Let your aloneness become a dance

The first question:

Question 1:

Prem Madhura,

LIFE is a mystery, but you can reduce it to a problem. And once you make a mystery a problem you will be in difficulty, because there can be no solution to it. A mystery remains a mystery; it is insoluble - that's why it is called a mystery. Life is not a problem.

And that is one of the most basic mistakes we all go on committing: we immediately put a question mark. And if you put a question mark on a mystery, you will be searching for the answer your whole life and you will not find it, and naturally it brings great frustration.

My observation of you, Madhura, is that you are a born meditator. Rather than making it a problem, rejoice! Not to belong is one of the greatest experiences of life. To be utterly an outsider, never feeling to be a part anywhere, is a great experience of transcendence.

An American tourist went to see a Sufi Master. For many years he had heard about him, had fallen in deep love with his words, his message. Finally he decided to go to see him. When he entered his room he was surprised - it was an utterly empty room! The Master was sitting; there was no furniture at all! The American could not conceive of a living space without any furniture. He immediately asked, "Where is your furniture, sir?"

And the old Sufi laughed and he said, "And where is yours?"

And the American said, "Of course I am a tourist here. I cannot go on carrying my furniture!"

And the old man said, "So am I a tourist for only just a few days, and then I will be gone, just as you will be gone."

This world is just a pilgrimage - of great significance, but not a place to belong to, not a place to become part of Remain a lotus leaf, as Kabir says.

Madhura, this is one of the calamities that has happened to the human mind: we make a problem out of everything. Now this should be something of immense joy to you. Don't call yourself a 'loner'.

You are using a wrong word, because the very word connotes some condemnation. You are alone, and the word 'alone' has great beauty. You are not even lonely. To be lonely means you are in need of the other; to be alone means you are utterly rooted in yourself, centered in yourself. You are enough unto yourself You have not yet accepted this gift of God, hence you are unnecessarily suffering. And this is my observation: millions of people go on suffering unnecessarily.

Look at it from another perspective. I am not giving you an answer, I never give any answers. I simply give you new perspectives to see, new angles.

Think of yourself as a born meditator who is capable of being alone, who is strong enough to be alone, who is so centered and rooted that the other is not needed at all. Yes, one can relate with the other, but it never becomes a relationship. To relate is perfectly good. Two persons who are both alone can relate, two persons who are both alone cannot be in relationship.

Relationship is the need of those who cannot be alone. Two lonely persons fall into a relationship.

Two alone persons relate, communicate, commune, and yet they remain alone. Their aloneness remains uncontaminated; their aloneness remains virgin, pure. They are like peaks, Himalayan peaks, high in the sky above the clouds. No two peaks ever meet, yet there is a kind of communion through the wind and through the rain and through the rivers and through the sun and through the stars. Yes, there is a communion; much dialogue goes on. They whisper to each other, but their aloneness remains absolute, they never compromise.

Be like an alone peak high in the sky. Why should you hanker to belong? You are not a thing! Things belong!

You say, "NEVER BELONGED, NEVER BEEN ON THE INSIDE."

There is no need! To be an insider in this world is to get lost. The worldly is the insider; a Buddha is bound to remain an outsider. All Buddhas are outsiders. Even if they are in the crowd they are alone. Even if they are in the marketplace they are not there. Even if they relate they remain separate. There is a kind of subtle distance that is always there.

And that distance is freedom, that distance is great joy, that distance is your own space. And you call yourself a loner? You must be comparing yourself with others: "They are having so many relationships, they are having love affairs. They belong to each other, they are insiders - and I am a loner. Why?" You must be creating anguish unnecessarily.

My approach always is: whatsoever God has given to you must be a subtle necessity of your soul, otherwise it would not have been given in the first place.

Think more of aloneness. Celebrate aloneness, celebrate your pure space, and great song will arise in your heart. And it will be a song of awareness, it will be a song of meditation. It will be a song of an alone bird calling in the distance - not calling to somebody in particular, but just calling because the heart is full and wants to call, because the cloud is full and wants to rain, because the flower is full and the petals open and the fragrance is released... unaddressed. Let your aloneness become a dance.

And Madhura is a dancer. And I am utterly happy with you, Madhura. If you stop creating problems for yourself... I don't see that there are real problems. The only problem is, people go on creating problems! Problems are never solved, they are only dissolved.

I am giving you a perspective, a vision. Dissolve your problem! Accept it as a gift of God, with great gratitude, and live it. And you will be surprised: what a precious gift, and you have not even appreciated it yet. What a precious gift, and it is lying there in your heart, unappreciated.

Dance your aloneness, sing your aloneness, live your aloneness!

And I am not saying don't love. In fact, only a person who is capable of being alone is capable of love. Lonely persons cannot love. Their need is so much that they cling - how can they love? Lonely persons cannot love, they can only exploit. Lonely persons pretend to love; deep down they want to get love. They don't have it to give, they have nothing to give. Only a person who knows how to be alone AND joyous is so full of love that he can share it. He can share it with strangers.

And all are strangers, remember. Your husband, your wife, your children, all are strangers. Never forget it! You don't know your husband, you don't know your wife. You don't know even your child; the child that you have carried in your womb for nine months is a stranger.

This whole life is a strange land; we come from some unknown. source. Suddenly we are here, and one day suddenly we are gone, back to the original source. This is a few days' journey; make it as joyous as possible. But we do just the opposite - we make it as miserable as possible. We put our whole energies into making it more and more miserable.

The second question:

Question 2:

Anand Kirti,

CREATIVITY is when you are not, because creativity is the fragrance of the creator. It is the presence of God in you. Creativity belongs to the creator, not to you. No man can ever be creative. Yes, man can compose, construct, but can never be a creator.

When man disappears, when man becomes utterly absent, a new kind of presence enters his being - the presence of God. Then there is creativity. When God is inside you His light that starts falling around you is creativity. The climate that arises around you because of the presence of God within you is creativity.

It has nothing to do with awareness or love, although the creative person is both. The creative person is aware, the creative person is loving, but the creative person is neither a meditator nor a lover - loving yes, but there is no lover; meditativeness yes, but there is no meditator.

And when there is nobody inside you, that very nobodiness brings creativity. It springs, it wells up, you become full of it. Whatsoever you touch becomes gold. It is not your touch, remember; the miracle is always God's. It has nothing to do with the path of love or with the path of awareness. The path of love and the path of awareness bring you to God because they help you to disappear.

When God is there, then creativity is simply a consequence of His presence, just His presence. You can attain to His presence through love or awareness, it doesn't matter. How you annihilate yourself is irrelevant; the only thing is that you should be annihilated, that you should not be. Do it through love, that will do. How you commit suicide does not matter, with what kind of poison. Whether you jump from a cliff, or you lie down in front of a railway train, or you shoot yourself, or you hang yourself, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you should have committed the suicide of the ego:

through love, through awareness; through Yoga, through Tantra, Taoism, Zen, Sufism, Hassidism. It doesn't matter; these are different ways of committing suicide. I don't mean the physical, I mean the metaphysical. Once you are not there, all that is left is God.

You ask me, "DOES IT CORRESPOND MORE TO THE PATH OF AWARENESS OR TO THE PATH OF LOVE? OR IS IT A CHILD OF BOTH?"

It has nothing to do with the path. Creativity is possible only when the goal is achieved; it is a by-product of the goal. And don't start thinking in terms of a cross-breeding; cross-breeding is dangerous. You are thinking, "Or is it a child of both?"

Just the other day I was reading...

A farmer was very fond of cross-breeding. First he crossed a chicken with a goose and got a 'choose'. Then he crossed a pheasant with an eagle and got 'pheagle'. Then he crossed a road with a bicycle and got killed.

Beware of cross-breeding.

If you feel at home with love, it will do; or if you feel at home with awareness it will do. Just remember one thing: that somehow, manage to disappear.

There are people who need not even go on any path, love or meditation. Just the sheer intelligence is enough, just seeing the point is enough. Just seeing, "How can I be? I cannot exist alone, separate. I cannot exist as an island. I am continuously connected with the whole. I am breathing from every pore of my body; even if for a few seconds the breathing stops, I will be no more."

You are continuously eating, drinking. What are you eating? - the universe, that's what you are eating. What are you breathing? - the universe, that's what you are breathing. What are you drinking? - the universe, that's what you are drinking. Continuously, the universe is going in and passing out. You are just a passage. The breath comes in, refreshes you, rejuvenates you, goes out, another breath comes in.... We are in a continuous relationship with existence. In fact, to say it is a relationship is not right: we are one with existence.

If one is REALLY intelligent, then neither love nor meditation - just intelligence is enough. Just to see the point that we are one with existence, hence there is nobody separate, and the ego is gone.

And the going of the ego is the coming of God. In fact, God is always there; just because of the ego you cannot see Him.

And to see yourself as divine, as part of this immense existence, is the beginning of creativity.

And this is not only the experience of the mystics. Of course this is the experience of all the mystics of the world: you can ask Kabir or Eckhart, you can ask Farid or Mansoor, you can ask Lieh Tzu or Rinzai. You can ask different kinds of mystics, born in different times, to different races, in different countries, unaware of each other's existence, and they will all say one thing: "The moment I disappeared, God came in. Or maybe He was already there; just my presence was not allowing Him to express Himself, to become manifest. I was obstructing the way."

But this is not only the experience of the mystics. Even the poets, the musicians, the painters, have a few glimpses of it - of course only glimpses, then they fall back to the ordinary world. They rise to the sacred for a few moments.

Whenever Rabindranath would have the visitation, would have creativity arising in him, he would not eat, he would not drink, he would not sleep for days together. He would lock himself in his room, he would not come out. He would come out only when the glimpse had disappeared.

And those who saw him coming out after three, four days of remaining in some other world all noted one fact: he looked so different, so fragile, so unearthly, so light, as if not made of matter, so subtle, nothing gross in him, his eyes so clear and so deep and his whole being so transparent. But after a few hours he would be back again, settled in the gross body, would be his old self again.

People used to ask him, "What happens when you close yourself in?" He would say, "I close myself in, I lock myself in, so that nobody disturbs me, because I am no more here. Any disturbance can be a very shattering experience. I am so fragile that I would not like to be disturbed. Even a little sound is enough to bring me back to the earth, and those are the moments when I am flying high, when great poetry arises in me."

That's how GITANJALI was born, the book for which he got the Nobel Prize. Many, many people have been given the Nobel Prize, I have seen almost all the books for which a Nobel Prize has been given, but there is no comparison with Rabindranath's GITANJALI. 'Gitanjali' means 'offering of songs'. It has some totally different quality, not of this world. It echoes something of the Upanishads. It has some reflections of Buddha, Jesus, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu. But Rabindranath was not a mystic, he was only a poet.

A poet is one who becomes a mystic once in a while, who enters into the world of the mystic once in a while but comes back because he has not yet become capable of remaining there forever. He cannot abide there, he can only have a visit. The poet is very close to the mystic.

These three words have to be remembered. The scientist is the farthest from the mystic because he lives with the gross matter, he works with the gross matter. The poet is closer to the mystic. The scientist functions from the head, the poet from the heart, and the mystic lives in the being. When you are in the being, creativity is simply your nature.

You ask me, " WHAT IS CREATIVITY?"

For the mystic, his very existence is creativity. He walks, and that is creativity. He talks, and that is creativity. He remains silent, and that is creativity. Buddha, sitting in silence, is far more creative than Rabindranath writing poetry, far more creative than Picasso doing his painting, far more creative than Moore working on his sculpture... just sitting silently!

So creativity has nothing to do with creating something, creativity is simply the presence of God.

Those who are fortunate enough to come in contact with a buddha's silence will be transformed; they will know what creativity is. He has not done a thing and miracles have happened. He has not uttered a word and the message has been heard. He has not moved, but he has transformed you.

He has not even touched you, and you are no longer the same.

At the ultimate peak of being a mystic, creativity is just a climate. Lower than that is the poet; then creativity brings great songs, sculpture, architecture, poetry, music, painting. And even the scientist, the lowest in this categorization - lowest because he works with the lowest form of existence, matter - even the scientist, when he is creative, has a few glimpses like the mystic.

For example, Albert Einstein: he has said many times that "All my insights happened when I was not working at all, in fact when I was not. All my great insights came to me from some unknown source."

The great scientist, Eddington, has said, "When I started working as a scientist I used to think of the world as matter, as only matter. But the more deeply I went into it, the more a few things started happening to me which are incomprehensible in terms of science, mathematics, calculation, measurement. And those things have revealed one thing to me: now I can say that the world resembles more a thought than a thing."

All the great scientists... I am not talking about the technicians: they are lower than the scientists, the fourth category, the last, the SUDRAS, the untouchables. I am not talking about the technician.

The technician has no flight, no insight, no visitation from the beyond. He simply knows how to do a certain thing, he is an adept in 'how-toism'. He turns everything into a method. The technician is not a scientist.

The scientist is one who very rarely, but still, reaches to the peaks of the mystic. The poet is a visitor there more often, and the mystic remains there. For the mystic creativity is a climate, for the poet it is great activity, for the scientist even moreso: it is materialization of something which is immaterial, great work. It took almost twenty years for Albert Einstein to formulate the Theory of RelativitY - GREAT work. The insight happens in a split second, but then you have to work it out, you have to prove it through experimentation.

The poet needs no proofs; you never ask for proof The scientist is asked for proofs, experimental proofs, and the experiments may take years. Sometimes it has happened that the insight is there but the experimentation has taken years and years. Still a few of Albert Einstein's theories are not yet proved by experimentation. They are just theories, with every possibility of being proved true, but with no way to prove them this way or that, for or against. Still no experiment is possible.

For example, Albert Einstein said that time is such a relative phenomenon that if a passenger leaves the earth on a spaceship at the speed of light - the speed of light is immense,'almost inconceivable:

one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second... if a spaceship leaves the earth at that speed, then the person who is moving in that spaceship will never age. If he is young, twenty-five years old, he will remain twenty-five years old. Even if he comes back after twenty-five years, all his friends on the earth will be fifty years old, he will simply be twenty-five, because at that speed time stops.

Now this is simply a theory, an insight; we have not yet been able to devise a spaceship which can move with that speed. But scientists say that theoretically it seems right - but only theoretically.

Now how did Einstein arrive at it? - because there is no possibility for experimentation. Obviously, it is not the conclusion of an experiment; you cannot do any experiment. No spaceship is there which moves with such speed. In fact, it may never be possible to have such a spaceship; there are difficulties.

The most difficult thing is: whenever a thing moves at that speed it turns into light. At that speed the heat is so much that no spaceship can move at that speed, because the heat would burn it out.

Just the friction - one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second - the very friction would be enough, and the spaceship and the passengers would all be reduced to light, they would burn out. But maybe some day we can find something which does not burn out, which remains intact, and the passenger can move at that speed.

Then scientists think that Einstein is right: at that speed, time stops. And if time stops you cannot age, so it is possible that a man may leave on a spaceship, and when he comes back his children will be older than him, or even his grandchildren will be older than him. If he comes after eighty years, all his children will be gone, his children's children will be older than him, and he will have remained exactly at the same age, with no change, with no difference, as if not a single moment had passed.

Now this is a pure theory; they call it 'pure physics'. How did Einstein arrive at it? It is an insight, it is a mystical experience. Albert Einstein had a few mystical experiences. All his other theories were also conceived in the same way; they have all been proved right, slowly slowly, by experiments.

Maybe this too is right.

Even the scientist comes to truth only when he is not, the poet comes to beauty when he is not, and the mystic comes to God when he is not. The scientist can only be approximately true, because the moments are very rare and very fleeting. The poet can be a little more sure, on a more firm ground, because the moments come often. But the mystic is absolutely certain, hence his declarations.

The Upanishads say AHAM BRAHMASMI, I am God! Al Hillaj Mansoor declares ANA EL HAQ! I am the Truth! These are not conclusions, these are not arrived at through thought processes. These are intuitions, experiences of the ultimate revelation. Mansoor had become one with truth; he was no more separate.

So creativity has three layers; the ultimate is the mystic: he lives in a climate of creativity. The poet, once in a while, brings some treasures from the beyond; the scientist, also very rarely, but whenever he can visit the ultimate he brings something precious to the world. But one thing is certain - mystic, scientist or poet, whatsoever comes into this world comes from the beyond.

To bring the beyond is creativity. To bring the beyond into the known is creativity. To help God to be manifested in some form is creativity.

The third question:

Asutosh,

Question 3:

HISTORY is time, hence all that is really significant is not included in it, because all that is really significant is beyond time.

Buddha's enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree... it is not a historical fact; there is no way to prove that it really happened. It is such an interior experience that you have to take it on trust. Buddha says it happened: you can believe it, you can disbelieve it. If you disbelieve, there is no way for Buddha to prove it. If you disbelieve it, only you prevent your own enlightenment, that's all. If you trust Buddha, a door opens for you. In trusting you can hope that if it has happened to Buddha it can happen to you too. Belief and disbelief have nothing to do with Buddha's experience, but they have something to do with you and your future.

But history cannot prove that something happened that morning; history has no record of it. It happened beyond time, hence history cannot record it. It is unrepeatable, and history only records that which is repeatable. History is nothing but the record of the repetitious human stupidity.

History is the record of all that is stupid in the human mind. Genghis Khan, Tamurlaine, Nadir Shah, Alexander, Adolf Hitler, these people are repeatable; Buddhas are not repeatable, a Buddha happens only once.

Tamurlaine will have many, many incarnations, sometimes as Adolf Hitler, sometimes as Ivan the Terrrible, sometimes as Josef Stalin and sometimes as Mao Tse Tung; he will have MANY incarnations. Buddha will never come again. He has gone beyond, gone to the further shore. Jesus will not come again; Jesus cannot be repeated. These people are unique.

History takes no note of the unique; history only takes note of the common, the average, and the average is the lowest. History is nothing but a vicious circle. It is a wheel: it goes on moving, the same spokes go on coming up again and again and again.

Just the other day I was reading a parable by James Thurber, THE LAST FLOWER. Meditate over it.

World War XII, as everybody knows, brought about the collapse of civilization. Towns, cities, and villages disappeared from the earth. All the groves and forests were destroyed and all the gardens and all the works of art. Men, women and children became lower than the lower animals.

Discouraged and disillusioned, dogs deserted their fallen masters. Emboldened by the pitiful condition of the former Lords of the earth, rabbits descended upon them.

Books, paintings, and music disappeared from the earth, and human beings just sat around, doing nothing. Years and years went by. Even the few generals who were left forgot what the last war had decided. Boys and girls grew up to stare at each other blankly, for love had passed from the earth.

One day a young girl who had never seen a flower chanced to come upon the last one in the world.

She told the other human beings that the last flower was dying. The only one who paid any attention to her was a young man she found wandering about. Together the young man and the girl nurtured the flower and it began to live again. One day a bee visited the flower and a hummingbird. Before long there were two flowers, and then four, and then a great many. Groves and forests flourished again.

The young girl began to take an interest in how she looked. The young man discovered that touching the girl was pleasurable. Love was reborn into the world. Their children grew up, strong and healthy and learned to run and laugh. Dogs came out of their exile. The young man discovered, by putting one stone upon another, how to build a shelter. Pretty soon everybody was building shelters.

Towns, cities, and villages sprang up. Song came back into the world and troubadours and jugglers and tailors and cobblers and painters and poets and sculptors and wheelwrights and soldiers and lieutenants and captains and generals and major-generals and liberators. Some people went one place to live, and some another.

Before long, those who went to live in the valleys wished they had gone to live in the hills and those who had gone to live in the hills wished they had gone to live in the valleys.

The liberators, under the guidance of God, set fire to the discontent, so presently the world was at war again. This time the destruction was so complete... that nothing at all was left in the world except one man and one woman and one flower.

But that's enough, that will do; that one flower will do. Again everything will come back.

History is a wheel. It is a vicious circle, it goes on moving in the same rut. Many, many times man has become very civilized, and many, many times all civilization has disappeared from the earth.

This is not for the first time that we have discovered science. Ancient records tell something else, a totally different story.

There is every possibility that the great continent of Atlantis was drowned not by a natural calamity but by atomic explosion. In Hindu scriptures particularly, great proofs are available that man had discovered all the technology that we have discovered. It is a rediscovery, it is not a discovery. The great war that is known as Mahabharata had almost all the weapons that we have now. Ancient Indian scriptures have stories about airplanes, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs and things like that.

Now we are again coming to a point where a total destruction will happen. But a flower will be left and that will do, and again the whole story begins from ABC. Many times it has happened. This is not the first world that we are living in: many worlds have come and disappeared, many civilizations have come and disappeared. Many civilizations have reached the same peak of affluence, technology, knowhow. History is a repetition.

One has to learn how to get out of history and out of time. One has to learn how to get out of this wheel. One has to learn how to slip out of the very process of time, and that's what meditation is all about.

The greatest contribution of the East to the world is nothing but meditation, because it teaches you how to get out of the mind. Mind is time, and time is history. When you get out of mind you get out of history and out of time. And when you are out of mind, time and history, where are you? You are in the whole, in the cosmic. You are in that orgasmic, organic unity called God.

God is not part of history, God runs parallel to history. Hence those who want to know God will have to unlearn history. History has made you Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Indians, Germans, Chinese. History has conditioned you. History has given you particular minds, ideas, ideologies.

You have to get out of all that, history has to be forgotten. History is past, and the past is heavy. And if the past is too much in the mind, you will go on repeating it in the future. What else will you do?

The past goes on repeating itself through you. Get out of it!

Don't ask what is history, ask how to get out of it!how not to be a Hindu, because that is being part of a certain history. Ask how not to be a Christian. Ask how not to be an Indian, an American. Ask how to just be, without any adjective.

And that's my whole effort here: to help you come out of your bondage of the past.

A sannyasin is one who drops the bondage of history. And he says, "I am simply a part of this whole. I am not part of human history, I am part of the cosmic eternity." And becoming part of cosmic eternity, you are freed from all bondage and from all misery.

And more and more people are needed in the world who are free of history, free of the past. Then only can we create a new world where wars can cease, where more and more people can bloom in love, where more and more people can become lotuses of celebration.

Enough of history! It should be stopped. There is no need to teach all that nonsense and garbage, but we go on teaching the students. We go on telling them more and more about the past. And the more we tell them about the past, the more they become conditioned by it, and naturally they will repeat it.

There is no need to tell them about the past; past is past, gone is gone. They need something totally different: they need to be introduced to the present. They need to be made aware of this moment.

They need a taste of now, not of then. They need to drink something from here, not from there.

It will be a great blessing to the world if history simply disappears from the schools, colleges, universities, and rather than teaching history we teach how to get out of time, how to cease being a mind, how to become a no-mind, because the no-mind is the door to God.

God has no history, history has no God in it.

The fifth question:

Question 4:

Surya Kant,

IT IS impossible. It is ABSOLUTELY impossible, CATEGORICALLY impossible. If you are intelligent, why should you be in politics? It is for the stupid, for the mediocre.

The intelligent person will have much more important things to do. The intelligent person will not be interested in dominating others. His whole interest will be in knowing himself To dominate the other is a way of escaping from one's own inner meaninglessness, inner emptiness, inner hollowness. It is an escape from oneself. The intelligent person iS not an escapist.

Politics is an escape, a GREAT escape. It keeps you so occupied, day in, day out, that you cannot find even a few minutes for yourself. Even when you sleep you think politics; it continues in your dreams. To be a politician is a twenty-four hour job. You cannot relax because if you relax you will be left behind. It is a tooth-and-nail struggle, it is a cut-throat competition. It is pure violence.

Why should an intelligent person be in politics? And how can an honest person ever be in politics?

Honesty does not pay in politics. And even if sometimes a politician is honest, he is honest only if it pays, not for honesty's sake. The proverb that 'honesty is the best policy' must have been invented by a politician. Even honesty becomes a policy! How can honesty be a policy?

Honesty is religion, not a policy. Honesty is your heart, not a policy. It is not that you are honest to gain something; you are honest for the sheer joy of being honest. You are honest even if you have to lose everything; it is worth losing everything. Honesty can never be a policy, but politics makes everything a policy. An honest person and in politics? Impossible!

"I hope I'll be able to count upon your support," the candidate said to one merchant he called on.

"I'm afraid not," was the reply. "You see, I've already promised my support to your opponent."

The politician laughed. "In politics," he stated, "promising and doing are two different things.".

"Well, in that case," declared the merchant affably, "I'll be happy to give you my promise."

In politics and honesty? Never has it been heard of!

The politician named Strange lay on his deathbed. His lawyer was summoned.

"As an epitaph, on my tombstone," he gasped, "I only want to have the words, 'Here lies an honest politician'."

The lawyer protested, "How will people know who's buried under that stone?"

The old man nodded wisely. "Don't worry," he advised. "Folks will take one look at those words and they'll all say, 'That's strange!'"

Strange was the name of the politician....

Honesty needs guts. It needs you to expose yourself as you are. It needs the courage to be naked.

The politician cannot do that. He has to wear masks, he cannot be naked. He has to fulfill the expectations of the masses, so whatsoever you want he pretends to be that. Whatsoever you want, he is ready-to promise it. He goes on promising contradictory things to different people; his promise means nothing. He goes on pretending different games and different roles.

If he goes to the Mohammedans he starts reciting the Koran. If he goes to the Hindus he quotes the Gita. If he goes to the Christians he pretends to be a lover of the Bible. And all this is just pseudo:

neither does he love the Gita nor the Vedas nor the Bible nor the Koran - he loves only his ego, and he is ready to do anything, whatsoever is required, to fulfill his ego. And you know it, and the whole world knows it.

And the whole world complains about these politicians, but somehow man is so stupid that if he gets out from the clutches of one politician, immediately he enters into the cage of another. People go on complaining, but still they go on falling victims to the same type of people - not a bit of difference.

Man has to be freed from his stupid mind; only then will he be free of the politicians. Hence politicians don't want you to be intelligent. They are very much against creating intelligence in people. For thousands of years they did not allow people to be educated because that was dangerous. Now they allow people to be educated, but the education is such that it does not make you intelligent. On the contrary, it makes you less intelligent.

When the child enters the school he is far more intelligent than when he comes back from the university. Those twenty years will destroy much that was immensely valuable. The real diamonds will be lost and he will carry just words, jargon, theories, knowledge. He will have sold his intelligence and he will have brought home just dead knowledge, dead weight, dead wood, and he will live with that knowledge his whole life. Still, we don't have an educational system which helps people to become intelligent.

That's why all over the world in all the universities there is great ferment, great rebellion. It is a good sign: it simply indicates that the young people of the world are becoming more and more alert that what is called education is not education but a kind of conditioning, a hypnosis. The older generation tries to mould the mind of the new generation. The teacher is just an agent of the older generation.

The teacher is respected by the older generation because he is the agent: he corrupts the minds of the new, but the corruption is done with such skill that you will not become aware unless you are really alert, watchful.

People go on complaining, but they go on doing the same thing again.

Four friends met in a Moscow park. The first man heaved a sigh. The second also sighed. So did the third.

The fourth said impatiently, "Oh, do stop talking !"

Now, in Moscow you cannot talk, but you can sigh. That is a way now: you cannot say but you feel, you understand, what is being done to you. The whole country, the whole Russian mind, is conditioned by the politicians, so much so that nothing else is even made available.

I receive many letters from Russia. My books are being smuggled into Russia. People are reading, the books are moving from hand to hand, but underground. People cannot even write letters to me directly from Russia because they will never reach. First the Russian government, and then Morarjibhai Desai - it is impossible to reach! Every letter is opened, every letter is delayed, and one never knows how many never reach. But a few letters have reached because Russians have given them to tourists to mail them somewhere in London or Paris, so that from London or Paris they can reach. They reach to me, but I cannot answer them - they will never receive those answers. People want to come.

One woman wrote from Russia that she is even ready to marry an Indian if that can help her to come to India and to be a sannyasin - any Indian! But in Russia that too is very difficult. They won't allow you to leave even if you marry. One of my friends married a Russian woman but he could not bring her to India. She remained in Russia, he remained in India. He has died now; the woman and the children are still there.

The same is the case in China now. But the difference is only of degrees; the difference is not qualitative. In the so-called democratic countries it may not be so much, but t is exactly the same.

Remember, politics is against all kinds of expansion of consciousness, because if people really become conscious they will not follow stupid leaders. They will not need any leadership at alL they will be a light unto themselves.

You ask me, "IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE HONEST, INTELLIGENT, RELIGIOUS, AND YET IN POLITICS?"

Why should a religious person be in politics? For what? Politics is a power-trip. The religious person is simply dissolving himself The religious person is going in the opposite direction, where the ego has to be dissolved utterly. It is not a power-trip, it is just the opposite. Yes, when the religious person has disappeared great power descends, but it is not your power, it is God's power.

The politician is for his own power; he wants to be powerful. He wants to command armies, nations.

Deep down he is suffering from an inferiority complex. Deep down he knows his worthlessness. He wants to prove to himself and to others that he is not worthless, that he is great. Politics is a kind of disease.

Some day in the future, when people have become a little more alert and aware, politics will be thought of as neurosis, just as now you think many things are incomprehensible. For example, five thousand years ago magic ruled the whole world, the magician was the most important person in any community. Now where is the magician? Who bothers about the magician? Maybe once in a while he can give an entertainment to a party or in a club or in a hotel - just entertainment.

Otherwise, what is his power? Once he was very powerful; he still is in primitive societies. In African tribal communes he is still very powerful - people believe that he has power. Now we know that he has no power; he has power only because people believe he has power. His power is not in him but in people's beliefs. Now the magician is gone.

Then the priest became very powerful; even kings were not so powerful as the priest. Now where is the priest? What is his power now? - no power at all! He has become part of the past.

Let me tell you, sooner or later the politician will go the same way - down the drain - as the magician has gone, as the priest has gone, as the kings have gone. So is it going to be the case with the politician. As human consciousness grows bigger and bigger, brighter and brighter, all these illnesses that are hanging around us - hangovers of the past! - will disappear.

The new man will not know much about politics. The new man will not be nationalistic. The new man will not believe in states, the new man will believe in a universal brotherhood. Yes, there will be a kind of government, international government, but its use will be functional just like the post office.

You don't think much about the postmaster... or do you? Even the postmaster-general, who cares?

- he is just a functionary. So should the case be with the prime minister and the president. Yes, a certain kind of order is needed in society because there are so many people. A certain kind of government will be needed and a few people will have to do the work, but it is nothing to brag about.

Politics is finished. It is only a past relic, an antique relic, soon to be preserved in the museums. The future does not belong to politics.

The future belongs to a totally different kind of man - a man who will know how to love, not how to possess; a man who will know how not to be powerful, a man who will know egolessness; a man who will be capable of dropping all games and living an authentic life of deep meditation, of great love, of poetry.

The last question:

Question 5:

Joy Cheriyan,

FROM my side there is no problem at all - you can be a sannyasin. It does not matter whether you are a Catholic priest or a Catholic thief! I don't prevent even Catholic thieves, so what to say about the Catholic priest? To me, it is all the same!

I give sannyas unconditionally. There is no condition attached to it, no strings attached. I don't even ask who you are, what your profession is, what religion, what nationality. Those are irrevelant things.

Somebody has to be a businessman, somebody has to be a policeman; just like that, you are a Catholic priest. It is a profession.

From my side there is no problem: Cheriyan, you can become a sannyasin. And deep down your heart is ready for it. How can I say no to you? I never say no to anybody. If your heart is ready, then become a sannyasin and go on doing whatsoever you are doing.

But the problem may come from the Catholics; for that I cannot guarantee anything. They may not allow you, they will be afraid. I am not afraid! I give sannyas to you because I know that if you become a sannyasin, if this light enters into your being, then the darkness, whatsoever its name - Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Mohammedan - will go. But the darkness will be afraid, the darkness will not allow you to take the light in.

But if you are not courageous you can go on stealing. Don't be worried, that too is perfectly good.

Sooner or later, when you have stolen enough light, the darkness will be gone.

There are different kinds of people: sometimes a few things are sweeter when they are stolen - like kisses, et cetera. The stolen kiss has more sweetness. Maybe, if that is your way, perfectly good!

The whole point is that the light should reach to your heart.

In fact, by becoming a sannyasin you will become a real Catholic for the first time. Catholicism is a quality: to be Catholic means to be liberal, to be understanding, to be humble. To be a Catholic in reality has nothing to do with the Vatican. It has something to do with a new quality in your heart: the openness, the vulnerability, the capacity to accept even those who are opposed to you, the capacity to love the enemy. That is what the real spirit of being a Catholic is. By becoming my sannyasin you will be entering into the real Catholic spirit. Certainly you will be in difficulty with your church, but that risk has always been there.

When Jesus started his work he was getting into trouble with HIS church, the Jewish church. He was getting into trouble with the rabbis. It was those rabbis who killed Jesus, but it was good that Jesus tried.

And it will be good, Cheriyan, if you also try. What can be taken away? Yes, I know a Catholic priest enjoys many privileges which are not available to other priests - material privileges. But if you are satisfied with them, then it is okay. You are not satisfied with them, that's why you are here; your being here is enough proof.

But I am not saying to leave your priesthood If your church can allow, you can be a sannyasin and a priest both. In fact I would like you to remain a priest and a sannyasin both, so that you can seduce a few more Catholics!

You also ask, "OR ARE YOU THINKING OF FORMING A GROUP OF ANONYMOUS SANNYASINS?"

I am not thinking to form a group of anonymous sannyasins, but that group is also forming itself.

There are many who would like to be sannyasins but are not courageous enough. I am not thinking to form it, because the anonymous sannyasin simply shows that he is not courageous enough to declare to the world that he belongs to me, that he is hiding a fact, that he is afraid of facing the world. That is a kind of cunningness; that is a dual personality. In the heart you will be with me and on the outside you will not be with me. That duality will create a split in you. On the outside you will have to speak against me; it will hurt you, and you will become two persons. And to be divided is to be in misery. And if you are cunning, even if you are here you will not be able to get as much nourishment as would have been easily possible for you to get if you had been a little less cunning, a little more sincere and honest.

Yes, Cheriyan, you can steal a little bit of light, but there is no need to steal because I am ready to offer it to you. I can give to you in abundance. All that is needed is courage on your part to receive it.

And remember, these are rare opportunities. There were many who missed Jesus, there were many who missed Buddha, and there will be many who will miss me. I hope that you will not be one of them.

Maggie was bemoaning her hard luck to her friend Tilly. The story she told was a real heartbreaker.

It seems Maggie was coming home late from work and when she was only a few blocks from her home a shiny new Cadillac convertible drew up alongside her. In it was one of the handsomest young men Maggie had ever seen. He whistled at Maggie. "Baby, would you mind my company tonight?" he asked.

Maggie drew herself up. "On your way, mister," she snapped.

The young man stopped the car and got out. He seemed contrite.

"Don't take offence," he said to Maggie. "You see, I just broke up with my girl. I'm lonesome. I want to go out to dinner, to a nightclub, to dance. And you looked so pretty, so sweet, I just couldn't resist asking you."

Maggie didn't trust herself. The guy was too goodlooking, the situation too attractive. Maggie didn't think it was okay.

"Tell you what," she said to the young man, "would you still want to date me tomorrow?"

"Sure," replied the young man.

"Take my phone number. Call me tomorrow. I'll tell you then."

"You've got a date," said the guy. Maggie gave him the phone number. The guy hopped back into his car. "Look real nice for me," he said and pressed something into her hand. Then he drove away.

"You see," Maggie told her friend Tilly, "when I opened my hand, I saw he'd put a hundred dollar bill into it."

"So what's there to cry about?" asked the puzzled Tilly.

"Because," sobbed Maggie, "I gave him the wrong phone number!"

Cheriyan, if you are with me anonymously, one day or other you will repent - because you will be giving me your wrong phone number.

Be true! If your heart is beating faster with me, if a flame is arising in your being, of love, of surrender, of trust, then go with it. Then risk all! Then whatsoever happens will be good, you will never repent.

Many times it happens that we unnecessarily go on missing some opportunity. And this is so today!

Tomorrow your heart may not beat, tomorrow you may become hardened. Your mood may change, the situation may not be the same. The connection may be broken, the bridge may be lost. I may not be here, you may not be here. Who knows what happens tomorrow? Never postpone!

As far as I am concerned you are perfectly accepted, respectfully, lovingly. You can remain a Catholic priest - nothing is wrong in it - and yet be a sannyasin... because to be a sannyasin is something so deep that nothing can destroy it. Your being a Catholic priest is something imposed by others on you. Your being a sannyasin will be your own longing, it will be your own desire.

And whenever something arises in your heart as your own longing, never deny it, because to deny it is to deny God. To deny it is to deny your whole life. To deny it is to remain unfulfilled.