The greatest love affair on earth

Question 1:

That should be the easiest thing in the world, but it is not. To be oneself one need not do anything; one already is. How can you be otherwise? How can you be anybody else? But I can understand the problem. The problem arises because the society corrupts everybody. The society up to now has been a great corruption. It corrupts the mind, the being. It enforces things on you and you lose contact with yourself. It tries to make something else out of you than that which you were meant to be. It puts you off your center. It drags you away from yourself. It teaches you to be like a Christ or to be like a Buddha or to be like this and that; it never says to you to be yourself. It never allows you freedom to be. It enforces foreign outside images on your mind.

Then the problem arises. You can pretend at the most, and when you pretend you are never satisfied. You always want to be yourself -- that is natural -- and the society does not allow it. It wants you to be somebody else. It wants you to be phoney. It does not want you to be real, because real people are dangerous people, real people are rebellious people. Real people cannot be controlled so easily, real people cannot be regimented.

Real people will live their reality in their own way -- they will do their thing; they won't bother about other things. You cannot sacrifice them. In the name of religion, in the name of the state, nation, race, you cannot sacrifice them. It is impossible to seduce them for any sacrifice. Real people are always for their own happiness. Their happiness is ultimate: they are not ready to sacrifice it for anything else. That's the problem.

So the society distracts every child: it teaches the child to be somebody else. And by and by the child learns the ways of pretension, hypocrisy. And one day -- this is the irony -- the same society starts talking to you in this way, starts saying to you: What has happened to you? Why are you not happy? Why do you look miserable? Why are you sad? And then come the priests. First they corrupt you, the distract you from the path of happiness -- because there is only one happiness possible and that is to be yourself -- then they come and say to you: Why are you unhappy? Why are you miserable? And then they teach you ways to be happy. First they make you ill and then they sell medicines. It is a great conspiracy.

I have heard...

A little old Jewish lady sits down on a plane next to a big Norwegian. She keeps staring and staring at him. Finally she turns to him and says, "Pardon me, are you Jewish?"

He replies, "No."

A few minutes go by, and she looks at him again and asks, "You can tell me -- you are Jewish, aren't you?"

He answers, "Definitely not."

She keeps studying him and says again, "I can tell you are Jewish."

In order to get her to stop annoying him the gentleman replies, "Okay, I'm Jewish."

She looks at him and shakes her head back and forth, and says, "You don't look it."

That's how things are. You as me, "How can I be myself?" Just drop the pretensions, just drop this urge to be somebody else, just drop this desire to look like Christ, Buddha, Mahavira, Krishna, to look like your neighbor. Drop competition and drop comparison and you will be yourself. Comparison is the poison. You are always thinking in terms of how the other is doing. He has got a big house and a big car and you are miserable. He has got a beautiful woman and you are miserable. And he is climbing up on the staircase of power and politics and you are miserable. Compare, and you will imitate. If you compare yourself with the rich people, you will start running in the same direction. If you compare yourself with the learned people, you will start accumulating knowledge. If you compare yourself with the so-called saints, you will start accumulating virtue -- and you will be imitative. And to be imitative is to miss the whole opportunity to be oneself.

Drop comparison. You are unique. Nobody else is like you, nobody else has ever been like you, and nobody else is ever going to be like you. You are simply unique -- and when I am saying you are unique, I am not saying you are better than others, remember. I am simply saying they are also unique. To be unique is an ordinary quality of every being. To be unique is not a comparison, to be unique is as natural as breathing.

Everybody is breathing and everybody is unique. While you are alive, you are unique.

Only corpses are all alike; alive persons are unique. They are never similar -- they cannot be. Life never follows any repetitive course. God never repeats: he goes on singing a new song every day, he paints something new every day.

Respect your uniqueness, and drop comparison. Comparison is the culprit. Once you compare, you are on the track. Don't compare with anybody -- he is not you, you are not he. You are going to be yourself, he is going to be himself: let him be, and you relax into your being. Start enjoying whatsoever you are. Delight in the moments that are available to you. Comparison brings future, comparison brings ambition, and comparison brings violence. You start fighting, struggling, you become hostile.

Life is not something like a commodity. Happiness is not something like a commodity, that if others have it, you cannot -- "how can you have it, if others have happiness?" -- happiness is not a commodity at all. You can have as much as you want. It simply depends on you. Nobody is competitive about it, nobody is a competitor to you. Just as the garden is beautiful -- you can look and appreciate, somebody else can look and appreciate. Because somebody else is appreciating the garden and saying it is beautiful, you are not hindered; he is not exploiting you. The garden is not less because he has appreciated it; because he is enthralled by its beauty the garden is not less. In fact, the garden is more so -- because he has appreciated it he has added a new dimension to the garden.

People who are happy are in fact adding some quality to existence -- just by being happy they are creating vibes of happiness. You can appreciate this world more and more if more and more people are happy. Don't think in terms of competition. It is not that if they are happy how can you be happy? -- you have to jump on them and snatch happiness away, you have to compete. Remember, if people are unhappy it will be very difficult for you to be happy. Happiness is available to everybody -- whosoever opens his heart, happiness is always available. This happiness I call God.

It is not that somebody has achieved; it is not like a political post -- one person has become the president of a country, now everybody cannot become the president, true. But one person has become enlightened: that does not hinder anybody else from becoming enlightened -- in fact, it helps. Because Buddha became enlightened it has become easier for you to become enlightened. Because Christ became enlightened it has become easier for you to become enlightened. Somebody has walked on the path: footprints are there, he has left subtle hints for you; you can go more easily, in deeper confidence, with less hesitation. The whole earth can become enlightened, each single being can become enlightened. But everybody cannot become a president. This country has six hundred million people -- only one person can become the president. Of course it is a competitive thing. But all six hundred million people can become enlightened -- that's not a problem.

All that is divine is noncompetitive -- and your being is divine. So just sort it out. The society has muddled your head; it has taught you the competitive way of life. Religion is a noncompetitive way of life. Society is ambition, religion is nonambitious. And when you are nonambitious, only then can you be yourself. This is simple.

Question 2:

The song is always the best. The song is always the most perfect. Whatsoever I am saying is always the absolute truth. Sometimes you hear it, sometimes you miss it -- that depends on you. Sometimes you fall in tune with me, sometimes you stand apart. Sometimes you take courage and move with me, and sometimes you hesitate and linger. Sometimes you lag behind me, sometimes you accompany me. It depends on you. The song in itself is always the best.

I have heard: A Zen monk, Rinzai, was passing from a marketplace. He was near the shop of a butcher, and a customer was asking the shopkeeper, "Give me the best meat you have." The butcher said, "What nonsense! I never sell anything that is not the best.

Here everything is the best." And it is said, hearing this, Rinzai became enlightened. The moment he heard this -- "Here, everything is the best" -- it shattered something in his mind. A breakthrough, a piercing insight -- EVERYTHING is the best?... and he realized something. That's how it is, the whole existence: it is never less than the best. And he danced. And when he came back to the monastery, his master hugged him and said, "So!

-- so it has happened. Now tell me the whole story, how it happened." Rinzai said, "It is ridiculous. It happened by hearing a butcher say something to his customer." Of all places, in the marketplace, and of all persons, through a butcher! -- but something shattered, something simply dropped.

Each moment is the best, and each rose is the best. Yes, I would like to tell you, in the same way as the butcher told his customer: Here everything is the best. I don't deal in anything less than that. If I say it, it must be the best, otherwise I won't say it. But sometimes you get it and sometimes you miss it -- it depends on you. It has to be understood.

First: listening to me, your mind is not empty. Listening to me, you are not like a mirror.

Listening to me, you are full of your inner chattering. That is a disturbance. You listen to something and I say something else. Sometimes you listen only half-heartedly -- a word here, a word there -- and then you connect it. It is a hotchpotch, it is a mess; you will be never able to figure it out.

You have to listen to me so silently that not a single word is missed. I'm not saying listen to me in deep concentration, no. I am saying listen to me in awareness. Because concentration can never be perfect; there is always a possibility of distraction in concentration. I am saying something to you and a bird starts singing -- what will you do?

The sound of the bird will start coming to you; it will be a distraction. Concentration implies distraction, so I am never in favor of concentration. Listen to me in deep awareness.

Awareness means you listen to me and you listen to the bird also, to the wind passing through the trees and all that is happening right now. Don't listen to me with a narrow mind, closed to everything else and only open to me. Then you will not be able to listen to me, because what I am saying will be less if the sound of the bird is not included in it.

What I am saying will not be true if all that is happening in this moment is not included in it. Don't listen to me exclusively. Listen to all, inclusively: everything is included -- you are simply a silent mirror reflecting everything that is happening all around. Nothing is distracting. In those moments, in those crystal-clear moments, again and again you will come to hear the best song. Otherwise you hear one thing, you miss another, you hear again one thing -- one word here, one word there -- then you connect them. Then whatsoever comes out is not what I have said, it is what you have heard.

It happened...

The old tramp stood at the back door and the lady of the house appeared.

"Lady," he said, "I was at the front..."

"You poor man!" she exclaimed. "One of the war victims. Wait till I get you some food and you can tell me your story. You were in the trenches, you say?"

"Not in the trenches," said the tramp. "I was at the front..."

"Don't try to talk with your mouth full, take your time. What deed of heroism did you do at the front?"

"I knocked," he said, "but I couldn't get an answer so I came around to the back."

You don't even listen to the whole sentence. You listen to one word and you start interpreting it. "The front..." and immediately you have interpreted -- the ward, the trenches, the war victim.

What I am saying is not really a doctrine. On the contrary, I am not conveying anything to your intellect, but trying to pulsate something in your intuition. It is not a verbal communication. Just by the side of the verbal communication something deeper and greater is transpiring between you and me: the nonverbal. The said is not the real thing:

the UNsaid, the gap, the interval. If you only hear my words, then too you will miss the meaning because my meaning is more in the gaps, in the silences. So you have not only to hear my words, you have to hear the wordless that is surrounding the words. That is possible only in deep trust and love.

So silence alone won't help. Silence is the first requirement -- that you listen meditatively, that you listen in awareness -- but that won't help alone. You have to listen in tremendous trust, in love, in sympathy. You have to participate with me. Because what I am saying are not syllogisms, not logical statements. Yes, it is a song, not a syllogism. It is not logic, it is love that I am pouring into you. Rightly listened to, one word, or even one wordless moment, can swing you into spaceless flight.

Rightly listened to, what I am saying to you is not a philosophy, not a dogma, not a doctrine. I am not trying to convince you about anything; I am not a teacher at all. My work is totally different, qualitatively different. The whole effort here is so that I can make a contact with the essence of your being. The words are used as a device, as a bridge. But you should not pay too much attention to the words. Look deeper, to the gesture. What I say has to be heard; more important, what is left unsaid has to be allowed a vibration in your being. I speak to create waves in your consciousness. These words are being used like pebbles thrown in a lake, so the lake starts waveing. Your consciousness is fast asleep: I want to create waves in your consciousness so life comes back to you, so you start streaming, so a dance of the inner being starts.... And whatsoever I am saying is never complete -- it cannot be, by its very nature.

You must have heard about the Japanese poem, haiku. It is the smallest poetry form in the world -- seventeen syllables only -- but one of the most penetrating. The word HAIKU means 'the beginning'. This is a tremendous significance -- the word haiku means the beginning. The haiku poets say: We only begin, we never end. The poet begins, the listener has to complete it. If a poem is complete with the poet then nothing is left for the listener. Then the listener will be just a spectator. Then the act is not creative -- in fact, it is dangerous. The poet, the REAL poet, never completes. He leaves something incomplete. He gives hints and leaves gaps: those gaps have to be fulfilled by you. Then the transfer is creative. The poet sings a song, ripples are created in your consciousness, and YOU complete the song in your innermost core of being. The poet begins it, you complete it. Then you are joined in one creative process: the painter begins it, then the person who looks at the painting completes it.

That is exactly what I am doing here. Whatsoever I am saying is never complete. It is just a hint, a push, the finger pointing to the moon. Forget the finger and look at the moon -- there is the message. The message is not in the finger. My words are pointers towards wordless silence... and I only begin, then I leave you to complete it.

That's why many people who have become too much accustomed to logic feel a little dizzy with me, hanging.... They feel as if I never complete anything, that I lead them on the way, that I never come to conclusions, that I start something and always leave in the middle. That is true, because I don't want to destroy your creativity. I would like to participate with you, to help you to be creative. I cannot do the work of creativity for you -- that won't be friendly, that won't be compassionate. I can start, I can sing a song, and then you take it over and you start singing. It will be completed in you.

The transfer between a master and a disciple is exactly like the transfer between a lover and the beloved. The lover initiates, but the beloved becomes the womb. The lover initiates, starts, and the beloved completes it. Then the child is born. The child neither belongs to the father alone nor to the mother alone: it belongs to both. The father started, the mother completed it. Between the master and the disciple something exactly like that is happening. Whatsoever I am saying here, if you just try to understand it from the outside, you will miss. It is not for outsiders, it is only for insiders. Hence my insistence for sannyas. Sannyas is just a gesture that you have become part of my family, that you are married with me, that now we can take the responsibility of a child, that we can father and mother a child -- a new being is possible.

Truth is not something dead that can be transferred to you. It is an impulse, an energy impulse. The energy impulse reaches you, then you have to become the womb for it. You have to feed it, nourish it, nurture it, and then it will arise in your being. It is an inner transformation.

You say, "Thank you for your best song yet. Why can I not hear it every day?" You can hear it every day, you can hear it every moment, you can hear it even when I am not here.

You can hear it even when you are thousands of miles away from me. Because the song that I am singing has nothing to do with me in particular: it is the song of the divine. And it is being sung in a thousand and one ways all around you -- you just need to know how to listen, you just have to become a receptive womb, that's all. If you can learn only this much, how to become a receptive womb, you will hear it anywhere. Anywhere -- a river rushing by and you will hear it there, and the wind passing through the trees and you will hear it there, and the rain falling on the roof and you will hear it there, and you will recognize me.

Unless you start hearing it everywhere, it is not of much worth. Only when you have started hearing it everywhere, only when you don't miss it -- awake, asleep, it continues -- when it has become a milieu around you that surrounds you, when you cannot escape out of it, it has become your climate, your very being, only then you have hard it.

But, a good beginning: even if you heard it one day, it shows the possibility -- it can be heard another day. If you can hear it only once, it shows your potentiality. And right you are. You say, "This morning you are the rising sun in my heart, you are the singing birds in my soul, you are the rustling leaves in my blood, you are the warm bodies all around.

You are the silence, you are the sound. You are, you are not... I am, I am not... we are.

That is the meaning of sannyas: we are. A point where I am no more separate from you, and you are no more separate from me; a point where our boundaries are blurred; a point where we become nebulous -- like two clouds meeting, penetrating, dissolving into each other; a point where definitions become meaningless; a point where separation is not a reality, union is a reality. That is the meaning of sannyas, initiation, the master-disciple relationship. It is the greatest love affair on the earth. All love affairs are only preparations for it. If they lead you towards it, good. If they hinder you, it is evil.

Question 3:

Truth is never compassionate or is always compassionate. It depends on you, how you look at it. One thing is certain: truth is truth -- compassionate or not. This has to be understood.

Homosexuality has grown out of a male-dominated world. Homosexuality is a disease because of male domination; it is not a natural phenomenon. And there is every possibility that homosexuality is going to grow more and more -- the possibility that even states and governments and religions will start preaching homosexuality. Within fifty years, you will see it happening. Just as governments are now preaching birth control, abortion, they will preach homosexuality -- because the population is impossible, and homosexuality is going to be one of the ways to prevent new people coming to the earth.

Sooner or later, each government of the world is going to allow homosexual marriages -- men marrying men, women marrying women. This is going to happen. Already, many more people are moving into homosexuality.

The disease has come out of male domination. Just as I said the other day, all the cultures that have come out of the Judaic tradition are homosexual: Mohammedan, Christian, Jewish. The reason is, Judaism is one of the most male-oriented communities -- it had to be. They have suffered so much; they have been wanderers, for centuries they had no nation, nowhere to live. Of course, the man became more and more powerful -- he had to protect the woman, the children -- and the society became more and more centered around the man. Only a relaxed society, when things are going beautifully and there is plenty of food and there is no war, becomes heterosexual. Otherwise, when there is war, continuous struggle, the society leans towards male domination.

In the East, homosexuality has never been a problem. In fact, it has existed only in rare cases. Particularly in India, homosexuality has not been a problem at all. It has been so exceptional, it has not even been discussed. The reason? -- the country has lived in tremendous peace, well-being, satisfied. Wars have been there, but India has not fought any war on its own. Somebody came -- India was always ready to be conquered; it has not bothered much. Those who came were homosexuals -- because the army has to be basically male, and all armies become homosexual. Armies -- because only men are there -- where are they going to put their love, the energy? They are forced to go homosexual.

So any country that has been continuously in war becomes homosexual. Or, male- oriented communities -- for example, monasteries: Buddhist monasteries, Jaina monasteries, Catholic monasteries, all became the breeding grounds of homosexuality because only men were allowed. It has not been researched well, but if one goes deep into it, it will be found always that whenever men will be alone together, homosexuality is bound to be there.

Now the same thing is happening in the world of women also, because the women's lib movement is the first thing in the world up to now where women are meeting with women and basically women oriented groups are being created. Lesbianism is happening.

When women are together and against men, where are they going to put their love? The man is the enemy: they have to love women.

Homosexuality and lesbianism both are growing; these are simple facts. A few things to be understood: I am not saying anything against homosexuality -- because I know there are many homosexuals around here. If you are not interested in any higher possibilities, homosexuality is as good as heterosexuality. There is no problem in it. If it is only a question of sexual release, homosexuality is as good as heterosexuality. But if you are interested in higher growth, then you will be in trouble.

Each child born is masturbatory, because the child first learns to love himself. That is the only natural way. He knows nobody else, he plays with his own body. each child born is naturally masturbatory: that is his first love. The second stage of his growth is, he becomes homosexual -- naturally so. He has loved himself: if he is a boy, certainly he starts loving other boys -- his love is spreading. Girls are very far away, a totally different kind of animal. He loves himself -- it is easier for him to love other boys. A girl loves herself -- it is easier for her to love other girls; the boys are a world apart. This is the second step, NATURAL step: masturbatory, then homosexuality.

Then the third thing, the third wave, is when you start loving the other -- the opposite.

Man and woman are polarities, and when polarities meet, only then is there challenge.

Yes, there is conflict -- and that conflict is the challenge. A homosexual love affair can be more convenient, true, because there is not much conflict. Both are alike: they understand each other, they know each other's ways and each other's mind. There is no polarity -- and if there is no polarity of course there is no conflict, but there is no growth either.

With polarity, conflict arises, challenge -- to penetrate and know the other, to understand the ways of the other. And it is part of spiritual growth that a man should come to know the woman and the woman should come to know the man.

Why do I say it is part of spiritual growth? Just the other day, I was saying that at the last moment, at the sixth chakra -- AJNA chakra -- one has to come to a tremendous meeting of the man and the woman. You are also divided inside into two: man and woman. If you cannot meet with the outer woman, it will be very difficult for you to make space for the inner woman. If you cannot love the other on the outside, it will be impossible for you to create a loving space for the other inside you. A man is not only man, he is man-woman together. He is born out of a man and a woman -- fifty-fifty percent he is, and so is a woman. and the ultimate inner meeting, the union, the inner alchemy, is possible only if you have learned the ways in the outside world.

When a man falls in love with a woman he is learning something. When a man falls in love with a man he is not learning anything. When a woman falls in love with a man she is learning something -- something of the unknown, something of the opposite, something of the quite other. Man and woman in love, means the right hemisphere in love with the left hemisphere.

So if you are interested in spiritual growth then you have to grow from homosexuality towards heterosexuality. If you are not interested in spiritual growth then there is nothing wrong. You can remain -- heterosexual or homosexual, it is all the same. I think I have made it clear. If you are not interested in spiritual growth, then there is no problem. I am not against homosexuality, I am not against anything. It is your life -- you have to decide; who am I? I am simply stating a fact that ultimately, inside your being, a meeting is going to happen: be prepared for that meeting. And the outer love with the other prepares you.

The more you understand the woman and the man outside you, the more you will have an understanding of the inner polarity. And one day, at the sixth center of your being -- what yoga calls AJNA chakra, and yesterday I called "superconsciousness" -- there you will feel that your understanding of the woman and the man helps you tremendously. There, intuition and logic meet, imagination and will meet, initiative and reception meet. You will find it easy. You have learned the ways from the outside world -- now you can use them for your inner alchemy.

So let me repeat it. There are many homosexuals here, lesbians too, and that's natural because there are so many Jews here. And in a way there is some relationship why they are here, why they are attracted towards me; there is some reason in it. Homosexuals, lesbians, they are always inventive people... in fact, they have invented homosexuality.

They are always revolutionary people, they are never orthodox. They have discovered a new way in their sexual life. Mm? -- they have improved upon nature, they have moved away from nature. They are inventive people, they are not traditional. Hence, more and more homosexuals will be coming to me, because whatsoever I am saying is so untraditional, only very revolutionary minds can come to me. But then there is going to be trouble too. You become attracted towards me because my teachings are so untraditional, so rebellious; you become attracted. My teachings are rebellious, my teachings are unorthodox, but I cannot support any lie. I cannot say to you that your homosexuality is as it should be. I cannot support it... and if you are really revolutionary, try to find out a way.

Go into nature and see. Animals become homosexual only when they are put in a strange situation, otherwise not. In a zoo, animals become homosexual, but never in nature -- rarely. In nature they always turn to be heterosexual. In a zoo, they can turn homosexual because they cannot find the female, or the female cannot find the male. That's an unnatural condition, an artificial condition.

Man also turns homosexual when he is in an unnatural situation. It is not natural -- and that is why so many people are turning all over the world, because the whole human situation is very unnatural today; it has never been so unnatural. Everything is artificial.

We have gone far away from nature in every other way, so we are going far away from nature in sexuality also. Everything is interlinked and connected. You live in an artificial house, you live with artificial mechanisms, you live in an artificial world -- the asphalt roads, technology -- everything is artificial. Naturally, your sexual energies will start becoming artificial too.

Man is living in a zoo; it is not a human society, because it is not natural. Hence, sexuality is becoming more and more perverted, finding perverted ways -- and I can understand it. The more man has become intelligent, he wants to find new ways: and homosexuality is a new way -- so contrary to nature; an invention, a discovery that you can relate man-to-man or woman-to-woman.

There are people who are even more revolutionary. They are relating to false toys. You can make a woman, a plastic woman, and make love to her. That is even more revolutionary -- and more convenient too. any moment you can pack her back in your bag, and you can carry her anywhere you want. Homosexuality is more convenient than heterosexuality because the language is the same. But convenience is not the goal: growth is the goal. Growth always happens through inconvenience. Growth always happens through pain, challenge.

If you are interested in spiritual growth, move towards heterosexuality. If you are not interested in that, then there is no problem. If you want to go beyond, if you really want to search your innermost being, the inner space, then heterosexuality will be helpful. Just as I said to you: first stage is masturbatory, second stage is homosexual, third stage is heterosexual, fourth stage is asexual -- that is the state of BRAHMACHARYA, celibacy.

And only when you have achieved to the fourth stage will you be able to penetrate to the uttermost core of your being -- otherwise not.

A masturbatory person remains childish, a homosexual person remains juvenile, a heterosexual person remains animal. These stages have to be passed. Don't get stuck anywhere. And I am not condemning, remember always; I have no condemnation for anything. Sometimes homosexuals come to me and they say, "But Beloved Master, we feel it is good." I say, "Okay. If you feel good, it is your life. Who I am to condemn it, and for what? Why should I condemn it? It is your life; if you decide to live it in this way, good. Live it with all my blessings." But I feel sorry, deep down -- sorry because their growth will be hindered, sorry because they will not know what great possibilities they were carrying within themselves.

Sex is not an ordinary thing. It is one of the most substantial parts of your being. One should not be so unalert about it. It is the foundation of your being: you are born through sex, you live through sex; your birth is through sex, your youth is through sex, your love is through sex, and your death is going to happen through sex. Your whole life is a sexual affair. One should be very very alert and watchful of what one is going to do with one's sex energy.

Question 4:

Thank you for the compliment. They don't SEEM to be crazy, they ARE. But that is the only way God expresses himself. God's ways are crazy. If the word 'crazy' does not look proper, you can say, "God's ways are miraculous" -- but it means the same. Translated rightly, miraculous means crazy. God is not a logician -- he may be a singer, a poet. His ways are crazy. They are not like superhighways, they are more like footpaths in a forest -- zigzag. On the footpaths you can go astray very easily: freedom is intact. On a superhighway you cannot go astray: freedom is not allowed -- those milestones everywhere, they will hinder you.

God is crazy, truth is crazy, because truth is so vast, it cannot be reduced into a syllogism.

You can sing about it, but you cannot argue about it -- the moment you argue about it, you have falsified it. You can dance it, but you cannot make a dogma out of it. Yes, you are right. My ideas ARE crazy, because they are not MY ideas. I simply allow myself to be a hollow bamboo and whatsoever song God wants to sing on it, I allow him total freedom. I don't stand in judgment. I don't say: Don't sing this sing, this will look crazy. I say: Okay, if you want to sing it, sing it. If it is crazy, it s crazy.

I have heard a true story, as told by Freeman Dyron...

A few months ago, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli believed that they had made an essential step forward in the direction of a theory of elementary particles.

Both the names are world-famous: Heisenberg and Pauli -- two of the greatest scientists of any time, and they were thinking that they had come across the basic theory to explain the structure of the elements.

Pauli happened to be passing through New York, and he was prevailed upon to give a lecture explaining the new ideas to an audience which included Niels Bohr -- another famous name, another great name in science. Pauli spoke for an hour, and then there was a general discussion during which he was criticized rather sharply by the younger generation of scientists. Finally, Niels Bohr was called on to make a speech summing up the argument. "We are all agreed," he said, "that your theory is crazy, Pauli. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough."

And that's how things really are. A very sane theory cannot be right, because a sane theory will be human. It will be very limited. Only a crazy theory has any possibility of being right, because crazy means that which transcends human limitations. Crazy means that which cannot be reduced to human logic, crazy means that which is beyond your understanding. Yes, right is Niels Bohr. Let me repeat: "We are all agreed, Pauli," he said, "that your theory is crazy." This much agreement is there. "The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough."

If you look into the modern world of physics, you will be surprised. Those old days of clear-cut theories are all gone; the days of Darwin, Newton, Edison, are gone. Truth has erupted, exploded -- in Einstein, Heisenberg, Pauli, Niels Bohr, Planck -- and physics looks more and more like metaphysics; more and more like poetry and less and less like prose. The deeper scientists have penetrated into the world of physics, the more they are surprised to find that our logic is just irrelevant. Reality is more than our logic. It's FAR more than our logic. Our logic is just a small piece of ground that we have cleared and cleaned, and reality is this great jungle of infinity.

Yes, you are right: my ideas ARE crazy because they are not MY ideas. If they were mine then there was a possibility I would have made them logical -- it is not very difficult. I can deny those parts which look illogical, and insist on the logical. I can remain consistent; I can make a very clean-cut philosophy. That is not difficult -- in fact, that will be very easy. But I am not interested in consistency. I am not interested at all in logic, I am interested in truth. And if truth is crazy, I am crazy. If truth is mad, I am mad.

And let that point be remembered by you all, because my whole effort here is to relax you so you can also become a little crazy; to help you relax, to help you loose the grip of the mind so the no-mind can penetrate in you; to put the human aside so the divine can have a chance in your being.

Don't cling to the clear-cut. Truth is not so clear-cut, and cannot be. Truth is so vast, it contains contradictions. It is crazy.

It is said that Aristotle used to say that God is a mathematician. I cannot conceive how God can be a mathematician. On the door of his academy it was written: "Those who don't know mathematics should not enter here, should not dare to enter here." I cannot conceive what mathematics has to do with God, what mathematics has to do with reality.

If I have to put a sign on Rajneesh Ashram's door, then I will put: "Those who are not crazy enough should not enter here."

God is mad. If you are ready to be a little mad, only then is there any possibility of any contact between you and the infinite. It has to be so. When the whole ocean drops into a drop, the drop is going to get crazy. When the infinite descends into the finite, how can the finite remain sane? It has to go mad. The old mystics have always called it "the divine madness."

All meditation is an approach towards divine madness. Stake all human sanity. It is better to be mad in a divine way than to be sane in a human way.

I am crazy.

Question 5:

That's true. Aneeta's surrender is so total that I can function through her. Learn from her, imbibe the spirit of surrender from her. She is a new sannyasin, but within a few days she has surrendered so deeply.... In fact, the first day she came and I looked in her eyes and saw her total surrender, that very day she was no longer new to me -- she became an ancient companion. You may feel many times that while she is leading you into the Sufi dances my presence will be felt. If you are surrendered, if you are totally surrendered, if your love has no conditions, this will happen to you too. This is happening to many other sannyasins too. Many group leaders have started feeling it more and more: the more they surrender, the more they feel that I am working through them. Their burden is less, their anxiety gone; they can leave it to me, they can trust. And when they trust me, many things that they always wanted to happen start happening. Many things that they always had wanted to happen and were not happening start happening. You become a vehicle.

All of my sannyasins, by and by, slowly slowly, are to come to a point where they can allow me to function through them.

I am not going anywhere. I don't even go outside my room. I will be sending you to the far corners of the earth: you will be my ambassadors at large, you will function for me. I will see through your eyes, and I will talk through your tongues, and I will touch people through your hands, and I will love through your love: be prepared for it.

The questioner is right. Aneeta has disappeared. She has allowed me total space of her being.

Question 6:

No, it does not mean that you are not ready to become a sannyasin, or not ready to surrender to me. You are ready -- hence the question. And the question arises in everybody. It is a dangerous step; it is going into the unknown. Fear is natural, anxiety natural. One wavers. The old seems to be comfortable -- old friends, old relationships -- one is settled. Now everything will be unsettled again. Mind is always afraid of unsettled states; mind is always afraid of the unfamiliar, mind is always afraid of the unknown.

Mind is always afraid to go out of the familiar, the comfortable, the convenient.

No, you are ready -- hence the question has arisen. And now you cannot escape, because you will feel more and more that my friendship is more valuable than all the friendship that you have. And I will haunt you, I will not leave you alone. Wherever you are, I will follow you like a shadow. And soon the comparison will be there -- either to choose the old or the new. The new is being born already. Soon you will see -- now the question is either to leave me, or the old convenient comfortable structure. And to leave me will become more and more difficult.

Let me tell you one anecdote...

Zsa Zsa Horntoot's husband arrived late at a country club dance and discovered that in emerging from his Rolls he had torn one knee of his trousers.

"Come into the ladies' dressing room with me," suggested his resourceful Zsa Zsa. "There isn't a soul there and I'll pin it up for you." It developed, however, that the rip was too large to be pinned. A maid furnished needle and thread, and was stationed at the door to keep out all and sundry, while Mr. Horntoot removed his trousers.

Suddenly a bevy of formidable matrons shoved the mad aside and demanded immediate admittance. "Quick!" Zsa Zsa commanded her mortified spouse. "Get into the closet."

She pushed him in just in time and slammed the door.

No sooner had she admitted the matrons, however, than Mr. Horntoot began screaming, "Open this door IMMEDIATELY!"

"But the girls are in here now," Zsa Zsa reminded him.

"To heck with the girls," cried Mr. Horntoot. "I'm out in the main ballroom!"

Soon you will find that. First fall in love with me, and then choice will not be very difficult. You are ready... and the fear is natural. But let me tell you a few things: first, if you really have friends, and you call them OLD friends, they will understand you. If they cannot understand you, your change, they are not friends, they are not old friends at all.

Friendship always allows space for the other to be. Otherwise the friendship is just false; it may be acquaintance -- it is not worth bothering about.

You say, "I am afraid of becoming an outsider in my world." Everybody is an outsider; howsoever you pretend, you remain an outsider. Unless one enters into God, one remains an outsider in this existence. We pretend, we try to create a small oasis of relationship -- friends, relatives, children, husband, wife -- and we try to hide behind these things. But death comes and destroys all, and suddenly we are naked in our outsiderness. No, in this world you cannot be an insider unless you have moved into God. This world belongs to God. Only by belonging to God do you become part of this existence -- otherwise not.

These trees will remain strangers to you and so will remain the birds and the sun and the moon and the sands and the rains. Everything will remain a stranger unless you have made a contact with the divine. With that contact the whole quality of life changes.

My suggestion is, you are an outsider already -- everybody is. By becoming a sannyasin you will be taking a few steps to become an insider.

And you say, "Particularly so as I am on my own and without a husband with whom to share this new way of life." Now this is ridiculous, because people come to me and they say... the wife says, "Because of the husband -- he will not understand, that's why I cannot take sannyas." The husband comes; he says, "I want to take sannyas but... because of the wife; I am not alone." Now, you are alone: nobody to hinder you, nobody to understand or misunderstand.

You say, "Now that I am on my own..." Don't find excuses. Mind is very cunning in finding excuses, and mind is a coward.

Let me tell you one story, a beautiful story: meditate over it...

Once there was a great king who asked his magician to find him a courageous man for a dangerous mission. After a long search, the magician brought four men before his master.

The king, wishing to choose the most courageous of the four, asked the magician to arrange a test.

The king, the magician and the four men went to the edge of a large field, on the other side of which stood a barn. The magician gave instructions: "Each man shall have his turn. He is to walk to the barn and bring forth what is there inside."

The first man walked across the field. Suddenly a storm came up: lightning flashed, thunder rolled, the ground shook. The man hesitated. He was frightened. As the storm increased, he fell down in fear.

The second man walked across the field. The storm grew worse, until it was a tempest.

The second man passed the first man, but finally he also fell down.

The third man started with a rush, and passed the other two. But the heavens opened, the ground split, and the barn itself waved and cracked. The third man fell down.

The fourth started slowly. He felt his footing. His face was white with fear. But he was more afraid of being thought afraid than of anything else. Slowly he passed the first man, and he said, to himself, "I'm alright -- so far." Foot by foot he went on until he had passed the second man, and again he said to himself, "So far I'm alright." Little by little he closed the gap between him and the third man, while the storm got worse. When he passed the third frightened man he said to himself, "So far I'm alright. Nothing has happened to me. I can go a little farther." So little by little, an inch at a time now, he went towards the barn. He got there at last, and just before he touched the latch he said, "So far I'm alright. I can go a little farther." Then he put his hand on the latch.

Instantly the storm ceased, the ground was steady, and the sun shone. The man was astonished. From inside the barn came a munching sound. For a moment he thought it might be a trick. Then he thought, "I'm still alright," and opened the door. Inside he found a white horse eating oats. Nearby was a suit of white armour. The man put it on, saddled the horse, rode out to the king and the magician, and said, "I am ready, Sire."

"How do you feel?" asked the king.

"I'm alright so far," the man said.

You are ready for sannyas. Believe me or not, you are ready for sannyas. Hence the question, hence the fear. In those who are not ready, fear never arises. Those who are ready, they start trembling because of the possibility of so many changes. You have hard me: your heart is already seduced. Now move inch by inch, slowly -- but move. And you will find that as far as you go, "So far, I am alright." You will go on finding -- to the very end, more and more, you will find that you are becoming an insider in this tremendous beautiful existence.

And, I promise you, you will have better friendships, you will have better lovers, you will have better relationships -- because a man who is ready to move into the unknown, naturally moves into love... because love is the stuff the universe is made of. Sannyas is nothing but learning the ways of love. God is another name for love. And sannyas is a readiness to dissolve into a loving universe. Fear is there because it is like death. Sannyas is suicide, death: the past is destroyed -- but only then the new is born. When YOU cease to be, you allow God to be. There is no other way.

The Divine Melody