?'

He said, 'No!' And the detector said he was Lying.

He had got so much in tune with the idea, that in his deepest core he knew that he was Abraham Lincoln. Now just on the surface he was lying.

If this happens, then you are a worldly man. That is my definition of a worldly man - one who gets into his act and forgets to come out; one who remains hooked there. This is the worldly man. And the sannyasin, the other-worldly, is the man who goes on playing acts, who knows they are acts, who never gets hooked by any act. When he comes home, he plays the act of being the husband and the father and the wife. These are all games. Play beautiful, play artistically, play aesthetically, but there is no need to get hooked - that YOU ARE a father, that you ARE a mother, that you ARE this or that. Or you are a doctor, you are an engineer, you are this and that - these are functions.

When you are treating a patient, be in the role of being a doctor, but when there is no patient and you are sitting alone in your room, there is no need to be a doctor. Otherwise you are doing the same stupid thing as that man who became Abraham Lincoln.

I used to stay at a friend's house in Calcutta. He was a Justice of the High Court in those days, now he is a Chief Justice somewhere. His wife told me, 'My husband respects you so much, he loves you so much, that you are the only person who can be of some help to me.' I said, 'What is the matter?'

She said, 'He is always the Justice - even at home, even with children. He never comes out of that role. Not only that, even in bed with me, while he is making love, he is the Justice. And I have to treat him as "Your Majesty", "Your Honour". He expects that. And I feel as if I am a criminal standing before him always to be judged. And the whole house becomes sad when he comes in. When he goes out there is joy that the Justice has gone.'

This is happening to almost everybody, more or less. I call the man worldly who does not know how to play a game and gets too serious about it.

My sannyasin is a new entry into the world of religion. He will live in the world, he will play all kinds of games, and he will know that these are all games and he will never be hooked by any game. And he will always be able to get out of any act easily, and he will go on searching for his original face.

He will not be lost in the acts that he has to put up with.

This is of immense importance. If he lives in the world in a worldly way, he becomes dead. If he becomes an old traditional kind of sannyasin, he shrinks and becomes dead. Both are ways of death. Life is where opposites meet. Life is where day and night meet. Life is in the world and yet only for those who can remain beyond it. Be a lotus flower - in the water and yet untouched by it.

The fourth question:

Question 4:

This is a significant question, but the question arises because of a wrong attitude in Western medicine.

In the East we have a totally different outlook. The polar opposite to Western medicine is the Taoist attitude about medicine. You will have to understand a few things.

First, the questioner says: I AM MUCH CONFUSED ABOUT THE FOLLOWING QUESTION. I AM TRAINED AS A PHYSICIAN, AND I HAVE ALWAYS FELT DEEPLY THAT IT IS A GOOD THING.

BUT INTRINSIC IN MY WORK, IN MY ACTIVITY, IS A REFUSAL TO ACCEPT ILLNESS AND DEATH, DISEASE AND HUMAN SUFFERING.

Now, a distinction has to be made. Illness, disease and suffering are one thing; death is totally different. In the Western mind, illness, disease, suffering and death are all together - packed in one package. From there problems arise.

Death is beautiful; illness is not, suffering is not, disease is not. Death IS beautiful. Death is not a sword that cuts your life, it is like a flower - an ultimate flower - that blooms at the last moment. It is the peak. Death is the flower on the tree of life. It is not the end of life but the crescendo. It is the ultimate orgasm. There is nothing wrong in death; it is beautiful - but one needs Lo know how to live and how to die.

There is an art of living and there is an art of dying, and the second art is of more value than the first art. But the second can be known only when you have known the first. Only those who know how to live rightly know how to die rightly. And then death is a door into the divine.

So, the first thing: please keep death apart. Only think of illness, disease and suffering. You need not fight against death. That is creating trouble in the Western mind, in the Western hospitals, in Western medicine. People are fighting against death. People are almost vegetating in the hospitals, just alive on drugs. They are forced to live unnecessarily when they would have died naturally.

Through medical support their death is being postponed. They are of no use, life is of no use for them; the game is over, they are finished. Now to keep them alive is just to make them suffer more.

Sometimes they may be in a coma, and a person can be in a coma for months and years. But because there is an antagonism against death it has become a great problem in the Western mind:

what to do when a person is in a coma and will never recover, but can be kept alive for years? He will be a corpse, just a breathing corpse, that's all. He will simply vegetate; there will be no life.

What is the point? Why not allow him to die? There is the fear of death. Death is the enemy - how to surrender to the enemy, to death?

So there is great controversy in the Western medical mind. What to do? Should a person be allowed to die? Should a person be allowed to decide whether he wants to die? Should the family be allowed to decide whether they would like him to die? - because sometimes the person may be unconscious and cannot decide.

But is it right to help somebody to die? Great fear arises in the Western mind. To die? That means you are murdering the person! The whole of science exists to keep him alive.

Now this is stupid! Life in itself has no value unless there is joy, unless there is dance, unless there is some creativity, unless there is love - life in itself is meaningless. Just to live is meaningless. A point comes when one has lived, a point comes when it is natural to die, when it is beautiful to die.

Just as when you have been doing work the whole day, a point comes when you fall asleep. Death is a kind of sleep - a deeper sleep. You will be born again in a newer body with a newer mechanism, with new facilities, with new opportunities, new challenges. This body is old and one has to leave it; it is just a dwelling.

But there are people who-are even afraid of sleep. Just a few days ago I was reading a book in which the author says, 'There is no need to sleep. It is a wastage of time.' A person lives almost one-third of his life in sleep - and that is not living at all, because he creates nothing, he does not work. What is the point of keeping a man asleep? Sooner or later they will start finding drugs so that a man can avoid sleep completely. Just think of the world where sleep will become impossible, they won't allow you even to sleep.

In Russia they have invented instruments to teach children while they are asleep. Now will you not leave even sleep alone. It is called hypno-teaching. A tape recorder is connected and the whole night the tape recorder goes on teaching mathematics, history, geography. The child has been tortured the whole day in the school, now you cannot even allow him rest. The Western mind is too utilitarian. It does not believe in rest, it believes in work. Its whole ethos is that of work, not of relaxation. And in the morning the child has to go to school again. You will create more neurotic people in the world if you don't even allow sleep.

And this author suggests that there is a possibility that through some drugs sleep can be completely removed and a man can live awake for seventy years. Just think of the nightmare! These people who are against sleep are against death too. They are against any kind of relaxation, let-go. Just go on fighting.

In the East we have a different outlook: death is not the enemy but the friend. Death gives you rest.

You have become tired, you have lived your life, you have known all the joys that can be known in life, you have burnt your candle totally. Now go into darkness, rest for a while and then you can be born again. Death will revive you again in a fresher way.

So the first thing: death is not the enemy.

The second thing: death is the greatest experience in life if you can die consciously. And you can die consciously only if you are not against it. If you are against it you become very panicky, very afraid.

When you are so afraid that you cannot tolerate that fear there is a natural mechanism in the body which releases drugs into the body and you become unconscious. There is a point beyond which endurance will not be possible; you become unconscious So millions of people die unconsciously and miss a great moment, the greatest of all. It is samadhi, it is satori, it is meditation happening to you. It is a natural gift.

If you can be alert and you can see that you are not the body.... You will have to see, because the body will disappear. Soon you will be able to see that you are not the body, you are separate. Then you will see you are separating from the mind too. Then the mind will disappear. And then you will be just a flame of awareness, and that is the greatest benediction there is.

So the first thing: don't think of death as illness, disease and human suffering.

The second thing: illness, disease and suffering are bad because they happen only when you are not natural. Something has gone wrong. Health is natural, death is natural, but disease is not natural. Disease is simply an indication that something is going wrong in your nature. For example, you have eaten too much and there is pain in your stomach. This pain is not natural, you have done something unnatural. You have not slept for two, three days, because you were running after money and it was not possible for you to sleep. Or you were fighting an election and it was not possible to sleep, or to afford that much time for sleep. You were on an election campaign, so you have not slept for three days and now the head is becoming neurotic, bursting; there is great pain in the head.

This is just a symptom. Nature is saying to you. 'Come back to me. You have gone too far away.'

Man is free and he can be unnatural. Many kinds of diseases happen only when we go somewhere astray from nature. If man lives naturally there will be no disease.

But man cannot live naturally continuously because man also has freedom. Sometimes you can eat a little too much - that is your freedom. And sometimes you can go on a fast - that too is your freedom. Man is the only animal in the world who has freedom: that is his dignity. But freedom brings dangers. The first danger is that you can go against nature. And nature is so polite that it does not shout, it whispers. Nature is very silent; its voice is very still and small. It goes on saying, 'Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it,' and it goes on tolerating. There is a point beyond which it cannot tolerate and the disease erupts.

Now, what is the physician meant to do? In the East the physician does not fight disease, the physician is not meant to destroy the disease. The physician is simply meant to bring the man back to nature.

The questioner asks: BUT INTRINSIC IN MY WORK, IN MY ACTIVITY, IS A REFUSAL TO ACCEPT ILLNESS, DISEASE AND HUMAN SUFFERING. VERY DEEP THEREFORE, IS A REFUSAL TO ACCEPT LIFE OR EXISTENCE AS IT IS. VERY DEEP IS A DESIRE TO CORRECT SOME OF THESE MECHANISMS OF NATURE.

Yes, the desire is perfectly right. But it is not to correct some mechanisms of nature, it is to correct some mechanism which has gone against nature.

The physician is not correcting nature, he is only correcting man. This is a totally different vision.

The physician is not correcting nature. Nature is always correct. Sometimes man can be wrong, because he has freedom. The physician corrects man.

You will be surprised to know that in China there has been a traditional concept - a very ancient tradition - that when a person falls ill he stops paying his physician. Otherwise he has to pay, if the person remains healthy he has to pay; if he falls ill then he stops paying. That means that the physician has not been looking at nature and has not been helping nature and has not been helping him to keep 'right', in tune with nature. The physician has failed.

This is a very strange outlook. When you are ill you go to the doctor and you pay. In China, for centuries they have been paying when they are healthy. They go to their doctor and pay because they are healthy - the doctor keeps them healthy. When they are ill, they stop paying. Why should they pay? The doctor has not been doing his job. His job is to keep people natural. This will be the vision of the future. Sooner or later, this vision has to come.

The doctor is not against nature, the doctor is only putting people right because people have the freedom to go wrong. They can.

So there is no need to keep yourself miserable - that you are doing something good, but then there is a refusal to accept disease and illness. Yes, there is a refusal to accept disease and illness, but disease and illness are not natural, they are a going astray. Put man right. You are not fighting against the whole, you are fighting for the whole against man. Let it be looked at in this way.

The questioner says that he is afraid - it is as if he is fighting against the whole. If the whole wants disease then let it be there. If this is the will of the whole then let it be there, he should surrender.

You are not fighting the whole when you are fighting the disease, you are fighting a part which is going against the whole. If the part is in tune with the whole, in harmony, there will be no disease, no illness.

But man has freedom. And with freedom many dangers enter.

If you go into the forest, into the jungle, you will be surprised to see that animals are almost never ill. I am not talking about the animals who live in a zoo - they are ill. They have become human imitators.

To live with humans is very dangerous. But in a jungle, living in a wild situation, animals live and die - they are never ill. They never eat too much because they don't have that much freedom. They never fast, they don't have that much freedom, they don't have that much consciousness. They don't do anything that is unnatural. They go on doing the natural thing, and they keep healthy.

Once I went into a reserve forest with a few of my friends. One lady was with me who was really fat, exceptionally fat. She was just sitting by my side in the jeep when we went into the forest. That forest has thousands of deer, and a row of deer was passing and we were watching. I told the lady, 'Just watch for one thing. See if you find any deer that is fat.' Thousands of deer passed and the lady became very, very embarrassed because she could not find a single deer that was fat. They were all alike, there was not a single fat deer - because deer can't eat too much. And when deer don't eat too much they never have to diet, there is no need. A physician is not needed.

Illnesses like tuberculosis or cancer don't happen in nature. Cancer-happens only in a very higher kind of civilisation.

In India the ancient name for tuberculosis is 'the royal disease'. It used to happen only to kings. It is called RAJ YASHIMA - only to the kings. It never happened to poor people. It couldn't happen. A poor person can't suffer that much for tuberculosis to happen. Then by and by poor people became rich, then the tuberculosis became more and more available to everybody.

Cancer is a new phenomenon. It is absolutely new. It is not mentioned in any ancient medicine manual - Taoist or Hindu - it is absolutely new. It had to wait for the twentieth century to happen. A great tension is needed for it to happen. So much unnatural tension is needed for it to happen that it was not possible before. Only we can afford cancer; we have become affluent enough to have it.

And our minds are becoming neurotic with desires - we are running in all directions, we are falling apart.

You need not be worried that you are fighting against nature or against the whole. You are not fighting against nature, you are fighting against the stupidity of the part which has gone against the whole. You are bringing the person back to the whole.

And remember always, a physician never heals, he cannot heal. He can only make the healing force of the whole available to the patient. It is the whole that heals. It is not the physician and it is not the medicine either that heals. The medicine and the physician and the hospital all bring the part back closer to the whole, where healing happens. the physician and the medicine were just instrumental.

You need not be worried. You are in the service of nature. You can be happy that you are doing something beautiful.

The last question:

There are two questions connected. First:

Question 5:

The question is from Sheela.

And the second question is from Satya:

Question 6:

First: the physical heart is not your real heart. The real heart exists just behind the physical heart.

The real heart is not part of your physical mechanism at all. The real heart exists in the soul - it is the centre of the soul.

The physical heart is the centre of the body and the spiritual heart is the centre of the soul. They both exist together, side by side. Just behind the physical is the spiritual heart. And it is going to happen to many people, this misunderstanding.

When the spiritual heart starts opening, you will have ripples in your physical heart too. They correspond, they are very close together. When something vibrates in the spiritual heart, you will feel echoes in the physical heart too. In fact, you will first feel it only in the physical heart because you don't know anything about the spiritual heart. Your first awareness of it will be of the physical heart getting some strange feelings. Sometimes it can be that of burning, sometimes it can be that of throbbing, sometimes it can be that of bursting, sometimes it can be almost like a heart attack.

It has been happening down the ages to all meditators. Whenever people go deep into meditation this is bound to happen. The spiritual heart starts trembling, opening, the petals bloom, and the physical heart starts catching the vibrations, the echoes. But this is a beautiful sign. Don't be afraid of it. Soon you will become aware of the spiritual heart, then all symptoms from the physical will disappear.

The first symptoms will be of uneasiness, restlessness. It is so because something new is happening and you are not accustomed to it. When you become a little more accustomed to it, more harmonious with it, you will see that it is not restlessness, it was just a new taste that you had not known before. It disturbs you. When it becomes well-acquainted, well-known, it will give you a new kind of peace, silence. And great love will arise out of it.

Just a few days before one old sannyasin came to me, and he said, 'A strange thing has happened'

- and he is very old, seventy or seventy-five - 'I had the feeling of a heart attack, so I went to the doctor and they examined me and they said there was nothing wrong. I was absolutely healthy and normal. So what is happening to me?'

I told him jokingly that it was not a heart attack, it was a love attack.

Yes, when your spiritual centres start opening you will have love attacks. Your body will feel the trembling, the restlessness. Soon it will settle, and when it settles you will have a new being - a new plane of being. You have moved from the physical to the spiritual.

Between the physical heart and the spiritual heart is the mind. That is the only barrier. The whole effort of meditation is to disperse the mind. Once the mind is dispersed, the physical heart and the spiritual heart both start dancing together. Then a great beauty arises. And it is not only spiritual, it will be seen in your physical face too. A grace, a new quality of energy will be around you. And not only will you feel it, others will feel it too. You will have a new vibe.

This is going to happen to many people because many people are meditating and they are really working hard. But I am not saying that if sometimes you start feeling something going wrong in the heart you are not to go to the physician. You have to go! Sometimes it may be a heart attack. You have to go. If it is not a heart attack the physician will tell you that it is not. But you have to check it.

This question is important because it is relevant to many of you. To many it has happened, and to many it is going to happen, and to many more. But always, when you have something happening in the body, go to the physician and be checked. If it is nothing, there is no problem. If there is something, you can take medicine.

So don't think that it is always the spiritual heart because sometimes it may not be. Sometimes it may be the physical heart and if you don't go to the physician you can be in danger.