Rising in love

The first question:

Question 1:

Shraddhan, man is almost a machine. Man is not yet man; he functions unconsciously, he lives in sleep. Hence everything is possible. In fact, you always fall in love with the same woman, even though apparently you fall in love with somebody else. The type is the same because your liking is the same, your mind is the same, your choice is the same.

Just watch people, watch their love affairs, and you will be surprised. It is always the same man or the same woman - yes, with a different face or with a different mask, different clothes, different shape and size. But these differences are not real differences.

Unless you are new how can you fall in love with somebody new? Who is going to choose? How is one going to choose? The same mind will like the same type of face, the same eyes, the same color, the same shape, the form, the way the woman walks, the way she talks. Again within a few days you will be tired, just as you were tired before.

Again you will find you are trapped, imprisoned, and the woman will also find the same thing. But man lives in such an unconscious state that you cannot expect more than that.

If man is conscious, then many things become impossible. In the first place, falling in love itself becomes impossible. You start rising in love, not falling in love; the very quality of your love becomes totally different. It is no more a relationship, it is more a state of your being. You are full of love, you share your love, but there is no demand on your part. It is no longer a business, it is no longer conditional, it asks nothing. It is simply thankful that somebody accepted, that somebody did not reject your love. You feel grateful. It is not a bondage for the other, it does not enslave the other. It is not possessive; it is absolutely nonpossessive, unconditional, undemanding. It gives freedom. And when love gives freedom, lovers start soaring high, they start moving towards God. Love becomes a door to the divine.

Right now love simply drags you downwards. 'Falling in love' is a meaningful phrase - you certainly fall, you gravitate downwards. In the beginning you feel great, but only in the beginning. That is just infatuation, because you are hoping something new is going to happen. In the beginning you are excited, it seems a great adventure, but soon you find it is the same old, rotten thing - nothing special, nothing new. Just the partners have changed, but the game is the same - and played with the same violence, with the same ugliness.

Shraddhan, it is not only you who have fallen in love with the same woman; everybody is doing that. In the ordinary, unconscious state of humanity more than that cannot be hoped for. You were fortunate that you got divorced, but it is difficult to live alone unless you know the beauties of being alone.

The moment you are alone you start suffering from loneliness, you start hankering for the company of the other. And then anybody will do, even the same woman that you had divorced; it is better than being lonely. Even if it is miserable, people prefer misery for company rather than loneliness.

Unless you know the joys of meditation you cannot avoid falling in love. Once you start enjoying your own being, the joy, the space, the absolute freedom, the unhindered consciousness, nobody occupying your attention, nobody trying to catch your attention, nobody impinging on your freedom, interfering with your freedom.... When you start enjoying your aloneness you have become a meditator. Yes, love will also be possible after that, but a totally different kind of love.

You must have been suffering from loneliness and, finding the same woman again, you may have thought it is better to be with her than to be lonely. And you must have forgotten all the miseries - people's memories are very short.

And this has to be understood: the mind tends to forget the miserable part, it tends to remember the pleasurable part. That is one of the strategies of the mind to remain in control, to remain your master. It always tends to forget the misery; it goes on magnifying, enhancing, decorating the pleasurable part. Reality is totally different, but the mind lives in imagination.

And your memories are not reliable at all because your memories are fictitious. You just think how beautiful it was, you have forgotten all the misery; you have chosen only a few moments that may have been beautiful. There must have been a few moments which were beautiful, but only a few moments, few and far between. And they cannot be as beautiful as you were thinking; otherwise what was the need to divorce the woman? The misery must have been much more, the pain must have been too much, unbearable. You must have suffered too much, the woman must have suffered too much. It is not a question of the woman being at fault or you being at fault; it is simply that two unconscious people being together are bound to create misery for each other.

If you cannot be happy alone, how can you create happiness for anybody else? You yourself are not happy, how can you give happiness to the other? You can give only that which you have. You are miserable - you can pretend that you are not miserable, but for how long? The honeymoon cannot last forever. Within a week or at the most two weeks it is finished, and then you know that both are miserable people. And when two miserable people live together, misery is not only doubled, remember, it is multiplied.

But you forget all that. Later on you efface those parts which were miserable, you preserve the beautiful moments. And not only do you preserve them, you go on decorating them, painting them, again and again. Slowly slowly they have no relationship with the reality. Your past is fictitious, your future is fictitious; only your present is real. But you don't live in the present at all; either you live in the past or you live in the future.

And why has this question arisen, Shraddhan? Misery must have started again! That's why you are asking, "Is it possible?" You have done it, and you are asking me, "Is it possible?" You yourself cannot believe what you have done.

When people are together they want to be alone; when they are alone they want to be together. People are impossible!

Middle-aged Rizzoli sat on the front steps weeping bitterly.

"What's-a matta for you?" asked his neighbor, Pasquale.

"Bonnaocchi's wife-a just-a die," said Rizzoli, wiping his tears.

"So what?" said his neighbor, "She was-a no blood-a relative of yours."

"I know that," said Rizzoli. "It is-a just-a that everybody seems-a to have-a good luck but-a me!"

When you are with someone, immediately a thousand and one problems arise which were not there before. When you are alone those problems disappear, but a new problem arises: the loneliness seems to be so empty. You feel at a loss, you don't know what to do. Soon you start forgetting all the misery that was coming out of your relationship; you start hankering for another relationship. You think, "Maybe this time it is going to be different." Maybe she has changed, maybe you have changed. Maybe both of you have learned from the experience.

Harry and his girl, Francesca, were on the couch watching an old Roy Rogers movie on TV. As Roy rode through a pass, Harry said, "I will bet you a screw his horse steps in a gopher hole and falls."

"Okay," said Francesca, "you're on!"

Sure enough, the horse stumbled.

After the bet was paid in full Harry said, "I oughta tell you I saw the movie before.

That's how I knew."

"So did I," said the Italian girl, "but I didn't think-a a horse-a be dumb-a enough to fall-a in the same hole twice-a!"

But man is more dumb.

Now make the best out of it. When you have fallen in the hole, try to make a home there! You are an American, and the only religion the American believes in is: Try and try and try again.

The second question:

Question 2:

Govindo, is there a need to understand me? What is understanding? It is an intellectual effort. What I am trying to communicate to you has nothing to do with the intellect. You can feel it, but you cannot understand it. You can live it, and only by living it will you be able to understand it.

But people try just the opposite - first they want to understand. The idea is: Unless we understand a thing, how can we try it, how can we live it? It is logical that first one should understand and only then should one try to live.

But life is not logical; life is far deeper than logic, and many times life is absolutely illogical. If you try to cling to logic you will miss many things, and those many things are the most precious. You will miss love, you will miss meditation, you will miss joy, you will miss God, you will miss freedom. You will miss all that makes life significant, that gives life beauty, splendor. You will miss the presence of godliness that surrounds you. Logic is a barrier, not a bridge.

And Govindo, you say, "I cannot understand you." You must be trying from the head. It is a heart-to-heart communion. If you want to misunderstand me then the head is the right instrument; then you can go on misunderstanding me forever and forever. But if you want to understand me, then you have to forget all about your old patterns of understanding things. It is not mathematics that I am teaching here, it is not philosophy that I am teaching here.

I am teaching something absolutely existential. You have to live it, you have to take the quantum leap. You have been told again and again that before you take the jump, think twice. And what I am saying to you is: Take the jump first and then think as many times as you want, because then thinking cannot do anything, it cannot do any harm. But let the jump happen first.

Meditation has to be experienced. If you try to figure it out, what it is, you will miss the point because it is not a question of mind at all. Meditation means a state of no-mind. I am constantly pulling you towards the state of no-mind, in every possible way.

What I am doing here is absurd, it is not logical. You will have to put logic aside; otherwise I will say one thing and you will understand something else.

The judge asked the philosopher who was produced in court, "Now tell me, sir, why did you park your car where you did?"

The professor said, "There was a sign saying, FINE FOR PARKING."

Put your intellect aside. And remember, I am not telling you to put your intelligence aside. On the contrary, if you can put the intellect aside you will be far more intelligent because intelligence and intellectuality are not synonymous, they are antagonistic.

Intelligence is a clarity; intellectuality is nothing but a clouded state. Intellectuality means you are too knowledgeable; your knowledge goes on interfering. Your mind is continuously interpreting, your mind is judging.

Listen to me without any judgment. I am not saying agree with me - there is no question of agreement or disagreement - just listen.

When you go to the mountains and you listen to the sound of a waterfall, do you agree with it or disagree with it? You simply listen! When you listen to beautiful music, do you agree or do you disagree? There is no question of agreement or disagreement; listening is nonjudgmental.

Hence the critics go on missing many things. If a critic goes to listen to music, his listening is not total; he is constantly comparing, judging, interpreting. You have to be very noncritical. You have to be just open, vulnerable, receptive, silent; so that whatsoever is happening can penetrate to the deepest core of your being.

If you are full of your own mind, Govindo, you are going to misunderstand me; that is bound to happen.

Miss Zockwoski, an attractive redhead, got on a crowded bus and stood near a young fellow.

The lad, thinking of giving his seat to her, looked up and said, "How far?"

"You got your nerve!" snapped the Polish girl. "Would I ask you how long?"

If you are carrying something in your mind, if you are preoccupied, then whatsoever you hear is not what is being said, it is what you are capable of hearing.

Quizmaster: "Lady, for fifty dollars, tell me who was the first man on earth?"

Lady: "Adam."

Quizmaster: "Right. Now for two hundred dollars tell me Eve's first words when she met Adam."

Lady (stuck for an answer, turns to the quizmaster and says): "Gee, that's a hard one, isn't it?"

Quizmaster: "Give this lady two hundred dollars!"

Govindo, don't remain preoccupied with your own thoughts. You must have come with great knowledge, you must have come with conceptions of your own and you are listening through a jungle of your own ideas.

What I am saying is very simple, utterly simple. My statements are absolutely ordinary.

I am not a holy man, I am not a saint. I am far more ordinary than you are! I have nothing special about me. I don't exist at all, how can I be special? So my statements are very simple - a child can understand them. But you can go on missing.

On a Third Avenue bus in Manhattan, a very prim spinster was shocked overhearing Scarpetti, the immigrant, saying to his friend, "Emma come-a first, I come-a next, two assa come-a together, I come-a again, two assa come-a together again, I come-a once-a more, pee-pee twice, then I come-a for the last-a time."

When Scarpetti was finished, the crimson-faced old maid turned to a policeman sitting nearby. "Aren't you going to arrest that terrible old man?" she whispered.

"Why?" asked the policeman. "For spelling 'Mississippi'?"

Let me repeat: "Emma come-a first, I come-a next, two assa come-a together, I come-a again, two assa come-a together again, I come-a once-a more, pee-pee twice, then I come-a for the last-a time."

You ask me, "What should I do? I have tried hard but failed." Now please don't try hard. In fact, stop trying, drop trying. Just listen for the sheer joy of listening. The wind passing through the pine trees... listen. The sound of running water... listen. The birds singing in the morning... listen. Don't try to understand. And just by listening something will start reaching your heart. A song, a dance will start happening. Your heart will start opening up like a flower and great fragrance will be released - and that will be real understanding.

Govindo, you have been unnecessarily trying hard. Relax with me, don't try hard. If you try hard you will be tense - and there is no possibility of understanding me through tension. Relax, rest. I am here to teach you relaxation and total rest.

Understanding is going to happen but not through the head, it is going to happen through the heart - not through logic but through love.

The third question:

Question 3:

Prem Sarva, creativity is the highest peak of your consciousness; hence it is painful, it is arduous. You are going uphill. To be uncreative is very comfortable; it is a downward journey. You need not do anything, nothing is needed on your part; just the gravitational pull is enough. When you are coming down from the hill towards the plains you can just turn your car engine off, no gas is needed; the car will go on rolling down. But if you are going uphill then effort is needed, great effort is needed.

Creativity needs the greatest effort because many things have to be dropped when you are moving upwards; unnecessary weights have to be dropped. And you are carrying so much luggage; it is all unnecessary, it is useless. But people go on collecting, people are great collectors. They will collect any kind of rubbish, hoping that maybe some day it will prove of some use. They are greedy and they feel empty so they go on stuffing themselves with every kind of thing. You are so full of ego and ego is a great weight.

You cannot move upwards. You will have to put the ego aside - and that is the greatest pain.

To be a creator means you drop the very idea that "I am separate from existence."

Creation happens only when you are one with the existence. Creation happens only when you are so in tune with the creator that there is no disturbance from your side.

And the greatest disturbance comes from the ego. It nourishes itself on disturbance, it lives on disturbance. Ego means the idea that "I am separate." And if you think you are separate, you are living in a lie - and creativity flows out of the experience of truth.

You have to know the truth, that you are not separate. No man is an island, we are all part of one vast continent. The whole existence is one, it is one organic unity; hence all that is great has come out only in those moments when the creator was dissolved into the whole. Great paintings, great poems, great music, great dance, all happen only when you are dissolved, when you are no more. If you are, suddenly you become the block, you stop the flow. Then God cannot use you as a flute, he cannot sing through you. The flute has to be just a hollow bamboo, just an open space, just a vehicle. The great poets, the great musicians, the great dancers, are all vehicles. They don't dance, they are being danced. They don't sing, some unknown energy sings through them.

That's why creativity is painful, because nobody wants to melt and merge and dissolve.

We cling to our identities. In fact, we want to be creative so that we can hang a few more awards around our egos - so the ego can become more famous, so that you can say, "I am somebody special. I am a great poet or a great composer or a great author" - or something. And that's the greatest problem to be faced by any creator: that he has to drop his ego.

And in the beginning it is for the ego that you want to be creative. It is a very paradoxical process: you have to drop the very ego that was the impetus in the beginning, that wanted to be famous, that wanted to leave its name resounding down the corridors of time, that wanted to make history. That very same ego becomes the cause of stopping the flow of unknown energies in you. Otherwise God is always pouring; you have just to be open, available. You are not to be separate.

It hurts in the beginning; it hurts more if you are resisting. If you are not resisting much it hurts less; if you are not resisting at all it doesn't hurt at all. Then dropping the ego can be one of the most joyous acts.

That's what sannyas is all about. The whole message is based on this single phenomenon: dropping the ego joyously. It is not a question of surrendering your ego to me. Ego is not something that you can surrender; it is just a fiction, it is not a reality.

So when the master says, "Surrender your ego to me," he is simply giving you a device, because you live with the idea that ego is very substantial. He knows it is nothing, so he says, "Surrender it to me, give it to me, and you be free of it." Not that you are giving anything - there is nothing to give; not that he is receiving anything - there is nothing to receive. But to help you to get rid of a false notion, a device is created. Once you have dropped the idea, suddenly you see the whole thing: nothing has been given, nothing has been taken. You are the same, only the old wrong notion has disappeared. People are very reluctant to surrender.

Just the other day one sannyasin wrote to me saying, "I can do everything you are saying, but I cannot surrender." Then how can you do everything that I am saying? That is the first thing that I am saying! And he says, "I can do everything you are saying, but I cannot surrender." And he is thinking he is making a very clear statement. That is the only thing that I am saying: Surrender the ego. And it is not a question of surrendering it to me - surrender it to a tree, but surrender. Surrender it to the river, go and drown it in the river. Burn it, bury it, cremate it! Do whatsoever you want to do, but be finished with it.

I am not interested in collecting your egos. What will I do with so many egos? If you are suffering so much with one, I will be in the seventh hell with so many egos! I am not an ego collector. It is just a device, a simple device. You say, "Where can I put my ego?" I say, "Okay, give it to me," because I know that there is nothing to give, but you will be happy in giving it. At least you will feel great that you have surrendered; at least you have given your ego into the right hands.

But this sannyasin says, "I cannot surrender." And people coming from the West, particularly, find it very difficult.

This is something which has to be understood: the Western education, the Western psychology, all emphasize ego; they all emphasize, "Enhance the ego, strengthen the ego." In different names the ego is strengthened. Willpower - it is nothing but another name for ego. The whole idea is that man has to have an ego of steel, unbendable, strong, rocklike, hard, because life is a constant struggle for survival. You have to fight, you have to conquer.

Even a man like Bertrand Russell writes a book on science and calls it CONQUEST OF NATURE. The whole idea, the Western idea, is how to conquer; even nature has to be conquered. And who are you? - a part of nature. A part is trying to conquer the whole.

It is like your left hand trying to conquer your whole body. Is it possible? It is ridiculous. Science has not conquered nature, but in the very effort to conquer it, it has destroyed much.

In the East we have a totally different idea: nature has to be understood. The law - what Buddha calls dhamma, the fundamental law of life - has to be understood so that you can be in tune with it. It is not a question of conquering but of being in step with it, being in harmony with it. To be harmonious with nature is to be blissful.

If the West has lost all bliss, all peace, nothing is responsible except this stupid idea of conquering nature. Nature has not to be conquered. But the same idea persists in many ways - in science, and even so-called religious people go on talking about willpower.

Hundreds of books have been written on willpower. It is a sheer wastage, and not only a wastage but it is poisoning people's minds. People like Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill go on poisoning: HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE. Deep down the idea is the same: how to win, how to influence. Napoleon Hill has written a book: THINK AND GROW RICH. And what is the secret of growing rich? When you look, you will find it is willpower; the whole secret, the magic secret is willpower. But willpower is only another name for ego power - and ego is impotent, there is no power in it. So people go on struggling unnecessarily, fighting with each other, competing with each other, and the end result is that everybody is miserable. Hence for the Western mind it seems very difficult to surrender.

The situation is not better in the East either. In the East for thousands of years it has been taught that surrender is the key, so people are very easily ready to surrender, so easily ready that it has become a simple formality; it has no significance. The Eastern man can touch the feet of the master with no intention of surrender. He touches the feet of each and everybody; that is just formal. It is like shaking hands, it does not mean anything; it is like saying hello. It has no meaning in it, it is formal. It is a kind of greeting to elderly people, to anybody who is respected by others, to anybody who is known as religious, holy, saintly. People touch the feet of their fathers, their mothers, their elderly relatives; it is just a conditioning.

So the Eastern person is in a different difficulty. His difficulty is that he does not know what surrender is; he has not enough ego to surrender. And the Western man has too much ego; hence he feels resistant. But on the whole the Western man is in a better position, because if he understands the point and he consciously surrenders the ego, his surrender goes far deeper than the Eastern man's surrender.

That is my experience of thousands of sannyasins from the East and from the West. The Western sannyasin's surrender is far more total. Of course it is difficult for him, it takes longer for him, but whenever it happens, it really happens. The Eastern man's surrender takes no time; he is always willing, he is ready, even before you have asked, but it does not change him. He has been touching so many people's feet; in fact, he has started feeling a new, subtle kind of ego, "I am so humble that I am ready to surrender. I am so surrendered." But that 'I' persists now in a far more subtle way.

You ask me, Sarva, "Why is creativity so painful?"

It is because of the ego. And then there are other problems also. If you are too knowledgeable it will be difficult for you to be creative.

In Zen they have an ancient tradition. They say if you want to become a painter, for twelve years learn as perfectly as possible the technique of how to paint, and then for twelve years forget all about the technique and painting; do something else. Turn your back on painting completely; forget all about it, as if you have nothing to do with it.

And then one day start painting again.

This is something significant. For twelve years you have to learn the technique, because without the technique your painting will be childish; but if it is just the technique, then technically it will be perfect but it will not have any life, it will not be creative. So you have to learn the technique, let it soak in and then forget all about it so it becomes part of your blood, of your bones, of your marrow. And then after twelve years, one day suddenly start painting again. Now you don't know the technique. In a way you know, existentially it has become part of you; it is no longer knowledge. So your painting will not be just technical and it will not be childish either.

First learn the technique and then unlearn the technique. Only then one day does creativity explode. First learn the technique of how to dance, then forget all about technique and become spontaneous. Then only....

And there are two types of people - one who will think that there is no need to learn the technique: "I want to be a creative person, not a technician." Then their painting, their music, their dance, will remain just a childish effort, amateurish; cannot be of much value. And then there are the opposite people who will learn the technique as much as they can and then they are caught in the technique. They paint perfectly but something is missing: the soul is missing, the spirit is missing; it is a dead corpse. So you have to drop all knowledgeability. You have to unlearn so again you can become fresh, innocent.

And third: if you are trying to be creative with a certain hidden motive you will never find the right direction for your energies, because if painters are famous then there will be many painters. For example, in France there are many painters. In India you will not find so many painters, but many saints - just whatsoever is the fashion. In France painting is fashionable; the people who are thought to be intelligent should be painters.

In India they should be saints - the same fools! If they were born in France they would be painting; in India the same fools have become saints.

In each country the fashion is different, and at different times. For example, in India no saint will ever think of painting, but in Japan all the saints try to paint. They learn calligraphy and painting - just the fashion.

When you are living according to a certain prevalent fashion, that simply means you want to be famous, you want to be accepted by the tradition and by the people. You are not inquiring about your real potential; you are far more interested in other people's opinions. You have to drop that too. Don't be worried about other people's opinions; simply find out what feels good for you. Nobody may ever appreciate it - so what? You may not become famous - so what? Don't be worried about it. The reward is not in being famous; the reward is in being involved, totally involved in creativity. The reward is in the act itself; it is not beyond the act, it is not after the act. It is not when you have painted the painting and people have appreciated it and it is being exhibited all over the world. No, the reward is when you are painting it, when you are utterly absorbed in it. That silence, that joy, that energy, that moment when you are not and God is: that is the reward.

The fourth question:

Question 4:

Anand Shravan, it is enough to be an Italian; enlightenment is no longer needed.

Enlightenment is for others who are not Italians. You have the first prize - enlightenment is the second prize! You should not be greedy for that. To be an Italian is such a great phenomenon; that's why no Italian has ever become enlightened. And I don't think it is ever going to happen, for the simple reason that Italians are born enlightened. Drop this greed. What will you do with enlightenment? Spaghetti is enough! Enjoy it to your heart's content. Leave enlightenment to poor Indians; they don't have anything else. That's why in India so many enlightened people have happened: when you don't have anything else at least you can have enlightenment.

And enlightenment needs a few things which are basically missing in Italians. It needs intelligence. Where are you going to get it? It is not a commodity; you cannot find it in the marketplace, you cannot purchase it. It is not available in the outside world. And Italians are utterly extrovert, and enlightenment happens somewhere inside. It needs great understanding - and Italians are very skillful in misunderstanding.

One summer in New York a gorilla escaped from a traveling circus. As Bronzini was walking down Broadway the ape suddenly appeared and sidled up beside the Italian.

An astonished police officer directing traffic rushed over to the unusual sight of Bronzini and the gorilla.

"Hey," said the cop, "what are you doing with that ape?"

"I don't know," said Bronzini, "He just-a come up and-a take-a walk-a with me!"

"You better take that ape to the zoo!"

"Okay, boss," said the Italian.

The next day the same policeman spotted Bronzini and the gorilla walking hand in hand along Park Avenue. The cop was livid. "Just a minute," he shouted to Bronzini, "I told you yesterday to take that ape to the zoo!"

"I did," said the Italian, "and he like-a it so much, today I'm-a take-a him to the moving picture show!"

Italians are so earthy, they are pure Zorbas! Except for me, nobody is going to accept them as sannyasins. But I love to do absurd things. I want to do this miracle: to make a few Italians enlightened. There is not much hope - I am hoping against hope - but there is nothing to lose. They need a good try.

They are very bodily people, utterly body-oriented. The Romans have always been the most physical people on the earth. That has a beauty of its own, because the people who think they are spiritual become in many ways eccentric, crazy, insane, very egoistic - of course, in a very pious way. They are always thinking they are "holier-than-thou." And they are wishy-washy. They talk about great things, but their life becomes ugly.

That has happened to the East: they talk about God - and the bread and butter is missing. And without bread and butter there is no God, no possibility of God.

So nothing is wrong in being body-oriented; one should be rooted in the body. One should be a Zorba, but one should not remain stuck there. One should go a little higher.

Zorba should also become a Buddha. Then there is fulfillment; both are fulfilled, the body and the soul.

Italians are too body-oriented and they are stuck there.

Granaldi's wife had just died and he was making an awful scene at the graveside. Over and over he kept tearing at his hair and yelling, "What-a am I gonna do? What I am-a gonna do? What-a am I gonna do?"

The parish priest gently took Granaldi's arm and tried to console him. "My son, I know you have suffered a terrible loss, but you will get over it in time," he said, leading Granaldi away from the cemetery.

"Oh, what-a am I gonna do?" wailed Granaldi. "What I am-a gonna do?"

"Try to control yourself," said the priest. "Months will pass, you will get over your grief, and then in a year or two you will meet some fine young woman and marry her and everything will be fine."

"Yeah, Father, I know all that!" said the Italian. "But what-a am I gonna do tonight?"

The Italians have to be freed from their excessive body-orientation. Enlightenment is the ultimate flowering of consciousness. It can happen only when you are rooted in the body, but it cannot happen only with the body. You have to move inwards, you have to transcend the body too. Your roots should be in the body and your wings should be in the soul.

Shravan, don't be worried. It has not happened yet, but it can happen. There are so many Italians here; their surrender is deeper than anybody else's. Their commitment is also deeper than anybody else's. For the first time so many Italians are trying to move deeper into meditation; something is bound to happen out of it. But they find something in me that they cannot find anywhere else. They can find a connection with me because I am not against the body. I am not against anything. I don't think there is any problem if you love spaghetti - you can still be spiritual! There is no antagonism.

For me even sex and samadhi are related, together. For me gossiping and gospels are not different - somewhere deep down they are aspects of the same coin. Hence Italians find a deep affinity with me. They cannot be interested in any other spiritual man, but I am not a spiritual man in the ordinary sense. I am a whole man, I am not holy.

Locatelli, Swenson and O'Hara were sitting in the corner saloon. "There's no doubt about it," said Swenson, "Italian broads are the greatest!"

"Yeah," agreed O'Hara, "I would like to spend a nice long weekend with Gina Lollobrigida."

"Me," said Swenson, "I will take Sophia Loren."

"That's-a very nice," said Locatelli, "but I wanna Virginia Pipe-a Line-a!"

"Never heard of her!" said Swenson.

"Who is she?" asked O'Hara.

"Why, she is-a just-a the greatest Italian girl of them all. She even make-a the headlines in-a newspaper," said Locatelli. "See, here it is on-a page-a one." And there was a headline: "Five Die Laying Virginia Pipeline."

Don't be worried, Shravan, I am here to help you. This time maybe you cannot escape.

So many Italians are caught in the net, a few of them are bound to become buddhas.

Don't be worried, enlightenment is going to happen to many people - Italians included!

And the last question:

Question 5:

Purnananda, my God, are you a Polack? I was aware that one of my sannyasins, Anando, was a Polack, but I was not talking about Polacks because one Polack cannot do much. But two Polacks are too much; then there is danger! Polacks are great people, even greater than the Italians. Italians are nothing compared to the Polacks! You see, they were searching for a pope, they could not find one in Italy - they had to choose a Polack. If you are searching for a fool you have to go to Poland.

Swami Anando has contributed this authentic letter from his Polish mother:

Dear Son, Just a few lines to let you know that I be still alive. I writing this letter slowly because I know you not able to read fast.

You won't know the house when you get home. We moved.

There be a washing machine in the house when we move in, but it not working too good. Last week I put fourteen shirts into it, pull the chain, and I not see the shirts since.

Your sister Hanna had baby this morning. I not find out yet whether it be boy or girl, so I not know whether you be an aunt or an uncle.

Your uncle Leopold drown last week in a vat of whisky. Some of the men dived in to save him, but he fight them off hard. We cremated his body, but it took three days to put out the fire.

Your father not have much to drink at Christmas. I put a bottle of Castor oil in his pint of beer. It keep him going until New Year's Day.

It only rain twice last week. First for three day and then for four day.

Try to learn write me soon.

Your loving mother, XXX P.S. I be going to send you ten dollars, but I already seal the envelope.

Polacks are great people - more Polacks are needed here! But it is difficult for poor Polacks to come because their country is dominated by the communists.

Just a few days ago I received a letter saying they would like to start a center somewhere in Poland. They would like the center to remain hidden; I don't think they will be able to manage it! They even want to become sannyasins but they will be caught.

In Russia there are a few sannyasins. They cannot wear orange, they cannot wear the mala, but they have been managing well. They have their malas, they have made arrangements for the malas to reach them. Now, this letter from Poland: they want malas and they want books - but they have not given their address!

Johnson went to the zoo to see Samson and Lionel, billed as the two most vicious lions in the world. There was no doubt about Samson, the smaller one, for if even a feather came within his reach he would pounce on it and rip it to shreds. But Lionel, the other, larger lion, did nothing but lie against some rocks licking between his hind legs.

Johnson asked the zookeeper how come Lionel was advertised as being so savage.

"Even though he is just lying there licking his sensitive areas," explained the zookeeper, "Lionel is more ferocious than the other one. In fact, not twenty minutes ago he ate a Polack that fell into the cage."

"Then why is he licking himself like that?"

"Oh," said the zookeeper, "he is trying to get the taste out of his mouth!"

Purnananda, meet Anando. Try to find out - there may be a few other Polacks also trying to hide themselves, because they know once they are known I will be after them.

Now you can declare whosoever is a Polack because I will be after them anyhow! So you can declare whoever is a Polack. You can make a small society of the Polacks.

In the new commune it will be good to have small communities, separate communities, of Italians, Polacks, of Germans.... There will be a few difficulties.

Gayan wrote to me this morning saying, "Beloved Master, you may not be aware, but now I have to tell you that I am half Italian - the fault was my father's, he was Italian - and half German; that fault is my mother's, she was German."

There will be some difficulty for people like Gayan, but we can make arrangements:

they can live on the boundary line, half in the Italian commune and half in the German commune. And I don't think there will be people who are German and Italian and Polack, all three; that will be difficult, very difficult.

Miss Zabriski walked into a physician's office and said, "I would like to get a vassilation."

"Miss," said the M.D., "I think what you are talking about is a vaccination."

"Yeah," said the Polish girl, "and I don't want you to give it to me on my arm because I wear a sleepless nightgown."

"You mean sleeveless nightgown?"

"And I don't want it on my thigh because I have a zucchini bathing suit."

"You mean bikini?"

"And I don't want you to vaccinate me on my Virginia."

"You mean vagina?"

"Alright," shouted the girl. "Virginia, vagina, just as long as I don't get small cox!"

Enough for today.