Man: The Call of the Eternal

The first question

Question 1:

Prem Agama,

It is one of the most difficult questions to ask - difficult because it cannot be answered. It cannot be answered because it is not really a question but a quest. Questions are simple, they can be easily answered, but a quest is a challenge, it is an adventure. You have to explore it; it is not possible to give a ready-made answer to you. You have to go into your own depths and experience it, because man is not a being in the ordinary sense of the word.

A rosebush is a being, a tiger is a being, a dog is a being; but man is not a being, man is a becoming. To be a being means that one has come with a fixed programme into the world. The rosebush can only grow roses - it has an inbuilt programme - it cannot grow lotuses or marigolds; that is impossible, that is not open to it. It is linear; it can move only in one direction. Its destiny is fixed, hence the rosebush has a being.

A dog can only be a dog and nothing else. You cannot say to a dog that "You are not a perfect dog" - each dog is perfect in his doghood!

Man is only an opportunity, multi-dimensional. He can be a Genghis Khan, he can be a Lao Tzu - poles apart. He can be a Tamburlaine, he can be a Gautam Buddha; there is nothing in common between these two persons - they are unbridgeable. Both are men, but they have moved in different directions.

Man brings with him only a clean slate; he has to write his own fate, he has to decide what he wants to be. He has freedom, absolute freedom; he comes without a programme. He can be a rose flower, he can be a marigold, he can be a lotus, or he may decide not to grow at all. He may remain retarded, he may remain childish, he may miss the whole opportunity of growth.

So the first thing to be remembered, Agama, is that man is the only being who is not a being in reality. Man is the only entity in existence which is closer to becoming than to being. He does not bring any essence with him, he brings only existence, and then he has to create himself. It is a great responsibility; nobody can decide for you. Each act, each thought is decisive. Whatsoever you are doing or not doing is going to give you a certain form, a certain soul.

It is because of this that one of the greatest Masters of all the ages, George Gurdjieff, used to say that man is born without a soul. When you come across this statement for the first time you are shocked, because nobody has ever said something like that. Man, and born without a soul? We have been told by all the religions that you are born with a soul, but Gurdjieff is far closer to the truth.

He may be shocking, but he is trying to bring home a certain truth of immense importance.

What he means by no man being born with a soul is that no man is born with a programme, no man is born with a destiny, with a fate, with kismet. Man is born as an opening - he can be anything he decides to be - man is born as freedom; that's what he means when he says man is born without a soul. You have to create your soul, and each moment you are creating it, knowingly or unknowingly.

If you create your soul unknowingly it cannot be a piece of art - it cannot be, because it is like a drunkard painting. He is not even aware of what he is doing, whether he is painting on the canvas or on the wall or on his own face.

A drunkard came home late in the night. He fell down the steps and hurt himself in many places. He was worried that in the morning his wife would find out. He touched his face and there was blood; he was wounded. He entered the bathroom, looked in the mirror. It was difficult to hide the fact that he was late and that he was drunk. The fear of the wife may have brought a little sense to him, a little consciousness, so he tried to hide the wounds on his face somehow.

In the morning when the wife went in the bathroom, she shouted. She said, "So you were late again and absolutely drunk!"

He said, "What do you mean? How did you come to know?"

She said, "Come here!"

And then he knew what had happened: he had put the adhesive tape on the mirror! Wherever he saw a wound, obviously, he put the adhesive tape - not on the face but on the reflection in the mirror!

But you cannot hope for more than that from a drunkard.

So man can create himself in an unconscious, mechanical, robot-like way; that's what millions of people are doing. Then they become Hindus and Mohammedans and Christians and Buddhists, not Buddhas, not Christs, not Krishnas, not Mohammeds. They become imitators, false, pseudo, phony.

Their whole life becomes just a long tragedy. They go haphazardly, zigzag. They become pieces of driftwood at the mercy of the winds and the waves. They are not deliberately creating their being.

That's what sannyas is all about: a conscious decision to create your soul, a deliberate effort to give yourself a certain form, a shape, to write your own scripture. You have brought a clean slate, now you have to put your signature on it. Man is a becoming, a process, an opportunity, a ladder, a bridge.

But millions of people take their life for granted. Once they are born they think the full stop has come. That is very unfortunate. Birth is only a beginning, not the end. Birth is not life but only an opportunity to create life.

The whole thing depends on you, and except for you there is nobody else responsible. So don't shirk your responsibility, don't try to throw the responsibility on others" shoulders. That's what man has been doing for thousands of years. First they used to say, "It is God. He has decided already, so we simply have to be instrumental; we cannot do anything on our own . "

Even a man like Krishna says to Arjuna, "Don't worry. You can kill in the war because God has already decided whom to kill and whom to save. In fact, he has already killed - you are just a means. If you are not going to kill then some-body else will have to do the job. So why escape? Just do your .duty! And your duty is fixed, it is already decided by God."

That's the whole argument of Krishna in the SRIMAD BHAGAVAD GITA. He tries to persuade his disciple Arjuna to fight. In fact, Arjuna was saying, "I don't see any point in it: killing so many people, millions of people, just for the kingdom is pointless. And the people I am going to kill are my friends, my relatives, my colleagues; we have grown up together. My brothers... even my teacher is on the other side! On this side are my friends, on that side are my friends."

It was a family war - brothers were fighting - so the whole family, the friends, all were divided into warring camps. And Arjuna said, "It is better that I should drop this whole idea. And what will be the point in living after killing all these beautiful people whom I have loved and respected? Even if I win it will not be worth anything. I will feel guilty, I will never be happy."

So it will be better to go to the forest, renounce the world. meditate, work on myself. This whole thing is an absurd, futile exercise! "

He was ready to renounce the war, but Krishna persuaded him. And all the reasoning goes around and around one point one single point: that "You are not to decide, it has been already decided by God."

All the religions of the world have done the same thing in different words: they have taken away the freedom of man. Fate means the death of your freedom. Fate means you are mechanical, you are just a machine. You are no longer a man; your life is not your own life.

I don't agree with Krishna at all. The whole point is basically of throwing responsibility onto someone called God. One does not know whether anybody like that exists or not, and even if God exists he cannot do so much harm, because then man is reduced to an animal; then there is no possibility of any man becoming a Buddha, becoming enlightened - impossible. And if it is already written that you will become a Buddha then there is no dignity in becoming a Buddha. Somebody becomes a murderer because God has written so and somebody becomes a Buddha because God has written so, so what is beautiful about being a Buddha?Both are slaves - slaves of fate.

But there have been religions like Buddhism and Jainism which have dropped the idea of God completely. But they could not drop the idea of a determined life pattern so they invented a new thing. They started talking about the past lives and the whole philosophy of karma: that you are decided by your past life - and not only one past life, all your past lives. You have lived thousands of lives and they determine what you are going to be; it is not in your hands. The past determines your present and your future - again the same game, only the names have changed. And you will be surprised to know that this has been going on again and again with different names - the same game.

Hegel, one of the greatest philosophers, dropped the idea of any past lives because in Christian, Mohammedan and Jewish philosophies there is only one life. So either God has to decide or life becomes free. And to throw the whole responsibility on God... Hegel could not do it because he was a logician, a great philosopher. He could not find arguments for why God should decide that somebody be a Buddha and somebody be a Christ and somebody be a Jesus. Why? For what reason? It seemed to be very arbitrary. And why should he go on playing this game - millions of people in misery and he is the one who has decided that they should be miserable?

Only once in a while is there somebody who is blossoming, is blissful, but that too is not much to brag about because that too is decided. You are programmed, you are conditioned, so you are happy. Somebody is conditioned, that's why he is unhappy. But how does he decide that somebody has to be unhappy and somebody has to be happy? At least Jainas and Buddhists have some rationalization: past lives.

Hegel decided on history - history with a capital H; it becomes God itself. It is history that decides, it is no longer the individual past but the past of the society which is decisive. Now history plays the role of God or the role of the philosophy of karma.

And then one of his disciples, Karl Marx, decided that it is not history but economic structure. It is economics, the class struggle that is decisive. But they all agree on one thing: that it is somebody else who decides. Call it God, call it history, call it karma, call it economics, but about one thing they are in absolute agreement: that you are not free.

And that's where I disagree with this whole tradition. Man is absolutely free. Man is born free and if he decides to be in chains, that too is his decision, if he decides to be a prisoner that is his decision.

Otherwise he has the whole multi-dimensional existence to grow in whatsoever direction he chooses.

Man is freedom, absolute freedom, but with freedom comes great responsibility. With freedom you become for the first time responsible, and each act has to be done very consciously. You have to be aware and alert about what you are doing, what you are thinking, what you are dreaming, because even your dreams are going to affect your life.

In one way it feels like a great burden, this great responsibility of creating yourself, but on the other hand it is weightlessness, because then if something has gone wrong it can be changed. You can undo everything that you have done, you can again start afresh, you can cancel your past, you can begin anew.

Initiation into sannyas means that you are breaking away from your past: whatsoever it was - communist, Catholic, Hindu, Mohammedan - you are breaking away from your past. You are closing your past completely and starting afresh. This is a resurrection - a death and a resurrection: the death of the past and the resurrection of something absolutely new, so absolutely new that it has nothing to do with the past; it is discontinuous with the past.

Agama, man is a ladder. One part of the ladder, the lowest, touches the earth, the world, and the other end touches paradise itself. And there are many rungs to the ladder; at least three rungs are very important. There are many rungs, but they can all be divided into three categories.

The first rung is sexuality; that is very close to the animal world, that is the lowest rung. The second rung is exactly in the middle - I call it love. That makes you human: you have gone beyond the animal, you are no longer animal. It is love that gives you the first taste of humanity. And the third and the highest is prayer; that makes you divine. And these are the three basic planes: animal, human, divine.

Move from the animal towards the human and remember, even the human has to be transcended.

Unless prayer arises in your heart, unless your whole sexual energy is transformed into love and then into prayer... Sexuality is biological, physiological, chemical. Love is psychological. And prayer is spiritual .

Sexuality is exploiting the other, getting as much as you can get from the other, using the other as a means. Love is just the opposite: giving as much as you can, not using the other as a means but using the other as an end. It has great respect for the other, for the other's freedom and space.

And prayer is the melting and merging with the whole, with the other. The other is no longer the other - "I" and "thou" have become one. In sexuality the "I" and "thou" are very prominent, hence there is continuous conflict, no communion, no communication; it is sheer exploitation. Both are playing political games, trying to dominate the other, to reduce the other to a slave, to a commodity.

That's what has been done all over the world. "Husband" and "wife" are nothing but ugly names. To be a man is good, but to be a husband is very humiliating. To be a woman is beautiful, natural, but to be a wife is institutional. Husbands and wives are both living in institutions - and they certainly create a madhouse: they start reproducing children, and the madhouse becomes madder and madder.

Somehow they go on pulling themselves, dragging themselves. Life has no song, no grace; it is all ugly. But they go on smiling on the outside, hiding their tears, their wounds.

Love respects the other. In the world of love there are no husbands and wives - they cannot exist; there are only lovers, friends at the most, but no relationship like wife and husband. A certain intensity, intimacy, a passionate sharing but no possessiveness, no jealousy.

Love is exactly in the middle between sex and prayer - now "I" and "thou" can have a communion, a dialogue. Dialogue is possible only in freedom; between two individuals dialogue is possible, not between a husband and wife. Between a husband and wife there is only a possibility of fight, nagging, struggle; there is no possibility of dialogue.

Have you ever seen any wife and husband in a dialogue? It is impossible! The moment one says anything, the other immediately jumps and starts creating trouble. One says one thing, the other immediately understands something else. Even wives and husbands cannot agree about the meaning of what they are talking about, hence wives and husbands by and by settle down into a non-speaking relationship. They speak as little as possible, they become telegraphic, because every word costs so much! It is better to be as telegraphic as possible because each single word can create so much chaos.

One man was saying to Mulla Nasruddin, one of his friends, "My wife can talk for hours! Just a small opportunity and she starts." Mulla Nasruddin said, "That's nothing! My wife needs no opportunity - she is a self-starter! Just the other day I was sitting silently and she came and said, "Why are you sitting silently? What do you mean by sitting silently? Have you lost your voice? Can't you say something nice to me?"" But in love dialogue is possible, conflict becomes impossible. If you are not reducing the other to a slave there is no need for conflict. Conflict is an indication that the other is feeling that you are trying to dominate him, you are trying to destroy him, and the other is trying to destroy you - you are feeling it. So the question is of survival, who wins. But in love there is no question of winning, there is no question of dominating, hence communication is possible, dialogue is possible. And dialogue has a beauty, an intimacy.

In prayer the ultimate happens: "I" and "thou" disappear into one unity. When "I" and "thou" disappear there is a transcendence; that transcendence is prayer. Then the person you love simply becomes a window to the whole. You disappear into the person and suddenly you find you have jumped into the whole. Then love becomes a door to the ultimate.

Man attains his soul only when his sexuality is absolutely transformed into prayer. Man is a ladder, Agama, and unless you are growing towards heights and depths, unless you are growing every moment towards the Everest of self-realization, you are not a man. You are missing the opportunity, you are missing the challenge; you are not accepting the adventure, you are hiding - you are a coward. A man has to be ready, always ready each moment to go on the voyage to the unknown and the unknowable. He has to be ready, always ready for the call of the eternal, for the call of the uncharted.

Man is a pilgrimage from the animal to God.

The second question

Question 2:

Phiroze Hansotia,

The most significant thing to remember is that life is not a business. It does not exist for any particular end, it exists for the sheer joy of existing. There is no goal as such. Hence the moment you have achieved silence, meditativeness, awareness, prayerfulness, and you are capable of living the moment in total abandon, then there is no goal, no end. To live passionately in that moment is a blessing unto itself. But that's how the mind works...

Now, Phiroze is a doctor - he must be a Ph.D. or D.Litt. - he is a professor at the University of Wisconsin, so he is thinking logically. And life is not logic, life is not philosophy. Life is a dance, a song, a celebration! It is more like love and less like logic.

Do you ever ask why you love, to what end? Do you ever ask why you appreciate a beautiful sunset, to what end? Do you ask why the starry nights are beautiful? Why the roses are beautiful? Why a certain face, certain eyes, a certain gesture suddenly catches your heart and you miss a heartbeat?

What happens? To what end?

Logic is business. In business you always ask, "What am I going to gain out of it? What is going to be the profit?"

And I tell you, your so-called religions are all businesslike because they all tell you that you will attain paradise and the kingdom of God and you will have all kinds of heavenly pleasures - beautiful women who remain always young, with golden bodies, who don't perspire!

I have heard:

Muktananda died... It is a future story! And the same day, after a few hours, one of his disciples died. The disciple was very excited when he reached heaven. He was thinking that Paramahansa Baba Muktananda must be enjoying heaven, now he must be getting all the rewards possible for those who were siddhas, for those whose kundalini has risen. And he was dreaming and fantasizing about what he was going to see. And when he reached inside, certainly the stories that he had heard before were true.

Muktananda was sitting under a tree and Sophia Loren was sitting in his lap! And they were hugging and kissing each other.

The disciple fell at the feet of Muktananda and said, "My great Master, so you have been well rewarded!"

Muktananda said, "Shut up, you fool! I have not been rewarded, it is Sophia Loren who is being punished!"

Certainly, to hug Muktananda is a punishment! But all these people have been thinking of heavenly pleasures. There are rivers of wine, vodka! Here Morarji Desai is drinking his urine... and the reward? The reward is, he will go to heaven where rivers of wine will be made available to him.

Then he will take revenge for all that he has done, all that sacrifice of drinking wine for his whole life.

How much he has suffered! This is true asceticism! One never knows what he is doing in privacy...

he may be doing even more ascetic things! This is a publicly known fact, but there must be some private, secret practices also. He will be rewarded, greatly rewarded! These are all projections of greed.

And those who are not drinking urine, beware. You will suffer in hellfire! It is better to drink urine and be finished with hell - urine is not so bad. In hell, who knows? And now with all the latest technology, what new tortures must they not have invented! And all these people - Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung - are there, and they must have become ministers of the devil.

They must be helping him to find new ways of torturing people. Forget all about this old idea of hell, that you will be thrown in fire; that is five thousand years old. In five thousand years so much water has gone down the Ganges that it is not possible that there still exists that old type of torture.

One man, one Indian - he must be like Phiroze Hansotia was living in Germany. When he died he went to hell. He was a sinner - a sinner because he never drank his urine. He never did any stupid thing, that's why he was a sinner. He never fasted, he never tortured himself, he lived comfortably.

of course, if you live comfortably you will have to suffer, because things have to be balanced.

Sometimes I wonder... God has been living so comfortable for so long, what will happen ultimately to this poor guy? He will fall into the seventh hell or even deeper than that if there is some hell deeper than that. He will reach the rock bottom.

This man who was born in India but lived in Germany was given a choice. The devil asked him, "Because you were born in India and you lived in Germany a choice can be given to you. To what hell do you want to go - to the Indian hell or to the German?"

The Indian was a little puzzled. He said, "What is the difference? Obviously, before I can decide I have to know the difference."

And the devil said, "There is no difference - the same routine has to be followed." The Indian asked, "Then why are you asking me to choose?

The devil laughed. He said, "There are a few minor differences. For example, the German hell is very efficient everybody is on duty exactly on time, the electricity never fails." And he said, "You know, German torture is German torture! In the Indian hell nobody is ever on time, and there are so many holidays. There are even people there whom you can bribe. And after all, they are Indians - lazy, lousy. The electricity fails at least fifty times every day. Sometimes the electricity is off the whole day."

The Indian said, "Then I will go to the Indian hell, I don't want to go to the German one. I have lived in Germany and I know their efficiency!"

Greed and fear have dominated the religious scene for centuries, and both are absolutely irrelevant.

The religious person is one who lives without fear and without greed.

Phiroze, you ask me: TO WHAT END DO WE LEAD OUR LIVES?

There is no end - there is no fixed end. Life is a creativity. We live moment to moment, rejoicing in the moment. The question is asked only because we are always looking to the future: "To what end...?" We are not herenow, we are always looking to the future.

But then you will be in an infinite regression, because if it is said that life is lived to attain paradise then the question will arise: "To what end is paradise? Why should one live in Paradise? To what end?" This question will remain the same and will still remain relevant. And if it is said, as has been said in India, that paradise is not the last thing - you have to go to moksha - beyond paradise... But to what end? Even if you reach moksha...

Just as you ask, "Having achieved that meditative moment, to what end do we live?" You will ask the same question, Phiroze, if you reach moksha: "To what end...?" Just think: Mahavira and Buddha and Patanjali have been living in moksha. What are they doing? Centuries have passed... just sitting under the trees doing nothing? Not even a coffee break! No sandwiches available, no spaghetti at all! No radios, no television, no newspapers. They must be feeling very silly, sitting under the trees.

And for how long? For ever! Now they cannot come back, because once you become enlightened - finished! You cannot become unenlightened again, that is the difficulty.

I have been trying for twenty-five years - impossible! I have tried all methods: standing on my head, doing all kinds of things, but you cannot become unenlightened again. That simply is not part of the law of existence. So beware! Before you decide to become enlightened don't be in a hurry. If you want to do something else finish it, because once you are enlightened you are enlightened forever!

Just think what it means: forever...

So, Phiroze, in moksha also you will ask: "To what end...?" And Mahavira and Buddha will shrug their shoulders and they will look down, ashamed, because now there is no way to go back and there is nowhere else higher to go either. Living in a kind of limbo, not knowing what to do, "to what end".

Life is purposeless. Don't be shocked. The whole idea of purpose is wrong - it comes out of greed.

Life is a sheer joy, a playfulness, a fun, a laughter, to no purpose at all. Life is its own end, it has no other end. The moment you understand it you have understood what meditation is all about. It is living your life joyously, playfully, totally, and with no purpose at the end, with no purpose in view, no purpose there at all. Just like small children playing on the sea beach, collecting seashells and coloured stones - for what purpose? There is no purpose at all.

When I was a small child I used to bring as many stones and shells from the river as I could collect, and I would go to my bed with all the stones and all the shells in my pockets. And my father would say, "Throw these things away! For what purpose do you go on carrying them?" And I always asked him, "First you answer me: For what purpose are you living? For what purpose do you go on doing your business, earning money, raising your children? For what purpose?" And he would always say, "It is futile to argue with you! So go to bed! Keep your stones and whatsoever you want!"

But he would again forget and when he would see all those stones in my pockets, again he would ask, "For what purpose?"

And I was always ready: "First prove to me for what purpose you are living. If you can keep money in your safe, why can't I keep my stones in my pockets? I don't have a safe - otherwise give me a safe. I will keep my stones in the safe. Prove to me... It is your question, not my question! I. have never asked anybody, "For what purpose...?""

Finally he dropped the idea, thinking that "This boy is absolutely incurable!"

When I came back home from the university, he didn't ask me about marriage - which is very natural in India. The moment you come back from the university, the first thing is, "Now get married!" He knew me - that it would create unnecessary argument. So indirectly... he asked one of his advocate friends who was very argumentative and used to shout in court and was very well-known to win cases - cases which were impossible to win... And he used to win those cases just because he was the greatest shouter in the town. He would bang on the table and shout and throw law books and create such a mess that everybody was afraid of him! And they were friends so he asked him.

The advocate said, "This is simple! I have defeated great advocates, I have convinced very shrewd magistrates and I have won cases even for murderers, so this is nothing. I am coming tomorrow." He came and he asked me, "Why don't you get married?" I said, "Perfectly okay! I will get married!" He was at a loss what to do, because he had come with great preparation, with all the arguments in favour of marriage and its beauty and its joy and its intimacy, and all that bullshit!

I said, "Perfectly okay! Where is the girl? Do you have a daughter?" He said, "This is strange! Your father was telling me that it is very difficult to convince you, but you don't argue at all!"

I said, "I don't argue at all. I am ready to get married - you bring the girl. But first, before you bring a girl, you have to tell me one thing, you have to convince me about one thing: what purpose have you achieved through your marriage? I trust you - you are a friend of my father's, you are almost like a father to me. I trust you! If you say so, I will get married. But you have to tell me one thing - what have you achieved? Because I know your married life. You may have won many cases in court, but I know what happens in your home! You have not been able to win a single quarrel. And I am going directly to your wife!"

He said, "What do you mean? Why are you going to my wife? What has she got to do with it?" I said, "In front of her you have to prove what you have attained, to what purpose your life has been, what joy you have attained." And I said, "I will get married - I am ready - if you convince me of what your life has attained. All those arguments you have come prepared with... and I have not given you a chance. But if you cannot convince me then you will have to divorce your wife! Either I get married or you get divorced!"

After that I would go to his house every day, and sometimes he would hide in the bathroom, sometimes he would escape by the back door. His wife became very worried: "What is the matter?

Why is he so afraid of this boy?" And she asked me, "What is the matter? He is not even so afraid of me! He hides in the bathroom, he says he is sick, "Tell that boy!" And he is not sick. He continuously worries about you. What is the matter?"

I told her, "This is the matter - it is a question for you to think over too. He has to prove it! And I have been contacting all the neighbours. I will collect all the neighbours who are my witnesses that his life is the most miserable in the whole town! He has to prove that he has achieved some bliss. If he cannot prove it, then he has to divorce you!"

She said, "What!"

I said, "That is the question. If 1 have to get married then he has also to put something at stake. It is a gamble! I am gambling my whole life, I am gambling my future - he has to gamble his past. I have no past, he has no future!"

He was listening from the bathroom. He came out and touched my feet. He said, "Forgive me, and I will never bother you anymore! Don't disturb my life! I am already in so much trouble, and you are haunting me every day. Even in the night I see you in my dreams. And I know that you can defeat me - you have got hold of my weak point!"

Life has no purpose, Phiroze. Nothing has any purpose; that's the beauty of life. The moment you bring purpose in you destroy the beauty. Love has no purpose and meditation certainly is absolutely beyond the idea of purpose. There is no end beyond it, it has intrinsic value. It is not a means to some end, it is an end unto itself.

And you say: HAVING ACHIEVED THAT...

That is only a supposition - you have not achieved that. You are just asking a question for the question's sake, because anybody who has achieved that moment of meditation cannot ask this question.

You are asking: HAVING ACHIEVED THAT, TO WHAT END TO WE LIVE?

Once you have achieved meditation all ends disappear. You simply live as the flowers live, as the birds live, as the stars live. You become part of this universal festival of existence, of joy, of beauty.

This whole grandeur, this splendour is yours.

To be meditative simply means dropping all ego trips - purpose is also an ego trip - dropping all goals, being herenow.

And you ask: WHAT HAS HAPPENED HERE IS IMMENSELY OVERPOWERING AND BEAUTIFUL.

WILL IT LAST?

You have lost it already! If it had been immensely overpowering and beautiful you would not ask the question, "Will it last?" Who cares? This moment is enough! Who knows about the next moment?

And why should one bother about the next moment? If you are beautiful and blissful this moment you know how to be blissful and beautiful in the next moment. And you will not have two moments together ever, you will always only have one moment. When one is lost you get another. That is lost, you get another. You get one moment at a time, and if you know how to be blissful in a single moment you have the key for being blissful forever; there is no need to lose it.

But you are asking: WILL IT LAST?

Already you have started thinking of the future, already you have lost contact with the present, already you are not here - you have gone to America. You are already in hell - that's where America is!

The old Indian idea was that if you dig a hole in the earth and go on digging, go on digging, just exactly there you will reach hell. You will simply reach America! And for American, India is a hell; if they go on digging they will come to India. In fact, all this travelling can be stopped - just a hole is needed so people can be thrown from here to America and from America to India! You can even play football - and to no purpose, just for the sheer joy of it!

You have already left this overwhelming and beautiful space. You are already thinking, "What is going to happen in America? How will I be able to be so peaceful, so laughing, so loving?" But why bother about it? The next moment has not come yet and when it comes you will know the secret of responding to it.

Live moment to moment - that's the message.

The third question

Question 3:

David Fox,

I have come across many foxes - foxes are cunning, clever. All foxes have been Jews in the past, or vice versa! You have enough crystallization already. Believe me, you can drop it! But rather than seeing the point you are trying to cover up your cowardliness in a cunning way.

You want to be a sannyasin, that much I know, otherwise this question would not have arisen. There is a desire, but there is also a desire to be cautious, not to jump too quickly. You will become a sannyasin; that much is certain. No Jew can escape, no queue can escape! You will be back soon - you are already caught. You may not know it because it takes a little time. My traps are subtle!

And when it is a question of dealing with foxes I am also a Jew - I know all the strategies! So we can play a little bit of hide-and-seek, but you have enough crystallized ego already.

And you say:... by BECOMING A SANNYASIN AND A MEMBER OF A GROUP IT WOULD SEEM TO PRECLUDE ATTAINING THE INDEPENDENCE YOU SAY IS REQUIRED FOR THIS CRYSTALLIZATION.

A sannyasin is not a member of a group - it is not a Rotary Club! A sannyasin is directly in tune with me. It is a love affair - not even a marriage, just a love affair, very delicate. The organization that you see is just arbitrary, to make things easier for you.

I lived for twenty years without any organization, but then it was so impossible to work. Even in the night when I was asleep there were fifty people sitting in my room; everywhere there was a crowd. Even to talk to me was impossible; one could not ask anything. It became so impossible to give attention to individuals, to help them to grow, to share my joy with them. And the crowd was absolutely useless, because I am not a person who can have anything to do with a crowd.

My work is basically concerned with the individual because only the individual has the capacity to grow. The crowd never grows; it remains always the same. It was the same when it crucified Jesus, it was the same when it poisoned Socrates. it was the same when it killed Mansur, it is the same with me. The crowd is absolutely useless; the crowd belongs to the lowest stratum of intelligence.

And what I am saying can be understood only by very highly intelligent people; that is the possibility of only a few individuals, a few chosen individuals. Just to make it possible for chosen individuals to be with me I had to create a formal organization. And this has been of immense help, but this is not an organization at all. Yes, it will become an organization when I am no more...

So, David Fox, be quick! I can leave this world any moment Don't wait any longer for the crystallization of your ego - the ego that you have is enough, it will do! As far as dropping it is concerned, it can be dropped. And don't try to rationalize things. Don't try to cover up your cowardliness, your cleverness.

It is not a group at all. Each sannyasin is related to my personally; it is a person-to-person, intimate relationship. And you are not becoming a member of any group, you are simply becoming a member of me. The word "member" is beautiful; it means a limb. My hand is my member, my leg is my member. my heart is my member. Hence the beautiful meaning of the word "re-member"; it simply means becoming a member of the whole again. That is the meaning of "remember": becoming part of the whole, losing yourself in the ocean - like a dewdrop slipping from the lotus leaf and falling into the ocean and becoming one with the ocean.

Remember, and become a member of me! And the moment you become a member of me, I become a member of you. The more you are part of me, the more I am part of you.

Just the other day one of our beautiful sannyasins, Vimalkirti, who belongs to the Royal Family of Germany, he is the great-grandson of the last German Emperor, suddenly collapsed. He was doing karate and his breathing stopped. His heart is functioning perfectly well, but the brain centre that controls the breathing is no longer functioning. There has been a haemorrhage; some blood has covered the breathing centre in the brain.

I went to see him last night and although he is in a coma a part of him immediately felt my presence.

When I touched him he responded. That response is not of the brain, that response is not of the body. The body is in a mess, the brain is no longer functioning, but man is more than the body and the brain. That something more, that plus, immediately danced with joy. I am part of him, he is part of me. In his life he is part of me, if he goes he is part of me.

A sannyasin is one who becomes a member of the being of the Master.

Drop your hidden Jewishness, Fox.

Mrs Levy's son, David, had gone from New York, clear across the country to college in California.

One day, David phoned his mother. "Ma, I just got married!" announced David.

"Wonderful, David! Mazel tov!" said Mrs Levy. "But what was so urgent about it that you had to get married in such a hurry and call me on the phone to break the news?"

"Well, Ma," said David, "there's a little problem. She's not Jewish. "

"Oy vey!" shouted Mrs Levy, but then she calmed down. "Well, I love you very much, David. You"re my only son and I guess I"ll have to accept her and make the best of it."

"But there's another little difficulty, Ma," continued David. "She is a little older than I am and also she's pregnant."

"Oy, David!" screamed his mother. "How could you do such a thing?" But again she regained her control. "But you are my only son and I love you, I forgive you."

"Thanks, Ma, but there's still another little matter. She already has five children!"

"David! David!" Mrs Levy was distraught. "You"re breaking my heart! But you"re my own flesh and blood. What can I do for you?"

"Ma, we have nowhere to stay."

"Come to New York, David," said Mrs Levy. "You can have this apartment."

"But, Ma, where will you stay?"

"Don't worry about me, David. As soon as I put down the phone I"ll drop dead!" Feinberg was on the subway when a man came up to him and asked if he had the time. Feinberg didn't answer him. The man thought he hadn't heard so he asked again. Still Feinberg said nothing.

Finally the man walked away toward the other end of the platform.

After he was gone another rider approached Feinberg. "Excuse me, sir, but that seemed like a perfectly reasonable question. I notice you are wearing a watch. Why didn't you give him the time?" "Well," replied Feinberg, "I"ll tell you why. I'm standing minding my own business, and this guy wants to know what time it is. So maybe I tell him what time it is. Then we get to talking, and this guy says "How about a drink?" So we have a drink, then we have some more drinks. So after a while I say, "How about coming up to my house for a bite to eat?" So we go up to my house, and we"re eating sandwiches in the kitchen when my daughter comes in - and my daughter is a very good-looking girl. So she falls for this guy, and he falls for her. Then they get married!"

The other man was staring at Feinberg in utter amazement. But Feinberg went on. "And any guy that can't afford a watch I don't want for a son-in-law!"

Now, you are not a sannyasin and you are thinking of becoming a member of a group and of the crystallization of the ego and that you will drop it when it is crystallized... You have gone too far!

David, don't try to hide your desire to become a sannyasin. You can hide it from yourself, but you cannot hide it from me. This time I can forgive you, next time when you come, come ready. This time I can allow you to go without becoming a sannyasin, but next time it is going to happen. So next time, if you come at all, be ready.

And all these things are not going to help. Sannyas is rebellion, it is the ultimate rebellion. It is rebellion against the whole past of humanity, rebellion against all ideologies, philosophies, dogmas, creeds, cults. It is rebellion so that you can simply be yourself.

I am not here to discipline you, I am not here to impose any idea of mine on you. I am just here to help you discover your own being.

And the last thing:

A joke for Vimalkirti.

He used to be here, just the other day he was here, and he will miss the joke in the hospital. And a little laughter inside him will help him immensely. If he can chuckle a little, giggle a little, that may help to melt the damage in the brain. It can melt the whole brain, what about the damage! He is a German and if he had told me before that he had this difficulty I would not have allowed him to do karate. Germans and Japanese don't go together at all, they don't mix. The Second World War has proved it perfectly well - they tried hard! I would have stopped him doing karate.

So this is a special joke for Vimalkirti. And when you laugh, laugh really loudly because he is in a coma - the Germans find it very difficult to understand a joke anyway, and he is in a coma...

German, and in a coma! So unless you really laugh loudly... so please, even if you are English, laugh! Even if you are German and you don't get the joke, laugh! Even if you are Indian, trust me and laugh, because that is the only prayer we can do for him. Laughter to me is prayer.

A football match was arranged between the Germans and the Americans. The referee was a beautiful Japanese woman.

The match began, and all was going well for the Germans until Wolfgang, star player, passed the ball back and scored a goal under the wrong poles. The referee screamed, "Ko-ho!" and the game continued.

After the game there was a big party for both teams. Wolfgang and the Japanese referee began to chat together, had a few drinks, then left to go for dinner. One thing led to another and they returned quite late to Wolfgang's hotel room and went to bed.

They began to make love. After a few minutes the Japanese girl whispered softly into Wolfgang's ear, "Ko-ho!" Wolfgang took this as encouragement and built up more speed. Now she was saying quite forcibly, "Ko-ho!" He thought she was really getting turned on so he built up to a crescendo of energy. Finally she screamed, "Ko-ho!" and dropped dead.

Wolfgang returned to Germany, a little puzzled. After a few weeks he could not contain his curiosity any longer, so he phoned the Japanese department of the local university.

"Ahem, excuse me," he mumbled. "I'm sorry to disturb you... ahem... I am reading a Japanese novel at the moment and I cannot find the meaning of a word, "Ko-ho"."

"Aha," said a voice on the other end of the phone. ""Ko-ho"? "Ko-ho" means "wrong hole"."