The Song of Life

[NOTE: This is a translation from the Hindi series BHAJ GOVINDAM, literally: Singing the Song of the Divine. This version is the final edit pending publication, and is for research only.]

I have heard a story. A wasp made its abode near a window outside a big building. In winter this wasp would sleep and rest, in summer it would fly, dance and collect the pollen of the flowers. It was very happy. But this wasp was a special one - it was a thinker. It used to think a lot and used to look down upon other wasps because there was no thinking in their lives. Their lives were full of desire.

They never did any thinking, they never contemplated, they never knew the scriptures.

Sometimes it used to fly into that building also. It loved that building. The people visiting the building seemed to it of its own type because they were thinkers. Actually, this building was a big library.

Professors, teachers, writers, philosophers, poets used to come there. Usually people used to drive out the wasp but it always would come back.

Gradually it started reading and writing. It started in the children's department and soon it was studying big books of philosophy. It began to read big volumes of science and poetry. It became very proud and just could not tolerate the other wasps - they seemed very insignificant. It became very egoistic. It was thinking day and night. It forgot all about dancing in the sun, flying in the air and visiting the trees. Now mostly it used to sit down engrossed in deep thoughts like, "Who made this world? Why was it made? From where has this existence come and where is it going?" It used to think about these serious questions all the time.

One day it was reading a book on the science of aviation. It was written in that book of aerodynamics that the body of a wasp is heavier than its wings, so theoretically a wasp cannot fly because its wings are small and weak and the body is big and heavy. On reading this it became confused and puzzled.

Up to now it did not know that its body was big and its wings were small. It was the first time it had learnt this and, of course, whatever is written in the scriptures cannot be denied. It is not possible to go against what is said by the scientists.

It became very sad. That day it did not fly back to its hive, it arrived there by crawling. How was it possible for it to fly - to do something which was quite against science? It became very sad and stopped moving about altogether. It still saw the other wasps flying around, going to the flowers, but it thought that they were doing so out of ignorance - how can a wasp fly? Its wings are small and its body is big. It was full of pity for those who were flying because they did not know the facts of science. If they knew they would have stopped flying.

But one day a bird attacked the wasp, intending to eat it for breakfast. In its nervousness and confusion the wasp forgot all about the scriptures and flew away.

It sat on a bush, rested a little and became calm and realized that it had flown! "I was thinking that a wasp cannot fly but I have flown, so there must have been a block in my mind stopping my natural capacity for flying which melted in the moment of danger." It had read about mental blocks in the mind in a book on psychology. So it started flying again from that day. It gave up the knowledge of scriptures from that day, and from that moment it again became the wasp - the natural wasp!

From that day it became free of knowledge and stopped looking down on other wasps. That day it experienced its true nature.

Religion is freedom from knowledge, and in that freedom is the ultimate knowledge. The scriptures are not meant to make you lame but to give you the capacity to fly. If the scriptures have made you lame, then it is sure that you have misunderstood them or you have interpreted them wrongly. If the scriptures have made you sad, then you must have missed something in them or must not have understood them properly. The scriptures which have snatched away your natural capacity to fly or flow are not your friends - you have turned them into your enemies.

A scripture is a scripture only if it gives you freedom. A scripture is a scripture if it makes you natural.

A scripture is a scripture if it does not fill you with condemnation for others and is able to make you realize that the divine is hidden also within them.

These sentences of Shankara are very important.

ONE WHO HAS READ EVEN A LITTLE OF THE GITA - take note of "a little" - ONE WHO HAS READ EVEN A LITTLE OF THE GITA, HAS DRUNK EVEN ONE DROP OF GANGES WATER AND HAS WORSHIPPED GOD A LITTLE, YAMA, THE GOD OF DEATH, CANNOT DESTROY HIM.

You have read the Gita many times. This country has been reading the Gita for thousands of years; people have memorized it. Every person is full of the Gita and yet there is no liberation for him. He can only see death. And Shankara is saying that death disappears for the one who has read even a little of the Gita - who has tasted the divine even a little, drunk even a drop of Ganges water. And you have taken a bath in the Ganges!

... WHO HAS DRUNK EVEN ONE DROP OF GANGES WATER AND HAS WORSHIPPED GOD EVEN A LITTLE....

You have worshipped a lot, you have recited many times, you have performed many yajnas, you have bowed down at the doors of many temples. Even the stones of the gates of the temples are worn out by the rubbing of your head, but no revolution has happened in your life. Certainly there must be some basic illusion, some mistake somewhere - you have missed something.

"Even a little" can give you liberation provided you can understand it, otherwise all scriptures can become your imprisonment. Even one single word can give you freedom if you understand, otherwise the words will become a useless weight on your chest. It is not the scriptures which make you free, it is the understanding. And the understanding has to be created by you; scriptures do not give it. You must understand this. You have to create the understanding, only then can the scriptures be meaningful. If you do not have the understanding, then scriptures cannot give you the understanding. They can give you only theories, and theories have no value, because you do not bother about theories - you behave quite differently in life.

One day I said to Mulla Nasruddin that I had not seen his children for a long time. He said, "I believe in family planning."

I was surprised to hear this because he had seventeen children, and he was saying, "I believe in family planning."

I said, "What do you mean? I don't understand."

He said, "I believe in the slogan of family planning: Two or three children are the ideal number for the home! So I send the rest of the children to play in the neighborhood. Now most of them have started even sleeping in the neighbor's houses. In my own house I do not keep more than two or three children."

By sending his children to the neighbors he is able to fulfill the theory of having two or three children at home!

Your understanding of the scriptures is also like this. You go on giving birth to children and then sending them to the neighbors. Man is able to fool himself. It is easy to avoid theory but you cannot avoid understanding. You can avoid theory, because it is dead and you are alive. You can always save yourself from theory but you cannot avoid your own understanding.

When the understanding is within you, you may run away anywhere but it will remain within you. So you should not give any importance to theory; you should give importance to understanding. Theory can be borrowed but the understanding has to be created by yourself. Theories can be stolen also from scriptures, from masters, but you cannot get understanding free. You have to pay for it and you have to struggle inch by inch to gain it. Theories have no value, you get them free. Theories are garbage, and garbage cannot be valuable.

WHO HAS READ EVEN A LITTLE OF THE GITA - a little Gita, that is sufficient. Even if one word is understood it is enough. Then there is no need to wait to hear the whole of the Gita. But the question is of understanding.

There is a story in the Mahabharata that Dronacharya thought that the boy Yudhishthira was the most intelligent of all the Pandavas and Kauravas, but after a few days' experience it seemed that he was quite dull. The other children were learning new lessons every day and were making rapid progress, but Yudhishthira was stuck on the first lesson. In the end Drona's patience also became exhausted so he asked him, "How long are you going to take to learn the first lesson? Aren't you going forwards?"

Yudhishthira replied, "What is the sense in learning the second lesson while the first lesson is not understood?"

The first lesson was regarding truth. The other children had read it, memorized it and had proceeded to the second lesson. But Yudhishthira said, "Until I start speaking the truth, how can I go to the second lesson? Please do not hurry me."

Then Drona understood! Looking at Yudhishthira's mental condition Drona understood for the first time that there can be no other lesson after truth. Then he told Yudhishthira, "There is no need for you to hurry up. By learning, by understanding this first lesson, you will understand, you will know all the lessons. Just reading the lessons is one thing and living the lesson is an entirely different thing."

At the end of the story, when all the Pandava brothers were climbing up to heaven, one by one they began falling down. Only Yudhishthira and his dog - who was truth - arrived at the gate of heaven.

The truth reached heaven and the one who accompanied the truth reached heaven. It was his dog who had always lived with him and was of great integrity. Even his brothers did not have that much integrity, they fell on the way.

But the dog had never doubted, his faith was unlimited. All his life he had obeyed Yudhishthira. Even Yudhishthira was surprised to see that all his brothers had fallen down and only this dog could reach the gate of heaven with him. The door opened and Yudhishthira was welcomed, but the gatekeeper said, "Only you can come in, the dog cannot come in. No dog has ever entered heaven before this.

Even human beings come here with great difficulty."

On hearing this Yudhishthira said, "Then I too cannot come in. This dog who was with me all my life, who has come all the way to the gates of heaven where even my brothers could not come, who has so much faith in me - I cannot forsake him at any cost, otherwise I would consider myself worse than a dog! I am not going to leave him. Please close the door."

Then the whole of heaven laughed happily. All the gods gathered there and requested him to come in. Then Yudhishthira noticed that the dog was not a dog, it was Lord Krishna himself. It was his test! If at that time Yudhishthira had forsaken the dog and had entered the gate without him, then he would have missed heaven. That was the test of his love, of his faith, of his integrity. Yudhishthira learnt only one lesson - truth; that was enough to take him to heaven. Arjuna took a long time to learn it. Krishna spoke the whole of the Gita but even then Arjuna went on doubting. Yudhishthira learnt only one small lesson in his life and that was the lesson of truth. Even the teacher had doubted his intelligence because he was stuck on the first lesson, but he soon realized that there is no other lesson after the first one.

Whoever has learnt one lesson has learnt all. Do not try to learn everything, otherwise you will miss - a little, A LITTLE OF THE GITA. If there is a little awareness of the divine, if you have heard even a little of the song of the divine, if your ears have heard even a part of that song, if even one word has gone to your heart, then that will become the seed. It will sprout and become a tree, and you will be filled up with unlimited fragrance. All is hidden in that one seed.

The pundits remain empty. They are able to memorize the Gita but they cannot hear its song. Their mind is full of the words but their hearts remain unmoved, untouched. They can repeat the Gita but there will not be a tear in their eyes, there will be no music in their hearts, there will be no dance in their feet - they will just go on repeating like a dead person, mechanically, without being touched inside. There is not even a scratch on their heart, not even a shadow.

So Shankara says, WHO HAS READ EVEN A LITTLE OF THE GITA. Here Gita does not mean only the Shrimad Bhagavadgita, because he who has read even a little of the Koran, he will also attain; he who has read even a little of The Bible, he will also attain. And he who has read neither The Bible nor the Koran nor the Gita, but has read life a little, he will also attain. The whole emphasis is on the awakening of understanding - he who has not passed his life sleeping, he who has been awakened, has opened his eyes and has recognized life a little.

If you can realise even a little, then you can realise the whole of heaven. If you grasp one ray, you can get hold of the whole sun. You can get the sun with the help of that one ray. If you are sitting in a dark cottage and you can see one ray peeping through the thatched roof, you can find the whole sun in that ray. If you start with that one ray, you will certainly reach the sun. There is no need to have the whole of the sun in your house - what will you do with so much? You will get indigestion!

Do not start accumulating scriptures, they will become your prison. Then your wings will not be able to fly, nor will your heart be able to dance, nor will you be natural.

It is the scriptures which make people more unnatural than anything else. If you can understand, I would like to tell you that it is the scriptures which have made people irreligious. More people have become irreligious because of scriptures than because of anything else. As the number of scriptures goes on increasing, man is becoming blind because he thinks that the understanding is in the book, and he will be able to get this understanding just by reading it. But if it was so easy to get the understanding, then the whole world would have been very understanding, very intelligent.

Every house has a Gita or a Koran or a Bible, but there is no understanding. Remember that you give up your effort when the scriptures are easily available. Do not get lost in the jungle of theories.

ONE WHO HAS READ EVEN A LITTLE OF THE GITA, HAS DRUNK EVEN ONE DROP OF GANGES WATER....

What will you do with the whole of the Ganges? There is no need; the whole of the Ganges is too much. One drop is sufficient for you. About which Ganges is Shankara talking? He is not talking about the Ganges where you went for your pilgrimage.

Here Ganges is a symbol: he who has drunk a drop of piety, who has drunk a drop of innocence, who has drunk a drop of simplicity, he has tasted the Ganges. There is no need to go to the Ganges - because there are many people living on the banks of the Ganges and nothing has happened to them. They have lived there, they have bathed there, but nothing has happened to them. The Ganges referred to here is not the one which can be seen outside, it is the inner Ganges. One drop of it is sufficient. Even one drop is more than necessary, because our limit is not more than one drop; our being is not bigger than one drop. We are like one drop in this vast existence. A small drop of Ganges water will bathe us and will make us whole.

But you must understand properly that the Ganges means innocence, the Ganges means simplicity, the Ganges means the virginity within; the Ganges means to become innocent like a child. By bringing back even one drop of your childhood, if you can look at the world again as you saw it in your childhood - with those fresh eyes, without thought, without any condemnation, without any judgment - if you can look at the world in the same way as you saw it when you first opened your eyes.... You only saw it, there was no thought within - you did not say if it was good or bad, beautiful or ugly, a sin or a virtue, you only had a good look. The whole world was before you and there was no thought within. If you look at it again in the same way, if you can get even one drop of your childhood back again, then you have tasted a drop of the Ganges.

HAS DRUNK EVEN ONE DROP OF GANGES WATER AND HAS WORSHIPPED GOD EVEN A LITTLE....

Nothing happens by too much worship! Too much worship means that you do not know how to worship. Too much worship means that you are repeating dead rituals, otherwise it is sufficient to speak the name of the divine even once. And every day you are sitting with the rosary repeating "Ram, Ram." When will your life be full of Ram? How many times are you going to repeat "Ram"?

There are some people who keep an account of the number of their chants. They say, "I have chanted this mantra ten million times." But if nothing has happened by chanting once, then what is going to happen by chanting ten million times? Try to understand this.

A mantra is not mathematics. A mantra is not quantitative, it is qualitative. If anything is to happen it will happen the very first time. If it is not to happen then, it will not happen even if you go on repeating it ten million times. If you have repeated it wrongly the first time, you will do it more so the second time, the third time even more so, and this will go on. You can repeat it a million times or ten million times, it makes no difference.

It is a question of calling properly; then one call of the heart is enough, then even one call becomes a revolution. The divine is not deaf. He does not want your flattery. Is he going to listen only when you say it repeatedly? He can hear without your saying it but it should be from your heart. He will never hear if you go on repeating it in your mind, because the divine is not related with your thinking, the divine is related only with your prayer of the heart.

I have heard that it had not rained in a village for many years, so the whole of the village had gathered in the temple to pray.

A small child was also going to the temple to pray. Everyone was laughing at him on the way. Even the priest said, "You stupid! Why are you carrying that umbrella with you? It has not rained for many years, that is why we are going to pray."

That child had brought an umbrella. Thousands of people had gathered to pray but none of them had brought an umbrella. The child said, "I have brought the umbrella because when we pray it will certainly rain and I will need it on my way back."

People just laughed, they said, "He is mad."

Can the prayer of such people be answered? Only this child's prayer could be answered. He had deep trust; he had no doubt in the prayer; his prayer was full of deep trust. But the older people put doubt in the mind of the child. They said, "Go home and put this umbrella away. It does not rain in this way." They are going to pray, but do not have the confidence that it will rain by praying. Then why pray at all?

It is better to be an atheist and be honest about it. What is the use of being a theist if you are dishonest? You have prayed many times but did you believe that it would be answered? When it is not answered, you say that you knew beforehand that the prayer would not be answered. You have knocked on the doors of the temple many times, but have you done so wholeheartedly? With full trust? Or did you go with doubt?

If you went with doubt then you should not have gone at all - that would have been honest. By going, whom did you deceive? By going you have harmed yourself. Your prayer was unanswered. If your prayer is unanswered again and again then you lose your self-confidence; then you pray from your lips and not from your heart.

AND HAS WORSHIPPED GOD EVEN A LITTLE - yes, a little is enough. You must understand that Shankara's emphasis is not on quantity - how much you have worshipped - but on quality: How you have done it.

I have heard that there was a lawyer who used to pray daily. He prayed on the first day. Then on the second day he said, "Ditto." On the third day he again said, "Ditto." He thought that there was no sense in repeating the same words every day, so he used to say "Ditto."

People are very calculating in life. Even their prayer is calculating and clever; they cannot be simple even while praying. If you get an opportunity you can pick God's pocket! Perhaps that is why he hides himself and is afraid to face you! Innocence in itself is a prayer.

AND HAS WORSHIPPED GOD EVEN A LITTLE, YAMA, THE GOD OF DEATH, CANNOT DESTROY HIM.

He who has tasted prayer even a little goes beyond death. Only those people die who are frightened.

It is the fear which kills. Only those die who are egoists. Death is always of the ego. Only those die who have not known life. Those who have known life even a little do not die. Then the god of death stops talking about you.

He who has understood the song of the divine even a little does not die. Then you may not remain as you are but your innermost being will always be. The mind, with which you have been thinking, may not remain; the body, through which you have enjoyed, may not remain; but your innermost self, where you have experienced trust, cannot be destroyed.

Trust is eternal, because trust is your ultimate, the last, the innermost. Death has never entered there and can never enter. There you are eternal, ancient. There you yourself are the divine. Whoever has yearned for the divine, whoever has searched for the divine, has soon realized that it is hidden within himself. It is not found in a temple but within oneself. It is not hidden in the mountains nor on the moon nor in the stars.

When the first Russian spaceman, Yuri Gagarin, returned to earth - and Russia is an atheist country - the first thing people asked him was, "Did you see God on the moon?" He said, "I looked very carefully but there was no God there." There is a very big museum in Leningrad where all the things regarding atheism in the history of human beings have been collected. On the wall of that museum the words of Yuri Gagarin have been carved: "I went to the moon, I went into space, but I did not see God anywhere."

If God had been in space then Yuri Gagarin would have met him. But Yuri Gagarin is wrong, and you are also wrong because you also think that the divine is somewhere outside. The atheist and the theist are both wrong, because the theist thinks that God is sitting somewhere in the sky and the atheist thinks that if he is in the sky then we can look for him in the whole sky. But if he is not found there, then...?

Yuri Gagarin should have looked for God within himself. The divine is there. The one who was seeing the moon and the stars through Yuri Gagarin's eyes, that is God. The one who is looking for God cannot ever find him.

The divine cannot be seen, he is always the seer. He is not a thing to be seen, he is the seeing hidden within you. The one who is seeing is the divine. He is always the seer. You can never make him the object of your sight. But he who has heard even a little of the song of life... I call that Bhagavadgita, the divine song. The song which Krishna has sung before Arjuna is the refrain of that ultimate song, is the refrain of the song of life; it is a small part of that song. That song is written on every tree, on every rock, on every wave of the sea. The emptiness of the sky is his silence, the rivers are singing the song of the divine. It is he who is seeing through your eyes; it is he who is listening through your ears; it is he who is throbbing through your heart - there is nothing else except the divine. One who has understood even a little of the song of the divine, who has recognized life even a little, who has drunk even a drop of simplicity, who has worshipped even a little....

Worship means, one who has made his ego bow down even a little, who has bowed down his head even a little. It does not matter before whom you bow down - your bowing down is enough. If you have bowed down in a mosque it is alright; if you have bowed down in a temple it is alright; if you have bowed down in a gurudwara it is alright. The question is of bowing down - it does not matter whether you bow down before a rock or a tree or the empty sky. It does not matter whether you believe in God or you do not believe in God. Mahavira bowed down without believing and attained.

And Buddha never accepted God but he became God. He knew the art of bowing down!

The question is not of attaining God, the question is of destroying one's ego. Worship means, one who has finished himself and who has said, "I am not." It is not necessary to say, "You are." Whoever has said, "I am not," that very moment he has known that "Only you are." The divine appears as soon as the I disappears. This I is the only obstacle.

Then, THE GOD OF DEATH CANNOT DESTROY HIM.... Therefore, OH IDIOT! ALWAYS SING THE SONG OF THE THE DIVINE!

OH GOD, PROTECT ME FROM THIS TROUBLESOME WORLD WHERE ONE HAS TO BE BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN, DIE AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND FALL INTO THE WOMB OF A MOTHER AGAIN AND AGAIN.

Man is helpless, and nothing can be done by the resolution of man, because whatsoever you will do will be less than you. The divine is vast, much bigger than you. He is in you, he peeps through you, but is much greater than you.

It is like the ocean being in a drop of water. If you taste the drop you get the salty taste of the ocean.

If you analyze one drop you will get the substance of the whole ocean. A drop is very small, but the ocean has shown itself through the drop just as the sky has shown itself through the window. The divine has shown himself through you also, but he is much vaster than you. The divine has shown himself through you just as the sky is seen through the window, the ocean is hidden in the drop, the tree is hidden in the seed.

You cannot attain him with your effort; your effort is very small. It is like trying to get the sky in your hand. You can attain him only with his grace.

That is why Shankara says, "Oh God, please save me! I am sure to get drowned. I can be saved only if you save me. My energy and my strength are very limited. Even if I think, what can I think?

Even if I contemplate, what can I contemplate? - all the thinking will be mine. You are unknown, you are vast. To attain you, your help is needed."

That is why a devotee, a bhakta, is continuously wishing to get his support, his help. The day you start asking for his support you will find that you have it because you start growing; your shrinking stops and you start expanding. The day you ask for the support of existence you start becoming vast; your smallness starts disappearing from that very moment. You have given the invitation, "Come!" Nothing else is needed.

Buddha has said, "I thought that I was searching for truth, but on attaining it I found that truth was also searching for me."

Truth is also searching for you. The divine is also searching for you, looking for you, but you are not giving the invitation. If by chance existence takes your hand in his hand, you give up his hand.

Have you noticed small children? The father holds the hand of the child and takes him to the market.

The father keeps on holding his hand but the child attempts to free his hand because he wants to become independent, he wants to walk by himself. The father wants to hold onto the hand of the child, but the child wants to free his hand so that he can run by himself.

Man also behaves like this. The divine is holding his hand, otherwise man cannot even live. How are we going to breathe if existence does not breathe through us? How shall we live if existence does not throb in us? But we try to stand on our own feet. Ego always tries to stand on its own feet without the support of anyone else. It seems very insulting to ask for someone's help. It looks pitiable to ask for someone's support. That is why, as the ego of man goes on increasing, worship and prayer are disappearing.

Have you ever noticed that when you bow down in the temple you feel a little uncomfortable? You are afraid that someone may see you bowing down. You kneel down, you fold your hands, but at the same time you make sure that no one is looking at you, because people will say, "You are kneeling down, you are bowing down," and it will hurt your ego.

People have become afraid of bowing down. It is very unfortunate, because whatever is great in life can be attained only by bowing down. It is just like your being thirsty and you are standing in the river but you are not bending down. You want the river to rise up to your mouth. But if you want to drink water then you have to bend down, you have to bend your head, take the water in your hands, and then drink it. But your ego does not let you bend down.

Most of the people deny the divine - not because they have come to know that there is none, but if there is a divine then they will have to bow down.

Friedrich Nietzsche has written, "If there is a God then we will have to bow down. That is why I say that there is no God. How can I bow down? If there is a God then he is superior to me - that is why I say that there is no God, because no one can be superior to me." Ego is terrible.

Man is full of terrible ego. The ego in the soul is like a cancer in a body. Yes, ego is a cancer of the soul. Till you are free of this ego the song of the divine cannot be born in you, you cannot pray and you cannot worship. The divine cannot come into you while you are full of yourself. Come down from your throne, make some space and invite him.

OH GOD, PROTECT ME FROM THIS TROUBLESOME WORLD WHERE ONE HAS TO BE BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN, DIE AGAIN AND AGAIN AND FALL INTO THE WOMB OF A MOTHER AGAIN AND AGAIN.

Whoever has understood the fact of life has come to know that life is just a repetition; everything is being repeated again and again. You have been born many times, you have died many times, you have earned wealth many times, you have earned fame many times, you were successful many times and you were unsuccessful many times. You go on revolving like the wheel of a vehicle, up and down, up and down.

It is a natural wish to be free of this repetition, because repetition is boring. That is why we have called this world the chakra, the wheel; we have named it the dushta-chakra, the bad, ominous wheel, because we go on revolving in the same way - nothing new happens. You are living today as you lived yesterday, tomorrow you will also live like this and the day after tomorrow you will also live in the same way. It is always the same evening, the same morning, the same anger, the same greed, the same attachment, the same birth, the same death - it is just repetition. There must definitely be a very deep-rooted idiocy in us - that is why we are not awakened from our sleep - otherwise we would have seen that we go on repeating the same things again and again. If we did not attain anything by doing them so many times, then it is certain that we will never attain anything by repeating them innumerable times.

We have to get out of this vicious circle. That is why in the East, and especially in India, this great desire was born of getting out of the circle of birth and death. This kind of desire was not born anywhere else in the world. In the West the religions like Islam, Christianity and Judaism are not inspired by this desire. They want to attain heaven. Heaven means that all the miseries of this life should not be there but all the pleasures must be there. Heaven is only a greater expansion of worldly types of comforts and pleasures. But in India a unique desire was born - and that is the speciality of India - the desire for moksha, liberation. It is the desire for liberation and not for heaven. The meaning of the desire for liberation is that neither misery nor happiness is wanted now; we have had enough of both of them. There was nothing significant in them; now we want to be free of both. This desire to be free from both is unique. That is why it is not possible to translate the word moksha into any language of the world. It is possible to translate swarga, heaven, and nareka, hell, but moksha is a unique word. No other language of the world has this word. It cannot - because first the desire has to be born, and then the word is born to express it. First it is the experience, and then the words are born later on to express it.

The experience of moksha is the unique search of India. No other search has gone higher than this, and no other search can go higher than this. Only those people can have the desire to be free of happiness who have experienced happiness thoroughly, and have found that happiness is also a way of misery, a deception of misery.

HE WHO HAS MADE HIS ROBE OUT OF THE RAGS FROM THE ROADSIDE, WHOSE PATH IS FREE OF THE THOUGHT OF SIN AND VIRTUE, WHO IS ENGROSSED IN YOGA, whose mind has become united, SUCH A YOGI SOMETIMES PLAYS LIKE A CHILD AND SOMETIMES BEHAVES LIKE A MADMAN.

A person sitting by the roadside may look like a beggar, but if you look carefully there is an emperor hidden within him. ... Because if you look at the emperors carefully you will find beggars within them. They go on asking for more.

There was a Mohammedan fakir named Farid. The people of his village asked him to request the emperor Akbar to open a school in the village, as Akbar had great regard for him. Farid had never asked Akbar for anything. A fakir never asks, the fakir always gives. But since the people of the village had insisted on his seeing Akbar he could not refuse them, so he went. He had never visited the palace before this, but now he had to go.

He arrived there quite early in the morning and was told that the emperor was praying in his personal mosque. So Farid went and stood at the back. Akbar did not know this. He completed his prayer, raised his hands towards the sky, and said, "Oh God! Whatever you have given me is not enough, I want much more than this. Please make my kingdom much bigger than this. Please increase my wealth and my fame."

Farid just could not believe his ears. The great Emperor Akbar, who had such a vast kingdom, was still asking for more. He was still begging! So Farid thought, how could he ask from a person who is still asking for more? - because opening a school means spending some money, he will have that much less. If he is asking God then I can also ask him directly. Why have an agent in between? He turned around. When Akbar got up he saw Farid going down the stairs. He ran after him and asked him the reason for his coming. Akbar had great regard for Farid and he used to go for his darshan from time to time, but Farid had never before visited Akbar. Akbar asked him, "Why did you come?

Why are you going back?"

Farid said, "I came to meet an emperor, to ask him for something, but instead I saw a beggar so I am going back. How can I ask from a person who is begging, asking for more? I do not want to make you poorer. I had to come because the people of the village insisted on my asking if you would open a school. But now I will not ask you, I will ask God for it. When you go on asking him for so many things, I can also ask him directly."

Akbar told Farid many times that he would open the school, but Farid refused him saying, "One does not ask for help from beggars. Only real emperors can help."

Your emperors are actually poor beggars! They are asking for more. But this country has produced such emperors who are not beggars; if you look into them you will find that they are more precious than all the precious stones!

HE WHO HAS MADE HIS ROBE OUT OF THE RAGS FROM THE ROADSIDE.

Yes, he has made his clothes out of the rags on the roadside but moksha has been born in him, freedom has opened its wings in him.

WHOSE PATH IS FREE OF THE THOUGHT OF SIN AND VIRTUE.

Please note that religions say that if you sin you will go to hell and if you do a good deed you will go to heaven. But what will you do to attain moksha? Neither sin nor good deed.

WHOSE PATH IS FREE OF THE THOUGHT OF SIN AND VIRTUE.

One who neither sees good nor bad, whose life has become free from choice... Krishnamurti calls this choiceless awareness. One whose life is full of only awareness, choiceless, without any alternative; one who does not choose, who neither says that this is right nor says that that is wrong; one who does not choose, who says that everything is the same, there is nothing to choose - nothing is beautiful or ugly, nothing is sin or a virtue.

This is a very unique idea which is connected with moksha. That is why, when the Upanishads were translated for the first time, the thinkers in the West could not understand what the Upanishads were saying, because in the West it was thought that the aim of scriptures is to preach to do good actions. Scriptures are to save you from sins and inspire you to do good. But the Upanishads say that scriptures save you from sin and good deeds both, because when you are full of the thought of sin and good deeds then you are full of duality.

Scriptures are to take you beyond duality and make you one. Your mind is full of contempt while you go on saying that this is sin. Your mind is full of praise while you say this is good. When you say that this is good, it means that you have chosen something. When you say this is sin, it means that you have refused something. And the divine is in both sin and in good deeds, and by refusing something you have refused the divine.

In the life of the enlightened one there is neither refusal nor demand. He neither accepts nor denies; his consciousness does not waver, he has become stable.

WHOSE PATH IS FREE OF THE THOUGHT OF SIN AND VIRTUE, WHO IS ENGROSSED IN YOGA....

A yogi is one who is united, who has become one; there is no duality for him. Heaven and hell, happiness and misery, sin and virtue will remain while there is duality. When only one remains, then heaven and hell, happiness and misery, darkness and light, they all disappear. In that one is the ultimate rest; in that one is the ultimate bliss. By achieving that one, everything is achieved.

SUCH A YOGI SOMETIMES PLAYS LIKE A CHILD - so innocent, like a child - AND SOMETIMES LIKE A MADMAN - so full of bliss, so drunk with ecstasy.

In a yogi you will find both a child and a madman. A child means one who has not started thinking and a madman means one who has gone beyond thinking. The circle is complete in a yogi. He has become like a child, he does not think; and he has become like a madman, he has gone beyond thinking. That is why it is difficult to recognize a yogi. You cannot put him into any category and you cannot make any judgment about him. It is never known what he will do in the next moment because he does not do anything by himself, he does whatever the divine makes him do. He has entrusted himself in the hands of the divine. He just goes on flowing; wherever the river of godliness takes him, that is his destination. If he gets drowned in the middle then that is his destination! No longer does he have any aim of his own. 'Yogi' means the ultimate freedom. Therefore, OH IDIOT!

ALWAYS SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE.

WHO ARE YOU? WHO AM I? FROM WHERE HAVE I COME? WHO IS MY MOTHER? WHO IS MY FATHER? CONTEMPLATE OVER THESE QUESTIONS AND THEN YOU WILL FIND THAT THE WORLD AND ITS WORRY IS MEANINGLESS AND DREAMLIKE, AND YOU WILL BECOME FREE OF THIS BAD DREAM. THEREFORE, OH IDIOT! ALWAYS SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE.

THE SAME DIVINE RESIDES IN YOU, IN ME AND EVERYWHERE ELSE. BY BECOMING INTOLERANT TOWARDS ME YOU ARE GETTING ANGRY IN VAIN. SO, DROPPING THIS IGNORANCE OF DISCRIMINATION IN EVERYTHING, SEE ONLY YOURSELF IN ALL.

THEREFORE, OH IDIOT! ALWAYS SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE.

Do not waste your energy in the duality of enemy and friend, in son and in brother, in war and in peace. If you want to attain to the feet of the divine then all should be equal to you. To see everything as equal is the journey to oneness - in happiness and in misery, in victory and in defeat, in success and in failure. Then gradually you will attain oneness.

You will remain two while you see the duality, because you become what you perceive. When you don't see conflict, when you don't see duality, and you start seeing the one in a friend and in a foe, in good and in bad, in sin and in virtue, in heaven and in hell, in blessing and in curse - when you start seeing one, then you will start becoming one. You become whatever you see. What you perceive becomes your nature. Therefore, to go beyond duality is sadhana, spiritual practice.

It will be difficult. How will you see it? How will you see the one and the same in the person who abuses you and in the person who praises you? But if you look carefully then you will find that abuse and praise are just on the surface; inside, there is only one. Try to see carefully that friend and foe, hate and love are just the two expressions of the same energy. That is why love can become hate and hate can become love; a friend becomes an enemy and an enemy becomes a friend. If both of them were absolutely different then this change could not have occurred. A friend of today can become an enemy tomorrow. A person who was an enemy yesterday becomes a friend today.

Certainly the energy is the same. The feet that are taking a person away from you are the same feet which will bring him back to you one day. The feet are the same. To come near and to go away, these are just two ways of the one energy.

Try to understand it. Try to look for it. The old habits will create obstacles. The old ways of thinking will create obstacles, but the darkness disappears with continuous effort and the light appears. As you start seeing the one in the opposite also, you will experience deep peace; some wholeness starts coming within you. You are not the same as you were yesterday. A new consciousness starts being born in you. When the two disappears and only one remains, then you are ready for the divine.

And the divine is always ready. When you are ready the cloud rains and you are full; the moment of bliss arrives.

But one has to awaken from the two, one has to avoid the duality, and has to see and hold onto the flow of the one.

You will attain oneness by disciplined equanimity.

Always try to see the one in the two; this should become your meditation, your sadhana. When you have success you should be able to see that this is also a failure - soon failure will be following it. And do not get upset when you fail, soon success will be following it. These are two sides of the same coin. When success seems like failure and failure seems like success, the difference disappears and sameness appears. Then your door for the divine will open.

The divine is always very near but you remain away from him because of your differentiation. The divine is always before you - because whatever is before you is godliness. But your eyes are closed.

Because of the differentiation your eyes are closed, but they open when differences disappear.

Difference is like the eyelid on the eye and indifference is like the opening of the eyelid. Therefore, OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE.

Enough for today.