The True Master: The Ultimate Rebel

The first question

Question 1:

Nikhilananda,

The first thing to remember is that out of one hundred masters there is only one Master; ninety- nine are only teachers. The teacher is necessarily learned, the Master may be learned, may not be learned; it is not a necessity. The teacher is well-versed as far as tradition is concerned, conventions are concerned, social ethos is concerned. He lives a borrowed life, and a borrowed life cannot be weightless, a borrowed life is bound to be heavy, dull, dry, dead. The Master is a rebel. He lives out of his own being: he is spontaneous, not traditional. He cannot be traditional - it is impossible for a Master to be traditional. Jesus was born a Jew but is not a Jew. Buddha was born a Hindu but is not a Hindu. The same is true of all enlightened Masters. But the teacher is just a caricature of the Master; he pretends to be the Master, it is his ego trip. The Master is egoless, hence there is nothing but love. The moment ego disappears your whole energy is pure love, compassion, fragrance. It is a sheer celebration, a festival of lights, a song, a dance, a joy for no other reason, just for its own sake.

The Master is bound to be like a garden: many flowers many birds singing, peacocks dancing, the wind passing through the ancient pine trees, and the sound of running water.

The Master is music, is poetry; the teacher is mathematics, calculation. The teacher lives in words, the Master lives a wordless life. The teacher is head, the Master is heart. But we have completely lost the language by which to understand a Master for the simple reason that a Master very rarely happens. The phenomenon is so rare that we go on forgetting how to recognize a Master, how to understand a Master how to comprehend a Master. We have lost all insight into that tremendous phenomenon.

The teacher is well-known, well-understood; he is part and parcel of our stupid existence. He is blind just as you are blind, but he speaks the same language, hence he is understandable, comprehensible. The Master is not blind. He speaks a totally different language so he seems to be an outsider; the teacher appears to be an insider. With the teacher you can fall en rapport very easily, there is no difficulty - he belongs to the same dimension. But the Master is alien, a stranger - he belongs to another dimension, to another world, to the farther shore, to the beyond. He exists in you, amidst you, but he belongs to the beyond. His message comes from a far, far away source.

He is simply a representative here of the unknown and the unknowable. He does not speak the way your scriptures speak, he creates his own communication.

Hence you will feel more and more antagonistic towards the Master. You will have every sympathy for the teacher and no sympathy for the Master - in fact, a very deep antipathy. You would like to kill him, you would like to destroy him, for the simple reason that he creates a disturbance in your life.

He shatters your illusions, he gives shocks to your preconceived ideas, to your prejudices. He is a danger to your very foundation - he takes away the very ground you are standing upon. He destroys your consolations, your rationalizations.

Ordinarily society is divided into two categories: the "heads" and the "hands". That's actually how we divide people: the proletariat, the labourers are called the hands, and the bosses are called the heads. It is not coincidental, it is significant. The heads rule the hands, the heads dominate the hands. But there is no third category - the "hearts" - and the Master belongs to that third category which is almost non-existent.

Only once in a while, at times which are far and few between, do you come across a Jesus, a Buddha, a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu, a Chuang Tzu, but then you don't have any way to understand these people.

And if a person wants prestige, power, respectability, then he has to follow you . Your leaders are not really leaders, they are following the followers. Your teachers are not really teachers, they are constantly adjusting themselves to your prejudices, because without that you will not respect them; there will be no possibility of gaining power and prestige. Everybody speaks the language of blindness, and the teacher confirms you, he makes you happy.

The Master uncovers all your wounds. It hurts to be with a Master! Unless somebody is ready to die on the cross, to be poisoned by you, to be butchered, murdered by you, he cannot dare to be a Master. He is continuously in danger.

The teacher is very deeply respected by people; he is your support, although whatsoever he is supporting is nothing but a lie. But one thing is certain: that you can understand him. He understands you, you understand him.

Thor, the god of thunder, went for a ride on his favourite horse. "I'm Thor!" he cried.

"Well, you forgot your thaddle, thilly!" replied the horse.

If you are talking to a horse then, of course, it is going to happen!

Two drunks were staggering home one night. One looked up and said, "Is that the sun or the moon?" His friend replied, "I couldn't tell you, I don't live around here." An old lady went into the optician's and said, "I need a new pair of glasses." The optician replied, "I knew that as soon as you walked through the window." This is the world you are living in!

The teacher adjusts to you. With the Master it is going to be Just the opposite: you have to adjust to the Master. And of course you are millions and a Buddha is always alone. The majority belongs to you; you have all the power. Of course your power is very gross - you can crucify Jesus but you cannot kill his spirit, you can poison Socrates but you cannot poison his message...

In the last moments when Socrates was dying - he had been poisoned - a disciple, Crito, asked him, "Master, please give us instructions for what we have to do with your body. Would you like it to be buried or to be burnt? What kind of ritual...? You have been such a rare man. You don't belong to the establishment, you don't belong to any tradition, so we don't know what we have to do with your body when you are gone."

Socrates opened his eyes. With his last energy leaving him he still laughed and said, "The people who are against me think that they are killing me - and you who are my disciples are worried about whether to burn me or to bury me under the ground or to throw me into the ocean. The enemies are killing me and the friends are trying to find a way to dispose of me But I tell you, Crito, that when alI the friends and all the enemies are forgotten I will be here and my message will be here and my truth will be here.

"And remember," he said, "your name will be remembered only because I have used it, otherwise nobody will remember your name."

And certainly Crito's name is only remembered after twenty-five centuries - this morning I am remembering Crito! - just because Socrates mentioned his name, otherwise there is nothing else about Crito to remember.

You have to adjust to the Master, the Master cannot adjust to you, hence only very courageous people can walk with the awakened ones.

You ask me, Nikhilananda: BUT WHY AREn't OTHER ENLIGHTENED BEINGS LIKE YOU, SO FULL OF LOVE AND COMPASSION?

Do you think there are many many enlightened people on the earth? It is a very rare phenomenon.

Yes, there are teachers, many - of many brands, with many trademarks, belonging to different traditions, different religions... There are three hundred religions on the earth and at least three thousand sects and cults belonging to those three hundred religions, and every cult and sect has hundreds of teachers, but it is very rare to find an enlightened being.

And because of this crowd of teachers even if by chance you find an enlightened being, there is every possibility that you will not recognize him. He will be outrageous! He will be such a shock to you that you will want to escape from him. You will feel as if you are dying! He will destroy every concept, every idea, every philosophy that you have carried all along, thinking that it is so precious.

With the enlightened Master whatsoever you have been carrying as diamonds will prove to be just ordinary stones and nothing else: "Throw them away!" And your whole investment has been in those so-called diamonds. The greatest possibility is that you will escape from such a man and cling to your stones.

It needs guts to be with a Master: guts to renounce your ego, guts to renounce your past, guts to renounce all your investments, guts to live dangerously - against the society, against the culture, against the whole past.

A true disciple is a rebel, just as a true Master is the ultimate in rebellion.

It is certainly true, Nikhilananda, that compassion and love are natural, spontaneous by-products of enlightenment; if they are not there then the person is not enlightened. But again I have to remind you, because you can misunderstand the word "compassion" and the word "love", because the meaning will be given by you...

What do you mean by "compassion"?

It is a quality that surrounds the Master. It has nothing to do with service to the poor, opening hospitals and orphanages, feeding the hungry and sheltering beggars - it has nothing to do with that. Compassion is the transformation of passion. Your sexual energy is transformed first into love and then into compassion. Sex is like a seed, love is like a flower, and compassion is like a fragrance..

But by "compassion" you will understand service to the poor. These servants of the poor are one of the reasons why poverty is not disappearing from the earth. Unless you stop this whole stupidity of serving the poor and start destroying poverty, it is not going to disappear. In fact, the servants of the poor would like poverty to survive, otherwise what will happen to the servants?

One Hindu teacher, very well-known in India, worshipped by the Hindus, is Karpatri. He has written a book; in that book he talks about socialism and Hindu religion. He gives many reasons why he is against the idea of socialism and one of the most important reasons that he gives is worth considering. He says the Hindu religion teaches that service to the poor, giving donations to the poor is the way to heaven, and socialism tries to destroy poverty completely. It tries to distribute the money, and when the money is distributed equally then there will be no poor and no rich. Who is going to donate to whom? And who is going to serve the poor? - because there will be no poor left.

That means socialism will destroy the very roots of Hinduism. Unless you donate to the poor you cannot reach heaven. Socialism seems to be the most dangerous thing that can happen to people who are searching for heaven and God - the very ladder is being destroyed!

So he says that money has not to be distributed equally because it is far more important to reach heaven, to realize God. He also says that a person is poor because he has committed sins in his past life and a person is rich because he has been virtuous in his past life. Who are you to disturb this law of karma? The poor have to be poor, the rich have to be rich. They are simply getting whatsoever they deserve; there should be no interference. This comes from a great Hindu saint, and even after this book he is still worshipped as a great saint.

His name is Karpatri. Karpatri simply means a man who eats from his hands, who uses his hands as a begging bowl. That is the meaning of the word karpatri: hands being used as a begging bowl.

That's his only great achievement: that he uses his hands as a begging bowl, not that he is not eating well. You have to put sweets into his hands, then he will eat, then you have to put all kinds of things... It is such an unnecessary thing - he can take them from the plates himself! One person is needed to take them from the plates and put them in his hands, then he eats them. This is his great spirituality! He is worshipped for it: that he does not use any plates, any spoons; nothing is being used, just his hands. But this has been worshipped for thousands of years.

Mahavira was very respected for the same reason, because he used his hands to eat; he was a karpatri. In Jaina scriptures it is said that Buddha has not yet achieved to that height. Buddha and Mahavira were both contemporaries. Why has he not achieved to that height? A few reasons are given: one of the reasons is that he uses a begging bowl while Mahavira uses his hands. His renunciation is total; Buddha possesses a begging bowl. That is his possession, and unless you renounce everything...

Mahavira lived naked and Buddha uses at least three pieces of clothing. Three pieces of clothing, one begging bowl, one walking staff... so he possesses five things. Mahavira possesses nothing - his achievement is perfect; Buddha is a little lower than him. Mahavira is bhagwan, but Buddha is only a mahatma, a saint, Mahavira is an incarnation of God himself.

These stupid ideas have kept humanity poor.

Compassion is a fragrance; it has nothing to do with serVing the poor or feeding the beggars, because when you are feeding the beggars you are feeding beggary, when you are feeding the poor you are feeding poverty, and the poverty will remain. Poverty has to be destroyed. A real man of compassion is not a man of service, he is a man who destroys the very causes or tries to destroy the very roots of all that is ugly in society.

That's exactly what I am doing here and that's why so many people are against me. Hindus are against me, Mohammedans are against me, Christians are against me.

Just a few days ago a sannyasin, Meeten, was murdered. But he died beautifully, he died as a sannyasin. When he was murdered his last words were, "I can understand you - why you are killing me. I know that nobody has loved you in your life." He said these words to the murderer! "I know that nobody has loved you in your life and you are angry with society. You are not killing me, you are taking revenge on society. But remember, these are my last words," he said, "that I am dying with immense love for you. I love you!"

These were his last words when he closed his eyes and died: "I love you!" This is compassion! This is love!

And the next day the huts of six sannyasins were burnt down. The sannyasins had come to the ashram and then somebody. set fire to their huts. Now, nobody was caught red-handed and the police suspect that because there is a great antagonism among the Catholic Christians in Poona against me because I have spoken against the Pope and against Mother Teresa... the suspicion is that some Catholic hand is behind it. They cannot do harm to me, but they can do harm to my sannyasins; that is an indirect way of harming me. And these people talk about public service, serving the poor - all these murderers!

If you look at the history of religion you will be surprised: all the religions have proved murderous.

The whole history of man is full of blood because of these so-called religions and these so-called saints and these so-called enlightened people. It is because of these people that humanity has not yet become grown-up, has not yet become sane enough. They have kept humanity imprisoned in a deep spiritual slavery and they have used human beings in every possible way.

They have told human beings, "If you die fighting for the Church, then your paradise is absolutely certain." They have told them, "If you kill in the name of religion, then it is not sin." So millions of people have been murdered down the ages and the murderers were thinking that they were doing virtuous deeds. And the same people go on serving the people and the same people go on murdering the people and the same people go on keeping humanity at its lowest psychological age.

The average psychological age of human beings is only twelve years. Who has kept humanity in such a miserable state? Who is responsible? These so-called saints, popes, shankaracharyas, imams, ayatollahs, they are the root cause.

A Master tries to cut the roots; he is not interested in pruning the leaves because they will sprout again. But to understand a Master becomes more and more difficult because these are the ideals you have cherished for centuries.

You ask me, Nikhilananda: WHY DO OTHER MASTERS SEEM TO BE SO DRY AND MERE INTELLECTUALS IN COMPARISON WITH YOU?

If they are Masters they cannot be dry; if they are dry they cannot be Masters. If they are mere intellectuals they are not Masters. They may be great scholars, pundits, they may be theologians, philosophers, but not Masters. They may have accumulated great information, they may be able to comment on the ancientmost scriptures in the world, but that does not make them enlightened.

They may talk beautifully, sermonize beautifully, but if they are dry... And intellectuals are bound to be dry. Intelligence is never dry, intellect is always dry.

So remember the distinction between intellect and intelligence: intellect belongs to the head, intelligence belongs to the heart. Intellect is a cultivated phenomenon, intelligence is a discovery of your innermost nature. Intellect can be given by others - that's what schools, colleges and universities are all about: imparting intellectuality to you, giving you information, giving you a memory system, programming you in a certain way so that you can serve the society and the nation and the vested interests.

Intelligence is a totally different phenomenon. It is not possible for any school, college or university to give you intelligence: intelligence is discovered through meditation. Intelligence you bring with you - every child brings it with him. The more intellectual he becomes the more burdened his intelligence becomes with words, language, ideologies, and the greater the distance becomes between himself and his own sources, his own real resources.

All this garbage has to be thrown out! That is meditation putting everything to the side that has been given to you by others and discovering that which is a gift from God, which is a gift from the whole, which you have brought with you. Discovery, not cultivation. And meditation is just a method of discovering your self-nature; then intelligence blossoms.

And intelligence is full of juice, it is never dry. Intelligence has a sense of humour, intellect does not know how to laugh. Intellect is serious, intelligence is sincere but never serious. Intellect always has a long face, intelligence is a smile, is innocence.

Nikhilananda, if you find a Master dry and a mere intellectual, that simply shows he is not a Master, he is a pretender.

You can see it in Jesus: his beautiful parables, his sense of humour, his love, his compassion.

Just the other day I was looking at a cartoon:

The three wise men from the East are going to Jerusalem on their camels. The star is leading them to where Jesus is being born. On the way one wise man says to the others, "He is a Capricorn. He will be a drunkard, a singer, a dancer!" Capricorns are like that - singers, dancers, lovers of life - but Christians say Jesus never laughed.

It is good that these three wise men were from the East and they were not Christians! They said the truth: that he would be a singer, a dancer, a drunkard. And he was! A man who enjoys eating and drinking and enjoys late parties cannot be a man without a sense of humour! Christians think that he just went on delivering gospels - he must have been gossiping too, because parties are not for gospels! And he loved wine and he lived with all kinds of people - real people, not phonies. He was not living with rabbis and bishops and popes; he was living with gamblers and drunkards and prostitutes and tax collectors - -real, authentic people! He mixed with the people you would think of as wrong. The pope would not like to mix with those people; the pope would like to mix with the kings and the queens and the presidents and the prime ministers.

Jesus has a tremendous juiciness to him; his parables show that. He is not a dry man, he does not philosophize. Even when great philosophical questions are asked he just tells a parable, a beautiful parable, a story. A good story-teller.

If you want to find out how a real Master is then read Chuang Tzu - so absurd, with such a great sense of humour that each line of Chuang Tzu will tickle you to laughter. And his stories are simply far out! He has defeated all the Masters - even his own Master, Lao Tzu, pales before Chuang Tzu. If Lao Tzu had come back and looked at what Chuang Tzu was writing he would have been angry: "This is too much! This is going too far!" Of course, Lao Tzu himself was a very lovely man, a beautiful man, but Chuang Tzu would even have made him object: "This is going too far!"

Chuang Tzu's stories are the first absurd stories in the world. Kafka and Sartre and Camus are nothing compared to Chuang Tzu. Each of his stories simply ends in absurdity, but it will give you a good laugh. He is telling you, "Don't be serious! Take life as fun, as joy! Enjoy it, love it, live it, but don't make a problem out of it. It is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived." These great Masters are never dry, are never intellectuals. But as a Master dies and a tradition grows around him his whole spirit is suffocated. Then scholars and learned people and rabbis and pundits and brahmins gather together and destroy the whole thing.

A story is told that a young disciple of the devil came running to him, perspiring, puffing, and said, "What are you doing, Master? Come immediately! One man on earth has again found the truth! Our whole business is at stake, something has to be done immediately!"

The old devil laughed. He said, "Don't be worried! You are too young and you don't understand the ways in which I work. Don't be worried - my people are already there!"

The young disciple said, "But I have not seen any of your disciples there."

The devil said, "I don't go directly. Have you not seen many scholars and many learned people there?"

He said, "Yes."

The devil said, "Those are my people - they are my agents. They will suffocate the truth, they will kill the truth. They will surround the man like a wall. They will not allow the truth to reach people and they will not allow people to reach the truth. And soon that old guy will die and then my people will rule. They will be the priests, the high priests, and they will dominate for centuries."

Your temples, your churches, your synagogues, your mosques are dominated by the disciples of the devil! Just watch with consciousness and you will see that all the priests have invisible horns and a tail. Look at their hooves! They are invisible so you will need a little more awareness, then only will you see them. I have seen them so I am telling you!

The second question

Question 2:

Amrit Chinmayo,

It is not good for you to ask me such a question - in fact, I should have asked you the question. You are both, a lady and a politician!

Amrit Chinmayo is both: a perfect lady and a perfect politician too. She has run for the American Senate twice and she is going to get a very important position in Reagan's administration - she is one of the people who are very close to Reagan - and she is asking me! I am neither a lady nor a politician. I am not even a gentleman!

The same question was asked of Bernard Shaw. His answer is beautiful. He says:

When a lady says no, she means maybe; when she says maybe, she means yes; when she says yes, she is no lady.

When a politician says yes, he means maybe; when he says maybe, he means no; and if he says no, he is no politician!

A judge asked a lady her age.

"Thirty," she said.

"You"ve given that age for the last three years," said the judge, looking up the record.

"Yes, I'm not one who says one thing today and another tomorrow," replied the lady.

So there is something in common between the lady and the politician.

The wife said to her politician husband at a buffet dinner, "That's the third time you"ve gone back for more chicken. Doesn't that embarrass you?"

"No, dear," replied the politician husband. "I keep telling them I'm getting it for you!"

A minister, in administering the confirmation rites for an elderly new member, a famous politician, asked, "Do you repent of the devil and all of his ways?"

The politician replied, "In my position I can't afford to antagonize anyone!"

During the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany, the persecuted Jews had many opportunities to sharpen their wits. The story is told of a Jewish politician who was summoned before the court. He was told that there were two pieces of paper in a box: one read "Innocent", the other read "Guilty".

The words would determine the fate of the Jews in town. The court ordered the Jewish politician to draw one of the papers blindly; the future of the Jewish people of that town was to be entirely in the hands of God. If he led the Jewish politician to draw the paper which said "Innocent", the Jews would go unharmed; that would be God's will. If he drew the paper that said "Guilty", all the leaders of the Jewish community would be executed, for that would be God's will.

The politician knew, just because he was a politician, that the word "Guilty" had been written on both slips of paper. He thought quickly. He selected one of the papers and quickly swallowed it.

"What are you doing?" cried the judges. "How will we know what it said?"

"Very simply!" answered the Jewish politician. "Just look at the piece of paper left in the box. If it reads "Innocent" then the one I swallowed must have read "Guilty". But if the paper remaining in the box reads "Guilty", then the paper I swallowed obviously must have contained the word "Innocent"!"

This is a very cunning world. The politician will remain in the world unless the world becomes innocent. When the world is innocent there will be no politicians, no gentlemen, no ladies; they all will go down the drain. There will simply be innocent people. What is the need for ladies and gentlemen and politicians and priests? There is no need at all. They are needed because the world is cunning. If the world is innocent, if the people are rejoicing in their ordinary life, then nothing is needed. If the ordinary life becomes a sacred life then all these people are absolutely unnecessary.

Amrit Chinmayo, I can only say this much: I don't know much about ladies - my sannyasins are not ladies. I don't know anything about politicians; the moment somebody becomes my sannyasin that is enough proof that he is not a politician. And I commune only with my sannyasins, I know only my sannyasins and I don't want to know anybody else anyway!

The last question

Question 3:

Almasto,

Here you go again! You seem to be incurable - you and your esoteric questions! Now again we have to screw in the bulbs! Okay, Almasto...

First: How many Marxists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, none. They are too busy trying to nationalize the bulb company.

Second: How many behaviorists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, ten. One to screw in the bulb and nine to observe his reactions.

Third: How many male chauvinist pigs does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, one. He unchains his wife from the kitchen sink so that she can screw it in.

Fourth: How many philosophers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, twenty. One to screw it in and nineteen to decide whether or not light exists.

Fifth: How many Christian Scientists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, ten. One to screw in the bulb and nine to believe that it will light up.

Sixth: How many Hindu gods does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, one, but he takes a million years to decide which arm to use.

Seventh: How many lesbians does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, six. One to screw it in and five to agree how easy it is without men.

Eighth: How many homosexuals does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, two. One to screw in the bulb and the other to see that he doesn't get too friendly with it.

Ninth: How many popes does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, none. Screwing is a sin.

Tenth: How many Protestant ministers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, two. One to screw it in and one to say, "And God said, "Let there be light!" " And the last: How many Adams does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Almasto, one, but God has to tell him not to screw it in.