Love is The Introduction to The Book of Bliss

Deva means divine, dharia means patience - divine patience. God is not available to those who are in a hurry. God is not instant, and the more you are in a hurry, the less is the possibility. Patience is a very basic requirement... infinite patience. Only when you are in a deep state of patience are you silent; otherwise the mind is tense. When there is hurry, there is tension. Then the mind is constantly longing, and because it is not happening the mind feels frustration.

For those who are not patient, frustration is their lot. One can choose between frustration and patience. In frustration you become a hell; in patience heaven descends in you. In fact nothing else needs to be done. If one can silently wait everything happens in its own right time. We cannot make it happen sooner, but if we are in a hurry we can delay it, certainly. So all that man can do is to delay.

It is not a question of our doing; our doing is our UNdoing.

It is a question of being. And that is the meaning of patience: one simply is, waiting, waiting, waiting.

And then one day suddenly a door opens, and all the darkness disappears. It happens naturally - it is not produced by your effort. It is a grace, a gift. It flows out of god's love.

Deva means divine, veeresha means courage - divine courage. And the greatest courage in life is to accept oneself as one is. And I say that this is the greatest courage in life; very few people are so courageous. Hence the hankering to improve upon oneself: to be this, to be that, to have this, to have that. Either a person becomes interested in having more and more - that is one way of desire, and it leads into more and more frustration - or one becomes interested in being more and more, not having but being more and more; that too lands one in frustration.

The first way is of the worldly and the second is of the religious. But as far as their deep desiring is concerned, it is the same. Both are unsatisfied as they are, both are incapable of accepting themselves as they are; they want to deny it. Somebody wants to deny it by having more money or more power, more fame; somebody else tries to deny it by having more spiritual experiences, psychic experiences. But the basic thing is the same: both are trapped in becoming. And once you are trapped in becoming you forget who you are. Then the becoming creates too much noise in you.

It creates much smoke and in fact only smoke, because it has no fire in it.

The real fire is in being, and being is smokeless fire. Becoming is just smoke and no fire. Becoming is a shadow existence; it is not true. It is creating an illusion around yourself - without or within - but it is the same illusion.

The real man of courage simply drops becoming. He starts living this moment as he is, his acceptance is total. He has no complaint. He does not ask for more. He is thankful for whatsoever has been given to him; he is in tremendous gratitude. The person who is running after becoming is always ungrateful because he thinks something is missing, god has been cheating him, god has not been good to him, existence has been unjust to him. How can he be grateful?

The man who has no more desires to become anything, anybody, but is simply celebrating the way he is, the one he is, his every breath becomes gratitude, his every heartbeat is a prayer. His whole being is a celebration. And not only does he become a celebration, he also creates a climate of celebration around himself. It starts gathering of its own accord. He triggers thousands of people's capacities for celebration. And that's how a religious person should be.

Religion has nothing to do with Christianity, Hinduism - no, nothing at all. Religion is a tremendous upsurge of energy because the energy is released from becoming; it is no more engaged anywhere.

When the energy is unoccupied it becomes a dance in the moment, herenow. It becomes a song; it is hallelujah! That I call the greatest courage in life.

And initiating you into sannyas, I have that hope for you. Anything to say to me?

Deva means divine, dwarika means door - divine door. Man can live either closed to god or open.

Ordinarily people remain closed, hence their life has no joy, because joy happens only when you are in tune with god. And by'god' I mean the whole, the total - all the stars and all the planets and all the rivers and all the trees and all the mountains. This sum total is god. God is just a name for this wholeness.

Whenever one is in tune with the whole, joy arises. Joy is a by-product of being in tune with the whole. Whenever one is not in tune, misery arises. Misery is an indication that you have to tune yourself again with the whole. Misery is not bad; it is a signal. It is very significant. If it was not there nobody would ever be able to know that he has fallen away from god. It is not a punishment as people think.

God cannot punish - god is not a person. And god cannot punish because god is love. How can the whole punish the part? It would be stupid. It would be like a small child who slaps his own face because he has done something wrong, or who beats his own hand. God is not a stupid child: he cannot punish his own parts. Misery is not a punishment. You have fallen away from the whole; it is an invitation to come back home, to get in tune again.

And when one is closed, one is out of tune. One has to open to god just as one is open to air.

Constant air comes in, goes out, keeps you alive, keeps you vibrant, keeps your blood circulating, keeps your blood pure. One has to be open to god continuously, twenty-four hours a day - waking, sleeping. Just as air is needed for the body and the body's life, god is needed for your soul. If there is no air available you will feel suffocated. And you cannot stay alive for more than a few minutes without air. That's why millions of people live without souls. They have never allowed god to come in and go out and cleanse their souls and keep them alive.

A man has to be a door, constantly open, so that the air can come in, the sunshine and the rains, the sounds of the birds... so that one can go on absorbing all that existence showers on one. Then life is really life, otherwise people are just living at the minimum. Their life is only a so-called life, at the most. All that can be said about them is that they are not dead, that they are still breathing, that's all. But they have not known peaks of being and they have not known depths of love. Their hearts have not ever been in tune with the purity, the poetry of existence. They have lived in dark cells. Their lives have been just a slow kind of death.

Come out of it! People are carrying their graves around themselves: Come out of the grave! Just as Christ called Lazarus out of the grave 'Come out, Lazarus!' I am calling you and each of my sannyasins 'Come out of your graves. Life is tremendously beautiful, and it is all yours just for the asking.'

But one has to become a door, an opening.

[A question about continuing TM] You can continue TM; it will not harm you at all. And it suits a few people perfectly well, so you need not stop it. Continue it in the morning, and in the evening if you can find time then you can do one dynamic meditation. Which one of the active meditations do you like most?

[Kundalini, Nadabrahma.] Nadabrahma will do, but TM you can continue. It will disappear on its own one day, and when it disappears, just for twenty minutes sit silently, no mantra. When it disappears on its own - when you don't feel any need, when you feel both are exactly the same, whether you do something or you just sit silently, when both give you the same feeling - then forget the mantra.

The mantra has not to become a habit, that's all. And it will disappear. Your energy will be able to discard it soon.

Anand means bliss, para means of the beyond, transcendental. There is a bliss which comes from the beyond. We cannot do anything to create it but we can be available to it; we can allow it to happen. We cannot bring it but we can hinder it. It always come - each moment it goes on coming - but we exist in such a way that we go on missing it. It comes in the present and we are never in the present. It knows only one time, and that is this moment. We know the past and we know the future, but we are completely oblivious of the present. Hence the meeting never happens.

It cannot be in the future, it cannot be in the past, because the past exists no more and the future is not yet. Our mind is in the past and in the future; it is a ghost. Hence all the traditions of meditation work, focus, only on one thing: how to drop the mind. Once the mind Is gone, the past and the future are gone. Then suddenly you are here and you are now, and the meeting happens. Then one is simply surprised that the miracle was so close and the key was so simple.'We were searching so hard, and we were missing because we were searching; we were not getting it because we had become seekers.'

It cannot be found by seeking because it is already there, it is already the case. All that is needed is to be available to it, to be open to it, to be vulnerable to it, to be in a receptive mood.

Anand means bliss, param means ultimate. Our joys are momentary - they come and they go. They are toys, they keep us occupied, but nothing is really gained through them. They are like beautiful dreams, and when they leave us, they leave us in tremendous darkness; all beautiful dreams turn into nightmares.

But there is a totally different kind of bliss which is ultimate. Once you have contacted it, it never leaves you. It cannot leave because it has no reference to time. It is beyond time, it is timeless.

And it is not something that happens to you, it is not accidental. It is your very essence. Once understood, it is forever - call it'god' or'nirvana' or what you will; those are just names for the same thing. But the best name is'ultimate bliss' because it need not be supported by any theology, any church, any philosophy.

The search for bliss is so natural. It is not only confined to human beings. Trees are groping for it in their own way, birds are searching for it in their own way, and the rivers and the mountains and the stars - all are moving, groping. Deep down there is only one search: how to be blissful, and how to be so blissful that nothing else remains; how to be full of it, overflowing, and how to attain to such a bliss that never leaves you.

The atheist agrees with it, the theist agrees with it, the Hindu agrees, the Christian agrees. So the real religion is a search for bliss. Those who only know the body and who don't know who resides in it will miss the whole point of life. The god that resides in it is the god of love. The body is beautiful, but one has to search for the god that lives in it.

So don't become too occupied with the container only; search for the content. The body is just the envelope; the letter and the message are inside it. But there are many people who go on worshipping the envelope and never read the letter.

Your name is just a hint to you: love the body but search deep into it and ask the question 'Who am l?' And when the real existential answer comes, it is: I am love. You are not to answer it. You have only to question; the answer will come of its own accord.

And remember that the momentary joys that come and go are good to play with - nothing is wrong in them, I am not against them - but one has to be mindful that they are not all that is available to us, not all that we have to claim.

And find a few moments when you are neither interested nor occupied with the toys of life. You are simply unoccupied, in a kind of emptiness. In those moments of emptiness you will have the first taste of ultimate joy, ultimate bliss.

Orange is the colour of sunrise. It is the beginning of the morning, a declaration that the night is over, a declaration that now there is no need to live in darkness; you can live in light, and the light is yours. All that is needed is to open your eyes and see. The world is tremendously beautiful and full of light. But people live with closed eyes, with closed hearts... hiding behind walls and walls and walls. Then they go on crying and weeping and saying 'Why is there so much darkness?' but they don't open their eyes.

Sannyas means to live your life with open eyes, with open heart, with open being, and the sunrise is always there.

[A question about falling in and out of love] Then one has to suffer! We suffer because we never listen to life and we try to impose ourselves upon life. Life has no obligation to fulfil our expectations. Then suffering arises. One has to learn.

When you are in love with a person, remember it: enjoy it while it lasts, but it cannot last forever, nothing lasts forever. That's how life is, but we start hoping that it will last forever; then we are creating misery. Sooner or later we will be in a dark valley, but it is not life's fault, it is our fault. Then we suffer much, and again we will do the same thing.

Soon you will be out of it. How long can one remain in darkness? I have seen you in darkness many times, and you come out of it. So I know you will come out of it again, and you also know! But you will do it again - that's the problem. You will fall in love with somebody else again. Right now you think you cannot fall in love with anybody, but that you have told me before too.

You will fall in love again because you will still be alive. How long can one linger in darkness? And there is no need to. If something is finished, something is finished; it is better to get out of it as soon as possible. Don't allow it to linger because these lingering sadnesses leave scars in the soul.

There is no need, no point.

All are strangers here. We meet somebody on the road and it feels good and for a few days we walk together. Then the ways part and we have to say goodbye. Even though it is with heavy hearts, we have to say goodbye, and we have to find somebody else to walk with... till we become capable of walking alone. And this is how slowly slowly one becomes capable of walking alone: again and again this happens and one understands that to be alone seems to be the ultimate fact. You can deceive for a few days, a few months, or a few years or even a few lives, but it will assert itself. The truth will surface again and you will have to see that you are alone.

I am not against love and I am not against friendships. All that I am saying is: one has to be very alert; don't take it for granted that it will remain forever. Nothing remains forever. Everything is a flux, so while it is there, enjoy, and when it is gone, forget and forgive. Be available for a new adventure.

And one day the ultimate adventure happens when one starts walking alone. Then these miseries don't come.

But till one is capable of that, one has to pass through many experiences, and all those experiences are a must. They make you mature. And don't think 'Why does this happen to me?' You always think 'Why does this happen?' This happens to everybody! In fact, to be in love in my ashram for fifteen months together with one person is simply a miracle! I have not seen it before and I am not thinking that I will see it again! Fifteen months?! Life moves so fast here. People used to do so many things in fifteen lives. So don't think 'Why does this happen to me?' That makes you more miserable - you think god is especially against you. It happens to everybody; it is not personal, it is universal.

In other places, in conventional ways too it happens, but then people go on pretending; they don't say the fact. That is more ugly: love dies and still people go on clinging and pretending. That is far more ugly. Both know that now nothing is there, but out of security, finance, this and that - and there are a thousand and one things which have to be considered.... For those considerations people go on clinging - prestige, society, what people will say. My people are becoming more true, so when they see that it is no more there, they simply say 'It is no more there so it is better that we should part.'

This is far more compassionate, because they are not deceiving each other and they are making the other free again. Otherwise, in that deception you will not be free and you will not be able to find another friend again. You will be carrying a corpse. And it will stink! Remember: love is very very fragrant when it is alive, and when it dies, then just the other extreme happens: it stinks, as bad as anything can. It is really foul! It moves from one extreme to the other extreme.

It is good to be honest, and you have to understand it, because love is a contract between two people. Love needs two people to agree; divorce needs only one person to disagree. So if one person is not agreeing any more, then there is no need to waste your time.

Just get out of it. If you are thinking to go to the West for a few weeks, go, mm? - it will help you to get out. If you can get out here, get out here, but if you feel like going you can go and then come back.