The time has come to be free

The first question:

Question 1:

Charles Harp,

THERE is a reason in it: in the name of God so much harm has been done that it is natural. This will happen to any intelligent person. The word 'god' has become very dirty; remaining in the wrong company of the priests it has lost all its beauty. It has become associated with wrong people, wrong meanings. Hence it is very natural that a shudder goes into your being, that a hesitation arises in you, that you cringe with distrust - but it has nothing to do with the word 'god'.

The word 'god' in itself is beautiful, the word 'god' in itself is innocent.

The same has been done in the name of religion, the same has been done in the name of love. If you look at the history of the word 'love', millions of people have been killed. Christians have been killing in the name of love, Mohammedans have been killing in the name of religion, God, brotherhood.

And the same has been the case all over the world.

Now the same is happening in the name of communism. The word is beautiful, it comes from 'commune'. The same is happening in the name of democracy; the word is beautiful.

So one thing has to be understood: words in themselves are innocent; it depends on what you do with them. And if you have used the word 'god' wrongly, who can prevent you from using the word 'love' in the same way? Brotherhood, democracy, communism, humanity, peace? In the name of peace only war happens, and preparation for war. Then one has to understand one thing: one need not become too conditioned for or against words; words are neutral.

The word 'god' itself has tremendous beauty. It comes from a Greek root in which g stands for 'that', o stands for 'which', d stands for 'is'. God is a code word; it means 'that which is'. Now it contains all - the trees and the birds and the clouds and the sun, you and me - all that has happened, all that is happening, all that will ever happen.

God does not mean a person. Yes, it has been used in that way, but what does that have to do with the poor word 'god'? The word cannot prevent people from wrongly using it. It has been used as if there is an old man, very ancient, sitting in heaven, dominating, controlling - a great engineer who has created the world. The word itself does not have any meaning of that kind. It simply means the whole, the total.

And the whole IS; nobody can deny it, not even the atheist. The atheist can deny God as a person, but there is no God as a person so the atheist is fighting with a shadow - just like the theist who is worshipping a shadow. The theist is stupid, so is the atheist. They are in the same boat. One is worshipping something which is not, the other is criticizing, fighting with something which is not.

Both are engaged in an exercise in futility. God means the whole, the total, the all.

It will be good if you can free the word 'god' from the so-called religious people. The word in itself is beautiful and has to be saved. Hence I go on using it, knowing that it has been associated with the wrong people. But it is not the fault of the word 'god'; it is helpless. You can use any word wrongly, and almost all beautiful words have been used wrongly. Only beautiful ones can be wrongly used, remember, because they can become a camouflage. Hiding behind them, you can do wrong things more easily. 'God' becomes the screen and behind it you can be as violent as possible - hiding behind a beautiful word: 'love' can serve, 'humanity' can serve...

If this is the way, Charles, and you become antagonistic towards words, then not a single beautiful word will be left for you; all have been used wrongly. And even if we invent new words, they will be used wrongly because the people, the great crowd on the earth, are the same. Its mind is the same.

Now in Russia nobody believes in God, but they believe in communism. They will do the same in the name of communism as Christians have done in the name of God. What is the difference? In Russia nobody believes in the Bible, but they will sacrifice as many people at the altar of DAS KAPITAL as have been sacrificed in the name of the Bible. So what is the difference? Kaaba or Kremlin, there seems to be no difference at all.

Now in China nobody believes in Buddha and nobody can commit any more crimes in the name of Buddha, but now the same crimes are being committed in the name of communism, Chairman Mao, because the people are the same. Unless the mind of humanity changes this is going to happen.

Hence I don't drop using the word 'god', knowing perfectly well that you are not alone - there are many people who would like me to drop the word 'god' completely, but then I will have to drop 'love' too.

You say, "LOVE, YES...." That simply means that you are not aware that what has been done in the name of love is not less criminal than what has been done in the name of God. "DIVINE PRESENCE"

- you say, "YES" but the same can be done; "THE ULTIMATE, YES." These are just synonyms! Life, love, God, godliness, divine presence, the ultimate, the absolute, truth - they are all synonyms.

Don't be too conditioned by the past. This is remaining in a kind of bondage, Charles. Somebody hearing the word 'god' simply falls on his knees and starts praying, and somebody else cringes.

Both are conditioned, nobody is free. If you shudder, if you hesitate, then the word 'god' has immense power over you, negative of course - but it has great power, as much power as it has on the people who go to the churches and the temples. You are conditioned in the negative way, they are conditioned in the positive way. But conditioning is conditioning; whether negative or positive it does not make you free.

Be free! And by being free, free these beautiful words too. Hence I go on using the word 'god'. But to me God is synonymous with love, love is synonymous with life, life is synonymous with existence - these are synonyms. And we have to claim these beautiful words back from the priests and the politicians.

The second question:

Question 2:

Mado Maestracci,

TIME has two meanings. One is chronological time, the clock's time. I cannot say much about it.

You have to ask a physicist; only he can say something about it. That is not my dimension of work. If you ask the physicists, Albert Einstein and others, they will say time is the fourth dimension of space.

But that does not make much sense, the mystery remains. The mystery remains as mysterious as it was before Albert Einstein.

Saint Augustine is reported to have said, "I know what time is if nobody asks me; if somebody asks me then I don't know."

Time is a mysterious quality. Everybody lives in it, everybody feels it, everybody knows it, and yet it is inexplicable.

The physicist has come to a certain understanding - that it is the fourth dimension of space - but that too does not demystify it. In fact it becomes even more mysterious. We have never thought of space and time as one; now physicists say that they are not two. They use a single word for both:

spatiotime.

But that is not my world, science is not my world. There is another meaning of time, and whenever I use the word 'time' I use it in that other sense - psychological time - which has significance, more significance than chronological time.

What is psychological time? Mind is psychological time. Mind is time. If you don't have any mind and you are simply silent with no thought moving within, there is no time for you, not psychological time. The clock will go on moving, but for you the inner clock stops - time stops, the world stops.

That is my dimension, the dimension of meditation.

As you go deeper into meditation time disappears. When meditation has really bloomed there is no time found. It happens simultaneously: when the mind disappears time disappears. Hence down the ages the mystics have said that time and mind are nothing but two aspects of the same coin.

Mind cannot live without time and time cannot live without mind. Time is a way for the mind to exist.

Mind creates future through desire, through dreaming. The future does not exist, it is only in imagination, and mind creates the past. The past also does not exist, it is only in the memory.

The past is no more, the future is not yet, but both exist in the mind. And because of the past and the future you have the feeling of time.

Time is not divided into three parts as it is usually divided. Mystics divide time into two parts: the past and the future. Time has only two tenses: past, future. And what about the present? Mystics say the present is timeless because the present is mindless. When you are utterly in the present, herenow, there is neither mind nor time. You transcend time and mind both, you enter into eternity.

You are beyond time. You are in a totally different world - transformed, transmuted, transported.

When I talk about time I mean this time that is created by the mind. Mind clings with the past and clings with the future. It is not ready to renounce the past, it is not ready to die to the past, because it is in the past that it can have its roots. And it is not ready to renounce desiring, dreaming, because it is in desiring and dreaming that it can live. It needs space; it creates a very false space for itself:

tomorrow, which never comes. Mind knows of yesterdays and tomorrows, and nothing of today.

Hence all the Buddhas have insisted, "Live in this moment." To live in this moment is meditation, to be simply herenow is meditation. Those who are simply herenow this very moment with me are in meditation. This is meditation: the cuckoo calling from far away, and the airplane passing, and the crows and the birds. And all is silent, and there is no movement in the mind - you are not thinking of the past and you are not thinking of the future. Time has stopped, the world has stopped.

Stopping the world is the whole art of meditation. And to live in the moment is to live in eternity. To taste the moment with no idea, with no mind, is to taste immortality.

Time is mind. Time is death. Going beyond time is going beyond mind and beyond death.

But if you want to know about chronological time you have to ask a physicist; that is not my concern. Psychological time is my basic concern. That's my whole work here: to help you get out of psychological time.

The third question:

Question 3:

Sandesh,

GREED is an effort to stuff yourself with something - it may be sex, it may be food, it may be money, it may be power. Greed is the fear of inner emptiness. One is afraid of being empty and one wants somehow to possess more and more things. One wants to go on stuffing things inside so one can forget one's emptiness.

But to forget one's emptiness is to forget one's real self. To forget one's emptiness is to forget the way to God. To forget one's emptiness is the most stupid act in the world that a man is capable of.

But why do people want to forget? We are carrying an idea given to us by others that emptiness is death. It is not! It is a false notion perpetuated by the society. Society has a deep investment in the idea, because if people are not greedy THIS society cannot exist. If people are not greedy then who is going to be mad after money, after power? Then the whole structure of this power-oriented society will collapse. If people are not greedy, who is going to call Alexander 'the Great'? Alexander will be called 'the ridiculous' not 'the Great', 'the stupid' not 'the Great'. Then who is going to call the people who go on and on possessing things respectable? Who is going to give them respect?

They will be the laughing-stock! They are mad, they are wasting their lives. Then who is going to pay respects to the prime ministers and the presidents of the countries? Then people will think that they are neurotic.

And the world will be really beautiful when Adolf Hitler and Mussolini and Churchill and people like these are thought to be neurotic, when nobody pays any attention to them. The whole structure of politics will fall, because the politician is there only to get more and more attention. The politician is a child, he has not grown up. He wants everybody to be at his disposal, he wants everybody to look up to him, he wants everybody to go on being attentive, to pay attention to him.

Attention gives one intoxication; it is the greatest drug in the world. Just think of yourself passing through the whole town and nobody paying any attention, not even a dog barking at you; everybody ignoring you, even dogs; nobody taking any note, everybody thinking you are not! How will you feel?

You will feel very bad - nobody saying "Hi! Hello, good morning. Where are you going? How are you?" - people simply not looking at you. If you become invisible and you walk around, and nobody looks at you because nobody can see you, and nobody says "Hello!", nobody pays any attention, how are you going to feel? You will feel like a non-entity, a nobody, reduced to nothingness. It will look like death.

Hence people are in search of more and more attention. If you cannot get attention by being famous then at least you can get attention by becoming notorious. If you cannot get attention by being a saint you can get attention by being a murderer.

And psychologists say that basically many murderers commit murder not for any reason other than to get attention. When they murder their photos are on the front pages of newspapers, with their names in block letters. They are on the TV, on the radio, everywhere; they become somebody. At least for a few days they can enjoy that they are also famous; the whole world knows about them, they are not non-entities any more.

Just think of a world where people are not greedy - then the rich person will be thought neurotic, the politician will be thought neurotic. Then the people who are constantly hankering for attention will be thought retarded. And if people are not greedy we will have a totally different world, more beautiful. There will be fewer possessions certainly, but more joy, more music, more dance, more love. People may not have many gadgets in their houses, but people will be more alive. Right now we go on selling our life energies for gadgets. Gadgets go on accumulating and the soul goes on disappearing; machines go on growing and man goes on disappearing.

When the world is non-greedy, people will be playing on the guitar, on the flute. People may be sitting silently under trees, meditating. Yes, people will be doing things but only to the extent that is absolutely necessary. People will be fulfilling their needs, but needs are not desires; desires are unnecessary, needs are necessary. And desires never end. Needs are simple and can be fulfilled, but desires go on asking for more and more. They-go on desiring for even more of the same thing that you have. You have one car, the desire says have two; unless you have a two-car garage you are nobody. You have one house, desire says have two - at least one in the hills. And when you have two the desire says have three, one in the hills, one on the seashore, and so on, so forth.

Paddy was digging his garden one day, when he saw a little creature at his feet. He lifted his shovel up to kill it, but to his surprise it spoke.

"Paddy, I'm a leprechaun. Spare my life and I will grant ye three wishes."

"Three wishes? Done!" said Paddy, then thought: "Well, I am thirsty from all this digging. I would like a bottle of cold Guinness."

The leprechaun snapped his fingers and Paddy found he was holding a bottle of Guinness.

"That there," said the leprechaun, "is a magic bottle. It will never empty - it will pour forever." Paddy took a swig. Lovely. "What are your next two wishes, Paddy?" asked the leprechaun Paddy thought, "I think I would like two more of these, please."

Now it is of no use, but that's how it goes on.... You have a million dollars - already you have more than you can use but you are asking for more, and it is never ending. Needs are small: yes, you need food, shelter, you need a few things. Everybody's needs can be provided for; the world has enough to fulfill everybody's needs; but desires... it is impossible. Desires cannot be fulfilled. And because people are fulfilling their desires millions of people's needs are not fulfilled.

But basically greed is a spiritual problem. You have been taught that if you don't have many things you are nobody, and you are also afraid. So people go on stuffing themselves. It does not help; at the most it gives you a temporary relief, but sooner or later you start feeling the emptiness again.

Then you fill it again.

And the inner emptiness is the door to God. But you have been told that the empty mind is the devil's mind or the devil's workshop; that is absolute nonsense that has been told to people. The empty mind is the door to God. How can the empty mind be the devil's workshop? It is in the empty mind that the devil dies completely. The devil means the mind, the empty mind means no-mind.

And greed is one of the most fundamental problems to be encountered. You have to see why you are greedy: because you want to keep yourself occupied with things. Possessing more and more you remain occupied, engaged. You can forget all about your inner world, you can go on saying to it, "Wait! Let me have this much more, and then I am going to turn towards you."

And it is always death that comes before your desires are fulfilled. Even if you live for a thousand years your desires are not going to be fulfilled.

In India we have a very beautiful story.

A great king, Yayati, was going to die. Death came.... It is an ancient story; in those days things were simple and the other world was not so far away. Death came and knocked on the door. Yayati opened the door and he said, "What? I have lived for only a hundred years, and here you are - and with no notice! At least some time should be given. I have not fulfilled my real desires yet. I have been postponing: tomorrow, tomorrow; and now you are here, and there will be no tomorrow. This is cruel! Be kind!"

Death said, "I have to take somebody, I cannot go empty-handed. But seeing your misery, your old age, I will grant you a hundred years more. But then one of your sons has to go with me."

Yayati had one hundred sons - he had one hundred wives - so he said, "That is simple!"

It was not so simple as he had thought. He called his hundred sons and asked one to go. "Save your old father's life! Many times you have said, 'Father, we can die for you.' Now the time has come to prove it!"

But these things are always said; they are polite nothings. The sons started looking at each other.

Somebody was seventy, somebody was seventy-five, somebody was sixty; they themselves were getting very old. The youngest was just twenty.

The youngest son stood up and he said, "I am ready to go." Nobody could believe it! His ninety-nine brothers could not believe it; they thought he was a fool. And he had not lived yet, not at all. He was only twenty, just on the threshold of the beginning. Even Death felt compassion.

Death took the young man aside, whispered in his ear, "Are you a fool? Your older brothers are not ready, they have lived long. Seventy-five years somebody has lived - he is not ready. And you are ready? Your father does not want to die. He is a hundred years old, and you are only twenty."

The young man said something very beautiful, something of tremendous import. He said, "Seeing this, that my father has lived one hundred years and he has ALL that one can have, and he is still not satisfied, I see the futility of life. What is the point? I may live one hundred years and the situation will be the same. And if it was only my father then I would have thought, 'Maybe he is an exception.'

But my brothers - seventy-five, seventy, sixty-five, sixty - have also lived long. They have enjoyed every kind of thing; now what else is there to enjoy? They are getting old and they are not satisfied.

So one thing is certain: this is not the way to become satisfied. Hence I am ready, and I am coming with you, not in any despair but in tremendous understanding. I am coming with you with great cheerfulness that I have not to pass through this torture, these one hundred years of torture which my father has had to suffer. He has not yet become able enough to go with you."

And the story continues. One hundred years again passed; they came and were gone, nothing was noticed. Again Death knocked. When Death knocked, only then did Yayati become aware again that one hundred years had passed. He said, "But I am not ready!"

And this went on happening, and each time a son went with Death, and for one thousand years Yayati lived. This is really a symbolic story. After one thousand years Death came, and Death said, "What do you think now?"

Yayati said, "I am coming. Enough is enough! I have seen that nothing can ever be fulfilled here.

Desires go on growing; you fulfill one desire and ten others arise. It is a process ad infinitum. Now I am coming willingly, and now I can say that my first son who went with you and was only twenty years old had intelligence. I was stupid. It took one thousand years for me to see it and he could see it when he was only twenty. That is intelligence! "

If you are intelligent you will see the futility of greed. If you are intelligent you will start living rather than preparing to live. Greed is preparing to live. And you can go on preparing, and the time to live will never come. If you are intelligent you will not miss today for tomorrow. You will not sacrifice this moment for another moment, you will live this moment in its totality. You will squeeze the whole juice out of this moment.

Jesus says to his disciples, "Think not of the morrow." He is simply saying, "Don't be greedy" - because whenever you think of the morrow you become greedy. It is greed that thinks of the morrow.

Jesus says to his disciples: Look at the lily flowers in the field. What is their secret? Why are they so beautiful? Even Solomon attired in all his grandeur was not so beautiful. What is their secret?

Their secret is simple: they think not of the morrow, they live in the moment. This moment is all and all. There is nothing behind, nothing ahead. They enjoy this moment with their total being.

Greed means postponing your life for tomorrow.

Try to see your greed. It can take so many forms: it can be worldly, it can be other-worldly. Beware!

It may take the form of: "This life is not worth living so I will prepare for another life. This earth is not worth living on, I will prepare for paradise." But this is greed!

Of your so-called saints ninety-nine percent are greedy people, far more greedy than the people you will find in the marketplace. The greed of the people who live in the marketplace is not that great, their greed is very ordinary. They are asking for more money - that is very ordinary. Your saints, your mahatmas say, "This is temporary. We ask for something permanent, we want something eternal.

We will sacrifice the temporal for the eternal." There is a great motivation; out of the corner of their eyes they are waiting for paradise. There they will enjoy and there they will show these fools who were rushing in the marketplace, "Look, we had told you before, we had warned you. Now you have to suffer in hell, and we will enjoy all the heavenly joys." But this is greed, and wherever greed is, there is no heaven. Greed is hell; it may be worldly, it may be otherworldly.

See the stupidity of greed. I am not saying "Renounce" - watch my words - I am saying see the stupidity of greed. In that very seeing it disappears, and your energy is free. Your consciousness is no longer entangled, entrapped, by things - money, power, prestige. Your consciousness is free.

And the freedom of consciousness is the greatest rejoicing.

The fourth question:

Question 4:

Gayatri,

BECAUSE you are not yet. Your feeling is indicative of a truth: nobody is himself. Everybody is wearing a mask, everybody is pretending to be somebody else. Your smile is painted, your face is not yours. You are simply fulfilling others' expectations. Your parents wanted you to be this way, that's why you are this way. Your teachers wanted you to be like this, that's why you are like this.

Your society demands that you are of a certain type and you simply fulfill it. You are a slave, you are not your own being.

And so many demands have been made on you that you don't have only one mask, you have many, because in twenty-four hours' time you have to change many times. When you go to the office and you see the boss you have to wear a different mask - smiling, wagging your tail. And when you are facing your servant you have a totally different mask; now you expect him to smile and wag his tail.

You take revenge; what the boss has done to you, you will do to your servant. He will go home and do the same to his wife, and the wife will do the same to the kid, and the kid will do the same to his toy... and this goes on and on. With the friend you have one mask, with the stranger another; with the wife one and with your girlfriend another.

And you have become so skillful that the masks slip and change of their own accord. It has become almost an automatic process, and very smooth. This is what your personality is.

Hence Gayatri, it is true that you don't feel that you are your own self This is the beginning of a great revolution in your life.

People think they are themselves. They are deceiving themselves or they are living in an illusion.

This is good to know, that "I am not myself", because this is the beginning. If you become very aware that you are not yourself then sooner or later you will have to drop all falsities. Then sooner or later you will have to assert your true being.

An Irishman went for a job at a building site. The foreman told him, "You can start at 7.30 a.m. on Monday morning."

Paddy went back to his flat and told his mates, "You must get me up at 7.00 a.m. on Monday morning, because oi start me new job at 7.30 a.m. and oi mustn't be late on the first morning."

Monday morning arrived and before his mates woke him up, they painted his hands and his face black.

"Paddy, get up. It's 7.00 a.m." He woke up, had his breakfast and walked across the town to the building site. The foreman went over to him.

"Yes, what can I do for you?"

The Irishman said, "You gave me a job and told me to start this morning."

"I'm sorry, sir, there must be some mistake. I've only got one man starting this morning, and he's Irish." The Irishman left the building site and walked home slowly; as he walked past a shop window, he turned and saw his face was black.

"By Jaasus, dave woke de wrong bloody man up!"

This is the situation. You are not yourself. You go on doing things - getting married, giving birth to children, bringing up children - and you are not yourself. You will do all the functions of your life and die - and you never lived, you never allowed yourself to live! Somebody else lived in your place, and somebody else will die. You came here and you didn't use the opportunity of life. You simply passed through without being at all enriched by life, by love, by the thousand and one experiences that life consists of.

Now, Gayatri, if the feeling is arising that "I am not myself", don't be worried. This will create great worry in you; you will start feeling shaky. Don't be worried! This is a blessing! You are NOT yourself:

this is a truth that is dawning on you.

Now start searching for whip you are. You are NOT your faces. Now begin the search for the original face, the face that you had before you were born and the face that you will again have when you are dead. Between the two, birth and death, you have many faces which are not yours.

Now the time has come to get out of others' expectations. Don't go on fulfilling others' expectations; that is a very subtle slavery. The mother wants you to do this, the father wants you to do that, the society wants this... and everybody wants, everybody is making demands on you. And nobody leaves you alone and nobody wants you to do the thing that you would like to do. Now the time has come: do your own thing - get out of all this bondage.

This is what sannyas is all about: a declaration of freedom, a declaration that "I am going to be myself whatsoever the cost and whatsoever the consequences." And you will not be a loser, that I can promise you; you will not be a loser, you will be infinitely enriched. You are not here to fulfill others' expectations, you are here to live your authentic life.

And the others who are expecting are not aware of what they are doing to you: they are simply expecting things which were expected from them. Their parents had expected certain things; they followed, they remained slaves. And they have given birth to you - now they are expecting the same things from you.

You will give birth to children. Remember, don't enforce any expectation on them. Help them to be free, love them, but don't give your ideas to them. Love them, but don't give your religions to them. Love them, help them to become more aware so they can choose their religion, their idea, whatsoever they want to be. Help them to become strong, more conscious. Don't give them any conscience, any character. Give them more consciousness, every opportunity to become more alert. And trust life, don't be so afraid. And don't prepare everything for them; otherwise they will never grow any backbone, they will remain spineless. Don't protect them too much. Yes, protect them when there is danger, but not too much. Give them enough rope so they can learn to walk on their own feet. Leave them sometimes alone, don't be constantly after them. Give them some space where they can feel themselves. Don't overcrowd them, don't impinge on them.

Get out of the interference of others. Yes, it will be difficult because others are not going to leave you so easily; nobody wants to leave his slave so easily. And they will talk about love, and they will say, "I love you, so you have to follow me." Love never asks that; this is not love.

Love says, "Be a light unto yourself." If it is true love it always gives you freedom. And it trusts that the inner life that you have, the inner light that you have, will lead you, will guide you. And even if you sometimes go astray it is good, because one learns only by trial and error; there is no other way. You cannot be protected from committing errors. If you are protected from committing errors you will never learn; you will always remain stupid, retarded - and that is the situation of millions of people in the world.

The average mental age of humanity is only twelve years. This is a very sad situation, it is very unfortunate. A seventy-year-old person, and the mental age of twelve? It can be just the other way too; the seventy-year-old person can have the mental age of seven hundred years too. That's how it should be.

Somebody asked Emerson, "How old are you?" And he was sixty, but he said, "Three hundred and sixty years old."

The questioner could not believe his ears. He said, "Please, repeat it again."

And Emerson repeated it slowly. He said, "Three hundred and sixty, that is my actual age." And the man said, "Are you kidding? You don't look more than sixty."

Emerson said, "Chronologically I am sixty, but I have lived so much in these sixty years - six times more than people usually live - hence I count my age to be three hundred and sixty years."

Don't die a retarded person. And don't sacrifice yourself for beautiful names: love, duty, service, society. Your first duty is towards your being. Fulfill that first, and then all else will be fulfilled.

My own observation is that a person who loves himself deeply becomes so blissful that his whole life becomes a prayer, a service, compassion. Only a blissful person can have compassion, and only a blissful person can have love. The person who goes on following others remaining so miserable deep down, so crippled - how can he love, how can he be compassionate? Yes, he can go through empty motions of love, duty, but that is not going to fulfill him or the person he is dutiful to. It is not going to fulfill anybody.

Look at the situation! The whole of humanity pretends to love, and still there is no love. You don't feel the fragrance of love, you don't see the joy of love. And everybody is a lover! If so many millions of people were loving the world would become a paradise. But it is not; it is a hell! And the reason is that nobody is courageous enough to be free from the expectations of others.

Be free, Gayatri! The time has come to be free. You need not hurt anybody. By being free I don't mean being angry with others or fighting with others or reacting negatively. That again is not freedom. If you react, others will go on controlling you in a negative way.

For example, your mother has been teaching you that cleanliness is next to God, and now you want to be free - so uncleanliness becomes next to God. Your mother was teaching you every day, to take a cold shower first thing in the morning; and now you have forgotten completely what it feels like to have a shower. For years you have not taken a bath! This is not freedom, this is reaction:

your mother is still controlling you in a negative way. She is still dominant; you are fighting with her.

Freedom simply means that you start living intelligently on your own, neither according to your mother nor against her. If you are against her you can never be free. Don't be against anybody and don't be for anybody, simply live out of your own simple intelligence. Yes, many times you will commit errors; that's perfectly okay because that's how one learns. Many times you will go astray; that's absolutely right. By going astray you will learn how to come back to the right track. And when you come back to the right track, what joy, what rejoicing, what celebration!

Don't react, be rebellious. Reaction is not rebellion. Rebellion is not at all concerned with others, for or against. Rebellion is something that arises in you that is not concerned with others. And reaction does not arise in you; it is concerned with others; first you were obedient, now you are disobedient.

Don't be obedient, don't be disobedient - be intelligent! And soon you will be able to discover your own original face, and that is how one should be. The fifth question:

Question 5:

Abhinandan,

MOSQUITOES are ancient meditators who have fallen, hence they are against anybody succeeding in meditation; they are very jealous. So whenever you meditate they are there to disturb, to distract.

And this is nothing new, this has always been so. In al the ancient scriptures it is mentioned, in Jain scriptures particularly so, because the Jain monk lives naked. Just think of a naked Jain monk; and India, and mosquitoes! Mahavir had to give specific instructions on what attitude to take about mosquitoes. He had told his disciples that when mosquitoes attack, accept. This is the ultimate distraction: if you can win this then there is no other difficulty, no greater difficulty. And when he says, he knows! - to live naked in India is a difficult thing.

Once I stayed in Sarnath where Buddha delivered his first sermon, where Buddha turned the wheel of DHAMMA... the MOST important sermon, which became the beginning of a new tradition. I was staying with a Buddhist monk.

I have seen mosquitoes, but nothing to be compared with Sarnath mosquitoes. Poona mosquitoes are just nothing! You should feel very happy about it! You are fortunate that I am not in Sarnath. The mosquitoes were really that big!

Even in the daytime we used to sit under the mosquito nets. In one mosquito net, in one bed, would sit the Buddhist monk, in the other I would sit, and we would talk.

I said, "I am never going to come again" - because he was asking me to come again and stay. I said, "Never, never! This is my first and last time."

He said, "That reminds me that down the ages Buddhist monks have been laughing and joking about why Buddha never came again to Sarnath. He came only once; he delivered the first sermon, and escaped!" He went many times to other places. He must have gone at least thirty times to Shravasti, he must have gone at least forty times to Rajgiri, and so on and so forth. Each place that he visited, he visited again and again. But Sarnath, only once; he never went back again to that place.

"And," the monk said, "it is because of these mosquitoes. And you also say that you will never come again."

I said to him, "At least in one thing I will follow Buddha! I cannot follow in other things - I have to be a 'light unto myself' - but about this thing let him be the light!"

I know it is difficult, very difficult, but you will have to learn. Don't be distracted. That does not mean that you allow the mosquitoes to exploit you. Protect yourself in every possible way, but with no anxiety, no irritation. Protect yourself, avoid the mosquitoes, throw them away, shake them off, but with no irritation. They are doing THEIR thing, and. that much has to be accepted. They are not particularly against you. Somebody must be having his breakfast or lunch or dinner... so be polite. You have every right to protect yourself, but no need to be irritated. Irritation will disturb the meditation not the mosquito. You can shake the mosquito off very meditatively, attentively, fully alert, with no irritation. Try it!

The real problem never comes from the outside, the real problem always comes from inner irritation.

For example, dogs are barking outside and you are meditating. Now, immediately you are angry - these stupid dogs! But they are not in any way disturbing your meditation, they are simply enjoying their life! They must have seen a policeman or a postman or a sannyasin! Dogs are very much against uniforms, very anti-uniform; the moment they see a uniform they start barking. They don't believe in uniforms, and they are entitled to have their own belief - but they are not particularly trying to disturb you.

Once I stayed in a resthouse where a politician was also staying. He was a chief minister of a state.

And just as you see mosquitoes here... Somebody else has written that they have disappeared from all over the city and they have come to the ashram. They are not so much in the town as they are here in the ashram. In fact they cannot get such juicy food anywhere else!

Exactly the same was the case with that resthouse. All the dogs of the town somehow had gathered there. Such a great fight was going on. I fell asleep, and the politician could not. So he came, he shook me awake and he said, "I feel envious of you! How can you sleep when there is so much disturbance? And I have gone thrice outside and thrown stones at the dogs. They go away for a moment, I come in, and they are back. I don't think that I can sleep the whole night."

I said, "If I can sleep, you can also sleep."

He said, "What is the secret?"

I said, "The secret is simple: you lie down and listen to the dogs as if they are singing a lullaby."

He said, "Lullaby? And dogs?"

I said, "Try! You can't lose anything in trying it. Why be against them? Just the idea that 'I cannot sleep because dogs are barking,' is the root cause of your disturbance, not the dogs and their barking - your idea. You drop that idea, you accept the barking. You listen attentively; you listen as if you are listening to music."

He said again, "Music?"

I said, "You have to drop it! Otherwise get lost and don't disturb me! I have to sleep."

Finding no other way, he said, "Okay, so I will try." After fifteen minutes he was snoring. I went in and shook him. He said, "What are you doing?" He said, "This is too much! Somehow I managed to sleep, and now you have awakened me again! "

I said, "I have come to ask - does it work?" He said, "It works. And please, don't come again. Let me try again. Somehow I had managed it; it was very difficult to think of it as music, to think of it as a lullaby, to think of dogs as friends, it was very difficult - but finding no other way I said, 'Okay, let us try'. And it worked!"

And in the morning he told me, "I will keep this secret. It can work in many situations. It can work in all situations."

Mosquitoes are doing their thing. You have to protect yourself, you have to do your own thing, but don't get irritated. Just irritation is the problem. And then if you cannot get irritated, if you are not distracted by all the nuisance that mosquitoes are creating around you, you will even feel grateful to them: they have given you a secret key.

If you are not distracted by the mosquitoes, then nothing can distract you. Then you have come to a very stable state of meditation.

The sixth question:

Question 6:

Zoli Korlbeek,

BUDDHA has not talked about cosmic consciousness at all. He talks about ultimate no-selfness beyond which there is nothing, beyond which there cannot be anything. He talks about the total disappearance of the ego.

All other states belong to the ego: "I have attained this, I have attained that, I have attained that - cosmic consciousness and unity consciousness and Brahma consciousness...." Who is attaining these things? There must be some identity, some 'I', howsoever subtle.

Shankara remains confined to the self. He goes on refining it, polishing it, but he never goes beyond the self.

Buddha goes to no-self. Now no-self cannot have many states. No-self is simply no-self - utter nothingness. How can nothingness have states? It is impossible, because two nothingnesses cannot be different. Nobody has gone beyond Buddha. What Shankara is talking about is far lower.

And there are ways to attain to. cosmic consciousness and unity consciousness and Brahma consciousness, but they are nothing but new illusions. Even when you say and think, "I have become one with God", you are there. Who is feeling that "I have become one with God"? Even to declare "AHAM BRAHMASMI, I am the ultimate!", needs something of the 'I' there to declare it; maybe the last tail end - the elephant is gone but the tail is still there. And the tail is enough to bring the whole elephant back at any time.

Buddha is the ultimate beyond which nobody has ever gone. Shankara is still groping far behind.

Shankara is a great philosopher; Buddha is not a philosopher at all. Shankara is a great logician; Buddha is not a logician at all, Buddha is a pure, existential mystic. Hence Buddha never talks about all this jargon: cosmic consciousness, unity consciousness, Brahma consciousness - you can create as many as you want.

If you are really interested in such nonsense then there is a sect in India, Radha Swami Sampraday.

They talk about fourteen states, and they have a map, and only THEIR Master has attained to the fourteenth. Buddha et cetera are somewhere on the third, fourth, fifth; Krishna, Christ are somewhere on the second; Shankara et cetera are just somewhere on the seventh. The fourteenth they call the Land of Truth, SATCHKAND; that space of truth has been attained only by THEIR Master, Radha Swami. Now these games can be played.

Once a Radha Swami follower came to me and he said, "Do you know anything about the fourteenth?"

I said, "Who cares about the fourteenth? no you know about the fifteenth?"

He said, "Fifteenth? Never heard of it!" "I have attained to the fifteenth! And I know your guru - he is just lagging behind."

And he was asking me the secret of the fifteenth!

All foolish talk! But this is how the ego works.

Now you seem to be a Shankara-freak; in India there are many. Shankara has impressed many because he is really clever at logical argumentation; but logical argumentation is just meaningless as far as existential experience is concerned.

Shankara used to say that the world is illusion, and he used to prove it. And it can be proved logically because logically it is very difficult to prove that it is real. Who knows? - you may be simply dreaming that you are listening to me, that I am here talking to you. Sometimes in a dream you have listened to me, and in the dream it looks so real. So who knows? - maybe now you are dreaming and it is looking so real. How can it be proved that I am really here and you are really there? In fact there is no way to prove it, it may be a dream.

Chuang Tzu says that he dreamed in the night that he had become a butterfly, and since then he has been very confused - confused because now in the morning, he thinks it may be just that the butterfly had fallen asleep and was dreaming that she was Chuang Tzu. Now who is right: Chuang Tzu dreaming that he has become a butterfly, or Butterfly dreaming that she has become a Chuang Tzu? Now what is true? If Chuang Tzu can become a butterfly in the dream, why can't a butterfly sitting on the foliage in the shade in the afternoon dream and think that she has become a Chuang Tzu? What is wrong about it? It can happen in both ways! It is difficult to prove that the world is real.

Hence Shankara was proving that the world is illusory. All is illusory, only God is true.

But one strange man - nobody knows who he was, must have been of great insight - disturbed him very much. One day Shankara was coming from the Ganges early in the morning, as was his habit.

He took his usual bath of purification in the Ganges, in Varanasi. It was still dark, he was coming up the stairs, and one untouchable, one SUDRA touched him. Now he was very angry and he said, "You have destroyed my bath. I will have to go again and take a bath. And you should know how to behave. Is this the way? Can't you see a BRAHMIN?"

And the SUDRA, the untouchable started laughing. He said, "But last night I heard you arguing with great intelligence, with great acumen, that the world is illusory. So I thought that if the whole world is illusory then these untouchables must be illusory. How can an illusory untouchable touch you in the first place? Secondly, how can an illusory person destroy your purity? Who has touched whom? If the body is illusory, then your body is also illusory. Two illusions touching each other cannot be different. Or do you think your soul is pure and my soul is impure? If the soul also can be impure then there is no way of making it pure. What do you think - have I touched your body or your soul? Who has become impure? And just last night I heard your argumentation. It was great! And I become so convinced, that's why I have come."

Shankara was at a loss, touched the feet of the man and said, "Excuse me. It has been only logic it seems. I have not yet experienced."

He was a great philosopher, the greatest that India has produced. But remember one thing: he is nowhere close to Buddha, and cannot be. In fact whatsoever he was saying was all borrowed from Buddha, hence he has been known as a hidden Buddhist. Whatsoever he has been saying, he has only changed the words and terminology, but he is talking about the same things. And that is one of the arguments of those who are against Shankara: that he is just a PRACHCHHANNA BUDDHA, a hidden Buddhist - using Hindu terminology instead of Buddhist terminology, that's all.

Zoli, don't be too much bothered with Shankara - unless you are interested in philosophy, then it is okay. Then you can read Shankara and you can read Nagarjuna and you can read Nimbarka, and you can read so many more in the West.

But if you are really interested in transformation then Buddha will be of great help, Lao Tzu will be of great help, Jesus will be of great help. If you are really interested in transformation, then listen to those who have reached the ultimate peak. Shankara was also trying, and he has said a few beautiful things, but nothing to be compared to Buddha.

And this is all nonsense, this cosmic consciousness, unity consciousness, Brahma consciousness.

These are clever strategies to befool the masses.

Buddha talks only of ANATTA, no-self, ultimate emptiness, absolute death of the ego. And when you have disappeared there is nothing more to happen. To whom is it going to happen? When you are no more, all has happened. All happening disappears. That state where nothing happens any more is called NIRVANA.

NIRVANA IS a beautiful word. It means utter cessation; literally it means blowing out the candle.

Just as you blow out a candle and suddenly the light disappears and is nowhere found, in deep meditation the small flame of the ego dissappears. You blow it out, and there is utter nothingness left: no experiencer, no experienced. That is NIRVANA. There is no more and nothing beyond it.

The last question:

Question 7:

Okay, Maneesha!

ONE day, while studying the alphabet, the teacher looked at her second grade class and said, "Who can tell me a word that starts with the letter A?"

All the children raised their hands, but teacher wouldn't call on Johnny Badmouth because she knew he'd say 'asshole' or some other bad word. Instead she called on Billy.

"Apple."

"Very good," replied teacher, "and who can tell me a word that starts with the letter B?"

Many children raised their hands, but she refused to call on Johnny Badmouth because she knew he'd say 'bastard' or some other dirty word. She called on Mary.

"Boat."

"Very good."

And so on through the entire alphabet, each time ignoring Johnny Badmouth. "And who can tell me a word that starts with the letter R?" The children raised their hands. The teacher racked her brains, but couldn't think of a single dirty word that started with the letter R, and decided to call on Johnny.

"Rats," said Johnny, and raised his hands to demonstrate. "BIG FUCKING RATS!"