Chapter 10

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

The first question:

Question 1:

It is true that in existence nothing happens without cause, but existence itself is uncaused. Existence has no cause. Enlightenment means existence. Everything else happens, existence does not happen - it is. There has never been a moment when it was not. There will never be a moment when it will not be. Everything else happens, man happens, trees happen, birds and animals happen.

Existence does not happen - existence is. Enlightenment doesn't happen. Enlightenment is not an event, otherwise if it happened uncaused, it would be an accident. Enlightenment does not happen, enlightenment is your nature, you are enlightenment. This is why it can happen suddenly, and can happen without cause.

You have asked, "... HOW CAN THE HIGHEST EXPERIENCE LIKE ENLIGHTENMENT HAPPEN THIS WAY?" Because it is the highest. Everything lower occurs by causation. If samadhi occurs by causation like other things, then it becomes lower and ordinary. Heat water to one hundred degrees and it becomes steam - if in the same way if you do one hundred degrees of ascetic practice and samadhi occurs, then it will be captured in a scientific laboratory and very soon there will not be

any way to save religion: because whatever happens with a cause comes into the grasp of science.

Whatever has a cause will fall within the limits of science.

Religion remains religion because enlightenment is uncaused. Science will never be able to contain it. Whatever is caused will eventually become science. Only one thing will remain that will never become science, that is existence itself. Because existence is uncaused, it simply is. Science has no explanation for it. How can there be a cause for this vastness, for the whole? Because everything that is, is included in it, there is nothing outside of it.

This is why samadhi does not happen, because it is not limited - it is vast.

You have asked, "... THE HIGHEST EXPERIENCE LIKE ENLIGHTENMENT..." It is the highest precisely because it does not depend on your limited law of cause and effect. Do this many virtuous acts and samadhi will happen; give that much charity and samadhi will happen; renounce so much and samadhi will happen - then samadhi would follow your calculations, would come into the account books, it would not keep its height. It happens uncaused.

This is why the devotees say it happens as grace. It does not happen through your making it happen.

It showers on you - suddenly, as a gift, as grace.

Then what is the result of our struggle and efforts? If you can understand Ashtavakra then any effort will be useless, then you are practicing rites and rituals uselessly. There is no need to practice, understanding is enough. Just understand that only existence is and let go of the search.

Understand this: what we are is joined at the roots, hence running around doing and efforts to unite must be be dropped - and the union will happen. The union will happen - not from effort to unite but from dropping the effort to unite. Efforts to unite increase the gap - the more you long for union, the more the distance grows. The more you seek the more you are lost because what you go to seek is not to be sought. It happens by waking up and looking: it is present, it is standing at the door. It is manifest within the temple, manifest within you. It has never abandoned you for a moment, never been separate for a moment. You remain lost by searching for what is not separate, what you have never been parted from, what you cannot be separated from.

Only one result is possible from your practices: you will become tired, your whole effort will reach a place one day where you are fed up with effort. In that moment of boredom you let go and immediately you see how mad you have been.

Yesterday I was reading someone's autobiography. He has written that he had travelled to a foreign city and got lost there. He did not understand the language. He became very nervous. And in his nervousness he forgot the name of his hotel, and forgot the phone number too. Then his panic increased: now how will he inquire? He was looking with great anxiety as he walked along the road, looking for someone who could understand his language. It was an eastern country, in the far east, and this American! He was looking to see if any white skinned person appeared, who will understand his speech, or if he could find a store with an English sign board, so he can go ask there.

He was walking along looking with such intensity, sweating, that he did not hear that a police car was coming behind him sounding the horn again and again. The police had begun to suspect that the man was lost. He heard the horn only after two minutes. He stopped in shock. The police got out and said, "Are you in your senses or not? We have been sounding the horn for two minutes, we suspected you might be lost, come ride in the car."

He said, "This is strange! I was searching ahead for someone who can guide me, and the guide was behind me. But I was so absorbed in my search that I didn't hear the horn sounding behind me. I didn't even look back."

What you are seeking is following you. Of course existence does not blow a horn, nor call out to you, because calling out will be a violation of your freedom. It whispers, it secretly says something in your ear. But you are so occupied, when do you listen to this whispering? You are so full of noise, so much reflecting for and against is moving in your mind, you are so involved in seeking...!

Swami Ramteerth has told a small story: a lover went away to a far land. He did not return. His beloved kept watching the road she became tired, waiting and waiting. He wrote letters, saying again and again, I am coming now, I am coming soon, this month, next month. Years began to pass and finally the beloved got upset. There is a limit to waiting. She travelled to the distant city where her beloved was. She inquired the way and arrived at his house. The door was open. It was evening, the sun had set. She stopped at the door looking inside. For many days she had not seen her lover.

He was sitting before her, but he was absorbed in deep concentration, he was writing something.

He was so absorbed that the beloved felt to wait a little, not to interfere with him, who knows what threads of thought might be lost. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that tears were flowing from his eyes. He was writing something and kept right on writing. An hour passed, two hours passed.

Then he lifted his eyes and saw: he couldn't believe it, he was shocked. He had been writing a letter to his beloved. He was writing a letter to this one who had sat two hours in front of him. And she was waiting for him to lift his eyes. He couldn't believe it, he thought, "It must be hallucination, it is an illusion, perhaps a sort of auto-hypnosis. I had such abundance of feeling for the beloved, perhaps that is why she is appearing like a dream. Is it not an illusion?" He rubbed his eyes. His beloved began to laugh. She said, "What are you thinking? Do you think I am a mirage?"

He started trembling. He said, "But how did you come? I was writing a letter to you. Mad one - why didn't you stop me? You were in front of me while I was writing you a letter."

Existence is here in front of us and we are praying to become one with it - Oh lord where art thou?

Tears are pouring from our eyes but because of our wall of tears we don't see what is in front of us.

We are searching for it. We miss only because of our search.

Ashtavakra's words are very clear. He says, "Stop this letter writing. Stop this practicing."

Samadhi doesn't happen. Yes, if samadhi were also a happening then it would happen as cause and effect. If it happened by cause and effect it would become an item in the market. Samadhi is virgin, untouched, it is not sold in the market.

Have you ever noticed that your market-oriented mind also brings enlightenment into the market.

You think that if you do this much you will be enlightened... as if it is a business deal. If you do good deeds you will attain god himself. Your so-called religious people go on telling you this: do good deeds if you want to attain god. As if to attain god one has to do something. As if god will never be attained without doing anything. As if one must pay the price to buy god. Do this many good deeds, this much ascetic practice, this much meditation, this much reciting of prayers - then you will attain. You have brought him to market. You have made him an item for sale. Customers will buy him. Those who have virtue will buy. Those without virtue will be denied him. One needs the coin of virtue. If the coins of virtue jingle one attains him.

Ashtavakra is saying, what madness you are suggesting! - god will be attained by virtue? - then it has become a business transaction. You will attain god from prayer? - then you have bought him. What happened to his grace? And if something is received through a cause, when the cause disappears it will also disappear. That which is attained through a cause will be lost when the cause is destroyed.

You have accumulated wealth, you worked hard, you competed well in the market and you earned money. But do you think this earned money will last? Thieves can steal it. A thief means one who is more ready to stake his life than you. A businessman makes efforts, but the thief stakes his very life. He thinks, "I am ready to die and kill, but I will take it." So he steals it.

What is attained through a cause can be lost. Enlightenment is attained without cause. But our ego does not believe it. Our ego says, receiving it without cause means that those that didn't do anything will also attain? It is very difficult to swallow that those that didn't do anything will also receive.

Arup is sitting here in front laughing. Yesterday he told to me he has no feeling to do anything. I said okay dissolve into non-doing. Is there any need to do anything for enlightenment? Although I say it, it is hard to believe. Because our mind says, without doing? One cannot get ordinary things without doing - you won't get a house, a car, a business, wealth, power, you won't get fame - enlightenment happens without doing? You don't believe it. One has to do. There must be some trick to it. This non-doing also has to be done. This is why we make up such expressions as 'non-doing in doing', 'doing in non-doing' - but we insist on doing. Doing in non-doing - do things in this way, but keep on doing. Has anyone attained without doing?

Ashtavakra is saying the same thing that I am telling you: it is already attained. The very language of attainment is wrong. Distance is part of the very language of attaining. As if existence is separate.

If it is separate can you live for a single moment? How can you live separate from existence?

Separate from existence your condition will be like a fish out of water. Yet a fish can be separated from the ocean. Because there are places other than the ocean, but how can you be separated from existence? It is and only it is, everywhere it is this, every place is in this. Where can you be separated? Where will you go? Does existence have any shore? It is an unending ocean. There is no way to move outside of it.

Ashtavakra is saying you have never gone away from enlightenment, hence it can happen uncaused.

If it is not lost then it can be attained uncaused.

Enlightenment is not an event - it is your nature. But, does it ever happen that grace showers without doing?

We have become very poor. Poor through our experience of life. Here nothing is attained without doing, so we have become very narrow minded. We cannot think that enlightenment could be attained without doing. Our poverty cannot even imagine it.

But we are not poor. This is why Janak says, "Oh! I am amazed! I bow down to myself." I bow down to myself means both the devotee and god are within me. To say 'both' is not right, there is only one within me, mistakenly I think he is a devotee. When I realize this error, I know him as god.

Think of it this way: you take two chairs and put them in a room, then you put in two more chairs and mistakenly count them up getting five. But in the room there are only four. If you mistakenly count five, or six, or fifty, the number of chairs in the room does not become five. Chairs are four whether you count three or you count five. Only you know about your three or five, it doesn't make any difference to the chairs, they are still exactly four.

Your thinking to seek god is your three or five. God is already attained, the chairs are exactly four.

Whenever you find the right calculation will you think, "Oh, there were five chairs, now they have become four." Will you think this way? No, you will think, "I was very mistaken, there were always four, I had counted five. The error was only in addition."

The error is not existential - the error is only in memory. The error is not existential, the error is only in your arithmetic. The error is in your understanding.

This is why Ashtavakra says there is no question of doing. To make these five chairs into four one doesn't have to take one out. Or if you counted three you don't need to bring one in from outside to make four - there are four chairs already. It is only an error of addition. Add it correctly. So when the addition is correct, then will you think that without cause three chairs became four? Without cause five chairs became four? No, you will laugh. You will think, it was not a question of becoming, they already were, the error was only in thinking. The error was only mental, not existential.

If you take yourself to be a devotee - it is a error in addition. This is why Janak can say, "Oh! I bow down to myself! What an idiot I have been! How amazing that I had gone astray in my own illusions!

I did not know what always was, but knew what has never been! I saw a snake in a rope! I saw silver in mother of pearl! I saw water in the net of light rays, an illusion of an oasis! I saw what was not!

'What is' was hidden in this hallucination, this maya, and I did not see it."

Enlightenment is the highest experience, because it does not happen. Enlightenment is the highest experience because it is beyond cause and effect. Enlightenment has already happened. The moment you become ready, the moment you take courage and are ready to drop your poverty of mind, the moment you are ready to drop your ego - that very moment it will happen. It is not dependent on your ascetics, it is not dependent on your prayer - don't remain lost in ascetics and prayer.

Once I was a guest in a house. The whole house was full of books. I asked is it a big library? My host said, "It is not a library, I have been writing the name of Rama in all these books. This is what I have been doing my whole life. I buy books and write Rama-Rama-Rama-Rama all day long. I must have written it many millions of times. Perhaps you can tell me how much virtue it is?"

"What virtue it is? It may well be sin... So many notebooks could have been used by school children, you have ruined them - you are asking about virtue? Has your brain quit functioning? - from writing Rama-Rama in notebooks..."

He was very shocked because other religious people had visited him, they had said you are very virtuous. You have written Rama so many times, you have counted the beads of your rosary so many times, you have have remembered Rama so much - just by remembering once, one reaches heaven and you have done this many! He was angry with me, he never invited me again: what use is this man who says it is sin? He was very shocked. He said, you are hurting my religious feelings.

I do not hurt your religious feelings, I am only asking, what madness this is? What is the meaning of writing Rama-Rama? Let the one who is writing know himself, he is Rama. How did He get involved in writing Rama-Rama? Tell me, if Rama is captured, sat down and told to drop his bow and arrow, and to take up a pen and write Rama-Rama - without going off in search of Sita: will it be sin or virtue? And the historical Rama if he is a gentleman, he would agree, thinking this man is after me.

If I don't write he will feel hurt, so Rama sits writing Rama-Rama - then you have destroyed his life.

When you are writing, it is also Rama writing. Who is it who is writing? Come to know that one.

Who is it that is repeating Rama-Rama? Where is this repeating arising? Descend to that depth.

Ashtavakra says you will find Rama there.

The second question:

Question 2:

What I am saying is certainly logical, but not just logical - something more too. I speak logically for you, and something more is for me. If I do not speak logically you won't be able to understand.

And if I do not say that which is beyond logic, I would not speak at all: what would be the use of speaking?

When I am talking, speaking to you two are present: you and I. There is both a speaker and a listener.

If it was up to me I would speak In transcendence of logic, I would completely drop arguments, but then you would think I am insane. Then you wouldn't understand anything, you would feel it is just noise with no meaning.

I speak logically to fit with your pattern of logical thinking. But if this is all you understand, then your visit here has been useless.

It is like filling a spoon with medicine and pouring it in your mouth - we don't pour the spoon. With the spoon of logic I go on pouring what is beyond logic. Don't swallow the spoon, otherwise you will be in trouble. Use the spoon. Drink the liquid that is on the spoon. Logic is a spoon, logic is a help, because right now you don't have enough courage to listen to that which is beyond logic. If you want to hear what is beyond logic then listening to the songs of birds will be the same as listening to the song of Ashtavakra. They are beyond logic. The whispering noise of wind passing through the trees, the rustling of dry leaves blowing on the path, the sound of running water, the thundering of clouds - they are all beyond logic. Ashtavakra is speaking to you from all eight directions, from all sides! But you will not understand anything. How long can you listen to this chirping of birds? You will say it is nonsense. To listen a little is okay but there is no meaning in this chirping. That which

is beyond logic is like the chirping of birds, I make a bridge of logic so it can reach to you. If you hold on to the bridge and forget the destination, if you catch the words and forget that which was delivered by the words, then you are collecting pebbles where you could have filled your bag with diamonds and jewels.

The friend has asked, "... YOU SAID DON'T ALLOW THE ELEPHANT DRIVER'S HOOK OF THE INTELLECT TO RIDE OVER THE FEELINGS OF THE HEART.

Certainly. Understand with the intellect but let the heart be the master. Make the intellect a slave and mount the heart on the throne of the master. The servant has sat on the throne too long. You are not living for the intellect, you live for the heart. This is why fulfillment never comes from the mind. No matter how great a mathematician you become, will the heart ever become peaceful? And no matter how great a logical thinker you become, will fulfillment ever arise? And no matter how many scriptures you gather, will this become samadhi? The heart asks for love, the heart asks for prayer. The final demand of the heart is for samadhi: bring samadhi, bring samadhi! At the most intellect can bring logical arguments for samadhi, can bring theories about samadhi. But what can theories do?

Someone is sitting hungry and you give him a cook book, saying everything is written here, read it and enjoy! And he reads it because he is so hungry he hopes it can help. Discussions of the finest tasting foods - recipes of how to fix, how to prepare them - but what can this do? He asks, "What help is a cook book? I need food." The hungry need food. The thirsty need water.

You can write and give a thirsty man... he is thirsty and you write down H2O, the formula for water.

He will sit with the paper, what will happen? It is just the same as people sitting reciting Rama-Rama.

All mantras are like H2O. Certainly water is made by uniting oxygen and hydrogen, but thirst is not quenched by writing H2O on paper.

Understand with logic, but drink with the heart. Use logic but understand it is only useful, don't think it is all. Let the heart be the master. And remember don't let the intellect interfere in love and prayer, in worship and offerings, in meditation and samadhi. The more helpful it can be, the better. This is why I speak to you using logic, so I can persuade and convince your intellect, convince you to come two steps towards the heart. If you get just a little taste you will be engrossed in its joy. Then you yourself will drop worrying about the intellect. When the real taste comes, who cares about the words?

BUT OSHO I FIND YOUR DISCOURSES ABSOLUTELY LOGICAL.

They are logical. My whole effort is to make what I say to you logical so that you are ready to walk with me. Once you are convinced, you have fallen in a ditch I will take away your return tracks. Once you are convinced, once our hands come together, then there is no worry. Once your hand has come into my hand you will not remain out of my hands for long. First I grab the wrist, then the fore arm, then... one is just lost!

So I make the first contact with logic because that is where you live. Contact can be made there, that's where you are. This is why atheists also come to me. Atheists can accept me too. Atheists have no arguments with me because I speak the language of atheists. But it is a trap. The language

is a snare. It is like going fishing and putting bait on the hook. It is bait. If one wants to avoid the hook, he has to avoid the bait, because once the bait is in the mouth one finds out it is a hook.

Logic is bait, the beyond is the hook. I persuade you. To give you bitter medicine I sugar-coat the pill. Man's state is like that of very small children,. Enjoying sugar he swallows bitter medicine - you can even swallow poison. But if what is beyond logic is put directly before you, you will start running away: "No, my mind does not believe this." So I want to convince your intellect. But if you stop there and think that the intellect is convinced, if you go home now - then you missed the point. Then it as if you have taken the sugar coating off the medicine, eaten it, and thrown away the medicine.

IS THE MIND NOURISHED BY THE ENJOYMENT OF ARGUMENT?

It depends on you. If you hear nothing but logic, then the mind will be nourished. But between arguments if you allow a little of the non-logical, the irrefutable, just a drop at a time, then that drop in your brain will create the revolution of the heart.

It depends on you. There are some people who hear nothing but logical arguments. Whatever is outside of logic they push aside. Then they have not come close to me - coming here and not coming here are equal. They return exactly as they came - they go strengthened in their beliefs. They have chosen by what fits their thinking, chosen their own understanding. They have chosen what fits with their understanding. What doesn't fit they drop. What doesn't fit with your understanding will become a burning coal of transformation inside of you. What fits with your understanding will strengthen you as you are: your illness, your worry, your anxiety will become stronger - your ego will be strengthened.

So be a little skillful. This is why Janak says to Ashtavakra: "What skill, that I saw in an instant! What dexterity I have, what ability!" Remember that skillfulness, remember that ability.

It depends on you. When I am speaking here, the speaking is my responsibility, but the listening depends on you. After speaking I have no control over what I have said. As soon as I speak it is out of my hands - a released arrow. Then it is up to you where it will land, where it will strike home.

Will you let it strike you or will you save yourself? Will it land in the intellect? - then you will go back a bigger scholar, strengthened in your debating skill, more skillful in argument. But you missed. If you let it strike the heart you will be more blissful, you will be filled with gratefulness. Then the door of blessedness opens. Then the possibility of grace increases. Then you have come towards the immortal a little. You have taken two steps towards the final destination.

Don't return as a scholar. Return as a lover. Kabir says: "Two letters and a half in love, who studies them is learning." Don't forget these letters of love.

Listen to my arguments, be persuaded by my arguments - but as a means. The end is that one day you gather courage and take the jump into that which is beyond logic. By means of logic I will take you as far as your intellect can go. Then a frontier will come, then a border is reached, then the responsibility is yours. You can stand at the border and look - at your past and at your future. Then you will see - backwards into the intellect you have come through, and ahead towards the potential that is opening. The future is of the heart.

No one has ever attained the real wealth of life through thinking - someone may have attained through meditation, through witnessing, through love, through prayer, through the juice of devotion.

Then it is in your hands if you want to remain a barren desert, it is up to you, you are your own master. But once I have brought you to the edge where you begin to see beautiful forests, greenery, valleys and passes and mountains, snow-capped peaks. Let me show this to you once, then it is up to you. Then if you want to go back, go back. But then you will know that you are returning by your own choice. Then the responsibility is yours.

So I take your logic up the the point where you get your first glimpse of the golden peaks, where you see the open sky for the first time, then that glimpse will start following you. Then it will hover around inside of you. Then the call will call out louder and louder. Then slowly slowly the drip-drip-drip that was falling, will begin pouring as a great current. You will not be able to save yourself, because once you get even a small glimpse of the heart, the intellect is just rubbish. Before the glimpse this rubbish seems to be diamonds and jewels.

IS IT NOT A DANGER FOR ME THAT THE ARGUMENT-NURTURED MIND WILL TAKE CONTROL OF THE HEART AND SUPPRESS THE EXPERIENCE OF FEELINGS?

It is a danger. Be alert. If we want it to, a stone lying on the path can be a block and we can stop right there. And if we wish the stone can be made into a step to climb and go beyond. It depends on you whether you make the logic-nurtured mind a block or a step. Those that have made it a step have embarked on a great journey. Those who have made it a barrier have remained small ponds.

An atheist is a pond. One who trusts is a river flowing to the ocean. An atheist stagnates. As soon as water is stopped from flowing it starts stagnating. Water stays clean when it flows. But to flow the ocean is needed. If not, why flow? For flowing, enlightenment is needed. If not, why flow?

- otherwise there is nothing more to be attained, nothing more to become, whatever has already happened is enough...

Remember there are two kinds of people in the world, the world can be divided into two types. One type is those who are never satisfied with outside things: we have this house, we need another one; we have this much money, more is needed; this woman is with me, another kind of woman is needed. He is never satisfied with outer things, but he has no dissatisfaction with the inner. One who has no inner dissatisfaction, just outer dissatisfactions. This is the worldly man. Then there is the second type of person. He is satisfied whatsoever is outside, but who is not satisfied within. There is a fire blazing inside of him - a divine discontent. He lives in continuous process, in continuous change, in continuous transformation.

Let skill with reasoning be helpful in your inner revolution, in your transformation - remember this. Where logic becomes a rock and a barrier to your transformation, drop logic, don't drop the transformation.

I am saying that ultimately the choice is in your hands.

One was to go beyond the level of intellect. And love was to go beyond the object of devotion.

What to say about where I started from, O companion, I didn't even know where I had to go.

The intellect doesn't know anything about where it has to go. This is why intellect never goes anywhere. It goes around in circles like a bullock grinding grain. You have seen a bullock with blinders over his eyes, going around and around. With blinders over his eyes he feels he is moving, that he is going somewhere, that something is happening.

Have you observed how you go around and around? The same morning, the same moving around, the same day's work, the same evening, the same night, again the same morning, again the same evening.

A whole life spent like this:

again morning, again evening.

You go on circling around and around like a bullock grinding grain.

What to say about where I started from, O companion, I didn't even know where I had to go.

One was to go beyond the level of intellect. And love was to go beyond the object of devotion.

When you rise a little above the level of intellect, you rise into the sky, leaving the earth behind.

Limits drop, the infinite begins. Bondage drops, one has a small glimpse of liberation.

"Love was to go beyond the object of devotion." Then a moment also comes - first you move from intellect towards the heart - then a moment comes when you go deeper than the heart. "Love was to go beyond the object of devotion." Then love becomes free from the object of love. Then the devotee is liberated from god. Then the worshipper is liberated from worship.

So first move with logic towards love and then move with love towards silence. That great silence is our home.

You are in the mind, you are to be in the heart. I begin with intellect to bring you towards the heart.

But I don't allow one who has arrived in the heart to sit still. I tell him: Keep moving, keep moving.

Each new moment as fresh as the old. Like a familiar love-song, filling thy breast, go on planting string upon string! And each string such that the melody of the completed ragini never becomes empty.

A new step has to be taken into the unknown, the unfamiliar. Don't remain stuck with the familiar.

Have you ever thought what intellect means? - the collection of what you know. What does it mean? - just the accumulation of your past. In the intellect whatever you have heard, read, studied or experienced is accumulated. Whatever has already happened is accumulated. The intellect has no idea of what is about to happen. The intellect is of the past - finished, dead! The intellect is dead ashes! If you are stuck in intellect, you go on wandering the byways of the past, go on moving in the known. Movement is into the unknown. There is no movement in the known, it is just going round and round like a bullock grinding grain.

The heart means: the unknown, the unfamiliar, an adventure. Who knows what will happen? It is not certain because it has never been known, so how can it be certain? The map is not in your hands, it is an unknown journey. There are no mile posts, or police on the path to tell you the way.

But a person who makes a journey towards the unknown makes a journey towards enlightenment.

Enlightenment is the most unknown happening in this world - even when we know it, we still don't know it. It always remains unknown, go on knowing, go on knowing, still it remains unknown.

The more you know the more it feels there is more left to know. The challenge becomes greater and greater. Peak after peak goes on emerging. While ascending one peak it seems the goal is reached, when you arrive at the top more peaks appear ahead. One doorway is entered and new doors appear in front of us.

This is why we call enlightenment an unending mystery. Mystery means that which we know but still are unable to know. This is why we say enlightenment is never attained by intellect. Because intellect can only know that which it has finished knowing, enlightenment is never finished.

So don't miss with the mind, don't remain bound with the dead past. If you tie a dead body to yourself, you will understand what the mind is. Tie a corpse to your body and you will be unable to move around. That corpse is rotting, is decaying and has become a burden. Intellect is a corpse, the heart is a new sprout - life's new sprout. And one has to go even beyond the heart.

Each new moment as fresh as the old. Like a familiar love-song, filling thy breast, go on planting string upon string! And each string such that the melody of the completed ragini never becomes empty.

Move afresh with each new step.

And keep the breast open for every available possibility - welcoming! Keep the heart ready. Don't hold back when the unknown calls. Do not hesitate when the unfamiliar beckons. When the unknowable knocks on the door, don't be frightened, move with it. This is the characteristic of a religious person.

The third question:

Question 3:

... you have taken it? Then you have become a disciple.

Becoming a disciple is not dependent on my acceptance. Becoming a disciple is dependent on your acceptance. A disciple means one who is ready to learn. A disciple means one who is ready to bow down, to fill his begging bowl. A disciple means one eager to listen in humility, eager to contemplate deeply and quietly, eager to meditate.

You have become a disciple. If you took it, then by your very taking you have become a disciple.

Being a disciple is not dependent on my agreement. What can I do if I accept you but you don't take it? What can I do if I don't accept you but you go ahead and take it anyway?

Discipleship is your freedom. If is not anyone's charity. Discipleship is your privilege, your dignity.

There is no need for any papers to prove it.

This is why Eklavya could sit alone in the forest. See how he didn't worry about Dronacharya's refusing him. The master simply refused, but the disciple was ready, insisting on becoming a disciple. So what can the master do? One day the master discovered that the disciple had defeated him. Eklavya had made an earthen image and set it up to practice archery in front of. He obeyed it and touched its feet.

When Drona heard that Eklavya had become very adept, he went to see. He was surprised. Not just surprised, he became frightened. He was upset because Eklavya had become so well-practiced that Arjuna paled in comparison.

Drona may not have been much of a master, but Eklavya was a very great disciple. Drona must have been an ordinary master - most common. Not worthy to be called a master. He must have been skilled, well-versed, but had nothing at all of the quality of a master. First he had refused because Eklavya was a shudra - an untouchable. Is this something for a master to do? Does a master still see any distinction between brahman and shudra? No, he must have been a businessman, with his mind on the market. How can a master of kshatriya warriors accept a shudra? He must have been very afraid of society. He must have been a pillar of the society and lived within its restraints. He must have been narrow minded.

The day Drona refused Eklavya saying he was a shudra was the day Drona himself became a shudra. Such foolishness.

But Eklavya was wonderful. He didn't bother that the master had refused. In his heart he had accepted him as the master - it was finished. Even the refusal of the master did not destroy his respect for him. He must have been a rare disciple!

And then the ultimate deception: when Eklavya's is skill was known he became famous. Drona was shaken because he wanted his disciple Arjuna to be known to the world. Eklavya was also his own disciple, but without his assent. The master felt at a loss. The one he had taught with heart and soul, had put all his efforts into, he had become just pale before this man - who had only made a crude clay statue with his own hands and had attained great skill practicing in front of it. Drona requested his thumb.

It is very strange - he was not ready to give instruction to him, but he has come to ask for the gift for instructing him! But Eklavya must have been an amazing disciple: he did not refuse to give the gift to the man who had refused to initiate him. A disciple like Eklavya is a real disciple. He immediately cut off his thumb and gave it to Dronacharya. Dronacharya had asked for the thumb of the right hand - it was cunning politics to have him cut off his thumb: then Eklavya's archery would be useless. This Drona certainly must have been cruel, evil natured person. Far from being a master, it is not easy to call him human. What a low trick he played! And played it on such a simple-hearted disciple. And still Hindus consider Drona a master, go on calling him guru. Do you become one who knows the infinite Brahma just by being born a brahman?

Eklavya was a real brahman and Drona just a shudra. His mentality is lowly. This brahman Eklavya cut off his thumb, he didn't hesitate a bit. He didn't even say, "What are you asking? When I asked for instruction you refused to give it. I have not learned anything from you." No, although the whole affair was wrong, it never even occurred to him.

He said, "I have learned from you. What difference does it make that you refused me? I have learned this art from you. You went on refusing, but still I learned from you. Look, I have made your statue, so I am indebted to you. You ask for a thumb, even if you ask for my life I would give it. He gave him his thumb."

To be a disciple depends on you. It is not a question of anyone's agreement or disagreement.

If you feel that you have received much, then it has happened. Let this feeling go on deepening.

Don't lose the feeling of being a disciple and your growth will be tremendous. You will go on and on receiving. Discipleship is the art of learning.

The fourth question:

Question 4:

Then the wine you are familiar with is not real wine, because wine is neither bitter nor burns the breast. And what burns the breast and is bitter is fake wine, not real wine. This is the first time you have come to know the taste of wine. Don't bother with false wine any more. You have entered the tavern for the first time. Now make your heart a vessel and drink to your heart's content, because this drinking will bring transformation. This wine will not bring forgetfulness, this wine will bring remembrance. Is what makes you unconscious really wine? Wine is that which brings you consciousness. This wine will wake you up. This wine will acquaint you with the one who sits hidden inside of you. This wine will make you 'you'.

Outwardly you may seem to others to be a drunkard - don't worry. Perhaps people outside will misunderstand your ecstasy and think it is insanity or unconsciousness - you needn't bother: the real test is within you. If your consciousness is growing you needn't bother, let the world understand whatever it wants to.

Some lines of Majaz:

As messiah-hood comes into my words, people say that I am unwell.

I will know well the secrets, I am a seeker of that thing called love.

My world is love and only love, I am fed up with the wiliness of intellect.

Yes, that vice which both Hafiz and Omar Khayam had; I too am a little guilty of it.

[What is life, the sin of Adam? If life is, then I am guilty.]

Messiah-hood comes into my words, people say that I am unwell.

People said that Jesus too was just sick, only with great reluctance did they call him messiah. People also called Socrates insane, and they poisoned him. People never thought Mansoor was intelligent, otherwise why did they execute him? And I have told you the story of Ashtavakra: his very father got so angry that he cursed him saying that his body would be deformed in eight place. Jesus was on the earth for thirty-three years before he was crucified. Socrates was already old when was poisoned. Stones were thrown at Mahavira and Buddha, it is true - but consider Ashtavakra: he was not even born and he was cursed. He was still in the womb and he was deformed for life. And if someone else had done it, it would be forgivable - but his very father did it. The one who was the cause of his life got angry.

The message of enlightenment does not fit with people. The truth troubles people. An ecstatic person fills people with anxiety. If you are unhappy no one is disturbed, just enjoy being unhappy.

People say, open your heart and suffer, there's no harm - this is exactly how it should be. If you laugh people become anxious. Laughing is not acceptable. People suspect that you are mad. Does a sensible person ever laugh? Do you ever see a wise man laughing? Do you see intelligent people dancing or singing a song? An intelligent person is serious, his face is long, his mood is sad. We call them great saints, great mahatmas: the more sick a person is the greater a saint he becomes. If someone sits like a corpse, sick, poverty stricken - people say, what asceticism. What renunciation!

I had gone to a village. Some people brought a saint to meet me. They said "He is very miraculous, he only rarely eats, he rarely sleeps. He is very quiet, he speaks very little. And his asceticism is so powerful that his face has become like pure gold."

When they brought him I said, "Why have you tortured this man? He is sick, his face is not like gold, he is merely starving and thirsty - his face has become yellow because he is anemic. ... you think he is religious? And how can he speak? He doesn't have energy to speak. This man seems to be a little idiotic. There is no fire in his eyes, no individuality, no joy. How can there be? He doesn't sleep properly, nor eat and drink properly. And you are worshipping him? He is only interested in your worshipping him for what he is doing. He does it for your worship."

Stop worshipping them for a while and you will find that ninety-nine out of one hundred of your mahatmas disappear - disappear the very night you stop worshipping. They do all kinds of idiotic things because of your worship. They do whatever you want them to do. If you say pull out your hairs one by one, they pull out their hair. If you say be naked, they stand naked. If you say starve yourself, they starve themselves. In return you have to do only one thing: to respect them, to give strength to their egos.

The real religion is always a laughing religion. The real religion is always healthy, fulfilled, affirming life. The real religion is like flowers, there is no sadness there. People understand sadness as peace!

Sadness is not peace. Peace sings joyously. Peace is very vibrant. Peace is a great drunkard - your feet become unsteady. Ecstasy surrounds you. You walk on the earth, yet you are not walking on the earth, you are moving in the sky. As if you are spreading your wings, just ready to fly off.

It is good - if you have tasted my wine, you have tasted the real wine - now there will be no need of going to any other tavern.

I will know well the secrets, I am a seeker of that thing called love.

Keep just one thirst - of that thing called love. Ask for only one thing - for that which is called love.

... I am a seeker of that thing called love.

My world is love and only love...

And let your whole world and your whole being be filled with love, it is enough.

... I am fed up with the wiliness of intellect.

And be finished with the disturbances of the mind, descend into the protection of love.

My world is love and only love, I am fed up with the wiliness of intellect.

Yes, that vice which both Hafiz and Omar Khayam had; I too am a little guilty of it.

"Yes, that vice which both Hafiz and Omar Khayam had" - Omar Khayam has not been understood.

A great injustice has been done to him. One day in Bombay I saw the sign for a bar, it read: Omar Khayam - a great injustice has been done to him. Fitzgerald was very mistaken when he translated his poetry into English. Fitzgerald did not understand Omar Khayam. He could not understand because to understand Omar Khayam one needs to experience the ecstasy of the Sufis, the samadhi of the Sufis. Omar Khayam was a Sufi mystic. He is one of those rare people who have reached: in the same category as Buddha and Ashtavakra, Krishna and Zarathustra. The wine he speaks of is divine wine. The beauty he speaks of is divine beauty. But Fitzgerald did not understand. With his western mind he understood wine means wine. He translated and Fitzgerald's translation became very famous. The translation is very beautiful, its poetry is very beautiful. Certainly Fitzgerald is a great poet. But he could not understand. The special character of the Sufis was lost in his poetry. And Omar Khayam became known through Fitzgerald. So everything about Omar Khayam is mistaken. Omar Khayam never drank wine, never went to any tavern. But he certainly drank that wine, which makes all other wines pale. He went into that tavern which we call the temple, which we call the temple of god.

Yes, that vice which both Hafiz and Omar Khayam had; I too am a little guilty of it.

Majaz, who has written these lines, also misunderstood Omar Khayam. He also understood that wine means wine. Majaz died drinking. Majaz died in his youth from drinking that wine that you say burns the heart and is bitter and strong. Majaz died drinking it in his youth. He died pathetically, a very terrible death.

Don't misunderstand the wine that I am talking about as something else. Don't make the same mistake with me that was made with Omar Khayam. It is possible.

I say unto you, enjoy life with the witnessing consciousness. But you want to drop the witness. You catch only 'enjoy'. Enjoy life but if you enjoy it without remaining the witness, you didn't enjoy it. Real enjoyment is only when you remain a witness. Drink wine but if consciousness is lost you didn't

drink it. You have drunk real wine only if consciousness grows as you drink. There is no other wine than samadhi.

As I see it, the attraction for alcohol will continue in man until the attraction for samadhi grows.

People will go on drinking fake wine until real wine is available to them. False coins will pass until the real coin is available. Governments throughout the world try to stop the consumption of wine, but it doesn't happen. They have always been trying to do it. Religious people have been advising governments to enact prohibition. They fast and do this and that: alcohol consumption must be stopped. But no one has succeeded with prohibition. Under various names and by differing means man goes on seeking intoxicating substances.

As I see it, prohibition is beyond the power of governments to enforce. But if the wine of samadhi begins to spread, if the real coin appears on the earth, the false will stop. If we make temples into taverns and there starts to be joy and songs and bliss and celebration there, and if we live by healthy principles, instead of wrong ones and let life become a blessing - then alcohol will disappear on its own.

Man drinks wine because of misery. If misery decreases, wine will decrease. Man drinks alcohol to forget himself, because there are so many worries, so many problems, so much misery - If we don't forget them then what will we do? If worry, unhappiness, and misery are decreased, alcohol consumption will decrease.

And I have seen a rare thing happen. Many times drunkards have come and taken sannyas from me.

They got caught by mistake. They came thinking that this man does not prohibit anything, to drink or not to drink, to eat or not to eat this or that - there's no harm in trying... They were very happy.

They say, "We totally agree with what you say, no one has ever said it before." But as their meditation deepens, as the color of sannyas deepens, their feet quit taking them to the tavern, another tavern begins to call them.

After meditating for six months one drinker told me, "Previously I drank because I was unhappy, then I would forget the unhappiness. Now I am a little happy, and if I drink happiness is forgotten. Now it has become a problem. No one wants to forget unhappiness. What have you done?"

I said, "Now you choose."

He said, "Now if I drink my meditation goes bad. Otherwise the slow gentle current of meditation flows inside, a faint cool breeze goes on flowing. If I drink wine then the flow of meditation is disturbed for two to four days. Then I can nurse it back only with difficulty. Now it has become a problem."

I told him, "You decide, now the choices are before you. If you want to drop meditation, drop meditation. If you want to drop alcohol, drop alcohol. They don't go together, but if you want to have both, then try both."

He said, "Now it is difficult because the juice of meditation that is flowing, is so sacred and it is taking me to such heights: I had never imagined that a sinner like me could ever have such experiences!

I do not talk about this to anyone except you because if I say it to anyone else they think I am a

drunkard, I must have drunk too much. They tell me to sober up, speak soberly. If I tell them of my inner experience they think that I have drunk too much. They don't believe it. Even my wife won't believe it. She says, 'Stop talking nonsense. This is not a question of spirituality... you have drunk too much.' I tell her I have not touched a drop for a whole month.

"So you are the only one I can tell," the drunkard said, "Only you understand. And now it is difficult to drop meditation."

See life from a positive viewpoint. If you start being happy then the things that you grabbed onto because of your misery will drop by themselves. If meditation comes then wine will drop. If meditation comes, then meat-eating will drop. If meditation comes then slowly slowly sex energy begins to be transformed into brahmacharya. Just let meditation come.

I say unto you, drink the wine of meditation. I say unto you, enter the tavern of samadhi and join the assembly of wine drinkers.

Let me live this one moment of happiness. Let me sew this torn blanket of dreams. Such a rain cloud will never cast its shadow again. Let me drink, if not from a cup, then from the eyes.

Drink this satsang - "... if not from a cup, then from the eyes." Drink this satsang, return drunk from this satsang. But in this drunkenness don't let your awareness be lost. Be ecstatic but burn the inner lamp of awareness.

Let me drink, if not from a cup, then from the eyes.

The fifth question:

Question 5:

Belief and auto-suggestion are the same thing. Auto-suggestion is the scientific name for belief.

There is no difference between them.

However inner nature and belief are very different. Inner nature is that which becomes manifest when all beliefs have been dropped. When all thoughts and all beliefs have disappeared from your mind, you experience your inner nature. Inner nature is not to be made a belief.

Once a sannyasi was a guest at my house. He would sit morning and evening chanting "aham brahmasmi - I am the ultimate. I am not the body, not the mind, I am the ultimate." I listened to this for two or three days. I said, " If you are, you are. Why repeat it again and again? If you are not, what

will repeating it do? It is possible to create an illusion by repeating it over and over. By repeating I am the ultimate the illusion can happen that one has become the ultimate, but this illusion is not the inner experience of one's nature. If you know that you are the ultimate then why do you repeat it? If a man is on the road repeating that I am a man, I am a man, then everyone will suspect that something is not right. People will say, "Stop, is something wrong with you! Why are you repeating?

If it is true, the matter is finished. Do you have some doubt about it?"

Is 'I am the ultimate' something to be repeated? It is a declaration once and for all. It is a declaration of realization that arises only once. After that the matter is finished. It is not a mantra. A mantra is only a suggestion. The meaning of the words of a mantra are only a suggestion. This is why we call people who give advice, who give suggestions 'mantris' - ministers. A mantra repeats a suggestion again and again. From repeating again and again an impression is made in the mind. And because of that impression we begin to project illusions.

WAS THE MOTHER KALI OF RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHANSA PURELY HIS BELIEF, HIS PROJECTION, OR DOES SHE HAVE HER OWN REALITY?

It was pure projection - just his belief. There is no Kali anywhere, nor any virgin Mary. They are all projections of the mind. And all projections have to drop. This is why when Ramakrishna's projection of Kali dropped he said the last barrier has fallen. It was his own projection. And when Ramakrishna raised a sword to behead his projection of Kali, do you think blood came out? Nothing came out.

The projection was false, the sword was also false: two false things crashing into each other and nothing else.

IS DIALOGUE NOT POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPERNATURAL OR GOD?

No! Whatever dialogue you have will be your imagination. Because as long as you exist there is no god. And when god is you are not - how can there be any dialogue? Two are needed for dialogue.

If you and god stand face to face then dialogue is possible. As long as you are, where is god? And when god is where are you?

Kabir says, "The lane of love is very narrow, there two can never pass." In that lane two do not fit, only one remains, how can there be dialogue? Two are required for dialogue, a minimum of two.

So whoever you are talking to is your imagination, it is not the real blessedness. When blessedness happens, dialogue does not happen: resonance happens not dialogue... what the seers of the East have called 'the unstruck sound' happens. A sound of humming - but that vibration happens only in oneness, with no exchange of words with any other. It is the arising of the sound of om. But it is not talking to any other, the other no longer remains.

No devotee has ever seen god. As long as god is seen, the devotee is also present. Then it is still an imaginary vision. This is why a Christian meets Jesus, a Jaina meets Mahavira, a Hindu meets Rama. Have you ever heard of a Hindu meeting Jesus? - somehow accidently meeting Jesus on the road - they never meet him. It is not their projection, how can they meet him? Have you ever heard of a Christian sitting in meditation and Bhagwan Buddha appears to him? It never happens.

How can it happen? How can a seed not planted by belief enter the imagination? Whatever your belief is, it will be developed by your imagination.

Ashtavakra's sutra is this: be free of all projections, all beliefs, all imagination, all interpretations, all practices and rituals. Practices and rituals are always bondage. When no one remains within you - no devotee, no god - a silence manifests. In that silence a shower of bliss falls days and night.

In that moment how can there be dialogue, how can there be debate? No, all dialogue is of the imagination.

Sometimes night surrounds me, sometimes I summon the day. Sometimes a radiance seeks me, sometimes I give off rays of light. How shall I know when the voice of being is coming forth and how when the mind is speaking?

I tell you the recognition is simple: as long as something is spoken, it is the mind speaking. As long as something is visible, the mind is visible. When nothing is seen, nothing speaks - then what remains is no-mind, is samadhi. As long as their is experience there is mind. This is why the expression 'the experience of god' is not correct, because experience is always of the mind.

Experience is always of duality, of two. How can there be experience when only non-duality remains?

This is why the expression 'spiritual experience' is not correct. Spirituality is where all experience has ended.

Or you can go on playing games. It is a game of hide and seek, of sunlight and shadow.

Should you become a bowing in trust, I will become sweet smelling sandalwood. If you should be the sacred idol, I will present my life as offering.

When you were the pearl hidden in the oyster, I became the ocean's tide. If you come raining down as purest droplets, I will drink a thousand seasons of rains.

The hopes of a handful of dreams, searching for the meaning of life. If you become the lamp of good luck, I will light the flame of life.

Silent longing, and eager desire are unveiling the language of the eyes. Should you set foot on the earth, I will feed you, O swan, with pearls.

I am deceived like a musk deer, rocking in a cradle of illusion. If you set out your heart as a lamp, I will become a thousand adorations.

But this is all the play of imagination. If you want to play, play. It is a delightful play of imagination, very lovely, very juicy - but it is the play of imagination. Do not pretend it is truth. Truth is when there is no I, no thou. Truth is when the two are gone, duality is gone. Only one remains: Ek Omkar Satnam - the sound of om is the truth.

The last question:

Question 6:

..why two, let it be three: