Does the universe love me?

Question 1

IT is not a path at all; you are not to travel it. Rather, it is a simple understanding.

You have to stop all travelling. A path is to travel and to go somewhere; a path is to reach somewhere, to attain something; a path is a means and the end is far away in the future. That's what I mean when I say whatsoever I am talking to you about is not a path; it is a simple understanding. If you understand, you have already reached to the goal. If you understand, you have always been in the goal, never for a single moment have you been away from it. You may have been dreaming that you have gone away, but you have not left your home for a single moment.

This is a no-path. Or, if you insist for the word, or if you are so fascinated with the word, call it a pathless path. But try to understand me: this is not a path. I am giving you not the means but the end itself.

Question 2

Not at all. To attain to enlightenment that is a must -- that you should lose all hope and desire for it. Otherwise the desire for enlightenment becomes a nightmare in itself. And the more you desire it, the further away you are from it - - greater the desire, greater will be the distance. Drop all desiring for it, all hoping for it. If you have really become desireless about enlightenment, any moment it is possible to happen. Give space; don't be filled with the desire for it.

The greatest barrier to enlightenment is the longing for it, because a mind that longs and desires is always tense. It has a subtle anxiety around it; it is never at ease. How can you be at ease if you have to go somewhere, reach somewhere?

You may be sitting, but you are on the move. Visibly you may be resting, but invisibly you are restless. Drop all nonsense. Nobody has ever been able to attain enlightenment through desire. That's why all Buddhas insist: become desireless.

I am not saying that when you become desireless you will attain to nirvana or enlightenment; I am saying when you are desireless you are nirvana, you are

enlightenment. The desire is the disturbance in you, just like ripples in a lake...

ripples disappear, the lake is silent.

It is easy to drop the desires of the worldly things, very easy. In fact it is absolutely foolish to cling to them. Only stupid people cling to worldly things, because anybody can see that they are going to be taken away from you. All clinging is futile, fruitless, and anybody who has even a small quantity of intelligence can become alert that accumulating things is not going to give you enrichment; rather, it will make you more and more poor. The more things you will have, the more you will feel that you are empty.

A rich man becomes, deep down, very poor. You cannot find greater beggars than emperors. Knowing well that they have everything that they could desire, for the first time they become alert that nothing has changed inside: no contentment has happened, no satiety. Everything is as much in turmoil as ever; the whole effort has been useless, and the whole life wasted in it.

No, it is not difficult to drop worldly desires, but when you drop worldly desires, immediately, the mind creates the other-worldly desires: moksha, nirvana, enlightenment, God. Now you hanker for these. The situation remains the same -- you remain in desire. The object is irrelevant: the real thing: whether you desire or not. The real thing is not what do you desire. All your spiritual -- so-called spiritual -- teachers misguide you because they go on saying, "Change the object cf desire. Don't desire worldly things; desire God." Bu I say to you that if you desire God, God himself has become a worldly thing. To me this is the definition of the world: whatsoever can be desired is the world.

God cannot be desired. You cannot make God an object of your desire; that is sacrilege. Enlightenment cannot be desired. because enlightenment happens only when there is no desire. And enlightenment is not something that comes from the outside. When the mind is freed from desire, suddenly, you become aware of the king of kings sitting inside. He has always been there. but you were so much worried about desiring and reaching and gaining and achieving.

The achieving mind is the barrier, so it is good that you have given up all hope for enlightenment.

But I don't think that you have given up all hope -- otherwise it would have happened. You may be right, however: practically, you have given up all hope for enlightenment. But deep down you are still dreaming about it, desiring it.

Practically, you may have given up, but deep down the desire must be there.

Otherwise there is no question -- why the enlightenment has not happened. It should happen immediately -- there is not a moment's gap. It is absolutely certain: when desire has left you completely. utterly, it is there. In &ct it is nothing -- you without desire. So search deep, dig a little deeper inside yourself; you will again find desires, layers of desires: and go on throwing them. Peel down your onion to the very core.

One day it is going to happen. Any day it is possible. Any moment when there is no desire, not even a flicker of it -- no trembling, no wavering -- and

consciousness is unclouded -- no smoke of desire. only the flame of consciousness, the fire of consciousness.... And suddenly you start laughing, suddenly you understand that that which you were seeking was always within you. That is the meaning of Jesus when he goes on insisting, "The kingdom of God is within you." If it were "without" it could be desired; if it were "without" it could be reached from some path. It is you! That's why I say I have got no path to offer you. I can only share my understanding with you.

Question 3

It is a wrong question to ask. You should ask the other way round, "Do you love the universe?" because universe is not a person. It cannot love you. It has no center, or you can say "everywhere it has the center," but it is a nonpersonal phenomenon. How can a nonpersonal existence love you? You can love.

But when you love, the universe responds -- responds absolutely. If you take one step towards the universe, the universe takes a thousand and one steps towards you; but that's a response.

You will have to understand what Lao Tzu says: that the nature of existence is feminine. A woman waits; she never initiates. The man has to go and initiate. The man has to come and woo and court and persuade. Existence is feminine -- it waits You have to woo it; you have to court it; you have to take the initiative and then the universe showers on you -- showers in infinite ways, fulfils in infinite ways. Just like a woman: when you have persuaded her she showers tremendously.

No man can be such a lover as a woman can be. A man remains always a part lover; his total being is never in love. A woman is totally in it; it is her whole life, her every breath. But she waits. She will never take the initiative, she will never chase you; and if a woman chases you -- howsoever beautiful the woman -- you will become scared of her. She won't look feminine. She will be so aggressive that her whole beauty will turn into ugliness. A woman is passive. Remember this word "passive," passivity.

Universe is the mother. It is always better to call the God "mother than "father."

The father is not so relevant. Universe is the mother: feminine, waiting for you -- waiting for you for ever and ever -- but you will have to knock at the door. You will find it immediately opened if you knock, but if you don't knock you can go on standing at the gate. The existence is not going to open it; it is not aggressive.

Even in love it is not aggressive. That's why I say it will respond.

But don't ask the wrong question. Don't ask, "Does the universe love me?" Love the universe and you will find that your love is nothing. The universe gives you such infinite love, returns your love with such infinite response.... But it is a response -- the universe never initiates; it waits. And it is beautiful that it waits; otherwise the whole beauty of love will be lost.

But this question arises; it has a relevance with your mind. This is how human mind functions: it always asks, "Does the other love me?" The woman, the wife, asks, "Does the husband love me?" The husband goes on asking, "Does the wife, the woman, love me?" The children go on thinking, "Does the mother, the father, love me?" and the parents go on thinking whether the children love them. You always ask about the other. You are asking a wrong question. You are moving in a wrong direction. You will come across a wall; you will not find a door. You will feel hurt because you will clash against the wall. The very beginning is wrong.

You should always ask, "Do I love the wife?" "Do I love the husband?" "Do I love the children?" "Do I love my father and my mother?" But always start from yourself -- do you love.

And this is the mystery: if you love, suddenly you know everybody loves you. If you love the wife, she loves you; if you love the husband, he loves you; if you love the children, they love you. A person who loves from his heart is being responded to from everywhere. Love can never be fruitless. It blooms.

But you should start rightly, on the right track; otherwise everybody is asking, "Does the other love me?" and the other is also asking the same question. Then nobody loves, then love becomes just a fantasy, then love disappears from the earth -- as it has happened. It has disappeared; it exists only in the poetries of poets -- fantasies, imagination, dreams. Reality is absolutely devoid of love now, because you have started with a wrong question.

Drop that question like a disease. Drop it and escape from it, and alwaYs ask, "Do I love?' and that will become the key. With that key you can open any heart, and with that key, by and by, you will become so artful that you can open the very existence with that key; then it becomes prayer. Just ask the question, "Does the universe pray to you?" Then it will look foolish; then it will look just absurd.

"Does the universe pray to you?" -- you will not oven ask that; but prayer is nothing but the highest blossoming of love.

You pray to the universe and then you find from everywhere rivulets of love flowing towards you. You become fulfilled. The universe has much to give to you, but for that you have to be open. And the opening is possible only if you love: then you become open, otherwise you remain closed. And even the universe is helpless against your closedness.

Question 4

No, it is impossible. You are asking me, "Is it possible to go up the ladder only in part?" Some part of you is left down, some part of you is left somewhere on the ladder, and only a part of you reaches to the very end -- how is it possible? You are a unity. You are an organic unity; you cannot be divided. That is the meaning

of the word "individual": that which cannot be divided. You are an individual.

You have to go to the divine door in your totality, in toto; nothing can be left.

That's why my insistence, again and again, that if you suppress your anger you will not be able to enter the divine temple -- because that is what you are doing: you are trying to leave the anger outside the temple and enter the temple. How can you enter? Because who will be left with the anger outside? -- it is you. If you are trying to suppress sex, then you will not be able to enter the divine temple, because who is sex? -- it is you, your energy. Nothing can be left outside. If you leave something outside, your totality will be left outside; then there is only one possibility: you will remain outside and you will dream that you have entered.

That's what your so many "mahatmas" are doing. They are outside the temple dreaming that they have entered and they are seeing God, they are in heaven or moksha.

Only total will you enter -- not even a single part can be left behind. Then what to do? There are ugly parts, I know; and I understand your embarrassing situation. You would not like to bring those ugly parts to the divine; you would not like to present those ugly parts to the divine. I understand your trouble, your problem. You would like to drop all sex, all anger, all jealousy, hatred -- you would like to become a pure virgin, innocence. Good. Your thinking is good, but the way you are trying to do it is not possible. The only way is: transform. Don't cut your parts; transform them. The ugliness can become beauty.

Have you watched what happens in the garden? You bring cow dung -- smelling -- fertilizers, manure -- smelling badly -- but within months, the manure has disappeared in the earth; now it has come as beautiful flowers with such a divine fragrance around them. This is transformation. The bad smell has become fragrance; the ugly shape of manure has become beautiful flowers. Life needs transformation. You will enter into the divine's temple total -- transformed. Don't suppress anything; rather, try to find the key to transform it.

Anger becomes compassion. A person who has no anger can never be compassionate -- never. It is not a coincidence that all the twenty-four teerthankeras of the Jains were born kshatriyas, warriors, men of anger, and they became the preachers of nonviolence and compassion. Buddha is a warrior, comes from a kshatriya family, a samurai; and he became the greatest flower of compassion ever. Why? They had much more anger than you have. When the anger was converted and transformed, of course, it became a tremendous energy.

You need anger. You need it as you are right now because it is a protective shell, and you will need it when you are transformed because then it becomes fuel, energy. It is pure energy. Have you seen a small child, sometimes, really in anger? How beautiful the small child looks -- radiant, vital, as if he can explode and destroy the whole world. Just a small, tiny child, looks like atomic energy -- red in the face, jumping and crying -- just energy, pure energy. If you don't suppress the child, and teach him how to understand this energy, there will be no need of any suppression: the same energy can be transformed.

You watch: clouds gather in the sky, and then there is great lightning and thunder. This lightning, just a few hundred years before, was a terrifying factor in the life of humanity. Man became so afraid of the lightning -- you cannot imagine now, because now that same lightning has become electricity. It has become a servant in the home: it runs your air conditioner; it runs your fridge. It works continuously day and night -- no slave can work that way. The same lightning was a great, terrific fact in humanity's life.

The first god was born because of lightning -- the fear. Indra was born. the god of thunder and lightning, and people started worshipping him because people thought this lightning comes as a punishment. But now nobody bothers about it, now you know the secret -- you have found the key. Now the same electricity, Indra's punishment, now functions as a slave: Indra is working behind your air conditioner, Indra is running your fridge, Indra is working in your fan. Now Indra is no longer a god, but a servant. And such a docile servant -- that never strikes, never asks for any raise of the pay, nothing -- a complete, total slave.

The same happens in the inner sky of man -- anger is lightning. in Buddha it has become compassion. Now see Buddha's face, so radiant. From where comes this radiancy? It is anger transformed. You are afraid of sex, but have you ever heard of any impotent man becoming enlightened? Tell me. Have you heard of any impotent man, who had no sexual energy in him, that he has become a prophet -- a Mahavir, a Mohammed, a Buddha, a Christ? Have you heard about it? It never happens -- it cannot happen -- because the very energy is lacking. It is sex energy that rises high. It is sex energy that comes to a moment of transformation: where it becomes samadhi.

Sex energy becomes samadhi, superconsciousness. I tell you: the more sexual you are, the more is the possibility; so don't be afraid. More sexuality only shows that you have too much energy. Very good. You should be thankful to God, and you are not thankful -- rather, you feel guilty; rather, you feel like complaining against God that "Why have you given this energy to me?" You don't know what is possible with this energy in the future. A Buddha is not impotent. He lived a very, very fulfilling sexual life -- not an ordinary sexual life. His father had called all the beautiful women in the kingdom to serve him; all the beautiful young girls were serving him.

Energy is needed, and energy is always beautiful. If you don't know how to use it, it becomes ugly; then it goes on running astray. The energy has to go higher.

Sex is the lowest center of your being -- but that is not all: you have seven centers of your being. As the energy moves upwards, if you know the key how to release it upwards, as it moves from one center to another, you feel so many transformations. When the energy comes to the heart chakra, to the center of the heart, you become so full of love you become love. When the energy comes to the third-eye center you become consciousness, awareness. When the energy comes to the last chakra, sahasrar, you bloom, you flower, your tree of life has come to a fulfillment: you become a Buddha. But the energy is the same.

Don't condemn; don't suppress. Transform. Be more understanding, alert; only then will you be able to enter in totality. And there is no other way; the other way is just to dream and imagine.

Question 5

There is no need to synthesize. If you are really spontaneous you will become regular. If you are really regular you will become spontaneous. There is no need to reconcile. If you try to reconcile you will become a mess, so choose one and forget about the other. If you choose Zen forget about Patanjali as if he never existed; then he is not for you. And one day you will suddenly see that the regularity has come following spontaneity.

How it happens? If you are spontaneous, if you ea( when you feel hungry -- and if you only eat when you feel hungry and you never eat against your desire, you never eat more than your desire, you always follow your need -- by and by you will settle to a regularity, because the body is a mechanism, a very, very beautiful biomechanism. Then every day at the same time you will find you are hungry again; every day at the same time you will find you are sleepy again. Life will become regular.

But if you are afraid of spontaneity.... As people are afraid. because culture, civilization, religion -- all the poisoners of the world -- they have poisoned your mind and they have made you afraid of spontaneity; they say you are hiding an animal within you and if you are spontaneous you may go astray. If you are too afraid of spontaneity, then listen to Patanjali.

Patanjali is always a second choice to me, never the first. It is for ill people, corrupted by culture, unnatural, poisoned by civilization and religion, destroyed by priests and preachers. Then Patanjali. Patanjali is a therapy. That's why I say Patanjali is useful for ninety-nine percent of the people, because ninety-nine percent of the people are ill. This earth is a great hospital. Patanjali is a physician, a scientist.

Zen is for natural people, uncorrupted, for innocent children. If there is going to come some day a beautiful world, Patanjali will be forgotten; Zen will remain. If the world is going to be becoming more and more in, Zen will be forgotten; only Patanjali will be there. Zen says be natural. Do you watch nature? Have you seen nature's spontaneity and regularity both? Rains come, summer comes, winter comes -- they follow in a regular pattern.

And if you see some disturbance it is because of you, because man has disturbed the climate, man has disturbed the ecology. Otherwise nature was so predictable -- and so spontaneous -- you could always see when the spring has come. You could have heard the first steps of spring all over: in the songs of the birds, in the

trees, the happiness that spreads. It was absolutely certain, regular, but now everything is disturbed. That is not because of nature. Man has not only poisoned man, man has started to poison nature also. Now everything is irregular: you don't know when the rains are coming, you don't know whether it is going to rain less or more this year, you don't know how hot this summer is going to be. Nature's regularity is disturbed by you, because you have broken the circle. Otherwise nature is absolutely spontaneous -- and the nature does not need any Patanjali. Now it will need. Now, to set the ecology right, a Patanjali is needed.

So you have to choose. If you choose Zen forget Patanjali; otherwise you will be very much confused. And I tell you that Patanjali will come automatically -- you need not worry. But if you feel that you are very ill and you cannot trust in yourself and you cannot be spontaneous, forget about Zen; it is not for you. It is just like there exists a book of exercises for a healthy man. hmm?... who is going to take part in a world olympic: you can read it if you like. but don't try it -- you will be in danger. You are Lying in the hospital; you don't ask how to reconcile this book and your situation. You don't ask. You listen to the physician: you follow. Someday when you are healthy, back to your natural spontaneous being, you may use This book, but right now it is not for you.

Patanjali is for unhealthy people, but almost everybody is unhealthy. Zen is for very natural people. You have to decide about yourself. Nobody else can decide it for you; you have to feel your own energy. But remember, you are not to reconcile -- never do that. Choose one, the other follows. If you feel you are ill, already corrupted, you cannot be spontaneous; try to be regular. Regularity will bring you, by and by, to health and spontaneity.

Question 6

This is a good idea. I bless you absolutely; because to propagate against me is also to propagate for me. Knowingly, unknowingly, whosoever says anything against me says something about me, and nobody knows: if you are talking against me to somebody, he may become interested in me. So go and propagate with all my blessings.

Question 7

This is from Anand Prem. She has been standing at the door for many years. The real thing is to enter; the door is irrelevant. From which door you enter is meaningless. Please enter. If you want to enter from the door of love, then enter

from that door. Enlightenment will follow; it is the highest peak of a loving heart.

If you are afraid of love.... As people are, because the society has made you very much afraid of love and life. Society thinks love is dangerous. It is. One never knows where one is going. It is a sort of madness -- beautiful, but a madness still.

If you are afraid of that then enter meditation, become meditative. If you are really meditative you will feel, suddenly, an upsurge of energy. and you will become loving.

But don't, please, go on standing at the door. Even the doors are tired of you. Do something and enter; it is time enough. you have waited long.

Question 8

You should not deal at all; you should laugh. And don't get serious about it. If you can enjoy, enjoy, but don't deal with it, don't react. And don't try to defend me -- nobody can defend me. And don't try to justify me -- nobody can justify me. And don't try to rationalize -- there is no need. You should not be concerned with it.

The world goes in its own way. People have their own minds and their opinions... and I am a shattering of opinions, of traditions. I am a great shock, so it is natural that the ordinary people should get confused. And the press is always in search of some sensational news; the press depends on it. But for those who are in search these things should not matter in any way.

You should simply laugh and enjoy; nothing is wrong in it. You should not feel hurt; there is no need. It is natural, I understand, if somebody says something against me, who does not know me at all, and you who have been knowing me for long, you hear it -- you feel hurt; you would like to fight it. Don't fight it, because the very effort is useless. Indifference, total indifference, is the only thing that is required of you. Those who don't understand me, they will go on; and if you react you encourage them. Be indifferent; they will become silent by themselves because when nobody is reacting, the whole point is lost. And I am not here to convince the ordinary masses whether I am right or wrong; I am not interested in masses at all. I am interested only in a chosen few. I am to work for them.

So this trouble is going to come up again and again. They don't know what is happening here. They can't know; even if they come they will not be able to understand me, what I am saying. They will misunderstand it. So just forgive them and forget.

Question 9

Whenever you feel that something is being contradicted by me, don't be disturbed about it; I am self-contradictory. It is time you should understand it. I go on contradicting myself. That is one of the ways I am using. If you remain unperturbed, you have attained to a certain crystallization. I will go on contradicting -- everything that I have said, I will contradict. I will not leave a single statement uncontradicted. There is a method in it: I don't want you to cling to any standpoint. I don't want you to cling to my opinions also; the only way is: I should contradict my own opinions. A moment will come, you will understand that this man is not giving you theories, because everything is contradicted. No theory remains Everything negates everything else; you are left in deep emptiness That is my effort.

I am not giving you a philosophy. If I were a philosopher I would never contradict myself, I would be consistent; but I am not a philosopher. At the most you can call me a poet. From a poet you never expect any consistency. You know a poet is a poet; he is not a systematizer. He says something today and something else another day. But if you go on understanding me, a moment will come, whatsoever I have said will be contradicted -- by myself -- you will be left in emptiness with nothing to cling to -- no theory, no system, no shastra.

And only in that nothingness will you be able to understand me, because I am not saying something -- here I am being something to you. It is not a message I am giving to you; I am the message. Only when you are totally empty will you be able to understand it.

And secondly, if I say that Sai Baba is a magician and not a mystic, I am only saying a fact, not condemning him, not criticizing him at all. If I say this is morning, nine o'clock, if I say this is day and not night, am I condemning night, am I criticizing night? I am simply stating a fact. Satya Sai Baba is a magician and not a mystic. This is a fact to me. I am not criticizing him; I am not against him.

If I say Krishnamurti is enlightened but he has failed, he could not help anybody -- he tried his best; in fact nobody has tried so hard -- he is enlightened and whatsoever he says is true but nobody has been helped, this is not a criticism. I am simply saying that nobody has been helped. Bring somebody who has been helped. and contradict the fact.

I have come across thousands of Krishnamurti followers; they have not been helped. They themselves come and say to me that they have been listening for twenty or even thirty, forty years-old people -- and they understand Krishnamurti absolutely, what he is saying. Because he is saying a single thing continuously. For forty years he has been playing a single note -- he has not even changed the pitch, the tone, no. He is one of the rarest, consistent men ever born on the earth. Monotonously he goes on saying the same thing again and again

and again. Those people come to me and they say they understand him intellectually hut nothing happens. Because through intellectual understanding, nothing can happen.

And if it has happened to somebody listening to Krishnamurti, I tell you, it would have happened to that man without Krishnamurti -- because Krishnamurti is not giving any method; he is not giving any sadhana. If it has happened to somebody listening to him, it could have happened to that man listening to the birds also, or just listening to the breeze passing through the pines it would have happened. That man was ready; it is not Krishnamurti that has helped him.

And this is understood by Krishnamurti also. Of course he understands. And he becomes desperate -- his whole life wasted in an arid land. I am simply stating a fact, not criticizing.

And if I say something about American gurus, I'm not saying anything against them. In the first place, out of a hundred, ninety-nine percent of all gurus are bogus. And when it comes to American gurus, you can understand -- Indian gurus, out of a hundred, ninety-nine percent are bogus, so when it comes to think about American gurus, imitators....

But I am not against anybody. These are simple facts; no condemnation is implied. In fact I am not saying anything about them, just about the situation.

Nothing is meant personally. Impersonal statements.

Question 10

Yes, once in a while it is possible. That man must have been like the man I was just talking about who can become enlightened by listening to Krishnamurti.

That man can become enlightened by listening to the birds. That man can become enlightened by reading the books. But that is an exception, not the rule.

It has happened sometimes: if a man is really alert, then even a book can help; and if you are fast asleep, then even a Buddha is useless. Buddha also cannot help -- you go on snoring on his face, what can he do? A living Buddha -- proved useless by you. But if you are alert, then even a dead book can be helpful. It depends.

And it is difficult to find such a man who can become awakened by just reading books -- but the possibility is there. It is very nearly impossible, but even impossible things happen.

Question 11

More will be too much for you; it will create indigestion. You will not be able to absorb me more than that. I can be with you for twenty-four hours, but you cannot be. You need homeopathic doses.

Question 12

It is possible, but when I say possible I mean only rarely, very rarely. Exceptions are always there with every rule, but when Patanjali talks, he talks about the rule, not about the exception. Exceptions need not be talked about. The greater mass of humanity cannot reach from anywhere in any other way. They will have to follow step by step -- from one to two, from two to three. They move in an organic unity. But there are freaks who can go and jump -- but then they too will have to come back and absorb the left-behind part. Their arrangement can be different, that's possible.

You can start with pranayam, but then you will have to come to asan, you will have to come to YAM.... You can start by meditation, but then you will have to move to other parts which are left behind. But all the eight have to be developed, and a unison between all the eight, so you become an organic unity.

It happens sometimes, even a person can reach up to the seventh without completing all the steps, but nobody has reached to the eighth without completion. Up to seven there is the possibility: you can leave some steps and you can do some and reach up to the seventh -- but then you will hang there. Up to meditation you can reach but not up to samadhi, because SAMADHI needs your total being -- fulfilled. nothing left behind, nothing left incomplete -- everything complete. Then you will have to hang around the seventh for long, and you will have to go back and do things which needed to be done. Only when you have completed everything up to the seventh, the eighth, samadhi, becomes possible.

Question 13

Who told you that this man is a Master? He belongs to a tradition in which many Masters have existed, but he carries just the dead load. And this is the trouble because in the tradition to which he belongs there have been men like Marpa, Milarepa, Naropa, Tilopa -- great siddhas -- and they all used to drink, now this is delicate, but they never got drunk. They used to drink, but they never got drunk.

That is one of the ways of tantra, a method: one has to go on increasing the amount of alcohol and getting attuned to it, but remaining conscious. Hmm?...

first you take just one teaspoonful. you remain conscious; then two; then three; then you go on. Then you drink the whole bottle. But now you are so attuned your consciousness is not disturbed; then alcohol won't do. Then you move to more dangerous drugs.

There came a time in the tradition of tantra when snakes, poisonous snakes, were used because a man became so attuned to all types of drugs. Then the last test was the snake cobra. Then the cobra was forced to bite the man on the tongue -- then too he remained conscious.

This was a secret test and a growth: now you have achieved to such crystallization of consciousness that the whole body is filled with alcohol but it doesn't affect you. This was a point in tantra to go beyond the body; this is going beyond the body -- for tantra.

This man comes from that tradition, so he has the permission from the tradition to drink, but if he gets drunk then he has missed the whole point; he not a Master; he is not aware. But in America everything is possible now. Not knowing the old tradition. this man can say to people, "Even our own Masters have been drinking." In tantra all those things that are ordinarily prohibited are allowed. A tantric is allowed to eat meat -- ordinarily it is prohibited; he is allowed to drink ordinarily it is prohibited; he is allowed to have sex -- ordinarily for a seeker it is prohibited. Everything that is prohibited ordinarily, is allowed in tantra, but allowed with such conditions that if you forget the conditions you forget the whole thing.

One should go in sex, but there should be no ejaculation. If ejaculation happens, then it is ordinary sex; then it is not tantra. If you make love and no ejaculation happens, for hours you are together with the woman and no ejaculation happens, this is tantra. This is an attainment.

Drinking is allowed, but getting drunk is not allowed. If you get drunk you are an ordinary drunkard -- no need to bring tantra in.

Meat is allowed, but you have to eat meat -- even sometimes human meat, human flesh, from dead bodies -- but you should remain indifferent. You should remain unperturbed -- not even a flicker in your consciousness that "something wrong...."

Tantra says that every bondage has to be transcended, and the last bondage is morality -- that too has to be transcended. Unless you transcend morality you have not transcended the world. So in a country like India where vegetarianism has gone to the very deep core of Indian consciousness, meat-eating was allowed, but it was not allowed in the way that meat-eaters eat. A man has to prepare his whole life for it. He was to be a vegetarian; as a seeker he was to be a vegetarian.

Years will pass -- ten years, twelve years he has remained a vegetarian, he has not made love to any woman, he has not drunk anything alcoholic, and he has not taken any other drugs. Then after twelve years, fifteen years, even twenty years, the Master will allow him, now, to move into sex, but to move with a woman with such respect that the woman is almost a goddess; it is not carnal.

And the man who is moving with the woman has to worship her, touch her feet.

And if even a slight sexual desire arises he is disqualified; then he is not ready for it.

It was a great preparation and a great test -- greatest that has ever been created for man. With no desire, with no lust, he has to feel towards the woman as if she is his mother. If the Master says, and sees, that he is right -- now he is like a child entering the woman, not like a man, and like a child he remains inside the woman with no sexuality arising: his breathing is not affected his body energy is not affected; for hours he remains together with the woman, there is no ejaculation; a deep silence pervades -- it is a deep meditation.

For twenty years remaining a vegetarian and then suddenly you are offered meat to eat: your whole being will feel repulsed. Hmm?... if you feel repulsion then tantra says, "You are rejected. Now go beyond it. Now whatsoever is offered, accept it in deep gratitude." You must know if you have remained a vegetarian even for one year and suddenly meat is offered, you will start feeling nausea, vomiting. If that comes that means the man is still living in the thoughts -- because it is only a thought that this is meat and this is vegetable. Vegetable is also meat, because it comes from the body of the tree; and meat is also vegetable, because it comes from the tree of a man's body or an animal's body. This is the transcendence of morality.

And then he is prepared to drink strong drugs. If he has really become alert then whatsoever is given will change the chemistry of the body but not his consciousness; his consciousness will remain floating on the chemistry of the body.

Gurdjieff used to drink as much as you can imagine -- but was never unconscious, never drunk. He was a tantric Master. If you want to look in the West towards somebody, then he is George Gurdjieff, not Tibetan refugees.