..., 'The body goes and there remains only existence, the infinite.' True, but between the body and the soul there is a mind clinging to you, or you clinging to it. The body goes, but you don't become the infinite because you are not only surrounded by a body - that is your physical limitation - there is psychological limitation inside it. Through the death of the body, mind will not die, it will take...

... or, if it is a Mohammedan country, is ready to die. If a rape is committed in a Mohammedan country and the person is caught, death is the penalty. And you will be surprised: more rapes are committed in Mohammedan countries than anywhere else. Maybe the person who commits the rape wants to commit suicide. And this is a beautiful way to commit suicide. Can you find a better way of committing suicide...

... more interested in sex, your whole attention can be focused on death. Remember, sex and death are polar opposites. If you remain interested in sex, when will you prepare for death? Your attention will remain focused on sex, and you will die without any preparation. Meditation is a preparation for death. Now prepare for death. Meditate. You are no more interested in women - good. Now become interested...

... way to know that you are deathless, that only the body dies, and you never die. And once you have known it, you are ready, ready for the journey, and when death comes, you will go laughing and dancing and singing into it. And a man who can go laughing, dancing, and singing into death, prayerfully, meditatively, comes to know the greatest orgasm that is in the world. Sexual orgasm is nothing, because...

... nobody is ready for it. Death takes you unawares. And you are so frightened, and you are so concerned with sex that you cling to life. Do you know that it almost always happens...? In the East it has been one of the secrets to know about a man. When a man dies, if he is clinging too much to life and is still interested in sex, he will die with an erection. That shows that the poor fellow died without...

... any readiness - even in death he was full of sex fantasies. It happens almost always. Unless you have become a great meditator, it is going to happen to you too that while dying you will fantasize about sex, you will be making love - at least in your imagination. This is no way to die. This is very insulting to death, and insulting to God, and very insulting to yourself. Let sex disappear - it is...

... infinite without the disappearance of the body, without the death of the body. There is no need to wait for that. Buddha is infinite even when he is in the body because he knows he is not the body. Buddha is infinite when he leaves the body. There is no difference for him: living in the body or leaving the body is the same. You live in a house, but you don't think that you are the house. Exactly like...

... the car is not there? Just through the death of the body, you will not know that you are infinite. Either you are infinite herenow, or you will never be. Infinity is your nature. The real problem is not the body. The body is not the culprit as the so-called religions have been telling you, 'The body is the culprit!' The body is not the culprit at all. The body is utterly innocent and beautiful. The...

... young, because he has lived, grown, understood. He can give you a better direction, with more maturity, with more clarity. Old age is the age to prepare for death. And that is the greatest preparation because you will be going on the longest journey - into the unknown. If you remain interested in sex, it will keep you diverted from death. That's what is happening in the West. In the West people have...

... not accepted death yet as part of life. Death is a taboo, just as sex was a taboo just a hundred years ago. Nobody talked about sex a hundred years ago. It was impossible to talk about it or to write about it. It was such a taboo that in the Victorian age ladies used to cover the legs of their chairs too - because they are legs, and legs should not be shown. Freud introduced a great revolution The...

... world is waiting for another Freud to destroy the greater taboo of death. He destroyed the taboo of sex, and the world is far better because of it. Freud is one of the greatest benefactors. Another Freud is needed to destroy the other taboo - which is greater. Death has to be accepted. With the acceptance of death you start accepting old age. And in acceptance there is relaxation. And once you are no...

....' And you ask me what to do...? 'What should I do?' Do you want to call the police? Enough is enough. Now let that nonsense go. Let that obsession go. Now turn your energy towards death. Now look into death face to face. Now encounter death. And to encounter death is the greatest experience in life. And if you can encounter death, you will come to know that you are deathless. To face death is the only...

... in sexual orgasm only a small, minute part of your life energy leaves your body, and you feel a great relaxation. In death your whole life energy leaves the body. No sexual orgasm can be compared with that cosmic orgasm, that total orgasm that death brings to you. Don't miss death. Death is going to give you the greatest gift in life, the parting gift. But only a few people come to it because...

... time. Relax into non-sexuality. Non-sexuality will make you centred. Stop chasing women, and start chasing yourself. You cannot do both. And get ready. Death may knock you down any moment; one never knows when it is coming. Prepare. Allow yourself to enjoy meditation as much as possible. Transform your sexual energy into meditative energy; it is the same energy, just the direction changes: it no...

... this interest in women go, and suddenly you will find another interest arising in you - it is almost simultaneous - the interest in meditation. And then you can have the last gift that life can give to you: a meditative death, a death in SATORI, in SAMADHI, in ecstasy. And you will know the total orgasmic experience. That experience is enough; then you will never be coming back into life, into the...

... the ages, that there is a subtle point behind the navel - if the arrow or the dagger reaches to that point, one dies immediately, and with no pain, almost no pain, with no torture. To die from anywhere else is more torturous because death is closest to the navel, it is just behind the navel. And it has to be so because sex is life: life and death are two aspects of the same coin. The navel contains...

... total, you will have to commit a kind of suicide, a spiritual suicide. You will have to disappear. If the dewdrop wants to be the ocean, the only possible way is to disappear into the ocean, to die as a dewdrop. The moment a dewdrop dies as a dewdrop, it becomes the ocean. That creates fear. People talk about God, but nobody wants to lose himself. Hence the talk of God remains impotent, meaningless...

..., endless, it is infinite. Unless one is ready to go into this mysterious chaos of the whole, one will not be able to take even a single step into it. It is dangerous for the ego, it is dangerous for your so-called intelligence. It is a mad love affair. Unless you are in such a mad love affair with existence that you are ready to die for it, you will go on clinging to your small ego. I have heard: Two...

... crazy. I would only get half way up and you would turn off the light!" To go into the whole, you will have to be THAT crazy. It is a death, it is a disappearance, it is risky, it is a gamble. You cannot know what is going to happen. You can only know what you are going to lose; you cannot know beforehand what you are going to gain. Unless you are tremendously courageous you will not take that...

... step - it is jumping into an abyss and the abyss is bottomless. But those who have jumped have arrived. The moment they died as separate egos they were resurrected as divine. To die as a drop is the only way to become the ocean. That's what sannyas is all about - driving you crazy, helping to drop your so-called cleverness, intellectuality, your knowledge. Sannyas is creating such an intense longing...

... in you to die into God - and that is possible only if you are not too much concerned about what is going to happen then. If you are not too much concerned about the result, only then can you take the jump. Slowly slowly, being with somebody who has taken the jump, you become infected. Religion is infection: there is no other way to learn religion. It cannot be taught, it can only be caught. The...

... is somewhere deep down. Why is the person afraid of touching his own navel? To touch the navel seems so innocent an activity, just as touching any part of the body is. The problem is somewhere else; this is only a symptom. The navel is connected with the two vital centers of your life - the most vital. One is sex, the other is death. And these two are the only fears in the world. The navel is not...

.... It is not naturally an erogenous zone, but it happens only if natural sex has been repressed too much. Then the empty tunnel, which has always been capable of carrying much energy, starts carrying sexuality. Hence the fear. And the second possibility is: just behind the navel is the death center. That's why in Japanese, suicide is called HARA KIRI - HARA means navel. The Japanese have known it down...

... two possibilities: life and death. If you repress life, your navel becomes a very very erogenous zone - and that will create fear in a repressive person, in a repressive psychology. Or, behind the navel is your death. If you have become too much obsessed with death, if you are too much afraid of death... and that too happens to people who are repressed. The person who is living his life naturally is...

... not afraid of death, not at all - in fact death will come to him, not as an end of life but as the climax of life. Death will come, not as the enemy of life but as the crescendo of the music of life. The man who has lived his life totally, intensely, passionately, without any fear - without any fear that has been created in you by the priests for centuries and centuries - if a person lives his life...

... without any fear, authentically, spontaneously, death will not create any fear in him, not at all. In fact, death will come as a great rest. Death will come as the ultimate flowering of life. He will be able to enjoy death too, he will be able to celebrate death too. And remember, that is the criterion. If a person can enjoy and celebrate his death, that shows he has lived rightly; there is no other...

... criterion. Your death will prove how you have lived. The fruit proves the tree - and death is the ultimate fruit of the tree that you are. How have you lived? Joyously? Has your life been a song and a dance? Has your life been a benediction, a blessing? Have you been grateful to God for giving you life? Then death will come as the ultimate gift - from the same hands, from the same totality. And you will...

... feel tremendously ecstatic. You will receive death, you will welcome death, you will embrace death. Death will be your ultimate love. But the person who has been repressing life, who has been repressing his sexuality, who has been repressing everything, who has never lived in any true way, will not be able to accept death either. How can he? He has not even lived yet. The tree has not even sprouted...

... - how can it bear fruit? He is not ripe for death, hence the fear. The fear is that I have not lived yet and death is coming closer every day, every moment." The repressive person is afraid of sex, and the repressive person is afraid of death. And both are deeply related with the navel. But even if your navel is removed - mm? - it can be done by plastic surgery - that will not change the problem...

... world, the whole past of humanity has been a repressive past, it has been an ugly phenomenon. And it is good that the past is on its deathbed. I don't mourn, I rejoice that the past is dying - because with the death of the past, a new man can arrive on the earth. A new man who will be able to rejoice, who will not be afraid to live. A new man who will not think of the other world and who will not...

..., which has not known the beauties of this earth. Now there is only one hope: that after death you will be rewarded. The fear is there. The first fear is of sex, because sex means birth, sex means life. And the second fear is of death, because death means the end. And the story is short between the beginning and the end - so short really. One third of your life will be wasted in sleep; the second third...

...;Tomorrow I will live." And tomorrow comes only death! And you have not lived yet, and the opportunity is slipping out of your hands. Great fear arises. This fear can express itself in a thousand and one ways. Somebody is afraid of touching his own navel, somebody is afraid of looking at his own body. Somebody is afraid of falling in love, somebody is afraid of not eating enough and goes on stuffing...

... underneath a tree outside the town, resting under the sun. And he said, "I am a very miserable man - I want happiness. I am ready to give anything for it, but I have not tasted even once what happiness is - and death is coming closer. Can you help me? How can I be happy? I have all kinds of things that the world can give to me, yet I am unhappy. Why?" Mulla looked at the man, and it happened so...

... other purpose. To be close to me is to be close to your death. The ancient Eastern sutras say that the master is nothing but death, and the disciple is one who is ready to die. But death is a prerequisite for being reborn. Jesus cannot be resurrected if he is not crucified. Once a Christian missionary was asking me, "How do you explain the fact that God allowed Jesus to be crucified?"...

... going to help you to die. That's the function of a master: he has to be a death. And, yes, to die is difficult, hard. That diarrhea is nothing but a mind thing: you are so much afraid that fear is creating diarrhea. But it is good - it will cleanse the body. Your body, your mind, both need deep cleaning. That's why whenever clouds are not there "joy and gratitude rush in." Whenever you are...

... ready to die you will find joy and gratitude rushing in - whenever you accept. If you resist, then there is a problem. If you resist, then you will scream, your very being will scream, "Stop, Osho! Not so fast! I'm not up to it!" Nobody is up to it! Who wants to die? And dropping all your old patterns is a great death, greater than the ordinary, physical death, because when you die...

..., because all fear of death disappears. You are no more separate so you cannot die. When you are just a wave in the ocean, all anxiety disappears, because anxiety is possible only if you think of yourself as an individual, separate. When you are just a wave in the ocean, then the ocean takes care of you. Sometimes you are there manifest and sometimes you are there unmanifest, but you are there always and...

... somebody else. And one is afraid - afraid to be somebody other than one is. One is always afraid to go into the unknown. The fear of death is nothing but the fear of the unknown. How can you be afraid of death, Amitabh? You have not encountered it yet. You have not seen its face - whether it is ugly or beautiful. You cannot say anything - whether it is going to be a curse or a blessing. You have no idea...

... about it; how can you be afraid of death? No, no one is ever afraid of death. People are really afraid of losing their attachments with life, with their lifestyles. One thing is certain: that death will change you totally, that death will take you into a dimension of which you are absolutely unaware. One thing is certain: that death will not leave you intact as you are. It will take away your body, it...

... will take away your mind; it will take away all that you had thought you consist of. It will leave only the purest consciousness within you. Hence the fear of death, and hence the fear of going deep into meditation - they are the same. Meditation does the same work as death. Meditation is a willful death: you start dying, disappearing, evaporating of your own accord. And to be close to me has no...

... whole phenomenon. If God had done any miracle and Jesus had been saved, the whole story would have been very ordinary. God did not do anything; he allowed Jesus to die. In fact, he helped in every possible way for him to die, because that is the only way to be resurrected." The real miracle is resurrection - not saving you but helping you to die as you are so that you can be as you should be. God...

... allowed Jesus to die on the cross. And the story is beautiful: on the third day Jesus is back, resurrected, new, young, no more son of man but only son of God. He is so new, so fresh, that even his own disciples fail to recognize him. He meets two of his disciples who are going towards a village, escaping from Jerusalem, because now they are afraid that the next thing is going to be that the disciples...

... "That is the way of Jesus! Only he used to break bread that way!"' As if suddenly the clouds disperse, the darkness is gone, and they see that Jesus has come back. The form is so new... no trace of the old. My own feeling is that Jesus must have deliberately broken bread in the old way just to give them a clue. God allowed Jesus to die so that a resurrection became possible. Amitabh, I am...

... ordinarily you only change the body, you change the garments. Your old habits, old patterns of thinking and feeling, continue in a new life, in a new body. Just the surface changes, nothing else. The ordinary death is really ordinary; it is not much of a death. It only scratches the surface; it changes your skin, that's all. Otherwise you remain the same person: death after death you remain the same person...

.... But the death that happens in a love affair with a master is absolute, irrevocable. It is a point of no return. You cannot go back, you cannot fall back to the old patterns again; that becomes impossible. You have to go on moving ahead. And, of course, the mind screams, "Stop, Osho!" But because I love you, I cannot stop. Because I love you, I have to kill you. "Sweetheart,"...

... to grow. A sense comes that all is possible. Thank you, Beloved One." Two different layers, two different planes of your being - the head and the heart - are both expressed in your question. A part of you, the superficial part which is afraid of death - the ego, the mind - is crying, begging, "Stop!" It is because of this superficial plane of your being that you have been escaping...

... is something in the mind; it is a trick of the mind, a subtle strategy. And the mind has to be very subtle, because Amitabh's love for me is tremendous. But as the moment of death comes close the mind freaks out. And Amitabh will not listen to the mind, hence the mind has to take support from the body. And the body always follows the mind. If the mind wants to create a certain illness, the body...

..., too. Your heart says, "This is what you need - you need a death, because only after death is a resurrection possible. The old has to cease for the new to be." The mind has to go for the heart to take total possession of your being. Hence you feel gratitude, you feel joy, you feel great thankfulness. And you understand that it is needed in order for you to grow that all these things...

... - attachments, possessiveness, jealousy, fear of death, distrust - have to be dropped. They are ugly. They are hanging around you, they are parasites - they suck your blood. They don't allow you freedom, they don't allow you the impossible. But in those rare, crystal-clear moments when the heart is functioning as a master and not as a slave, you know: "A sense comes that all is possible." Yes, all...

... nothing but the process of rebirthing. You are born anew, you are born in God, you are resurrected. Religion is death and resurrection. Enough for today. Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

.... STUFFING YOURSELF, SEXUAL DESIRE ARISES, WHY WASTE THIS BODY BORN OF PASSION? DON'T ATTACK YOUR FOOD, DON'T DIE OF HUNGER, CONTEMPLATE THE SECRET OF BRAHMAN DAY AND NIGHT DON'T OVERWORK, DON'T LIE AROUND, THUS SAYS GORAKH DEVA OVER EATING STRENGTHENS THE SENSES, DESTROYS CONSCIOUSNESS, FILLS THE MIND WITH SEX. SLEEP OVERTAKES, DEATH CLOSES IN THE HEART ENTANGLED. THE MILK DIETER MONK'S MIND ON OTHERS...

..., OH YOGI, DIE! DIE, SWEET IS DYING. DIE THAT DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW. Man lives in ego. Ego is only a mask, not your being. Ego is not your reality, it is your acting. Ego is not your truth it is your belief. In a drama, when someone is cast as Rama he doesn't become Rama, in the same way you are cast here as something which you are not. A vast drama goes on. When you were born you didn't come...

... is no experience of being. To experience being the ego must be lost. DIE, OH YOGI, DIE! DIE, SWEET IS DYING. Gorakh says, the death I am telling you about is very sweet. If one dies this death, life is nothing but sweetness. Truth is very sweet when you experience it. It is the taste of nectar. It spreads in the body and heart, you are filled with it. It begins overflowing. Certainly one who has...

... but you need eyes to see it. Today's sutra is about how this sweet death happens. What is the process? What is its essential discipline? ... sutras about this. How can we die? What is Gorakh's death like? DIE THAT DEATH... Everyone dies. But there are differences in dying. You will die, Buddha also dies, but there is a difference between your dying and Buddha's. You will die only from the body and...

... doesn't die, he isn't born. One living, changeless, beyond time. Then you are as big as the sky. This is your nature. DIE THAT DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW. This is why he says, don't think that I am talking about ordinary dying. Everyone dies ordinary deaths: birds and animals die, plants die, mountains die. Gorakh is not talking about this death, he is talking about a special death - die in samadhi, die...

... Osho Death is Divine: Live spontaneously Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho Death is Divine   Next > Live spontaneously From: Osho Date: Fri, 3 October 1978 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: Osho - Death is Divine Chapter #: 3 Location: am in Buddha Hall Archive Code: N.A. Short Title: N.A. Audio Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length...

...' COWS, THE NAKED MONKS ALWAYS NEED FIREWOOD. THE MONK IN SILENCE DESIRES A COMPANION - NO DEPTH WITHOUT THE MASTER'S SHELTER. HIS FRAGRANCE AND SWEETNESS PERVADE THE WHOLE WORLD. THE TRUTH IS, ONLY A MASTER WHO HAS SEEN, CAN HELP YOU SEE. LISTEN VIRTUOUS ONE, LISTEN INTELLIGENT ONE, TO THIS CALL OF NUMBERLESS SIDDHAS. IN THE DISCIPLE'S BOWING, THE MASTER IS FOUND, AND THE WORLDLY NIGHT IS OVER. DIE...

... is the creation of other hands. Others have brought their brushes and painted you. And if you accept this as your being you will never be able to know yourself. Gorakh says, DIE, OH YOGI, DIE! Let this false form die, so you can experience your real form. Let your mask fall away. It is good if this clothing burns to ash, so your truth, naked, can manifest in its naturalness. Until the ego is gone...

... ego is false, a drama. Whatever you do while this drama is running will be illusory. Make vows, do ascetic practices, control, fast; abandon your home and go to the jungle. Nothing will come of it. Your ego will receive new ornaments from all of these. It will become more beautified, better arranged. Your ego will not die, it will get more life, become more nourished. And until the ego dies, there...

... received the truth is himself fulfilled. But droplets of fulfillment also start falling on those who are near him, lightly showering on those who sit in his shelter. But one must die - this is the condition. If the false dies, the truth is born. Truth is present within, but imprisoned in a wall of lies. Clouds of lies have hidden the sun of truth. It has not been destroyed. What lie can destroy the truth...

... save your ego, your lie, taking it with you - it will adorn your mind like a treasure. Your ego will enter a new womb. You will die, your mind will not die. And nothing changes until the mind dies. Masks change, houses change but the journey is the same, just going round and round like an old ox in a grist mill. You have died many times, and you have been born again many times. Hardly have you died...

... when you start being born again. The ego hides all your diseases inside itself, enters a new womb, and starts taking a new body. But the desires are old, the diseases are old, the miseries are old, the ruts are old. You move ahead, get tired again, fall again, die again, this has happened many times. Buddha also dies, but there is a difference between his dying and your dying. Your ego does not die...

..., it only abandons the body. He dissolves his ego, burns up his ego. Before the body is abandoned he abandons his ego. One who dies before dying, experiences the ultimate life. Then he has no need to come back again, because the very thread that used to pull him back has died. Being has no birth, no death. The ego is born, only the ego dies. And one who is released from ego is eternal. Then he...

..., the extreme of indulgence or yoga. Stop in the middle and the ego will die. This is why Buddha calls his path majjhim nikaya, the middle path, exactly in the center. A youth, Prince Shrona, was initiated by Buddha. The people in the capital could not believe it. No one had ever imagined that Shrona would become a bhikkhu, a monk. Buddha's monks could not believe it either, their eyes were popping...

... Emperor Shrona. His feet became blistered, his body became black, he shrivelled and became just bones. And he went on disciplining himself. Buddha said, "Do you see bhikkhus, I had told you that what goes to one extreme, will go to the other extreme! It is difficult to stop in the middle, because the middle is the death of the ego." Then Shrona stopped eating. Then he stopped taking water. He...

... continued from one extreme to another. It seemed he would be a guest on this earth only two or three more days, then die. This is when Buddha went to his door, to the tree under which he had built a hut to rest in. He was lying down. Buddha said to him, "Shrona, I have come to ask you something. I have heard that when you were an emperor you had a passion for playing the veena, and that you were very...

... extreme. At first your strings were very loose, now you have tightened them too much. Music didn't happen then, nor does it happen now: are you experiencing samadhi? What is all this that you are doing? Previously you stuffed yourself, now you are fasting to death. Previously you never went barefoot, if you went anywhere the road was covered with velvet. And now if the path is good you will not move on...

... anything about it? By reading and reciting you have become a pandit, do you know the path that doesn't exist but the goal comes? MOVING WITHOUT PATH, BURNING WITHOUT FIRE... Do you know the happening that occurs from a fireless burning? I know a fire like this, that doesn't exist yet it burns. I know a death, that doesn't occur, but it happens. I know a goal that has no path to reach it. I know that...

... ever stopped the pendulum of a clock and seen what happens? As soon as the pendulum stops the clock stops. Coming and going has stopped. Time has stopped. Time has stopped means the world has stopped. DON'T ATTACK YOUR FOOD, DON'T DIE OF HUNGER, CONTEMPLATE THE SECRET OF BRAHMAN DAY AND NIGHT DON'T OVERWORK, DON'T LIE AROUND, THUS SAYS GORAKH DEVA A plain and simple sutra, but such that if it finds...

... its mark it will land in your heart like an arrow and your life will be transformed. DON'T ATTACK YOUR FOOD... Don't eat fuller and fuller, don't burst with food! DON'T ATTACK YOUR FOOD... Don't launch an attack. ... DON'T DIE OF HUNGER... And don't die of hunger either. Don't starve. Don't fast. ... CONTEMPLATE THE SECRET OF BRAHMA DAY AND NIGHT Live rightly and assimilate the secret of the...

... SENSES, DESTROYS CONSCIOUSNESS, FILLS THE MIND WITH SEX. SLEEP OVERTAKES, DEATH CLOSES IN... Sleep catches you, death catches you. ... THE HEART ENTANGLED. And then trouble always created within, a disturbance continues to be raised. An insanity goes on increasing. Just look inside yourself and see how mad you are. Madness goes on there. Living in this madness how will you know the truth? It is...

...? Trees are cut, insects die in the fire..what was wrong with wearing clothes? Why are you creating troubles? Gorakh says let life be spontaneous. These are unnatural things. Now their minds are caught up in meaningless things: Will I get firewood today or not? Will I find a white cow or not? Will I get milk or not? Will I get enough milk or not? Make life simple, not complex. Be natural, be ordinary...

...Death is Divine...

..., two poles of one process. If you are born you are on the journey to die. The whole of your life is nothing but a gradual process of dying. But the mind divides; mind says birth is good, death is bad. Mind says life is good, death is bad. But death is part of life, life is part of death - they cannot be divided. Have you ever seen anything alive which is not also dying simultaneously? A flower has...

... petals will wither away. So where do you divide? Where is the line where you can say that the flower was alive, and then the flower started to die? Is there any distinction? Can we mark a boundary that up to this point the flower was alive, in the process of more and more life, and from this point the flower started to die? No, there is no possibility of division. Birth and death is a continuous...

.... Every diversity is just a hidden unity. Why? Why do we divide? - and a jivanmukta never divides. It is because of the intellect, the medium of intellect. If you look through the intellect, everything is divided immediately. Intellect is the instrument to divide, to analyze. For example you see light, you see darkness, you see birth, you see death. Birth and death in existence are one; birth is death...

... come up, has opened its petals. This opening of the petals - can you see it as a process of death? The flower is alive, young, but it is dying already. The evening will come and the petals will wither away. And the withering of petals is really nothing but the conclusion; in the morning the process began, the petals opened. The very opening in the morning will become withering in the evening; the...

... process. One pole is birth, another pole is death. But mind, intellect, thinking, divides. Mind says birth is good, celebrate it; death is bad, weep over it. And the same goes on; the whole of life becomes a division between things which are not divided. Because of this division we live in a false world, a mind-created world. You say this is love and this is hate, and this is religion and that is...

... irreligion, and this is sin and that is virtue - all divisions, on all layers, on all planes, are through the mind. Put aside the mind and look at life, and then everything is one: then life and death are one, then darkness and light are one, then love and hate are one. A jivanmukta never divides because a jivanmukta looks at life without the mind coming in, interfering. Can you look without the mind, even...

... inner being. The fear is there because we think that we are the body - not only think, we are certain that we are the body. And the body is going to fall, the body is going to die: the destruction of the body is quite certain. When our destruction is a certainty, when death is inevitable, how can there be fearlessness? The fact of withering away makes us tremble. Death may look far away, yet it is...

... very near. What does it matter whether it comes after seven days or seventy years? Death is standing there by your side all along. Nothing is as close to you as death. This realization of inevitable death makes one tremble. So the master may make you forget this fact, he may make you understand that the soul is immortal, that you will never die, that no one ever dies. Even if you understand this...

... die, and that nothing is going to remain of all that which you think you are. You don't know anything of that which will remain. You will just die - the full death, nobody can save you, neither the premise of deathlessness nor any master. No, nothing can save you - to die is your nature. So first your realization of death is to be intensified, and then your trembling will grow. A moment will come...

... may seem strange to you when I say that only if I take you deep into your fear will you be able to find fearlessness. To you it will appear to be the right thing that I should make you courageous, conceal your fear, and embroider your death in beautiful colors. If I say to you, "Death is your friend, death is the door to God," if I console you - "Why are you afraid? You will never die...

... earth. It is easy to attain the part, to attain the whole is difficult. Worldly people covet life, and the so- called seekers strive after death. I want you to attain both simultaneously. Your ego must die utterly, and the divine in you must come totally to life. Let death be your left hand and life your right. Let your inhalation be life and your exhalation death. Be young, overflowing with energy...

... when you are nothing but fear itself, and every cell of your being is nothing but weeping. And when you see the fire of death burning your every cell, on the funeral pyre, that is when you will abandon your identification with the body, that is when your eyes will turn towards that which is deathless. Only the experience of the totality of fear will lead you to fearlessness. Life is very complex. It...

.... In fact nothing in the world is as full of death as the ego, nothing is more false than the ego. Ego in itself is dead. So first of all I will bring you to a total trembling. You will feel that you are fear itself, all the passion of your fear will be crystallized, you will be unable even to sleep in peace. You will continue to move around, but the trembling will be there all the same. You will see...

... death all around you, as though the whole world is ready to kill you, to annihilate you; as if you have been thrown into an ocean when the waves are roaring and rushing towards you to swallow you up, and there is no shore in sight, no boat, no shelter, no one to hear you however much you scream - all around you the roaring waves of the ocean, you, and death, and nothing else! In this intense...

... realization of death happens the transformation when you for the first time jump out of the body, and the glimpse, the experience of soul takes place. Near the master you will feel much pain at first; all the anguish of separation and the extreme of your agony. Only then will be born that contentment, that sense of the deathless, from which fearlessness grows. Here a point has to be understood: often it is...

... not the body" - you may have recited this many thousands of times - but still you are convinced internally that you are the body. Any hurt to the body is a hurt to you. If the body is ill, you feel ill. You feel beautiful if your body is beautiful, and if you body is ugly, you feel ugly. When the body grows old, you grow old along with it. Naturally, when your body dies you will die. How ever...

... difference is so vast - not an atom of similarity between the two - that the bridge has to shake and tremble, and it will go on doing so! It is neither you nor your body that trembles. It is neither you nor your body that dies. How can the body die when it is dead already? You are the deathless, there is no way for you to die! Then who dies? It is this bridge between the two that dies. We call that bridge...

... ego, me, 'I'. What is really happening when a man dies? The body is just as it was before death, not the slightest change has taken place; all the atoms, all the elements, everything is present. The soul is as it was - there cannot be any change in the soul, it is eternal. Then how has this death happened? This death is the breaking of the bridge between the two. The deathless was connected to the...

... dead, and has become separated. Death is a disconnection, a separation of the two. The valley is in between, the bridge has disappeared. The bridge that joined the two has gone - it is only the bridge that dies. But as long as you remain identified with the bridge you will go on shaking and trembling with fear. My love will not make the fear disappear. No love can make it disappear. But the day your...

... somebody else is also present; or at least you forget that you are alone, that it is dark, that the road is very lonely. You slip into your humming and the street is forgotten. Husbands slip into wives, wives into husbands, parents into children, friends into friends, just to forget themselves..... Because as long as we can forget ourselves, we can forget the trembling that comes from our sense of death...

... contrasting background. If all the ugly people disappear from the world, who will be beautiful? If there is no noise in the world, how will you come to know peace? Again, because of the night, full of darkness, the light of the lamp is recognizable. Because death is, hence the taste of life is. Hate exists, hence the abundance of love. The thorns that stab make flowers all the more lovely. You see and...

... enthusiasm to set out for a journey towards the infinite, so that you stay lively, so that your peace does not become your death. Otherwise you will become like those seekers who in their search for peace have become almost lifeless. They are like stone statues. No heart throbs within them, because they fear that the throbbing of the heart will disturb their peace. They breathe halfheartedly, in fear, for...

... every proper breath has the possibility of creating trouble. They lead frightened lives, full of precautions to prevent anything going wrong. Their peace is very weak, very frightened, anything can shatter it. They are like those plants which have been kept only in the shade; to bring them into the sun now is a difficult thing, for they will fade away and die. Can there be life in the shade alone...

... SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE. Childhood is spent in play, in games; youth is spent in the play named love; old age is spent in worries of old times, in thinking of the past, and the whole of life is wasted like this. The divine is never remembered. We go on postponing till tomorrow, and tomorrow brings death. We hardly ever remember the inner world until we die. OH IDIOT! ALWAYS SING THE SONG OF THE...

... the bed. She opened her eyes and asked him, "Do you really mean to say that you will go mad if I die?" Nasruddin said, "Certainly I will go mad if you die." The wife laughed and said, "You are lying, I know that you will marry again after my death." Nasruddin said, "It is true that I will go mad, but not to the extent of getting married again." If you watch...

...: N.A. Audio Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. [NOTE: This is a translation from the Hindi series BHAJ GOVINDAM, literally: Singing the Song of the Divine. This version is the final edit pending publication, and is for research only.] OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, BECAUSE AT THE TIME OF DEATH THE MEMORIZATION OF...

... brahmin. Most of the people are born like sudras and die like sudras. Who is a brahmin? Not the one who knows the Vedas, because anyone can know the Vedas. Not the one who has memorized the scriptures because anyone can memorize scriptures. Memorizing the scriptures is just memory, not true knowledge. Only he is a brahmin who knows Brahma. You have come here. You may not know that your coming here is...

... actually the quest for being a brahmin - the quest to know Brahma. Shankara wrote the first verse of this sweet song when he was passing through a village and saw an old man memorizing the rules of grammar. He felt pity for this old man who was on his death bed - he had wasted his whole life and he was now wasting the last moment too. During his whole life he had never remembered the divine and even now...

... written commentaries on the Brahmasutra, the Upanishads and the Gita, you will find his innermost feelings expressed in these small verses; here he has opened his heart. Here Shankara does not speak like a scholar or a thinker, here he expresses himself like a devotee. OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, BECAUSE AT THE TIME OF DEATH THE MEMORIZATION OF GRAMMAR WILL NOT...

...." Just at that time a storm started, the boat began to toss over the waves and it seemed that it may sink any moment. The fakir laughed because the pundit got very frightened. Who will not when death is imminent? The pundit used to talk of deathlessness, used to say that the soul is immortal, but these scholarly claims of the soul, of deathlessness, are of no use when faced by death. The fakir...

... asked him, "Do you know how to swim?" The pundit answered, "No, not at all." The fakir said, "Then the whole of your life is wasted! I am going to jump because this boat will sink." OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE BECAUSE AT THE TIME OF DEATH - perhaps Shankara knew the story which I have just told you - THE MEMORIZATION OF GRAMMAR WILL...

... NOT SAVE YOU. When you are about to be drowned, when death surrounds you, you will be saved only if you know how to swim... swimming in death. If you do not know how to swim in death, then death will drown you. It has drowned you many times before too, but you have not woken up yet, you have not learned to swim yet. At the time of death your knowledge of languages - no matter how many languages you...

... know - as well as your knowledge of grammar, will be absolutely useless. Death is the criterion. Whatever is useful at the time of death is wisdom and whatever is useless at the time of death is scholarliness. Go on testing whatever you know on this criterion. Keep this touchstone always with you just as a goldsmith goes on testing the gold on the touchstone. Whatever is useful, helpful at the time...

... of death, is true knowledge, and whatever is useless and deceptive is nothing but scholarliness. And can anything which is useless in death be useful in life? What is of no use even in death, how can it be useful in life? - because death is the ultimate culmination of life. It is the pinnacle of life. It is the festival of life. Whatever is useful in death is useful in life. Although it is easy to...

... deceive in life it is impossible to deceive in death. Death exposes everything. Whom is Shankara calling idiot? He is calling that person an idiot who does not know the truth but who has memorized grammar, who knows the words and scriptures and can repeat them, explain them. Shankara is calling the pundit an idiot. His very words: OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE...

..., BECAUSE AT THE TIME OF DEATH THE MEMORIZATION OF GRAMMAR WILL NOT SAVE YOU, prove that he was using the word idiot for the pundit; otherwise all of a sudden there was no need to mention about grammar. It is not the fool or the ignorant whom we consider as such; it is the pundit who is memorizing grammar, he is the idiot. The pundit is memorizing grammar, and this has become a big burden in India, so...

... much so that almost every person has this false notion that he knows the divine just because he knows the word God. Remember that the word God is not godliness, just as the word water is not water. When one is thirsty the word water is of no use and actual water is needed to quench the thirst. At the time of death the principles and theories of immortality are of no use; the actual taste of...

... is one who keeps religion as last on his list, and certainly that person is not an idiot who has it as first on his list. He has started waking up. He has understood properly that he may accumulate any amount of wealth but eventually death will snatch it away from him. So there is no sense in wasting time in accumulating things which will be snatched away in the end. OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE...

.... Bhajan means that there is a deep agony in your inner being; a sound arises from your inner depth. Your whole life is at stake as if it is a question of life and death. If you want to sing the song of the divine then you have to lose yourself. If you want to save yourself and to be devotional to Govinda, God, then you are deceiving yourself. Bhajan in itself is the climax. It is the ultimate. The...

... way, if someone uttered the name of Ram, the inner bhajan, the inner remembrance would be expressed outwardly. Bhajan is not something which you can do at your own convenience. Bhajan is a continuous remembrance. When it starts it never ends, it goes on and on - a continuous remembrance inside your being. OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, BECAUSE AT THE TIME OF DEATH THE MEMORIZATION OF GRAMMAR...

... WILL NOT SAVE YOU. Death is not going to ask you, "How much do you know about the scriptures?" Death will reveal how much truth you have known. At the time of death only what you have known yourself will remain with you, and what was known by others and what was borrowed by you from others will be lost. If scripture is borrowed then it is useless, but if the scripture is revealed to you...

... is accumulated outside cannot be taken inside, and death will snatch away what you cannot take inside, because you alone can go through death and nothing else. Only your being will pass; flames will not be able to burn it, arrows will not be able to pierce it. Only you will be able to pass through the gate of death, you in your purity and nothing else. If you have accumulated only the outside...

... wealth you will remain poor while passing through the gate of death. If death proves you to be poor, then it means that the wealth accumulated during life was nothing but a deception. Wealth is only that which can go with us; otherwise the rest is nothing but trouble. What you are accumulating appears like wealth to you but actually it is not so, it is only trouble. You also come to know after...

... else will you get this wealth, these comforts, these luxuries, this type of family and this respect? You had better come back." Certainly the old charioteer is more worldly wise than Buddha, so he is giving this advice. Buddha said, "I quite understand what you are saying. But where you see the palace I see only flames of fire; where you are seeing beauty I see death; what you see as wealth...

.... A silent naked sannyasin was passing by the cantonment of an English battalion. The soldiers caught hold of him and asked him, "Who are you?" But as he was in silence he did not reply. Because of his keeping quiet they became suspicious of him and one English soldier pierced his chest with a spear. The sannyasin had taken the vow of speaking only once at the time of death: he had been...

.... He should be seen in the enemy, he should be seen in death too when it comes. He should be seen in a friend and in the enemy also. But at present you cannot see him even in a friend. At present you cannot see him even in the person whom you love; you do not see him even in your beloved or lover, what to say of others. You do not see him in your own self, so how can you see him in the other? OH...

... depth in them. Mulla Nasruddin was in love with the daughter of a multi-millionaire. He used to tell her, "I may live or die, but I cannot leave you. If ever there is a need, I will die for you." One day the girl was very sad. She told Nasruddin, "Listen, my father has become bankrupt." Nasruddin said, "I knew that your father will create some trouble to stop our marriage...

... DIVINE... before death arrives. Whenever you become a little conscious, awake yourself. Just think, what are you doing? What are you involved with? What is the result of your actions? Your actions, your money, your reputation will be of no use in the end. So do not spend too much time on what is going to be useless. The sooner you wake up the better it is. You cannot be in love with the divine till...

.... If you want to go from here fulfilled, then the sooner you remember the divine the better it is. You should spend as much time and effort as possible in his remembrance; that is virtuous, that's the only thing which can fulfill you. But you do not bother to remember and you go on worrying about things which will never be able to fulfill you. Mulla Nasruddin's wife was about to die. She was lying on...

... this life carefully you will not want to be born again, you will not want to marry again, because out of them you gained nothing except misery. The quest of the East is how to get rid of this cycle of birth and death. Those who have seen life in the right perspective, their only desire is how to get rid of this life. I have heard that when a unique sannyasin named Bodhidharma went to China with the...

... to say! Is it fortunate not to be born? But Bodhidharma is talking about good fortune. Buddhas certainly desire that they should not be born again. Bodhidharma said, "But now this is not possible as you are already born. But the next good fortune for you is to die as soon as possible." It is said that Wu never went to see him again. I also want to say the same thing to you, that the...

... greatest good fortune would have been not to be born, but since you are already born, the next best thing is that you may die while living. The attraction for life should be over. The meaning of dying while being alive is to live as if you are not. Sit in the marketplace but as if you are not. Look after your wife and children but as if you are not. Become absent and soon you will find that your absence...

... SEEMS TO BE SUCH A DRAG THAT I WOULD RATHER LIKE TO DIE. ANY ADVICE? There are many methods to die, but one thing: anybody who really wants to die never asks for advice. Living may be a drag, but death is very quick. All around you, there are so many ways.... But you don't want to die. In fact, even the people who commit suicide don't want to commit suicide. They commit suicide because they expected...

... floor. Then there is some chance of surviving -- death may try to search for you on the bed and may not be able to find you. Bokoju said, "Take this bed away from here, and suggest something, something unique, worthy of Bokoju." The disciples thought what to suggest? Somebody said that, "You can die sitting in a lotus posture. Many masters have died in the lotus posture." But...

... you here! And you always were a killjoy. You've destroyed the whole fun! Now I will die in the ordinary, orthodox way." And he died. And his sister did not even look back, she just went away. People said, "But he has died!" She said, "It was time. He was delaying it. And it is not right to play jokes on existence. At least at the time of death one should be serious ! Now he is...

... worried about reincarnation; neither is she concerned about life after death. Her concern is more pragmatic. She is concerned with the present, here and now. Man is never here and now. He is always somewhere else. He has strange preoccupations -- reincarnation, life after death. If both partners are conscious of the fact that it is a meeting of opposites, that there is no need to make it a conflict...

... routine, the same happenings? But the fallacy is in the fact that you have accepted a wrong concept, that birth is life. Birth is only an opportunity. Either you can learn to live a beautiful life or you can just drag yourself towards the graveyard. It is up to you. There are people for whom life is a drag, and there are people for whom even death is a dance. I want to say to you that if you make your...

... life an art, your death will be the culmination of the art -- the highest peak, a beauty in itself. Millions are there, who are in the same position as your question. They don't know why they are living and they don't know if there is any point in dying either. Life is futile -- how can death appear to be significant? So they are afraid of suicide also, because if life is such -- just a dark hole...

... -- death is going to be even worse. One day I saw Mulla Nasruddin with his gun, a rope, and a tin of kerosene oil. I said, "Where are you going, Mulla?" He said, "Enough is enough. I was just coming to say goodbye to you. I am going to commit suicide." I said, "But so many arrangements?" He said, "You know me, I am a perfectionist. I don't take chances. I have made...

... started to swim. You should have remained there and died." He said, "That's just it -- dying is not so easy. When I saw the gun had misfired, when I saw the water had put the fire out, it became clear: God wants me to live. And moreover, I know how to swim! It is impossible when you know swimming not to swim. Next time, some other arrangement...." Nobody wants to die. And it is true that...

... whatsoever you do. Express your individuality. Let existence be proud of you. Life will not be felt like a drag; it will become a fragrance. Not only will life be a joy and a dance -- for a creative person, for a meditative person, even death will be transformed. I have always loved a story about Bokoju, a Zen master. He was ninety years old when he died. Three days before, he informed all his disciples...

... should I die? -- because I don't want to die like everybody else. Ninety-nine percent of people die in their beds." He said, "That is out of the question. Remove the bed from here!" The bed is the most dangerous thing. Ninety-nine percent of people die there, and every night you go to bed without thinking of the danger. When the light is turned off, just put your mattress down on the...

... Bokoju said, "That is not very unique, because many people have died in that posture." Somebody said, "You can die standing." He said, "That seems to be appealing." But one man objected; he said, "That's not right, because I know of a Zen master who died standing. It will not be unique." Bokoju said, "It is very difficult. Find out quickly because my time is...

... running out, and I cannot delay any more. So many idiots are here, and you cannot find just one unique way of dying for your beloved master?" One man suggested, "Nobody has ever died standing on his head. You can do a headstand and die." Bokoju said, "Perfectly right!" He stood on his head and died. Now the problem was... The disciples said, "What to do?" -- because...

... responsibility." The sister came and she said, "Bokoju! From your very childhood you have been mischievous -- and this is no time to be mischievous! Just lie down!" And Bokoju laughed and said, "Okay sister -- because I cannot disobey you. I was almost dead. I was just waiting to see what these people would do trying to work out what to do with me after death. But these idiots have brought...

... where death has never entered. If Bokoju is not serious, the reason is because he knows there is no death, it is only changing houses, or changing clothes at the most. It is excitement -- even death is a great excitement and ecstasy. It is just your wrong approach. Drop it, and don't drop it slowly slowly, piece by piece. Drop it totally, instantly. When you go out of this place, go dancing and...

... simply mythology. Not most probably -- it is certainly mythology. Jesus brings Lazarus back from death. Now, the question is: is Lazarus going to live forever? He will die again -- so Jesus has given him two deaths instead of one. The arithmetic is absolutely clear. He will suffer poverty, and one day he will die again. But I don't think this happened, because if it were true, why could Jesus not...

..., but appearance is not the reality. I call Buddha's strategy a miracle. Everybody is going to die, there is no point ... One has to get out of birth and death. Buddha initiated the woman, and she became one of the enlightened ones among Buddha's disciples. Her urgency was such ... she knew that "My husband has died, my child has died, and now it is my number. Any moment and I will be a victim of...

.... You just for one month persist in criticizing. Just move around the town, and anybody saying ANYthing ... "Somebody says, 'Service to the poor is good.' Ask them, 'What is good? Why are there poor? What do you mean by service?'" If death is the end, then what is the difference between the saint and the sinner? Both will die and be finished. There will be no account taken that this is a...

... .... You will not resist death. You will go dancing with death to the center. It is a well-known path, you have traveled on it thousands of times. It is a well-known door, you know it perfectly. Where death is going, you are going rejoicing, dancing, singing, because you know that door leads you into eternity, into the cosmos. If you die consciously you will not enter into another womb, you will not be...

... born again, because birth is nothing but the beginning of death. You will not be reborn; that means you will never die again. You have reached to your original being. You have become a buddha. The fear of death prevents people from inquiring deeply into themselves. I came across a man; his wife had brought him to me. He looked very nervous. The wife told me that something has happened to him: "...

... now I am awake!" And he would put the radio on full volume just to keep himself awake and he would walk on the veranda and keep the neighbors awake. They would shout and he would shout back at them. I said, "What are you afraid of?" He said, "I am afraid that if I go to sleep, what is the guarantee that I will wake up? I may die in my sleep. I want to keep awake. Death is my fear...

... hard to make you a Mohammedan, because that is the only way to reach to God -- and you refused. "It is better for you to die than be a Hindu, a Christian, a Jew. Be born again and we will see. If not in this life, then in another life, you will be converted to Mohammedanism." Their way was short, just a simple sword hanging over your neck. And they converted many; they are the second...

... went almost insane, asking people, "Is there any physician anywhere who can make my child alive again? I was living only for him, now my whole life is simply dark." In India you cannot marry again, and particularly in those days it was absolutely impossible. A woman cannot marry again. Man's possessiveness is such that "Even if I die ... you suffer, but you should not marry anyone...

... is born is going to die, "so what is the point of getting the child back again? He will die again. It is better for you yourself to seek the eternal, which is never born and never dies." By the evening she came back empty-handed. Buddha asked, "Where are the mustard seeds?" She laughed. In the morning she had come crying; now she laughed, and she said, "You tricked me...

...! Everybody who is born is going to die. There is no family, not in this village, nor in the whole world, where nobody has died. So I don't want my son to be brought again back to life -- what is the point? After a few days, or a few months, or a few years, he will have to die again. And all these years he will live in misery, in all kinds of anguish and anxiety. Your compassion is great that you did not...

... bring him back to life! "Forget about the child. Initiate me into the art of meditation, so that I can go into the land, the space of immortality, where birth and death have never happened." Buddha said, "You are a very intelligent woman. You understood the point." I call this a miracle, not Jesus' waking up Lazarus. I don't call that a miracle. Apparently that looks like a miracle...

... death, so there is not much time. I don't know at what moment death is coming, so I have to be totally involved in the search, in what Buddha is telling me to do: 'Go inwards. Go to the very center of your being, and you will be beyond birth and death.'" This I call an authentic miracle: cutting the problem from the very roots. I am serving, but my service is very subtle. I am serving by waking...

... saint, don't destroy him; this is a sinner. If death is the end, as the materialists believe, then there is no question of being saintly or evil. It is all the same. Death equalizes everybody. For one month he practiced what the sage had said. The whole town was amazed how intelligent he had become. "What has happened? What a miracle! Nobody can answer his questions!" They started saying...

.... I have been looking towards you with great hope. All those slaps -- you know I am old and it hurts my hand more than your face. All those beatings ... and you don't understand that my hand hurts the whole night! You are young. I am in a hurry. My death is very close. Before my death I wanted ... "You have dissolved the koan, the sound of one hand clapping. Today it happened of all days: the...

... answer was going to be the answer. Only no-mind could be the answer. No-mind is the sound of one hand clapping." CUCKOO CALLING TODAY OF ALL DAYS WHEN NO ONE IS HERE. A beautiful, very beautiful haiku to remember. Question 2: Maneesha's question ... OUR BELOVED MASTER, IS IT BECAUSE OF A REFUSAL TO ENCOUNTER THE REALITY OF DEATH THAT THERE IS A RELUCTANCE TO MEDITATE? Maneesha, yes, because...

... meditation and death are very similar. In death you enter reluctantly, unwillingly. That's why you fall unconscious, in a coma. In meditation you are going with full consciousness, with great totality of being, on your own accord. It is the same point that you will pass in death also, but if you have moved to the center before death, then death is no more a fear. You know it. You have died many times...

... whenever you touched your center, and you have gone again into a resurrection. Every meditation is a death and a resurrection. You go to the point where death takes people unconsciously. You go consciously, that is the only difference. The point is the same. From the same center, death will take you into another womb if you are unconscious. If you are conscious, doing meditation, then death is the same...

... my own understanding is that I have not slept for thirty years, not dreamt for thirty years -- and it has not in any way disturbed anything in me. The whole sleep is a silent meditation, and with beautiful music in the background, the whole night is such a blissful, such an ecstatic experience! Maneesha, it is because of the fear of death that people avoid meditation -- but it is only meditation...

... that can take you beyond the fear of death, that is the irony of the case. You are afraid of meditation because of death, but you don't know it is only meditation that can make you fearless of death -- because to the meditator there is no death, but only life, and life divine and life eternal. It is time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh. It is the last day of the holiday season in Goa, and tomorrow...

... you have encountered. And watch ... the buddha has come a little closer to you. It is not long before the spring will come ... you will melt away, and only the buddha remains. Then the second step is very simple. I teach only the first step. The second step you can take anytime, or if you want to wait, the second step will happen in your death. This I call, "straight to the point of...

... robotlike. That's how it happens. Ordinarily whenever a man dies - except the buddhas - he dies in unconsciousness. He lives in unconsciousness, how can he die in consciousness? Death is the culmination of your whole life. If you have lived in unconsciousness, you will die in unconsciousness. It is the condensed moment; your whole life becomes condensed. If you have lived in unconsciousness, your death is...

...!" "Just answer me one question," said Berman. "Who pushed me?" It is not your choice. Your whole life must have pushed you into a certain womb. You can choose only when you are aware, and to die in awareness is the greatest experience of life. There is nothing more ecstatic than that. In life, three things are the most important: birth, love and death. Birth has already...

... happened; now nothing can be done about it. Something can be done about love: you can become a conscious lover, and by becoming a conscious lover you will be preparing for a conscious death, because love and death are very similar. In love also you die in a certain way; your ego dies. The first experience of death is love. And once you have known the beauty of dying in love you will not be afraid of...

... death at all. In fact, you will wait and you will welcome it when it comes. You will sing a song when it comes. You will dance. Death will not be your enemy but a friend, a great friend, because you knew a small death in love and it was so beautiful. Now it is a big death; it is bound to be a thousandfold more beautiful. Love prepares a man to die - but only conscious love, because only in conscious...

... love you die; in unconscious love you don't die. Unconscious lovers quarrel continuously, fight. They try to dominate each other. Conscious lovers surrender. In fact, surrender is not to each other; surrender is to the god of love. Both the lovers surrender to some unknown energy in which they dissolve their egos, and they experience small deaths. Each time, each orgasm brings a deeper death. As love...

... they were alive only when they are dead. When they are dying, suddenly the idea arises in their mind, "Gosh! So I was alive!" Otherwise it was impossible for them to know that they were alive; some background, some contrast is needed. Death becomes the contrast. You are becoming aware of some lousiness; it is a good indication. Lousiness is on the go - say goodbye to it. And once love...

... going to be of tremendously condensed unconsciousness. You will die unconscious; then you don't choose. How can you choose? But millions of stupid people are making love all over the world; millions of wombs are ready to receive you. They are also as unconscious as you are. They don't know why they are making love. They don't know why a certain man is with a certain woman. They don't know what is...

... deepens, death deepens, and they become prepared for the ultimate death. The day the final death comes is a day of rejoicing. They go dancing into death, singing, their hearts full of the thrill of the adventure. Then they can choose. Then they can move into a certain womb of their own choice. Now they have eyes - where to go, from what door to enter. Love is the beginning of consciousness. Death gives...

... you the great experience - but still only ninety-nine percent, one percent is still left. That one percent is fulfilled by conscious birth. A conscious birth is a hundred percent death. The ego simply disappears, totally disappears. Love is one percent death, death is ninety-nine percent death, birth is a hundred percent death. And once you are born consciously, then there is no more love, no more...

... death, no more birth. This is the goal of all the buddhas: to be free from the wheel of life and death. The eighth question: Question 8: BELOVED MASTER, I HAVE BEEN DOING MEDITATION FOR ALMOST FORTY YEARS, BUT I AM AS FAR AWAY FROM THE GOAL OF GOD-REALIZATION AS EVER. WHAT SHOULD I DO? Surendranath, to make God a goal is to start in a wrong direction. God is not a goal; if you think in terms of goals...