Surprise Me!

The first question

Question 1:

Sheela,

YOU FOOL! That is the surest way to find God - one cannot miss. The Master is only a window. The Master simply opens into God, just as the window opens into the sky. What you see in the Master is not of the Master himself - he is no more. What you see through the window is not of the window; it is of the sky, the stars, the sunrise, a bird on the wing, the flowers. Whatsoever you see through the window has nothing to do with the window; the window is only an opening. The Master is only a way.

If one can surrender, if one can trust the Master, one has surrendered to God, one has trusted God.

And sooner or later one is bound to come out under the sky. One will remain grateful to the Master forever because without the window there was no sky, there were only walls. But one has to go through the Master and go beyond. One should not cling to the window; the window frame should not become a hindrance.

Hence the perfect Master is one who helps you to surrender THROUGH him to God, not to him. Of course, in the beginning it appears as if you are surrendering to the window because you don't have any other acquaintance with the sky; you may even start worshipping the frame of the window. That is what has happened again and again in the history of human consciousness.

Buddha is a window, so is Mahavira, so is Christ, so is Mohammed. But then you forget about the sky. You close your eyes and you start worshipping the window. You have missed the point.

I am not to be worshipped.

The real Master's work is to become gradually useless for the disciple. Buddha says: If you meet me on the way, kill me immediately. The Master would not like to stand between you and the divine, and if the Master wants to stand between you and the divine he is not a Master at all. If he teaches you clinging, then he is teaching you the world; if he teaches you unclinging, then he teaches you God.

The function of a Master is really a very delicate one, because he has in the beginning to help you to surrender to him knowing the danger; but the risk has to be taken. As the disciple comes closer, as he becomes a devotee, the Master helps him to understand the point.

The beginning of disciplehood is not its end. The beginning is bound to be a little false for the simple reason that you live in a world of lies. You understand only the language; you don't understand that which is beyond language; hence you have to be spoken to in words. Now to speak in words to persuade you to be silent is a very paradoxical work! You understand relationship; you don't understand love.

The Master first helps you to create a relationship between himself and you, and slowly slowly he withdraws himself; as you become capable he withdraws. He helps you to become free of him.

But the misunderstanding can happen in two ways. One is that you may start clinging to the Master, you may start worshipping the Master; you may forget completely that he was just a finger pointing to the moon. The finger has not to be worshipped. Of course it has to be understood - and forgotten - so that you can LOOK at the moon. If you cling to the finger, who is going to look at the moon? If you become obsessed with the finger, who is going to look at the moon?

This is one calamity. It has happened so much that . man like J. Krishnamurti has moved to the other extreme He is constantly afraid of this calamity, naturally, because so many times it has happened that he is afraid it may happen again with him. So from the very beginning he says that there is no need for a Master, that there is no need to be a disciple. Now he is being misunderstood, because only the egoist becomes interested in him - only the egoist, who is incapable of surrender, who is incapable of trust, who is absolutely obsessed with his own ego. He finds Krishnamurti very appealing. He says, "This is the right man! You need not surrender, you need not trust, you need not follow. You are absolutely free. There is no question of dropping anything; you remain yourself."

Now he clings to his ego.

This is another calamity. And Krishnamurti has emphasized the point so much that people have started clinging to the idea of non-clinging. He has scared people.

If the disciplehood does not happen, then there is no question of killing the Master or going beyond the Master, because in the first place there has been no Master.

Krishnamurti's listeners will never be able to go beyond the Master because they have never gone THROUGH the Master. They will remain surrounded with their own ego walls; they will remain imprisoned in their ego.

And many Krishnamurti lovers have come to me, asking me, "What to do? - because we have been listening to him for years - nothing happens! We understand whatsoever he is saying is true, but then we are the same." Nothing is going to happen because happening is possible only if you are ready to go through this paradox. You are to begin with the Master but not to end with the Master.

The Master is like a ladder: you use it, then a moment comes when you have to drop the ladder; you don't cling to it.

The Master is like a boat. That's what Buddha has said: the Master is like a boat. You go from this shore to the other shore, but then you get out of the boat. You feel grateful to the boat, you may even thank the boat, but you need not carry the boat on your shoulders.

Buddha again and again has told the story of five fools who were carrying a boat on their shoulders, and Buddha saw them, and a crowd gathered. And Buddha asked, "What is the matter? Why are you carrying the boat?" And they were perspiring, and the boat was heavy and big.

They said, "This boat has helped us. We were on the other shore. If this boat was not available, the wild animals would have eaten us, but this boat saved us. Now how can we leave this boat? We have to carry it. It is our very life!"

Now this boat has become dangerous.

If they had listened to Krishnamurti they would not have entered in the boat itself. Then wild animals would have been very happy. They used the boat, that's perfectly good, but there is no need to carry the boat on your shoulders your whole life.

In the past, the first extreme has happened: the fingers pointing to the moon became objects of worship. Mohammedans, Christians, Hindus, Jainas, Buddhists - all have done the wrong thing.

Now statues are there and people are worshipping. Krishnamurti has moved to the other extreme.

MY approach is exactly in the middle. I teach you to surrender and THEN go beyond surrender.

When the ego is dropped, then you can be yourself, NOT before it. When you are no more you can be yourself. Remember, being yourself has nothing to do with the idea of self; being yourself is closer to no-self than to self. It is a state of nothingness, SHUNYATA. It is utterly empty of the ego.

Use the ladder, but don't carry it. Use the boat. When you have reached the other shore it is time to get out of it.

It is good, Sheela, that you say: WHO NEEDS GOD WHEN WE ARE BLESSED WITH THE BEAUTIFUL FEET OF A BEAUTIFUL MASTER TO SIT UNDER?

This is the beginning of devotion. But I have to go on reminding you that I am only a window, a door.

Be thankful, be grateful, but go beyond. My work is to help you to become part of the whole.

Just the other day I have received another letter from Somendra. He has understood. He has tremendous intelligence; hence I was hoping that sooner or later he will understand the point. And just the other day I was talking about him because I had received a letter a day before. this letter will be useful for you. Somendra writes:

Beloved Osho, I have been listening to your tapes these last days and find myself in a state of shock. I suppose that is what being with a Master is like. Everything seemed to be going so beautifully, and I felt so innocent and happy and of such help to others - and now this! All the stuffing knocked out of me - which shows only that it was there. I am grateful. After all, that is what you are there for: to show us what is there inside but hidden.

I can't afford to let you go again. It is obvious that only through you and your love can I really be free. So I try and open my heart to you and my ears too at this distance, and trust that you can find your way through this deeply hidden nonsense of mine.

Never have I knowingly acted out of a need for personal aggrandizement, though that may have been there. Only ignorance of the deeper and more unknown truths has led me astray, if I have wandered. Please forgive me for that, and this I know you can and will do.

Whatever the program is I am on, it is arranged ahead and already until next May. If it is at all worthwhile in your eyes, but it is of no real importance, just a jolly LEELA. I will come instantly at your bidding any time. Nothing, hopefully, will ever cause me again to leave you in my heart, though there is always the risk for someone like me of losing contact with his own heart. If you lead me back, beloved friend and Master, I will endeavor to follow again as best as a stumbling sannyasin can.

I love you with all my heart and will try to be more and more aware of the fear that keeps me from you and that oneness of love.

Namaste. And I touch your sweet feet.

Somendra.

He had gone astray, but he is back. And when he really comes physically back, give him a good welcome. Celebrate his coming!

Jesus talks about the prodigal son. A man had two sons. One was very faithful to the father, utterly devoted to the father. The other was a problem. He was always creating trouble. Finally the father decided - he was getting old - to divide the property and separate the two sons. The elder one remained with him and the younger one the moment he got the money, left the father, left the village, went to the big city, spent all the money in gambling, in drinking, with the prostitutes.

Within a few years all was lost; he became a beggar. He had come as a rich man and now he was begging. One day while he was begging, suddenly he was reminded, "Why can't I go back to my father? At least he can accept me as a servant. He has many servants, my brother has many servants. I am no more a worthy son - that I cannot claim, 'Accept me back as a son' - but I can go and beg, 'Accept me as a servant.' At least that will be far better than begging from strangers and getting insulted again and again, humiliated."

He sent a message, "I am coming home." He sent a message, "Accept me just as a servant. I am no more worthy to be accepted as a son."

The father was rejoiced. The moment he heard that he was coming that evening, he arranged for a big feast, a great celebration.

His elder son was in the fields, in the gardens working the whole day; he had not known what was happening at home. Somebody told him, "Look, this is unfair! You have been always obedient, always followed your father's footsteps, you have in every way helped the old man, but never has a celebration happened for you, no feast was given for you. And now that your brother is coming back - he has lost all the money in gambling, prostitution, drinking - that vagabond is coming back, and your father is arranging a feast. Sweets are being prepared; the whole village has been invited because the son is coming back, back home.

Of course, the elder brother was angry, enraged. He rushed home. He shouted for the first time at his father: "What is this? I have always been obedient with you, always serving you, always following you. I have never said no to you, and never was a feast given for me, never a celebration! You have not been fair! And for that no-good son of yours you are giving a feast? Do you know what he has been doing there?"

The father wept; tears came to his eyes. He said, "You don't understand. You have been with me.

I know your love, your trust, your surrender, and my love has always been showering on you. But he had gone astray. Now that he is coming back he needs to be received well so he can gain his dignity back, so he can again feel part of the family, so he can again feel the love, so he does not feel a stranger, so he does not feel that he has done anything wrong, so he does not feel guilty. To remove his guilt this feast is arranged. You don't have any guilt, hence no feast is needed. Every day is a feast for you! Every day I have showered my love.

"But if he is not received well, not welcome, he will feel that he is back home, but this is no more his home. He has sent the message 'Accept me only as a servant.' He has to be accepted as a son, not as a servant. And what does it matter that he had gone astray? What matters is that he is coming back!"

In India we have a proverb: A man who gets lost in the morning and comes back home by the evening is not called lost.

It is natural.

And the father said, "You know perfectly well that if a shepherd comes home with all his sheep and counts them and finds that they were a hundred and they are now only ninety-nine - one sheep is

lost somewhere in the jungle - he leaves all the sheep, goes back in the dark night, to search for the lost sheep. And when he finds the lost sheep he is rejoiced, and he brings the lost sheep back home on his shoulders because the one who had gone astray who had fallen into danger, is back.

It is almost a new birth."

So I say to you, when Somendra comes... I have given him the message "Finish all your programs that you have booked and then come back home." When he comes, receive him.

This can happen to anybody because this is how the mind functions, the ego functions. The ways of the ego are subtle.

The work of the Master is first to destroy your ego; and your unconscious will try to protect it. Once your ego is destroyed then the second step, the second phase of the work begins: to help you to stand on your feet. The second phase is not so difficult; the first phase is very difficult, because to drop the ego hurts very much. For millions of lives you have carried it; it has become almost your identity. That's how you know yourself. That is functioning as your being. It is not a real center, it is a false center, but it has become so powerful that the real is hidden behind the false.

You have forgotten your original face, and the Master has to pull your mask. It hurts, because it is no more a mask; it has become almost like skin. It is not just like clothes; it cannot be dropped so easily. Your skin has to be peeled. It hurts, it certainly hurts! And everybody will try to protect it in some way.

Hence Somendra's going astray is of immense value to all of you. This can happen to anybody - your ego functions in such ways.

The numbskull who has asked the last question yesterday, "Osho, do you get your own jokes?" - now this can happen to him. He seems to be very egoistic. The question simply shows aggressiveness, ego, nothing else. He is trying to show that he is very intelligent. He is not aware of what he is saying, what he is asking.

This can happen to anybody. Everybody is capable of going astray. And the first part of the work is to help you not to go astray, to bring you back home again and again. And once your ego is finished, then the second phase begins: to help you to stand on your own feet.

Krishnamurti's work will remain futile because the first phase he has completely dropped; he starts with the second phase. And then there are others who only work with the first phase and they never start the second. For example, Sri Aurobindo: he works only with the first phase. Then there is danger.

Krishnamurti is aware of that danger - in fact, too much, unnecessarily too much aware of that danger. The danger is there, but one has not to become focused on it. It has to be accepted and one has to pass through it. He starts with the second phase; now you cannot start with the second phase. If the boat has not been used you remain on the other shore; you cannot move. If the ladder is not used you cannot go on the higher plane. And he starts talking about the higher plane. The foundation is not laid and he starts creating the temple; the temple can never be made.

And there are people like Sri Aurobindo who make the foundation, but the foundation becomes the temple.

MY work is total; it is organic. I have to lay down the foundation and also to raise the temple.

Krishnamurti is reacting against the past fallacies. I know what has happened to Buddha, Mahavira, Krishna, Mohammed, and I know also what has happened to Krishnamurti. So I am working in a different way: I am trying to remain exactly in the middle, not going to any extreme. Hence I will be misunderstood by everybody; by people who start with the first and never go to the second phase I will be misunderstood because of my second phase, and I will be misunderstood by people who never do the first phase and start with the second.

Just a few days ago, Amrito went to see Krishnamurti and for one and half hours Krishnamurti went on hammering him: "Drop this idea of being a disciple, of being somebody with a Master - drop this idea. Drop sannyas. Be free!"

And Amrito listened lovingly, felt his compassion - he IS a man of great compassion, great love - but finally he said, "You ARE right, but I would like to fall out of this relationship not in a hurried way but like a leaf which is ripe and falls from the tree without making any noise, without any effort, like a leaf falling from the tree effortlessly. "

Krishnamurti wouldn't listen to it. He said, "Immediately you do it!"

And Amrito said, "That I cannot do immediately because still I am not ready. If I drop the Master right now I will remain in my ego. First let my ego disappear through the Master and then I know my Master is capable of helping me to fall like a leaf silently, even without a whisper."

And when this happens the miracle is complete, the journey is complete.

Sheela, it is good that you love to be with me. This is the first phase of the work. Right now, no need to bother about God - right now it is good. Be totally involved with me, be totally surrendered, and then the second work is to be done by me. Then I will start helping you to go beyond the door, to go into the beyond.

Surrender is only a way to freedom. It takes away only that which you have not got in the first place and it gives you that which you have already got, but have forgotten all about.

The second question

Question 2:

Yogeshwar Bharti,

YES YOU ARE RIGHT. The Indian mind is basically very possessive, very materialistic, although it pretends to be spiritual. That pretension is a cover-up. This is one of the strategies of the unconscious mind: if you feel inferior inside you try on the outside to be very superior. You have to hide your inferiority with pretentions, with superiority. If you feel poor inside you start accumulating money to show to the world and to show to yourself that you are not poor. "Look how much I have got!" Proving to the world that you are rich you are trying in an indirect way to prove to yourself that you are not poor; but deep down the poverty cannot be dispelled by all your riches. You can have the whole world, you can conquer the whole world, still you will remain a beggar. And this happens in many dimensions.

To India it has happened: for centuries the country has been pretending to be spiritual. It is not spiritual at all, that's why it is pretending to be spiritual. It is just the opposite of it.

If you look into the Indian scriptures, if you go back to the Vedas, you will be surprised: the Vedas are very materialistic. It is very rare to come across a statement in the Vedas which can be called spiritual. The RISHIS, the seers of the Vedas - the so-called seers - are asking for money, power, from God; asking for things, wordly things! Praying to God, "Give us more wealth, more health. Give us a long life. Give more milk to our cows. Give more crops to our fields, more fruit to our trees." And not only that: "Destroy our enemies. Destroy their crops. Destroy their cows, their horses. Don't rain on the fields of the enemies. Give us everything and don't give them anything."

And you call these scriptures spiritual? They are utterly materialistic! Not only the Vedas but all the puranas are very materialistic. Not only the so-called seers but the Indian idea of gods is very materialistic.

Indra is the suprememost god in heaven. And what does he go on doing? All that is condemned here: eating, drinking and merrying, that's all he goes on doing there. He has beautiful APSARAS - beautiful women - wine, delicious food. And he is very jealous, so much so that whenever somebody starts attaining heights of meditation he becomes afraid that he may become the next Indra. "He may take possession of my kingdom." And he sends his beautiful girls, his APSARAS, to tempt, to destroy this meditator. They allure him with all kinds of temptations.

Now what kind of god is Indra? Utterly materialistic! Utterly possessive, monopolistic!

And still India goes on pretending to be spiritual, and anybody can see the pretension. Deep down something else is hidden - a wound, but it is covered with flowers.

My own experience is - because I have come to know almost all kinds of people, from all over the world they have come to me - that the Indians are the most materialistic people in the world.

And they will remain materialist till they understand what they have been doing: they have become hypocrites.

"Today we will have a nice walk," said Seth Chandulal to his kids. "We will go down to the fair and watch people eat ice cream!"

"Hey, boss, I have been here twenty-five years and I have never asked for a raise before," said Popatlal to Chandulal.

"That's why you have been here twenty-five years!" replied Chandulal.

Chandulal took his dog to the veterinarian and asked him to cut his tail off completely.

"Why in the world would you want me to do that?" asked the vet.

"Well," Seth Chandulal said, "my mother-in-law is coming to visit us, and I don't want anything in the house to suggest that she is welcome!"

The Indian mind is materialist, the Indian culture is materialist. Yes, there have been a few people who rebelled against it - a Mahavira, a Buddha - just a few people. And because they rebelled, the Indian culture has not tolerated them. Buddhism was completely destroyed from India: it was against the Indian materialist mind.

Buddha has introduced a totally new vision of life - it WAS spiritual. But he was against the Vedas and he was against the whole idea of Hindu gods. And the Hindus of course said, "He is destroying our culture, our religion, our spirituality." In a way they were right - he was destroying - because what you think is culture, spirituality, religion, is not so, is not the case. It is only your hypocrisy; it is something false. And unless you see the false as the false you cannot know the real. And Buddha tried hard to make you understand that reality is just the opposite - opposite to your beliefs about yourself. Hence the Hindus have never been able to forgive him; they destroyed his whole heritage.

He was uprooted from India.

And you can see it in every way. Their whole idea of spirituality is repressive. When they come to this commune their eyes are focused on the women, and they throw the whole blame on me. They become angry because the commune reflects their faces, the commune becomes a mirror to them.

They become aware of what they are. And nobody wants to know one's nudity. They are enraged.

Seeing their real faces they become angry at the mirror; they want to destroy the mirror. They are against me because I am mirroring them.

When they come here they only look at the women, and of course their lust, their repressed lust, their repressed sexuality starts surfacing. And they become so afraid, they have to repress it again.

And they become angry at me because I was the cause. They think I caused what was happening inside them. I am simply reflecting what is already there.

They can't see my sannyasins in the true light, because it is impossible for a repressive person to see anything in true light. If they see one woman and man hugging each other they immediately feel, "This is sexuality!" They cannot see any tenderness; they cannot see any loving quality. If they were unrepressed they would be able to see the love that is overflowing here. They project their own ideas.

And this is not only so with the ordinary Indians, but the so-called Indian gurus are the same.

A prudent guru did not want to waste too much time in cultivating people who were without sufficient prestige and collateral. He was introduced, it is said, to an American widow who was reputed to be very wealthy. Having learned a thing or two about how things are done in the West, he asked an enquiry agency to check her out.

When he opened the report it said: "She has a million dollars in the bank, but will probably not have it for long, as it is reported that an Indian phony is trying to get his hands on it."

It is not surprising that all the so-called Indian gurus have reached America. Wherever money is you will find the Indian also. Muktananda, Satchitananda, Yogi Bhajan, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, are all in America for the simple reason that the money is there. And they go on talking against the money - that's the most beautiful thing about it! They are not authentic.

I am not against money at all. What I am against is hypocrisy. They TALK against money and they go on accumulating money.

Remember, to me there is no problem. I am not against materialism either. In fact, my whole effort is to create a synthesis between materialism and spiritualism. There is no need to divide them, because man is both body and soul. If man can be both body and soul, then religion should be both materialist and spiritual.

But the Indian cannot accept the materialist point of view; he is afraid of it. He is afraid if it is accepted, then all his repressed lust, greed, is bound to surface. And he goes on finding cunning ways to avoid seeing his true face.

An Indian guru ran into a buxom blonde he had met casually at a bar a few nights before.

"Great seeing you again," he said, "It just happens there is a groovy party happening tonight and I would like you to come. I won't take no for an answer.

"Where is it at?" asked the pretty doll.

"At my ashram, baby, and it is gonna be a gas. Lots of music, dancing and love. And it could last all weekend."

"Sounds good," said the girl eagerly. "Who is gonna be there?"

"Ah," said the guru, "just you and me!"

If you watch, if you observe what the Indian gurus are doing in the West, you will be surprised.

And they go on talking about spirituality, and the gullible are always there. And the West is more innocent because the West is honestly materialist. To be honestly materialist has an integrity in it, an innocence. The East is dishonestly materialist.

Yogeshwar, you say: I AM TOO POSSESSIVE IN NATURE.

That is part of being an Indian. Unless you drop the whole nonsense called "Indian" you will not be able to be free of your possessiveness.

Jainas talk about spirituality, renunciation, but if you look in their scriptures you will be surprised.

They praise Mahavira because he renounced big marble palaces, a great kingdom, immeasurable wealth, a great army, etcetera, etcetera. And they go on magnifying it, making it bigger and bigger.

As time has passed, their idea of Mahavira's kingdom has become very very huge.

In fact, he was the son of a king of a very small kingdom - very small - because in his time India was divided into two thousand kingdoms. It was not bigger than a district; it was a very small kingdom.

It can't have had so many thousands of elephants in the army; it can't have had that big an army either. It was a very poor kingdom. If Mahavira had not been born nobody would have ever heard of it; no mention would have ever been made about it. Nobody would have ever known Mahavira's father's name. It was so small.

But how do you measure renunciation? - through wealth. If a poor man renounces, nobody respects him because they will ask, "What you have renounced? In the first place you have to have, then you can renounce."

That's why all the twenty-four TEERTHANKARAS, all the twenty-four great Masters of the Jainas, are sons of kings. Not a single person comes from a poor family. What does it show? It shows pure materialism, nothing else!

All the AVATARAS of the Hindus are sons of kings - as if the whole country is dead! Not a single AVATARA, not a single incarnation of God in a poor family or even in a middle class family! No TEERTHANKARA, no enlightened Jaina Master, from an ordinary family; they all come from royal families.

You can see the point. The point is that the respect is for money. Even in renunciation, the respect is for money. If you have money, then you are respected. Your renunciation will also be respected. If you don't have money you can be as great a meditator as Mahavira, nobody is going to respect you.

They will ask, "How much have you renounced?" And if you cannot show them a big bank balance that you have renounced you are not of any worth.

Yogeshwar, drop this idea of being an Indian.

You ask me: "HOW TO GET AWAY FROM THIS INDIAN MALE CHAUVINISTIC MIND?

Just by understanding it one gets away, one gets beyond. We are taught to cling to such ideas - Indians, Russians, Americans, Hindus, Christians, Mohammedans - we have been taught to cling to these ideas.

I am teaching you just to be human beings. The whole earth is one and people everywhere are the same. They differ only in superficial things - in non-essential things, in the language of the DESIDERATA. As far as the essential is concerned they are not different at all. Maybe their color is different, maybe the color of their hair is different, their skin is different, their height is different, but these are non-essential things.

The human being is essentially the same everywhere, so why carry these ideas of being Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian? Drop all these ideas. Just being religious is enough, just being human is enough. Just being is enough - loving, meditative, alert, aware. And all these poisons will disappear of their own accord.

Go deeper into meditation, because all these things are part of the mind, and meditation means going into no-mind. Just become aware of your mind, whatsoever it is - Indian male chauvinistic

or Russian communistic or Catholic or Protestant. Just become aware. Awareness is neither communist nor socialist nor fascist nor capitalist. Awareness is just awareness. Whatsoever is in the mind, leave it there as an object and be aware. And you shift your identity from the content to the consciousness.

Remember that "I am only awareness," that "I am not my mind." The more this penetrates in you, this vision that "I am not my mind, I am pure awareness, SATCHITANANDA. I am truth, I am consciousness, I am bliss. I am not the contents of the mind..." Contents have been put in by others; contents mean conditionings.

As you become aware you become unconditioned; there is no other way. Awareness is the master key: it opens all the DOORS of the divine. It opens the doors of all the temples of all the mysteries.

Yogeshwar, be more alert, aware, watchful. I teach nothing else but awareness; then everything else comes of its own accord.

The third question

Question 3:

Sampatti,

THERE is NOTHING much to say about it!

The vicar is called in to tell the children not to do it.

The doctor is called in to tell them why not to do it.

Finally, the headmaster comes in and tells them where not to do it.

This is the whole of English sex education!

The fourth question

Question 4:

Prem Nanda,

IT is NICE of you to accept that you are a Polack! This is the beginning of getting out of being a Polack. Polacks hide it. There are many hidden Polacks here, they are everywhere. If you ask a

Polack, "Who are you?" he will say, "Why are you asking? Who are you to ask me? I am not a Polack!"

It is good that you accept. The moment a person accepts that "I am ignorant," he has taken the first step towards knowing, towards wisdom. Only the stupid person claims knowledge; the intelligent person never claims knowledge. The intelligent person has no claim about anything. All that he can say is, "I know only one thing, that I know nothing." He is as innocent as a child.

Nothing is wrong with you, Nanda. If there was something wrong with you there would be questions.

Questions arise out of something wrong. When one has innocence there are no questions.

Innocence wonders, it does not question. It experiences the awe of existence and life, the beauty. It is constantly wondering what it is all about, but it is not a question. It is a heartfelt feeling. One Is surprised every moment. One is always in for a great surprise.

A Hassid Master was dying. He was a very extraordinary human being, of great innocence and joy. He loved to laugh and dance and sing; that's the way of the Hassids. Jews don't think well of them; they think they are untraditional, in fact anti-traditional, but that's how real spiritual beings have always been treated by the so-called religious, by the formally religious. The real religious person is always condemned. This Master was also condemned by them. And his ways were always new; he was unconventional, unorthodox.

So when he was going to die. his disciples asked, "What are we going to do with your body? - because you have lived such an unconventional life we don't know whether to bury or burn you.

What we are supposed to do?"

And the dying Master opened his eyes, laughed his last laughter, and said, "Surprise me!" closed his eyes and died!

This is the way of the innocent: "Surprise me!" Even in death there is innocence, laughter. Even in death there is no complaint. He is waiting to be surprised. Whether you burn him or bury him, decide yourself, but make it a surprise. Don't ask it, don't follow any given instructions, because then it will not be a surprise at all. "If I say bury me or burn me, then I will already know about it."

That's how ready-made answers accumulate: you know about everything and that destroys the beauty of life; that destroys the blessing of life, the bliss of life. Your knowledge goes on covering you, covers on covers, layers upon layers. You become a junkyard! YOU are carrying such unnecessary weights. Otherwise you can fly, you can be weightless.

Nanda, you ask: I DON'T SEEM TO HAVE ANY REAL QUESTIONS.

That is a great insight! There are NO real questions in existence. All questions are false, unreal, non-essential, because life is not a problem to be solved; it is a mystery to be lived. Only the fools go on questioning and go on thinking that some answers will help them. No answer is going to help you; every answer will create more questions.

You can see the whole history of philosophy: every answer has brought thousands of unnecessary questions. It has not been an answer, it has been a problem - EVERY answer. Not a single answer

has come out of five thousand years of philosophizing. Philosophy is not much philosophy - it is "foolosophy." It is the domain of the fools! Fools are great philosophers because they go on and on.

They find out a question, then an answer, then the answer brings ten questions, then they go on and on; And the foliage becomes thicker and thicker. The foolishness becomes deeper and deeper.

It is good that you cannot find any real questions.

Buddha is reported to have said that a meditator loses all his questions. A moment comes when there are no questions left, and that is the moment when you attain to wisdom - not to answers but to wisdom. Wisdom is not an answer; it is the unfolding of your consciousness. Not that you come to know something, but you start experiencing life in its totality. It is not an answer, it is an experience, and the experience goes on unfolding. So it is not experience, it is more experiencing.

It is a process, not an event.

Nanda, nothing is wrong with you - something is RIGHT with you. That's why there are no questions arising. Don't be worried, because it happens: when you don't feel any questions and so many people are asking so many questions, you start worrying about it: "What is the matter with me?

People are bringing so many questions!" You don t know how many questions I go on throwing out every day - hundreds of questions!

Mind is a question-creating factory. Just as leaves come out of trees, questions come out of the mind. You must be entering, Nanda, into the world of meditation. Then there are no questions.

A great philosopher - or "foolosopher" - went to see Buddha, and he asked a long series of questions. Buddha listened, and he went on and on, questions and questions and questions. Finally Buddha had to say, "Wait!" The man stopped. Buddha said, "Wait for two years, sit by my side, and for two years no question, no answer. Just sit by my side and be silent, and after two years you can ask any question you want and I am ready to answer."

The man said, "This is strange, because I have gone to many religious philosophers, theologians, thinkers, and whenever I asked questions they always answered. This is no way of answering!"

Buddha said, "Yes. you have been to many philosophers and they have answered, but HAVE YOU GOT THE ANSWERS?"

He said, "That is true. Their answers have simply created more questions."

So Buddha said, "What do you want? You want more questions? Then I can answer. But if you are REALLY interested in getting beyond the questions, then do this strange act which you have never done: sitting silently doing nothing. Just wait for two years."

The man thought for a moment and agreed, because the point was so clear. He was old, sixty years old, and he had been to many Masters - so-called Masters, of course, because if he had been to a real Master then there was no need to go anywhere else. A real Master is a full stop. And that's what Buddha became to him - a full stop. He agreed.

The moment he said, "Yes, I will wait for two years and remain silent, but don't forget your promise,"

Mahakashyapa, a disciple of Buddha who was sitting under another tree, started laughing.

The man said - his name was Maulingaputta - he said, "Why is this disciple laughing?"

Buddha said, "You can ask him yourself. Ask and be finished, because after that for two years you have to be silent! "

So he asked Mahakashyapa, "Why are you laughing?"

He said, "I am not laughing at you, I am laughing at myself, because this is what has happened to me.

This man is tricky! He had told me to sit silently for two years, and twenty years have passed! And I don't have any questions, and he goes on again and again... whenever he passes by me he says, 'Mahakashyapa, ask! Where are your questions?' And I cannot ask because there are no questions left! He tricked me into silence! I am enjoying life, I am enjoying existence, I am enjoying my being, but there are no questions. Mysteries, of course, but no questions, no problems. So I cannot ask anything. and he goes on poking me. Whenever I come across him he says, 'Mahakashyapa, have you forgotten? I am ready to answer now, but you don't ask!'

"So I would suggest to you," he said to Maulingaputta, "that if you really want to ask, ask now. Be finished with it! Otherwise, after two years it will be too late!"

Buddha said, "I will stick to my promise. If you ask me, I will answer."

And two years passed, and really Buddha remembered. Exactly on the same day after two years, from ten thousand sannyasins, he called Maulingaputta, "Where he is?" He was hiding because he knew two years had passed, so he was hiding somewhere in the crowd. He said, "Maulingaputta, come out! Ask your questions. Where are your questions? "

And he said, "Mahakashyapa was right. They have all disappeared, Bhagwan, I don't have any questions to ask. And please, don't ask me again to ask questions, because that will be very embarrassing. You will be asking me and I will not ask anything, because I don't have any questions.

They have simply withered away."

That's what happens when you enter into the world of meditation.

Nanda, it is nothing to do with your being a Polack! You have become innocent, you have become like a child. And becoming a child, becoming reborn, becoming innocent is the greatest achievement there is, the highest peak of spirituality. When you are utterly innocent your vision becomes so clear, your insight is so perfect that you can see. There are no barriers, hence no questions arise.

The blind man asks whether the light exists or not, and he can be forgiven because he is blind. The man with eyes never asks whether light exists or not. Have you heard of any man with eyes asking whether light exists or not? And if somebody with eyes asks that, that will only show that he is mad.

Eyes are enough - one knows light exists.

Whenever a man asks whether God exists or not he is simply showing his blindness. He is showing that his inner eyes are not functioning, that his insight is clouded. When somebody asks, "What is love?" what does he show? What does it indicate? It simply indicates his heart is closed; his heart is not open like a lotus. He has forgotten all about his heart; he has bypassed his heart. He lives in

the head; he has made his house in the head. And slowly slowly, logic is all that he knows, hence he asks, "What is love?" A man of heart will not ask, "What is love?" He will know.

When you ask you simply show that you need clarity - not an answer but a clarity. And what am I doing here, in fact? I am not trying to answer your questions; I am trying to destroy your questions!

These are not answers. I am hammering! I am destroying your questions, your heads! My whole effort is to free the energy from your head - it is imprisoned there - and to allow it to move into the heart, and then into the being which is your real center. The heart is mid-way between the head and the being. Thinking is head; it creates questions and never gives you any answer. It is the world of philosophy - the world of the fools. Below it is the world of feeling, heart; it is the world of the poets.

Have you observed the fact that philosophers ask, poets answer? Every poetry is an answer, no poetry is a question. No poetry has a question mark on it; it is an answer. The heart answers! Hence it is far better to come into the world of feeling; that is wiser, but still you are a little far away from absolutely clear insight, because when the insight is clear there is not even an answer, what to say about a question? Not even an answer!

The philosopher questions, the poet answers, and the mystic is neither interested in questioning nor interested in answering. If you come to a mystic Master, his whole work is to destroy your questions, your answers, everything that you are carrying along with you, to make you utterly empty. That is the moment when insight starts functioning; you become innocent.

I have heard:

Morarji Desai, when he was the prime minister of India, was traveling in a plane with his cabinet. "If I throw out a hundred-rupee note," he said, "I will make one person very happy."

One of the members of his cabinet added, "But if you throw out two fifty-rupee notes you will make two people happy."

Another said, "Well, you could make ten people happy by throwing out ten ten-rupee notes."

And the wisest of them all said, "Why not throw one rupee notes? You will be making one hundred people happy?"

At this point a little child who was sitting in the seat next to them said, "Why don't you make seven hundred million people happy by throwing yourself out of the window?"

This is clear insight! Only a child can have it. Only a child can say it.

Nanda, you are coming close to the second birth. The first birth is given by the mother and the father; that is a physical phenomenon. The second birth happens through the Master; that is a spiritual phenomenon. YOU are coming close to the second birth. And once you are twice-born, once you are a dwija - twice-born - you will not have any questions, you will not have any answers, and you will not be worried about why you are not having real questions. You will be immensely rejoiced that you are free from questions and free from answers. Then you enter into the real, the essential, the very core of things. Then you enter into the depth, the profound depth of that which is.

God is a code word for "that which is." God is not a word, it is a code word, It does not mean anything unless you know the code. G stands for "that," O stands for "which," and D stands for "is": that which is. God is not a person but all that surrounds you, within and without. When your insight is clear, when all the clouds are gone and the sun is uncloudedly in the sky, who bothers about questions and answers? Who is concerned with words and theories, ideologies, philosophies, theologies?

They all disappear.

In that silence is the truth. That silence is the shrine of the truth. Enter into it. Take the jump into it.

That is the essential thing. If you miss it you miss your whole life and the great opportunity that life has given to you. If you reach this essential core you are blessed, you have arrived home.