It Will Devour You Too

MAN IS ALWAYS IN A STATE OF BECOMING. MAN IS NOT A BEING but a process of becoming.

Hence there is so much misery, anxiety, anguish. Animals are, trees are, mountains are, God also is - man is not. Man is an effort to be.

Trees are not trying to be, they simply are. God also is not trying to be, he is one with isness. Man is just in between the two - of course tense, pulled apart, torn apart. A part of his being wants to become one with the animals, another part of his being wants to rise high into the sky and become God.

Man remains in this tug-of-war.

Walt Whitman says: "There have been many moments in my life when I had the desire to become an animal again, because they are so free of desire, so free of anguish, so free of competition, so free of ambition."

Look into the eyes of a cow, or into the eyes of a cat or a dog - all seems to be so quiet and silent.

As if THIS moment is all! But look into the mind of man and you will find a maniac. And not one but a crowd, not one but the whole madhouse inside. So many madmen shouting, desiring, asking and asking. And the desires are contradictory. If you fulfill one, necessarily the other becomes impossible to fulfill. If you fulfill the other, then something else becomes the problem.

You cannot satisfy man! There is no communication between his parts. One hand wants to do one thing, another hand may want to destroy it. A part of you is constantly hankering for the past that is lost; another part is striving to reach to the future. How can you be at ease? How can you be at home?

Listen sometimes to what goes on inside your mind.

Just the other night I was reading a passage from Ionesco's play, THE BALD SOPRANO:

Two couples - the Smiths and the Martins - sit in a room engaging in small talk which does not communicate. A weird clock on the wall which strikes at any time does not communicate either.

At one point in the play, the four characters angrily shout meaningless insults at each other:

"Cockatoos, cockatoos, cockatoos.... Such coca, such coca, such coca.... Such-cascades of cacao, such cascades of cacao, such cascades of cacao.... "

When the Martins fall into bored slumber, the maid addresses the audience: "Elizabeth is not Elizabeth, Donald is not Donald. It is in vain that he thinks he is Donald. It is in vain that she thinks she is Elizabeth. But who is the true Donald? and who is the true Elizabeth? Who has any interest in prolonging the confusion?"

Ionesco is telling us in this play that loss of self is the loss of communication, and the loss of communication is the loss of self.

Have you watched inside yourself what goes on? No communication! between one fragment of your being and another fragment of your being. What to say about communion? There is no communication even. You are not one: you are a multiplicity. And you are a multiplicity because of the multiplicity of desires. You want to become so many things.

In the first place, the moment you want to become something you are losing your being. In the clouds of becoming, the being is lost. The moment you start thinking in terms of what to become, you are no more aware of WHO YOU ARE. When becoming is dropped, energy turns back upon itself.

That's what Jesus calls conversion - returning to the source. That's what Patanjali calls PRATYAHAR - coming back to oneself. That is what Mahavir calls PRATIKRAMAN - turning back to one's own being.

We are all rushing - rushing for somewhere there in the future. We are ALL rushing so fast because life is short and time is fleeting. And we go on rushing, and where do we reach? We reach only our graves. Nothing ever is fulfilled, because those desires are by their very nature unfulfillable.

Try to understand the nature of desire. That is the only deception there is, the only mirage, the only illusion. If one understands what desire is, one becomes a Buddha. Seeing the futility of desire, desire is no more valid for you. That dimension simply disappears. Becoming aware that NO desire is ever fulfilled, cannot be fulfilled by its very nature, it is intrinsically unfulfillable, you need not then renounce it.

Those who renounce have not understood. Those who have understood, they don't renounce - there is nothing to renounce! Simply, the desire is no more relevant. It slips out of your hands - not that you renounce it. It simply becomes utterly meaningless. In that very understanding you are free of it.

The whole work of sannyas is to understand the nature of desire. What is the nature of desire?

First thing: it always hankers for that which is not. Now, look into it, meditate over it. This is the very nature of desire: asking for that which is not. How can it be fulfilled? When you have it, your desire will have moved away.

You see a beautiful house, and you desire it and you long for it end you dream about it, and you work hard for years. And then one day the house is yours. But you are surprised, a revelation: the moment the house is yours, the desire is no more there for it. It has already moved. It is never in the present. It can only be in the future. Future is its space, its soil; it grows there. Present is not its soil. In the present it dies - immediately dies. So when the house is yours, and you have moved into the house, suddenly you are surprised: where are those beautiful dreams that you have been dreaming about the house? House is yours, but where are those dreams? They have flown away.

The English poet, Byron, was in love with a woman. He was in love with many women, it is said near about sixty women - and he didn't live long. And to each woman he was saying, "Without you I cannot live." And he was deceiving. And the deception may not have been conscious, because he was a good man. It may have been unconscious. He may not have been doing it on purpose, but it was happening. Whenever he became interested in a woman, the whole world would disappear.

That woman would be his target.

And he was a beautiful man, talented, a genius. And women are always interested in people who have some kind of talent, some kind of genius. Women are always interested not in the physical beauty as much as in something inner. And Byron had it! that magic touch, that magnetism. So it was very easy for any woman to fall in love with him. But the love would not last for a few days, at the most for a few weeks, and Byron would move to somebody else.

When he fell in love with one woman, she was very very insistent: "Unless you get married to me I am not interested. You say you are ready to die for me - I don't want you to die for me. I simply want you to get married to me."

Now, that was a bigger demand. It is very easy to die - it is so poetic, so romantic - but to live with a woman and to get married is so unpoetic, so unromantic, so utterly meaningless. Byron tried to avoid and avoid, but the woman was also very clever. She had learnt many stories about Byron, that this was happening: "Within weeks, within days, his interest simply disappears. He starts looking at the woman as if he has not known her at all, as if she does not exist."

The more the woman avoided Byron, the more he became infatuated. That is the nature of desire.

The more the woman looked unapproachable, the more mad he was. The more the woman created hindrances, the more he was bent upon it to get her. He was ready to do anything - even marriage.

They got married.

The day they got married... Byron and his wife are coming down the steps of the church, the wedding bells are still ringing, guests are still in the church, coming out, Byron is holding the hand of the woman for whom for months he has been dreaming and has not been able to sleep, has not been able to think of anything else. She has been for these few months his whole life.

And suddenly he saw another woman pass by... and for a moment he forgot the woman to whom he had just got married. His hand slipped out of the hand of the woman. The woman saw what was happening. Those eyes were focussed on the movement of some other woman, and she asked Byron, "What are you doing?"

And Byron said, "I am sorry, but I have to be true to you. When I saw this woman, my whole energy moved towards her. I forgot about you, completely. It is not conscious that I have taken my hand out of your hand. You ceased to exist in that moment. And I know I was mad after you, but the MOMENT we were married something disappeared. The oasis is no more an oasis. You are an ordinary woman."

And you will see this happening to you again and again, if you are alert. You strive for a certain thing - and you GET it one day! But ALL joy is in the waiting, dreaming, fantasizing. When you get it, it is finished - because desire cannot live in the present. Desire cannot live with that which is available to you, which is yours. Desire lives only in that emptiness....

Whatsoever you have is NEVER an object of desire - how can it be? What you DON'T have is the object of desire. So whenever you have it, the moment you have it, it ceases to be an object of desire. This is the intrinsic nature of desire. Hence desire just drives you and drives you... to NO point! It is a vicious circle. You go on moving, much movement... MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!

A TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT FULL OF FURY AND NOISE SIGNIFYING NOTHING - that's what desire is.

But that is where man is caught. Man is not caught in the world. Don't renounce the world. The world has nothing to do with it. There are thousands of people who have renounced the world without understanding the nature of desire - they remain the same. They can move to the Himalayas or to a monastery - Catholic, Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan - they can go to Tibet, but nothing is going to happen.

In fact, this is again another game of the desire. Now, they are not desiring the things of the world - they are desiring things of the beyond. Now they desire God, they desire paradise, they desire heaven, they desire Nirvana, enlightenment. But they go on desiring! And desire is the problem, not what you desire. The object is irrelevant. Desire can live with any object. It can live with money, it can live with power, prestige, respectability; it can live with God, it can live with enlightenment. Any object will do.

IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND DESIRE you will go on changing your objects of desire. And the desire will continue the same. And you will be in the grip of it.

This is a very unconscious state. You are SUFFERING from desire, but you think you are suffering from things. People think they are suffering from their wives, from their husbands, children, society, people. No. Not at all. You are suffering only from one thing: desire.

Come to the root cause of it, and try to understand the root cause. And my emphasis is on understanding. I am not saying DO something about it. I am not saying DON'T desire - no, not at all. I will be the last person to say don't desire. I am saying something totally different: Look into desire. Meditate on desire. Go deep into it. SEE it as deeply as possible. Layer upon layer, penetrate into it. Penetrate to the very CORE of it.

In that very penetration there comes a renunciation which is not of your making. There comes a renunciation which is a gift. And because it comes out of understanding you need not cultivate it, you need not practice it. Its very coming is transforming. You go through a mutation.

Let this be your criterion forever: that that which you do is going to remain superficial - you ARE superficial, how can you do anything in depth? Your doing is not going to help. Your doing has been your undoing up to now. No more of it. Now change the emphasis. It is not a question of doing.

Sannyas is not a question of doing: it is a question of awareness, understanding, observation, witnessing. Witness desire.

Below man, there is no desire. There are no needs. They are momentary. The tiger is hungry, he searches for the prey. When he is not hungry, there is no desire.

One day, a tiger and a hare entered into a restaurant. And the tiger asked for Coca-Cola. The waiter asked the hare, "What would you like? And your friend has asked only for Coca-Cola - is he not hungry?"

The hare said, "What are you asking? If he was hungry, should I be here? He would have breakfasted long before. He is not hungry - that's why I am with him."

If a tiger is hungry, he eats! But when he is not hungry, he does not hoard. He never thinks of the future. Tomorrow does not exist for him. When the spring comes, trees bloom; they don't prepare for it, they don't fantasize about it, they don't have great desires of blooming. They don't go through rehearsals; they don't cultivate. They don't do yoga. When spring comes they bloom! It is simple, it is spontaneous. It is not out of desire - hence the beauty of nature, hence the immense silence of nature. There is no desire. The desire has not entered yet. It cannot enter, because for desire to enter a little bit of conscious-ness is needed - otherwise, how will you think of tomorrow? How will you think of death How will you think of beyond? How will you plan for the future?

A little consciousness is needed - but only a little, because we have seen Buddhas who are fully conscious: again desire disappears. A Buddha again lives spontaneously, like a tree, like a rock, like a river. Of course, there is a great difference the difference is that the Buddha is conscious and the tree is unconscious. But there is a great similarity too: both are utterly in the moment.

Buddha is in the moment because he is fully conscious; the tree is in the moment because it is fully unconscious. One thing is similar, that both are non-dual, a single phenomenon.

Buddha is pure consciousness - consciousness and only consciousness. CHINMATRAM - just consciousness. There is no duality involved in it. And the tree is unconscious - ACHINMATRAM - just unconsciousness no duality involved, purity, one.

When the dual comes, tension comes. With the dual, the tug-of-war. Man is dual. A part has become conscious, and the greater part has remained still unconscious. Man is like an iceberg - only the tip of the iceberg is conscious, one tenth. Nine tenths is underneath the water, unconscious.

Between these two there is bound to be conflict, a civil war.

Man is a constant civil war. The conscious says, "Do this," the unconscious says, "Do that." They are totally different phenomena. They can't understand each other. There is no possibility of any communication. One says one thing, another says another thing. There has never been any communication between them.

Because of this split, man remains in a turmoil, and remains absolutely unconscious of who he is.

If he listens to the conscious he is one thing. If he listens to the unconscious he is totally another.

That's why man is divided in many ways. Not only psychologically - biologically, physiologically man has divided himself. The upper part of the body seems to be higher; the lower part seems to be lower - not just lower, but low in an evaluating sense. You are identified with the upper part of the body; you are not identified with the lower part of the body. The lower seems animal. And you are constantly repressing it.

Because of these repressions, there has arisen a China Wall and you are not one. And without being one, there is no possibility of peace.

The animals are in peace, in utter peace. The Buddha is in peace. Man? Man is just in misery.

Sometimes man decides, as Walt Whitman says, just to become an animal. That's why there is so much attraction in drugs: they help you for a moment to lose your consciousness. You are again one. It may be alcohol or it may be modern drugs, but they give you a release - a release from the tense life. You relax, you become calm. Suddenly you are one again. And life seems to be no more a continuous fight in which failure is absolutely certain.

When you are drunk, you can dance again, sing again, be loving again. There is no more competition, no more politics. But how long can you remain in a drugged state? You have to come out of it. It cannot become a permanent state. And when you come back, those worries those anxieties, are waiting for you - and they jump upon you with a vengeance. Then it becomes a vicious thing: when you become too tired of the worries, you fall into a drugged coma; and then you come again and the worries are there - they have grown meanwhile. When you were fast asleep in the coma, they were growing, they were multiplying. They don't wait for you. When you come back they are there to be taken care of.

Man constantly wants to fall back but cannot. All his efforts, at the most, can succeed for a few moments. But this is easier - to fall back. It is always easier because it is downhill. The other way to be blissful is to become a Buddha, but that is an uphill task; one has to grow, grow in consciousness.

That is the only growth, remember! To grow in consciousness is the only growth. To transform your dark continent inside into an eternal light, to fill your whole being with light and awareness - that's what growth is.

JUST WATCH YOUR LIFE, HOW CONSCIOUS YOU ARE. You will be surprised - it is negligible, it is almost zero. It is very fragile, your consciousness. It is not even skin-deep. Somebody insults you and the consciousness is gone, and you are boiling with anger, mad. Somebody praises you, and the consciousness is gone, and you are puffed up and your ego becomes huge. Just SMALL things!

Just two persons standing by the road when you pass by start laughing, and you are hurt. They may not be laughing at you - there are millions of things to laugh at. You are not the only person to laugh at. They start whispering something, and you start thinking they must be whispering against you, otherwise why should they whisper? Why can't they talk loudly? And suspicion has arisen. And you are in a turmoil. What is your consciousness?

Rena went into the City Clerk's office to report the birth of her sixth child.

"But, miss, this is your sixth child by the same father," said the clerk. "Why don't you marry him?"

"Are you jivin'?" replied Rena. "I don't even like the sonuvabitch!"

Then why do you go on making love to this man? But you should not ask the question. People go on doing a thousand and one things, not knowing why they are doing them, for what. They are simply doing them because they have nothing else to do; they are simply doing them to keep themselves occupied.

A man was getting married, and his friends asked him, "How come? Because you were introduced to this woman only two, three days ago. Have you fallen in love or something?"

And he said, "Nothing of the kind! We were dancing in the club and after a few minutes I could not find what to say to her, so I proposed."

You can laugh at it, but think of your own proposals... were they out of your consciousness, or just because you couldn't find anything else to say? And one HAS to say something. Just think: when you talk with a friend or your wife or your husband, are you really talking, or is it just that one has to say something? Silence seems so embarrassing.

And just because something has to be said, you say it, and then it creates trouble. Ninety-nine percent of your troubles will disappear if you stop talking too much.

I have heard:

A hunter went into the jungle. He found there a skull. He was just sitting by the side of the skull, underneath the tree - he was tired and exhausted. Nothing else to do, and there being nobody else he just said "Hello!" to the skull - just by the way.

But he was surprised: the skull said "Hello!" He was shocked too. He said, "Can you talk?"

The skull said, "Yes!"

And the man asked, "What brought you here, to this situation?" The skull said, "Talking, too much talking."

He was scared. He ran away from the place. He could not believe it. He immediately went to the king, because this was a miraculous phenomenon. And he told the king, "Something one will not believe I have seen, I have heard with my own ears a skull talking! I said 'Hello!' because there was nothing else to do and there was nobody else either. Just the skull was Lying by the side of the tree.

I never thought... but the skull said 'Hello!'"

He was still trembling.

"And I asked the skull, and she answers! She says, 'Yes.' She can talk."

The king said, "You must be joking."

He said, "No! I bet!"

The king said, "Okay, I will come."

And the whole court followed, and the king went there, and of course the skull was there, and the man went close to the skull and said, "Hello!" And she didn't reply. He said, "HELLO!" loudly, and the skull remained silent. He said, "What has happened to you?" But no answer.

And the king said, "I knew it before. Either you are a madman or you have some deceptions in your mind. Cut this man's head!"

The head was cut and thrown there, and the king returned. When the king returned, the skull said to the head "Hello!"

He said, "You fool! Why didn't you speak THAT time?"

And the skull asked, "What brought you here?"

And the head said, "Too much talking."

Ninety-nine percent of your problems will disappear if you don't talk too much. But what else to do?

Life is so empty! One fills it somehow, patches it, stuffs it, makes it look as if it is full. Desires help you infinitely. They keep you on the go. They make you feel that something is happening or is going to happen. They keep you hoping. They keep you on the move; otherwise, how will you move? how you will live? But all those desires are unconscious. You don't know from where they come, how they take possession of you, where their source is.

Armstrong was brought into court for non-support by his wife.

"Young man," said the judge, "your wife says you have twelve children and you don't support them.

How can a man who doesn't support his family want to have so many children?"

"Your Honour," said Armstrong, "when I get that feel in', I feel I could support the whole world."

But from where does that feeling come? It comes from somewhere in your innermost core, but it is dark and you have never groped for it, from where it comes. The only thing that a man has to do to get out of the misery that is created by the unconscious and the problems that are created by the unconscious is one, the only one key: become more conscious.

What do I mean when I say become more conscious? De-automatize your habits. Remember this:

de-automatize your habits. You are walking, it is an automatic habit; you need not be aware of it.

But bring awareness to yourself. Walk fully conscious.

Buddha says: When you stand up, stand up consciously; when you sit down, sit down consciously.

When you say some-thing, say it very consciously. When you listen to something, listen consciously.

When you are eating, eat consciously.

It happened once:

Buddha was not yet enlightened, was coming closer and closer and closer. Maybe ninety-nine percent of his being was almost light; only one percent remained dark. He was just on the verge of enlightenment. It was just a few days before he became enlightened that this incident happened.

They were moving - he had five disciples with him. A fly came and sat on his forehead. Just out of unconscious habit, he waved his hand, the FLY went away, but he stopped himself in the middle of the road with the five disciples watching what happened. Now, there was a FLY, but he took his hands again, very consciously, slowly, waved at the FLY - which was not there!

The disciples were puzzled, they said, "What are you doing? The FLY is gone! When you first waved your hand, the FLY went away. What are you doing now?"

Buddha said, "I did it unconsciously. It is automatic. It was robot like. Now I am doing as I should have done. The FLY is not there - that is not the point - but now I am doing as I should have done. Consciously I move my hand, slowly, with full awareness, attentiveness. My mind is nowhere else. My total mind is focussed on this simple act - the hand is moving, and then I wave, with great compassion for the fly.

"The first time, I was walking, I was looking around, and the FLY came. And the robot part of my body worked, but I was not in it."

That's what happens when you have learnt something. If you start learning to drive, in the beginning you have to be very alert - alert about many things: the wheel, and the accelerator, and the brake and the clutch, and the people on the road. You have to be conscious of all these things. Slowly slowly, once you have learnt to drive, you need not think of anything at all. Everything has become automatized. Now you can sing a song, smoke a cigarette, listen to the radio, talk to the friend - you can do anything! Now, that part, the driving part, needs no attention, your attention is free.

This is a necessity of life, otherwise you will not be able to do many things. So whatsoever you have learnt is always transferred to the robot. Then the robot does it and you are free to learn something else. This is perfectly okay in ordinary life, but, slowly slowly, the robot becomes bigger and bigger.

And your tiny consciousness remains tiny.

The work that one has to do upon oneself consists in taking back from the robot, de-automatizing processes. And you will be surprised: if you de-automatize any process, great awareness is released.

Just walk consciously for half an hour, and you will be surprised how quiet, how peaceful and serene you look and you feel. Just sitting in your chair, watch your in-going, out-going breath, silently - the breath goes in, and you know, you watch, it is going in. Each step of the breath: it has touched your nostrils, the inner side of the nose, it is moving, it has touched your throat, it has moved, it has gone deep into your lungs; you can feel the belly coming up. And then you feel for a moment it has stopped. No movement. And then the return journey: the belly falls back, the air is going out; again you feel the same route. It leaves your nostrils... and again a moment's gap. And then again new fresh air moves in.

If you simply watch such a simple process, you will be surprised: one hour's watching of breath will bring you so much silence and so much alertness, as you have never felt in your life. And that makes a difference. THAT is the difference that makes the difference, that transforms your whole life, slowly slowly. Then you can change everything: eating, walking, breathing - even making love can become a very very conscious, alert phenomenon.

And then from everywhere, consciousness goes on pouring in. And, slowly slowly, the balance changes: you become more conscious than you are unconscious. Then you start leaning towards God, farther and farther away you start moving from the animals. When a man is really conscious, all desires disappear just as dewdrops disappear when in the morning the sun rises.

Desires have not to be dropped, they have also to be used to grow in consciousness.

Now this famous Sufi story - it is one of the greatest gems:

IT IS RELATED THAT A DERVISH ONCE STOPPED A KING IN THE STREET. THE KING SAID, "HOW DARE YOU, A MAN OF NO ACCOUNT, INTERRUPT THE PROGRESS OF YOUR SOVEREIGN?"

We will go into EACH important word:

IT IS RELATED THAT A DERVISH...

A DERVISH IS ONE WHO HAS ATTAINED. A dervish is one who has arrived. A dervish is one whose journey is complete, whose circle is complete. A dervish is one who no longer has any desires, a state of desirelessness. But the state of desirelessness is the state of bliss - SATCHITANANDA - it is the state of bliss, of consciousness of truth. The dervish is the highest point of growth.

IT IS RELATED THAT A DERVISH ONCE STOPPED A KING...

Now, tune dervish looks like a beggar, and is REALLY the king. And the king looks like a king, but is nothing but a beggar. The dervish has nothing, but has all; in having nothing he has become capable of having all. By becoming empty of all desires he is full of God. There is no need to ask for more. More cannot be conceived.

The dervish lives like a beggar, but only from the outside. If you can look into him, if you have eyes to see, if you have a little alertness, you will find him luminous, you will find in him all the grandeur of God, all the splendor of existence. He is the richest man there is.

Swami Ram used to call himself an emperor. When he went to America, people cult not understand.

In the East we know; in the East this has become now a definite conclusion. Thousands of years of experience have proved it again and again, that only people like Buddha are real emperors. And the so-called emperors are just beggars somehow hiding their inner emptiness.

The kings, the presidents, and the prime ministers are nothing but people suffering from inferiority complexes. Hence creating much noise around themselves to show others that "We are not nothing.

We are somebodies!" A man who tries to prove that he is somebody is simply showing that deep down he is afraid of his nobodiness. If he becomes the president of a country, of course he can prove - at least to the fools he can prove that he is somebody. And looking in the eyes of those fools, he himself can believe, "When so many people believe that I am somebody, I must be somebody. How can so many people be wrong?" He deceives others and is deceived in return. It is a self-deception.

The East knows it.

The East has known real emperors. And it has known a long long series of beggars too. You will be surprised: the East has never been interested in writing the history of emperors, prime ministers and all those kinds of neurotic people. The East's interest has been in Buddhas, Ramas, Krishnas.

The West is very much puzzled why we have not been interested in history. We have been writing real history - because the real history consists of the evolution of human consciousness. The real history has nothing to do with money, the real history has nothing to do with power-politics. The real history has only to do with one thing: that is who comes in the world with light, religious light, bliss, consciousness; takes humanity a step further into growth.

But when Swami Ram went to America, people were naturally puzzled. He was a beggar, and he called himself an emperor! People started asking him, "Why do you call yourself an emperor? You don't have anything."

And he laughed, and he said, "That's why - because I don't have anything, because I don't NEED! I am an emperor, because all that I need I have. And your emperors are not emperors, because they will never have all that they need. Their desires wily go on multiplying themselves. They will live the life of a beggar, and they will die the life of a beggar."

Look into the hearts of the rich people - they have to be pitied. They are poorer than the poor. It sometimes happens that in a poor person's heart you may find a jewel, luminous, but rarely in a rich man's heart, because to become rich he has to sell his soul. To become a prime minister or a president he has to destroy his self, he has to compromise. He has to adjust to the demands of the stupid humanity, the majority. He can lead people only if he follows them - so your great leaders are nothing but great followers of the masses and the mob.

IT IS RELATED THAT A DERVISH ONCE STOPPED A KING IN THE STREET.

And why in the street? Because the king is always and always moving. He is always searching for more; he is always in the street, he is always on a journey, because there are many things yet to be attained.

When Alexander came to India, Diogenes asked him - a very rare man, Diogenes.... Naked he lived, like Mahavir, an utterly blissful man. He asked Alexander, "Where are you going?"

Alexander said, "I am going to conquer the whole world!"

And Diogenes asked, "Then what? Then what will you do?"

Alexander was a little puzzled because nobody had asked this: "Then what?" He shrugged his shoulders, and then said, "Then I will rest."

And Diogenes started laughing - that mad laughter. Only enlightened people can do that.

Embarrassed, Alexander said, "Why are you laughing?"

He said, "I am laughing because I am resting right now!"

He was Lying down on the bank of a river, naked, it was early morn g. Fresh air, and the sun was rising and the birds were singing, and it was all beatitude. And he said, "You fool! I am resting, and you will rest when you have conquered the whole world, then what is the point? If I can rest without conquering the world, why can't you? Come on! Lie down by the side of me! And this bank is so big, it can take both of us. There is no problem, no competition."

Alexander was hypnotized by this man. He said, "You are right. Nobody has dared to say such things to me. I see the point, but right now I cannot stop because I am in the middle of my journey, I am on the road. I have to conquer and finish things, then I will come."

Diogenes said, "You can go. But remember: this road is endless. You will never be able to come back."

It is NEVER completed. Who has ever been able to complete it? Death comes before! And it happened exactly like that. Alexander could not come back. He died. He never came back to his country; he died in the middle. And the moment he was dying, only Diogenes was in his mind. In that moment, just think how poor he must have looked to himself, and how rich Diogenes was - how beggarly he was. Begged and begged and begged... and to no point! And was dying.

It was because of the memory of Diogenes that he told his generals, "When you take my body to the cemetery, let my hands hang out in the procession - out of the casket."

"Why?" the generals asked, "because we have never heard of any tradition like that."

He said, "So that everybody can see that Diogenes was right - I am dying empty-handed. Let them see my hands! My whole life was empty and I am dying empty-handed, nothing in my hands."

Every king is in the street.

IT IS RELATED THAT A DERVISH ONCE STOPPED A KING IN THE STREET. THE KING SAID, "HOW DARE YOU, A MAN OF NO ACCOUNT INTERRUPT THE PROGRESS OF YOUR SOVEREIGN?"

IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO SEE who is the man of account and who his the man of no account. It takes great insight to see it. Those who appear on the surface men of account are not. They are just pretenders. And those who don't appear at all as men of account are. But appearances won't help.

THE DERVISH ANSWERED, "CAN YOU BE A SOVEREIGN IF YOU CANNOT EVEN FILL MY KASHKUL, THE BEGGING BOWL?"

Now the Sufi Master is creating a situation. Great must have been his compassion. He is creating a situation, and a rare situation. He says, "You and a sovereign? And you think yourself a man of account? If you are, then do this simple thing. I have got this begging bowl, this KASHKUL, can you fill it?"

The king must have laughed: "This man is mad. Such a small begging bowl I cannot fill?"

HE HELD OUT HIS BOWL, AND THE KING ORDERED IT TO BELLED WITH GOLD.

BUT NO SOONER WAS THE BOWL SEEN TO BE FULL OF COINS THAN THEY DISAPPEARED, AND THE HOWL SEEMED TO BE EMPTY AGAIN.

SACK AFTER SACK OF GOLD WAS BROUGHT, AND STILL THE AMAZING BOWL DEVOURED COINS.

"STOP!" SHOUTED THE KING, "FOR THIS TRICKSTER IS EMPTYING MY TREASURY!"

Still he could not see the point. It is so difficult to see the point. The Master was confronting him.

The Master has come to the disciple. The Master is creating a situation in which even a blind man will be able to see, in which the deaf will be able to hear, and the heartless will start feeling again.

But people are stubborn - stubborn in their idiocies, stubborn in their ideologies, stubborn in their conceptions and prejudices.

"STOP!" SHOUTED THE.KING, "FOR THIS TRICKSTER IS EMPTYING MY TREASURY!"

The Master looks like a trickster, as if he is after his treasury. He is after him, certainly, but not after his treasury. A Master is always after the disciple. But you can miss, because sometimes the situa-tion may be such that your whole mind will interpret it in a wrong way.

The king knows only money and money and money. He understands only one language - the language of money. Now, certainly, this man is cheating. He can see only some device: "The begging bowl is a trick. It cannot be filled and he will empty my whole treasure. And he has caught me - he has provoked me and now he is cheating."

"TO YOU," SAID THE DERVISH, "I AM EMPTYING YOUR TREASURY..."

"... because you cannot see beyond that. Your eyes are focussed on money. You can only think of money. All is always translated by you in terms of money - as if money is all. Life is much more:

money is nothing."

"TO YOU I AM EMPTYING YOUR TREASURY," SAID THE DERVISH, "BUT TO OTHERS I AM MERELY ILLUSTRATING A TRUTH."

WHO ARE THESE OTHERS? The dervish must have been Surrounded by his disciples. It was a situation for the king, and it was a situation for his disciples too. To those disciples he was illustrating a truth. What truth was he illustrating? And the king asked:

"AND THE TRUTH? WHAT TRUTH?"

"THE TRUTH IS THAT THE BOWL IS THE DESIRES OF MAN..."

The bowl is made of the mind of man. The bowl is made of the skull of man. It represents man's mind - his constant hankering to become this, to become that, to gain, to profit. It represents greed.

It represents that CONSTANT effort to be something other than you are, to be somewhere else, to be more, to have more. This madness for more is represented by the bowl.

"THE TRUTH IS THAT THE BOWL IS THE DESIRES OF MAN, AND THE GOLD WHAT MAN IS GIVEN.... "

And God has given much more than you really need, much more than you deserve. God has been a showering, a constant showering, of gifts on you. You have not earned them. But look at the thanklessness of man. Even to thank God seems to be impossible. We go on complaining to God.

We go on asking for more. All your prayers are nothing but demands for more.

Have you ever prayed without demanding anything? directly, indirectly?

A woman, a young woman, heard a mystic say, "You should not ask God anything for yourself. Ask for others, then the prayers will be heard. Ask because of compassion."

The woman was young but was very much worried... in fact she had come to the mystic only to be blessed. She wanted a husband, and it was getting late. Must have been homely, ordinary; must have been poor or something. But now the mystic says, "Ask not for yourself, only then will the prayers be fulfilled." So what is the point in praying? But then she found a way.

She went into the temple and prayed to God, "God, give my mother a beautiful son-in-law."

Directly or indirectly, all your prayers are demands. And a demand poisons the prayer and kills it, cuts its wings. Then it cam lot reach to God. Only prayers which have no demands are weightless enough to fly into that plenitude.

" THE TRUTH IS THAT THE BOWL IS THE DESIRES OF MAN, AND THE GOLD WHAT MAN IS GIVEN. THERE IS NO END TO MAN'S CAPACITY TO DEVOUR WITHOUT BEING IN ANY WAY CHANGED...."

And man goes on devouring. You can go on giving. The more you give, the more demand comes, but the frustration continues. The gap between the man and his desire remains constant. It is one of the constants in the world, unchanging.

The difference between you and the horizon remains constant. You can go on and on, and whether you go on foot or you rush in a plane makes no difference - the horizon remains there, ALWAYS there, never here. The closer you come to the horizon, the more it goes on receding. You never come close.

It is not that man is not given anything. Just think of this beauty! of this benediction of existence, of this silence, of this joy, this celebration! Have you ever thanked God for a rose flower? If not, then WHEN are you going to thank him? Have you ever thanked God for the dewdrops slipping so quietly from the grass leaves in the early sun, so pearl-like? And sometimes when the rays penetrate them, a small rainbow arises around them. Have you not looked at this beauty? at this poetry? at this constant celebration of existence? When are you going to thank God? For what are you waiting?

Have you forgotten to thank? Have you forgotten to bow down in gratitude?

Those who know, they always thank and praise, even in moments when you will not think that praise is possible.

Let me remind you of Zusya, the same mad mystic who would run and jump and dance into the synagogue, so madly, so wildly, that everybody else who was in the synagogue would escape, because he would turn tables upside down. And whosoever would come in between him and his dance would be thrown. His dance was of such abandon that he would forget everybody! He would forget himself - only God existed in those moments.

Zusya's son died, his only Son and he had loved the son tremendously. And do you know what?

He danced! He danced all the way to the cemetery. He was dancing and tears of joy were flowing from his eyes. And he was saying to God, "Look! You had given me such a beautiful and such a pure soul, and I am returning the beautiful and the pure soul AS beautiful as it was. It has not been contaminated at all. Can't you see?! I am returning your gift back to you. I am happy that for these few days you have given this gift to me. I am immensely grateful. It must be time that the child has to go back home."

If you see, then all and everything becomes a cause to celebrate. If you can't see, then everything is a cause for a complaint.

"THE TRUTH IS THAT THE BOWL IS THE DESIRES OF MAN, AND THE GOLD WHAT MAN IS GIVEN. THERE IS NO END TO MAN'S CAPACITY TO DEVOUR, WITHOUT BEING IN ANY WAY CHANGED."

And things go on showering on you, and you never change, you remain at most the same! You devour everything, but nothing transforms you.

"SEE, THE BOWL HAS EATEN NEARLY ALL YOUR WEALTH, BUT IT IS STILL A CARVED SEA- COCONUT, AND HAS NOT PARTAKEN OF THE NATURE OF GOLD IN ANY RESPECT."

Remember this. If you start feeling grateful, you will be transformed. You will start changing your being from baser metal into gold - this is what alchemy is all about, and this is what sannyas is all about. Sannyas is the purest alchemy, the new alchemy, the science of transforming the baser into the higher. And the bridge is gratitude.

Feel grateful! Search for causes to be grateful, and you will find INFINITE causes. In the morning the sun rises and there is enough cause, MORE than enough, to dance and sing. God has risen in the sun. And by the evening when the sun is setting, sing and dance! Soon the night is coming with its beautiful darkness and all those stars. Soon the mystery will surround you, the mystery of darkness and the coolness of darkness and the silence of darkness and its infinite music.

Just go on looking for reasons to celebrate, and you WILL become religious. And, slowly slowly, each gratitude felt deeply transforms you. Desires never transform, only gratitude transforms - and they are diametrically opposite. Desire means: "Give me more! I am complaining. I am demanding."

Gratitude says: "You have given me so much that I never deserved in the first place. I am grateful, I am thanking."

See the point. Desire says: "Give me more!" Gratitude says: "You have given already so much!

Nothing more is needed. It is enough for me to live with it for eternity." Desire takes you into the future. Gratitude makes you still, in the present. Gratitude is meditation. It is being silently here now... and the whole opens up. And thousands of lotuses bloom in your being.

That fragrance transforms you. That fragrance will fill your begging bowl. You will become an emperor. You will not be a beggar any more.

This is what I would like to give to you here. But if you desire, it cannot be given. If you don't desire, it can be given. If you ask for it, you will miss. If you don't ask for it and you celebrate, you have got it already!

"IF YOU CARE," CONTINUED THE DERVISH, "TO STEP INTO THIS BOWL, IT WILL DEVOUR YOU TOO. HOW CAN A KING, THEN, HOLD HIMSELF AS BEING OF ANY ACCOUNT?"

YES, THAT"S WHAT HAPPENS REALLY. This more, this constant desire for more, this obsession for more, devours ALL that you go on collecting, and finally devours you too. That's what death is:

devoured by your own desiring, eaten up by your own hungry mind. That's what death is. Sooner or later, you will step in the bowl. That bowl is your grave.

And the dervish is right:

"YOU CARE TO STEP INTO THIS BOWL, IT WILL DEVOUR YOU TOO. HOW CAN A KING, THEN, HOLD HIMSELF AS BEING OF ANY ACCOUNT?"

"What are you talking about?" the dervish said. "Do you think yourself of any account? You cannot even fill this small begging bowl, and you think you are a king? Forget all about this nonsense. Your kingdom is not worth anything; it cannot even fill the begging bowl of a beggar. What worth does it have? Even if you step in it, you will disappear. You are less than the begging bowl of a beggar.

What nonsense are you talking about that you are of some account? You are not."

A man becomes only of some account when he stops desiring. The moment you stop desiring, you are yourself. Suddenly you become awakened to your innermost being.

A famous ancient parable:

Once ten men forded a swift and dangerous river. Upon reaching the shore, they counted to see if all had arrived safely. But each man could count but nine. A passerby, hearing their wailing over the loss of a comrade, counted the men and discovered there were ten. He then asked each man to count, and when he counted, he counted only nine. The stranger touched him oh the chest and said, "YOU ARE THE TENTH!"

That's the function of a Master: to put his hand on your heart and to say to you, "You are the tenth!"

You go on searching everywhere, except in your own being. You count everybody else, but then it only comes up to nine, one is missing. And you can go on looking for that one for ever and ever, and you will not find - because THAT ONE IS YOU!

A man becomes an emperor the moment he finds himself.

In the same way, a great scientist, A.S. Eddington, says: "We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origin. At last we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the footprint. And, lo! It is our own."

You are the tenth. If this simple key becomes available to you, you are the emperor. Then all the treasures of life are open for you, and all the mysteries therein.

But everybody is rushing to find where it is... and it is inside you The I ought is not outside, the sought is in the seeker. The God is not outside, the God is in the seeker. Seek, and you will seek in vain. Stop seeking, and look within, and you have found it: And, lo! It is our own footprint.

The tenth is missing, and the tenth is you.