Jesus is water of eternity, a divine well.

THE OTHER day I was reading a few lines from E. E. Cummings:

SEEKER OF TRUTH FOLLOW NO PATH ALL PATHS LEAD WHERE TRUTH IS HERE.

Truth is always here. That's the only way truth can be. Truth cannot be anywhere else. The only time it can be is here, and the only place it can be is now. But the mind is never here and is never now. Hence, mind and truth never meet.

The mind goes on thinking about truth, and the truth goes on waiting to be realized, but the meeting never happens. The meeting is possible only if mind stops functioning, because mind means the past, mind means the future. Mind is never herenow. Whenever you start thinking, you are going astray. If you stop thinking, suddenly you arc at home. You had never gone from there; the whole wandering is like a dream. Otherwise, you have lived in God, you have lived as gods - that's the only way to be. But you don't realize it, because you go on thinking about it.

The rose is before your eyes, but you are too full of ideas about the rose. Jesus was standing right there and people were thinking - and he was in front of them. But they were not there; they were thinking about the scriptures, what the scriptures say.

THEN SAID SOME OF THEM OF JERUSALEM It is meaningful that the gospel says, "Some of the people who said these words belonged to Jerusalem" - the sacred place, the holy place. the holy place becomes the most unholy, because when people think they know, they are the most unholy. When people think they know, they are the most ignorant people, because those who know, know that they know not. It has happened always. Go to Varanasi and you will find only parrots - great scholars, but without any realization. Go to Mecca, and you will find MAULWIS who know everything about, and know nothing; who can recite the whole Koran - they have memorized it. They have become great computers, but the knowledge of reality has not dawned on them. Their innermost shrine remains dark, unlit, and they go on talking about light.

It is meaningful that the gospel says:

THEN SAID SOME OF THEM OF JERUSALEM...

Jerusalem is the Mecca of the Jews. Then it became the Mecca of Christians also.

It is the Varanasi of the West. Whenever a certain place becomes a sacred place, it loses all sacredness - otherwise, the whole existence is holy. But whenever religion is organized, truth made a doctrine, scholars becoming more important than mystics, information becoming more important than knowledge, then this misfortune happens.

Those people of Jerusalem - they knew all. "When Jesus comes," the scriptures say, "nobody will know from where he comes."

HOWBEIT WE KNOW THIS MAN WHENCE HE IS: THEY SAID, BUT WHEN CHRIST COMETH, NO MAN KNOWETH WHENCE HE IS.

A very pertinent question - because they knew it well - from where this man comes. They knew his father, his mother, brothers and sisters; they knew all about them. And this information clouded their minds. In fact, do you know from where you Come? Do you come from your father? Do you come from your mother? Maybe you come through them, but you don't come from them. Maybe you pass through them. They may be like crossroads, but you don't come out of them.

It is said when Buddha became enlightened and came back to visit his father, the father was very angry and said, "I can forgive you because I have a father's heart.

But drop all this nonsense. You belong to the family of an emperor. Don't move like a beggar. You are my son."

Buddha laughed and said, "Sir, I may come through you, but I don't belong to you. I may come through you, but I don't belong to you. To whom do you belong?"

If you go deeper into yourself, you will find a mysterious silence. No answer comes. Your body may have been contributed by your mother and father, but not your consciousness. Your mind may even have been contributed by the society, by the community, by your family, by the education - but not your consciousness. That one who you are comes from nowhere.

Yes, the scriptures say and they say rightly:

... WHEN CHRIST COMETH, NO MAN KNOWETH WHENCE HE IS.

I tell you, the moment you come to know that you know not from where you are, you have become a Christ. This is the whole meaning of it. The moment you realize that your origin is shrouded in mystery, that your beginning and your end are mysterious, and there is no way to know them because you have been always and always and always.... In fact there has never been a beginning - that's the meaning, when I say they are shrouded in mystery. They cannot be known, because there has been no beginning to know.

You have been here before time started: you have been here before space ever existed. And you will be here to the very end of time, and even after that. Time came after you, so there is no beginning.

Once you realize this, suddenly you have become the Christ. the realization that'I am beyond time', is the meaning of the word'Christ'. The scriptures say it perfectly and rightly, but when parrots recite scriptures the whole meaning is lost. Not only have they not understood what is said, they have also misunderstood.

Christ is standing before them: a man who has realized that he comes from nowhere. God means 'nowhere', God means 'no when', God means 'the source, which is beyond beginning and beyond end'. The source has to be beyond beginning and beyond end.

It happened once: Diogenes put up a tent in the marketplace, in Athens, on a very busy crossroad. On the tent he wrote "Wisdom sold here."

One of the richest men was passing and looked at it. He laughed and he told his servant to go with five gold coins and ask this braggard, "How much wisdom can you give for five gold coins?"

The servant went while the rich man waited outside. Diogenes pocketed the money, and wrote a small wisdom-bit on a piece of paper, and gave it to the servant. It said, "Whatsoever you do, always remember your beginning and your end."

The rich mall had laughed before, but now he became serious. And he loved that wisdom-bit so much that he had it written on his palace in gold letters:

"Whatsoever you do, always remember your beginning and your end."

Whatsoever you do is meaningless, unless somehow it is related to your beginning and your end. If you go on doing things which are not related to your beginning and to your end - that means if they are not related to God - then your life will be trivia, a heap of rubbish: it won't carry any meaning. Meaning belongs to the whole, Meaning belongs to the source and the culmination.

If you forget the source and the end, your life will be just a drifting thing - meaningless coincidences. There will not be a running theme in it, and there will not be significance in it. You will not really exist; you will just live. You may continue living, but your life will not have a rhythm, it will not be a song, it will not have inner consistency, it will not be relevant.

HOWBEIT WE KNOW THIS MAN WHENCE HE IS:

Nobody knows. You don't even know from where you come. But those people thought they knew well.

... FROM WHENCE HE IS: BUT WHEN CHRIST COMETH, NO MAN KNOWETH WHENCE HE IS.

The scriptures speak absolute truth, but nobody knows from where anybody comes. The source is mysterious; it is shrouded. And there is no way to know it, because you are the knower and you can never become the known. Let me repeat it: you are the knower and you can never be reduced to be the known. You are the subjectivity and you can never become the object. So how can you know yourself, who you are? How can you know yourself, from where you come?

How can you know the beginning?

This feeling that I don't know who I am, this feeling that I don't know from where I come, this feeling that I don't know where I'm going - if it becomes intense, the ego drops. Because then there are no props for it - then the ego cannot stand.

The ego needs three props. It is a three-legged stool: who am I? - from where do I come? - where am I going? These three legs are needed for the ego. If these three legs disappear, the ego falls.

Once it happened: One of the greatest rich men of this century, Andrew Carnegie, was asked by a man, "What do you think, sir, is the most important thing in industry - money, labour or banks?" Andrew Carnegie said, "It is a three-legged stool."

And which leg is more important? In fact, if you withdraw one leg, the stool will fall. The two legs won't be able to help it. If you withdraw one thing, if you start feeling, "I don't know who I am," immediately the other two legs will be useless.

Or, if you withdraw the first leg, "I don't know from where I come," then the other two will not be of any use. The props will drop and the ego will fall. Ego is a three-legged stool.

You have at least to believe who you are - your name, your form; from where you have come - your family; where you are going - a certain idea about your destiny: then the ego can exist.

A man becomes a Christ when all these three legs disappear. That's why the old scriptures say:

... WHEN CHRIST COMETH, NO MAN KNOWETH WHENCE HE IS...

And Christ was standing before these blind people, and they were asking foolish questions and arguing about foolish things. And they were very clever people, the people of Jerusalem. They were very intelligent, clever people; they could argue and discuss. In fact, Jesus was not so educated, so well-informed, as they were. Jesus was an uneducated man - in a sense, uncultured, unsophisticated.

And remember, God has happened many more times to unsophisticated people than to sophisticated people, because the sophisticated person believes that he already knows. Once you think that you know, then there is no possibility of knowing.

I will tell you a story. Once a prospector climbed a mountain to seek for gold. On the way up, he fell down and struck his head. In his dizziness, he imagined he had found hundreds of gold nuggets. So, wandering around town, he ordered nonexistent gold to everyone he met. Of course, he had become mad, and had become the laughing stock of the whole community.

A sage took pity on him - on the poor rich man. He hit him hard on the head.

The blow cleared his head. In shock and dismay he realized his former folly.

"How incredible of me to imagine I possessed gold," he told himself.

Then an astonishing thing happened. Once he realized that he didn't possess gold, he began to search, and to find gold nuggets. Once realizing he didn't possess gold, he started to search. And when you seek, you find.

Spiritual riches follow awareness of poverty. That is the one and the only order of things. Says Buddha, "AES DHAMMO SANANTANO." This is the eternal law, that once you realize you are spiritually poor, you are already on the way to being rich. Once you realize that you are ignorant, you have taken the first and the most basic step towards wisdom. Once you realize that you have gone astray, your life is already changing. Now the true path is not far away.

But if you think that you are not astray, that you are on the right path, that you know, that you already possess that which you don't possess, then there is no possibility. Then you are closed.

Anyone can see the difference between real and imaginary riches. He can enquire. You can enquire - and always enquire! Let this be a criterion to find out whether your riches are imaginary or real: "Do I feel rich when all by myself, or do I constantly need others to reassure me?" Go on asking this question. If you can feel rich when just by yourself, alone - and you don't need anybody else to reassure you, you don't need anybody else's opinion, anybody else's certificate that you are rich - if you can be rich when all by yourself, then your riches are real. If you need constant reassurance from others, then your riches are unreal, imaginary. Then you are just depending on others' opinions. Remember this.

Many times people come to me to be reassured. They ask, they say, "I'm feeling very happy and blissfu]. What do you say?" What is the need to say anything?

The very need shows that the happiness is unreal and imaginary.

If you are really feeling happy, you are feeling happy even if the whole world contradicts you. If the whole world agrees that you are not happy, then too it doesn't matter. Your happiness is real. It cannot be cancelled by anybody's opinion. But if your happiness is unreal, it can be cancelled by anybody. Even a small child can cancel it. You will be constantly looking towards people. You will be smiling, trying to show that you are happy so that they can say, "Yes. You are very happy. You look very happy."

Always remember this criterion: only the false needs support; the real is self- evident. Only the false needs certificates; the real is self-evident.

People used to ask Christ, "From where is your authority?" - the authority is HIS.

It happened: When I came out of the university, I applied for a government job.

The education minister called me for an interview and asked for some character certificates.

I said, "I am here; you look at me. I can sit here; you can watch me. I can live with you for a few days if you like. But don't ask about certificates. Who can give me a character certificate?"

He couldn't understand. He said, "You can bring one from your vice-chancellor, or at least from the head of your department.'

I said, "If my vice-chancellor asks for a character certificate from me, I am not going to give it to him. So how can I ask for a character certificate from him? I cannot give one to him. So that is impossible. I can ask for a character certificate only from a man whom I can see is a man of character. But that will be absurd.

That means that first I give him a character certificate - only then his character certificate becomes meaningful."

But he couldn't follow me. He said, "Then it will be difficult, because at least two character certificates are needed."

So I wrote a character certificate in the name of my vice-chancellor. And I went to the vice-chancellor later on and said, "I have given in the true copy, the original I don't have. This is the certificate I have given to myself. You have to sign it."

He said, "But this is absurd." He said, "How can you give a character certificate to yourself?"

I told him, "If I cannot give one to myself, then who can give one to me? I know myself more than anybody else knows me. You don't know me at all. If you can give a character certificate to me, then why can't I? This is the certificate. You have to sign it."

He looked at the certificate and laughed, because I had written on the certificate that man is a freedom, and character is always of the past, and the future remains open. I may have been a good man up to now. Next moment? Nobody knows! I may have been a saint up to now, but the next moment I can become a sinner. In fact, each moment I have to give a new lease to my character; again and again and again I have to hold it.

Character belongs to the past, and you ask for a character certificate to be reassured about the future - which is foolish. The future remains open; the future remains always open. Next moment is always indeterminate. That's the difference between a stone and a man. You can give a character certificate to a rock. The rock is consistent; it has always remained a rock, and it is always going to remain a rock. It is predictable. But how can you give a character certificate to a man?

A sinner sometimes becomes a saint, a saint becomes a sinner. That is the beauty of man: that man has no character. Only rocks have character. The more alive you are, the less character - absolutely alive, no character. Then you are absolute freedom.

Facing Christ, people ask about authority; they ask about character. They ask that Christ should fulfil the predictions of the scriptures. Why should Christ fulfil the predictions of the scriptures? He is not a rock. He is total freedom, absolute freedom - that is his beauty and glory. But people believe in dead things, people believe in dead gods. They are dead; they feel comfortable with dead gods. If you are alive, only then can you feel comfortable with an alive God. An alive God means freedom.

Each moment one has to decide again and again who one is going to be; each moment is a decisive moment, and each moment you can change everything.

You may not change; that too is your decision. But each moment one has to decide continuously, constantly. Character is not something which is there just like a dead rock. It has to be lived, acted, decided. Each moment you are born again and again. Each moment you die, and each moment you are born again and again.

But people go on asking. And the people of Jerusalem or Varanasi - they are the deadest people there are. Jerusalem is one of the most ancient cities in the world.

That means it carries a very long and dead past, and always thinks in terms of the past, never in terms of the future. They couldn't see the future. The Jews missed Christ.

With Christ was the destiny and the future; but they were asking questions about the past. They couldn't see; they had no eyes to perceive that a new beginning had started. God had taken a new step in this man, God had taken a new decision in this man. God had taken a very decisive and historical decision. The whole humanity would be different through this man. Man will no more be the same as he was before - a turning point. But that is all in the future.

The Jews were standing there. Jesus was an opening towards the future, but they were looking at the past. They were looking at the clouds of dust that were left behind. They couldn't see the sun that was rising.

HOWBEIT WE KNOW THIS MAN WHENCE HE IS: BUT WHEN CHRIST COMETH, NO MAN KNOWETH WHENCE HE IS.

THEN CRIED JESUS IN THE TEMPLE AS HE TAUGHT, SAYING, YE BOTH KNOW ME, AND YE KNOW WHENCE I AM: AND I AM NOT COME OF MYSELF BUT HE THAT SENT ME IS TRUE, WHOM YE KNOW NOT.

Jesus cried. People like Jesus have to cry, because we are deaf And even when they cry, we don't listen. And even when we listen, we don't understand. And even when we understand, we don't act.

I will tell you one story: A group of unhappy men and women heard about a peaceful place called the Celestial City. Wishing to live in it, they consulted a wise man who told them: "Go to the edge of the town. There you will see footprints. Follow them all the way to the Celestial City."

When locating the footprints, part of the group turned back immediately, complaining, "But they lead straight into the frightening wilderness."

The rest of the group followed the footprints for a short distance, but several more stopped when it started to rain. After a few more miles, the group broke up into two quarrelling factions, each demanding the right to lead the expedition.

The battle raged so fiercely that they forgot all about the Celestial City, and returned home to continue the fight.

When observing all this, the wise man explained to his disciples: "Because of man's dazed mind, this is what always happens. Still, people must be told about the footprints. Every once in a while, a perservering man or woman follows them all the way to the Celestial City."

Man goes on misunderstanding. God goes on sending his messengers; man goes on misinterpreting. God goes on making new efforts; man goes on crucifying.

God goes on hoping, God hopes tremendously. He is not yet frustrated with you.

He still hopes; his hope is eternal. Whatsoever you do makes no difference to his hope. He goes on making new efforts, he goes on devising new methods.

A Jesus is a device, a Buddha is a device, a Krishna is a dev ice. God comes again and again in different forms. Maybe you rejected one form; you may accept another. He hopes continuously. Remember this.

And always remember that I'm not talking about those people who sometime lived in Jerusalem; I am talking about you. I am not talking about some fools who couldn't understand Jesus; I am talking about you - because it is always the same. Always Jesus is there and always people are quarrelling about meaningless doctrines and dogmas - quoting scriptures, creating smoke around themselves and not looking at the fact.

Jesus is a divine fact. God is standing in front of them and they are asking whether he is really the God. What was the trouble that they could not believe in him - because Jesus could not follow all the predictions of the old prophets.

Nobody is there to follow anybody else's predictions. And this is the foolishness:

Jews rejected Christ because they thought he didn't follow all the predictions; Christians go on proving that he followed all the predictions. That's why they accept him.

Look at the foolishness - it is the same. Nobody looks at Jesus directly. Jews reject him, but the argument is the same: that he does not follow all the predictions that the scriptures say a Christ has to follow. Christians say that he does follow them. The argument is the same; the mind is the same. They don't differ. Both are missing. They may be standing opposite each other, but their attitude is the same. Nobody is looking at Christ; nobody is following the footprints to the Celestial City. They have come back home to continue the fight.

THEN CRIED JESUS IN THE TEMPLE AS HE TAUGHT, SAYING, YE BOTH KNOW ME, AND YE KNOW WHENCE I AM:

He is saying, "You know not; you don't know me. You don't know whence I am, and I am not come of myself."

Nobody has come that way. Everybody comes from God. In fact, nobody comes, everybody is sent. Everybody comes from the whole. Were you asked to decide whether you would like to come to the world or not? Nobody has ever asked. It has never been your decision. You have been sent; the whole has sent you. As the ocean waves itself into thousands and thousands of waves, so God waves in humanity, in life, in thousands and thousands of waves. You are a wave in his consciousness. You may have started to feel that you are separate, but that is illusion, that is MAYA.

AND I AM NOT COME OF MYSELF BUT HE THAT SENT ME IS TRUE, WHOM YE KNOW NOT.

Jesus is not saying anything about the man Jesus. He is talking about each human consciousness. Whatsoever he's saying about himself is relevant to you also. There, again, Jews thought that he was very egoistic: he claims that he comes from God - and a prophet has to be humble. He doesn't seem to be humble at all. Christians think that he is claiming something about himself, not about everybody else.

So if somebody else says, "I am the son of God," Christians will be immediately against him. "This man is a heretic. There has been one, and only one, son of God, and that's Jesus Christ, the only begotten son."

What I am trying to show you is that the mind is the same - whether it is Jewish or Christian makes no difference. Mind as such is stupid, and unless the mind is dropped you can become a Jew or a Christian or a Hindu; it is not going to make any difference.

BUT I KNOW HIM: FOR I AM FROM HIM, AND HE HATH SENT ME.

This is beautiful, the word 'sent'. Nobody comes; everybody is sent. Everybody is a messenger because everybody carries a message within himself, a destiny to be fulfilled, a seed. You are not from yourself. Nobody is, nobody can be.

Everybody comes out of the whole and the whole must be sending a coded message in you. You may not have deciphered it yet, you may not have been able to decode it yet. One who decodes it understands. Jesus decoded it. He understood the message - why he had been sent.

The first thing to realize very deeply is that you have not come - you have been sent. Small words make a lot of difference.

I have heard about a warrior in Japan. In the First World War, he was a samurai, a great warrior. One arm was hurt very much, wounded very much - it had to be removed. After the operation, when the warrior came back to consciousness, the surgeon told him, "I am very sorry that you had to lose your arm.

The warrior tried to raise himself up and protested. He said, "I have not lost it; I gave it."

"I have not lost it; I gave it" - tremendously different. He has given it.

If you say Jesus lost his life, you will be wrong. He gave it, he gave it for us. He gave it for the message, he gave it for the mission for which he was sent.

... FOR I AM FROM HIM, AND HE HATH SENT ME.

Always remember: whenever Jesus talks about God, he means the whole. His terminology is not as perfect as Buddha's. Even Buddha's terminology is not as perfect as Lao Tzu's. Terminology does not depend on Buddha, Jesus, or Lao Tzu; it depends on the people to whom they are talking.

Jesus was talking to Hebrews, to Jews. They have a terminology. He has to use it; there was no other way. If he had started talking like a Buddha, nobody would have understood - not at all. Even when he was using their own terminology, he was not understood. There is no possibility that if he had used the terminology of Buddha, that he would have been understood; because the terminology of Buddha needs a long heritage of Upanishadic teaching. Buddha was against the Upanishads, but the Upanishads prepared the background. Without the Upanishads he could not have been here.

Lao Tzu uses such a beautiful terminology that nobody can ever find a fault with it. But that is the reason he could never become such a great religious leader as Buddha or Jesus: nobody understood him. He talks very simply; he is the simplest possible man. He has no jargon; he does not use the word'God' at all. He does not use any terminology of theology, religion. Because of this, nobody understood him. Nobody even tried to crucify him; nobody threw even a stone at him, because even for that you have at least to be misunderstood. If you don't understand, okay. But you have at least to misunderstand. Lao Tzu was simply neglected.

I have heard a story. Once he was going from one town to another on his donkey. A messenger from the emperor came and told Lao Tzu, "The emperor has heard about you and he would like you to become a part of his court. He needs wise men there."

Lao Tzu treated the messenger very courteously, but said, "No, it is impossible. I am grateful. Thank the emperor, but it is impossible."

When the messenger was going, Lao Tzu washed his ears with water, and washed the ears of the donkey also.

A man who was standing by the road asked, "What are you doing, sir?"

He said, "I am washing my ears, because even the messenger from the world of politics is dangerous."

The man asked, "But why arc you washing the ears of the donkey?"

He said, "Donkeys are very political. He is already walking in a different way!

The moment he heard and saw the messenger from the court, he became very egoistic. Donkeys tend to be political. I don't much understand the language of the court, but he understands, because similar donkeys are there. The language is the same."

The man laughed. It is said, even when the story was reported to the king, that he also laughed.

People laughed about Lao Tzu; at the most, a crazy old man, eccentric, but nobody took him seriously. And he could never influence people to such an extent that they should organize his teaching. No religion, no organization, could come out of his teachings. He remained alone. He remains alone, but purest.

Jesus was talking to Jews. They have a particular terminology of God - 'prophets','kingdom of God'. He has to use that. But remember always, whenever he says'God' hc means tao; he cannot mean anything else. Don't ask me by what authority I say this. I am not a pope; I am not a Vatican pope. I have no authority.

But I say to you, by my own authority, whenever he says'God' he means tao.

Whenever he says HE HATH SENT ME he means 'the whole has sent me'. Then Jesus will appear in a different light. Then you will be able to understand him more, and follow him more, and go further than ordinarily you could go with him.

THEN THEY SOUGHT TO TAKE HIM: BUT NO MAN LAID HANDS ON HIM BECAUSE HIS HOUR WAS NOT YET COME.

Existence is not a chaos, it is a cosmos. Existence is not just by chance. It has a story to tell, it has a running theme, it has a song to sing. It is a great drama; Hindus call it 'leela', a great drama, a great play. That is what is meant by this gospel sentence, this sutra: BECAUSE HIS HOUR WAS NOT YET COME. This is a deep acceptance of things.

The people who wrote the gospel were closest to Jesus. They understood one thing: that whatsoever was happening, was happening as part of a great drama.

If you have that feeling, you start accepting things. They could accept even the crucifixion of Jesus, because that was part of the great drama. It was meant to be so. They could accept it, because it was not just chance, not just coincidence - it had to be so.

A Judas has to betray Jesus, because whenever a Jesus is there a shadow falls; just as when you walk in the sun and a shadow follows you. Whenever in the world of consciousness somebody rises so high, a shadow falls; that shadow is the Judas. It has to be so.

And whenever you want to transform humanity, whenever you want to bring a new truth into human consciousness, the human mind defends itself - it becomes aggressive against you. Jesus has to be crucified. That's how the human mind functions. It is a great drama; it is a cosmos. Then everything is accepted.

Once you look at life not as unrelated facts, but as a related whole, then everything fits in. Then there is no need to complain; then there is no need to feel frustrated, or to feel that there is injustice.

Just try to see the beauty of it. Jesus was crucified, but the closest disciples never felt that something wrong had happened. Not that they didn't miss him. They missed him, they missed him tremendously. Not that they didn't cry for him.

They cried - but they accepted. They accepted, because it must be so. There must be a meaning in it; we may not be able to know the meaning, but there must be a meaning in it - because nothing can happen which is meaningless, nothing can happen which is unrelated to the whole.

We may not be able to know the meaning of a certain fact, because we know only the isolated fact; we cannot see the whole in relation to it. Whatsoever we see is just as if suddenly you have come across a page of a book - a strong wind has just brought a page of a book to your door. Out of curiosity you start reading it; you cannot make any sense out of it because it is just a page. You don't know what happened before; you don't know what happened afterwards.

All the facts that we know are just pages - not even pages, broken sentences - not even broken sentences, broken words. The whole book of existence is so vast, so eternal, we cannot know what it means, because meaning always means relevance concerning the whole, in relationship with the whole.

Poetry is meaningful because you can relate words one with another; they are not unrelated. It is meaningful, because between the words you can see the flow of a certain meaning. If you cannot see the meaning, if you just cut a few words from a dictionary and paste them with closed eyes on paper, and then read it, there will be no meaning - separate words, not connected.

THEN THEY SOUGHT TO TAKE HIM: BUT NO MAN LAID HANDS ON HIM, BECAUSE HIS HOUR WAS NOT YET COME.

AND MANY OF THE PEOPLE BELIEVED ON HIM, AND SAID, WHEN CHRIST COMETH, WILL HE DO MORE MIRACLES THAN THESE WHICH THIS MAN HATH DONE?

Ordinary people believe in miracles - they can't see the phenomenon, the tremendous phenomenon that has happened. They think only of miracles. This man touched somebody and the man was healed; or this man touched somebody else, and the man was blind, and his eyes were restored. These are great miracles for the ordinary mind. Magicians are more impressive. They can't see the only miracle that has happened in this man; the very being of this man is a miracle.

All other miracles are just by-products. Not that he is doing them - Jesus never said, "I have done miracles."

Once a woman touched him. She was afraid-to come in front of him. She had leprosy and she was ugly. She was afraid to come in front of him and ask to be healed, but she had faith. She just touched him. When Jesus was passing through the crowd, just from behind she touched his body. Suddenly, Jesus turned. The woman was healed, and said, in deep gratefulness, "You healed me, Lord."

Jesus said, "Don't say that. Your faith has healed you."

Your faith - not Jesus. Many times he says, "It is God who has healed you, not me." He is just a vehicle. But people are more interested in miracles. Scholars are interested in scriptures; ordinary people are more interested in miracles. Nobody seems to be interested in the facts of this man who is standing before them, this tremendously innocent energy, this flowering of consciousness. Nobody is interested in looking directly at Jesus.

THE PHARISEES HEARD THAT THE PEOPLE MURMURED SUCH THINGS CONCERNING HIM; AND THE PHARISEES AND THE CHIEF PRIESTS SENT OFFICERS TO TAKE HIM.

These are the three types of people Jesus is surrounded by continuously: the crowd who believe in miracles, the people who have their investments in religion - the priests, the Pharisees, who are afraid that this man is becoming every day more and more important - and the scholars, the pundits, the rabbis, who are interested only in dead scriptures, in dead words, in knowledge. These are the three types of people he is continuously surrounded by.

The fourth type are very few, who are trying to understand who this man is, who are not worried about scriptures, because the scripture is alive herenow. They are not worried about miracles, because the greatest of all miracles has happened:

that a man has realized that he is not separate from the whole. The ego has disappeared: that is the greatest miracle there is.

The fourth type are people who have no investment in religion, who have no self-interest in religion, who are not worried about the temple and the establishment and other things - a very few people who are interested just in this man as he is, without any prejudice, without any concept. These few people could see through Jesus and could find God through him. He became a door.

Jesus says again and again, "I am the gate. I am the door. I am the way." Only for a few people he was so, for those whose eyes were not clouded by anything, who could look through this man, through and through.

THEN SAID JESUS UNTO THEM, YET A LITTLE WHILE AM I WITH YOU, AND THEN I GO UNTO HIM THAT SENT ME...

It is such a great phenomenon that it cannot be longer. The earth won't allow it.

I was reading the life of one Urdu poet, Miraja Galib. In a poet's gathering, a very young boy, just twelve or thirteen years of age, recited such beautiful poetry of his own creation that Galib, a master, asked the boy again and again to recite it.

And in the end, Galib started crying and weeping.

Somebody asked, "Why are you crying?"

Galib said, "This boy will not live long." And just within six months, the boy died.

People asked, "Why do you say this?"

Galib said, "He is so beautiful. He has something tremendous in him. Earth will not be able to tolerate such beauty. He is not ordinary, he is not mediocre."

Whenever a man becomes enlightened, that is his last life. Then he cannot enter again into the world, because the world is too rough, and he becomes too refined.

Then he is just a fragrance, subtle, with no solidity in it, and then the fragrance goes up higher and higher. It cannot come down. Whenever a man becomes enlightened, it is difficult to remain in the body - almost impossible. One has to be continuously aware; any moment, the body can drop.

Jesus continuously says to his disciples, "Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me... and then I return to the whole." Then the wave disappears in the ocean.

IN THE LAST DAY, THAT GREAT DAY OF THE FEAST, JESUS STOOD AND CRIED, SAYING, IF ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO ME, AND DRINK.

I have heard: The day Woodrow Wilson died, the doctors, feeling that his death was coming closer and closer, apprised him about the nearness of death. Just a few seconds before he died, they decided to tell the old man. They told him that death was coming closer and closer. He opened his eyes and said, "Ready" - that was all - closed his eyes, a smile on his face, and disappeared.

A Jesus is always ready - readiness to go back, readiness to fall back onto the shores - because a Jesus is ripe. And whenever a fruit is ripe, the fruit can say, "Yet a little while I am with you - with the tree, a little while - and then I go unto him that sent me." And then the fruit drops to the earth, and disappears into the earth from where it came.

Whenever you have become ripe, you disappear. That is the meaning of the Eastern concept of becoming free from birth and death. Whenever you become ready, there is no need for you to be thrown back into existence again and again.

You are thrown back because you don't learn the lesson. It is like a child who fails every time and has to be sent back again to the same class. If he learns the lesson, passes the examination, then he is sent to another class, a higher one. And when he finishes his education, then there is no need to go back there. the world is a training, a discipline. You are sent again and again, because you have not yet learned the lesson. Once you learn it, you are back to the original source.

Jesus is constantly aware, Buddha is constantly aware. Whether Buddha lasted for forty years and Jesus lasted only for three years, it doesn't make much difference, because in the vast eternity, forty years is just a little longer.

IN THE LAST DAY, THAT GREAT DAY OF THE FEAST, JESUS STOOD AND CRIED, SAYING, - before he was crucified - IF ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO ME, AND DRINK.

"... because soon I will disappear and then you will not be able to drink from me.

If any man thirsts, if somebody is thirsty, let him come and drink of me, because soon I will be gone, and then you can think about me, but you will not be able to quench your thirst."

Jesus is water of eternity, a divine well. He can quench your thirst. But people are not aware even of their thirst. They have forgotten their thirst; they have suppressed it. That's why he says IF ANY MAN THIRST...

Everybody is thirsty. There is no need to say 'if'. Have you come across a mall who is not thirsty? Have you come across a man who is not miserable? Have you come across a man who is not unhappy? Have you come across a man who is content, needs no more, who is fulfilled, needs nothing else to be added to him?

If you have not come across such a man, that means every man is thirsty. But people have forgotten their thirst. It would be better to say they have suppressed their thirst because the thirst is dangerous. The thirst creates search and one has to seek, and one has to make effort, and one has to dig deep into oneself. People avoid their thirst.

One man, a few days before, came to me and said, "I don't want to come and listen to you, because I am afraid. I am afraid I may really become interested in you and in what you say. I will come one day, but not now. I have other things to do."

Have you thought that you may be avoiding your basic thirst?

Religion is a basic thirst. No man can become satisfied and fulfilled unless he attains to a religious consciousness. There is no other way to be fulfilled.

But people go on saying that there is no God. That may be just a defence, because once they prove to themselves there is no God, then there is no need to seek and search; then they can remain wherever they are. Then they can remain in their mud, and there is no need to seek the lotus.

That's why Jesus says:

IF ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO ME, AND DRINK.

Jesus is available. It has been always so. There are people who have attained and who are available - and you are thirsty. But this is the misery: that you deny - you deny such people who can quench your thirst. You deny that they have anything; you deny that there is any water in their well because you are afraid.

The greatest fear in life is the fear of God, the fear of coming close to God - because coming closer to God will mean coming closer to the death of the ego.

Coming closer to God will mean going farther from yourself. Coming closer to God will mean dropping, surrendering, disappearing.

The greatest fear in the world is that of God, because God is both death to the ego and birth, a rebirth of consciousness. But you don't know about the rebirth; you can only feel the death. You are just like a small child who is just going to be born, is in the womb. For nine months he has lived a certain life of comfort, convenience. in fact, never again will he be so comfortable. The womb is so comfortable, so warm. He is without any responsibility; he has not to go to work in the factory or office. He simply receives everything ready-made - no worries, no fears, no responsibilities, no anxieties. He simply rests, sleeps twenty-four hours.

And then suddenly comes the moment when he has to be born. The child becomes afraid, because the child can only see that this life is going to be destroyed - the life that he has been living for these nine months. He cannot see a different life - a life of open sky and air and sun, a tremendous opportunity to grow. He cannot see. How can he see? He has no idea of it.

He can only see this: that the life he has been living is going to be destroyed. The birth to the child looks like death. He is afraid, he trembles, he doesn't want to get out of the womb.

The same happens again when you reach nearer to another rebirth of consciousness, where again you find another world - the world of God, called 'the kingdom of God' - of infinite light, of eternal beauty, of absolute truth. But you know YOUR life: the life of the market, the life of the family, the house, the money, the ambition, the desire, the body - you know this. And moving towards God means going away from this. It looks like death. God is death, because God is rebirth also.

That's why Jesus says:

IF ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO ME, AND DRINK.

And the same I say unto you. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, because yet a little while more am I with you. And then I go unto him that sent me. Remember, I am not repeating. I am not interested in commenting on Jesus.

Through Jesus, I am again creating a situation which is absolutely new - or absolutely ancient, which is the same.

If any of you really feels thirsty, then the possibility is available. Don't miss it!

And you can miss it. You can find a thousand and one excuses to miss it. Don't listen to those excuses; drop those excuses. Seek your thirst. If you are thirsty, then I am ready to become a well for you. The thirst can disappear, and only when your thirst disappears, for the first time you will feel what life is and its meaning - the beauty of it, the glory of it. Then life will become a decoded message to you. Up until now, you are carrying the seed. The message is there, but undeciphered.

Let me help you. If you are thirsty, don't try to escape from me. Let me help you.