Let There Be Prayer

The first question:

Question 1:

THE WORD, THE VERBAL, has nothing to do with transferring anything to you.

The verbal is just a toy, so you can play with it. When you are absorbed with the words, I have - an opportunity to do something to your being - otherwise you won't allow me.

So whatsoever I am saying is just to keep you engaged. Once your mind is engaged with the words, you are available to me, your heart is available to me.

When the mind is not engaged, the mind functions like a barrier, the heart becomes unavailable.

So the real work is not through the words - the real work is through the presence. If you stop thinking and you can put aside your mind, then there is no need for me to talk at all, then silence will do - because that which is going to happen is going to happen through silence. It is going to happen not through any verbal communication, it is going to happen on a deeper level than words can reach, on a deeper level of your being where mind has nothing to say.

The mind is only the surface, the circumference of your being. It is not your centre. But the circumference has become too strong. It surrounds you like a hard crust, it has become your prison. You need something so intriguing, so interesting, that your mind gets totally absorbed into it.

And sometimes I will be shattering - I have to be. Sometimes I have to be merciless, because that is the only way to help you, that is the only way to destroy you, annihilate you, and give you an opportunity to be reborn. As you are you have to disappear. As you are you have to die, only then can the new arise out of you. The ego has to disappear for your real being to be. The mind has to cease for God to be. The known has to be dropped for the unknown to be welcomed.

Sometimes I am persuasive. Sometimes I am shattering. Sometimes through affection and love I try to seduce you to drop the mind. Sometimes I hammer hard on it. I change like the climate around the year. And you have to be with me in all the climates - only then will you be able to know me. And you have to be with me in all of my forms - only then will you be able to see the formless.

If you allow me easily, then the operation is very easy. If you don't allow me easily, if you struggle, resist, don't cooperate, you create conflict, then too the operation is going to be done - once I have accepted you as my disciples, now it is my responsibility that you should be transformed - then the operation will be hard. But the hardness will come because of your resistance, remember it.

I have to be shattering sometimes only because you resist too much.

Let me tell you one anecdote:

Joe Levy went to a leading mountain resort for a week's vacation. That night when he ordered dinner the waiter told him that he highly recommended the chicken soup. Joe replied, "I hate soup. I never eat soup. I couldn't care less." He ate his dinner, played cards, and retired to his room early and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, the man in the room below his took sick suddenly and the house doctor recommended that they get a nurse and give an enema. The nurse arrived and in error entered Joe Levy's room, and before he even realised what was happening to him, gave him the enema and left.

When he got back to New York, his friends asked him how he had liked the hotel. He said, "It was very nice, but if you ever go there and the waiter suggests that you eat soup, eat it, otherwise they shove it into you anyway."

So please cooperate with me...!

The second question:

Question 2:

I HAVE TO TELL JOKES TO YOU, otherwise you will fall asleep. A joke shocks you back into awareness. It is a small electric shock. That's the beauty of a joke, and that's the secret of a joke. It is impossible even for the dullest mind to remain unalert when a joke is being told. Even the dullest, the most stupid, will become interested - even one who is snoring will come out of his snoring and will start listening to what is going on.

That's the beauty of a joke. A joke is something that brings in you a subtle awareness. The awareness comes because you have to listen to the joke very alertly, otherwise you will miss the punchline. If you miss a single word in a joke, it is lost. A joke is a very small thing - a few lines. You cannot afford to be unaware. If you miss one line, you will not be able to catch hold of it.

And a joke takes a sudden turn - that is its secret - a very unexpected turn. A joke is not logical, that's why I love jokes - they are illogical. Still, they have a logic of their own. A joke is illogical and yet logical - very paradoxical. A joke takes such an illogical turn that you had never expected. If you can expect, then that much pleasure will be lost.

If a joke is a simple syllogism, an Aristotelian syllogism, that you can simply go on and you can feel what conclusion is coming, and you can conclude because the premises are given already; if you can conclude logically, as if two plus two is four, this cannot be a joke - because two plus two is four. When somebody is saying 'two plus two' you have already known the conclusion: it is going to be four. If a joke is absolutely logical and the conclusion is not absurd, then it is not a joke, it will not shock you into awareness.

The joke takes a very unexpected turn. And yet, when you have listened to the punchline, you suddenly realise that there is a logic in it - not Aristotelian, non- Aristotelian. When you have heard the punchline, then you suddenly recognize, yes, everything becomes clear. If a joke is absolutely absurd, then too it will be meaningless, because then the conclusion will not be in continuity with the whole story; then there will be discontinuity and you will not be able to know how to connect them.

The joke has not to be absolutely logical, the joke has not to be absolutely illogical - it has to be somewhere in the middle, very ambiguous, vague, surrounded by mist. You cannot figure out where it is going, and that's why it becomes intriguing. And it takes the turn so suddenly that in a single line it is there in its totality.

Let me tell you one joke:

A Jewish synagogue was collecting money for a new building for the synagogue - the old one was rotten and was falling apart. They were doing everything that can be done to collect more money.

They had sold lottery tickets and then the lottery was opened, and the president of the community declared the third prize: it was a beautiful TV set, and the man who got it was very happy. Then he declared the second prize - of course, the man whose name was declared was hoping for something like a Cadillac, Impala, Mercedes, something like that. But when he came the president gave him a small box. He immediately opened it - mm? - he was puzzled as to what was there in the box. And there was nothing much: chocolates, cookies. He said, "What is this? You must have forgotten, you must have misplaced something.

For the third prize you have given a TV set - and second prize, just cookies? This is nonsense!"

The president said, "You don't understand it: the rabbi's wife herself has prepared it for you."

The man was annoyed. He said, "Screw the rabbi's wife!"

The president said, "That's the first prize."

Now this is a joke! You cannot expect, it is impossible, but once it is there then everything becomes clear. The conclusion makes the whole story clear. But if the conclusion has not been given to you, you will not be able to come to it logically.

Logic proceeds in steps, from the beginning to the end. A joke spreads backwards, from the end to the beginning - that is the beauty of it. And it brings laughter, because when the story is going on you become tense - mm? - you want the conclusion immediately. You become very curious about it, what is going to happen. You start throbbing with energy. You become alert, more alert, more alive - and the energy is there; you cannot release it. It becomes a crescendo. Then comes the shattering punchline and the whole energy spreads all over your being. That's what laughter is.

And I have to tell jokes, because the things that I am saying are so subtle, so deep and profound, that if I simply go on telling you those things, you will fall asleep and you will not be able to listen or to understand. You will remain almost deaf.

The profounder the truth I have to tell you, the worst joke I choose for it. The highest the truth I am trying to relate, then the lowest I have to go in search for a joke. That's why even dirty jokes... I don't bother. Even a dirty joke can be helpful - more so because it can shock you to the very roots, to the very guts. And that's the whole point! It helps you to come again and again to your alertness. When I see you are alert, I again go relating that which I would like to relate to you.

When I see again you are slipping into your sleep, I have to bring in a joke again.

If you really listen with alertness, there will be no need - I can say the truth directly. But it is difficult. You start yawning... and it is better to laugh than to yawn.

The third question:

Question 3:

CALL ME ONLY WHEN IT IS ABSOLUTELY NEEDED, when you find that now nothing can be done. First try to do all that you can do. And out of a hundred cases, ninety-nine you will not need to call me. And if you have not called me for ninety-nine cases, you have earned for the hundredth case - you can expect me in every possible way. But don't make it an everyday thing.

Let me tell you one anecdote - and it is a true anecdote. It has already happened.

And I say it is true because it comes to me from a very reliable source: Kamal has sent this story to me.

One day, Swami Arup Krishna, alias Chinani, and Sadar Gurdayal Singh were coming towards the ashram. It had rained for two, three days, and the roads were muddy and dirty water had collected everywhere, and the gutters were overflowing. And on a banana peel, Gurdayal slipped. Not only that: a small coin fell from his pocket and was lost into the gutter.

He immediately cried, "Satya Sai Baba, Satya Sai Baba - help me!"

Of course, Arup Krishna was very surprised. He said, "Gurdayal, have you gone crazy? You are Osho's disciple!"

Gurdayal said, "What do you mean? Should I call Osho in this dirty water in the gutter?!"

So remember it: whenever you need really, and it is not dirty water and a gutter, and not only a small coin is lost - then follow Gurdayal.

The fourth question:

Question 4:

THE MIND CANNOT COMMIT SUICIDE, because whatsoever the mind can do will strengthen the mind. Any doing on the part of the mind makes the mind more strong. So suicide is impossible.

Mind doing something means mind continuing itself - so that is not in the nature of things. But suicide happens. Mind cannot commit it - mm? - let me make it absolutely clear: mind cannot commit it, but suicide happens. It happens through watching the mind, not by doing anything.

The watcher is separate from the mind, it is deeper than the mind, higher than the mind. The watcher is always hidden behind the mind. A thought passes, a feeling arises - who is watching this thought? Not the mind itself - because mind is nothing but the process of thought and feeling. The mind is just the traffic of thinking. Who is watching it? When you say, "An angry thought has arisen in me," who are 'you'? In whom has the thought arisen? Who is the container? The thought is the content - who is the container?

The mind is like when you print a book: on white, clean paper, words appear.

That empty paper is the container and the printed words are the content.

Consciousness is like empty paper. Mind is like written, printed paper.

Whatsoever exists as an object inside you, whatsoever you can see and observe, is the mind. The observer is not the mind, the observed is the mind.

So if you can go on simply observing, without condemning, without in any way creating a conflict with the mind, without indulging it, without following it, without going against it, if you can simply be there indifferent to it, in that indifference suicide happens. It is not that mind commits suicide: when the watcher arises, the witness is there, mind simply disappears.

Mind exists with your cooperation OR your conflict. Both are ways of cooperating - conflict too! When you fight with the mind, you are giving energy to it. In your VERY fight you have accepted the mind, in your very fighting you have accepted the power of the mind over your being. So whether you cooperate or you conflict, in both the cases the mind becomes stronger and stronger.

Just watch. Just be a witness. And, by and by, you will see gaps arising. A thought passes, and another thought does not come immediately - there is an interval. In that interval is peace. In that interval is love. In that interval is all that you have always been seeking - and finding never. In that gap, you are no more an ego. In that gap you are not defined, confined, imprisoned. In that gap you are vast, immense, huge! In that gap you are one with existence - the barrier exists not. Your boundaries are no more there. You melt into existence and the existence melts in you. You start overlapping.

If you go on watching and you don't get attached to these gaps either... because that is natural now, to get attached to these gaps. If you start hankering for these gaps... because they are tremendously beautiful, they are immensely blissful. It is natural to get attached to them, and desire arises to have more and more of these gaps - then you will miss, then your watcher has disappeared. Then those gaps will again disappear, and again the traffic of the mind will be there.

So the first thing is to become an indifferent watcher. And the second thing is to remember that when beautiful gaps arise, don't get attached to them, don't start asking for them, don't start waiting that they should happen more often. If you can remember these two things - when beautiful gaps come, watch them too, and keep your indifference alive - then one day the traffic simply disappears with the road, they both disappear. And there is tremendous emptiness.

That's what Buddha calls 'Nirvana' - the mind has ceased. This is what I call suicide - but mind has not committed it. Mind cannot commit it. You can help it to happen. You can hinder it, you can help it to happen - it depends on you, not on your mind. All that mind can do will always strengthen the mind.

So meditation is not really mind-effort. Real meditation is not effort at all. Real meditation is just allowing the mind to have its own way, and not interfering in any way whatsoever - just remaining watchful, witnessing. It silences, by and by, it becomes still. One day it is gone. You are left alone.

That aloneness is what your reality is. And in that aloneness nothing is excluded, remember it. In that aloneness everything is included - that aloneness is God.

That purity, that innocence, uncorrupted by any thought, is what God is.

The fifth question:

Question 5:

THEN YOU ARE NOT VERY VERY CRAZY... otherwise the question would never arise. When you are very very crazy, you have already fallen in love with it.

A crazy person is one who is still resisting. A very very crazy person is one who has surrendered to it. That's the only difference! A crazy person is one who feels that there is something which is going crazy, but he is still fighting it, resisting it, repressing it - still is against it, not allowing it. If you do that, then one day you will really go crazy. And when I say 'really go crazy', I mean it will not be a spiritual growth - it will be simply a fall.

If you go on repressing craziness... everybody has craziness, because God Himself is crazy. He never creates anybody without a certain streak of craziness in him. And the greater the person is, the more crazy, more eccentric. Buddha, Mahavir, Krishna, Christ - these are eccentric people. And psychologists are right in a way: they call them abnormal. They are abnormal because they are super-normal. They are abnormal because they are not the common lot.

If a Buddha walks on the earth, he is absolutely unique. No precedent, never has it happened before - and never again is it going to happen! He happens only once. He is unrepeatable, irreplaceable. He is a unique moment in the consciousness of humanity. Of course, eccentric; bound to be a little crazy.

People will think that he has gone mad: he was the son of a king; he renounced the palace, his beautiful wife, all comforts - and became a beggar! Does it seem normal ?

The normal is just the reverse: a beggar wants to become the emperor - that is normal. Every beggar wants to become the emperor. Everybody wants to become the emperor. Ambition is very ordinary. To become rich, to become famous, to become known to the world, to become very powerful, is an ordinary phenomenon, nothing special in it. But an emperor getting down from his throne and moving like a beggar - it is eccentric, crazy, very very crazy.

If you go on suppressing your craziness.... Craziness is your uniqueness.

Craziness is simply that element in you which cannot fit with anybody else in the world, which can never become part of the machinery of the society, which can never be a cog in the wheel. That's what craziness is. Your individuality is your craziness.

The society does not want your individuality: it wants efficient mechanisms, robots. It does not want crazy people. It does not want Picasso's, it does not want Buddhas, it does not want Wagners, Nietzsches - no. Once in a while they are good just for a change, but too many of them the world does not need. And they are very disturbing people: they shatter many ideals, they go on pulling humanity ruthlessly towards some unknown goal. They are never for the ordinary. Something extraordinary has to happen, only then can man feel at home. The usual and the ordinary and the common is futile, frustrating.

The society does not want them. The society can tolerate a few - that too society has learnt with much difficulty. Otherwise, why should Jesus be crucified? The society could not tolerate the man. He was risking not only his own life - he was risking other people's lives. He was opening some crazy door, not only for himself but for others also. The society was afraid.

Society wants people almost dead. Only one requirement is needed of living people by the society and that is that they should be efficient. They should work hard, produce more, be obedient, good citizens, live comfortably, and die silently. They should not create any noise in the world. They should not even sing a song. They should not dance on the streets. They should simply live as if they never existed. They should live as numbers not as individuals. They should not assert their individuality in any way. They should not say "I am." They should be slaves. They should not be free people.

Society represses all sorts of individuality. And that repressed individuality, if it becomes too much, one day explodes - then a person is crazy. This is my observation: that the crazy people who are confined in mental asylums are very sensitive people, more sensitive than the ordinary lot. They could not tolerate their inner individuality - it exploded. They tried hard! They forced it as deep as possible, but they were fragile people, sensitive people; they were not dull.

To be crazy, some intelligence is needed. To be just a part of the collective, no intelligence is needed - any stupid person can become a perfect citizen. In fact, the more stupid you are, the more obedient you will be, the less rebellious you will be. Always you will be ready to fall in line with any fool who comes to command. Anybody who shouts loudly, you will fall into his feet; he will become your leader.

But to be an individual you need intelligence, sharp consciousness, because it is very difficult to live an individual life. Surrounded by so many stupid people, surrounded by the crowd, surrounded by the dull and the dead, it is very difficult to remain alive, throbbing, streaming. Then you are very alone.

So those who are very sensitive.... And now in the West, modern psychiatrists have become aware of the fact that whomsoever you call crazy are the cream.

You ask R. D. Laing. Now they say the crazy people are the cream; they should have been allowed more freedom, they should have been helped to be individuals, and then humanity would have risen higher than ever - because they are the vanguard.

Have you ever heard about any stupid person going mad? I am not talking about retarded people; when I say 'mad', I don't mean the retarded. The retarded person is physically retarded; the problem is not of the mind. A crazy person is one who is not retarded. In fact, crazy people have higher I.Q.'s than ordinary people. Crazy people have higher I.Q.'s than your politicians. A mad Nietzsche has a greater I.Q. than Richard Nixon. A mad Van Gogh has a higher I.Q. than Lenin, Mao, Stalin. A Picasso has greater intelligence than any Adolf Hitler. But they are all crazy people. In fact, they look crazy because the world is very dull.

If everybody is allowed individuality, crazy people will not be found anywhere.

If everybody is allowed to be rebellious and to be himself, authentically to be himself, there will be no need for mental asylums. Mad people are victims of the society, of a repressive society. First the society forces sensitive people to go crazy and then forces them into mental asylums or forces them into hospitals, gives them electric shocks, insulin shocks, forces them onto the psychiatrist's couch for years together - a sheer wastage of potential, and of the purest potential.

In primitive societies, crazy people don't exist. The more primitive a society is, the less is the possibility of anybody going mad - because in a primitive society individuality is accepted. In a primitive society craziness is accepted as individuality. Somebody wants to live in this way, somebody else wants to live in some other way. If somebody walks naked in a primitive society, people accept it. It is his choice, nothing is wrong in it! But if you walk naked in London, or in New York, you are mad.

Just think of Mahavir: he was very clever - he chose India to be born in, and he chose a right time. If he had to choose the twentieth century and he was to be born in New York, can you think what would have happened to him? He would have been under psychiatric treatment. Naked! - they would have given him shocks, electric shocks; they would have dulled his mind. They would not have been able to accept his individuality.

What is wrong? A man wants to live naked under the sky, with the wind, with the sun; a man wants to be open to nature - what is wrong in it? Why should a man be forced to wear clothes? If he likes to - perfectly good. There is no need to force him to remain naked, because then you do the same again. But if somebody likes to be naked, what is wrong in it?

Just think of yourself sitting naked in your drawing-room, and a guest comes, and you welcome him - he will escape! He will not come again. He will go directly to the police station. And you were not doing anything to anybody: just sitting in your drawing-room, naked, enjoying, listening to music.

You don't allow even small children to be naked. Such a repressive and violent society! The by-product is craziness, madness.

I accept you as you are. I have never come across any crazy person, because the very word is meaningless. People are different! - that's all. And the difference is beautiful. That's what makes life rich. That's what gives life variety. That's what gives life spice. Crazy people are the very salt of the earth. But if you reject it, if you become afraid of it, if you choose the social structure rather than your own individual freedom, then you will go on accumulating your craziness in the basement of your being. One day or other, if you are an intelligent person, a sensitive person, that will explode - you are sitting on a volcano. And once it explodes, then you will not be capable - then you will go mad.

The only way not to go mad is to accept your individual forms, individual styles, to accept so totally that you never repress anything - and you will always remain sane.

NOW THE QUESTIONER SAYS: "I feel very, very crazy. I know you love it - how can I love it too?"

Accept it, enjoy it! Love will arise by and by if you start enjoying it. Something great is happening to you; something very significant, spiritual. Your individuality is asserting itself. You are starting to feel that you are individual, not just a cog in the wheel of the mechanism that surrounds you. You are throbbing again with life. You are being reborn. This is going to be a new birth, the second birth. Enjoy it!

My whole effort in this ashram is to give you absolute space to be yourself. It is very difficult, because this ashram also has to exist in the society. But let it be difficult - it has to be done. Even if a few pockets, a few oases on the earth exist, where a person is not CONDEMNED as crazy, we will be creating a new sort of world and a new sort of society.

And this is going to be the society of the future. This is going to be the shape of things to come. This small ashram is just a miniature world of the future, and you are pioneers - feel blessed that you are creating a new sort of human being, who lives in freedom and yet with tremendous responsibility.

One thing more I would like to say about this question: when you feel crazy you are completely allowed to be crazy - but your craziness should not be forced upon anybody else, that's all. Otherwise you start repressing the other person.

You want to sing a song loudly in the middle of the night - nothing is wrong - but then go far away from the town, because you are not allowed to disturb others' sleep. Your idea is perfectly beautiful: the middle of the night is so beautiful - who would not like to sing a song? It's perfectly okay. Nothing is wrong in it, but others are sleeping. You need not disturb anybody. This is what I call responsibility.

Freedom for you; responsibility for others. If you can keep yourself between these two, a balance will arise. And if you are responsible, society will not force you too much because you will not be coming in its way. If you are irresponsible, then the society will immediately catch hold of you and will not allow you to be crazy. So to be responsible is a good policy also.

If you really want to be free, then responsibility has to be taken care of otherwise you will not be allowed freedom. And what are you against this big society?

They can crush you. If they can kill Jesus, they can poison Socrates, they can kill anybody, they can poison anybody It is very simple. A man is so fragile, a man is like a flower - can be crushed very easily.

So if you really want to be free, then never be irresponsible. The more a person wants to be free, the more he has to learn the ways of responsibility. And if you can remain alert about responsibility, you will have more and more freedom available to you. Even in this society you can remain absolutely free - I have remained, that's why I say it to you. I have never done anything that I never wanted to do. I have done only that which I always wanted to do. But then you have to be very, very intelligent, and you have to be very, very alert. I am a crazy person - very, very crazy. But there is no problem in it. I don't suffer from it - I celebrate it.

Start enjoying it, rejoicing in it, and love will arise. Love always follows joy, and joy always follows love - they are together. Either start by loving; or, if it is difficult, then start by rejoicing. If you can love your craziness, good - joy will come out of it. If the question has arisen: I low to love it? then forget about loving - you enjoy it and love will follow it. They go together, they are one phenomenon.

The sixth question:

Question 6:

IN THE ULTIMATE SENSE, all desires are the same - because desire means you are not contented with yourself as you are. Desire is a discontent.

Essentially, desire is a longing for that which is not. Essentially, desire is a complaint against existence. You say: "This is not the way I want to be. This is not the house I want to live in, and this is not the woman I want to love and be loved by. This is not the world, this is not the society, this is not the body, this is not the mind, that I can be content with."

Desire means discontent, and desire means a hope in the.future - that somewhere there must be a place where everything will fall in tune with you.

Desire means that "I am not in tune with the world as it is, so I hope for another world with which I can be in tune." But you are not going to be in tune anywhere, because all the time you are learning only one thing, and that is not being in tune with.

Yesterday you were not in tune with, the day before yesterday you were not in tune with. In childhood there was no harmony between you and the world.

Young you were not in harmony. Old you are not in harmony. And you are hoping: "Tomorrow I will be in tune with things and things will be in tune with me." And the whole life is disciplined, trained, for NOT being in tune with.

Tomorrow will always be the same as yesterday.

In Hindi, we have the same word for both, for yesterday and tomorrow. That is something very significant - the SAME word for both! Yesterday also we call KAL, and tomorrow also we call KAL. It simply means that your tomorrow is going to be nothing but a repetition of your yesterday, your future is nothing but a repetition of your past. So don't wait for the future because then the future will only be a repetition of the past.

To be desireless means to be herenow, contented: whatsoever is is good; whatsoever is is the only way for things to be - there is no other way, it cannot be otherwise. It is the way life is and life is meant to be. Suddenly you are surrounded by peace.

Just see: this very moment I can see peace surrounding you. This moment being with me, there is no yesterday, no tomorrow. The past is not there, the future is not there - you are just herenow. This nowness, this hereness, this is what desirelessness is. You are just happy being with me.

This is the way to live your whole life. Let this be your DHAMMA - the Way.

Each moment, whatsoever is, enjoy it, celebrate it, feel thankful for it.

So, ultimately, all desires are the same, because the nature of desire is the same.

But if we don't think about the ultimate meaning of desire, then there are differences, then there are many differences.

You have asked: "What is my desire for love?"

Now the desire for love can have three meanings - it depends on you. The ultimate meaning is certainly one, and that meaning is that you are not happy with yourself. You think you will be happy with somebody else. Now this is stupid, now this is not possible. You are not happy even with yourself? How can you be happy with someone else? And you can manage somebody else to live with you only if that someone else is also not happy with himself or herself - otherwise why should she or he bother about you?

You can manage and persuade somebody to live with you only because he or she is also in the same trap of desire. Now two unhappy persons meet. Now two persons who are not happy with themselves meet. You are asking for miracles - miracles don't happen.

Two unhappy persons meeting cannot make each other happy; they will become doubly unhappy, that's all. It is simple arithmetic. They will become very very unhappy. Not only doubled, in fact, their unhappiness will be multiplied because their unhappinesses will clash. They will be angry at each other. They will take revenge on each other. They will think the other has been a cheat, because "the other promised me a garden of roses, and there seems to be no possibility of any delivery."

All promises prove false - because out of unhappiness how can you promise?

Out of unhappiness how can you give? You don't have it in the first place, how can you share? You share only that which you have. If you are happy, you share happiness. If you are unhappy, you share unhappiness. If you are sad, you share sadness.

So you ask me: "What is my desire for love?" It will depend on you.

First thing: it can be just a desire for sex. That is simple, not very complicated - very gross. In fact, to call it love is not right. But we call everything love.

Somebody says, "I love ice-cream." Somebody says, "I love my house. I love my dog. I love my wife. I love golf!" So what to do?

'Love' is one of the most misused words. We use it for a thousand and one things. So when people need sex, they call it love. Sex is a very rudimentary form of love, very primitive, just the ABC of love. Cannot go very deep and cannot be very fulfilling. Or you can really mean love by 'love'. Then it means that you are a happy person and you would like to share your happiness. You are burdened with your happiness.

When your love means sex, you simply are burdened with sexual energy and you would like to release it. It is going to be a relief. You want somebody to help you relieve it. The sexual love is very physical.

If you really mean love by 'love' then you have to be happy, content, rejoicing in your life. Then celebration is needed in your heart, so that you can share. This is sharing of the heart. Sex is sharing of the body: love is sharing of the heart.

And there is still another possibility I call prayer. When you have even gone beyond the heart, your whole being is in deep need to flower, bloom, needs to be shared, then it is prayer.

Sex exists between two bodies; it can exist even with a dead body. That's what happens when you go to a prostitute. The prostitute is not there; just the body is there. The prostitute makes her body available to you, and she simply escapes from the body - because she never loved you, how can she be there? She becomes absent. That is the whole art of being a prostitute. She becomes absent to you; she simply forgets all about you. She may start thinking about her boyfriend; she may create a dream about her boyfriend, and she will completely forget you and leave the body at your disposal. It is a dead body. You can use it, but it is just a means. It is ugly, it is tremendously ugly, to make love to a dead body.

But I am not saying that it happens only with prostitutes - it may be happening to you with your wife. Your wife may not be there. If love is not there, how can she be there? Your wife may not be present to you when you are making love to her; or, your husband may not be present there. He may be simply fulfilling a duty. Then again it is prostitution. Maybe marriage is a more permanent sort of prostitution, more institutional, more convenient and secure, but the difference is not of quality - maybe of quantity, but not of quality.

Whenever you love a person and the person is not present, you love a person and you are not present, then only bodies are there. It is a mechanical thing.

When you love a person, you have to be present to the person; you have to be present to the presence of the person. Two presences meet, overlap, merge, and there is tremendous joy, there is peace, silence.

So many religious people are against sex because they have not yet understood what love is. They have understood love only as the first gross thing - sex. So they go on talking against it. They have not understood the beauty of love; they have known only ugly sex. If you find a saint still talking about sex and being against it, you can be certain he has never known love. And a person who has never known love cannot know prayer, whatsoever his pretensions - because sex becomes refined in love, and love becomes refined in prayer. It is a hierarchy, it is a pyramid. The base is sex and the peak is prayer, and between the two is the expanse of love.

When you are present to another's presence, and fulfilled in the presence, and happy in the presence, there is a sharing. Love may become sexual, love may have a sexual dimension too, but then sex is elevated, then sex itself is no longer gross, then sex itself has come to a higher altitude. Then it has a different quality to it.

When you love a person and sex happens spontaneously, just as a sharing - not that there is any greed for it, not that you have been desiring it, not that you have been planning it, not that it has been in your mind, it has not been there at all - you were simply sharing the presence, and out of that sharing even bodies started meeting and merging into each other, then sex is also different.

In love, either sex disappears or is transformed. First it is transformed, then by and by it disappears. Then arises another, higher quality of love - that is prayer.

In prayer there is no sex left. Love is just in the middle between prayer and sex.

In love, both are the possibilities: love may spread to the very roots, to sex; and love may sometimes rise to the very peak of prayer. Loving a person, sometimes you may love in a sexual way, and sometimes you may love in a prayerful way.

Love will spread to both the banks. Love is the river; it touches both the banks.

Sometimes even the body, and sometimes the person will be so transfigured that you will see god or a goddess. Unless your love starts feeling the presence of the other as divine, then there is no prayer.

When you move to prayer then sex completely disappears. From prayer there is no fall to sex, that is impossible. Prayer is the other shore. From sex there is no contact with prayer - sex is the other shore. They are far apart. They meet in love, so love is the MOST complex thing in human experience, because in love there is a meeting of two shores. In love, matter and spirit meet, body and soul meet, the creator and the creation meet. Never miss any opportunity to grow into love.

BUT IT DEPENDS. You ask me: "Are all desires the same? What is my desire for love?"

You will have to watch. I cannot give you an answer for it right now. You will have to observe. Be very clear about your own feelings. If it is sexual, nothing to hide, nothing to be worried - it is natural. It has to rise from that natural source; you have to begin from there. Don't hide it, don't rationalize it - let it be whatsoever it is. If it is sex, it is sex. Try to understand it. Help it to move towards more loving - more and more towards the person, less and less towards the body.

If you feel it is love, then help it to move in the direction of prayer. Then love the person, but remember God. Then hug the person, but remember God. Then hold the person of your love, the hand of your beloved, your lover, but remember that that hand belongs to God. Then let this remembrance go deeper and deeper.

I cannot give you an answer - you will have to find it. Even if I give you an answer, you will interpret it in your own way. I may talk about prayer, but if your energy remains stuck at sex you will interpret it in a sexual way.

I have been saying for years that religion is a bridge from sex to superconsciousness. All sorts of people have heard it. Those who are obsessed with sex, they think: "Very good, so samadhi is also sex." They reduce samadhi to sex. Those who are really flowing into samadhi, they become very happy so they say, "Good, so now there is no need to condemn anything - even sex has an element of samadhi in it. We can accept it, absorb it, and can be deep in peace, because when there is no conflict there is peace."

I have talked to many people, but they understand always in their own way. Let me tell you one anecdote before you fall asleep:

Mulla Nasrudin went to his doctor. He is old, very old, almost ancient, and he was looking very weak. And the doctor said, "Nasrudin, tell me about your love- life, because it seems you are wasting too much energy."

He said, "My love-life is very simple: four times a week I make love to my wife; four times a week I make love to my secretary; and four times a week I make love to my typist."

The doctor was horrified. He said, "Nasrudin, you will kill yourself! It is time you should take yourself in hand."

Nasrudin said, "That too I do four times a week."

Your understand ing is your understanding. Even if I talk about prayer, you will understand whatsoever you can understand. It is better you observe, it is better you go into your own mind, its functionings.

Just one thing I would like to tell you: don't condemn, never condemn. A condemnatory mind will never be able to understand life. Never judge. Never evaluate. Just be a simple observer. Because once you have a judgement, then you don't allow your mind to open itself completely to you - your judgement becomes a barrier. If you are already convinced that sex is sin, then how can you face your own sexuality? You will garb it. You will deceive yourself. You will rationalize it. You will find ways and means and words and philosophies to hide it.

Never keep any prejudice, so that your existence becomes transparent to you.

And whatsoever it is, at least with.me, everything is good - whatsoever it is, it is good. It is your mind, it is your body, it is your energy. The first basic requirement is to see it clearly, and from that vision things start moving.

If it is sex, nothing to be worried. It is good that you are not impotent - think of that. It is sex, it is good - you have energy. Now you can use that energy. Have you ever heard of any person who was impotent and became enlightened? I have not heard. And, believe me, it has not happened - it cannot happen. An impotent man is the poorest man in the world because enlightenment cannot happen to him. Even if he tries, it cannot happen - because he has no energy in the first place to transform.

And let me tell you another truth: that whenever enlightenment has happened it has happened to a very sexual person - always! Because more energy... and you can ride on it. It has not happened to so-called lukewarm people - nothing happens to them; they are stuck with their lukewarmness. It has happened to very hot people.

Buddha was very hot. He had lived a very sexual life, and out of that he became more and more understanding. And one day when he became aware of how much energy he was throwing unnecessarily, he started channelizing that energy into a different direction - towards love, prayer, compassion, meditation.

It is the same energy! There is only one energy in the world and that energy is sexual energy. Even if God has to create something, He has to do it through it. A child is born, life is born, out of sex. A flower blooms - it is sexual energy. The cuckoo goes on singing a crazy song - it is out of sexual energy. Just look all around! The whole world is throbbing with sexual energy. It is the only energy there is! Sex is the stuff the universe is made of. So don't condemn it. Ride on the waves, the roaring waves of sex, and you will start feeling new dimensions, new altitudes.

The first entry will be in love, and the second door will be of prayer. But you can start only from where you are. So the first thing to be absolutely certain about is where you are - and only you can be certain about it.

Watch... and just go on noting. And if you are not condemning, if you are not justifying, if you are not saying good or bad, if you are not a puritan moralist, if you are simply a pure observer, you will be able to see - because it is within you, where your energy is. And once you have known where it is, start working.

If it is hanging around the sex centre, then nothing to be worried. Just remember one thing: never make love to a person you don't love. That is a perversion - because then you will remain obsessed with sex. Make love to a person you really love, otherwise wait - because when you love a person, the very love will pull the energy upwards. And once the energy has started moving towards love, love is so satisfying that who bothers about sex? Sex has never satisfied anybody.

It creates more and more dissatisfaction. Sex has never fulfilled anybody - it knows no fulfilment.

Have a sexual relationship only when you have a loving relationship, so love and sex become associated. And love is a greater centre, a higher centre. Once sex is hitched to love, it starts moving upwards. Once you feel that you are loving, then never go to pray in a temple or in a mosque or in a church - that is foolish. Then again do the same as you did in the first place: your first prayer has to happen with your beloved or with your lover. Either before you make love, let there be prayer; or, after you have made love, let there be prayer; or - and the third is the best - while you are making love, let there be prayer.

If love becomes joined with prayer, then it can hitch-hike, then it can be pulled by prayer. Love has to pull sex energy up, and then prayer has to pull love energy up. Once you are at the point of prayer, SAHASRAR - the one-thousand- petalled lotus in your head - opens. It only opens at the moment of prayer.

These are the three basic centres: the sex centre, the heart centre, and the SAHASRAR - the one-thousand-petalled lotus. The heart centre is just in the middle, between the SAHASRAR and the sex centre. From the heart centre the roads go to both the centres. From sex nobody can jump directly to SAHASRAR; one has to pass through love, through the heart centre. From the heart centre you can spread both ways - nothing is wrong in it. Once you have reached SAHASRAR, the ultimate flowering of your inner lotus, then sex completely disappears. Then there is no sex left.

In sex there is no prayer. In prayer there is no sex. In love both meet and mingle.

That's why I repeat again: Love is the door of entering into this world, or entering into the other world. Love is the door which opens both the ways.

Jesus is right when he says: God is love. But I would like to say - and I feel my statement is better than Jesus' - I would like to say to you: Love is God. Jesus says: God is love. I say: Love is God.

Somebody asked me, a small child, "What is your name?"

I said, "My name is love."

And let that be your name also. Once you understand what love is, you have understood life. You have understood all that is needed to be understood.

The seventh question:

Question 7:

LADY - you are imagining.

The last question:

Question 8:

NOW LET IT REMAIN A PUZZLE. It will be good for centuries to come to think about it. It is a koan.

Let me tell you one anecdote:

A mailman was delivering letters on a new route in the heavily Irish south side of Boston. At one house there was such a racket from an argument going on inside that he was afraid to approach.

Suddenly a little boy appeared on the porch. "What is all the noise about, sonny?"

the mailman asked.

"It is my parents fighting," answered the boy. "They are always fighting."

The mailman glanced at his letters. "What is your father's name?" he asked.

"That's just what they're always fighting about," said the boy.

Now there is no way... and it is good that it should remain a mystery. Let people fight about it. Let people think about it.

And the towel did well it landed on the floor. If it had landed on somebody's head, I would not have believed it, because God never descends on anybody's head. It would have been absolutely wrong! It did well. It descended on the floor, the empty floor. Whosoever is as humble as the floor, only on him does God descend.