The Forgotten Shepherd

Jesus says: God is love. But I say unto you: Love is God. 'Love' is a far more important word than the word 'God'; 'love' has existential meaning. The word 'God' is utterly empty; it signifies nothing, it relates to nothing in you. It is a pure word, pure in the sense that it has no corresponding reality in your experience.

Although both words indicate the same truth: 'love' is the poet's word, 'God' is the word of the theologian. But obviously the poetic insight is deeper, profounder, and the poet's sensibility is also far more refined, far more subtle than that of the theologian. The poet's vision is more aesthetic too, more beautiful, more exquisite; it has more grace, more meaning, more significance. And moreover, the theologian's choice has been contaminated down the ages by so many people - Hindus, Christians, Mohammedans - by so many churches, so many religions, that have pretended to be religious and were not.

Love still remains uncontaminated; it is still virgin.

So let me repeat: rather than saying God is love, say love is God, and you will be closer to the truth.

And not only closer - you will be immediately related to truth, because love is your experience. It may not be so profound that it becomes God, but still, even unrefined gold is gold. Even the uncut, unpolished diamond is diamond. The diamond may be lost in the mud, but it can be cleaned any moment; the mud cannot enter into its being.

Love is your being. And the moment we use the word 'God' great controversies arise. Use the word 'love', and theism, atheism, and all kinds of unnecessary arguments are discarded.

Love also represents the innermost core of existence itself. Existence is not indifferent to you, it is not detached. It is committed to you, it cares for you. It may not care the way you want to be cared for, but it still cares in its own way. And what you expect may not really be your need, it may be just the opposite.

Existence really fulfills your needs - not your likes and dislikes, not your wants, but your real, true, authentic needs are always taken care of. Existence cannot be indifferent to you: you are part of it.

To be indifferent to you will mean it is indifferent to itself - that is impossible. Existence would have disappeared long ago if it was so.

We are its waves. We are flowers of this tree of life and existence. Your desire to be loved, and your desire to love, is your suprememost desire. It must show something of your basic fundamental nature, it must represent your innermost core - it does represent it.

Once you understand love as God, your whole vision of life will change. Then you will not go to worship in a temple or a church or a mosque: then love will be your worship. And then you will not be afraid of existence, because it cares for you. Fear will disappear. You will not be afraid even of death, because death can take away only that which is not needed any more, but it cannot destroy you.

Existence is your mother, it cannot allow destruction. Nothing is ever destroyed. Now even physicists agree with it: nothing is ever destroyed and nothing is ever created. Not even a small grain of sand can be destroyed or created. Existence contains the same quantity of matter, life, love and energy as it has contained always, as it will contain always.

Martin Luther has said a tremendously significant thing. He says "PECCA FORTITER: sin boldly." It is strange. The statement seems to be unbelievable - a man like Luther saying, "Sin boldly." But the meaning is really worth pondering over. He is saying: Love permeates the whole of existence, so don't be afraid. Even if you are in sin, be boldly in it, because existence is always ready to forgive, is forgiving. Love always is forgiving. He does not mean that you should go and sin. He is simply saying: Your greatest sin is nothing compared to the forgiveness that goes on flowing from existence towards you.

Just the other day, somebody asked me, "I am a great sinner. Can I also realize God?"

You cannot be that great a sinner. You cannot be so fallen that God's hand cannot reach you, you cannot be so weighted and burdened by sin that God cannot uplift you. The gravitation of sin cannot be more than the grace of God.

This is one of the fundamentals of Sufism, that God is unconditionally forgiving - he has to be, because his nature is love. Love is his reality. It is not that love forgives: love is forgiveness. There is no question of forgiving you. The question arises only if God has already becomes angry with you.

Only then does the question of forgiving arise.

But God cannot be angry with you. You are the way he has made you, you are not your own creation.

How can he be angry with you? That would amount to being angry with himself; that would be a self-condemnation.

But you start thinking about small things as if you are doing great sins. The ego always loves to do great things. Even if you are doing something wrong, you want to pretend that this is the greatest wrong that has ever been done or will ever be done. You want it to be unique, incomparable; you want it to be on the top. The ego always feels good if something great is being done. It may be a sin - that doesn't matter.

What great sin can you commit? All our sins are nothing but small things: we are small, our sins cannot be great. Our hands are small: whatsoever we do is going to remain small, because it will have our signature on it.

Your life, virtuous or wicked, is not going to be a barrier or a bridge - because you are already bridged, and there is no way of disconnecting yourself from God. And it is not a question that when you sin, God forgives you. He is forgiveness: he is continuously flowing in tremendous love towards you.

His love is like a flood, your sins are like straw: the flood will take them away. And the flood does not come to take your sins away; it is already there. To understand this, to see the point of it, is a great relief, as if a mountain suddenly disappears off your chest. You become light, weightless. And only in that weightlessness can you worship.

The sinner cannot worship, he is continuously frightened. Fear cannot create prayer. Prayer created by fear remains political, a strategy of the mind to persuade God; it is a kind of bribery. Real prayer arises out of understanding, out of love.

Luther is really right when he says, "PECCA FORTITER: sin boldly." Whatsoever you are doing, do it boldly. You belong to God and God belongs to you. This is your home. Don't live like a stranger, don't be here like a guest: you are part of the host. Live without fear.

But our egos continuously go on magnifying things.

A man was in love with a woman for many years. And the woman was waiting and waiting, "Now he is going to propose. Now he is going to propose." And one day he proposed. She could not believe her own ears, she could not believe her own eyes. She has waited so long that she had almost become settled into believing that it was not going to happen.

She hugged the man, she kissed the man, and she said, "I cannot believe my own ears. I have waited so long for this!"

The man said, "Will you marry me?" And she said, "Yes, yes! A thousand times, yes!"

The man took out a small black box from his pocket, opened it, and gave her a ring. She looked very minutely at it - the diamond was so small that it was almost impossible to see it with bare eyes.

The man said, "Don't be worried" - because she looked worried, shocked too, that after waiting so many years this man brings a wedding ring with such a small diamond. And the man was very rich. The man said, "Don't be worried, don't look puzzled." And from another pocket he pulled out a magnifying glass, and he said, "Look! Look through this glass."

Our minds are continuously magnifying. That's how the ego exists. We magnify our virtues, we magnify our sins, we magnify everything. We make much fuss about nothing, much ado about nothing.

This magnifying glass has to be dropped absolutely. And then suddenly you see things in their perspective. We are small: our virtues are small, our sins are small. Neither are our virtues of any worth, nor are our sins of any worth. All that we can do is so small that it is irrelevant.

Your sins are not going to take you to hell. All those priests who go on telling you that are simply magnifying. And your virtues are not going to take you to heaven either, because all those virtues are so tiny, so shallow.

Then is there any hope, or not? There is no need of any hope. You are already in paradise. All that is needed is an unburdened heart to look around. You are already in paradise: you need not go anywhere. You are in God. Drop the magnifying glass, and your sins and your virtues both will disappear, because they both are creations of the magnifying glass.

An elephant was having an awful time in the jungle because a horsefly kept biting her near her tail and there was nothing she could do about it. She kept swinging her trunk, but he was far out of reach.

A little sparrow observed this and snipped the horsefly in half with his beak.

"Oh, thank you!" said the elephant. "That was such a relief."

"My pleasure, ma'am," said the sparrow.

"Listen, Mr. Sparrow, if there's anything I can ever do for you, don't hesitate to ask."

The sparrow hesitated. "Well, ma'am..." he said.

"What is it?" said the elephant. "You needn't be shy with me."

"Well," said the sparrow, "the truth is that all my life I wondered how it would feel to make love to an elephant."

"Go right ahead," said the elephant. "Be my guest!"

The sparrow flew around behind the elephant and began to make love immediately. Up above them, a monkey in the tree watched and began to get very excited. He started to shake the tree, and a coconut got loose and fell from the tree, hitting the elephant smack on the head.

"Ouch!" said the elephant.

At which point, the sparrow looked from behind and said, "Am I hurting you, dear?"

Drop the magnifying glass, and there is neither sin nor virtue, and there are neither sinners nor saints - simple human beings, just simple human beings.

In that simplicity, God arrives. In that simplicity, existence starts pouring love. It is already pouring, but because of your ideas, great ideas about yourself, you are not receptive.

Hakim Sanai says:

FROM HIM FORGIVENESS COMES SO FAST, IT REACHES US BEFORE REPENTANCE HAS EVEN TAKEN SHAPE ON OUR LIPS.

See the beauty of Sanai's statement. This sutra is worth writing in gold in your heart.

FROM HIM FORGIVENESS COMES SO FAST, IT REACHES US BEFORE REPENTANCE HAS EVEN TAKEN SHAPE ON OUR LIPS.

He is forgiveness, he is already flowing towards you. You need not even repent. You have just to be simple, unpretentious; you have to drop your sinners' and saints' masks. And even before repentance has taken any shape on our lips, even without that, you are forgiven.

This is the experience of all the great mystics of the world. Luther is right when he says, "PECCA FORTITER: sin boldly" - because his forgiveness is immense, infinite. And whatever you do is just tiny straws: the flood will come and take them all away.

Sufism is the path of grace. No effort is needed on your part: only receptivity, openness, a loving heart, a state of surrender, a let-go. And all that so-called yogis cannot attain in millions of lives, you attain in a single instant. HIS FORGIVENESS COMES SO FAST: it is immediate, because God knows only one time, and that is now. God cannot postpone; he has no future. He cannot say 'Tomorrow', because there is no tomorrow for him - time means this time, this moment.

For God, all is the present. Because our vision is limited, that's why something is past and something is future and something is present. Our vision is so limited that our present is very tiny. That is the proportion of our vision. We are looking through a keyhole into reality: we can see only this much, all else is the past.

Just sit behind a keyhole and watch. Somebody comes: you see a person suddenly emerge out of nowhere, because just a moment ago you were not able to see him. When he comes in front of the keyhole you see him, and then next moment he is gone, he has passed, again he is no more. Just a moment ago he was in the future, just a moment afterwards he is in the past.

Do you think that man has disappeared? Do you think that man suddenly appeared from nowhere and now suddenly disappears into nowhere again, and he appeared only for a single moment? It is our vision that is creating the fallacy. Come out of your hiding place, open the door, and you will be surprised: he was before you saw him, and he is after you see him. Now you will have a better vision.

For God, all is eternal now.

The thief who was crucified with Jesus asked him, "Lord, will I be able to see you again some time in the future?" Jesus says, "Today you will be able to see me in the kingdom of my God."

The word is 'today' - that is very significant. "Today you will see me in my kingdom of God." There cannot be any question of tomorrow.

God is immediate, God is always present. So all that happens through God happens now. And it is not happening to you, God is not happening to you, because you live either in the past or in the future, and he is never in the past and never in the future.

Hence the science of meditation: it brings you to the present, it brings you to this moment. The past is a thought; it disappears when thoughts disappear. The future is also a thought; it disappears when you drop thinking. When you are in a state of no-thought - there is no past, no future, there is only the present - in that state of no-thought you are ONE, in tune with God. And suddenly the flood is there: you are flooded with light, with love, with grace. You are no more a man, you are divine.

You have surpassed humanity.

Humanity is in a state of deep sleep.

HE IS YOUR SHEPHERD, AND YOU PREFER THE WOLF; HE INVITES YOU TO HIM, AND YET YOU STAY UNFED; HE GIVES YOU HIS PROTECTION, YET YOU ARE SOUND ASLEEP:

OH, WELL DONE, YOU SENSELESS UPSTART FOOL!

God is our shepherd, he takes every care. We are unnecessarily worried, and we start trying to take care by ourselves. And that's how we fall victim to the wolf - the mind.

The mind says: This way - this is more secure, more safe. Arrange life in this pattern, don't live in insecurity. That is the constant message of the mind. "Don't live in insecurity, make life secure. Have a bank balance, have a family, be tethered to the earth. Make as many arrangements as possible so you are protected."

And God is our protector. But the mind starts playing the protector - and the mind is the wolf, because the mind is created by all kinds of exploiters that exist in the world. The priest, the pundit, the politician - they create the mind, they create fear in you. They live on your fear, they create a constant trembling; your whole life you remain in anguish, trembling, afraid. They create worry in you, and worrying is the source of your mind.

If a person is ready to live in insecurity, the mind disappears. Then there is no need for the mind.

Sannyas means to live in insecurity, because God is our only security. Sannyas means to live without any fear, because we are part of this existence. There is nobody to be afraid of. The existence is not antagonistic to us, it protects us.

But the mind is the by-product of fear, and because of the fear it goes on creating its own security.

Have more money, have a bigger house, have respect, prestige, political power. Win friends, influence people, so you are secure. You have so many friends: they will be useful. They say a friend is a friend only when he supports you in times of need. So, have many friends, compromise.

Have a false face, smiling, so that you can influence people.

You put your security into something which is very fragile. And God is your only security. But to know the security of God, to know that he is your shepherd, you will have to trust, to live in insecurity. If you can't trust, you will go on accumulating rubbish around you. People love rubbish, they go on accumulating rubbish.

The Kenmores were having dinner at the Harringtons. After dinner Mr. Harrington unveiled his pride and joy - his collection.

"What is that?" asked Mrs. Kenmore.

"They're kind of rusty," added Mr. Kenmore, unimpressed.

His face beaming with pride, Mr. Harrington said, "This is my collection of barbed wire. I have barbed wire that dates back to the Civil War."

Mrs. Kenmore reached out to touch one of the specimens.

"Please," cautioned Mr. Harrington. "Don't touch. I'm mighty proud of these gems and one can't be too careful."

"Are these really valuable?" questioned Mr. Kenmore with a befuddled look on his face.

Mr. Harrington looked slightly stunned. "Valuable?" and he held up his scarred hand. "These samples are very hard to get hold of."

Just look around yourself. Look at people, watch. People are accumulating rubbish. In the name of money, in the name of knowledge, in the name of virtue, people are accumulating rubbish, all kinds of rubbish. And that is their security; they think it is going to save them. In fact they will be drowned in it - they will be drowned because of it.

Carrying such an unnecessary burden you cannot reach the tops, sunlit tops, of the HImalayas.

Carrying such unnecessary luggage you will remain always in the dark valleys of life. You will never know what sunlight is, you will never know the experience of being on a peak, whispering with the clouds, being close to the stars, and the purity of it and the virgin innocence of it.

People are dragging; their life is a continuous boredom. And nobody else is responsible except themselves.

Arnold was an elderly hobo whose life was simple and uncomplicated. One day a wealthy gentleman found him asleep on his front lawn.

"Mister," the gentleman said, "this is my property."

"I'm sorry," apologized Arnold. "I thought this was a park."

The gentleman looked sympathetically at the ragged hobo. "Mister, are you happy living this kind of life?"

"Sir, money and worldly goods do not make happiness," preached the hobo. "To me, happiness is the freedom to roam without the pressures of society and the economy. The sky is my roof and the world is my bed. Give me all this, a piece of bread, a can of baked beans, and my happiness is complete."

"I admire your simplicity and I admire your sincerity," said the gentleman and handed him a hundred- dollar bill.

"Sir," commented the hobo as he took the money, "you have made me very unhappy."

Just look at people. The richer they get, the more unhappy they look. It should not be so; why is it so? It is so illogical. Why do they become so unhappy? It seems they don't know how to live in trust, they don't know how to live in joy. Their whole life they have been working to be more and more secure. And it is not difficult to accumulate much wealthy - but by the time you have accumulated much wealth your life has gone down the drain. And then suddenly one becomes aware: "What have I been doing? I have wasted my life."

With that realization - "I have wasted my life in accumulating unnecessary things, and now all those beautiful days are gone and only death is there in the future" - a great frustration arises. One has failed, tremendously failed.

They say nothing succeeds like success, but I say nothing fails like success. The moment you have succeeded, then you will know the taste of utter failure.

HE IS YOUR SHEPHERD, AND YOU PREFER THE WOLF; HE INVITES YOU TO HIM, AND YET YOU STAY UNFED...

His invitation is always coming. It comes in the sunrays every day in the morning, but you never dance to the tune of the sunrays. It comes in the calls of the birds, but you never sing with them. It comes with each rose flower opening, but you don't open up with the flowers.

His invitation is constantly coming; it goes on coming, twenty-four hours, round the clock. But you have become deaf, you don't hear. The still small voice inside you goes on saying to you, "What are you doing? You are simply wasting your time, your energy."

The best way to waste your energy, your time, your life, is to go on thinking of the past and the future.

And his invitation comes in the present, his invitation belongs to the present.

HE INVITES YOU TO HIM, AND YET YOU STAY UNFED; HE GIVES YOU HIS PROTECTION, YET YOU ARE SOUND ASLEEP...

What is this sleep all the mystics talk about? What is this metaphysical sleep? You are unconscious of the present: this is the sleep. You are here, and yet you are not here. Your mind is roaming somewhere else - into the past which is no more, or into the future which is not yet. And that which is remains utterly unknown to you.

The whole earth is full of somnambulists, sleepwalkers.

Professor Peabody had just returned from his honeymoon and a trip around the world. At the airport he was recognized by one of his pupils.

"Dr. Peabody!" shouted the student. "How was the honeymoon?"

"Superb."

"Was the trip exciting?" she asked breathlessly.

"Sensational. I visited every great museum and art gallery. The Louvre was magnificent. My wife and I wined and dined in the best restaurants of the world. It was a physical, emotional, and gastronomical adventure."

"What are you going to do now that the excitement is over?"

"The excitement is not quite over yet," said the professor in a grave voice.

"You're taking another trip?"

"No, I forgot my wife in Tokyo."

Just watch your own life. You are constantly forgetting to live herenow, and that is the only life there is. You go on rushing towards the past or towards the future, which are both meaningless; this is a simple leakage of energy. And then you are impotent in the present, empty, hollow. You cannot connect with the present, and the present is the only door to the divine.

HE GIVES YOU HIS PROTECTION, YET YOU ARE SOUND ASLEEP; OH, WELL DONE, YOU SENSELESS UPSTART FOOL!

Ivan was a worrywart. He worried night and day. "How am I going to pay next month's bill? I'm sure my daughter was on that plane that crashed. The economic situation is terrible. Will we all end up eating dog food?"

Then one day Ivan's aunt died and he inherited a million dollars. Eventually he bought a new home, the most lavish furniture, and a luxury car. The world now seemed like a rosy place.

While visiting Ivan's wife one day, a neighbor noticed Ivan sitting alone in his room and moaning like a wounded hyena.

"What's wrong with Ivan?" inquired the neighbor. "Is he ill?"

Ivan's wife gave a knowing smile. "Not really, except Ivan is worried that he has nothing to worry about."

Yes, that too creates worry, when you have nothing to worry about. You have become so accustomed, mechanically accustomed to worrying, that if you have nothing to worry about you will worry about this.

People come to me, they say, "Life is changing. We are feeling great joy arising, we are feeling silence happening. And now we are worried: what next? Now we are worried: is this joy really real?

In this silence not just a projection? Maybe it is just a kind of hypnosis we have fallen into."

Now they are creating new worries. People cannot live without worries - why? Because worries are the food, the nourishment, for the mind. Whenever the mind sees that something is happening and you may get out of worrying, the mind pulls you back and creates new worries, absurd worries - because without worries the mind cannot exist.

The Sufi message is: Leave everything to God, leave everything to the whole. Just see: this infinite existence is going so perfectly. The energy that takes care of millions of stars can also take care of you; you need not carry your burden on your own head, you can trust. And just a few experiences of trust, and then you will never get caught in the old trap again because you will know things are being taken care of.

And that does not mean that you become inactive. In fact you become MORE active, but your action has a different flavor to it, a new taste. You become VERY active, but it is no longer your activity:

now God acts through you. You become connected with the present, and he starts flowing through you. Great creativity is going to happen, but it will not be your doing. He will be the doer, and you will remain utterly relaxed, with not a worry.

Just think of that space when not a worry exists in your being, not a tension. That relaxedness is what everybody is longing for. And everybody is destroying all the possibilities of it ever happening.

We go on creating a wrong space and we go on longing for something which cannot happen in this space.

You will have to create a different kind of space. A different space is needed: that space is called trust, surrender, let-go, faith, love, or whatever you want to call it. Once that space is created, you start moving on a totally different plane. You enter a new dimension: deathless is that dimension, fearless is that dimension. And then you live totally, boldly; and then whatsoever you do, you are totally in it, utterly in it. Each act becomes such a passionate affair, so creative that not only are things created outside you, but because of that creativity something integrates inside you too.

You may paint: a great painting will happen outside, and inside the painter is created. You may write poetry: outside, the poetry is created, inside, the poet becomes integrated.

Each act of creativity creates the creator. You become more centered, rooted. And the more rooted you are, the less and less you feel a stranger. The idea that "I am an outside here," disappears. The whole existence belongs to you, and you belong to the whole existence. Great celebration starts happening of its own accord.

HE HEALS OUR NATURE FROM WITHIN, KINDER TO US THAN WE OURSELVES ARE.

A MOTHER DOES NOT LOVE HER CHILD WITH HALF THE LOVE THAT HE BESTOWS.

This sentence will look a little erroneous, because the love of a mother and the love of God cannot be compared in this way, that God loves more than your mother, double your mother. The difference is not of quantity. And you have all known the love of your mother - it will not thrill your heart if God only loves double that, it may even make you very sad! It doesn't look like much of a promise.

And people who have been reading Hakim Sanai have been continuously stumbling over this. And not even a single commentary exists which has found the right interpretation of this sentence. It is not what it appears to be; it has a very profound meaning, totally different than you will read in the lines. You will have to look between the lines.

First, God's love is qualitatively different. Then why does Sanai say:

A MOTHER DOES NOT LOVE HER CHILD WITH HALF THE LOVE THAT HE BESTOWS.

He is bringing something which is given by the master to the disciple in privacy, in secrecy. But now it can be told, because now psychologists have come to know - they have stumbled upon a fact which has been known to the Sufis, to the Zen people, to the Tantra people, all along - that the mind is divided into two parts: the conscious and the unconscious.

A mother's love is an unconscious love. She loves, but she is as asleep as anybody else; her love is unconscious. God's love is conscious. If we divide the mind into two - consciousness and unconsciousness - then God's love is double, because he is utterly conscious. Psychologists say that only one part of our mind is conscious, and nine parts are unconscious. God is a hundred percent conscious.

That's why whenever a man like Jesus or Buddha or Mahavira has become totally conscious we have called him divine, we have called him a god. The reason is psychological: there no longer exists any unconsciousness in him: no corner of darkness is left, all is light.

God loves in a conscious way. The mother's love is unconscious, and naturally when love is unconscious it is contaminated by all kinds of unconscious things. There is greed, there is anger, there is hatred, there is jealousy, there is domination, power-politics - everything is there. In fact, so many unconscious ugly things are there that the beauty of love is almost crushed, crippled, poisoned.

God's love is totally conscious. Buddha loves you with no desire to dominate you, with no desire of getting anything back in return, with no desire of any future reward, with no motivation. He loves because he is love. In fact to say that he loves you is not right, because love is not an act on his part.

He cannot help it. Just as the river flows towards the ocean, love flows from him towards whoever he comes across.

Even if nobody is there, love goes on radiating from a Buddha. Even when a Buddha is asleep, love goes on radiating from his being. He is love.

We have seen a few such people on this earth: they are called messengers of God, incarnations of God, avataras, Buddhas, tirthankaras. These are just names, names to show that they are no longer human beings in the ordinary sense. They are in the body, but they are no longer bodies.

From a Buddha we can have a little glimpse of what God's love will be like.

Hakim Sanai is right in a way. The mother only loves unconsciously, so her love is half. God loves consciously, so his love is double - in this way, it is double.

But when love becomes conscious, a qualitative change happens; it is not only a question of quantity.

Unconscious love is one thing; it is like groping in a dark night, the groping of a blind man. When love is conscious, it is full light, noontide; you are not blind, there is no groping at all.

But remember that the metaphor is significant. God is the mother, the matrix. Existence is motherly, it is a womb: it nourishes you, it is constantly flowing towards you with all that you need. But we have completely forgotten this nourishment that comes towards us; we have forgotten this protection, we have forgotten the shepherd.

And because we have forgotten, we have become very lonely, unprotected, unsheltered, lost. And to look at our lostness creates fear. We become scared, we have to protect ourselves, so we create our own small protections and shelters. Our whole life becomes nothing but an endeavor to create some security. And then comes death and destroys all that we have created.

All our palaces prove to be nothing but palaces made of playing-cards. And all our great boats prove to be nothing but paper boats. Our whole life is made of the stuff called dreams - because we are asleep.

Wake up!

YOU HAVE BROKEN FAITH, YET STILL HE KEEPS HIS FAITH WITH YOU:

HE IS TRUER TO YOU THAN YOU ARE TO YOURSELF.

We have gone astray, we have gone far away from God. But he has not left us - he cannot, it is impossible. From his side it is impossible. We can go as far away as we want, but from his side, we will not be far away. From his side, his love goes on pouring on us.

He goes on pouring on saints and on sinners, he makes no distinctions. He pours on the mountains and he pours in the valleys, he makes no distinctions. The mountains will not be able to keep the rain that falls on them, because they are too full and they have no space. So the valleys will become great lakes: they are empty, they have space, they are receptive; they open up, they receive and they can contain.

The religious person is one who creates space for God to enter him. He is knocking on doors, on everybody's doors, unconditionally. But very few open their doors. Those who open them, they become really rich, they become kings, because the kingdom of God is theirs. And those who are too much involved inside their houses - arranging their furniture and putting things right and counting their money - they cannot hear the knock.

The knock is very silent, it is a whisper: you have to be silent to hear it. And you have to be unoccupied to hear it - and our occupations are such, it looks so absurd seeing human beings obsessed with such foolish and ridiculous things.

He had heard that a certain whorehouse in Great Neck, New York, had an unusual reputation for the bizarre. So he drove to the place and, once inside, asked the madam if she had anything unusual for him to try.

"Things are pretty slow today," she said, "but I do have one number you might enjoy." She went on to describe a New Jersey hen that had been trained to do blow jobs.

"We've got her here, but only for the day."

The visitor could hardly belive it, but he paid the fee and went into a room with the hen. After a frustrating hour of trying to make love to the hen, he figured out that he was dealing with nothing but a plain old chicken. He left.

Thinking about it later, he decided that he had had so much fun trying that he returned the next day and asked the madam, "Do you have anything new today?"

"Come this way," she said, and led him to a dark room where a group of men were looking through a one-way mirror. He saw that they were watching a girl trying to make it with a dog.

"Wow!" he said to the man standing next to him. "This is really great!"

The man replied, "Man, it ain't nothin'! You shoulda been here yesterday and seen the guy with the chicken."

Man seems to be mad. And how can such people hear the knock of God? People are involved in stupidities. And don't laugh at that poor man - this is the situation of almost all. Details may be different but the story is the same. And it goes on and on to the very end.

An old man made it shakily through the door to Joe Conforte's Mustang Ranch, outside Reno, Nevada.

The receptionist stared at him. "You gotta be in the wrong place!" she exclaimed. "What are you looking for?"

"Ain't this the famous Mustang? Ain't this where you allus' got forty-five girls ready'n'able?"

The receptionist looked perplexed. "Ready for what?"

"I want a girl," the old man rasped. "I wanna get laid."

"How old are you, Pop?" she asked.

"Ninety-two," he replied.

"Ninety-two? Pop, you've had it!"

"Oh," said the old man, a little disconcerted, as his trembling fingers reached for his wallet. "How much do I owe you?"

Now even memory is not there, he has lost his whole mind. But something mechanical persists - something that goes on, it seems, on its own. From the beginning to the end, people remain ungrownups.

To grow old is not to grow up, to become old is not to become mature. Maturity has nothing to do with old age, nothing to do with age at all. Maturity has something to do with becoming more and more conscious, becoming more and more silent and aware, becoming more and more watchful of what you are doing and why, where you are going and why.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his first inaugural address: "We don't know where we are going, but we are on our way."

Everybody seems to be in the same state. Nobody knows where, but everybody is on their way and everybody is going faster and faster. Speed seems to be the only concern: make it faster, and never ask where you are going, because those questions are troubling questions, they create anxiety. So please don't ask where you are going, ask how to go there fast enough. And make your journey so fast, and become so much concerned with speed, that all goals are forgotten - that you lose everything else and become occupied with speed.

Man is so much obsessed with speed, and nobody seems to ask, "Where are you going, and for what? Because God is here! Where are you going?" And no speed is needed to reach God. In fact, unless you learn how to sit silently, how to be in a state of utter relaxedness, how to drop the speedy mind completely, you will never come to know the truth, the reality, that which is.

God is very close by, but you are in such a rush. You will have to slow down, and you will have to learn to listen to whispers.

YOU HAVE BROKEN FAITH, YET STILL HE KEEPS HIS FAITH WITH YOU:

HE IS TRUER TO YOU THAN YOU ARE TO YOURSELF.

You are very untrue to yourself. How has this happened that you have become so untrue to yourself?

You never really did it knowingly; it is a by-product. You have been trying to be untrue to others, and as a by-product it has happened that you have become untrue to yourself.

This is a basic phenomenon, that whatsoever you pretend to others, sooner or later you will start believing in it. If you go on smiling - a false smile, a painted smile - at everybody you meet, sooner or later you will start believing that you are a very very happy person. Because those people who see you smiling, always smiling, will start telling you that you are really happy, you are great: this will be their feedback. And you will become hypnotized by the feedback, and you will smile more, because it brings a good payoff. And you will go on smiling more and more.

I have heard that every night Jimmy Carter's wife has to close his mouth, because he goes on and on in the night... it becomes mechanical.

And you learn about yourself through others. If an ugly person is given a mirror which makes him look beautiful, he will believe that he is beautiful, because there is no way to know your own face.

He will look in the mirror, the mirror will say, "You are beautiful," and he will start believing it.

And if sometimes he comes across a true mirror which simply reflects the way he is, he will think this mirror is wrong. He may even destroy that mirror, because it creates sadness in him; and moreover, it does not reflect the truth, it distorts.

That's what happens. If you come across a true person you will be angry with him, because he will not support your lies and he will not support your masks. He will pull your masks down and he will try to show you your real face. He can only reflect that which is, he cannot reflect that which is pretended.

That's why the man of truth is always thought to be a kind of trouble-maker. The society does not like him. The society does not want to hear the truth, they are perfectly happy helping each other's lies. And whoever helps you lie, you call him your friend - he is your enemy, but you call him your friend.

And even if sometimes your friend starts telling the truth to you, the friendship starts breaking.

Sigmund Freud is reported to have said that if every person on the earth decided to be true, just for twenty-four hours there would not be even four friendships left in the whole world. If every person, just for twenty-four hours, was true, there would be millions of divorces, and friendship would disappear, and families would fall apart. There would be chaos - because we are living on lies.

The man who does not like you says, "I love you." He has his motives: by saying that, he is preparing ground for himself. We believe what others say to us about us. We have no direct approach, we have no immediate contact with our own being; it is via others.

And how can you come to know your real self via others?

The only way to know your real self is to forget others, to close your eyes and just be there inside yourself - and discard all the opinions that have been given to you, discard all that has been said about you, in toto, and become utterly empty of the opinions of others. This is what meditation is all about.

And one day when you are absolutely empty, you will come to know your real face. Zen people call it the original face. Sometimes it takes years, because there are so many false faces - false faces upon false faces, layers upon layers - that you will have to peel your onion for months, for years. It depends with what intensity and with what sincerity you work upon yourself.

YOU HAVE BROKEN FAITH, YET STILL HE KEEPS HIS FAITH WITH YOU...

God still believes in you.

Rabindranath Tagore has written: "Whenever I see a new child born, I look at the sky and I thank him, because the new child is a proof that God still believes in man. Otherwise he would have stopped creating. We have betrayed him, but he still hopes. His hope for us seems to be absolute.

We cannot change his hope; whatsoever we do, our doing remains irrelevant."

Existence still hopes that man will arrive, that man will be able to surpass his dreams, his sleep, that man will be able to become conscious. Existence still hopes - that's why it goes on creating you.

HE CREATED YOUR MENTAL POWERS; YET HIS KNOWLEDGE IS INNOCENT OF THE PASSAGE OF THOUGHT.

HE KNOWS WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART; FOR HE MADE YOUR HEART ALONG WITH YOUR CLAY; BUT IF YOU THINK THAT HE KNOWS IN THE SAME WAY THAT YOU DO, THEN YOU ARE STUCK LIKE A DONKEY IN YOUR OWN MUD.

God knows in a totally different way than we know. Our knowledge is of the intellect. His knowing is not of the intellect; his knowing is simple, it is innocent. It is not through thoughts that he knows. He simply knows; knowing is his nature.

It is just as a mirror reflects: it does not think whether to reflect or not to reflect, it simply reflects. It is just as the sun rises and the earth becomes full of light: the sun does not think to wake people up because it is day now. The sun does not think, "Now I have to reach each bird and provoke the bird into a morning song, and I have to go to each rose and open the petals of the rose." No, there, is no thought on the part of the sun. The sun simply rises; it is its nature to radiate light.

God's nature is knowing. His nature is intelligence, utter intelligence. He reflects like a mirror. And if you want to know God you will have to learn this way of knowing.

God cannot be know through scriptures, because that is not God's way of knowing. You will have to learn his ways: you will have to become innocent. The man who is knowledgeable is cunning, clever, but not innocent. The knowledgeable man is full of information - and the more information you have, the less is the possibility of your intelligence functioning.

I have heard:

A woman had brought some gadget, a new gadget, for her kitchen, but she did not know how to make it work. So she went into the house, searched for the catalogue, and started reading about the device. When she had read it she came back and the cook had already started the device.

She said, "How did you manage it?"

And the old cook said, "When you are uneducated, you have to use intelligence. When you are educated, you need not. You went to look in the catalogue: I cannot read, so I had to use my intelligence."

Ponder over it. The more knowledgeable you are, the less the need of intelligence. Hence intellectuals remain stupid; they can brag much about their knowledge, but deep down they remain unintelligent. Scholars are always unintelligent. They may have great degrees, but if you look at their research work you will be surprised: they are just collecting rubbish. They go on collecting rubbish. Nobody ever reads their theses; they go on accumulating in the university libraries. The only function and purpose of those theses will be to help other foolish people to write more theses; those will be the only persons who will read them.

Millions of treaties are written every year, millions of Ph.D's and D.Litt's are awarded, and the world functions in such an unintelligent way. Our world is the most educated, and the most unintelligent.

This is the century when we have succeeded in educating people; particularly in the advanced, rich countries, education is universal now.

But what is the outcome? People are not functioning intelligently. If you know that a person is very very intellectual, you can be sure he will not function intelligently - he will not need to. Children function more intelligently than older people, because they don't have any knowledge. They have to use their own resources; they cannot depend on knowledge, they have none.

If you want to know God, you will have to know his way of knowing. What is his way of knowing?

Intelligence, not intellect; innocence, not knowledgeability.

Meditation makes you innocent, because it helps you drop all knowledge. Love makes you intelligent, because love has nothing to do with knowledge.

HE CREATED YOUR MENTAL POWERS; YET HIS KNOWLEDGE IS INNOCENT OF THE PASSAGE OF THOUGHT.

HE KNOWS WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART; FOR HE MADE YOUR HEART ALONG WITH YOUR CLAY; BUT IF YOU THINK THAT HE KNOWS IN THE SAME WAY THAT YOU DO, THEN YOU ARE STUCK LIKE A DONKEY IN YOUR OWN MUD.

His way of knowing is totally different, diametrically opposite, to your way of knowing. But you can learn his way of knowing. And the moment you have learnt his way of knowing, you have started moving closer towards him.

That's why Jesus says, "Unless you are like small children you will not enter into my kingdom of God."

IN HIS PRESENCE, SILENCE IS THE GIFT OF TONGUES.

That is the only language that God understands: silence. He does not understand Sanskrit, although Hindus believe that that is DEVAVANI, God's language. He does not understand Arabic either, whatsoever Mohammedans may believe. He does not understand Hebrew, whatsoever the claim of the Jews. He does not understand Aramaic, although Jesus may have understood and spoken Aramaic.

What is his language? He understands only silence.

So if you are praying through words you will never reach him, your prayer will never reach him. Words are too heavy; they will not allow your prayer to soar high and reach the ultimate. Only silence can have wings.

He understands silence. The real prayer consists only of silence: silent tears, silent crying of the heart, silent laughter, a silent dance, a silent music inside your being. When you are utterly silent you are immediately in tune with God. So the Vedas are not going to help, neither is the Bible nor the Koran. In fact the Vedas were born to those who were silent.

That's how the Koran descended onto the earth. Mohammed had been meditating for forty days in silence - praying, meditating, sitting silently in the hills - and one day suddenly something started descending. A light penetrated him, a song entered him. He was used as a vehicle; God spoke through him.

Of course, when God speaks through Mohammed he uses Arabic, because that is what Mohammed knows. When God speaks through Buddha he uses Pali, because that's what Buddha knows.

But God's own language is only silence. In fact, when he flows through Buddha it is the mechanism of Buddha's mind that translates silence into Pali. It is the mechanism of Mohammed's mind that translates silence into Arabic. And then there is great controversy: then the scholars of Pali and the scholars of Prakrit and the scholars of Sanskrit and the scholars of Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic, they go on quarreling. And only one has spoken. Only one silence has flowed down. But it was translated; it was given shape and form, it became a language.

If you want to reach God, you will have to learn the way of silence.

IN HIS PRESENCE, SILENCE IS THE GIFT OF TONGUES.

Only those who are silent, they know how to talk to him. They know how to communicate, how to commune.

HE KNOWS THE TOUCH OF AN ANT'S FOOT MOVING IN DARKNESS OVER A ROCK.

HE ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT IS IN MEN'S MINDS:

YOU WOULD DO WELL TO REFLECT ON THIS.

There is no need to say anything to him. Just bow down - because he knows. He already knows, before you, what is in your mind: he knows it, he reflects it. Your conscious, your unconscious, your collective unconscious - all are reflected in him. There is no need to say anything, it is absolutely unnecessary. Just open up, just bow down. Be silent in his presence.

And one thing more: he is not a person, he is a presence. That's why no image can ever represent him, no idol can ever substitute for him. He is a presence, a pure presence.

Have you ever felt the difference between a person and a presence? There are persons who have something around themselves - you can call it presence. For example, if you see Buddha walking, you will be immediately aware that he is not walking like others. In a way he is just like everybody else, but there is something mysterious surrounding him, a kind of presence. You cannot catch hold of it, you cannot measure it, you cannot weigh it, it is very elusive, but it is there.

Sometimes you feel it in ordinary people also: once in a while, you come across a person who has a kind of presence. When he is with you he transforms you just by being there. There are people who will make you sad by their presence, there are people who will make you happy by their presence.

They may not have said a single word, but just because they are there, a certain aura, a certain energy-field, surrounds them.

God is an energy-field. So don't look for his face, he has none. And don't look for his location, because you cannot locate him. He is like an energy-field. But you can feel it: if you are available, you can feel his presence. And once you have felt his presence, you will know; then you will come across his presence the whole day, in many ways.

The silent tree standing against the sky, and you will see something is present around the tree.

In the mountains, the mountains will look very meditative if you have known his presence. In the flowers and in the fragrances you will feel his presence, in the sunset and in the stars. In the eyes of people, in the laughter of a child, in the tears of a prayerful man, you will see the presence.

Presence has to be felt. It needs a silent, meditative, loving heart. You cannot touch it; it is not gross, it is very subtle - the subtlest. But it is there. It is always everywhere.

We live in the presence called God, we live in the ocean of God's presence. Become a little more sensitive to it. And what are th ways of becoming sensitive? This sutra gives a few keys to you.

One: drop the magnifying glass of your ego.

Second: trust, surrender. He cares for you.

Third: he is constantly healing you from your own sources, from within. Go to the inner well of your being, and from there you will find his nourishment, his constant welling-up energy.

Fourth: be true. Drop your masks, your phoniness.

Fifth: learn God's way of knowing - that is innocence.

Sixth: be silent, because that is his only language.

HE KNOWS THE TOUCH OF AN ANT'S FOOT MOVING IN DARKNESS OVER A ROCK.

HE ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT IS IN MEN'S MINDS:

YOU WOULD DO WELL TO REFLECT ON THIS.

And the seventh and last: your prayer has not to be a demand. Don't ask anything; he knows, before you ever know, what is your need. Just bow down. He is a presence - so wherever you bow down, you are bowing down to him. At whosoever's feet you bow down, all feet are his.

If you bow down to the earth you bow down to him. If you bow down to the sun you bow down to him. Be a pagan - there is no need to go to any church or temple. Trees are beautiful temples, and mountains and people - the whole existence is his temple. He is embodied in this existence.

Don't ask about his face, because all faces are his. And don't ask for his location, because he is all.

He cannot be located, he cannot be addressed, he has no form and no name.

If these seven things are pondered over, he can happen immediately, this very moment.

FROM HIM FORGIVENESS COMES SO FAST, IT REACHES US BEFORE REPENTANCE HAS EVEN TAKEN SHAPE ON OUR LIPS.

HE IS YOUR SHEPHERD, AND YOU PREFER THE WOLF; HE INVITES YOU TO HIM, AND YET YOU STAY UNFED; HE GIVES YOU HIS PROTECTION, YET YOU ARE SOUND ASLEEP:

OH, WELL DONE, YOU SENSELESS UPSTART FOOL!

HE HEALS OUR NATURE FROM WITHIN, KINDER TO US THAN WE OURSELVES ARE.

A MOTHER DOES NOT LOVE HER CHILD WITH HALF THE LOVE THAT HE BESTOWS.

YOU HAVE BROKEN FAITH, YET STILL HE KEEPS HIS FAITH WITH YOU:

HE IS TRUER TO YOU THAN YOU ARE TO YOURSELF.

HE CREATED YOUR MENTAL POWERS; YET HIS KNOWLEDGE IS INNOCENT OF THE PASSAGE OF THOUGHT.

HE KNOWS WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART; FOR HE MADE YOUR HEART ALONG WITH YOUR CLAY; BUT IF YOU THINK THAT HE KNOWS IN THE SAME WAY THAT YOU DO, THEN YOU ARE STUCK LIKE A DONKEY IN YOUR OWN MUD.

IN HIS PRESENCE, SILENCE IS THE GIFT OF TONGUES.

HE KNOWS THE TOUCH OF AN ANT'S FOOT MOVING IN DARKNESS OVER A ROCK.

HE ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT IS IN MEN'S MINDS:

YOU WOULD DO WELL TO REFLECT ON THIS.