Living in the heart

[Note: This is a translation from the Hindi Maran Hey Jogi Maram, which is in the process of being edited. It is for research only.]

As long as truth is concealed, these tales of awakening won't be stopped As long as religions persist and prosper, these tales of awakening won't be stopped.

O people of the mind, you are free to construct your systems but the very walls will dance, the mad ones won't be stopped.

This tulip and rose, moon and stars - see them and be silent priest!

this tavern is not closed, this tavern won't be stopped.

Moths will go on becoming candles, burning themselves up laughing, smiling in the cruel houses of superstition the moths won't be stopped.

This mocking and blaming is nothing, nothing but promises of love 'Ravish', this world is and the it's story won't be stopped.

[Note: the above last couplet follows the ghazal tradition of not all couplets having to share the same content.] As long as god is hidden, people who uncover him will go on arising.

As long as truth is concealed, these tales of awakening won't be stopped As long as there is a veil on the face of the beloved, there will be talk of religion, songs of prayer will arise.

As long as truth is concealed, these tales of awakening won't be stopped as long as religions persist and prosper, these tales of awakening won't be stopped.

This story of the search for god will continue as long as god has not been found. But the search for god is individual. An individual can find. Then the search of the one who finds is complete. But the search continues for the multitude of others that are straying in the dark.

Religion will remain on the earth as long as a single man is still sleeping, as long as all have not awakened, as long as the lamps of all have not been lit.

O people of the mind, you are free to construct your systems O intellectuals, O pandits! O people of wisdom! Those who place trust in intellect, in logic...

O people of the mind, you are free to construct your systems ... go on building walls of scripture, go on erecting prisons of words, go on casting chains of theoretical systems.

O people of the mind, you are free to construct your systems but the very walls will dance, the mad ones won't be stopped.

But those who have heard the call of the whole will start dancing even within the walls. With them the walls of the prison will start dancing too. And no matter how many theoretical systems you make, you won't be able to eradicate the mad ones from this world. No theory satisfies. Theoretical systems remain superficial, life is not given juice by them. A system remains echoing in the head, being remains untouched by it.

O people of the mind, you are free to construct your systems but the very walls will dance, the mad ones won't be stopped.

No matter how many jail systems you erect - Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi, Jaina, Buddhist, Sikh.

They are all prisons. In the name of temples factories are made for casting chains. In mosques your slavery is being cast. But still the beloveds of god raise a dance in the middle of all these chains. For them even chains make the jingling of ankle bells. If you know dancing even chains become ankle bells, if you don't know dancing even ankle bells are chains. If you know dancing even a prison is a dance hall, if you don't know dancing what will you do sitting in a dance hall? If you know how to drink then whatever you drink is wine. And if you don't know drinking then even if a stream of nectar is raining down what will you do with it?

This tulip and rose, moon and stars - see them and be silent priest!

These flowers, tulip and rose, these suns, this moon, these stars... O so called intelligentsia, can't you be quiet? O pandits, won't you fall flat in the dust? Because whatsoever you are doing is against beauty. Whatever you are doing is against this festival of moon and stars.

Religious scholars have given man very dismal beliefs. Flowers will not bloom in these dismal beliefs. The stench of graves comes from these sad beliefs. In these dreary beliefs the moon and stars do not shine, there is deep darkness in these gloomy beliefs.

This is why the whole humanity seems religious, but still where is religion? If there were religion there would be celebration. Then flowers would be blooming on peoples faces, or there would be moons and stars in their eyes, or veenas would be playing in their hearts, or dance would arise in their life. Where is dance? Where are sparkling eyes? Where are dancing people? Where are joy filled souls? And it is said that god is enjoyment, raso vaisah. God is enjoyment, but your mahatmas are not enjoying. Those who have broken you off from god are your saints. Those who have erected a wall between you and existence, erected a China wall, are your so called pandits and priests. And as long as a person is not free of pandits and priests he cannot be free of intellect. And unfortunate is the man who lives only in his intellect and dies only in his intellect. He will never know the secret of life. He will never have any awareness of the mysteries of life.

This tulip and rose, moon and stars - see them and be silent priest!

the tavern is not closed, the tavern won't be stopped.

Although you continue your appeals, you continue calling out, nevertheless somewhere or other a tavern is born. Where a Gorakh is born a tavern is born. Where a Kabir arises a tavern arises.

Where a Jesus walks a wine hall opens. Where Buddha sits there is a great celebration.

the tavern is not closed, the tavern won't be stopped.

Still wherever taverns form, very quickly the wine halls are finished and temples and mosques are erected there. Near Buddha a sweet nectar was raining, but then come Buddhist scholars and their ilk. Very quickly the wine hall is made into a dismal temple. Dance quickly turns into rites and rituals.

Soon a deep sigh arising in the heart turns into formal prayer. Wherever the emergence of living truth had happened, now there is only talk about truth.

It has happened like this with Jesus. It has happened like this with Krishna. The same has happened with every master. Where is the sound of the flute in a Krishna temple now? Where is the beat of the drum in a Krishna temple now? It is a strange trap man weaves, man uses even emancipators in his search for unfreedom. But it is fortunate that in spite of all of our planning, in spite of all of our organizations and regulations, someone or other blossoms, somewhere a lotus blooms, somewhere a fragrance begins to fly towards the heavens, somewhere the notes of prayer are heard, somewhere life returns to its ecstasy.

... the tavern is not closed, the tavern won't be stopped.

Moths will go on becoming candles, burning themselves up laughing, smiling in the cruel houses of superstition the moths won't be stopped.

It is good that the moths will not be bound in the darkness of blind beliefs. They are eager to be burnt. And if they don't find candles they become candles themselves. Moths themselves become candles if there are no candles burning. But moths will not be bound by blind belief.

This earth is filled with the darkness of blind belief. And blind belief is so ancient that it seems that blind belief is life itself. Do you believe in god? Then you are a blind believer. God is to be known, nothing will happen through believing. Belief is very cheap. Belief is not worth two cents. One who believes is irreligious. He has to be known. Anything less than knowing will not do. But for knowing one must gather courage. For knowing the moth must become a burning candle. And for knowing one must give ones life as an offering. For knowing life has to be put at stake.

Religion is not for the curious, religion is not merely an itch on the skin - religion is gambling with life. This is why only a few courageous people have become religious. Religion is not for the fearful, it is not for cowards. Cowards become escapists. Religion is for those who in the war of life, accept the challenges of life in their totality. Who live life, live life completely. Who don't escape, who don't become afraid, who are not shaking. Those who brace their feet and take on the struggles of life.

From this very struggle the soul is born. In these very challenges the soul ripens, the being is strengthened.

The sutras of Gorakh can make your life into a wine hall. The sutras of Gorakh can make you a moth - and a moth such that if he doesn't find a flame he will become a flame himself. These sutras are marvelous. Get immersed in each sutra, drink it. Let each sutra fill the cup of your heart.

LIVE IN THE HEART, DON'T TALK OF THE SECRET, SPEAK NECTAR-SOAKED WORDS.

WHEN OTHERS BECOME FIRE, O AVADHU, YOU BECOME WATER.

LIVE IN THE HEART...

Right now you are living outside. You don't yet know the art of living within. This is why you are unhappy. One who is outside is unhappy, one who is inside is happy. One who is outside is in hell, one who is inside is in heaven. Living outside means living in desires: getting money, getting power, getting fame, getting prestige, getting respect. Living outside means if you get something you will be happy. Living inside means you already have that from which happiness comes.

Remember this distinction very subtly. Living outside means if you get something you will be happy.

Happiness is conditional. There is a condition. Someone says that if I have a million rupees then I will be happy. He has put a condition on happiness. Now until he has got a million he will be unhappy. And he will get another great shock the day he gets a million. As long as he hadn't got a million he was sad because he had put a condition on happiness. Whoever puts a condition misses, because happiness happens unconditionally. Happiness is our nature. We come bringing happiness. Happiness resides within us. And you have gone outside to seek it. And you have put conditions on happiness. If you search outside you will have to put conditions otherwise what will you look for? Search means a method to fulfill a condition. Someone has said that until I become prime minister I will not be happy. He has made a condition. Now in a country of six hundred million to become prime minister is a long journey. It is unlikely you will make it while you are still living.

So your whole life will be spent in unhappiness. Until the conditions are fulfilled, how can you be happy? And a man who has lived his whole life in misery will be more surprised when he becomes prime minister, because by living his whole life in unhappiness, unhappiness has become a habit.

Being prime minister the habit of being miserable will not drop so quickly.

You know that habits are dropped only with great difficulty. Now if the man who has sixty years practice in the habit of misery - continuously, day and night, morning and evening, awake and asleep he is seeing only this one dream, how to become prime minister - if after sixty years he becomes prime minister - if he becomes, the possibility is very slight, most people will die and won't be able to become prime minister - but someday it will be the good fortune of some cat that the hanging pot breaks, as Indira's pot breaking was Morarji's luck. If it breaks, still the person will not be able to be happy. Now where to get rid of sixty years of continuous practice? Those habits of being unhappy, the mind that is used to living in misery, how will it be dropped? It is not that you can just put it down. Now unhappiness has become your very flesh and bones. It is not like clothes you can just take off, then put on other clothes. Now misery has become your skin. Now it will be very difficult to take misery off. So the mind will arrange new misery.

You haven't got a million so you are unhappy until you get a million. As soon as you get a million you will find the mind saying, "What's so great about a million? At least ten million is needed." This is why no desire can be fulfilled, because by the time fulfillment comes one is addicted to unhappiness. You make a new projection. You make a new condition to be miserable. You push the condition ahead.

You say if you get ten million then you will be happy.

And you all know - there is no need to become prime minister for this - you all know, you all have thought if I get this car, if I get this house, if I get this shop - you got it: Are you happy? You had thought if you get this woman: you got her. If I get this man: you got him. Are you happy? Where is happiness?

Perhaps you do not remember the day you got your desire that very day it became worthless. That very day you began making new plans. The mind starts seeing new dreams - how to reach further ahead. You have put a new condition. You have pushed the condition ahead. You will go on pushing conditions ahead your whole life and you will remain miserable.

Happiness happens unconditionally. It has no conditions. And one who has understood that happiness is unconditional immediately turns inward. We are going out in order to fulfill conditions.

Conditions can only be fulfilled outside, how can conditions be fulfilled inside? Inside neither money can be produced nor power can be produced. Going on sitting with eyes kept closed you will not become prime minister. Nor sitting with eyes kept closed will a heap of Kohinoor diamonds gather.

Nor sitting with eyes closed will your reputation in the world grow. No, inside no condition can be fulfilled. One goes within who has seen the foolishness of conditions. One who has seen that even if all conditions are fulfilled, nothing is fulfilled. One who has seen this truth goes within.

And one who goes within, finds happiness - because happiness is present within. Happiness is your nature.

LIVE IN THE HEART...

The meaning of live in the heart is living within. To live where you are. Don't budge from there. If you move from there you have gone astray. What pushes you away? Desire pushes you. Wanting pushes you. Ambition pushes you. Ambition says, "What are you doing sitting inside here? Get up, move, there is much to be done in the world. There are great journeys to make. Complete them.

Like this you will waste your life."

We all move. The whole rest of the world is moving. Hence it seems that only movement is right.

Movement is right because everyone is moving. Man is a follower. The father is moving, brothers are moving, friends are moving, neighbors are moving, all are moving outwards - you should also run. You too should be diffused from your center. You have also begun the business of the mind.

You say, "If this happens, if that happens. When I have all this I will be happy."

And I want to say to you, and enlightened persons have always said this, that if you want to be happy, then there is no need to go anywhere. Lao Tzu has said there is no need to even leave your room. Happiness is your treasure. This is the fundamental truth of religion: that happiness does not have to be earned, you already have happiness, happiness is grace, prasad. Existence itself has given it. But when will you look at this grace? You have turned your back on prasad. You go on fleeing outwards. You don't stop even for a moment. Your running continues day and night. You think all day: you are running in thinking. You dream all night: you are running in dreams. You keep on running. When will you stop? When will you pause? The day you pause, the day you stop, is the day you will be suddenly shocked, you will not be able to believe it, you will remain speechless, dumbfounded - why did I go on running meaninglessly? - that which I was seeking is present within me.

LIVE IN THE HEART, DON'T TALK OF THE SECRET...

And don't tell anyone about the experience you have within the heart. Why? Why not tell this secret?

Because this secret is such that whoever you tell it to will laugh. And it is possible that you are not yet capable of enduring the laughter of others. Whoever you tell this secret to will think you are mad.

And it is possible that you are yet unripe, you are very new on the inner journey, so don't let the laughing of others put you in disarray. Don't let it people start calling you mad and you too begin to doubt - who knows?

Man lives according to the opinions of others. You believe what people say. Where else will you find recognition? Right now you don't have the capacity, you don't have the awareness that you can find recognition within yourself. You find respect outside. This is why you are so eager that someone praise you, and you are so afraid that someone might insult you. There are so many people in the world who appear moral. It is not because they are moral. The whole reason is they are afraid of what people will say. They are fearful people. There is fear in their morality. If they are convinced that they will not be caught, that there is no way that they can be caught, then all these people will fall into immorality.

This is why it ordinarily happens that when people get into power they become immoral. Lord Acton's famous statement is: 'Power corrupts and corrupts absolutely.' Not just partially but totally corrupts.

Why? I both agree and disagree with Lord Acton's statement. Agree because the fact can be seen that power corrupts people. Good people are corrupted as soon as they get into power. Simple direct people who you had never thought would be corrupted if they got in power. Moving into power immediately the hood springs up within them and poison glands emerge. What happens to people who get in power? So it seems that Acton's statement is factual that power corrupts people, because it is seen every day.

Look at the disciples of Gandhi Baba. What have they been doing in this country for thirty years?

They were good people. It cannot be said that they were bad people. As long as they were not in power no one could think that they would prove themselves bad. They neither drank nor ate meat. They wore homespun khadi, they wove with their hands, they spun the spinning wheel. No cigarettes, no betel, no tobacco. They followed vows and fasted. They served the country. They were good people - they were servants. Then what happened? How did their faces change when they got in power?

So Acton's statement seems correct, still I say there is an error in it. And the error is that power does not pervert people, power merely uncovers peoples real face. Power does not pervert them, power only makes them naked. Before being in power the man was hidden in clothes, because before being in power he was afraid you would catch him. How much strength have you got? How much capacity? Arriving in power, strength comes into your hand. Then you can do what you want. Who is going to catch you? You are the one who catches people, who will catch you? The whole power is in your hand. And, 'the buffalo belongs to the one who holds the staff.' The staff of power convinces you that now you can do with open heart what you always wanted to do and could not do because you didn't have the power to do it. You would be caught.

Power does not corrupt anyone. In my estimation only people who are corrupted are eager to get into power. But they haven't had a chance to openly play their corruption. Their hands are weak.

The heart is filled completely with fire, but they are afraid that if they reveal it now the little respect they have will also be taken. When you reach power who is going to take away your respect? When you are in power whatever you do is right. Whatever the powerful do is right. No law is enforced on the powerful, the powerful are above the law. The law is in force for everyone else. This is why it appears that power corrupts. Power does not corrupt. Power merely uncovers you. Power makes evident your naked picture: how you are, who you are, what you are.

We want people's praises so we are moral. We are afraid of peoples insults so we move with thought and care to insure we are not insulted. We take every step with caution. This is why Gorakh says when you begin to feel the inner experience and you start to feel unconditional happiness and a waterfall of nectar bursts inside of you, don't tell anyone. Gorakh is saying something worth noting:

don't reveal the secret. This is a new shoot emerging, people will jump on it and break it. And people are eager to break it because this shoot has not emerged in them; and "How are you so bold? We are all miserable and you have become happy." Jealousy will be provoked, terrible jealousy will be provoked. Perhaps you will not be able to endure their jealousy, if you are new on this inner journey.

... DON'T TALK OF THE SECRET...

So when nectar begins surging up inside, flowers start blooming, don't tell it to anyone, quietly hold and protect it. Tell it to your master, tell it to your fellow disciples, tell it to those who can understand. But don't declare it to people. Don't start dancing on the streets when dance comes inside of you, otherwise the police will catch you and take you away. Your very family will take you to a psychotherapist, asking for injections, saying something has gone wrong with him. They will request electric shock treatment saying something is wrong with him. Does anyone dance in the street?

Bertrand Russell went for the first time to an aboriginal society. A full moon night... and when the aboriginals started dancing and sounding the drums and playing cymbals, it arose in Russell's mind:

how much civilized man has lost! What do we have in the name of civilization? We don't play drums, we don't play cymbals, nor is there any capacity for dancing left. The feet have forgotten how to dance. Russell wrote: that night under the full moon, seeing naked tribal people dancing beneath the trees a question arose in my heart, what have we gained in the name of progress? And he also wrote that if I return to London and start dancing in Trafalgar Square, I will be immediately apprehended. People will think I have gone mad.

People think unhappiness is health and think bliss is insanity. Conditions have become so disturbed that only mad people laugh in this world, when do the rest, the sane and sensible people have time to laugh? The hearts of the sane have dried up. The sane are entangled in counting money. The sane are climbing ladders of ambition. The sane say lets go to Delhi. Where is the leisure to laugh, to sing a couple of songs, to play an ektara, to dance beneath the stars in the shade of a tree, to look at the sun, to talk to the flowers, to hug the trees - where is the time? These are the last things when everything is complete - when there is money, power, prestige then we will sit under the trees.

But this day never comes, it never has come, it never will come. You pass through this life crying and grumbling. As you come, so you go - come empty-handed, go empty-handed.

So if ever the inner nectar takes birth in you and the inner taste starts coming to you... and it doesn't take time to come, just turn in and everything is present. You have turned your back on the river, this is why you are thirsty. Change your direction, turn your back on the world and face yourself. And you will be surprised: why were you thirsty for so long? You will cry because so much was wasted and you will laugh because it is so amazing that you were searching for what you have! You went in search of what you already have and you agonized and were troubled because you didn't find it.

And you couldn't find it, because what is inside, you cannot find outside. It can be found where it is.

But never say it - because the feeling to immediately declare arises in that moment, the feeling naturally arises - go and tell others, who are straying in the dark. But the straying ones will not agree with you so easily. Their egos have become part of their straying. If you go and tell them, "Don't stray off, you are wandering meaninglessly. Look I have attained. Look at me, look into my eyes." They will laugh. They will say, "One more man has been wasted. You have gone mad."

The great Western psychologist R. D. Laing has come across a new discovery. Laing tried to demonstrate that in Western insane asylums there are many people who if they had been born sometime in the past in the countries of the East they would have been thought of as 'paramahansas'. The ones people called 'mast fakirs' - ecstatic saints, the ones people worshipped.

And when a thoughtful psychologist like R. D. Laing says something there is meaning in it. After a lifetime of studying the insane he gave the statement that there are many people locked up who would be Ramakrishnas if they were in the East. And you can be sure that if Ramakrishna was in the West he would have been put into some hospital and considered a hysteria patient. It was just a coincidence that he was born in India and a coincidence that the time was good when he was born.

Now if he were born in Calcutta, he would not be in Dakshineswar Temple, he would be in Bade Bazaar hospital. No matter how much he screamed, who would listen? If he screamed that I have become enlightened people would say, "Relax, it happens to all mad people." If he went on saying I am seeing visions of Mother Kali people would say, "Relax, you are hallucinating."

Even now psychologists say that Ramakrishna had epilepsy, it was hysteria. This going unconscious and falling down is no samadhi or anything. Psychologists say that Jesus too was insane. Only an insane man talks to the sky. Does a sensible person talk to the sky? Jesus bowed down, went to his knees and spoke to the sky. And spoke as if there was someone in the sky. He called to his father : Abba - daddy! Has he gone mad? What daddy is in the sky? Psychologists will say it is hallucination. This man has become ill, give him an injection of insulin, or electric shock treatment.

Bring him back to his senses, put him back on the path.

It is good that Buddha, Mahavira, Krishna and Christ have already come and gone. There are problems now. The problems have increased. Gorakh is right, his suggestion is totally correct for a seeker.

LIVE IN THE HEART, DON'T TALK OF THE SECRET...

Don't tell anyone what is going on inside. Enjoy it quietly, inwardly. Drown in it. Yes if sometime you meet someone, a pilgrim of the inner, converse with him. This is the meaning of satsang: where four divine madmen are sitting. Telling each other, hearing each other. Tell it where people can understand, keep it hidden from the rest. This secret is not to be told to everyone.

DON'T TALK OF THE SECRET, SPEAK NECTAR-SOAKED WORDS.

Never give any message about what has happened inside of you, but in your statements its nectar will bubble up. Don't say anything about it, that, "I have found the source of nectar inside of me, I have met god, I have found my soul." Don't say it. Don't be in a hurry. It should be declared in the last moment, when even if the whole world goes against you it won't make any difference to you. Even if you remain alone no doubts will arise in you. Being alone doubts will start to arise; this happens to a new seeker. This is because we think that where the most people are going is where the truth is.

If not then why are so many people going? This is why throughout the world religions try to increase their crowd. The bigger the crowd the more our faith becomes certain that the truth is with us.

If the Christians say that they have the truth, what is the reason? The reason is that about one third of the world is Christian with them. If the Jainas put forth a claim, what claim can they make? At the most there are three million Jainas. Christians are one billion. Three million Jainas! Twenty five hundred years have passed since Mahavira. If he had convinced only thirty couples then by now they would have three million children. Children increase this fast - and in India! Thirty couples are sufficient, because if twelve each are born to each couple, then again to each of these twelve, twelve are born then in twenty five hundred years the number will be much more than three million:

you can figure it out. Three million people? It is clear that they cannot have the truth. Otherwise why were so few people convinced?

This world lives following the crowd. A man was telling Bernard Shaw, a Christian was telling Bernard Shaw, that so many people believe so it must be true. Bernard Shaw said, excuse me, this many people believe it, so it cannot be true. Truth happens only infrequently. It manifests only in the life of the few, everyone else lives in lies, because living in lies there are great consolations, in lies there is great comfort. Lies are the way to pull over the blankets and go to sleep. Untruth is sleep. Most people are asleep. Truth is found by the awake.

Keep quiet until such a state arises within you, until such firmness happens that even if the entire world says you are mad, that even then doubt does not arise within. Until then go on ripening. Until then let maturity arise. Until then let firmness arise. Until then let roots grasp - deeper and deeper into your consciousness. Let the tree of this knowledge spread. Yes, one day when the tree has become so strong that it no longer needs support ropes, then the declaration will happen by itself, then there is no need to do anything.

But now you are worried about every small thing. Think, if you told someone that meditation is happening to you and he said, "Are you in your senses? Meditation does not exist. These are all illusions of the mind." And you will start doubting. At night you will become worried, does meditation exist or not? When you sit down to meditate this doubt will hang around you, does it even exist or not? Are you just wasting your time? And if you meet many people who say it, it will become very difficult.

Your mind is still swayed very much from the outside, so keep quiet. But in your voice nectar will start flowing. Don't talk about nectar, but a sweetness will come into your voice. In your voice the taste will begin to flow. Don't say directly what you have found, but in your living, in your every movement the difference will start to show, transformation will begin. You will speak and your speech there will have a sweetness that was never there before. In your speech there will be a song, a rhythm that was never there. This rhythm will bring those people near you who are in search of rhythm. This rhythm will start to attract people. They will start to ask you, what has happened to you? When someone comes very close to you and enquires about liberation then you can tell him, otherwise keep the secret hidden.

LIVE IN THE HEART, DON'T TALK OF THE SECRET, SPEAK NECTAR-SOAKED WORDS.

WHEN OTHERS BECOMES FIRE, O AVADHU...

And if the person facing you gets fired up, flies into a rage, goes wild in anger, goes crazy YOU BECOME WATER. Then completely melt. When someone in front of you is ignited with anger then melt, then rain on him like water. Let this be your style of life. Let this be your individuality. Let this be your expression. Through it those who are searching will slowly slowly begin to know. They will get a clue. It does not need to be declared, does not need to be proclaimed from the house tops. In this way slowly slowly your fragrance will reach to the nostrils of the eager, of the seekers. The veena that is playing within you will slowly slowly transform your individuality. And from the sound of your strings the veena inside those who search, those who are thirsty, will also start echoing. People will come, they will start coming from far away. Who here does not want to search for the eternal? Who here is not seeking bliss? People are searching in wrong directions, but people are seeking bliss.

And whenever they meet an individual who is blissful, their influence is unavoidable.

Rahim has said:

Both appear as one, as long as neither speaks only in the spring, are crow and cuckoo unveiled.

The crow and the cuckoo look similar as long as they don't speak. But when spring comes the difference is made clear. When spring comes the difference is heard. Both crow and cuckoo are black. On the surface no difference is apparent.

When you speak, when you act, when you take someone's hand in your hand, when you embrace someone, then the difference will be known.

only in the spring, are crow and cuckoo unveiled.

Your love, your sweetness, your grace will open in the spring, at that time the difference will be known.

WHEN OTHERS BECOME FIRE, O AVADHU, YOU BECOME WATER And understand this, it is a very surprising thing, but it must be understood.

A lady came to meet me. A lady from a very rich family, well educated. She told me, "I have come to learn meditation. But before I learn meditation, I have to ask something. If I learn meditation will it create any difficulty in my marriage relationship, in my family life?"

Before I could say anything she herself said, "I know... why should difficulty arise? Meditation is a good thing. Why should problems come from meditation? But I am asking because my husband told me to ask this before learning meditation."

I told that woman, "Then it is better that you don't learn meditation, problems will come."

And the amazing thing is that if you learn something bad then no great problem arises. For example if the wife or husband starts to drink alcohol, then only a little difficulty arises. If he starts to gamble only a little difficulty arises. And the truth is, perhaps no problem at all will arise. And it can also happen that where there had previously been a problem, that problem also goes away, becomes easier.

You will be a little shocked, because you are not aware of the deeper secrets of the mind. Wives enjoy greatly correcting their husbands. If the husband is completely right and proper, the wife has nothing left to enjoy. If the husband drinks wine, if he smokes cigarettes, then the wife becomes dominant over him. The wife becomes holy. So far Indian women haven't managed the courage to drink wine and smoke cigarettes. So she cannot do these things herself, she doesn't have the courage. The weight of centuries has broken her courage. Even in imagination she doesn't think that she too can drink wine and smoke cigarettes, it is not possible. But she gets one consolation, she gets the consolation of insulting her husband. And it makes it easier for her to take possession of the husband. When the husband comes home he comes home afraid: because he smokes cigarettes.

If the husband should completely stop smoking cigarettes and drinking wine then the mastery of the wife who has been the master for twenty years will fall. The enjoyment she had will be lost. People are not so disturbed by evil, because the man who does evil becomes humbled and becomes a reason for others to feed their egos.

We all want that other people are more humbled than we are, are inferior to us. This is our inner desire. There are two methods: one is that we become superior, then they become inferior. And the other is that they become humbled and we remain just as we are, but we become superior. Ordinarily your so-called religious people renounce and do ascetics, take vows and fast only because there is no more convenient way to feed the ego than this. By renouncing the small things they ascend the lion's thrown - they don't smoke cigarettes, they don't chew betel, they don't chew tobacco, they don't drink water at night, they drink filtered water, they don't eat this or don't eat that. On the basis of all these small things their ego gets great status. Who will give up ego and worship that are received so cheaply? What is man not willing to do for ego? This is a very cheap renunciation, what's in it? If someone in the family in the family is doing something degrading then the others find it easy to dominate him.

I said to that woman, "I cannot say that no problem will come from doing meditation. Great difficulty will come from doing meditation. All the politics at home will change. There will be a great shuffling of politics at home. If you meditate then difficulties will start. You will become peaceful, the husband will fly into a rage and you will remain calm. Can you imagine what a blow that will be to your husband's ego? So come deliberately. You go, then come deliberately. There will be differences."

And every day I experience that there are differences.

One woman has meditated some three years, difficulties have begun, because now she has no interest in sex. And her husband is becoming absolutely insane. He is going completely mad.

I told that woman, "At least you can fake it, what is the use in having a fight every day? Fulfill the husband's demands - do it just as acting." She said okay. A meditative person can do acting very easily. Only a meditator can act! The inside is far away, play-act on the outside. But when the wife was playing on the outside, still the husband had difficulty. The husband came to me. He said, "You have given her a new instruction. Now I feel even more like an idiot. She is just playing. And when someone else is just acting with me I can see clearly that she is not interested. She is only showing interest, so I feel more repentant. You have ruined my whole life."

So I told that woman, "You go and ask again before coming. Differences will come. Meditation will increase your heights, it will increase your depths. The whole arrangement of your house will certainly change. What yesterday was higher than you will start to fall below you. What yesterday was deeper than you will start to feel shallow. All their egos will feel hurt. They will take revenge."

It has been five years, that woman never returned.

Take note, as soon as a little inner flame awakens in your life, differences will come. If you don't say, still differences will arise. If you hide the distinctions, still differences will come. You cannot go on behaving like you were until yesterday. Spring has come, now the difference between the crow and the cuckoo has become clear. The crow will be angry. The crow will be very angry with the cuckoo.

Naturally, the cuckoo is cooing and everyone one is in ecstasy. The poor crow also tries very hard to get someone to clap their hands. And people do clap their hands - to shoo him off, go, get away, and don't come back here again.

A crow was flying. A cuckoo asked him, "Uncle, where are you going?"

He said, "I am going to the East. Now I'm not going to live here. The people here are bad. No one here welcomes my song, my singing. I am going to the East. I have heard that people in the East are very good."

The cuckoo said, "I have to tell you one thing, whether you go to the East or to the West, wherever you go as long as your throat remains as it is, you will experience difficulty everywhere. Transform your throat. Nothing will happen by going East and West. The people in the East are the same."

A Sufi story. A man was sitting at the gate of a town, an old man. A rider stopped, a horse rider and asked him, "what are the people of this town like?"

The old man asked, "Why do you ask this?"

The rider said, "The people of the town I have come from are very indecent. I was upset and disturbed by them. I had to leave that town. Now I want to become a resident of some new town.

So I am asking you how the people of this town are."

The old man said, "Brother, you had better move on. The people of this town are even more vile, more wicked, more indecent. Here you will get into trouble, go look somewhere else."

The rider moved on. Just behind him a bullock cart came to a halt and a man looked around and said, "Grandfather, how are the people of this village? I am searching for a new residence."

The old man asked again, "How were the people of the village you have left?"

Tears came to the eyes of that man. He said, "I didn't want to leave, helplessly I had to leave. The people of that village were very loving. Now wherever I live the memory of those people will torment me. I was helpless, I was in economic difficulty. I had to leave it so that I can earn something, I need to try my luck somewhere else. But I have just one ambition that whenever my luck improves, I will return there. I will reside in that village, in the end I want to die in that village. If I cannot live there then at least I want to die there."

That old man said, "You are welcome. You will find the people of this village even more loving than the people of that village."

A man was sitting there listening to all this. First he heard what the horse rider said and the old man's answer. Then he heard what this man on the bullock cart said and the old man's answer.

The man said, "You have really surprised me. You said to one man that this village is very vile and wicked, just move on. And to the other you said this village has very loving people, you have no need to go further, you are welcome! The old man explained, "People are just the way you are.

Everywhere men are the same. The real thing is your question."

Remember, WHEN OTHER BECOME FIRE, O AVADHU, YOU BECOME WATER.

If the other becomes fire then you become water. The fire will be put out. And a person that enters into meditation, goes on the inner journey, will be meeting people every day who get fired up.

You will be surprised to know that Frederick Nietzsche, the great German thinker said many things against Jesus, one thing he wrote perhaps you might never have imagined, perhaps no one has thought of.

Jesus has said, "When someone slaps your cheek, offer him the other cheek. When someone takes your coat, offer him your shirt too. And if someone asks you to carry his load for one mile, then go with him for two miles." It is a lovely statement. Jesus is saying in his own language, WHEN OTHERS BECOME FIRE AVADHU, YOU BECOME WATER, You become water if the other becomes fire, if he slaps one cheek, give him the other.

Jesus may have never imagined that someone would ever refute this. Nietzsche refuted this and he refuted many other things too. Nietzsche said, this is offensive behavior. If I slap someone's face and he offers the other cheek, then he takes me for an insect. He has not even given me human respect.

Think of it. Nietzsche says, when I slap someone's cheek and if he really respects me, then he should also slap me. Then we are equal. And Jesus is teaching something very egotistical. What is he saying? "A worthless man... okay, if he has hit, let him hit." Like this it is said: 'dogs may bark but an elephant keeps on walking.' But the elephant's keeping on walking and the dogs barking only means the elephant is saying, "Keep on barking. What worth is your barking? What radish are you the root of? Keep on barking, keep making useless noise. What does it matter to me? I am an elephant." But this is very egotistical according to Nietzsche. Nietzsche said it is very egotistical to say, "I am a very pure soul. You slapped me, here, have the other cheek too."

Don't think that when someone else gets on fire and you become water that he will calm down from this. Not necessarily. It is possible he may be more on fire. Then you will have to melt more. No one knows how he will behave. Don't hold onto this illusion. Many people suffer from the illusion that when we become water, the other will also become water. If this is your illusion then you didn't understand the sutra. The other will not necessarily melt. The anger of the other can become more inflamed, "Okay, so you think you are some kind of saint, that I slapped your cheek and you are giving me the other cheek."

And if you offer the other cheek so that the other person will be humbled, then you have done it for a wrong reason. You have not understood the secret. Then it has become a device to defeat the other. This to is a slap in the face. It is a very subtle slap. It is an indirect slap. But you have slapped the others face saying, look you are a dog and I am an elephant. Bark, what does it matter to me?

Here is the other cheek, slap it too and fall even lower.

I have heard, a man slapped a Christian monk. The monk was just as a monk should be, he gave him the other cheek: according to the rule. The man slapped the other cheek too - and hit him even harder. He thought this is a great opportunity, if the idiot offers the other cheek then why leave it? He hit him harder. But as soon as he had hit hard he was very surprised. More surprised than when the other cheek was offered because then the monk immediately pounced on him, sat on his chest and began beating. The man said, "Brother, you are a monk, a Christian monk, what are you doing?"

The monk said, "There is no third cheek, now I"ll give you a taste of fun. Jesus' rule is fulfilled now.

Now it is me against you."

The monk was very zestful. He have him a good thrashing. He said, "Jesus said the other cheek, the other cheek is finished, now I am on my own."

If you are offering the other cheek to defeat someone then you are in the situation of this monk.

Soon you will have to spring...

The day Jesus said to forgive one who abuses you, one who insults you, a disciple asked, how many times? Think about it, the intention of this disciple is clear. How many times? He is saying, give a limit after which we will be on our own authority. Jesus said seven times. The man said, right. But the way he said right, his meaning was that on the eighth time, we will see! And it happens like the saying, 'one stroke of the blacksmith worth a hundred of the goldsmith.' Just one hit will finish him off, don't be worried. Seven times he touches you like a goldsmith, tap, tap, tap... Just one hit with the hammer of the blacksmith, and he will be remembering his mother's milk.

So Jesus said, no, not seven times. Seventy-seven times. But what will happen, what will happen even with seventy-seven times? If this is the inclination then on the seventy eighth time? No, nothing will happen even from seven hundred and seven times. Although the whole world has so many good rules, there is no result: because each rule has its limit. Every rule has its restriction. This is why a rule is called a restriction. Restriction means it has a limit. No rule can be unlimited, only being can be unlimited. Hence this is not a rule. You have to understand it with your whole being.

LIVE IN THE HEART, DON'T TALK OF THE SECRET, SPEAK NECTAR-SOAKED WORDS.

WHEN OTHERS BECOME FIRE, O AVADHU, YOU BECOME WATER, This should become your inner mood, not following any rule. This feeling has to be awakened from your love, not from your intellect, not from mathematics. It should be your natural state. This will happen when you become completely absorbed in your own beingness.

And remember, an incomparable revolution happens when you become completely absorbed into your own soul. Then you will find out it is not soul, it is god. God seems separate because you are so far away from your own soul. The day the distance from your being disappears, the distance from god will also disappear. Then being is god. Then you become one color. Then you are non-dual.

Rahim the beloved be praised, both colors die into red when turmeric renounces yellow, lime renounces white.

Become one...

Rahim the beloved be praised then you can praise the beloved. Then two colors can become one.

... both colors die into red They were two until now, their color become one.

when turmeric renounces yellow...

As you have seen when turmeric and lime are mixed, both of them lose their own color.

when turmeric renounces yellow...

Turmeric gives up its yellowness.

... lime renounces white.

And lime gives up its whiteness. A new color arises, redness arises. The mixture of both becomes red. The same when you and god become one then love occurs. And this event can happen anytime once you start facing inward. God is hiding there waiting for you GORAKH SAYS LISTEN AVADHU, LIVE IN THE WORLD LIKE THIS:

EYES SEE, EARS LISTEN, MOUTH SAYS NOTHING.

Live in the world in this way - like a mirror. A mirror reflects. It makes a beautiful reflection of a beautiful man, it makes an ugly reflection of an ugly man. But the mirror doesn't say anything, the mirror doesn't comment. The mirror doesn't even say: Aha, how beautiful! Nor does the mirror say:

go, be gone, move on; what a terrible ugly man is making a reflection in me; he is making me ugly too. The mirror remains a witness. This is a sutra of witnessing.

GORAKH SAYS LISTEN AVADHU, LIVE IN THE WORLD LIKE THIS The art of living in the world is witnessing.

EYES SEE, EARS LISTEN, MOUTH SAYS NOTHING.

Look, listen, pass on. It is only a drama. It is a film moving on a screen. There is only the play of sun and shadow here. Don't get entangled in it.

Mulla Nasruddin went to see a film. It was the first time he had ever seen a film. The first show had ended but he didn't get up. The manager of the theater came and said, "You can go Mulla, the show has ended.'

He said, "Here take the money for the next show, I must see the next one too."

He saw the next one, but still he didn't leave. When the manager said, "Mulla, what are you doing?"

he said, "Here take the money, I'll see the third too."

The manager asked, "But what is it? Seeing this same film again and again."

He said, "If you want to understand the reason, understand it: one scene comes in which some women are taking off their clothes and entering a lake. Just when they are getting all their clothes off, only the last cloth remains, then a train passes by. Train rails run along the shore of the lake, so a train comes. The women are hidden by the screen of the train. By the time the train has gone they are already in the water. So I am looking to see if sometime the train is late. I am not going to go.

After all its an Indian train, it will be late sometime. I will go only after seeing the whole scene."

Don't laugh. When you see a film you also are affected like this. When films were shown for the first time in small villages people started throwing money, as is the custom in villages. If there is a drama company or something, someone dancing, they throw money. They started throwing money at films in small villages. I have seen people in small villages throwing money - at the screen - a dancing girl dances, they start throwing money. When a dancing girl dances and her petticoat begins to rise up in the dance, they bend down and start looking from below. There is nothing there, just a play of light and shadow. But people, people just like other people. This is how their whole life is.

And this is not just little people. There is an incident in Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar's life. He went to see a drama... he was Bengal's famous scholar, a well-known person, strongly moralistic... so he was invited to sit in the front row. The drama started. In the drama there was an evil character that was doing all kinds of evil acts. The moralist Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar started getting very angry. Moralists get angry very easily. He got so angry at this mischief that when the character played his last trick Ishvarchandra could not tolerate it. The last antic was to catch hold of a woman passing through the jungle, he started pulling, taking off her sari. Now it was beyond Ishvarchandra's control...

As in the story of Draupadi's sari starting to be pulled off, Krishna immediately came and increased the length of her sari and the length kept on increasing... How could Ishvarchandra ignore this? He forgot it was a drama. He took off his shoe, climbed up on the stage and started beating that man.

The man showed greater intelligence. He took the shoe in his hand, put it on his head and said, "You have given me more respect than anyone else ever has. I had never thought that my acting was so skillful that an intelligent man like you would be fooled! This is only acting. And another thing, this is not a woman, this is our manager sahab. I can't pull his dhoti off! Your effort is wasted, look a little closer, don't you recognize our manager sahab? And I am not going to return your shoe, because this is my prize."

That shoe is still kept in his family, to keep it well they put it in a glass case - for remembrance that in this house there was such an artist that even Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar was befooled while watching his acting.

So forget about small people, even your greatest scholars are not very different. And it is your life- long habit. You hurriedly become the doer and can no longer remain the witness. And the essence is in being a witness.

GORAKH SAYS LISTEN AVADHU, LIVE IN THE WORLD LIKE THIS EYES SEE, EARS LISTEN, MOUTH SAYS NOTHING.

Your ego is only in the doer. The day you become a witness, the ego is gone. Then what ego remains? There is only the one who sees, the seer. What ego does a mirror have? And one who's ego is gone, his burden is gone. One who is unburdened can fly to god.

Tossing his load in the flood, Rahim swims across holding a load on your head, you drown midstream.

Rahim said, I have thrown my load into the flood.

Tossing his load in the flood...

The load I had was thrown into the flood.

... Rahim swims across but those with loads on their heads drown midstream.

But those helpless ones drown in midstream, holding a load on your head...

What is the load? the ego, the doer. As soon as you become the witness, you are unburdened.

Become the witness and you become silent. A mirror is always silent. Reflections are made and effaced, what of the mirror is made or effaced! A mirror just watches.

EYES SEE, EARS LISTEN, MOUTH SAYS NOTHING.

Rahim this path of love, an exceedingly slippery lane people bring loaded bullocks where even an ant's foot slips.

He says, this path of love that goes towards the divine...

Rahim this path of love...

The path of love is, ... an exceedingly slippery lane This path is very slick.

... where even an ants foot slips.

Here even the feet of ants are slipping. Even this much of a load is a hindrance.

people bring loaded bullocks where even an ant's foot slips.

And there are people who load their bullocks and try to walk on it - where even ants are slipping and falling, where even the slightest subtle ego is enough to make you fall - an ego like an ant - there people are trying to move with loaded bullocks.

NATH SAYS, KEEP YOUR SOUL, DON'T INSIST ON DEBATE.

THIS WORLD IS A GARDEN OF THORNS, PLACE EACH STEP ALERTLY.

Gorakh says, keep your soul. Let your ego go, let your being remain. Being and ego are two different things. Ego is your illusion. It is a process you have created. And being is the grace of god. Being is what you have brought with you, ego is what you have acquired. Being is like a mirror, only a witness. Ego has become a doer, it suffers and enjoys.

NATH SAYS, KEEP YOUR SOUL...

If your being remains, it is enough. Let the ego go. And if the ego goes the being will come to know who he is. Right now who knows what all you have considered yourself! Someone thinks, I am a doctor. Someone thinks, I am an engineer. Someone thinks I am this, someone thinks I am that. The being is neither doctor nor engineer, being is simply an empty mirror. If the imprint of an engineer falls on it, you become an engineer. You study in an engineering college, you become an engineer. You become a doctor, a lawyer, a magistrate, a shopkeeper; you become this or that.

Whatever is imprinted on your mind your become. And sometimes imprinting happens accidently.

Yesterday I was reading someone's life story. When he first arrived to study at Oxford University, he was very shy and bashful. The clerk asked him, what do you want to study? So he said theology.

But the clerk understood geology. He was a shy man. The clerk wrote geology. He saw that it was geology, but he was so shy that he didn't say anything. He said okay. He studied geology. After studying geology six years he graduated with a gold medal, then he revealed to people that it was a complete mishap. I had come to study theology and unfortunately became a geologist. And no trivial geologist - a gold-medalist. Now he was trapped for his whole life, now there was no remedy for it.

And then he said, "No one knows the troubles I passed through in those six years. In complete bashfulness and hesitation one year passed. Then I thought that telling it now would be even more idiotic. Why did you waste a year? Then two years passed, now if would be even more idiotic.

And then I got one degree, and it was more difficult yet. Then I thought, what was to happen has happened. It was god's wish that I become a geologist, so I will die as a geologist. He became one of the world's renowned geologists. 'He went for devotional singing, but ended up ginning cotton!'

What are you?

When I read this I remembered an accident in my life. When I went to be admitted to college I forgot to bring a pen. So I waited to get a pen from someone. A young man was standing there with his pen, filling out his form, but he was thinking long and hard. I asked, "Brother, while you are thinking, lend me your pen." I filled out my form. He looked at my form, said okay and filled his out exactly the same way. I asked, "You copied my form?"

He said, "I was thinking hard what to fill in? What subject should I study? You have been very kind by coming here. I found out which subject I should fill out." As I had filled in philosophy, he also filled in philosophy.

Now he has become a philosophy professor. And the whole cause was that he had a pen and I didn't: this is why. Now if you ask him, who are you? He will say I am a professor, a professor of philosophy.

This is accidental. You are not this, you are that which you were in your mother's womb, or even before that. You are that which you are in your deepest sleep - not a doctor, not an engineer, not a professor. You are that which you will be even after death. You are being. This is your nature, your inner nature.

NATH SAYS, KEEP YOUR SOUL, DON'T INSIT ON DEBATE.

Stay with your being and don't fall into meaningless argument about whether there is a soul or not.

If it is, then how is it: is it red or black or yellow or green? Don't get into meaningless arguments, otherwise life will be wasted in debate. Turn your eyes within, look at what is. Who will you ask?

Who can give you an answer? You have to find the answer inside yourself. Don't go into books, don't go into theories and don't get into meaningless discussion.

People remain involved in discussions for hours, life passes by in discussions. Some say that there is no soul, or that the soul is mortal. They have not died yet, but they say the soul will die. Some say no, the soul is immortal, it will die but it will still exist. The soul is eternal. They too have not yet died, the debate goes on. What dispute are you getting into? - the soul IS within you. Whether it dies or not is in the future. At least become acquainted with what is right now. Seek a little, search a little. If it is not you will not find it. If you don't find it then say that it is not. But among those who have gone within not even one has returned and said it is not. Without exception those who have moved into the psyche have said it is. And those who say it is not have not gone inside.

Marx never meditated, he says there is not soul. This is very idiotic. If he had meditated! This is like some man saying that thirst is not quenched by drinking water, yet he has never drunk water. Will you believe him. And Marx says he is scientific socialist. Not scientific at all. He didn't fulfill even the first requirement of science. The first condition of science is, say only that which is proven through experiment. What else could be the requirement of science? Marx says religion is unscientific. But fulfill the requirement of experimentation. Buddha meditated. Mahavira meditated. Jesus meditated.

Lao Tzu meditated. Gorakh meditated. Whosoever has meditated has said the soul is. If you go within how can it be denied? When it is, how can it be denied? How can one who opens his eyes deny the sun? Yes, one who sits with his eyes closed can deny. An owl can deny, they sit with their eyes closed. When your morning comes, it is the owl's evening.

Just near here on the almond tree I heard an owl talking one day. It was becoming dawn, the sun was coming out. An owl came and sat. Nearby a squirrel was sitting in the freshness of morning, getting ready to start the day's journey. Another great day is born. He was just waking up... The owl asked the squirrel, "O Squirrel, it is almost night, will this tree be good to rest on?"

The squirrel said, "Pardon me, it is not becoming night but day."

The owl said, "Quiet! Stop talking nonsense. I know it is becoming night, it is getting dark."

Now why should the squirrel bother with an owl? And if he bothers the owl, the owl will attack. An owl is an owl after all. So the squirrel said, "You must be right." When the owl had moved to a distant branch the squirrel said, "Now I can say that you are not right, you are only an owl, your eyes are shut. Do you think that night comes from closing your eyes? Open your eyes, the sun is coming out."

But how can an owl accept it? To the owl at night it is day, in the day it is night.

One who lives outside cannot accept the being that is within. Only one who turns his eye inward, who opens his inner eye, can say it. So don't get into useless debates, don't waste time meaninglessly.

Use the time you spend debating for meditation.

THIS WORLD IS A GARDEN OF THORNS...

There are many problems here, there are many thorns here. And arguing is the biggest thorn.

People waste their lives in disputation. Then they become insistent, then stubbornness arises.

... DON'T INSIST ON DEBATE.

Stubbornness arises that what I have said must be right because the ego is at stake. People are not arguing for the sake of truth, who has anything to do with truth? Argument happens because of egos. The real question is am I right or are you right? Who has anything to do with right? But what I said must be correct, because I said it. Remember the statement of the debater is this: what I say is right because I say it. This is not the statement of a seeker of truth. A seeker of truth says: What should I say? Wherever the truth is I am prepared to stand with it.

There are two kinds of people in the world. One who says that the truth should stand behind me.

Where I stand is where the truth should stand. Let truth be my shadow. He is the argumentive type.

And one who says let me become the shadow of truth. Let me stand where truth is. I will obey truth.

I want to become the shadow of truth. This is the indication of a seeker.

Very watchfully place your feet, there are many thorn plants here. And the biggest thorn plants are of religious beliefs. People get disturbed in beliefs and forget meditation. It often happens that one who is debating in favor of god finds no opportunity to pray. It has become meaningless. If arguments about food go on, when will you cook food? If you argue about water, when will you find the river?

Practicing one, all is gained; practicing all, all is lost; Rahim water only the roots - flowers and fruits in abundance.

Rahim says, by practicing the one all will be accomplished. That one is present inside of you - that one is you.

Practicing one, all is accomplished; practicing all, all is lost; Don't get entangled in useless debate, in proving the greatest theories, in the Vedas, the Koran, the Bible, otherwise all will be wasted. Practice the one.

When Shvetketu returned from his guru's house to his father, Uddalak asked him, "Son, what all have you studied?"

He said, "I studied the Vedas, the Upanishads, the scriptures of the Brahmins, I studied the Aranyas, the Puranas, grammar, language" - whatever was known at that time - "I studied everything. I have come bringing whatever the guru was able to give."

The story says the father became sad. Shvetketu asked, "But you are not happy. I have come with the highest degrees. I have come with great respected. Look at my certificates."

But the father said, "I have one thing to ask of you: have you learned that one, the one that when it is known all is known?"

Shvetketu said, "Who is that one? I have learned everything. Whatever was available at the guru's house, at the guru's school. I come after have learning everything."

The father said, "This is of no use. Go back, know the one then come. You have come having learned the many. What can happens from the many? Learn the one then come. Who are you? Know this and come. Until you have known the being you have not known anything. And remember, I have become old. Perhaps I will be able to see you return knowing the one, perhaps not. But one thing I want to say to you, in our house there have not been Brahmins in name only. We call ourselves Brahmins only when we have known Brahma, the ultimate. Remember this. Don't consider yourself a Brahmin until you have known Brahma. In our family no one is born as a Brahmin. In our family we are Brahmins only when we know Brahma. This is what my father had told me, this is what I tell you. Know the one then come, then only will you be a Brahmin. No one becomes a Brahmin just by being born in a Brahmin home."

Rahim water only the roots - fruits and flowers in abundance.

Don't wander around watering the leaves, water the roots. The root is your being. The door to the divine is through it. From watering that one root you will be well filled with leaves, there will be many branches and limbs. Birds will come and reside on you, making their nests there, sitting in your shade. Fruits will also grow on you, the hunger and thirst of the hungry will be fulfilled. Flowers will also grow on you. Peoples appetite for beauty will be satisfied. You will be overflowing. But water the one.

BALANCED ASANA, BALANCED FOOD, BALANCED SLEEP GORAKH SAYS LISTEN SONS, SUCH A MAN NEITHER DIES NOR GROWS OLD.

How to practice that one? How to know that one? How to know that one?

BALANCED ASANA...

Learn sitting. Remember, yoga asana does not mean only bodily posture. Sit within so that there is no tossing about. The outer asana is only a preparation for the inner asana. Sit still so that the outer body does not move or toss about. This is only the beginning, then don't let the mind oscillate, there should be no shaking. Asana is when neither mind nor body move, when within and without you have halted, stopped. Stopped means now there is no desire. Stopped means now there is no ambition. Stopped means now there are no flickering waves arising in the mind. Now the mind has become a lake.

BALANCED ASANA, BALANCED FOOD...

And consume just the right amount of food. Don't wander about eating useless things. Don't go on filling your body with useless things. Fulfill what is needed, what is required. And become firm in this.

There are some people whose whole life's work consists only of putting food in from one direction and taking it out from the other. This is their only work. There are people like Emperor Nero who kept four physicians with him. He enjoyed eating very much. But no matter how much you enjoy, how many times can you eat? Once, twice, three times, four times, five times... how many times can you eat? But he enjoyed it so much that his mind never became satisfied. So the doctors would force him to vomit. When he ate the doctors that lived with him quickly gave him medicine to make him vomit, so that he could eat again. This seems rather extremist, but I know people who vomit like this.

One girl came from America. For fifteen years she has regularly been doing this: eat food and vomit it up so that she can eat again. Then I came in contact with three or four other people - all kinds of ill people come to me - who do just this. And those that don't do this go on stuffing themselves, as if life were only food - bhojan. Life is something more. Life is also devotional music - bhajan. And one who thinks bhojan is all, lives on a very minimal level, until bhajan is awakened. Eat only as much bhojan as is needed for bhajan.

But if you look at your religious people you will be shocked. Look at Hindu sannyasins, you will be shocked. If they don't have a big belly they are no swami! Their whole work... they go on talking about bhajan, but they have only bhojan. You can go and look: the bigger the belly the bigger the swami. Their whole work is: talk about bhajan and eat bhojan. They have to eat, they want to eat, so they go on talking about devotional music. What kind of sannyasins, what kind of sadhus are these?

BALANCED ASANA, BALANCED FOOD, BALANCED SLEEP So first take care of posture, then take care of food, then take care of sleep - just these three very important things, if you can take care of these, there will remain no problem in knowing the being. These three are hindrances. What does firm sleep mean? One whose posture has become centered, who has become skillful at sitting completely tranquilly, one in whom the waves of thought have gone, one whose food is balanced, one who gives to the body what is needed: not less, not more. Don't give too little either.

On the one hand is the Hindu monk whose belly is proof of his religiousness, and on the other is the Jaina monk whose becoming skin and bones is proof of his religiousness. These are two sides of the same coin. There is no difference between them. One eats too much, one eats too little. Both have gone to the extremes. And being is in the middle, being is wholeness. So take care of food. If these two things are taken care then taking care of the third thing begins to happen: then sleep is taken care of.

What does take care of sleep mean? This sutra is very profound. To take care of sleep means, just as in wakefulness thoughts have become tranquil, in sleep dreams also become tranquil. They do become. Dreams arise because of thoughts. Dreams are the fulfillment of thoughts, they are the echoing and re-echoing of thoughts. If you have thought hard all day, then you will dream hard all night. You will see dreams of what you have been thinking. One who is a glutton will go on eating at night in dreams, he will receive invitations to dine in palaces. Tasty food will continue. One who is crazy for sex will go on seeing sexual dreams. One who is greedy for money will see dreams of avarice. One who is greedy for power will become emperor in his dreams.

Your dreams are the fulfillment of the perversions of your mind. In sleep their echo goes on being heard. When you learn to sit peacefully, and eating becomes controlled... and remember in controlling food, whatever you take inside, is included in food. Don't read useless books, because that too is food you take inside. Don't listen to useless talk, because that too is food you take inside.

No one says it to anyone...

If someone comes to throw rubbish into your house you will immediately stop it. But if someone comes and throws useless rumors into your head you don't stop, you cup your ear and listen, saying, "Brother, tell more, what happened then?" Think what rubbish you are filling your mind with! It is all food. It comes through the ears, through the eyes, through the mouth, through the nose. It is all food. All these senses take in food.

So the meaning of becoming firm with food is, don't let the useless enter. Be on guard of the useless.

Look at what is necessary to look at. Listen to what is necessary to listen to. Say what it is necessary to say. And religiousness will start entering your life on its own. And then your sleep will become centered. Then you will remain tranquil in sleep too. Dreams will depart. And an incomparable happening will occur. The day you sleep without dreaming will be the day you sleep and remain awake at the same time.

This is why Krishna has said that everyone is sleeping but still the yogi is awake. It does not mean the yogi is sitting or standing in his room and staying awake. It means that the body is sleeping but a flame goes on burning inside. A consciousness always remains.

GORAKH SAYS LISTEN SONS...

He says to his disciples, O sons listen:

... SUCH A MAN NEITHER DIES NOR GROWS OLD.

And if this happens then you will know neither when you became old nor when death came. This does not mean you will not become old. The body will become old, but you will not become old. The body will die, you have become immortal.

There are two names that are commonly used for for Gorakh. One name is Gorakh Gopalam - the cowherd boy: he always remains fresh, remains young. The second name is Budhe Balam - the old child, the aged child: he has become old but still remains like a boy, just as fresh. He remains just as fresh as the freshest early morning dew, as a flower that has bloomed in the early morning. His freshness has never left him.

GORAKH SAYS LISTEN SONS, SUCH A MAN NEITHER DIES NOR GROWS OLD.

ONE WHO EATS DIES, ONE WHO DOESN'T EAT DIES GORAKH SAYS O SONS, ONLY THE SANYAMI, THE BALANCED ONE TRANSCENDS.

If you eat you will die, if you don't eat you will also die. Death is going to happen. Only one will not die, the one who has attained centering, has attained crystallization, has attained sanyam. These are the three sutras of sanyam:

BALANCED ASANA, BALANCED FOOD, BALANCED SLEEP Then there is no death. Then the experience of the eternal.

ALWAYS RESIDE IN THE MIDDLE Search for the middle in everything, don't eat too much, don't sleep too much. Don't eat too little, don't sleep too little. Find the middle in everything. Don't speak too much, don't speak too little, go on finding the middle.

Sometime you have seen a tight rope walker, he goes on balancing himself on the rope. In the middle: not leaning too far to the right, not leaning too far to the left. If he leans he will fall. He goes on balancing in the middle. Find the center in everything and you will attain a balance, a completeness in life.

MIND DOESN'T MOVE, BREATH BECOMES STILL.

And when the precise center is hit then the mind becomes unwavering. It becomes so unwavering that the breath too stops moving. Then samadhi flowers. There neither mind is flickering nor breath is moving.

Remember, don't be frightened when samadhi flowers. It happens here everyday. When some sannyasin experiences samadhi for the first time he becomes frightened. The fear is this, that the breath stops. He feels as if he is dying. But this is not death, this is the beginning of a new life.

DIE, O YOGI, DIE! DIE, SWEET IS DYING.

DIE THAT DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW.

This is the beginning of that death, after which is the highest life.

Die! Die a death like Gorakh died. And when he died he saw. And what he saw is everlasting, it is immortal.

Enough for today?