Darshan 23 March 1978

[An Israeli, who is studying at a college in Poona for one year, takes sannyas.]

Use this time for meditation also. That will be far more significant than any study. Meditation is self-study. And that is the central core of one's whole life: if one can become rooted in meditation then all else becomes a blessing, everything starts becoming as it should be. There is never any frustration in life: fulfilment comes of its own accord. But if meditation is missing then we can go on doing all that we can do but nothing really happens - all is futile.

And you have a very prayerful heart... use it! So meditate, pray, think more of the inner and less of the outer. The outer has to be given attention but it should not become predominant. Not that one has to renounce it; nothing has to be renounced. Life has to be lived in all its dimensions, in all its richness, variety; only then does a symphony arise. Otherwise people become monotonous. The worldly people are monotonous because the inner is lacking, and the other-worldly are monotonous because the outer is lacking, and the music needs both: it needs sound and silence both. Sound is supplied by the outer and silence is supplied by the inner. When the inner silence and the outer sound meet, a great symphony arises in one's being. That is religiousness.

But the inner is more important, that has to be remembered; never sacrifice the inner for the outer.

If there is ever any choice, sacrifice the outer for the inner but never otherwise, and you will never be a loser.

[The new sannyasin says: My father is the biggest Sufi in Israel.... I took some of your books and I told him about you. He said I am free to go anywhere I like to go.... But the people here are against me; I don't know why.... here, in Poona - the Iranis and also the Indians.]

Mm mm.... Only a Sufi can understand what is happening here, others can't. The others can only misunderstand. It is beyond their comprehension - not that they are knowingly mischievous, no;

they are unaware. And sometimes when you cannot understand something, the natural tendency is to criticize it. It is very difficult for a man to say, 'I don't understand so I will not assert anything for or against.' That is very difficult, that needs great integrity to be able to say, 'I don't understand certain things so I will keep mum. I will say something only when I understand.' But that integrity is not easily available.

So just to hide the fact that they can't understand, that they are ignorant about something, people criticize; that has always been so. But your father will understand. I can see something of his qualities in you too.

Sudhindra means god of remembrance, god of awareness, god of mindfulness. The most important thing in your life will be awareness. Pour your whole energy into that dimension: become more alert, more attentive, more mindful. Whatsoever you are doing, make it a point that you should do it with awareness... small things: washing your clothes, do it with full awareness. You can do it mechanically, you can think of a thousand other things and you can go on washing the clothes. That does not need awareness: you know how to do it, your body has learned the trick of it, it goes on doing it. You are not needed; you can think, you can fantasise, you can dream and the body will do the work. The body is functioning like a robot: it is programmed, so it will do its acts.

Bringing awareness in means dissolving the body robot, its mechanicalness, creating awareness deep in the body. And when awareness penetrates the body it becomes luminous. When awareness penetrates the body there is no separation between the soul and the body; they are one unity, functioning in unison. And that's a great blessing. It is what blissfulness is all about: when the body and the soul are functioning as one, when they are coupled together in deep loving embrace, when all boundaries dissolve.

But from our very childhood we have been taught one thing, that we are separate from the body.

Control the body; we are the master and the body is the slave - manipulate the body. Because of these teachings, every human being on the earth is a victim; no human being finds a harmony between his body and soul. With that harmony missing you can't feel god; god can be felt only in a harmonious being.

Each child has been forced to become a kind of schizophrenic, a duality, a division: the mind and the body. And between the two a gap has been created; that gap is ugly, that gap is a calamity.

Man has lost all joy because of that gap and man has lost contact with nature because of that gap.

We are connected to nature through the body but we are disconnected from the body so we have become ghosts in a machine. the body is being used as a machine, as a robot.

Awareness means dissolving the robot, awareness means unlearning the nonsense that has been taught by the society, bringing the mind closer and closer to the body, penetrating the body with awareness. and when it happens, a great thrill passes through the whole body mechanism, and then it is no more a mechanism at all: it becomes an organic unity with the soul. Then the body vibrates in unison. You don't have the division, you don't possess the body; you are the body - there is no possessor, no possessed. That's where sanity and health and wholeness arise; otherwise everybody remains schizophrenic.

So that is going to be your work here: become more and more alert in small things. In drinking water, drink it with absolute alertness, as if everything depends on it. In that moment don't do anything else. Taste the water, feel its coolness going down your throat. Feel the quenching of the thirst, feel the entry of the water in the body. In that moment only be that. Eating, do the same. In walking, sleeping, loving, remember one thing: the body has not to be used as a robot. It is not a machine, you are not the manipulator. It is you; it is your visible being, you are its invisible source.

But you are not two, you are two aspects of one energy. Matter and mind are not two but two states of the same energy; matter is more condensed, the mind is more abstract.

[A sannyasin says: I'm going to Europe to earn some money.]

Then you are coming forever?...

It will be so! Come back... and make it as fast as possible. No time should be lost unnecessarily.

Just be alert, because our minds are very accidental. The mind is like driftwood: it has no sense of direction. Unless you remember it you can be hooked into something, you can get involved in something and then the time will be prolonged unnecessarily. It is urgent to come back and to be with me. Keep alert about that urgency. That will help and will not allow the mind to drift anywhere.

Once you are with me, stop drifting. That goes for you and for everybody else too, because something immensely important is going to happen and you have to be present when it happens:

You have to be part of it.

So just remember the urgency... and come back!

[Another sannyasin is returning to his farm in the west.]

Come back whenever you can find time. To be on a farm is beautiful. Make your work your meditation. Farming is the only work that is worth doing. Whenever you are with things which grow, you grow. That is the difficulty with machines: they don't grow, so if you work with machines you are stuck. They don't keep the growing energy flowing around you. So people who work with machines, by and by, slowly slowly become mechanical. Machines reduce man to a machine.

To be with trees and plants is beautiful because they go on growing, they become an impetus, an inspiration, and the whole energy is flowing upwards with the growth. You cannot remain low, you have to go high. If you are alert, then farming can turn you on as no drug can ever do. Mm? just the smell of the wet earth, the smell of the growing plants, the joy of the birds and the sun - all that becomes a milieu for spiritual growth. To be close to nature is to be close to god.

So perfectly good - continue. Even if it is not very economical, even if it is not very paying, don't be worried; that is irrelevant. And whenever it is possible, come, mm? Good!

[A sannyas couple are going to the west for a short visit.]

Go consciously with the sense of a mission and don't be shy any more! All of my sannyasins have to become my apostles. Don't be aggressive but take the initiative. And there is no need to be shy.

Now the news has to be spread, and as fast as possible so as many people as possible can come.

So these three, four weeks will be a great meditation for you both. Talk to as many people, meet as many people as possible.... Good!