The disappearance of sex

Question 1:

Gyan Atito, what is happening to you is not a curse; it is a blessing. It is just your old mind that is interpreting it as if something is going wrong. Everything is going right, the way it should go. Sex has to disappear into a peaceful, playful rejoicing - into a harmony of two silent beings; not meeting in their bodies, but meeting in their very souls.

It is going to happen to every sannyasin. Don't force yourself to do anything against what is happening on its own accord. Any forcing on your part will be a hindrance in your spiritual growth.

This is something very important to remember, and this will explain to you why all the religions have gone against sex. It was a misunderstanding - but a very natural misunderstanding. Everybody who has been in meditation goes through the transformation of the energies - the energies that are going downward start moving upward, opening your higher centers of consciousness, bringing new skies to your being. But you are unacquainted with them, they are unknown to you; hence, one may get frightened. And if it is happening only to one partner, then there is going to be trouble. Both the partners in meditation have to be transforming simultaneously - only then can they keep pace with each other. Otherwise they are going to fall apart.

This created the idea of celibacy. Because in marriage it was found continuously that if one partner became interested in meditation, the marriage was jeopardized. It was better not to get involved, not to hurt somebody else's feelings, and remain alone. But this was a wrong decision.

The right decision would have been that if one partner in a marriage or in a friendship is growing, he should help the other also to move into the new spaces. He should not leave the other partner behind. This would have been a tremendous revolution in human consciousness; but because religions had chosen celibacy, the whole world remained without meditation.

And those who had chosen celibacy - it was a chosen thing, it had not happened to them - became perverted sexually. They were not beyond sex, hence celibacy. They tried the other way: celibacy first, thinking that then would come the transformation. It does not work that way. Transformation has to be first. Then, without any inhibition, without fighting with sex, without condemning sex, a transformation comes on its own. But it does not come by celibacy, it comes by meditation. And it does not come by repression, it comes by a loving atmosphere. The celibate lives in an atmosphere of repression, inhibition, perversion; his whole atmosphere is psychologically sick. This was one fundamental point where all religions went wrong.

Secondly, every meditator has found that sex starts disappearing into something tremendously different - from biology into something spiritual. Rather than creating a bondage, a possessiveness, it opens up doors of freedom. All relationships disappear and one feels, in his aloneness, absolute contentment; a fulfillment that one could not even have dreamed of.

But because meditators found this happening, without any exception, the people who wanted to meditate inferred wrongly that perhaps repressing sex is going to help them in transforming their energies. Hence all organized religions started teaching a life of condemnation, renunciation; a life which is basically negative. This was a misunderstanding.

Through repressing sex you can pervert the energy but you cannot convert it. Conversion comes as you become more silent, as your heart becomes more harmonious, as your mind becomes more and more peaceful. As you start coming closer and closer to your being, to your very center, a transformation that is not your doing happens on its own accord. The energy that you had known as sexual becomes your very spirituality. It is the same energy, just the direction has changed. It is not going downward, it is moving upward.

What is happening to you, Gyan Atito, is going to happen to every sannyasin - without exception.

Hence your question is going to be everybody's question sooner or later. And whenever it happens, the partner who is left behind should not feel offended but on the contrary, should feel blissful and happy that at least to his beloved, or to his friend, a beautiful experience is happening, "And I hope to join him or her as soon as possible."

Your effort should be to go deeper into meditation so you can keep company with your partner, and you can go on dancing together towards the ultimate goal of life. But remember, as you will grow in your spirituality your sexuality is going to disappear. There will be a new kind of love - a purity, a deep innocence, with no possessiveness, with no jealousy; but with all the compassion in the world, to help each other in the inner growth.

So you should not feel that something has gone wrong with you; something has suddenly gone right with you. You were not alert; you have been caught unawares.

Little Hymie was walking along the street with little Betty, aged four. As they were about to cross the street, little Hymie remembered his mother's teaching.

"Let me hold your hand," he offered gallantly.

"Okay," replied Betty. "But I want you to know you are playing with fire."

Any relationship between man and woman is playing with fire - and particularly if you also start being a meditator. Then you are surrounded by a wildfire, because so many changes are going to happen - for which you are not prepared, and cannot be prepared. You are going to travel in an unknown territory every moment, every day. And there will be many times when either you will be left behind, or your partner will be left behind - and this will be a deep anguish to both.

In the beginning, when it starts, the natural inference will be that the relationship is finished, that you are no more in love. Certainly you are no more in the love that you were before - that old love is no longer possible. That was animal love, it is good that it is gone. Now a higher quality, something more divine, is going to take place. But you have to help each other.

These are the real difficult times - when you come to know whether you love your partner, and whether your partner loves you - when these great gaps arise between you and you feel you are going far away from each other. These are the crucial moments, a fire test, when you should try to bring the other person, who is left behind, closer to you. You should help the other person to be meditative.

The natural idea will be to bring yourself down so the other is not offended. That's an absolutely wrong attitude. You are not helping the other, you are hurting yourself. A good opportunity is being lost. When you could have pulled the other towards heights, you have descended yourself.

Don't be worried that the other will be offended. You make every effort to bring the other also to the same space, to the same meditative mind, and the other will be grateful, not offended. But these are not the moments when you should depart from each other. These are the moments when you should keep - with every effort - the contact with the other, with as much compassion as possible. Because if love cannot help the other in transforming the animal energies into higher spiritual energies, then your love is not love - not worth calling love.

Gyan Atito, this is the situation many are passing through. But very few have the courage to ask the question, because it seems asking such a question is exposing yourself unnecessarily, becoming a laughingstock. But this gathering is to expose yourself. This gathering is not to hide and keep secrets to yourself. Nobody is your enemy here. Everybody is a fellow traveler.

And the same problems are going to be faced and encountered by everyone. So when a problem arises, never think twice. Ask it fearlessly, howsoever stupid you look in asking it. Because it is going to help not only you; it is going to help many others who are also struggling in the same situation, but have not been courageous enough to bring it forth. They are trying on their own, somehow, to settle the situation.

It is not a question of settling. It is good that it has lost its old, settled state. It is good that it is unsettled, that trouble has arisen. Now it depends on you and on your intelligence, how you use the opportunity - in favor of your growth, or against it. Asking the question may help you.

So two things... first, remember you are fortunate that sex seems to be going away from your life. Secondly, don't think that the other person is feeling offended. Expose your heart to the other person. Don't try to bring yourself to the position of the other, but try in every possible way to hold the hand of the other, and take her, or him, to the higher stage, where you are suddenly finding yourself.

Only in the beginning will it be difficult; soon it will become very easy. When there are two persons growing together, many times gaps will arise because people cannot keep pace with each other; everybody has his own speed, everybody has his own unique growth pattern. But if you love, you can wait a little till the other arrives, and then, hand in hand, you can move further.

I want my people particularly not to think ever of celibacy. If celibacy comes by itself, that's another matter; you are not responsible for it. And then it will never bring any perversion, then it will bring a great conversion of energies.

Question 2:

Maneesha, innocence cannot be aware of itself. The moment it is aware of itself, it is no longer innocent; corruption has already entered in, the ego has started forming itself. Innocence does not know that it is innocent. Innocence simply knows, "I don't know." But it is not aware that this is called "innocence"; the moment it becomes aware, suddenly it is lost. Hence those who are aware of their innocence are the greatest egoists in the world.

The ego has such subtle ways, that it goes on coming from the back door... you may throw it out from the front door, and it will come from the back door again. And each time it will come in such a way that you cannot hear its footsteps. It can come and hide itself in humbleness, it can come and hide itself in innocence, it can come and hide itself in love. Basically, these are not the spaces where ego should be found. But ego can manage to live in places where ordinarily it is not suspected. Hence one has to be very alert.

You simply become more silent. Your so-called knowledge goes on disappearing - and a moment comes: you know nothing. This state of knowing nothing is enough. You don't make it a great spiritual achievement; you don't start bragging about your innocence, that "I know nothing." Before, you used to know all, that was your bragging. Now your bragging is the same, but you brag that you know nothing at all. Just the object of bragging has changed, but the ego remains the same. There has been no transformation at all.

Little Hymie was caught out telling a lie. "How do you expect to get to heaven?" his mother asked.

Little Hymie thought for a moment, and then said, "Well, I will just run in and out, and in and out, and in and out, and keep slamming the door, till they say, 'For goodness sake, come in or stay out' - and then I will go in."

This is innocence - not aware about itself, but simple purity. Innocence has to be just like a small child who is not aware that not knowing anything is a great achievement.

Mrs. Ronald Reagan had won a raffle at her women's club. Up till now she never had enough left over from the housekeeping budget to take herself off to a smart hairdresser. So now she lost no time in making an appointment for a complete hair treatment. When she arrived home that evening, she presented herself to Ronald Reagan for his admiration. "Honey," he said, "now you look like a million."

"Really?" she asked quietly. "You mean I look like a million dollars?"

"No," he said disgustedly, "like a million other women."

A politician's mind cannot be loving and compassionate, humble and innocent - even with those with whom he is intimately connected. There too it goes on playing the cunning role - now he was speaking in a diplomatic way when he said, "Honey, now you look like a million." This sentence is cunning, political, diplomatic; it is tricky.

Naturally, his wife thinks, "You mean I look like a million dollars?" And then his cunning mind comes into the open:

"No," he said disgustedly, "like a million other women."

You would not have thought about it just listening to his statement, "Honey, now you look like a million."

The innocent person is neither cunning nor egoistic; not bragging about himself nor trying to put down the other. He simply knows nothing. And without any fear, and without any guilt, he accepts his ignorance.

There are two possibilities: either he can feel guilty that he is ignorant - because innocence is ignorance - and if he feels guilty, that too is part of a hurt ego, offended ego. Or if he has heard saints and sages declaring, "Blessed are the innocent, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God,"

and he feels tremendously proud of his innocence, again he is in the clutches of the same ego. And these are the only two ways he can be aware of his innocence.

The third space is, he simply knows that he knows nothing. This is pure innocence, and this is what Socrates calls wisdom; this is what Upanishads call the ultimate state of a seer, of a knower. This is what Gautam Buddha calls the space of enlightenment, of absolute freedom and utter silence... not even a ripple of disturbance.

Question 3:

Deva Abhiyana, gratefulness is certainly the most precious alchemical process. If it takes possession of you, then naturally all kinds of neuroses, psychoses, or any other psychopathology will evaporate - for the simple reason that gratefulness consists of a few fundamentals of spiritual awakening.

The first: that you are needed by existence. Man's greatest need is to be needed. And if you can feel that even trees, the moon, the sun and the stars all need you... without you this existence will miss something, will not be complete - although you are so small, almost nothing. But unless you were needed, you would not have been here. There must be some essential need which you are fulfilling; without you there would be a gap which nobody else could fill.

You are not replaceable. No man is, no rosebush is, no blade of grass is - nothing in the world is replaceable. Such unique individuality has been conferred on you. This is the first element which brings gratefulness to your heart.

The second... that you are so unworthy, so undeserving, you have done nothing to have this dignity to be part of this beautiful existence. The feeling of your nothingness, the feeling of your being almost a nobody... still, the existence goes on showering its love. Not that you deserve, not that you have earned it in any way - but it is simply the nature of existence, its overflowing joy, its overflowing love, its overflowing nourishment, its playfulness. And it goes on giving without asking anything in return.

Its greatness, its vastness... our smallness, our nothingness. Its abundance and our nobodiness immediately create a deep, heartfelt feeling of gratitude.

This feeling brings immense grace to you; it brings beauty, it brings a certain song to your being. It suddenly gives you wings to fly in the sky. Just the sheer miracle of it - that you are nothing and the whole existence is available with all its treasures to you. It is unbelievable - what can you do? You don't have anything of your own except to be in deep gratitude.

To me, this is the only prayer. All other prayers are manufactured by man. This is the only prayer - that arises out of you as a fragrance arises from flowers; a prayer that is not said, not expressed in words, but is lived. It is expressed in each of your actions, in each of your gestures. You have a tremendous reverence for life; out of this reverence nonviolence arises. Out of this reverence a love for peace and a rebelliousness against all war and all destruction arises. This prayer is nothing but a silent "thank you." But its alchemical impact on your being is immeasurable.

Abhiyana, you are asking: "The times I feel closest to you, and through you, the times that I feel this existence, come to me in an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. For those precious moments, all my neuroses just evaporate."

Everybody is suffering from some kind of neurosis. Until one is enlightened, one should remember that he cannot be totally sane. Some insanity, in some corner of his being, is bound to be there. But if you feel a deep gratitude towards existence, in that gratitude you are cleaned and washed away - you are no more. And when you are no more, where can your neurosis remain? You are absolutely needed if you want your neurosis to exist. Your neurosis is nothing but the shadow of your ego. And in gratitude the ego disappears and its shadow disappears automatically.

The crowded elevator in an old New York building refused to budge. The operator opened and closed the gates and pressed the buttons several times, but still the lift refused to budge. Then he again opened the lift, and a very little, old lady got out.

Presto! the elevator began to ascend, but not before the passengers heard the little old lady exclaim:

"It is not that I weigh so much, but it is that I have so much on my mind today."

That mind is your neurosis. And everybody has so much - that is your weight. That old woman was right. In gratitude your mind is no more... because the mind can exist with doubt, the mind can exist with anger, the mind can exist with hate, the mind can exist with any kind of neurosis. But the mind cannot exist with innocence, with humbleness, with gratitude, with love, with meditation. And wherever mind is absent, you are sane. Mind is your insanity.

And the alchemy of gratefulness is that it dissolves your mind, it evaporates your ego, it makes you absent in a sense and present in another sense... absent as a personality, and present as an individuality; absent as somebody, and present as nobody.

Hymie Goldberg was talking to a friend: "It is not easy to get ahead in this world," he said. "As a boy I started out at the bottom. I struggled, worked, sweated, climbing the ladder of life hand over hand, rung by rung."

"And now?" asked his friend, "you are a great success?"

"Well, no," admitted Goldberg, "but I'm mighty good at climbing ladders."

What is your success, anyway? It makes you mighty good at climbing ladders. What else can it be?

You can be a president of a country, or a prime minister of a country, but what is it? In actuality it is nothing but an exercise in climbing a ladder - hand over hand, rung by rung. But where do you reach? - at the top of the ladder. And there is nothing, there comes the end of the street. You cannot go back because that is embarrassing; you cannot go forward because there is no further.

I was very close to a chief minister. His sons had been my colleagues in the university, and because of them I had become acquainted with the old man. He was an old freedom fighter and he told me one day... he was very sick, and there was a danger that he might die. Doctors were not certain whether he would survive or not.

But the old man said, "Make sure that whether I am sick or healthy, that I remain the chief minister.

I want to die as chief minister. It will be too hard for me to die if my chief ministership is gone."

I said, "What does it matter to a man who is going to die whether he is chief minister or not?"

He said, "It matters, it matters much. My whole life I have struggled to reach this post, and I want to die at the highest peak of my success, with government honors, seven-day holidays, national flags down everywhere in respect. I don't want to die just like any ordinary man. I am not afraid of death,"

that old man said to me, "but I am afraid that while I am sick, my colleagues - who deep down are all my enemies - must be trying to pull my legs; and while I am not able to fight with them, somebody may try to take over the chief ministership."

His deputy chief minister was also known to me, because when I was a student he was vice- chancellor of that university. I said, "Don't be worried. I will go to the deputy chief minister, who is the real danger to you, and who is trying not to miss the opportunity while you are sick. He wants to be declared by the president of the country to be the acting chief minister. That will be the first step.

"Then the second step will be that because you are too old and too sick, you are not able to function, you are not in a state to function... then he will manage to be declared not only as acting chief minister but really as chief minister. I will go to him, you don't be worried."

And that's what was going on in the house of the deputy chief minister. The whole cabinet was there - they were all trying to manipulate the situation. How to convince the president of the country that the old chief minister is too old and too sick, and the deputy chief minister is a far more intelligent politician, a better organizer, and he should be given the chance immediately.

I told the deputy chief minister, "That old man is almost on the verge of death, and I want you just to wait at least one week - not more than that. I have talked to his doctor; he says, 'I cannot say it to them, but I don't think he will survive more than a week.' And his only desire, his last desire, is to die as the chief minister. So what? And you have always been a colleague, a friend, a follower of that old man. He has appointed you as the deputy chief minister. Just wait for seven days. You will not lose anything, but his last wish will be fulfilled."

He thought for a moment, and said, "Okay. Then seven days - exactly."

I said, "Do you mean I have to kill him in seven days? I will try. But you should not be so ugly and so harsh with your own boss. Just one day more or one day less, but he is going to die - that much is certain. Now don't force me to kill him to stay just within the seven days exactly. If he dies in eight days, just one day of waiting will not disturb anything."

He said, "I have told you seven days means seven days. And just because you have come, I cannot refuse. I have always loved you as my student." Fortunately, the old man died on the fourth day. It was such a relief! Otherwise I would have had to do something, because his last wish had to be fulfilled....

But how poor these people are! And what is their ultimate achievement? They have just learned how to climb ladders, and then they are sitting on the ladders which lead nowhere. And they don't want to come down because they don't want to be nobodies.

These are the most irreligious people in the world. That's why I'm so much against politicians. I am against the priests and the politicians because these two are the most irreligious people in the world.

And they have a deep conspiracy, they support each other - for centuries they have been supporting each other. One has political power, the other has the power of numbers. And both together can manage to keep the whole of mankind in slavery; they have kept it up to now. The authentic religious man has to rebel against these two, and their conspiracy against humanity.

Abhiyana, if you can remember as much as possible this state of gratitude, slowly slowly it will penetrate into your blood, into your bones, into your marrow. Then there will be no need to remember; then it will simply be there - like breathing, like heartbeats. Then you can be certain that you have arrived home. Now there is nowhere to go; you have achieved the unachievable, you have found the ultimate secret of life. Now you are not just a part of existence, but the whole of it.

The day one understands that "I am spread all over the existence, and when trees dance I am dancing, and when the wind blows and sings songs amongst the trees it is my song, and when the ocean rolls in the full-moon night I am not separate from it..." This is the moment mystics have been calling: when the observer becomes the observed, when the knower becomes the known, when the seer becomes the seen, when the duality between subject and object disappears, when you are the world.

The Upanishads say: aham brahmasmi - I am the whole. This is not a declaration of ego, it is a declaration of absolute egolessness. This is the path - the pathless path; or the gate - the gateless gate. You don't have to go anywhere, you don't have to move even a single inch. You can relax right now and it is yours. It has always been yours, you have just been asleep.

Awake and claim your birthright. Religion is not anybody's monopoly, it is everybody's birthright.

It has no name, no church, no organization. It is a sheer rebellion against all churches, all organizations, all scriptures. It is meeting existence directly and immediately, in innocence, in gratitude, in love, in a deep communion.

This is the prayer I would like to spread all over the earth. Because this is the only prayer that can save it.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Beloved Master.