Random Thoughts, pages 106 to 143

Date Unknown

159. Wherever I cast my eyes I see the thrill and throb of life. Every bit is vibrating with life. And the minutest atom is excited with the love to live. Behold the dance of life and hear the music of being. Even if you neither see nor hear, there is the titillating, pulsating, experience of life. Is not, then, the life we see around us the Lord Himself? The Lord, apart and aloof from life, is dead and unreal. Life is Truth. The Lord does not indulge Himself in creation, sitting afar. Life is the perpetual evolution of creation. This process of life-creation is verily the Lord!

160. I see you visiting the temple every day. You pore over the pages of the scriptural text every day. But I am worried because I have never seen you filled with compassion for Nature. If one does not see the Lord in Nature, how can one see Him elsewhere?

Open your self to Nature and let its beauty shine through your eyes. Let its sweet music be resonant in your heart. Welcome that guest and seat him in your heart of hearts. You will see ere long that the guest, hitherto unrecognized, is the Lord Himself.

161. When I roamed over the lofty mountains, I felt my soul raised aloft covered with never-melting blocks of ice even as their peaks; when I came down to the deep ravines I felt as though I too have become deep and low like them with my heart enveloped in mysterious shadows. The same thing took place on the shores of the sea. I was merged in their surging waves because those waves were beating within me. When I gaze upon the sky, I expand unlimitedly, when the countless stars are viewed, endless silence permeates my mind, the myriad flowers fill me with ecstasies of aesthetic pleasure; the chirping songs of the birds re-echo my own inner voice; when I peer into the eyes of the animals I see no difference in them from my own eyes. Thus gradually my separate existence is wiped off and only the Lord remains. Where shall I now seek God? How shall I seek?

Only He is, I am not.

162. Am I to proclaim the Lord? Is He not being proclaimed all round? Is not Nature herself a loud proclamation of the Lord?

163. How can I speak when the mountains are silent? How can I speak when the sky is silent. How can I speak when the Lord Himself is silent? Still I speak so that their silence may be heard by you. I speak so that you may understand when I sink into silence. Artists make use of the black background to heighten the effects of a brighter hue. I too use the same device. I am speaking to enable you to understand the language of silence. Words are meaningful inasmuch as they represent the gestures of silence. Speech is meaningful when it leads on to quiescence. Life is fruitful if it prepares the individual to face Death.

164. For Victory it is essential to wage a war; but the majority of people wish for victory even before the battle. As far as I can see, none but these gets defeated in the end.

165. Friend, be not afraid. Your contact with him of whom you are afraid is bound to be perpetual. Only he of whom you are afraid will follow you. Your defeat will be in proportion to the extent of your fear.

166. I was a guest in a household. The children there were about to take part in a race.

They said, "Baba, what is the secret of winning the race." I answered, "Courage, dear children." I hastened then to add, "Be sure to remember this even in the race of life. There is no greater power of success than courage in the race of life."

167. One day, as we were walking along a field, we saw the farmers sowing seeds and singing merrily. While I was delighted by their songs, my friend accompanying me was gloomy. He wished to become a sannyasin.

"Come on," said I, 'let us see the farmers sowing seeds and singing songs." Verily I say unto you that our worldly existence is a vast field. Those who wish to sow seeds of Truth, love and sacrifice have to remember that seeds are not sown with tears in the eyes of the sower. It is not Truth or Love but sorrow and misery that is sown with tears. The harvest, too, cannot be that of bliss; but of tears alone. The technique of sowing seeds is the accompaniment of gleeful songs. The attitude with which we sow permeates the seeds sown. Taking to sannyasa, renunciation, and asceticism with a dispirited gloomy heart ends only in sorrow. The real sannyasa is born of bliss and hope.

168. Life is now here itself, and today. Tomorrow is far off. Tomorrow is at an infinite distance. That is exactly why it never comes. Will it not be proper that we live today itself? He who really lives, always lives today. Life is today, and tomorrow is death. If you have to live, live today. Well, if you have only to die, tomorrow also can be found useful.

169. Certainly it is very difficult to conquer the self. But it is impossible to conquer anything beyond the self. Moreover, let this also be remembered that he who conquers his own self, can easily win over all the rest too. I therefore assert that in life there is only one conquest and only one defeat. The defeat is of the self at the hands of the self. The conquest too, is of the self by the self.

170. A friend told me, "Will it not be good if we transform the world?" I replied, "It will be very good. But where is this world? I seek it very much but do not find it. I seek the world but I find myself. Hence I say: let the world alone. Let us transform ourselves.

When we do the same, the world will be transformed. Because what else is it except our mutual inner contact.

171. I had a dream. The Day of Judgment had come. Every dead person was from his grave and questioned about his part. God himself was conducting the inquiry. A Pandit whom I knew well was standing beside me. He was quite carefree. He knew the Vedas, the Puranas, the Agamas, the Nigamas, etc. He hoped he would pass any test in Religion and Philosophy. But as God approached nearer and nearer his calm was disturbed. In the end he was excited and said to me crying, "How unjust is this! Nothing is being asked about the scriptural texts. All inquiry is being made about life. You know what answer I shall make. I know nothing more than the scriptures. I have spent my life in trying to know them."

172. Don't we certainly get tired of those pleasures which we enjoy? Does not the pleasure of which we are tired turn itself into pain? But has any man ever been seen getting tired of those pleasures which he gives to others? No. Never has such a thing happened. And so I tell you a secret. Only that pleasure which we give to others and of which we are never tired becomes bliss, and there is no end to Bliss. Bliss is a nectar, endless and eternal.

173. A son had said to his father, "When shall I be big enough to do what I wish?"

The father replied, "My dear son, I do not know. In fact no one has been seen till to-day growing so I too was present there. I said, "I know a secret. It is not possible to grow so big that you will be able to do always what you wish. And that is not possible because your desire is the outcome of your being small. But this is possible that you can like whatever you do. And that is maturity or growing big."

174. Why is there so much misery in man's life?

It is because there is a medley of notes in man's life but there is no noteless melody at all.

It is because there is a veritable pandemonium of thoughts, but no thoughtless silence at all.

It is because there is plenty of turbulent, conflicting emotions in his life, but no affection free from fancy.

It is because there is plenty of breakneck races in different directions in his life, but no stable pause, no stir in any direction.

It is because there is an open exchange of activities in his life but no isolation at all, the isolation of inactivity.

And lastly because in his life his self is most prominent, but the Supreme Soul is altogether suppressed.

175. A friend had departed from this bank and shoal of life, and that too very early in age.

He was young but his life was pure, beautiful, quiet and melodious. Somebody remarked, "What a tragic calamity! Death at this young age?" I said, "No. Do not say so. It is possible that a long life may not be auspicious, but life that is pure and auspicious, is profound, extensive and immense. Well, it may not be possible to measure it in terms of minutes and hours. But it proves limitation and inefficiency of our measuring-devices.

176. There was this epitaph on a tombstone: "Here lies a man who did nothing between great deeds which he dreamt to undertake and small odd jobs which he hated to perform."

Of course, all this is engraved on a single tombstone, but it ought to have been engraved on many tombstones. Isn't this the sum-total of the life-story of many men? And I wish to ask you a pointed personal question, "Don't you also wish to place such a stone on your grave?"

177. I knew a man who had never done an error in his life. I asked him what the secret was. He replied very gravely, "Fearing lest I should make a mistake, I did nothing and thus I escaped the risk of making any mistake." On hearing this, when I began to laugh he had said, "Sir, why are you laughing?" I had replied, "What greater mistake can there be if a man desists from action only because he fears that mistakes may happen?" To dread mistakes is to dread life. One should be ready to make mistakes. It is sufficient if a mistake is not repeated. He alone who avoids old mistakes but is not frightened of committing new ones, lives and learns. And it is only he who wins too.

178. Life takes us to deep oceans, not to drown us, but to sanctify us. But those who are frightened at the very thought of being drowned sink in it in vain: whom have the depths of life's ocean drowned so far? I see none. Those alone are drowned who keep on sitting on the shore of fear.

179. Knowledge says: "What am I? I am a void." And in this void itself it becomes Brahman.

Ignorance says, "I am everything. I am Brahman," and in this fancy of being Brahman, it remains void.

What knowledge realizes, ignorance deludes itself into thinking that it has realized.

What knowledge knows, ignorance admits and accepts.

What ignorance proclaims it never becomes.

180. It is from love that creation has sprung up. It is nourished by love. It continues to progress towards love, and eventually it merges into love. And you ask me why I say that love is God? I say this is the reason. This is why I say so.

181. You ask me, "What is the biggest merit in life?" I say that is daring, for without daring there is no freedom. Without freedom there is no Truth. Without Truth there is no right conduct. In fact daring does to the edifice of life what the foundation-stone does to a building.

182. Have you ever seen good men dying or bad men living? Just as bad men never live, so also good men never die.

183. My friend, it is possible that you cannot become a rose-flower. But, on that score, it is not necessary that you should become a thorn. And it is possible that you cannot become the twinkling star in the sky. But on that score, is it necessary that you should become the dark cloud that covers up the stars? In the end I disclose a secret to you. He who does not become a thorn becomes a flower and he who does not become a cloud becomes the twinkling star.

184. It does not lie in my hands how to die. It is not left to my choice. But how I should live is certainly dependent on my decision. Moreover, death is the completion of life.

Precisely for that reason, by choosing how to live, I choose how to die also. Hence death becomes the index of life. What is sown in life grows into flowers in their fullness during death.

185. A friend had been ill. Somebody had brought a bunch of flowers for him fresh from the garden. After handing over the flowers, he returned. I realized that the fragrance of the flowers still lingered in his hands. The experience repeated itself many times and became the very life itself. Whatever we give, its fragrance or its foul smell always lingers behind. Those who wish to live in fragrance, always give out only fragrance.

186. 1 had a dream in which I saw some of my dead acquaintances. They were clad in the same garments as at the time of death. They were obsessed with the same thoughts, prejudices, and ideas as they had at the time of death. In life everything had changed but they had not changed at all. I made a mention of this to them. But they began to laugh and said, "We the dead never change. We remain staunch in our beliefs. There is no change in the world of the dead. Our principles are eternal. It is only life that is affected and afflicted by the sickness of transformation." I said,"But in life as well there are people who never change at all. Their principles too are eternal and they too keep their eyes shut against any change lest they too should be afflicted by the sickness of change.

But aren't here too a few who do change?" The dead replied in a body, " No. No. No.

How can that happen here? None of us is alive here." Well in life such a thing can happen because many people are dead before their actual death.

187. Do not build up life round the centre of futurity because life is present existence. It is in the present that all futurities are hidden and he who loses today loses all tomorrows.

Do not all the flowers of all tomorrows lie asleep in the seed of today?

188. Did you say that life is miserable? No friend, life is only that which we make of it.

As long as you do not make it a bliss, life will not become a bliss unto you. Life is but an opportunity. It is a blank, an empty something, a possibility. By living it we fill it up and make it full. It is not offered to man. He lives day after day and builds it up. Life is self- creation. And so man is not responsible for anyone but for himself.

189. I saw you worshipping God and heard you praying to Him. Now you tell me I must say something. What shall I say? Well, I shall say this much. If there is heart in prayer, but no sound or word, it is better than if there be only sound or words but no heart. But it is the reverse that happens. Precisely for this reason do prayers fail to become love, and worship remains lifeless. How can God be attained through these lifeless worships? And how can his portals be opened through these loveless prayers? If God had been a stone, these lifeless prayers and worships would have reached up to Him. But granted that God is present in stones, He is not a stone. Hence only they who approach Him with love and vitality are able to attain His very presence.

190. Do you wish that your life should be a hell? Then there is a very easy and infallible way. I shall tell you that. This specific method has been tried by thousands of people over thousands of years. There is no possibility for mistakes or inefficacy in this. It has always proved hundred per cent correct. What is this method? It is the building up of life round the sense of "I", of self-importance. Egotism is the simplest and continuously straight path leading to misery. He who gives up this path will not attain sorrow even if he wishes to do so. Without it, no one can suffer or be miserable, for this is misery itself. Without being led by it, no one can go even to hell, for it is hell itself.

191. Realization of truth is a difficult process because it has to be sought and lived. But it is easy to accept the scriptural texts because they have just to be accepted. For the former, discrimination with wide open eyes is essential. For the latter, a blind belief is sufficient.

It is for this reason that the scriptural texts become obstacles in the path of realizing Truth. For, discrimination never takes place where there is blind belief. Let this also be remembered that all beliefs are invariably blind. How can blind eyes see Truth? Blind eyes represent the closed doors of consciousness. Truth visits only that door where an impartial and un-prejudiced mind stands ready to welcome it. Are you ready to become impartial? Have you the daring to become free from beliefs? Are the doors of your heart open to welcome Truth? If yes, I affirm that there is nothing simpler than the realization of Truth. In fact, difficulties are the creations of our mind. Truth is simple, but we are not.

Our belief, our recognized values and our convictions have complicated everything. He who breaks the web of these complications finds that Truth stands before him, It had been before him for ever. Only the eyes were not free to see it.

192. It is very easy to die, but very difficult to live, for the sake of religion. Actually, it is always easy to die for any cause. What is required for dying is just a sort of madness.

And then dying takes place in a moment. Madness of this single moment is enough for it.

But for living, alertness and wakefulness are essential. Hence I say only those who live for religion are able to know religion, not those who die for it.

193. What is religion? If you wish to know this you will have to forget religions at the very outset. Without abandoning all sects and religions, Dharma can never be known.

194. If truth does not appear worthy of being lived, it is not proper to consider it worthy of being honoured.

195. Who can deceive us so much as we deceive ourselves? Thus we alone are enemies to ourselves. But from this it becomes evident that, if we wish, we can be our own friends. Religion begins only from where friendship makes a start.

196. Belief and non-belief belong to the same family. There is no difference between the two. Their bodies are different, but not their soul. ke who has to seek Truth must, therefore, be aware of both. If one is a well the other is a ditch. Both are all right for falling into, but he who has to move on, must take the middle path, for the mind becomes liberated only after being freed from both. He and only he who is neither a theist nor an atheist, neither a believer nor a non-believer, can undertake a journey to Truth.

197. What do you live for? If you let me know this, I will tell you what you are. Your life is fixed by the direction you are going. It is an incessant creation of the self. We ourselves build up our lives. What is thus built up is also ourselves. We constitute the sculptor, the stone, and the implement that make an image. Exactly, therefore, there is no art bigger and more complicated than life. It is to escape from the trouble of this tedious labour and aspirational austerity that some people deny even life. Their life becomes akin to the stones which shape themselves according to the force of the current of the environs and their shocks and jerks. Their life, therefore, does not become sentient idols. This is the misery of life, the affliction and the distress. This alone, I say, is living death.

198. There is a friend whom I have known for years. Formerly he ran the race for money; now he is in the race for religion. The race is the same, but whereas formerly he was a householder, now he is an ascetic who has renounced everything. When I hear this, I am surprised Is not his desire to realize God the same in its depths as his desire to acquire riches? The paths of greed are very subtle. Is not the idea, the desire, of realizing God the ultimate development of greed? Man's greed is boundless. He desires to attain even salvation, though the fact is that he can never become liberated as long as his mind desires to acquire anything because the desire to acquire, itself, is the fundamental non- liberation. How can he who is not liberated know God? That alone which is known in the liberated state of mind, is God.

199. I know that you are in search of bliss. But can one search for bliss and attain it?

Bliss is obtained by those who distribute bliss, those who give bliss. If you wish for bliss, distribute bliss, give bliss. Do not desire, but give, because by giving alone does it come to you. By distributing alone can it be had. Only by spending it lavishly does it shower back on you. Strange are the ways of God. Do not go to the threshold of bliss like a beggar. Go there like an emperor. Is it not known to you that all doors are closed upon beggars? Who is a beggar? He who begs, pleads and supplicates. And who is an emperor? He who gives. Hence I say; give, give, give. Give without any string, any condition. You will then realize that what you had given has returned to you manifold.

Friend, everything comes back. Your entire asset is the echo of your own liberal gift. Do you remember ever having acquired any such thing as you had not given prior to getting it?

200. Man cannot live on bread alone. Christ has truly said, "Bread alone is not enough."

It does not mean that he can live without bread. Man cannot of course live without bread, but he cannot live solely on bread. What the roots are to the plants, bread is to a man. The roots are not for themselves, they are for flowers and fruit. If flowers and fruit do not grow on them, their existence becomes futile. Although flowers and fruit are not produced where there are no roots, yet flowers and fruit are not for the roots. They are for satisfying our hunger, for giving us the vital energy we all need, for keeping us alive.

Man needs bread so that he may live and also satisfy his hunger for the truth and beauty of life. But bread becomes useless if there is no great hunger. It has no intrinsic value of its own. Its purpose lies in transcending itself.

201. Somebody had asked an old sage, "Is there such an advice as no one has ever given?

Is there such an instruction as no good teacher has as yet imparted?"

The sage said, "Yes, certainly there is. Indeed, there is an instruction which has never been imparted and an advice which has never been given before." The man began to ask, "Sir, can you tell me what it is?" The sage simply laughed and said, "It is not an object.

Nor is it any thought."

Truth cannot be taught through any word. Know that which can be taught through the medium of words is not Truth.

Truth can be known but cannot be communicated. In order to know it we have to become worldless, silent and void. How can that which can be known in void, be uttered through words?

202. Truth liberates. But it is that Truth which is not borrowed. Acquired and second- hand truths become more binding because there is nothing more untrue than these truths.

203. Oh, look at the Ganges! It rushes to the ocean from the summits of the mountain. It is the symbol of righteous living. It is driven by a single purpose in its entire journey, namely, to unite with the ocean. It wishes to lose itself in the cosmic existence and cease to be an individual. Its bliss lies in the union with the ocean; there is no isolation, no loneliness, no pettiness of confinement, because it is in its fullness there. So long as it does not exist (as apart from the ocean and distinct), it is in fullness. As long as it exists separately, it is incomplete. Friends, be like the Ganges. Seek an ocean. Let there be a single aim -- the vast ocean. Let there be a passionate zeal -- the ocean. Let there be a single melody -- the ocean. And then flow on. If the vital breaths are impatient for the ocean, the feet will seek and find out the path thereto. Know then that the search of the river for the ocean is the search for losing itself into it; there is no other way of realizing itself. Into this single maxim is compressed all the essence of spirituality, religion and yoga. And this alone is the Truth and Bliss that man can attain.

204. Are we not like those fishes that have been caught in the net of the fisherman and are writhing and languishing? It appears so to me. Yet that is no reason why we should be desperate. Another truth too dawns on me, the truth that we are not only the fishes that have been caught but also the net and the fisherman as well. And therein lies the door opening on our liberation. We are the creators of all our bondages and miseries. All these are the creations of our own mind. And then don't we really have the vision of the possibility of salvation in this truth?

205. Does the intellect know anything? No, certainly not. The intellect just explains. It is a commentator. In regard to the external world, the sense-organs perceive and the intellect elucidates. In regard to the inner world, the heart perceives and the intellect explains. The intellectuals who accept the intellect as the knower are therefore mistaken.

Nothing has ever been known through the intellect. It is not the path of knowledge. But due to the illusion that it is the path, it necessarily becomes an obstacle, a hindrance.

What in reality is intellectuality? It lies in falsely assuming that the intellect can never become a hindrance. If the intellect does not stand between life and the self a sympathetic attitude is created which becomes the eye of Truth.

206. Life is a frustration because we ourselves have locked it up in the self! If it is liberated from the four walls of the self, it transforms itself into bliss. Life is neither in "I" nor in "you". It is a current that flows incessantly between the two. It is a commerce with the universal. But we have converted it into a debate, a conflict. This accounts for our misery, affliction, worry, death! All this is the result of our imprisoning the consciousness in the islets of the ego. On account of this, life has become impeded, insentient and, indeed, waveless. It has become one long bondage, our prison. We are as much afflicted as the sprouting grain imprisoned within the hard shell of the seed. When the outer shell gives way, the seed comes to life, and begins to sprout and rise up. It emerges out of the dark pit under the ground and seeks the sun. Then begins the journey for which it exists.

Man -- man, imprisoned within and surrounded by the self is the seed imprisoned in the shell of his ego. This shell is very hard because it affords the appearance of security. And therefore, instead of breaking it open, we go on nourishing it and making it harder and stronger. The stronger it grows the more crippled and lifeless the young sprout becomes.

Thus in the illusion of making our life securer we lose our life itself.

I have heard a story. In his desire to protect himself, an Emperor built a mansion that had no doors. The passage through which he entered was later on closed. Hidden thus, he could not be harassed or harmed by an enemy. He was well protected in his doorless mansion. But the moment it was wholly closed he knew that it provided little security, for it was as good as death itself. The mansion itself became his grave. Similarly our concern for security gives rise to doorless egotism and eventually it becomes our death. Life consists not in remaining aloof from but in merging with the universe. Hence I say, that, if you wish to realize life and the bliss of liberation, give up this madness after security because that alone is the base of that vicious circle which eventually snatches off life itself in the name of protecting it. Life is insecurity. There is life only in insecurity.

Security is sluggishness. What can security mean if not death? He who is ready to remain insecure, can break open the shell of egotism. The young sprout of life within him can shoot forth towards the unknown, towards the Supreme Soul.

207. A religious, virtuous life is not an impossibility. But the Truth of religion can be known only to the extent that it is lived. Without being lived, it cannot be known. Living it is knowing it. A religious life will appear to be wholly impractical to those who imagine that they can know it without living it. In the pitch darkness of the night if anyone walks about with a small lamp, only a thin stream of light illumines the path ahead. The path of religion, too, is of the same kind. But, if the man with the lamp stops and begins to think, "Oh, this is but a small lamp; its light is but faint, while the way is long and the night so dark", what wonder if it appears to be wholly impractical to him to traverse the path during that night with the help of that lamp!

208. Sometime back I had had a dream. On a mountainous track somebody has slipped and fallen. A crowd has gathered around him. The people are rebuking him for his weakness and are laughing at him in derision. A preacher is instructing him to shake off the weakness due to which he has fallen. A reformer is talking of punishing him, for if the people who fall are not punished. they will encourage other people too to fall. I see all this and am worried because nobody is trying to straighten him up. I squeeze myself through the crowd somehow. When I try to lift him up, I see that he is already dead. The crowd then disperses. Perhaps they will be gathering round somebody else who has fallen. The preacher too goes off. Perhaps on some other path somebody else has fallen and is awaiting his instruction. The social reformer too goes away. He does not wish to deny himself the opportunity of seeing other fallen creatures punished and reformed.

Then I am the only person left near that dead man. His hands and feet are so weak that I cannot believe that he had walked at any time. It is not his slipping down but his ability to move about that seems to be a wonder, something incredible. In this dismay I wake up from sleep and I now realize that it had not been a mere dream. The true state of human society, of all of us, is not different.

209. It is not an exaggeration to say that we have forgotten ourselves. Is not our very birth a forgetfulness? Then what can life resting on the foundation of self-forgetfulness be? Is it not a mere dream? What, if at all, is the difference between dream and wakefulness? In dream the dreamer is completely forgotten. The dream is on him -- the dream is just before him, but he is not present in the dream. In fact, his absence itself is the slumber because the moment he is present, there is neither slumber nor dream. What, then, shall we call the so-called life of ours? This is not wakefulness because we haven't the memory of the self. Is this also a dream? Yes friend, this too is a mere dream. As long as there is insensibility towards the self, life is but an empty dream.

210. What is this life of consciousness? The life of the mind is not the life of consciousness. When the movement of the mind is quietened, then alone is another stir inaugurated in the mind. This I call consciousness. Only when the mind becomes void does consciousness become full and receptive. The mind is an instrument, a medium.

When it gets involved in the movement of the self, it ceases to be an instrument as well as the medium of consciousness, for it is engaged otherwise. To get acquainted with the life of consciousness it is necessary to bid goodbye to the life of the mind. The life of the mind is analogous to the usurpation of the master's place by the servant in his absence.

How will such a servant wish for the master's return? His mind cannot accord sincere welcome to the returning master. He will set up every possible hindrance against him.

The most basic of the hindrances will be his contention that he himself is the master, none else. He will simply deny the existence of any other master. Generally the mind does the very same thing. It becomes an obstruction and prevents the advent of consciousness. If you wish to proceed towards consciousness, let the mind be given rest.

Let it remain devoid of activity. Let it be void and empty. That is to say, let it be disengaged, for the cessation of activity is the beginning of the stir of consciousness. The death of the mind heralds the life consciousness.

211. Why is life so purposeless, alienated, mechanical, and lonely? Why is it so insipid and boring? Because we have lost all sense of wonder; the power to marvel at things.

Man has murdered all wonder. His so-called knowledge has sounded the death-knell of the marvellous and the wonderful. We are under the illusion that we know everything.

We think we have the key to every secret and miracle. Naturally, what can be a miracle to him who has a ready explanation for each and every phenomenon under the sun? Nothing remains unknown to a mind that is thus filled with knowledge. There is no wonder where nothing is unknown. There is no miracle where there is no wonder. There is no charm or joy where there is no miracle, no challenge. Hence I urge you to eschew knowledge.

What has been known has become dead for this very reason. Knowledge is a thing of the past. It is a hindrance to the unknown. Let it go so that the unknown may be ushered in.

Alertness to the unknown is wonder, and that is the threshold of God who is always unknown. What is known is the world; what is unknown is God.

212. F. Dostoevsky makes a character say somewhere: "I wish to assure you that my love of mankind is increasing every day, but that with my associates it is decreasing in the same proportion." Oh! how easy is it to love humanity but how difficult to love men! And perhaps the less a person loves his fellow-men, the more he loves mankind! This attitude is an apology for the absence of love in ourselves. And thus we try to escape from the duty of love and the reproach of self-deception. That is why the people who profess to love humanity are hardhearted, ruthless and cruel. Genocide is resorted to without the slightest compunction in the name of love of humanity! Therefore, friends, I do not wish to use tall, hollow and worthless words urging you to love humanity. The so-called religions have often repeated such words. I have come here to tell you to love real men, your fellow-beings -- not mankind, but those men who are all round you. 'Humanity' is a mere word, a mere name. Hence loving it is very easy, because nothing has to be done except uttering words, in order to love it. But the problem centres around real men -- men who, like you, tread the ground around you. To love them is nothing short of penance. To love them is a great austerity, a noble task. To love them is passing through revolution from the very root. I invite you all to participate in such a love. Such participation alone is real religion.

213. Do we use two different standards in measuring ourselves and others? A Christian holy father was announcing the good news of some Hindus embracing Christianity. He said to his sons, "It is the mercy of God that good sense has dawned on so many Hindus."

One of his sons reminded him, "But, father, you did not speak of any good sense when a Christian became a Hindu." The furious father burst out in anger, "Don't mention even the name of that rebel to me!" Certainly he who leaves one's fold is a rebel and he who comes to one's fold is a person endowed with sense! Because of such diverse measuring rods even the tiny mole in the eye of our neighbour becomes visible to us while the mountain in our eyes escapes our notice. But is it proper? Is it beneficial to us? It is not my function to ask you about all this. It is for you to put the question to yourself. In the path of religion he who uses these diverse measuring rods fails to transform himself. He cannot see the truths of his own life. He remains unacquainted with them. And this lack of familiarity with life and its basic truths leads to his escape from transformation.

Adoption of two different measuring rods are the characteristic features of an unrighteous, irreligious mind. Even while measuring ourselves, we have to measure in the same way as when measuring others. Without this much of impartiality no person can pass through soul-revolution.

214. In the name of Truth word's are being worshipped. Taking milestones on the wayside to be their goal, people have begun to stay permanently near them. Is not man's laziness the root cause for this self-deception? Otherwise, who could have accepted words as Truth and the idols as the Supreme Soul?

215. I do not consider thoughtful meditation true meditation. True meditation is free from thought, because freedom from thought itself is meditation. Where there is no thought, no deliberation, there is meditation. In deep slumber too there is no thought-process. Hence to say that the absence of thought alone is meditation is not enough. That would imply negation while meditation is not merely the negation of anything. It is also the positive presence of something. That positive something is sentience, awareness, understanding.

Hence wakefulness, full consciousness is meditation. Full consciousness is possible only when it is free from thought.

216. What is the method of realizing the self? At the outset, know the non-self in the self and recognize it. In doing so, when eventually nothing like the non-self remains, that is the self. That void is the self, because that which is void is full.

217. What is good conduct? The conduct behind which there is evil longing, a preconceived opinion, an ardent desire for some fruit, for the outcome, is certainly not a good conduct. Such an activity is impure and incomplete. It is impure because it is mixed with something other than itself. It is incomplete because it has to be filled up from outside, whereas good conduct is pure and complete. Good conduct is such an action as is complete in itself No future thing is necessary to complete it. Good conduct is bliss in itself. Its mere coming into being is its bliss. Bliss is inherent in its very existence and not in any outside fruit or achievement. I had seen a man playing on his flute in a desolate forest. There was none to listen to that music. I had lost my way in the forest and had reached the spot on hearing of the flute. I said, "Brother, why are you playing on the flute in this secluded spot?" He replied, "Only to play on the flute. That is my bliss." Good conduct is a self-inspired action. Good conduct is not a reaction prompted by the external world. Reaction means a 'return action', a requital. We make the mistake of considering requitals as our own activities, whereas between the two there is a gulf as between heaven and earth. This mistake is due to the fact that there is an element of activity in both. The unfolding of these tWo is not only different but even opposed to each other. The action that takes place within an individual as a result of a stroke or blow from the external world or from the environment, is called a reaction. That which is inspired by the self, the inner self, is the real activity. Reactions bind us because the inspiration underlying them is external. Action liberates because it is the manifestation of the self. Reaction is dependence. Action is independence. Reaction is helplessness, a constraint. Action is the manifestation of the soul. Reaction is always a redundance. Action is always fresh and lively. Living only in reaction is not salutary. To be established in action -- in pure and complete activity -- is good conduct. In reaction man has a downfall, for reaction is mechanical. In action there is an upward development because it is sentient and conscious.

218. Ethics cannot be religion, but religion is certainly ethics. Moral codes are something extrinsic, a set of rules for emulation and practice. It is a disciplinary measure imposed upon us from without. Hence a moralist is seldom liberated; he becomes more and more mechanical and dependent. In this manner, his consciousness does not wake up but continues to slumber. Eventually he degenerates into a mass of sluggish human being.

The immoral person as well as the moralist is only a mass of habits. The immoralist follows the dictates of nature and the moralist follows those of society. Both of them live externally and obey rules imposed upon them from outside and are, therefore, dependent.

Action is the search for the Self. Only the person who realizes the Self attains freedom.

Freedom can originate only when there is the experience of the Self. How can freedom be possible when the existence of the Self is not known? And a kind of discipline definitely comes from the experience of the Self also. It is not externally imposed. It is natural and self-inspired. It rises from within. The morality that springs up then is a different thing altogether. Then it is not the laboured imitation of any prescribed code but the unexerted manifestation of the inner self. The moral life thereafter is not for acquiring anything but for distributing what has been acquired.

219. Even the smallest piece of straw that falls into the eye hides the biggest of mountains. If the small eyelid comes in between the eye and the world, the world is hidden. For a clear, unobstructed vision, there must not be any obstruction between the seer and the seen. The obstruction becomes bigger in proportion to its nearness to the eye.

In the spiritual life, too, a similar event takes place. It is only that object which is very near the seer that deprives him of the opportunity of seeing Truth. And what is the nearest thing to the seer? "I", the feeling of "1", is the nearest thing to me. What wonder is there if it becomes an obstruction between truth and me?

220. If God is to be known, it is necessary to identify ourselves with God. But this seems to be a paradox, for how can we identify ourselves with that God whom we do not know at all? And where is the question of knowing Him when we become one with Him?

Certainly a paradox appears in this statement. But to understand this paradox is to understand the secret of spiritual practices. An artist was painting the sunset scene. I asked him, "What is it that you do at the outset?" He replied, "At the outset I become one with the scene that has to be painted." I said, "How is it possible? For example, how is it possible to become one with the sunset?" He said, "The moment an individual forgets himself he becomes one with all." Ah! what he had said was so revealing, so true! The Supreme Soul means all that which exists. Of course, the entirety of existence is God.

And in becoming one with it, what other obstruction is there than my "I"? He is only there where "I" is not present. But how can we know that which we have not lived? The Supreme Soul can be known only from within, not from without. And for this, it is essential to identify oneself with it. When we look at this from without, it is the world that is seen but which is no other than the Supreme Soul. But when we see the world from within, that which appears is the Supreme Soul. The vision of truth from without is the world; that from within is the lord.

221. For the creation of beauty it becomes necessary to be one with beauty, because only then can beauty be known. We will call that artist mad who says, "I do not know beauty but I create beauty." But does this not apply to good conduct? How can Truth be practised without knowing Truth, without being one with Truth? in our normal, routine activities we talk about that which is known, of which we are conscious, don't we? If without knowing beauty, the artist dreams of painting the beautiful he is considered mad.

That person is equally mad who without knowing it, tries to employ Truth in the practical affairs of life. Creation of beauty is the outcome of the experience of beauty. Truthful life is the outcome of the experience of Truth. Truthful life is not the staircase to the experience of Truth. Truthful life is the manifestation of the experience of Truth. The professed truthful life practised without realizing Truth is only the life of untruth, or, rather more fatal than untruth because it creates a false suggestion and fantasy of Truth.

222. Does God exist? A question like this is not proper, for what after all is the meaning of the word God? It means 'Entirety'. The entire existence is pervaded by God, is God.

God is not a separate entity, individual or power. What exists is God. "God exists" -- this is not the proper way of putting it. Existence itself is God. In "God exists" there is tautology, circumlocution. Questioning the existence of God is questioning the existence of existence itself. All other things have their apparent existence but not so God, because He is existence Himself. All the rest possess power but not so God because He is power Himself. Moreover, how can the "full one" be known like other things? He cannot be 'knowable' to me, because I too am in Him and identical with Him. Yet, it is possible to be one with Him, to sink into Him. In fact, we are one with Him, drowned in Him. This can be known after losing the, "I". Knowing this is knowing Him. That is why I say love itself is knowing Him. He can be known only in love because the ego disappears in love.

It is not found where the self exists. There is the parable of the salt that went to visit the sea. It saw the sea and knew it but it did not return because in knowing it, it became one with it. How would it know the sea except by becoming the sea? Man too has no means of knowing God except by becoming God.

223. What is the real proof of the existence of God? In regard to God the language of proofs is inapplicable. Thoughts, arguments and proofs do not extend to God. In thought, in argument, the ego is predominant and not God, who resides where there is no "I"- sense, no pride, no ego. What Kabir has said is true: "The street leading to Him is so narrow that two cannot pass through it at once. The name of that street is Love". Love is a state in which I am but my "I" is not. Only in such a state all obstructions from the consciousness is removed and His vision becomes possible. That vision itself is the proof.

What other evidence of love than being in it can there be? There is no other evidence of God except being in God. But other proofs have also been advanced, and may be advanced, in future as well; because they who are unable to be in love deliberate on love and those who have no eyes deliberate on light. Deliberation and discussion with regard to God are resorted to only where there are no eyes to see and where there is no heart to experience. It matters little whether the discussion is for or against the problem. The pros and cons do not bring in any material difference. The theist and the atheist are but the two sides of the same coin. Both are bereft of eyes. And this want of eyes turns out to be a subject of controversy in regard to light. For the blind the acceptance or non-acceptance of light has no meaning at all. For him only the realization of his blindness has some significance, for only through that understanding does a search for the eyes start. Light has not to be searched for. It is the eyes that have to be searched for. And where the eyes are, the light too is. If there are no eyes, what proof of light will convince the blind? If there are no spiritual eyes, there can be no proof of God as well. Hence do not ask for the proofs of light. Know that you have no eyes. Similarly do not ask for proofs of God.

Know that 'whatever exists' is unknown and you are ignorant. The light is unkown but the blindness of one's own self is known. God is unknown but the ignorance of one's self is known. Now, what can be gained by thinking about the unknown? Any thought or deliberation cannot be carried beyond the limits of the known. It proceeds only on the track of the known. The unknown cannot be known through it. The unknown comes only when the known removes itself and gives way to it. The advent of the unknown is in the rejection and removal of the known. It is only when we bid good-bye to the known that the guest, the unkown, comes to the threshold of consciousness. He appears when discussions and analyses end. To remain busy in thought and discussion betokens our state of unconsciousness. Hence where discussion and deliberation are wholly absent while our consciousness is alert, one obtains those eyes which catch a glimpse of light called God. Hence I would call the ardent yearning for Truth the treatment of the blindness of the self but not a deliberation about light. Religion cures the blindness of the Self. What is the most irrefutable evidence of light? Eyes. What is the most irrefutable evidence of the existence of God? Eyes. What I myself see after gaining the eyes is that only God exists, nothing else. What I used to know in blindness was that while God did not exist, everything else did.

224. Truth is one. Hence splitting existence into two is the most deep-rooted of all blind beliefs. What exists is solitary and without a second. Nature -- God, body -- soul, insentient -- sentient -- such differentiation has no place in existence. Existence is but one, not manifold. Its manifestations are many. But in this diversity too, it is one. Among the different pieces it is the unsplit whole. But discussion and deliberation give rise to differentiation, for discussion views the upper surface and does not penetrate to the depths. Discussion views from the outside and does not enter within. From discussion the author of discussion emanates. This author knows himself distinct from the rest. This feeling of separateness and difference prevents him from entering into existence, because for entry, non-separateness is essential; for deep penetration non-difference is essential.

He cannot attain non-separateness and non-difference without losing himself. He cannot lose himself without giving up intellection and thought, because he is no more than the shadow of his thoughts. He has no existence of his own. He is only an assemblage of thoughts. Hence, far from losing himself, he wishes to save himself. This he can do only by diving into further thoughts and discussions. Thus by deliberating on Truth he is farther removed from it. Truth is near, but only in being free from thoughts. But in intellection, the mind gets away from Truth. Discussion and deliberation separate Truth from the Self. In that perception, devoid of thought there is neither soul nor body, neither God, nor nature. But there is something which cannot be assigned a name. I call it the Supreme Soul. That . unknown, nameless, unsplit entity is Truth. When deliberated upon, it appears in pieces. But when freed of thoughts, it manifests itself in its unsplit form.

That is its original real form. Deliberation breaks it, for deliberation is a process of analysis, and analysis cannot see anything before breaking it into pieces. The synthetic process looks at it as it is. It is but a mirror, and "what exists" is reflected in it exactly as it is. In the mirror of synthetic consciousness there is not even a line of duality. That unknown entity of life is body, soul, nature and God. All these are the notes of that single melody. All is life. There is nothing dead or insentient. All is nectar and life, far removed from death. Waves come rolling and surging in life's ocean and eventually merge therein.

They are there both when they rise as well as when they disappear. They exist in both these conditions because the ocean exists. Individuals perish because they do not really exist. Theistic beliefs perish because they have no real existence. That which has no real existence perishes. What exists, exists always. But this is not my tenet. This is not my thought. This is how I look at things. Anybody who remains neutral in regard to opinions, thoughts and parties and keeps silent and calm, void and alert will have the same attitude.

If we view the world with deliberation it would appear to be dual. But if we view it synthetically, it would be non-dual. Consciousness devoid of thought is trance which is the gateway to Truth. Friends, shall I invite you all to experience this blessed trance-state in which there is no duality, no sense of time, and no self-consciousness?