Jesus is very paradoxical

Jesus is very paradoxical, but meaningfully so. To take in the meaning many things have to be understood. First, peace is possible if everybody is almost dead. There will be no war, no conflict, but there will be no life either. That would be the silence of the graveyard. But that is not worth anything; then even war is better because in war you are alive and vital.

Another type of peace - a totally different dimension of peace - exists when you are vital, alive, but centered in your being: when self-knowledge has happened, when you have become enlightened, when the flame is lit and you are not in darkness. Then there will be more life, more silence, but the silence will belong to life, not to death. It will not be the silence of the graveyard.

This is the paradox to be understood: war is bad, hate is bad; they are the evils on the earth and they must go. Disease is bad, health is good; disease must go, but you must remember that a dead man never falls ill; a dead body can deteriorate but cannot be ill. So if you don't understand, all your efforts may create a dead world. There will be no disease, no war, no hatred - but no life either.

Jesus would not like that type of peace. That type of peace is useless; then this world, with war, would be better. But many have been endeavoring, and their attitude is just negative. They think, "If war stops, everything will be okay." It is not so easy. And this is not only the ordinary man's conception - even very great philosophers like Bertrand Russell think that if war is finished everything will be okay. This is negative - because war is not the problem, the problem is man. And the war is not outside, the war is within. If you have not fought the war within, you will fight it without.

If you have fought the war within and have become victorious, then the war without will cease. That is the only way.

In India, we have called Mahavira 'the conqueror', 'the great conqueror' - the jinna. The word jinna means the conqueror. But he never fought with anybody so whom has he conquered? He never believed in violence, never believed in war, never believed in fighting. Why do you call this man Mahavira, the great conqueror? This is not his original name; his original name was Vardhaman.

What has happened? What phenomenon has occurred? This man has conquered himself, and once you conquer yourself your fight with others ceases immediately - because this fight with others is just a trick to avoid the inner war. If you are not at ease with yourself, then there are only two ways:

either you suffer this unease or project it on somebody else. When you are inwardly tense you are ready to fight - any excuse will do. The excuse is irrelevant; you will jump on anybody - the servant, the wife, the child.

How do you throw your inner conflict and unease? You make the other responsible, then you pass through a catharsis. You can become angry now, you can throw your anger and violence and this will give you a release, a relief - of course temporary, because the inside has not changed. It will again accumulate, it remains the old. Tomorrow again it will accumulate anger, hatred, and you will have to project it.

You fight with others because you go on accumulating rubbish inside yourself and you have to throw it out. A person who has conquered himself has become a self-conqueror, has no inner conflict. The war has ceased. He is one inside - there are not two. Such a man will never project, such a man will not fight with anybody else.

So this is a trick of the mind to avoid the inner conflict, because the inner conflict is more painful - for many reasons. The basic reason is that every one of you has an image of yourself as being a good man. And life is such that without this image it will be difficult to live.

Psychiatrists say that illusions are needed to live. Unless you have become enlightened, illusions are needed to live. If you think you are so bad, so devilish, so evil, if this image - which is the truth that you are - gets inside, then you will not be able to live at all. You will lose all self-confidence, and you will be filled with such condemnation towards yourself that you will not be able to love; you will not really be able to move, you will not be able to look at another human being. You will feel so inferior, so bad, so devilish, that you will die - this feeling will become a suicide. And this is a truth - so what to do?

One way is to change this truth: become a man of God, not a man of the devil - become divine. But that is difficult, arduous, a long hard path. Much has to be done; only then can the devil become divine. It can become divine! You may not be aware of the root of the word devil: it comes from the same word from which 'divine' comes. Both 'devil' and 'divine' come from the same Sanskrit root, deva. The devil can become divine, because the divine has become the devil. The possibility is there; they are two poles of one energy. The energy which has gone sour, bitter, can become sweet.

An inner transformation is needed, an inner alchemy is needed - but that is long and arduous. And the mind always looks for the shortcut where the least resistance is. So mind says, "Why bother about becoming a good man? Just believe that you are good." This is easy because nothing is to be done. Just think that you are good, just create an image that you are beautiful, heavenly, that nobody is like you, and even this illusion of goodness gives you energy to live.

If illusions can give you so much energy, you can conceive how much will happen when the truth is realized. Even the illusion that you are good gives you life to move, gives you legs to stand on, gives you confidence. You become almost centered even with the illusion, and this center that happens in illusion is the ego. When you are really centered, that is the self. But that happens only when the truth is realized: when your inner energies have been transformed, the lower has been transformed into the higher, the earthly into the heavenly; when the devil has become divine, when you have become radiant with the glory that is yours; when the seed has come to sprout, when the mustard seed has become a great tree.

But that is a long process; one needs the courage to wait, one needs not to be tempted by the shortcut. And in life there are no shortcuts; only illusions are shortcuts. Life is arduous because only through arduous struggle does growth come to you - it never comes easily. You cannot get it cheaply; anything that is cheap cannot help you to grow. Suffering helps - the very effort, the very struggle, the long path that gives you sharpness, growth, experience, maturity. How can you achieve maturity through a shortcut? There is a possibility - now they are working with animals, and sooner or later they will work with human beings. There is a possibility: you can be injected with hormones. A child of ten can be injected with hormones and he will become a young man of twenty.

But do you think he will attain the maturity that he should have attained if he had passed through ten years of life? The struggle, the arising sex, the need to control, the need to love: to be free and yet controlled, to be free and yet centered; to move with the other, to suffer in love, to learn - all that will not be there. This man who looks twenty is really ten years of age. Through hormones you have only blown up his body.

But they are doing this with animals, with fruit, with trees. A tree can be injected, and the tree that would naturally come to flower in three years will come in one year. But those flowers will lack something. It is difficult to see because you are not flowers, but they will lack something. They have been forced, they have not passed through a seasoning. Fruit will come sooner but those fruits will not be so mature; they will lack something - they are artificial.

Nature is not in a hurry. Remember: mind is always in a hurry, nature is never in a hurry - nature waits and waits, it is eternal. There is no need to be in a hurry; life goes on and on and on, it is an eternity. But for mind time is short, so mind says, "Time is money." Life never says that. Life says, "Experience!" - not time. Life waits, can wait: mind cannot wait - death is coming near. There is no death for life, but for mind there is death.

Mind always tries to find a shortcut. And to find a shortcut, the easiest way is to create an illusion:

think that you are what you want to be - then you have become neurotic. That is what has happened to many people who are in madhouses: they think they are Napoleon or Alexander, or somebody else. They believe it and they behave that way.

I have heard about one man who was being treated, psychoanalyzed. He thought that he was the great Napoleon. After three or four years of treatment and psychoanalysis, the psychiatrist thought, "Now he is absolutely okay." So he said, "Now you are okay and you can go to your home."

The man said, "Home? Say, 'To your palace.'" He was still Napoleon. It is so difficult if you have become Napoleon - to be treated is very difficult, because even if you are treated and you become well, what is going to happen is that you are going to lose.

One general found a captain who was always drunk, so he caught hold of him. The man was very good - drunkards are almost always good, they are beautiful people, just taking a shortcut. So the general said, "You are a good man and I appreciate you, and everybody loves you, but you are wasting yourself. If you can remain sober, soon you will become a colonel."

The man laughed and he said, "It's not worth it, because while I am drunk I am the general already.

So it's not worth it: if I remain sober I am only going to become a colonel, and while I am drunk I am always the general!" There is too much involved in the illusion. How can this man let go of his illusion? - so cheaply he has become the general.

Mind finds shortcuts, and illusions are the shortcuts; maya is the easiest and the cheapest thing to achieve. Reality is hard, arduous: one has to suffer and pass through fires. The more you pass through fires the more seasoned you become; the more seasoned, the more valuable. Your divinity cannot be purchased in a market, and cheap; you cannot bargain for it, you have to pay with your whole life. When your whole life is at stake, only then does it happen.

You fight with others because this is an easy way. You think you are good, the other is bad, and the fight is outward. If you look at yourself then the fight becomes inward: you know you are bad, it is difficult to find a more devilish man than you. If you look within then you find you are absolutely bad, and something has to be done. An inner fight, an inner war starts.

And through that inner conflict - and it is a technique, remember, it is one of the greatest techniques that has been used through the centuries - if there is inner conflict, then you become integrated. If there is inner conflict, then beyond the conflicting parties a new center of witnessing arises. If there is inner conflict, then energies are involved, your total being is in turmoil: chaos is created and out of that chaos a new being is born.

Any new birth needs chaos; this whole universe is born out of chaos. Before you are really born chaos will be needed - that is the war of Jesus. He says: "I have come not to give you peace" - not that he has not come to give you peace, but not the cheap peace that you would like to be given.

Now try to understand his words.

JESUS SAID: MEN POSSIBLY THINK THAT I HAVE COME TO THROW PEACE UPON THE WORLD, AND THEY DO NOT KNOW THAT I HAVE COME TO THROW DIVISIONS UPON THE EARTH - FIRE, SWORD, WAR.

When you come to a master like Jesus you come for peace. You are blissfully unaware that you have come to the wrong person. As you are you cannot get peace. And if somebody gives you peace, that will be death to you. As you are, if you become peaceful, what will that mean? That will mean the struggle has ceased before you have attained anything. As you are, if somebody makes you silent, what will that mean? You won't have achieved any self, and you will be consoled by your situation. This is the way you can know a false master from a true master: a false master is a consolation, he gives you peace as you are, he never bothers to change you - he is a tranquilizer.

He is just like sleeping pills: you come to him and he consoles.

But if you come to a true master, this is the criterion: whatsoever peace you have, that too will be destroyed; whatsoever 'at-easeness' you have is going to go to the dogs. He will create more turmoil, more conflict. He is not going to console you because he is not your enemy; all consolations are poisons. He will help you to grow. Growth is difficult, you will have to pass through many difficulties.

Many times you would like to escape from this man, but you cannot because he will haunt you.

Consolation is not the goal; he cannot give you a false peace. He will give you growth, and out of that growth some day you will flower. And that flowering will be the true peace, the true silence.

Consolation is false.

People come to me and I can see the way they come, the problems they bring: they want consolation.

Somebody comes and he says, "I am in much difficulty. My mind is not at peace, I am very tense.

Give me something - bless me so that I become peaceful."

But what will that mean? If this man can be made at peace, what will that mean? Then this man is never going to change. No, that is not the way. Even if a real master consoles you, that consolation is just like a fishing net. You will be caught in the consolation and then, by and by, he will create the chaos.

You have to pass through the chaos, because as you are you are absolutely wrong. In this state if somebody consoles you he is your enemy. With him you will lose time, life, energy, and in the end consolations won't help. When death comes all consolations will evaporate.

There was one old man whose son died. He came to me and he said, "Console me!"

I said, "I cannot do that; that is sin."

He said, "I have come for that."

I told him, "You may have come for that, but I cannot do it."

He said, "But I went to this shankaracharya and he consoled me. He said, 'Don't bother, don't be worried; your son is reborn in a high heaven!'"

I knew his son also, and that is impossible because he was a politician - they all go to hell, they never go to heaven. And not only was he a politician, but a successful politician - he was a minister of state, with all the cunning of a politician, with all the ambition of a politician. How can he go to heaven? And this old man was also a politician. Basically he was not disturbed because his son was dead; the basic thing was that his ambition was dead, because through that son he was achieving more and more and more and more. He himself had become old; he had worked continuously his whole life, but he was a little foolish, not very cunning, a little naive. He worked hard, he sacrificed his whole life, but he could not attain any post. And that was the deep hurt, it was a wound. And then through the son he had been trying, and the son had been achieving. Now that his son was dead his whole ambition was dead.

When I told him, "This is the reason you are suffering so much; it is not your son," he was very disturbed. He said, "I had come for consolation and you are disturbing me more. It may be," he said. "Whatsoever you say sounds true. It may be that my ambition has been hurt and it is not for the son that I am weeping - it may be for the ambition. But don't say such hard things to me, I am in such pain right now. My son is dead and you are saying such hard things to me. And I went to this mahatma, and to that shankaracharya, and to this guru, and they all consoled me. They said, 'Don't worry, the soul is eternal; nobody ever dies. And your son - he was no ordinary soul, he has reached a high heaven!'"

These are consolations, and if this old man goes on listening to these consolations he is missing a great opportunity. He is missing an opportunity in which he could face his ambition, which is his problem. He could have encountered the fact that all ambition is useless, futile, because you work and work and work, and then death takes everything. He could have penetrated to this. But no, he stopped coming to me. He used to come to me, but since that time he has never come. He went to others who would console him.

Are you here to be consoled? Then you are in the wrong place. That is what Jesus says. He says:

MEN POSSIBLY THINK THAT I HAVE COME TO THROW PEACE UPON THE WORLD, AND THEY DO NOT KNOW THAT I HAVE COME TO THROW DIVISIONS UPON THE EARTH - FIRE, SWORD, WAR.

Whenever a man like Jesus comes, the world is immediately divided between those who are for him and those who are against him. You cannot find a single person who is indifferent to Jesus.

Whenever a Jesus-type is there, immediately the world is divided. Some are for him and some are against him, but nobody is indifferent. It is impossible to be indifferent to Jesus. If you hear the word, if you look at the Jesus, immediately you are divided: either you become a lover or you become a hater; either you fall in line or you go against; either you follow him or you start working against him.

Why does this happen? Because a man like Jesus is such a great phenomenon and he is not of this world. He brings to this world something from the beyond. Those who are afraid of the beyond immediately become the enemies - that is their way of protecting themselves. For those who have a desire, a seed hidden somewhere, who have been searching and searching and longing for the beyond, this man becomes charismatic, this man becomes a magnetic force - they fall in his love.

They have been waiting for this man for many lives.

Immediately the world is divided: either you are for Christ or you are against him. There is no other alternative; you cannot be indifferent. You cannot say, "I'm not bothered"; that is impossible, because a person who can remain in the middle will become a Jesus himself. A person who can stand in the middle, in neither love nor hate, will go beyond the mind himself. You cannot stand in the middle; you will fall, you will become a 'rightist' or a 'leftist', you will be on this side or on that. He creates great turmoil - not only in individuals but in society too, on the earth; everything comes to be in a conflict, a great war starts. Since Jesus there has never been peace in the world. Jesus created a religion. He brought something into the world which created such a division, such a conflict in all minds, that he became the focus of all history. That is why we say 'before Christ', 'after Christ'; he became the focal point.

History is divided, time is divided, with Jesus. He stands on the boundary. Before Jesus it is as if time was of a different quality; after Jesus time became of a different quality. With Jesus, history starts. His attitude, his approach towards the human mind, is very different from that of a Buddha or a Lao Tzu. The ultimate goal is one, the ultimate flowering is going to be one, but Jesus' approach is absolutely different. He is unique.

What is he saying? He is saying that through conflict growth is achieved; through struggle centering happens; through war peace flowers. But don't take him literally; whatsoever he is saying is a parable. Christianity took it literally and missed the point. Then Christians took the sword in their hands, and they have killed millions unnecessarily, because that was not the meaning of Jesus.

Then the church, Jesus' church, became a warring church, it became a crusade. Christians have been fighting Mohammedans, Hindus, Buddhists - they have been fighting everywhere. But they missed the point. Jesus was talking of something else. He was not talking of the swords of this world; he brought a sword of a different world. What is this sword? It is a symbol. You have to be cut into two, because in you two things meet: this world - the earth - and heaven; they meet in you.

One part of you belongs to the mud, to the dirt; one part of you belongs to the divine. You are a meeting point, and Jesus brought a sword to cut you asunder, so the earth falls to the earth and the divine enters into the divine.

You cannot make any distinction as to what belongs to the earth. When you are hungry, do you think you are hungry? Jesus says, "No, take my sword and cut it!" Hunger belongs to the body because it is a bodily need. Consciousness has no hunger; it becomes aware because the body has no consciousness.

You may have heard one old Panchtantra story.... It happened that a big forest accidentally caught fire. Two men were there, one was blind and one was lame. The lame one couldn't walk, couldn't run, but he could see; and the blind one could walk and run, but he could not see. So they made a pact: the blind man took the lame man on his shoulders, and as the lame man could see and the blind man could walk, they became one man. They came out of the forest - they saved their lives.

This is not just a story - this is what has happened in you. One part of you feels hunger, but cannot know it because it has no eyes to see. Your body feels hunger, your body feels sexual desire, your body feels thirst, your body needs comfort - all the needs are of the body - and your consciousness only sees, your self is only a witness. But they have made a pact because without the body the consciousness cannot walk, cannot move, cannot do anything; and without the consciousness the body cannot realize what is needed, whether the body is hungry or thirsty.

Jesus' 'sword' means this compromise has to be realized knowingly, and then a distinction has to be made. What belongs to the earth belongs to the earth; fulfill it but don't get obsessed. If you are hungry, the body is hungry; know it well, fulfill the hunger but don't get obsessed. There are many people who become obsessed, who go on eating and eating and eating, and then some day they become so frustrated with eating that they go on fasting and fasting and fasting. But both are obsessions: too much eating is as bad as too much fasting. A right balance is needed. But who will give the balance? You have to become two, you have to be completely aware that: "This is of the earth and I am not of the earth." This is the 'sword' of Jesus. He says:

... I HAVE COME TO THROW DIVISIONS UPON THE EARTH - FIRE, SWORD, WAR.

Why 'fire'? Fire is a very old kabalistic symbol, and a very old Hindu symbol also. Hindus have always talked about inner fire; they call that inner fire tap because it is heat. And to kindle that inner fire so that your fire is burning inside, they call yagna. And there are techniques for burning that inner fire. Right now it is almost dead, covered with ashes. It has to be poked, discovered, rekindled; more fuel is needed and the fuel has to be given. When the inner fire burns in its totality, suddenly you are transformed - because there is no transformation without fire. You heat water and at a particular degree, a hundred degrees, the water evaporates, becomes vapor; the whole quality changes.

Have you observed that when water changes into vapor, the whole quality changes? When it is water, it always flows downwards. That is the nature of water, to flow downwards; it cannot flow upwards, it is impossible. But when at a hundred degrees it evaporates, its whole nature changes:

the vapor floats upwards, never downwards. The whole dimension changes and it happens through heat.

If you go to a chemist's lab, what will you find? If you take fire away nothing will happen there, because every transformation, every new change, every mutation is through fire. And what are you except fire? What are you doing when you are living? When you breathe, what do you breathe?

You breathe oxygen and oxygen is nothing but fuel to fire. When you run, more fire is needed so you breathe more deeply; when you rest, less fire is needed so you breathe less deeply, because less oxygen is needed. Oxygen is fuel to the fire. Fire cannot exist without oxygen because oxygen burns. You are fire - moment to moment, through food, through air, through water, fire is created in you. When it is too much you have to release it. When animals have the sexual urge we say they are 'on heat'. It is meaningful because it is a sort of heat. It is a sort of heat, and when you have more fire than you can absorb it has to be released, and sex is an outlet.

Remember, in hot countries people are more sexual than in cold countries. The first books on sexology appeared in hot countries: Vatsyayana's Kamasutra, Koka Pandit's Kokashastra, appeared first. The first Freudians were in the East - and they appeared before Freud, three thousand years before Freud. In the West sex has just become important. In a cold country there is not enough fire in the body to create much sexuality. Only within the last three or four centuries has sex become very important in the West, because now the country may be cold, but central heating is there. So people are not so cold; otherwise the fire of the body continuously fights with the cold. That's why in the East the population goes on growing and it is difficult to prevent it, but the West does not have so much of a population explosion.

I heard it happened that when the first Russian astronauts landed on the moon, they were very happy. But they were surprised when they saw three Chinese walking there. The Russians looked at them and said, "You have reached before us? And you don't have any means, any technology, any science - how did you do it? You have done a miracle. How did you reach here?"

Those Chinese said: "Nothing like a miracle! A simple thing - mathematics: we stood on each others' shoulders and reached!" The Chinese can reach, the Indians can reach, there is no problem.

Once they decide they can reach anywhere!

Sex is a heat phenomenon, a fire phenomenon. Whenever the fire is burning you will feel more sexual, and whenever the fire is not burning so much you will feel less sexual. Everything that happens in you, whether it is a sexual transformation in the body or a spiritual transformation, depends on fire.

Hindus, Kabalists, Jews and Sufis.... Jesus was trained in an Essene community - in a very occult, esoteric society which knew many methods to create inner fire. So fire is not just the fire you know, it is the innermost fire upon which life exists. If this fire can be raised to a particular level... but it is only possible to bring it to a particular degree if it is not released, and that is why all the religions which use this fire are against sex. If it is released through sex then it cannot be brought to a particular degree, because then you have an outlet. So all the outlets have to be closed completely so there is no leakage of the fire and it reaches the one-hundred-degree point: a certain degree at which, suddenly, the transformatin happens. The soul and the body are separate - the sword has worked!

Then you know what is earth in you and what is heaven; then you know what has come from your father and mother and what has come from the invisible.

... FIRE, SWORD, WAR....

A deep inner conflict is needed. You should not be lethargic, you should not relax unless the relaxation happens - and that is totally different. You have to fight and create conflict and friction.

Friction is the right word for the inner war. Gurdjieff worked through friction; he would create friction in the body. You may not be aware now but remember it: some day you will become aware that your body has many layers of energies. If you are not in friction then you use only the superficial layer. If much conflict arises, the superficial layer is finished and then the second layer starts functioning.

Try it this way: you always go to sleep at ten at night. At ten suddenly you feel sleepiness coming over you - don't go to sleep. Sufis have used this method very often, and Jesus also used it - vigil.

For the whole night he would not sleep; in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights he would not sleep. He remained in the hills alone without sleeping. What happens? If you don't sleep at ten, for a few minutes you will feel very, very lethargic, sleepier and sleepier and sleepier. But if you resist and fight, a friction is created, you become two: the one who wants to sleep and the one who doesn't want to sleep. Now there are two parts fighting. If you stick and don't yield, suddenly you will find all sleepiness has gone and you have become as fresh as you have never been in the morning.

Suddenly all sleepiness has gone, you are fresh, and even if you want to go to sleep it will be difficult now. What happened? There were only two possibilities, and through the friction between them energy was created.

Energy is always created through friction. All science depends on creating friction; then energy is created. All dynamos are just friction techniques to create a fight, a war between two things. You create a war: your body wants to go to sleep and you don't want to go to sleep. Friction is there, and much energy is created.

If you yield that will be very bad, because if you yield, the body has won and the consciousness has lost a fight. So if you try, only try with a mind determined not to yield; otherwise it is better not to try. Friction methods are dangerous: if you try then you have to win. If you don't win you are lost, because then you lose your confidence. Your consciousness will become weaker and the body will become stronger. And if you lose many times, then there is less and less possibility of winning.

Once you use any friction method then make it a point to win. It is not to be lost, the battle must be won. And once you win you achieve a different layer of energy. Now you can see that if you win, the energy that was in the other part is absorbed by you so you become stronger. And then every fight will make you stronger, still stronger, until a moment comes when the whole energy of the body is absorbed by the self.

Gurdjieff used friction very deeply and in such unbelievably dangerous ways. When he was very old, just within a few years of his death, he made a very dangerous car accident happen. He did it - it was not really an accident. In the life of a person like Gurdjieff there is no accident. He is so aware that accidents are not possible. But he can allow an accident or he can even create one - and he did create one.

He was a fast driver and in his whole life there had never been a single accident. He was also a very dangerous driver; all those who sat with him would always be on edge: any moment.... He was absolutely mad, didn't believe in any traffic rules or anything. He would go this way and that, and as fast as possible, and anything was possible at any moment - but it never happened.

One morning, when he went to Paris from his ashram in Fontainebleau, somebody asked, "When will you be back?"

He said, "If everything happens as I think it will happen, by the evening; otherwise, difficult to say."

And in the evening when he was coming back there was an accident. The accident was so severe and dangerous that the doctors said that nobody could have survived - impossible! The whole car was crashed to bits. But Gurdjieff was found. He had sixty fractures all over his body - almost dead. But he was found perfectly aware, lying under a tree very far away from the car. He had walked to the shade and was lying there perfectly aware. He was not unconscious. He was taken to hospital perfectly conscious. He said that no anesthesia should be given to him - he wanted to remain perfectly conscious.

This was the greatest friction he ever created with his body. The body was just on the verge of death; he had created the whole situation and he wanted to remain absolutely alert. He remained alert, and at this moment he attained the greatest centering that can happen to a man: he became centered in his consciousness - the earthly layer was completely separated. It became a vehicle:

he could use it, but he was not identified with it.

This is the meaning of Jesus when he says:

... I HAVE BROUGHT FIRE, SWORD, WAR - ALTHOUGH MEN POSSIBLY THINK THAT I HAVE COME TO THROW PEACE UPON THE WORLD....

FOR THERE SHALL BE FIVE IN A HOUSE: THREE SHALL BE AGAINST TWO AND TWO AGAINST THREE; THE FATHER AGAINST THE SON AND THE SON AGAINST THE FATHER; AND THEY WILL STAND AS SOLITARIES.

FOR THERE SHALL BE FIVE IN A HOUSE.... This is a parable: in your body there are 'five in the house' - the five senses, the five indriyas. Really, deep down you have five bodies, because each sense has its own center, and each sense goes on manipulating you in its own direction. The eye says, "Look at the beauty"; the hand says, "Touch, it is so lovable." The eye is not at all interested in touch; the hand is not at all interested in looking at a beautiful person, a beautiful body or a beautiful tree.

All five senses exist as five separate centers and your mind is just a coordinator; it goes on coordinating between these five. When you look at me and you hear me, you hear from the ears and you look from the eyes. Eyes never hear, ears never look; then how do you conclude that you hear the same person you see? How can you conclude? The mind goes on coordinating. It is a computer: whatsoever the eyes feed in, whatsoever the ears feed in, it combines and gives you the conclusion.

The method of friction which Gurdjieff used, which Jesus used.... And those who know the innermost secret story of Jesus' life say that he was not crucified, but that he managed to be crucified just like Gurdjieff. He managed to be crucified - it was a drama that he arranged.

Those who were crucifying him thought they were killing him, but such a man as Jesus cannot be forced to die. He could have escaped very easily, for it was well known that he was to be caught.

He could have moved away from the capital or away from the country, there was no problem - but he came to the capital. It is said that he enacted the whole thing, and that Judas was not his enemy but his friend who helped, who helped Jesus to be caught. The whole thing was managed and controlled by him.

What happened on the cross was the last inner war, the last and greatest friction. When he was dying, but not losing trust in the divine; when the earth was falling back to the earth; when the division was absolute, total - he was not identified at all. He allowed it.

Gurdjieff used to say that this crucifixion of Jesus was a drama, and that really, the author of the drama was neither Pontius Pilate nor the high priest of the Jews, but Jesus himself. He managed it, and he managed it so beautifully that even up to now it has not been discovered - not exactly - what happened and how.

You cannot imagine managing your own crucifixion, but that is what religion is: managing your own crucifixion. Going to the cross means going to the climax of friction - where death is.

Jesus says:

FOR THERE SHALL BE FIVE IN A HOUSE: THREE SHALL BE AGAINST TWO AND TWO AGAINST THREE.

A friction has to be created. The senses have to fight and the fight has to be made conscious. They continuously fight but the fight is not conscious; you are fast asleep and the fight goes on. The eye is continuously fighting the ear, the ear is continuously fighting the eye - because they are competitors.

Have you observed that a blind man has more listening capacity than a man who has eyes? That's why blind men become beautiful musicians, singers. Why does this happen? They have more capacity for sound, rhythm, more sensitivity in their ears. Why? - because the eye is no longer a competitor. The energy that was being used by the eyes is available for the ears; they are the competitors.

Your eyes are using eighty percent of your energy, leaving only twenty percent for the other four senses. They are starved; they are continuously fighting. The eyes have become the supreme, the dictatorial force. You live through the eyes and some senses have gone completely dead. Many people have no smell, that sense has gone completely dead; they never bother, they are not even aware that they cannot smell. The eyes have completely exploited the nose, because it is so near that it can be exploited. Children have a sense of smell, but by and by it is lost because the eyes go on using more and more energy. The eye has become the center of your being, which is not good.

Methods of friction use the senses against each other. In many methods the seeker remains with closed eyes for many months. The energy starts moving, you can feel it. If you remain constantly with closed eyes for three months, you will be able to feel the energy moving continuously towards the ears, towards the nose. Your sense of smell may come back, you may start smelling. There have been methods and schools where seekers completely cut one sense against the other; a fight is created. If you close the ears for three months and just see, don't listen, then you will see there is a constant movement of energy.

If you can see your senses fighting, you will become separate because you become a witness. You are no longer the eyes, no longer the ears, no longer the hands, no longer the body - you are a witness. The fight goes on within the body and you are an onlooker. This is the meaning, the deepest meaning of the parable, but it is also true in another sense.

FOR THERE SHALL BE FIVE IN A HOUSE: THREE SHALL BE AGAINST TWO AND TWO AGAINST THREE; THE FATHER AGAINST THE SON AND THE SON AGAINST THE FATHER; AND THEY WILL STAND AS SOLITARIES.

In another sense too this is true, that in a family of five, three will be against two and two will be against three. Whenever a religious person happens in a family friction starts, because for a family a religious person is the most dangerous person. The family can tolerate anything except religion, because once you become religious you will not be identified with the body.

The family is related to the body: your father is your father because of your body. If you think you are the body, then you are related to your father. But if you come to know that you are not the body, who is the father? How are you related to him? The mother has given birth to your body, not to you.

You are so identified with the body that you think the mother has given birth to you.

When you are not identified, the identification is broken, then who is the mother? She has not given birth to you but only to this body which is going to die. So the mother has not given you life; rather, on the contrary, the mother has given you one more death. The father has not given you life, he has given you one more possibility to die. Once you are not identified with the body you have broken from the family, you are uprooted.

So the family can tolerate it if you go to a prostitute. It is okay, nothing is wrong - rather, on the contrary, you are getting more and more identified with the body. If you become an alcoholic, if you are a drunkard, it is okay, because you are getting more and more identified with the body. Nothing is wrong in this. But if you become a meditator, if you become a sannyasin, then it is not okay. Then it is difficult because you are being uprooted. Then the family no longer has power over you; then you are no longer part of the family, because you are no longer part of this world.

So Jesus says: Father will be against son, son will be against father. And: I have come to disrupt, to divide, to create conflict and friction.

This is true. You can worship a Buddha, but ask Buddha's father - he is against him. Ask Buddha's relatives - they are against him, because this man has gone beyond their control. Not only that: he is also helping others to go beyond the control of the society, of the family.

The family is the basic unit of society. When you go beyond society you have to go beyond the family, but this does not mean that you should hate it - that is not the point; nor that you should go against it - that is not the point either. That is going to happen anyway. Once you start to find yourself, all that has been before will be disrupted, there is going to be chaos. So what should you do? They will pull you back, they will try to bring you back, they will make every effort to do so. What should be done?

There are two ways: one is the old way which is to escape from them, not to give them any opportunity - but I think that is no longer applicable. The other is to be with them, but as an actor:

don't give them the opportunity to know that you are moving beyond them. Move! Let that be your inner journey, but outwardly fulfill all formalities: touch the feet of your father and your mother and be a good actor.

The old way cannot be followed by many. That's why the earth could not become religious - because how many people can go out of society? And even if they go out of society, the society has to take care of them. When Buddha was here, or Mahavira or Jesus, then thousands left their families. But still only thousands - millions were left behind and they had to take care of them. The whole earth cannot become religious if that is the only way. And it is not good either; it can be done in a more beautiful way, and that beautiful way is to be a good actor.

A sannyasin must be a good actor. By being a good actor I mean that you are not related at all, but you go on fulfilling the formalities. Deep down you are uprooted, but you don't even give a hint that you are uprooted. And what is the use of giving a hint? - because then they will start trying to change you. Don't give them any chance. Let this be an inner journey and outwardly be completely formal. They will be happy then because they live in formalities. They live on the outside, they don't need your inner worship. They don't need your inner love - just the show is enough.

These are the two ways: one is that of Buddha and Jesus, the other is that of Janak and me. Be wherever you are. Don't create any outward show that you are changing and becoming religious, because that can create trouble and you may not be strong enough right now. Create the conflict inside but don't create it outside. The inner conflict is more than enough; it will give you the growth, the maturity needed.

... THE FATHER AGAINST THE SON AND THE SON AGAINST THE FATHER; AND THEY WILL STAND AS SOLITARIES.

This word solitary has to be understood deeply. When you become religious you become solitary; then there is no society for you, you are alone. And to accept that you are alone is the greatest transformation that can happen to you, because mind is afraid of being alone; mind wants somebody else to hang on to, to cling to. Alone you feel a trembling, a fear grips you. Alone...? And immediately you rush towards society, to the club, the conference, the sect, the church, somewhere where there is a crowd, where you can feel that you are not alone, where you can lose yourself into the crowd.

That's why the crowd has become so important. Go to the racecourse, go to the cinema hall - but a crowd is needed in which you are no longer solitary, where you can relax.

But a religious man is a solitary because he is trying to reach his highest peak. He is not to lose himself in others. He has to remember, become more mindful, he has to become more aware and alert - and he has to accept the truth. This is the truth: that everybody is alone and there is no possibility of any togetherness. Your consciousness is a solitary peak. But that is the beauty of it and you are unnecessarily afraid of it. Imagine Everest in a crowd of Everests - then the whole beauty is lost. Everest is beautiful and challenging because it is alone, a solitary peak. A religious man is like Everest: he becomes a solitary peak, alone, and he lives and enjoys it. That doesn't mean that he will not move in society, it doesn't mean he will not love. On the contrary, only he can love. On the contrary, only he can move in society, because only he is. You are not - so how can you love? He can love but his love is not going to be like a drug, he is not going to be lost. He can share, he can give himself completely and still remain himself. He can give himself to you and still not be lost, because his mindfulness remains the innermost peak. There, in that shrine, he remains alone. Nobody enters there, nobody can enter there.

In the innermost core of your being you are alone.

The purity of aloneness and the beauty of aloneness....

But on the contrary, you feel afraid. Because you have lived in society - you are born in society. you have been brought up by the society - you have completely forgotten that you can also be alone.

So to move for a few days into loneliness, just to feel your aloneliness, is beautiful. Then come to the marketplace, but bring your aloneness with you. Don't get lost there. Remain aware and alert:

move into society, go into a crowd, but remain alone. You can be alone in the crowd if you want; you can be in the crowd even while you are alone if you want. You can go to the Himalayas and sit there and think of the market - you are in the crowd.

It happened when Junnaid came to his master: he was alone and the master was sitting in a temple.

When Junnaid entered, the master was alone and he said, "Junnaid, come alone! Don't bring the crowd with you!" So Junnaid looked back, of course, because he thought there was somebody else coming with him. But there was no one. The master laughed and said, "Don't look back, look within."

Then Junnaid closed his eyes and he found that the master was right. He had left his wife but his mind was clinging to her; he had left his children but their images were still there; and the friends who had come to give him the last send-off were still standing in his mind.

The master said, "Go out and come alone, because how can I talk with this crowd?"

So Junnaid had to wait for one year outside the temple to be freed of 'this crowd'. And after one year the master called, "Now Junnaid, you are ready, come in. Now you are alone and a dialogue is possible."

You can carry the crowd; you can also be in the crowd and yet alone. Try it: the next time you are moving in a big crowd in the market, just feel alone - and you are alone so there is no problem, you can feel it. And once you can feel that you are alone, you have become a solitary. Jesus says he has come to make you solitaries, to stand alone.

I WILL GIVE YOU WHAT THE EYE HAS NOT SEEN, AND WHAT THE EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHAT THE HAND HAS NOT TOUCHED, AND WHAT HAS NOT ARISEN IN THE HEART OF MAN.

Your eyes can see that which is without, they cannot see within, there is no way. Your ears can hear that which is without, they cannot hear within, there is no way. They are outgoing, all senses are outgoing. There is not a single sense that is ingoing. So when all the senses stop functioning, suddenly you are in. There is no sense that goes in.

Jesus says: I WILL GIVE YOU WHAT THE EYE HAS NOT SEEN - but first become a solitary. And that is what I mean by a sannyasin: a solitary. First become a sannyasin, first realize that you are alone, and be at ease with this aloneness. Don't be afraid. Rather enjoy it, rather see the beauty of it, the silence and the purity and the innocence. No dirt has ever entered there because nobody has entered into that shrine. It has remained eternally pure, it is virgin; nobody has been there.

Your virginity is hidden within you. Become a sannyasin, a solitary, and then, Jesus says: I WILL GIVE YOU WHAT THE EYE HAS NOT SEEN.

When you become a solitary, totally alone, suddenly you realize that which no eye can see, no ear can hear, and what the hand has not touched. How can you touch your self? You can touch the body, but that is not your self. The hand cannot enter in, it cannot touch your consciousness - there is no way.

And the last sentence is the most beautiful uttered by any person on this earth:

... AND WHAT HAS NOT ARISEN IN THE HEART OF MAN.

... Because your soul is beyond even your heart. Of course, your heart is very deep within; but still, as far as your soul is concerned, it is also without, it is not within. The hands are without, the eyes are without, the heart is also without, on the periphery. The innermost core is not even the heart.

Hunger arises in your body, love arises in your heart - not prayer. Prayer is still deeper, deeper than the heart. Hunger is a bodily need; love is a need of the heart. God is a need of the beyond, not even of the heart. One has to transcend the mind, one has to transcend the heart too. One has to transcend all peripheries so that only the center remains.

And what has not arisen in the heart of man? God has not arisen in the heart of man. In the mind science arises, philosophy arises; in the heart, art, poetry arises - but not religion. Religion arises at a deeper layer, at the deepest beyond which there is no going, at your very center, which is not even the heart.

I WILL GIVE YOU... WHAT HAS NOT ARISEN IN THE HEART OF MAN.

That which is beyond and beyond and beyond. You cannot catch hold of it, you cannot see it, you cannot hear it, you cannot even feel it. Here Jesus transcends even those mystics who are of the heart.

There are three types of mystics: first, mystics of the head - they talk in terms of theology, philosophy, they have proofs for God. There is no proof at all, or, everything is a proof. But there is no need for a proof and you cannot prove God anyway, because all the proofs can be disputed and all the proofs can be proved wrong. Then there are mystics of the heart: they talk of love, of the beloved, the divine, of Krishna; they talk in songs, poetry - they are romantic. Their search is deeper than the head but still not deep enough.

Jesus says: I will give you something which has not arisen even in the heart... where no theology reaches and no poetry has any glimpse of, nor logic nor love - where both stop. I WILL GIVE YOU THAT WHICH HAS NOT ARISEN IN THE HEART OF MAN.

This is the deepest, the most profound possibility - and Jesus opens it. But in Christianity it is lost.

Christianity started to weave theories around it, it became a head affair - not only a heart affair, it became a head affair. Christians have produced great theologicians. Look at Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica - hundreds of volumes of theology. But they missed because Jesus is not in the head. And because of these head-oriented theologicians, mystics who were of the heart, who were a little deeper, were expelled from the church. Eckhart and Francis were expelled. They were thought fools, or to have gone mad, or to be heretics - because they were talking of the heart, they were talking of love.

But Jesus is missed by both. He is neither head-oriented nor heart-oriented; he is not oriented at all. He says, simply throw all orientations, throw all that is without and come to the innermost core where only you are, where only the being throbs, where only existence is. You can come to this, and if you come to this, then every mystery is revealed and all doors are opened. But even at the door you can miss. If you remain head-oriented you remain standing at the door, theorizing, or you may be standing at the door and poetizing - talking in poetry and singing.

I have heard that Mulla Nasruddin went once to a psychiatrist and said, "I am very puzzled: now do something. It has become impossible. Every night I have a recurrent dream that I am standing at a door and I am pushing and pushing and pushing. There is a sign on the door and I push and push to no end. Every night I wake up perspiring and the door never opens."

The psychiatrist started to note whatsoever he was saying. After half an hour's talk he asked, "Now tell me, Nasruddin, what is written on the door, on the sign?"

And Nasruddin said, "It says 'pull'."

If 'pull' is written on the door then don't go on pushing; otherwise you will have a recurrent dream, you will push eternally! And there is no problem at all: simply look at what is written on the door.

Jesus says neither head nor heart is written on the door - it is beyond both.

So do one thing: go beyond. Neither fall a victim of logic, of intellect, nor become a victim of emotions, of sentimentality. The head is in the body and the heart is also in the body. Go beyond both. What is beyond? There, is simple existence, you simply are.

Being is without any attributes. That simple 'beingness' is dhyan, that simple 'beingness' is meditation - and that is written on the door.

Suddenly the door opens when you are a simple being - not emotions, nor thoughts; no cloud around you, unclouded; no smoke around the flame, just the flame. You have entered.

... AND WHAT HAS NOT ARISEN IN THE HEART OF MAN I WILL GIVE YOU.

Enough for today.