Meditation: The Only Medicine

[NOTE: This discourse is in the process of being edited for publication. It is for reference use only.] The first question:

Question 1:

Human life can be divided into four circles.

The first circle is of action, the world of doing. It is the outermost. Moving within a little we come to the world of thought. Move a little further in we come to the world of feeling, devotion, love. Moving still further within we reach the center - the world of the witness.

The witness is our nature, because there is no way to go beyond it. No one ever has, and no one ever can. To become the witness of the witness is impossible. The witness is simply the witness.

You cannot go deeper than it. It is our foundation. Our house is built on the foundation of witnessing - built of feeling, of thought, of action.

This is why there are three Yogas: Karma Yoga, Gyan Yoga, Bhakti Yoga - the Yogas of action, knowledge and devotion. These are the three methods of meditation. Through these three one can make efforts to reach the witness.

The Yoga of action means action plus meditation. Karma Yoga is the effort to go directly from doing to witnessing.

Meditation is the process and witnessing is the goal.

You have asked, "What is the relationship between meditation and witnessing?" Meditation is the path, witnessing is the destination.

Witnessing is the culmination of meditation.

And meditation is the beginning of witnessing.

A Karma Yogi is one who adds meditation to doing, who links meditation to the world of action - action plus meditation.

Then Gyan Yogi is one who adds meditation to thought. He links meditation to the world of thought.

He begins to think meditatively. A new practice is added: whatever one does is done with awareness.

When the state of thought plus meditation is established the journey towards witnessing begins.

Meditation is a change of direction.

Whatever meditation is joined to becomes a vehicle for moving towards witnessing.

And the third path is Bhakti Yoga - adding meditation to emotion, a deep joining of meditation and emotion, the whirlpool of meditation and feeling! While feeling become meditative.

Through these three paths one can approach the witness. But the method that brings you is meditation, the fundamental thing is meditation. It is just like a doctor giving you medicine, saying to take it with honey, and you say you don't eat honey, you are a Jaina. Then he says to take it with milk, and you say you cannot drink milk because milk is a form of blood, you are a strict Quaker - you don't drink milk, it is like eating meat. So the doctor says take it with water. But the medicine is the same - honey, milk or water, it doesn't make any difference. They are only to help swallow the medicine, to get it down the throat. Medicine won't go down by itself.

Meditation is medicine.

There are three types of people in the world. Some people cannot live without doing. Their whole life flow is in working. If they try to sit quietly, they cannot; they have to do something or other. There is energy, flowing energy. There is no harm in this. But ? The master says try swallowing the medicine of meditation with activity. You can't stop doing but you can add meditation to doing. You say, "I can't sit a single moment without doing something. I just can't. Sitting is not within my power, it's not my nature."

Psychologists call them extroverts: they are always occupied, they need to do something or other.

Until they fall down exhausted and sleep it is not natural for them to stop working. Activity is their nature.

The master says, "Good. Do it riding on action. Make this your horse. Mix your medicine with this and swallow it. The real question is the medicine. Start working meditatively. Whatever you do, don't do it unconsciously, do it with awareness. Stay awake while doing."

Then there are some who say doing has no attraction for them, but thoughts come rushing in waves.

They are thinkers-they have no juice for doing. They have no interest in the outer, but great waves arise within, a great tempest. And they cannot be inside for a single moment without thoughts. They say, "If we sit silently more thoughts come. When we sit silently more thoughts than usual come.

Just mention worship, prayer, meditation, and a great deluge of thoughts - -armies - come in wave after wave and drown us. What should we do?"

The master says, "Drink meditation mixed in with your thoughts. Don't stop your thoughts, but when thoughts come observe them. Don't get lost in them, stand a little apart, at a distance. Calmly watching your thoughts, you will gradually attain witnessing. Add meditation to your thoughts."

Then there are some who say, "We have no trouble with thoughts, no trouble with doing. We have an excess of feeling. Tears flow, the heart is overwhelmed, drowning - in love, in affection, in trust, in devotion."

The master says, "Make this your medicine, add meditation to this. Let tears flow - flow filled with meditation. Let the thrill be there, but filled with meditation. The essence is meditation."

These differences between bhakti, karma and gyan are not differences in medicine. The medicine is one. You can see this in Ashtavakra. Ashtavakra says take a direct leap. Swallow the medicine straight. He says what use are these practices?

That is why Ashtavakra is not a Gyan Yogi or a Bhakti Yogi or Karma Yogi. He says to drop straight into witnessing. These crutches are no use - this medicine can be swallowed directly. Drop these crutches, drop these vehicles - you can run directly. You can be the witness directly.

As far as Ashtavakra is concerned the witness and meditation are not different. But as far as other methods are concerned, the witness and meditation are different. Meditation is the process and witnessing is the destination.

For Ashtavakra the path and destination are one. So he can say to be blissful right now. One whose path and goal are different cannot say "right now." He will say, "Move! The journey is long; climb, then you will reach the mountain." Ashtavakra says, "Open your eyes: you are sitting on the mountain!

Where are you going? How to go anywhere?"

Ashtavakra's sutra is extremely revolutionary.

Neither gyan, nor bhakti, nor karma - none of these have reached to his height. It is pure witnessing.

Look at it like this: the medicine doesn't even need to be swallowed, understanding is enough, awareness is enough. There is no need for help - you are already there. But it happens that people are incapable of understanding it.

A Sufi story.... A man went in search of truth. The first religious man he met was sitting under a tree, just outside his own village. He asked, "I am searching for a true master. Please tell me the characteristics of a true master." The fakir told him the characteristics. His description was very simple. He said, "You'll find him sitting under such and such a tree, sitting in such and such posture, his hands making such and such gestures - that is enough to know he is the true master."

The seeker started searching. It is said that thirty years passed while he wandered the whole earth. He visited many places, but never met the master. He met many masters, but none were true masters. He returned to his own village completely exhausted. As he was returning he was surprised, he couldn't believe it: that old man was seated under the same tree, and now he could see that this was the very tree that the old man had spoken of "... he will be sitting under such and such a tree....." And his posture was exactly as he had described. "It was the same posture he was sitting in thirty years ago - was I blind? The exact expression on his face, the exact gestures....!"

He fell at his feet saying, "Why didn't you tell me in the first place? Why did you misdirect me for these thirty years? Why didn't you tell me that you are the true master?"

The old man said, "I told you, but you were not ready to listen. You were not able to come home without wandering away. You had to knock on the doors of a thousand houses to come to your own home, only then could you return. I said it, I said everything - beneath such and such a tree. I was describing this very tree, the posture I was sitting in, but you were too fast, you couldn't hear correctly, you were in a hurry. You were going somewhere to search. Searching was very important for you, the truth was not so important.

"But you have come! I was feeling tired, sitting continuously in this posture for you. You were wandering for thirty years, but think of me sitting under this tree! I knew some day you would come, but what if I had already passed away? I waited for you - you have come! You had to wander for thirty years, but that's your own fault. The master was always here."

It happens many times in our life that we cannot see what is near, and what is far attracts us. The distant drum sounds sweeter, we are pulled by distant dreams.

Ashtavakra says that you are what you are seeking.

And you are it right here, right now.

What Krishnamurti has been telling people is exactly Ashtavakra's message. No one understood Ashtavakra, nor has anyone understood Krishnamurti. And your so-called saints and sannyasins are very angry because Krishnamurti says there is no need for meditation. He is absolutely right - no need for devotion, no need for action, no need for knowledge. Ordinary sadhus and saints become very nervous: "No need whatsoever? He is misleading people!" It is these sadhus who mislead.

Krishnamurti is straightforwardly giving Ashtavakra's message. He is saying there is no need because there is only a need if you have lost something. Just get up and shake off the dust! Splash a little cold water on your eyes; what more is needed?

In Ashtavakra's vision witnessing and meditation are one, because the goal and the path are one.

But for all other paths and religious schools meditation is a method; witnessing, its final fruit.

"In what way are mental blocks and ego dissolved by them?"

Mind and ego are not dissolved by witnessing: in witnessing you find out that they never existed.

They can be dissolved only if they exist.

It is like this: you are sitting in a dark room and think there is a ghost. It is only your shirt hanging there but you are scared, and in fright your imagination adds hands and feet to it. He is standing there frightening you! Someone says light a lamp, and you ask how will lighting a lamp make ghosts go away. But lighting a lamp does drive away the ghost because there isn't one there! If there were, lighting a lamp wouldn't drive it away. What has a lamp got to do with scaring away ghosts? If there were a ghost a lamp would not drive him away. But he doesn't exist, he is illusory - that's why he goes away.

You suffer from thousands of diseases which are not there. This is why the ash from some sadhu will cure you, not because ash has driven out your illness. Are you mad? Has ash ever cured a disease? If so, the whole science of medicine would be useless. Ash cannot cure illness, it only gets rid of the idea that you were ill.

I have heard a story about a doctor - he himself told it to me. He was living near the Bastar tribal area and a tribal man came to him from deep within Bastar. The doctor was visiting a village, a tribal village. This man was sick, but the doctor had nothing to write with; there was no pen or paper in the village. He found a cloth and wrote the name of the medicine on it with a piece of rock, and told him, "Take it with milk for a whole month, and you will be fine." The man came back after a month.

He was completely okay - healthy, robust. The doctor asked, "Did the medicine work?

He said, "It worked great. Now write on one more cloth for me."

The doctor asked, "What do you mean?"

He said, "The cloth is finished. I drank it all up! Such great medicine."

He had come to him completely cured! Now it wouldn't be right for the doctor to explain anything; that would be inappropriate. He told me, "Since he was cured I didn't say anything: medicine is what makes you well. Why should I confuse him by telling him, 'You idiot, I just wrote out the name of the medicine, but you never bought it!' He drank the prescription, but it worked." The disease must have been false, imaginary.

Psychologists say ninety out of a hundred illnesses are imaginary. And as understanding increases it is possible that ninety-nine percent are imaginary. One day perhaps one hundred percent diseases will be found to be imaginary.

This is why the world has so many medical systems that work. Use western medicine and the patient gets well. Use Ayurveda or Homeopathy or the Greek-Islamic system, or Naturopathy - the patient is cured. Even a charm or talisman will cure him.

It is surprising. If he were really sick then only one particular method would work to cure the disease, every method could not work. There is no disease. It is only what you believe in: someone believes in western medicine so it works.... And the doctor's name is more important than the medicine.

Have you ever noticed that when you return from seeing a great doctor, your pockets empty from paying such huge fees, you are already half cured? If this same doctor wrote you free prescriptions it wouldn't have any effect on you. The fees you have paid out do more than his medicine. Once you have the idea that he is a great doctor - the greatest - it is enough.

You ask, "In what way are mind and ego dissolved by them?" They are not dissolved. If they existed, they would be dissolved. In witnessing you find out, "Idiot, you are needlessly lost! Your own imagination has projected mirages - it was all imagination." They don't dissolve. In witnessing you become alert and find out that they never existed.

"Is surrender possible without attaining to complete egolessness?" This is a significant question.

The questioner asks, "Is surrender possible without attaining to complete egolessness?" But the questioner's mind is being tricky - perhaps unconsciously. He has added "complete" to "egolessness," but not to "surrender." Without complete egolessness, complete surrender is not possible. As much ego as you drop, that much surrender is possible. If you drop fifty percent of your ego then fifty percent surrender is possible. Are dropping the ego and surrender two different things? They are two ways of saying the same thing.

You say that without completely dropping the ego then surrender is not possible, that complete surrender is not possible. Don't deceive yourself. What is the need of surrender when the ego is completely dropped? And when will it drop? How will it drop?

Surrender is possible to the extent that the ego drops. Don't wait for completeness: do as much as you can. Do that much and the next step becomes available.

It is like a man traveling on a dark night. He has a small candle in his hand that shines light only four paces ahead. If the man says, "How can one travel ten miles with this? Four paces of light and ten miles of darkness - I will get lost." Then we tell him, "Don't worry, take four paces, and when you have taken four paces the light goes ahead four more paces. You don't need ten miles of light for walking. Four paces is enough."

How much ego.... Let go of one drop, then let go of another. In letting go of one drop the opportunity to let go of the next drop comes. Walk four paces, and the light goes four paces ahead. Don't make the excuse that you will surrender only when the ego is completely dropped. Then you will never do it. You have made your protection very carefully. You surrender as much as your ego drops - it is true. Then drop as much as you can - gather as much surrender as you can. Perhaps the taste of if will make you more ready; its bliss, its ecstasy will give you more courage. Courage comes from tasting.

A man can say,"Until I have completely learnt swimming I will not go in the water." He is right; his calculation is right, his logic is correct. "What if I go in the water without learning, and drown? Why get into so much trouble? First learn to swim perfectly." But where will you learn it perfectly? On your bed? Where will you completely learn swimming? You have to go in the water.

But no one is telling you to plunge into the ocean - go in at the edge, go in up to your neck, go in only as far as your courage tells you. Learn to swim there and gradually your courage will increase.

You can go a foot deeper each time, until you are able to swim in the full depth of the ocean. Once you know swimming... and to know it you will have go in. Stay near the shore. I am not saying to jump straight off a mountain into a deep river. Stay near the shore, make friends with the water.

Become acquainted with the water, move your arms and legs.

What is swimming? The skillful thrashing about of your arms and legs. Everyone knows how to thrash around. Even if you throw someone who has never swum before into the water he will start thrashing around. The difference between this and a swimmer is only of a little skill; there is no difference in what they are doing. The person who has never swum before is also throwing his hands and feet about but he has no trust in the water, no trust in himself. He is afraid he is going to drown. That fear will drown him - water has never drowned anyone.

You may have seen that a dead body floats to the surface, a corpse will float on water. Ask the corpse, "What trick did you learn? When you were alive you drowned; dead, you are afloat!" The corpse is not afraid: how can the river drown it? It is not the nature of water to drown anything, water lifts things up. This is why in water weight decreases. In water you can lift up and carry a man who is heavier than you. In water you can lift a huge rock. The weight of things is less in water. Just as the earth has gravitation, the earth pulls down, water raises upward. Water has the nature of raising things. If you are drowning you are causing it, water has never drowned anyone. Don't unknowingly blame the water. Water has never drowned anyone.

Ask a scientist: he also will say that it is a miracle that a man can drown, because water uplifts. You drown in your freak-out. You scream and shout, you open your mouth, you drink in water and take on more weight - and you drown. You cause your own death. A swimmer learns only this: Water uplifts! His trust in water becomes stronger. He understands that weight decreases in water. Our weight in water is much less than on land.

You must have seen when you throw a bucket into a well that while the bucket is filling and is in the water it is weightless. Start pulling it up and it becomes heavy. The water supports you; how can it drown you? A learner slowly, slowly becomes acquainted with this fact. Trust arises. Trust comes that water is not an enemy but a friend. It won't drown you.

A skilled swimmer doesn't thrash his arms, doesn't move them but can remain on the surface - like a lotus flower. He is a man just like you; there is no difference except that trust has arisen in him.

He trusts himself, he trusts the water - a friendship has arisen between them.

It happens the same way in surrender. In surrender the fear is that you may drown, so you want to climb out onto the bank. I am not telling you to surrender one hundred degrees - one degree will do.

Doing it gradually you will come to know, the taste will grow, juice will arise, the energy will flower.

You will be surprised how much has been wasted due to the ego, how much comes from a tiny bit of surrender. New doors open - doors of light. New breezes flow in your being... a new thrill, a new spirit. All is fresh. You will see life for the first time. For the first time you remove the smoke-screen from your eyes. The presence of God will begin manifesting itself. Surrender, and god comes near.

Because you begin to be erased, god begins to manifest.

Is existence far away? You don't see it because of your heavy ego. You don't see it because your eyes are filled with ego. Become capable of seeing it with your naked eye. Gradually courage will increase - trust, self-confidence. You will surrender more and more. One day you will take the total leap. One day you will say "Enough!" Up until now you have wasted yourself in trying to save yourself. One day you will understand and let go, then you will let yourself drown and be saved.

Blessed are those who are ready to be drowned, because no one can drown them. Unfortunate are they who are saved because they are already drowned - if not today, tomorrow their boat will crash and be broken up.

And there is one more thing to consider about ego and surrender. Mind is very clever - it finds excuses. Mind says, "So who is first? Is dropping the ego first or is surrender first? Should I surrender so the ego drops, or should I drop the ego so surrender happens?"

When you go to the market to buy eggs you don't ask, "Which is first, the chicken or the egg?" If you ask this you will never return home with your eggs. You just buy your eggs and come without first making sure which is first - the chicken or the egg.

Many people have debated it. The question of the chicken or the egg is very ancient. Which comes first? It is very difficult to find an answer. As soon as you say the egg comes first, difficulties begin, because the egg must have come from a chicken - so the chicken comes first. As soon as you say the chicken came first, again the problem arises because how will the chicken come without an egg?

It is a circle. The question is misleading. The question is misleading because the chicken and the egg are not two.

The chicken and the egg are two stages of the same thing. You raise a question by putting one ahead of the other, making them two. The chicken is a form of the egg - the completely manifested form. The egg is a form of the chicken - the unmanifested form - like seed and tree.

Egolessness and surrender are just like this.

Which comes first? - don't waste time arguing. If you bring up the chicken you have brought up the egg. If you bring up the egg you have brought up the chicken. If one comes, the other comes along with it, wherever you begin from. If you can drop the ego, start by dropping the ego. If you can't drop the ego then start by surrendering. If you surrender, the ego drops. I am not saying it will completely drop; it will drop as much as you surrender. If surrendering appears difficult then drop the ego. Surrender will come as much as you drop the ego.

There are two kinds of religion. One is the religion of egolessness, the other is the religion of surrender. One type of religion gives emphasis to the chicken, the other to the egg. Both are correct because when there is one, the other comes by itself.

For instance both Mahavira's religion and Buddha's religion have no place for surrender; they say just drop the ego. Where will you surrender? There is no God in front of whom you can surrender.

Mahavir says, "No shelter, no divine feet: there is no place you can go to surrender. To whose feet can you go? Go without surrender, just drop the ego."

Hindus, Muslims, Christians - these are religions of surrender. They don't say much about dropping the ego, they say, "Surrender to God. Find shelter somewhere, feet where you can bow your head - the ego will go by itself."

Both are right because they are two sides of the same coin. If you take the "heads" side of the coin home or the "tails" side home what difference does it make? - the coin will come home. They are two sides of one coin. But you have to start somewhere. Don't just sit around figuring it out.

"To what extent are orange clothes, and the mala helpful for meditation and witnessing?" If you are ready, everything can be helpful. If you are ready a path can be made from very small things.

It is said that when Rama was building his bridge across the ocean to Sri Lanka the squirrels brought tiny stones and grains of sand. They too had a hand in it, they too helped build the bridge. There were others who brought huge rocks. The small squirrels did what they could.

Don't expect much from changing the color of your clothes, because if everything were changed just by changing one's clothes it would be very easy. Don't expect that just by putting a mala around your neck much will happen, transformation will happen. Transformation is not so cheap. But also don't think it is only a squirrel's job; what can it do? Rama thanked the squirrels too.

These small devices are helpful too. Helpful like this: you return abruptly to your village in orange clothes. The whole village will look at you in amazement. You will not be able to sit in that village the way you used to. You will not be able to remain hidden in that village the way you used to. You will bring an individuality to the village. Everyone will ask what happened. Everyone will remind you that something has happened. Each one will question you. Each one will awaken your remembering.

Each one will give you an opportunity, reminding you again and again to become the witness.

One friend took sannyas and when he began weeping - a simple person. And he said, "There is just one problem: I am a wine drinker, and certainly you will ask me to drop it."

I said, "I never ask anyone to drop anything. Drink, but drink meditatively."

He said, "What do you mean? I can drink wine even as a sannyasin?"

I said, "It's up to you. I have given you sannyas; now you explore it."

He came back a month later, saying, "You tricked me! I was standing in the tavern when a man came and touched my feet, saying, 'What are you doing here, Swamiji?' I ran away from there, saying to myself, "A swamiji in the tavern?"

He told me, "You tricked me. Now I am afraid to even go towards the tavern. What if someone does something like touch my feet or bow down to me? Now it's fifteen days since I've been there." A remembering happened. Mindfulness was awakened! In these orange clothes you won't be able to get angry the same way you did up until yesterday. Something will tug on you. Something will tell you to just forget it. It feels very awkward in these orange clothes.

I give you orange clothes just to provoke a little harassment, nothing else. If you are a thief you won't be able to remain a thief so easily. If you are mad for money, greedy, then your greed will not have the same strength. If you are in politics, running after the prestige of political office, you will suddenly find it is meaningless. These small clothes will become very symbolic. They have no significance of their own, but when you dress yourself in them you gradually find that what was a very small thing - the seed was very small - has gradually become big, has gradually changed everything. It will change your activity, it will change your habits, it will change your style of moving. There will be a new grace in your life. People's expectation of you will change. Peoples eyes will look at you differently.

Changing your name you will become disconnected from your old name. Changing the clothes you will become free of your old pattern. This mala around your neck will go on reminding you of me.

It will become a bridge between you and me - you will not be able to forget me so easily. And people will start setting you apart. And their separating you apart will be a great help in your being a witness.

But I am not saying that just by doing this everything will happen: just change the clothes, put on the mala and know it is over, the journey is complete. It all depends on you. These are like signposts, like milestones on the side of the road on which is written "Twelve miles," "Fifty miles," "One hundred miles to Delhi." The stone doesn't have much significance. Milestone or not, if it is one hundred miles to Delhi it is one hundred miles. But these lines written on stone are encouraging, these arrow signs make the traveller lighter. He says, "Okay only one hundred miles to go, twenty-five miles to go, fifty miles to go."

In Switzerland in place of milestones they have put "minutestones." If you stop you car on some mountainous place you will be surprised looking at the post how far the last station was - thirty minutes away. The next station - fifteen minutes away. It is a meaningful indication - if Swiss people are skillful at making watches it is no great surprise. Their awareness of time is very deep. They don't write miles, they write time: "Fifteen minutes' distance"! It conveys how deep the awareness of time is in these people.

If you wear orange clothes it conveys something about you. Everything conveys a message. How you sit, how you move, how you look - everything conveys something about you.

We never dress soldiers in loose clothes, no one in the world does. If they were dressed in loose clothes they would be defeated. Dressing soldiers like that could prove dangerous. We dress soldiers in tight cloths, so tight that they always feel uncomfortable and they want to just jump out of them.

Tight clothes arouse fighting instincts. Sitting in tight clothes one is always ready to fight. Wearing loose clothes one is a little relaxed. Only an emperor wears loose clothes, or a sannyasin or fakir.

Have you ever noticed that when you climb stairs wearing loose cloths, you go one step at a time; wearing tight clothes you take them two at a time. Wearing tight clothes you are filled with anger. If anyone says some small thing you are upset. In loose clothes you remain relaxed.

Small things make a difference. Life is made of small things. The bridge of life is constructed with tiny little stones brought by the squirrels. What you eat, what you wear, how you rise and sit - ultimately all these have their effect. You are the combination of all these. Here a man is walking along wearing flashy, gaudy, colorful clothes - it conveys a message. A woman is walking along wearing vulgar, obscene, clothes that show off her curves - it conveys a message. A man is wearing plain and simple clothes, loose, comfortable - a message is conveyed about him.

Psychologists says that if you quietly observe someone for half an hour - how he wears his clothes, how he gets up, how he sits, how he looks - you will learn so many things about the man you won't be able to believe it. Our every way of moving, every gesture, is ours. We are changed by a change in gesture; our gestures change because of a change in us.

... So these are just signs. These will be with you. These will go on directing you. These will give you a little help in keeping alert.

"And please explain the difference between witnessing, wakefulness and right remembering."

There is no difference; these are all synonyms. They have been used by different traditions.

Krishnamurti uses "wakefulness," Buddha has used "right remembering," "mindfulness"; Ashtavakra, the Upanishads, the Gita, all use "witnessing." The difference is only of tradition, but they all indicate the same direction.

The second question:

Question 2:

One thing is certain: the questioner is a hard-hearted man. He sees only weakness in tears. It is clear that tears have dried up in the questioner's eyes, the eyes have become barren like a desert.

Flowers don't bloom in them - tears are flowers of the eyes.

The questioner's feelings have died. The questioner's heart has become blocked. The questioner lives only through intellect. He has given the final rites for his dead feelings. He must be living in thoughts. Love and compassion, the regard for life, romance, bliss - he must have rejected the possibility of these. No current seems to flow. His heart must be dried up like a desert. So the first thing that came to him is that people crying here are weak hearted.

Who told you that crying is a sign of weakness? Meera wept unrestrainedly; cascades of tears flowed from Chaitanya's eyes. No, they are not a sign of weakness, they are an indication of feeling, an indication of the strength of feeling. And remember feeling is deeper than thinking. As I said earlier, first is the level of activity, then the level of thought, then feeling, then the witnessing center.

Feeling is the closest to the witness.

Devotion is the closest to God - action is very far away. The journey is very long from there. Thought too is far away. It too is a long journey. Devotion is very near.

Remember, tears are not necessarily caused by unhappiness, although people are acquainted with only one kind of tears - those of unhappiness. Tears also flow in compassion, tears also flow in joy; tears flow in giving thanks, in gratitude. Tears are only a sign that something is happening inside that is difficult to contain - unhappiness or joy. Something is happening inside that is so abundant that it starts to overflow. And if it is sadness - sadness so deep that it is difficult to contain inside, it will flow in tears. Tears are a discharge. Or if joy becomes too full tears of joy will flow. Tears are an outlet.

Tears are not necessarily connected with sadness or joy - they are connected with over-abundance.

Whatever becomes excessive tears will absorb and wash away. So an over-abundance must have happened inside those who are crying, some sweet pain must have penetrated their heart. They must have heard the murmuring of the unknown. A ray of the far unknown must have touched the heart. Something must have descended into their darkness. An arrow must have filled the heart with anguish and ecstasy - they could not stop their tears.

There is no relationship between this and the power of my words, because you also were listening.

If it were only the power of my speaking then even you would have cried, everyone would have cried.

No, it is related more to the heartfulness of the listeners than to my speaking. Those who could cry, cried. And crying is a great power.

Humanity has lost a very unique capacity - men especially have lost it. Women have saved it a little, women are fortunate. The tear glands in human eyes are the same in man and woman; nature has made tear glands identically. The intention of nature is clear: the eyes of both are made for crying.

But the male ego has slowly, slowly controlled everything. Gradually men have begun to think that crying is feminine, only women cry. Men have lost much from this - they lost devotion, they lost feeling, they lost joy, they lost gratefulness. From this they lost the greatness of suffering, because suffering also purifies, cleanses.

This is why a great calamity has entered men's life. You will be surprised that worldwide twice as many men go mad as women. And this number would greatly increase if wars were stopped, because men release their madness in war, release it in great quantity. If wars were completely stopped for one hundred years, it is feared that ninety percent of all men would go mad.

Men commit suicide more than women - double the number. The common belief is otherwise, you think that more women commit suicide. They talk about it, but they don't do it. They take pills or something and sleep, but they take the pills in a calculated way. So women make more suicide attempts, but unsuccessfully. They are calculative in her attempts. Actually women don't want to commit suicide - suicide is only a way to express their complaint. They are saying that this life is not worth living, a better style of living is needed. A woman who commits suicide is telling you that you have become so stone hearted that you won't pay any attention to her unless she is ready to kill herself. She is only attracting your attention.

This is very unseemly - that she has to use dying as the means to attract your attention. Man has certainly become exceptionally hard, has become stonelike.

Women don't want to die, they want to live. When too much trouble comes on the path of life - there is no one who listens, no one who pays attention - they use suicide as a method to make you pay attention. But when men commit suicide they succeed. Men commit suicide in insanity.

More men are mentally ill. Why? There are many reasons, one among them is tears. Psychologists say men must learn how to cry again. Not to cry is not a strength. What you call strength is callousness. Strength is not so hard, strength is gentle. You have seen streams falling down the mountains, cataracts falling - gentle water. Rock is very hard. Rock certainly thinks it is strong, flowing water is weak. But finally the flowing water is victorious, the rock is reduced to sand and carried away.

God is with the gentle. God is the power of the powerless.

A flower has bloomed and near it is a rock. Of course the rock appears strong, the flower weak.

But have you ever seen the flower's power - the power of life? Who bows down to a rock? You don't take a stone to offer to God's feet. Do you think the stone is very strong so you give it to your beloved? No, you won't do this. You pick flowers, and give them to someone. A flower has strength.

A flower has majesty. Tenderness is its strength. Its blossoming is its strength; music, fragrance is its strength. Its weakness is its strength. It opens in the morning, and wilts by the evening - this is its strength. But it blooms. A rock never blooms, it just is. A rock is dead. The flower is alive - it will die because it has lived. A rock will never die, because it is already dead.

Become tender. Call tears back again. Let them fill your eyes with song and poetry; otherwise you will remain deprived of many things. Your god will remain rational, not the heart's experience; only a theory, not a taste and an experience of truth.

Those who let tears flow are fortunate - they are strong. They don't care what you say, they don't bother what other people say. When someone is crying totally he is not concerned with criticism.

Strength is needed to cry without your being concerned and saying, "What will people say?" Let them talk! A bad reputation? - let it be. "Leave me to cry my heart out."

When a man cries, wails like a baby, then think of his strength. He is not bothering about all of you.

He is not worried, like others, about what people say: "Me a university professor and crying? If a student should see...!" Or, "Such a big businessman and crying? If a customer should see...!" Or, "Such a strong husband and crying? My wife is nearby, and she will be after me when we go home."

Or, "I am a father and crying, and if my son sees, if the babies see.... Control yourself!"

Your ego holds back, controls. Egoless, you would cry. Ego always keeps itself under control.

Egoless you flow, there is a flow in you.

"They burn themselves and go out, once out they can't be kindled. The fire of love, O Rahim, goes out but again rekindles."

Coals burn - "They burn themselves and go out" - but a moment comes when they go out, then you will not be able to burn them again. Has anyone ever succeeded in making ash into burning coals again?

"They burn themselves and go out, once out they can't be kindled." Once they are out they will never burn. "The fire of love, O Rahim...." But of those whose heart has been wounded by love's arrow, what does Rahim say? "The fire of love, O Rahim, goes out but again rekindles." It burns again and again, goes out again and again and can still be relit.

The fire of love is eternal, immortal.

Those who listen to me with love will be able to cry. Those who listen to me only with the intellect will take from me a few conclusions, some knowledge. They will take ashes - not live coals of love.

They will take ashes that can never be relit. Remember, they have gone out. As soon as I have said them to you they go out. When you receive intellectually it is ash, when you receive through the heart it is a burning coal.

In those in whom the coal of love is born, it will burn, then go out, then burn again. It will cause you much anguish. It will cleanse you. It will bring a total transformation of your life.

If you can open your heart and cry, it means the burning coals of love have reached you. If you cannot cry it has reached only the intellect. A little ash will be collected. You will become somewhat knowledgeable, you will become quite skillful at explaining to others, you will become accomplished in debate, in arguing. But the main point will have been missed. Where you could have taken live coals you returned only with ashes. Even if you call it holy ash it won't make any difference - ash is ash.

"The fire is lit, the song of pain arises from my heart; in the pain of your love I have a fiery tongue.

With the help of intellect I wander the road; I've become dust of a passing caravan. The fire is lit, the song of pain arises from my heart...." Those tears were tears of the heart catching fire.

When you see someone crying go and sit near him. That is a moment of divine satsang - it is not to be missed. If you cannot cry, at least you can go and sit next to someone who is crying. You can take his hand in yours, and perhaps you too can catch the infection.

"The fire is lit, the song of pain arises from my heart...."

Let the fire be lit! These orange cloths are a symbol of fire. They are a symbol of the fire of love.

"In the pain of your love I have a fiery tongue." And when anguish arises within your heart, the feeling of virah - divine longing - arises, then there is fire in every breath, a tongue of fire "... In the pain of your love I have a fiery tongue."

"With the help of intellect I wander the road...." With the help of intellect I have gone astray. "With the help of intellect I wander the road; I've become the dust of a passing caravan." And because of intellect my situation has become like the dust left behind when the caravan has passed. I have become dust. Nothing besides dust ever sticks to the hands of intellect.

"With the help of intellect I wander the road; I've become the dust of a passing caravan. The heart is its own light, O Krishnamohan; limits are broken, I am a shoreless ocean. The heart is its own light, O Krishnamohan...."

If love has struck, if the arrow has struck the heart, if the coals of fire have bloomed....

"The heart is its own light, O Krishnamohan; limits are broken, I am a shoreless ocean." In that moment boundaries are broken - you become unbounded. Tears are your first step towards the infinite. Tears indicate that you are melting, your fixed boundaries have melted a little; you have become soft, you have become warm, you have dropped your cold intellect a little. A fire is lit, heat is arising. These tears are not cold. These tears are very hot. And these tears bring news of your melting. Just as when snow melts, when your ego begins melting inside, tears flow.

"When filled with desire each breath was speaking fire; now love has descended: my tongue is lost."

When you were full of intellect, full of desires, full of thoughts of a million and one things, the tongue was sharp and fast.

"When filled with desire each breath was speaking fire; now love has descended: my tongue is lost."

Those tears are indications of a state beyond language. When something happens and there is no way to express it, if you don't cry what will you do? When the tongue becomes incapable of speaking, the eyes say it with tears. When the intellect becomes incapable of speech, one says it by dancing.

Meera danced. Something happened that she couldn't find word to express. "Tying the ankle bells Meera enters the dance...." She wept, wept continuously. Something happened that was impossible to express in words, words seemed very confined. Only tears could say it - she said it with tears.

No, don't keep this idea that these people are weak. These people are strong. Their strength is of tenderness. Their strength is not of fighting and violence, their strength is of the heart. If you consider these people weak you will never cry. I emphasize again and again, don't think these people are weak. Be envious of them. Look in again and ask: "What happened that I am unable to cry?

A person filled with feeling is the closest to his own center. And the closer someone comes to himself, the more he experiences anguish. The further you are from home the easier it is to forget it. As soon as the home is near, memories of it come stronger. You sit, completely forgetting God.

The word God falls on your ears, but it creates no stir. You hear it, but it is just a word.

God is not just a word. The question is not merely of hearing. "God" will give a jolt to those who have a little fire of life within - the very word will give a shock.

"If you love me from the heart, then why do you make me cry?" The bhakta, the devotee is always complaining to God:

"If you love me from the heart, then why do you make me cry? In this deep darkness of your light, why steal your eyes away from mine? You came close, yet never too close. Why not call me closer?

You live around me - for what? You come around me - for what?"

If you have heard me rightly then many times you will feel God is very near.

"You live around me - for what? You come around me - for what? You came close, yet never too close. Why not call me closer? If you love me from the heart, then why do you make me cry? In this deep darkness of your light, why steal your eyes away from mine?"

One who goes deep into feelings comes so near to God that he begins to experience the heat of God's flame. Eyes begin to meet eyes. Boundaries begin to cross over each other. They begin to transcend each others' borders.

What is being said here is not mere talk, it is to transform you. It is not talking just for talking's sake, it is to change you completely - from the very roots.

The third question:

Beloved OsHO, CULTURE IS CREATED OUT OF RELIGION PLUS CONCEPT, OR CONCEPT PLUS RELIGION. AND SOCIETY AND ITS TRADITIONS ARE MADE FROM CULTURE. YOUR RESPECTED SELF HAS SAID THAT RELIGION IS AGAINST EVERYTHING. IF RELIGION REMAINS OPPOSED TO EVERYTHING THEN IS IT NOT POSSIBLE THAT IT WILL CREATE ANARCHY, CHAOS? PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME.

The meaning you understand of religion, of dharma, is not right. It is not a concept, religion is not an idea. The word dharma comes from a root meaning that which gives support to everything, which holds everything. It is not a concept but that which supports everything. That which supports this vastness, this moon, these stars, this sun, these trees and birds, man and the endless expanse of existence - what supports this is dharma.

Religion is not related to concepts. Your concept may be Hindu, someone's may be Muslim, someone's Christian - but it is not related to religion. These are concepts, these are intellectual ideas. Religion is the name of that essential truth which maintains everything, without which everything would be dispersed. That which joins all, which is the totality of all, which bridges all - this!

It is like making a garland of flowers. Here is a heap of flowers and there a garland. What is the difference? The pile is chaotic. No flower is connected with any other flower, all the flowers are disconnected. The garland is strung on a thread. The thread is not visible, it is hidden in the flowers, but it joins one flower to another.

This whole existence is strung on a thread called religion. This which joins us to trees, the moon and stars, which joins stones and pebbles to the sun, which joins everything, which is the connection of all - this is religion.

Culture is not created from religion. Culture is made from cultural conditioning. Religion is known when all conditionings have been renounced. Sannyas means renouncing conditioning.

Hindu culture is different; Muslim culture, Buddhist culture, Jain culture - all are different, separate.

There are thousands of cultures in the world because there are thousands of conditionings.

Someone faces East when he prays, someone turns to the West to pray - this is conditioning.

Someone wears these clothes, someone those; someone eats this kind of food, someone eats that kind of food - this is all conditioning.

Cultures will remain on earth, and they should remain because the greater the diversity, the more beautiful is the earth. I don't want the world to have only one culture - that would be idiotic, very dull and boring. Hindu culture is needed on the earth; Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Chinese, Russian - thousands of cultures are needed because variety makes life beautiful. Many types of flowers are needed in a garden. Just one type of flower will make the garden monotonous.

Cultures must be numerous - they are numerous and they should remain so. But religion should be one, because religion is one. There is no other possibility.

So I call Hinduism a culture, I call Islam a culture - not a religion. It is good, cultures are beautiful.

Make mosques in their unique style, temples in a different architecture. Temples are beautiful, mosques too are beautiful. I would not want only temples on the earth and that mosques should disappear - beauty would be greatly diminished. I would not want only Sanskrit to remain with us and Arabic to disappear - beauty would be much diminished. I would not want only the Koran to remain with us, and the Vedas, the Gita and Upanishads to disappear - the earth would become very poor.

The Koran is beautiful. It is a rare literary masterpiece, it is poetry of great height - but it has nothing to do with religion. The Vedas are lovely, a rare proclamation of the earth's aspirations to touch the sky. The Upanishads are very sweet. A sweeter expression has never been given. They should not be lost. All these should remain - but as culture.

Religion is one. Religion is that which connects us all - Hindus, Muslims and Christians too. Religion is that which connects animals, men, plants - everything. That which flows green in plants, as the bloodstream in man; which moves inside you as breath, which is present inside you as the witness.

Religion connects everything.

Don't think of religion as a synonym for culture. Religion has nothing to do with culture. There can be culture in Russia, where there is no religion. There is culture in China, where there is no religion now. There can be an atheistic culture, as well as a theistic one. Religion has nothing to do with culture. Religion is not concerned with your day-to-day lifestyle. Religion is concerned with your being. Religion is your pure existence, your nature. Culture is your outer shell, your etiquette, your behavior in everything concerned with these - how to stand, how to speak, what to say, what not to say....

Tradition never becomes religion. Religion is not tradition. Religion is the timeless, eternal truth.

Man makes traditions - religion already is. Traditions are man's creation, they have been invented by man. Religion precedes man, man has been made by religion. Understand this difference.

Never mistakenly assume that tradition can be religion. And a religious person can never become traditional. Jesus had to be crucified, Mansoor had to be murdered, Socrates had to be poisoned - because a religious person can never be orthodox. A religious person is a great revolution. He is a continual declaration of the eternal, of the timeless. Whenever anyone proclaims the eternal and the timeless, the orthodox, the straight conformists, freak out. They become very nervous. They say he will bring chaos, anarchy.

There is chaos now. What you call order, governance - what nonsensical order is this? This whole life is full of struggle, full of so many crimes. This whole life is filled with suffering - and still you are afraid of chaos! What is in your life except hell? What fragrance of happiness is there? Which flower of bliss blooms? What flute is playing in your life? It is just a heap of ashes. Still you say chaos will come.

So a religious person can be rebellious, but not an anarchist. Understand this.

A religious person is the truly orderly person because he has made a connection with the infinite.

He is joined to the deepest root of life. How can he be chaotic? Yes, he can lose his connection with you, be a little outside of your established patterns, your order. He is related to the ultimate. He has become disconnected with the false - he is connected to the raw truth. He has broken off from the rotten and become connected with the brand-new, the ever-new.

Your culture and society are like plastic flowers. The life of a religious person is like a living flower.

Plastic flowers look like flowers, but in reality they are not. They seem to be, they look like them at a distance, but they are false.

If you tell the truth just because the conditioning to tell the truth has been forced on you, then your truth isn't worth a penny. If you don't eat meat because you were born in a Jaina family and the conditioning that eating meat is a sin has been forced on you - you are so deeply conditioned that just seeing meat you become nauseous - then don't think you are religious. It is just conditioning.

A person born in a Jaina household is frightened by meat, becomes nauseous when he sees it - not just seeing it, he is afraid of the very word meat. Anything that can be associated with meat will nauseate him, even a blood red tomato will frighten him - this is only conditioning. If this person were born in a meat-eating household he would enjoy eating meat, because there the conditioning would be to eat meat; here, eating meat is not the conditioning.

Conditioning is your bondage. I am not telling you to start eating meat. I am saying to allow that manifestation of consciousness to come inside you as it came inside Mahavir. It was not conditioning. It was his own experience that to trouble anyone else is ultimately to trouble oneself, because we are all one, joined together. It is like someone slapping his own cheek. Sooner or later what we do to someone else it going to return to us. This experience became so deep for Mahavir, this awareness became so manifest to him, that he stopped causing suffering to others. He stopped eating meat not because he was taught that eating meat is a sin, he stopped eating meat through witnessing. This is religion.

If you were born in a Jaina household and don't eat meat, it is only conditioning. This is a plastic flower, not a real flower. Send this Jaina to America, and in two to four years he will start eating meat. Seeing meat eaten everywhere, at first he will be disturbed, at first he will turn up his nose, but gradually he will get used to it. Then seeing others eating meat at the same table gradually his nose, his nostrils will accept the smell of meat.

Then the influence of another conditioning begins. There everyone says, "If you don't eat meat you will become weak. Listen! How will you perform in the Olympics without eating meat? You won't be able to win a single gold medal. Gold medal? - you won't even win a bronze one. Look at your condition. You have remained enslaved for a thousand years, what strength do you have? What is your life expectancy? How many thousands of diseases do you suffer from?"

Certainly the life expectancy in meat-eating countries has reached more that eighty years; the average is eighty to eighty-five. Soon it will be one hundred. Here we are stuck at around thirty or thirty-five.

"... How many Nobel prizes have you won? If vegetarianism purifies the intelligence then you should be winning all the Nobel prizes. Intelligence doesn't appear to have become highly developed. And remember these Rabindranath Tagores who won the Nobel prize were not vegetarians. Has a single Jaina won a Noble prize? What's the matter? - they have been vegetarian for two thousand years, and in two thousand years your intelligence still hasn't become pure?"

So meat-eaters have arguments. They say, "Your intelligence becomes weak because you don't get the right proteins, the right vitamins, enough energy. Your body is weakening - you will not live long.

Your strength is decreasing."

In America one hears every day, sees in the papers, that some ninety year old man has married.

You are shocked. You say, "What kind of insanity is this?" But a ninety year old man gets married because he is still capable of sex. It is proof of strength. A ninety year old man fathers a child too. It is proof of strength.

As soon as someone goes and lives in the West, he hears these arguments and sees the these proofs and sees the vast prosperity of its culture. Gradually he forgets....

If Mahavir had to go to the West he would not eat meat. He is a natural flowering. He would say, "Okay, I will live two or four years less - what's the harm? What is the use of living longer? What will you do living longer? You will eat up a few more animals - what else? If anyone had asked Mahavir he would have said, "Look behind you a little; if you live one hundred years then look back at the long line of birds and animals you have eaten. You have eaten a whole cremation ground! You have eaten a whole population. Heaps of bones are lying all around you. One man eats so many animals in his life - thousands of birds and animals will pile up. Just think of how many lives you have destroyed. For what? Just to live? Why live more? - to destroy more animals?"

If someone were to tell Mahavir that he would become weak then he would say, "What will I do with strength? Am I to hurt someone? Am I to kill someone? Am I going to war?"

If someone were to say to Mahavir, "Look, you have been enslaved for one thousand years," he would say, "There are two positions: either become a master of someone or a slave." Mahavir would say, "It is better to become a slave than a master - at least you won't torture anyone, you will be tortured. It is better to be deceived than to be a deceiver - at least you didn't deceive anyone. It is better to be a victim of theft than to be a thief."

If someone were to tell Mahavir, "Look, you didn't win any Nobel prizes," he would say, "What will I do with a Nobel prize? It is a toy... good for children to jump around and play with. What can I do with it? I have come to earn some other prize. That prize is given only by the divine, no one else can give it. That prize is of the ecstasy of witnessing. It is of sat-chit-anand, truth-consciousness-bliss.

You keep your Nobel prize. Give it to children to play with. It is a toy."

There is no prize in this world comparable to the prize of inner bliss. If the body is gone, youth disappears, money is spent; all is gone but the inner nectar is saved, then all is saved. He who loses the inner loses all. He who saves the inner, saves all.

But usually when a Jaina goes to the West he returns corrupted. Why? He was already corrupted - a paper flower, it was false, made through conditioning.

Understand the difference between culture and religion. Religion is your inner nature and culture is what you have been taught by others. No matter how carefully someone teaches, anything learned from others will not liberate you, it will enslave you. So when I say religion is rebellion, revolt, I mean rebellion against tradition, rebellion against conditioning, rebellion against spiritual slavery.

But a religious person cannot be an anarchist. If a religious person is anarchistic who here will be disciplined? A religious person will become highly disciplined. But his discipline will have a different flavor. It flows outward from the inside. It is not imposed by anyone else. It is spontaneous. It is like a spring of inner energy bursting open. It is like a river flowing with the energy of the water, no one is pushing it.

It is as if someone has tied a cord around your neck and you are dragged along, and someone is whipping you from behind to keep you moving.

The man who lives in culture is forcefully dragged along, dragged against his will. A religious person is dancing. Even when he approaches death he goes dancing. You are dragged even in life. You always experience that you are under compulsion. You always experience that you are missing something that others enjoy, others have all the fun.

People come to me saying, "We are simple and virtuous straight-forward people. There is such injustice in the world. The cheats enjoy everything, thieves and criminals have everything."

I tell them, "The very idea arising in you that they are enjoying indicates you are not simple, not virtuous, not straight-forward. You are just like them, only you are less courageous. You also want to have fun like them, but you must pay the price for that and you are afraid to pay. You too are a thief, but one needs courage to steal and your courage is gone. You too want to cheat and make a pile of money, but one could be caught cheating, arrested, so you stop. If you are assured that no one will catch you, that there is no one to catch you, there is no fear of being arrested - you will immediately become a thief.

A religious person feels compassion for those who cheat because he feels, "These poor people are missing ultimate bliss. They are missing my experience."

A religious person does not envy the irreligious, he feels compassion. He cries inwardly that these poor people will lose everything in collecting a few scraps of gold and silver. They will be finished while making their mud houses, their sand castles. They wander in trivia where an experience of the eternal is possible. He is compassionate. There is no question of jealousy, because he has something more vast. And because of this vastness there is a discipline in his life. There is no higher discipline than this discipline.

A religious person is rebellious, but not undisciplined. His discipline is his own, it is inner. His discipline is self-discipline.

And what you call organized, what you call order - what has that order given? War, violence, vice, hatred, hostility. What has it given?

"An earth burns for clouds, love is born for those who writhe in pain. If a friend asks for your life, no problem; life has been given to the enemies. Sinners have always shunned me, I have sinned for the good people. Whenever I find a problem, all masks on; I have given life for problems. I always germinate a crowd of dreams for this unoccupied barren city. What world of robbers have I come into? Here one cuts off his hand for bracelets. This is the result of my life: I have sold my eyes for something worth seeing, for darshan."

What is here? Even eyes are being sold - in the hope of having darshan. The soul is being sold in the hope of attaining God. What have you attained here? Where is order here? What could be more disorderly than this? Hate in every direction, hostility, strangling competition, envy, jealousy.

No one is anyone's friend, all are enemies one of another. Here nothing is attained - what is it you are calling order?

Order is possible only when there is joy in life. Joy brings an order. Order comes as a shadow of joy.

Remember, an unhappy man can be an anarchist. A happy man cannot be disorderly - an unhappy man will be an anarchist. What has he got? He becomes eager to break and destroy. He who has gained nothing from life will begin breaking and destroying in frustration. He who has received from life, who is fortunate - how will he destroy it?

This order, this facade of order - don't take it as order. It is the conspiracy of the politicians. And those that you understand to be your leaders, those that you understand to be your guides are brigands. These are the very ones stealing from you.

"Now to find a new support? Too self-serving this support from the bank." Now even to take the support of the bank doesn't feel right.

"Now to find a new support? Too self-serving this support from the bank. Those who understand it is support stand in its shade, but the walls may suddenly collapse. Surely some magic happened today, jingling was coming from the ruins. It is no wonder if the limits of hope have broken; the swords are out of their sheaths. What will happen on the boat, no word; sails from a sandstorm.

What will happen on the boat, no word; sails from a sandstorm. Thousands of helpless sighs are buried here - these graves are not only a heap of stones. Sails from a sandstorm...."

Here the ones you understand to be helpers are exploiting you. And those you think are your leaders are sitting on your chest. Have you noticed? When someone gets into office he starts talking law and order. And out of power a politician begins talking revolution; just with his being out of power the question of revolt arises. Then everything is wrong, everything should be changed. And just coming into power the question of law and order arises.... Everything is good, change is dangerous. Now it is necessary to be disciplined.

Everywhere in the world it has always been like this. Politicians only have lust for power, they are not concerned with order or revolt. Yes, when they are not keeping order, when the power is not in their hands, then they say everything is wrong; then a revolution is needed. And as soon as they come to power, revolution isn't needed any more because the work of the revolution is complete. Its work was this - to bring him to power - the job is done. Then whoever mentions revolution is an enemy.

And those that speak of revolution also have nothing to do with it. It is an amazing thing to watch - it is happening every day, and still man does not become alert. All revolutionaries become counter- revolutionary when they come to power. And all ousted politicians become revolutionaries as soon as they step down from office. Political office has great magic! Sitting in office - order, because now order is in your favor. Stepping down - revolution; now revolution is in your favor.

A religious person has nothing to do with order, nothing to do with revolution. A religious person is concerned with self-discipline. A religious person wants to wake up. With the help of outer things you have sought long, order could not be created. Now wake up! Seek on your own. Be a light unto yourself. You have traveled long with the help of outer lamps, and gone astray - only astray, falling into ditches and ruins, being injured.

Light your own lamp, and move on your own.

No one outside can give you order. Create your own order. Let your life be filled with discipline from within.

Hari Om Tat Sat.