A Stranger to Yourself

Religion is a radical change of vision. It is not just a change of outlook. It is not just a change of ideology - it is a change of the very being itself. Hence it is radical - radical means of the roots.

Religion is not a kind of renovation it is discontinuity from the past, it is a quantum leap Hence it is a revolution It is not just evolution You don't grow from irreligion into religion, you can't prow It is not a growth at all.

Growth implies the old has remained - not only that it has not gone: it has become i proved. It is more sophisticated now, more cultured, more decorated, more valuable.

Religion is not a renovation. It is a death! and a rebirth.

Ibrahim was a great king. Religion came to him as a death and a rebirth. One night, he was just tossing and turning in his bed - as rich people, kings, are bound to. Sleep was far away. Sleep is a prerogative of the poor, the privilege of the poor. Only The poor can afford sleep. They have nothing to worry ah out, that's why.

Ibrahim was a great king. A thousand and one worries were always waiting. He had been suffering from sleeplessness for years. Physicians had been of no help. Suddenly he heard somebody walking on the roof of the palace. Naturally, he became afraid. Kings are very frightened people.

When you have, you have to be afraid - the fear of losing it. Those who don't have may be fearless; but those who have, how can they be fearless? He became afraid... maybe some enemy, some spy.

He shouted loudly, 'Who is there?'

And the man laughed, and the laughter was either of a madman or of a Buddha. Because only two kinds of people can laugh that laughter - laughter that comes from the very belly, laughter that has no politics in it, laughter that is not manipulated, laughter that is not managed by the mind. Laughter that comes from the deepest core of one's being.

A child can laugh like that, or a madman, or a Buddha. Ibrahim was more shaken. He said, "Who are you there? and why are you laughing? Answer the question: who are you there and what are you doing there?"

And the strange man said, "Don't be worried. I have lost my camel and I am looking for it."

Now, camels are not lost on the roofs of palaces. How can they reach there? "The man must be mad, utterly mad." Ibrahim called the guards, told them to catch hold of this man, but they could not get him. They tried hard, but he was not found anywhere. He simply disappeared. As suddenly as he had appeared, he suddenly disappeared.

The king could not sleep. His other worries were there, now this new worry was there: "Who is this man? And what did he want? And why did he laugh? And his answer is a puzzle."

The next day, when he was sitting in his court on his throne, he was still thinking of the strange laughter. It was such a laughter that you could not forget easily. It had that ring of mysteriousness around it. It had penetrated deep down into the very heart of Ibrahim. He had even felt many times jealous - he was not capable of that kind of laughter, that wild, spontaneous laughter. And was the man joking?

And then suddenly he heard the same voice at the gate. A man was quarreling with the gate guard, and the voice was exactly the same. And the man was saying, in a very authoritative way, "I want to stay in this house - this is a serai!" And the guard was trying to convince him: "This is not a serai - this is the palace of the king, his personal residence!"

But the man persisted, and so loudly that even the king could hear what was going on. And the man was saying, "This IS a serai. And don't try to be fool me!"

The king asked the guard, "Bring the man in. Maybe he is the man who was searching for his camel in the night on the roof. Now he is calling my palace, my personal residence, a serai - a free house for people to stay in. Bring him in."

The man was brought in. Not only did his voice have the ring of authority, not only was his laughter that of a madman or of a Buddha - his very presence was radiant, luminous. His eyes were aflame with something unknown. He was no ordinary man. The way he walked in, Ibrahim felt, "He looks more like an emperor than I do - his grace, his elegance." And he was a beggar! His clothes were just in tatters, but behind those clothes was a radiant being. Something divine! Something very rare that only happens once in a while. The king felt great awe.

He stuttered. He said, "Why? What are you saying to my guard? And how can you say that this is a serai. This is not! This is my personal house. Are you mad or something?"

And the man laughed again, the same laughter, and he said, "What nonsense are you talking about?

This is a serai - because once I had come before too and on this throne, the same throne, I had found somebody else. And he was also saying that this is HIS personal residence. Where is that man?"

Ibrahim said, "You must be mad - he was my father. Now he is dead. I have inherited his kingdom and his palace."

And the man said, "But I had come once more also, even before that, and there was another man, and he had also claimed that this is his personal house. I have been coming many times, and I always find a NEW man claiming."

Ibrahim said, "That was my grandfather." But now Ibrahim could feel the truth of the man's statement, what he was trying to show.

And the man laughed again and he said, "Still you say this is your personal house, your personal residence? People go on changing... one day I came, I found A; another day I came, I found B; today I have come, I have found C. And tomorrow, I say to you, I will come and you will NOW be here! That's why I say this is a serai."

The truth was so dear and so loud. It was not only a question of Ibrahim's being convinced ideologically, philosophically, no - existentially he was converted. He fell at the feet of that beggar and said, "You stay in the serai - I am going. I have renounced it all. Once I have understood that this is a serai, then what am I doing here? Then I have to search for my home. So I go on my search and you can stay here. And I am grateful to you."

This is how religion came to Ibrahim; he never looked back. He simply went out of the palace, out of the capital, out of the kingdom. Never looked back. It was not a renunciation calculated, clever, cunning; it was not renunciation out of mind. It was existential. It was not because: Unless you renounce the world you will not find God. No. There was no logic in it. It was not a calculated step.

All calculated steps are cunning. And you cannot reach God by your cunningness.

Calculation is arithmetic, logic, but it is not love. And the door to God is not logic but love. Calculation is of the mind, and the mind is the barrier. You are disconnected from God by your mind. You cannot be connected through it. One has to drop it. And one has to drop it suddenly, not gradually. When you drop it gradually, you are simply saying that you are not yet existentially convinced.

When you come across a snake on the path, you don't gradually move away - you simply jump!

It is an existential question. You don't philosophically meditate over it, whether jumping is right or not: "How to jump? Whom to consult? What scriptures to follow? What maps will be helpful?"

No - you simply jump! You don't give a single moment's time for the mind to function. Action comes spontaneously and totally. And when action is total, it is revolutionary. And when action is spontaneous, it is religious - then it is revolution, then it is a radical change of vision.

When your house is on fire, you simply run out of it! You don't ponder over the matter about the pros and cons. You don't take calculated steps. You forget all formalities, etiquette. You may be taking a bath, you may be naked, and if the house is on fire, you simply run out of the house naked. You completely forget that this is not right. You don't have time.

Mind needs time. Spontaneity is timeless. Religion is a timeless transformation.

This is the first thing to understand: that religion is not a change of outlook, but a change in insight.

It is seeing the world in a totally new way, an utterly new way. It is rebirth. It is not a change of your philosophy; your stupid philosophies have no meaning. Religion is not philosophical at all. Religion is absolutely non-philosophical. It does not think about truth: it lives it.

Philosophy is an exorcise in futility. Jean-Paul Sartre has said: "Man is a useless passion." I don't agree. Man is not a useless passion, but philosophy is. Philosophy is a useless passion.

I have heard:

Visiting his famous philosopher friend's house, a man observed a beautiful picture frame on the wall.

But there was no picture in it - just the bare frame. He asked his philosopher friend, "What is the meaning of this framed blank canvas?"

The philosopher said, "Oh, that's a very special picture of the Egyptians chasing the Israelites across the Red Sea."

Scratching his head, the questioner responded, "But I just don't understand, actually, where the Red Sea is in the picture."

"The waters have already parted to allow the Israelites to cross," said the friend.

"Is that so? Well, then, just where are the Israelites?"

"They have already passed over to the other side of the sea."

"Oh, I understand. Well, where are the Egyptians who are chasing the Israelites?"

"Ah ha!" the friend replied, "they haven't yet arrived!"

Philosophy is just an empty canvas. You can imagine a thousand and one things on it, but in fact there is nothing. You can imagine gods, hells, heavens; you can imagine a thousand and one things. It is all imagination. It is day-dreaming. And you can also find reasons, arguments, proofs, for whatsoever you say. You can even make people silent by your arguments. But philosophy remains an exercise in futility.

Religion is existential. It is non-philosophic. It is not thinking about God: it is experiencing God. It has nothing to do with about and about. Its approach is direct. It does not go in rounds. It simply hits the target. It moves like an arrow, straight.

Jesus says to his disciples: "Straight and narrow is my way." Straight... the shortest distance between two points - that is the meaning of 'straight'. Philosophy is zigzag, the LONGEST distance between two points - that's what philosophy is. Religion is the SHORTEST distance between two points, the straight line, absolutely straight. It does not waste a single moment in unnecessary questions.

And it is narrow. Why narrow? Because only one can walk on it. Religion is absolutely personal.

You cannot take your wife with you or your children with you. You cannot move in crowds. Hence, crowds are never religious. You may call those crowds Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian - crowds are never religious. The very psychology of the crowd is political, it is never religious. Only individuals are religious.

A Buddha is religious, but Buddhists are not. A Krishna is religious, but Hindus are not. A Christ is religious, but Christians are not. What are Christians then? They have created a politics in the name of religion. The mob mind always creates politics. It is ambitious, imitative, mediocre.

The religious person moves alone. He is not a sheep: he is a lion. He moves alone. Hence the path is straight AND narrow. You cannot have your friends with you. The deeper you go in your being the more alone you are. When you reach to the innermost core of your being, you will be alone there. Absolutely alone. There will not even be a God separate from you - you will be God... AHAM BRAHMASMI, ANA'L HAQ. There from your very ground of being arises the feeling: I am God, I am the truth - I am the real.

God is never encountered as an object. You find him as the center of your subjectivity. The path is really narrow.

Kabir has said: PREM GALI ATI SANKARI, TAMAI DO NA SAMAYA - the path of love is very narrow, it cannot contain two. Lovers become one. If there is love, they become one. If there is no love, they remain two.

The path to God is love. The path to God is not mind, logic, argumentation, philosophy. It is intuitive.

It is of the heart.

You can change your philosophy but it will not change you. You will remain the same. I have seen Christians becoming Hindus, Hindus becoming Christians, and I have not seen any change at all.

You can go to the church or to the temple or to the GURUDWARA - how is it going to make any change in you? The one who goes remains the same. The church changes, the structure of the building is different, but the structure of the mind that goes to the church or to the temple is the same. You bow down to Krishna or you bow down to Mahavir - Mahavir and Krishna are irrelevant.

The one who is bowing down, the structure of his mind, the pattern of his mind - that's the question.

That's why I say religion is not a change of outlook but a revolution in insight.

A merchant moved down youth from New York into one of the backwater towns. He seemed to be doing rather well, but then at about the beginning of April, the sales started to slacken very noticeably.

Sam Cohen pondered and pondered about the cause of the decline in business. Suddenly he realized, as he walked the streets, that every other establishment on Main Street had an Easter sign out front and that all the windows were especially dressed for the holiday.

Sam was in a quandary. He was a religious Jew - how could he, in good conscience, pay obeisance to Easter? He was up all night thinking. The next mowing he arose and his face was beaming. He had worked out the solution.

That afternoon, Cohen's general store also contained an Easter sign. It read: "Christ is risen, but Cohen's prices are still the same."

Outwardly you can change a thousand and one things... but Cohen's prices are the SAME. Christ may have risen, let him rise - that is none of Cohen's business. His prices remain the same. Watch your own life. You have also changed many times ideologically - but have you really changed? Has any radical change happened to you? Don't go on changing formalities! That is just a pretension and a deception. And remember, you are not deceiving anybody else - you are only deceiving yourself.

Become Ibrahim, become a man like Ibrahim. A sudden light-ning... and he saw the point. And the point has always to be seen that way. Of course, it needs courage, it needs guts. That's why I say religion is not for the cowards - it is for the courageous.

This man must have been of immense courage. He proved that he was an emperor. He proved that he was not an ordinary man. He proved that he had intelligence. Intelligence is always quick.

Intelligence can see things immediately. Only mediocre minds go on thinking and thinking and never come to any conclusions. And even if they come to conclusions, those conclusions remain of the mind - they never change their existence. They remain superficial. They never change their basic, fundamental structure. They never change their gestalt.

I have heard - a very ancient story:

There was a great church. The church was very old, it was falling. It had to be supported from every side. And the rains were coming. And the people who used to go to the church were very much afraid even to go into it - it could fall any moment it was so ancient. Just a stronger wind and it used to shake and tremble.

But they were much attached to it, as people are always attached to old things - the nostalgia, the past, the golden past. People are very much attached to the rotten, to the dead, to the old. Hence they remain rotten, dead and old. People are very much attached to the past. That's why they don't live really - they are already in their graves.

But now something had to be done, because the worshipers had stopped coming. The trustees had a meeting. Of course, not inside the church - outside, far away from the church, under a tree, they met. Very reluctantly they passed a resolution - in fact they passed four resolutions in sequence.

The first resolution was "We decide - very reluctantly, against our will - that the old church has to be dismantled. Second resolution - passed unanimously, that too very reluctantly - that we pass that we have to build a new church. And third - also passed unanimously - that we will make the new church exactly like ,he old; in fact we will use all the material of the old church for the new church; we will not use any new thing in the new church. All the bricks and the doors and the windows and the glass of the old church have to be used in the new church. We will make it an exact replica of the old. We will make it exactly in the same place, on the same foundations. And fourth resolution - and that too passed unanimously - that until the new is built, we will not dismantle the old."

This is how people live - a dull, mediocre life, a dusty, lifeless existence. Always afraid to change.

Religion requires courage, because it is revolution. It is the revolution. All other revolutions are just called revolutions - they are not, because they are superficial. Communist, socialist, fascist - all other revolutions are superficial. They don't touch the intrinsic quality of the man. They leave the man intact; the man remains the same: as jealous as before, as possessive as before, as ignorant as before, as stupid as before... they don't touch the man at all. They only change things in the outside world, in the social structure.

The real revolution is religion, because it changes the intrinsic subjectivity of man - it changes consciousness. But for that, courage is needed. One has to be a man of guts, a man like Ibrahim.

SECOND: RELIGION IS renunciation of all that which belongs to the ego. It is not really renunciation of the world: it is renunciation of the world that the ego creates. A great misunderstanding exists:

people think the religious person has to renounce the world. How can you renounce the world?

Wherever you will be you will be in the world - in the marketplace or in the mountains. How can you renounce the world? You cannot go out of it. And who are you to renounce it? It is GOD'S world.

HE has created it - how can you renounce it? Who are you? You are not the master of it. You can renounce only that of which you are the master.

I have heard:

A full-moon night, and two hippies were sitting under a tree, stoned. The full moon in the night...

and one hip pie looked at the moon and said, "I would like to purchase this beautiful thing."

The other said, "But I am not willing to sell it, so forget all about it!"

How can you renounce the world? It is yours? Just see the foolishness of the very idea of renouncing the world. All that can be renounced is the world that your ego has created. You cannot renounce things, but you can renounce possessiveness. You cannot renounce the world, but you can renounce the idea that "I own it." You can only renounce this false egoistic trip.

Religion is renunciation of the false, that really does not exist at all - of the ego, of knowledge, of prejudices, of expectations, of desires. Yes, religion is renunciation of all these things - these are your creations - but not renunciation of the world. Not renunciation of the trees and the people, and the moon and the sun. Who are you to renounce them? You can renounce only that which you have dreamt. You can renounce only the illusory. You can renounce only your illusions. And these are all your illusions - prejudices, theories, dogmas, ideologies, opinions, desires. These are your creations - etcetera, etcetera...

I have heard:

Courageous liberator of five countries, Simon Bolivar, was a man of bold daring, and the people of South America loved him.

On one campaign, Bolivar planned to spend the night in a nearby town. A military assistant sent a note ahead to the owner of that town's hotel, requesting for his leader "A room with special accommodations, food, etc., etc., etc."

At nightfall, Bolivar went to the hotel and was treated to a specially prepared meal. Afterwards, the hotel keeper showed the great liberator the hotel's finest room, and Bolivar indicated he was pleased.

Then the Venezuelan was ushered into yet another room - in which sat three beautiful naked girls.

Bolivar turned to his host and asked who the girls were.

"The senoritas?" the hotel keeper said. "They are the three etcetera".

So please don't misunderstand my etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I am using etcetera because each mind fabricates its own illusory world. Somebody lives in greed, somebody lives in anger. Somebody lives in passion, somebody has no desire for sex but is mad after money. Money is his sexual passion. Somebody lives only to love people - his love is for people - and there are people whose love is only for things. It is a kind of perversion.

There are as many perverted worlds in the world as there are minds. That's why I am saying etcetera, etcetera, etcetera... they cannot be counted; they are uncountable. Each mind fabricates, secretes its own dreamy world. And all that is meant by renouncing it is to be awake and dream no more.

That's why Ibrahim didn't look back. He never talked about it. He never claimed that he had renounced the kingdom - never in his whole life. That is real renunciation. If after you renounce something you claim that you have renounced, then this is not real renunciation - you are still clinging; you are still holding the idea that it was yours and you have renounced it and you have done some great favor to God.

Ibrahim never talked about it. He moved amongst beggars; he lived like a beggar. Nobody knew about it, that he had been an emperor. Once renounced, if renunciation is out of understanding, you never mention it - it is finished! There is nothing to mention. It was a dream! In the mowing you wake up and you don't go on talking about your dreams. Within seconds they are forgotten. Just like that, he woke up.

And who was the man who walked on the roof and suddenly disappeared? And who was the man who was fighting with the guard and wanted to stay in the serai, and was insisting "This is not a palace"? Sufis have a special name for him - they call him Khidr. Khidr simply means your innermost guide; it is not an outer phenomenon. It is not somebody outside - it is your own inner still small voice. If you are silent, you will hear it. If you are honest, you will hear it. If you are sincere, you cannot miss hearing it.

Ibrahim was a sincere man, a very honest man, was trying to live as authentically as possible. It was his own inner voice! This is just a parable - because when the inner for the first time speaks to you it seems as if it is outer.

The outer Master only helps your inner guide. That's all. The outer Master is only a mirror so that you can see your inner. The outer Master functions only as a catalytic agent. Hearing his voice, seeing his being, being in his presence, something is triggered, and slowly slowly your inner Master takes possession of you.

The real Master - the Perfect Master - never makes you de-pendent on him. And if any Master makes people dependent, if any Master creates dependence in people, if he makes people de- pendent on him, he is not a true Master. He is a kind of exploiter; he is trying to dominate you in the name of religion. He is trying to enslave you; he is a jail or - he cannot give you freedom. He will depend on you. Whosoever wants you to be dependent on him, depends on you, remember. The master is a slave of his own slave. And the man who possesses things is possessed by his things.

And only one who does not need you, who is not dependent on you, can help you to be independent - and that is the function of a Master.

Just the other day, somebody asked, "I em in need of a Master." I told him, he may have even felt hurt, "You may be in need of a Master, but I am not in any need of disciples." He may have felt hurt; he may have misunderstood it.

Somebody has written a letter to me saying, "Osho, you were too hard on the man!" I was not. I was simply being true. And sometimes truth is bitter. If I need disciples, then I will not be able to make you independent; then I will make you more and more dependent on me - you are my need. No, I don't need you! My whole function here is to help you to be yourself.

My whole function is to be a catalytic agent to you. You are not able to contact your own inner Khidr, your own inner guide. I am in contact with my own inner guide. Being with me, you can learn the knack of it - that's all. Once you have learnt the knack of it,.you will be surprised: my voice and the voice of your inner Master is the same.

Just the other day, Maneesha had asked a question: How to know whether a sannyasin is a real sannyasin or not? This is the way to know - when, slowly slowly, you start feeling it, that what I say to you is also your inner voice, then you are a true sannyasin. When, slowly, my voice and your inner voice are never separate, are never different... maybe you cannot hear it, or you hear it in a vague way. You cannot see it dearly, or you see it through a dark curtain, but when I show it to you, suddenly it becomes dear to you, then it is no more vague, then the dark curtain is removed.

You will know whether you are a real sannyasin or not only by this criterion. When you start feeling the synchronicity between me and you, when there is a constant communion, then you are coming closer and closer. You are becoming more and more real.

At the ultimate point, there is no difference between the Master and the disciple. Not at all! What the Master says is what the disciple would have said. The Master may be more articulate - he is.

He sings the song that the disciple has also heard but is not yet able to sing. It is a distant music.

But the moment the Master sings it, it comes closer and closer. Every day it happens.

That's why I go on speaking to you. It is not to impart knowledge, no, not at all. It is just to trigger the process so your inner guide starts functioning. Then you will be surprised: you ask a question, and you also have the answer, immediately. And when I give you the answer, you will be surprised - it is exactly the same as you had heard it.

These are the criterions. Slowly slowly, you will find you are becoming truer and truer, more and more a sannyasin, more and more a disciple. There are no outer criterions; it is an inner process.

And you cannot judge anybody else. You can judge only yourself. And go on evaluating yourself daily, how much closer you are coming.

When the voice of the Master is your voice, then you have arrived home. Then you are in tune with the inner Master. That inner Master Sufis call 'Khidr'.

It was Khidr who walked on the roof. It was Khidr who knocked on the door and insisted.

And third, before we enter into this beautiful story: religion is innocence, it is trust, it is faith. It is trust in the whole and the goodness of the whole. It is a let-go, it is surrender. The moment Ibrahim moved out of his palace, he lived a surrendered life. Now he had no idea where to go, what to do.

Now he had no idea of his own - no direction, no desire. Now he was utterly in the hands of God.

This is what a Sufi has to be: in the hands of God.

It is said of Ibrahim:

One day he fell into the river, just slipped. It was muddy and it had rained, and he slipped and fell into the river. A few people were watching. They inquired, "Can you swim or not? Should we come?"

He said, "Just wait - wait as I am waiting." And he wouldn't swim, and he wouldn't try to come out of the river, and he started drowning, and somebody said, "Are you mad or what? If you don't know how to swim, we can come!"

He said, "You wait! just as I am waiting... if he wants to save me he will save. If he does not want to save me, who am I to bother to be saved?"

This is trust.

Mohammed used to distribute all that his disciples would bring as gifts to him - by the evening he would distribute all. That had been his whole life's practice. But the night he was dying, his wife was, naturally, afraid, apprehensive: "Maybe in the middle of the night the physician has to be called, or some medicine has to be purchased..." Just five DINERS - five rupees - she saved.

In the middle of the night, Mohammed, who had never been restless in his life, became very restless.

The wife said, "Should we call the physician?"

He said, "It is not a question of the physician. It seems something is wrong around me; something that has never been before. Something is new! What is it? I cannot figure it out. Do you know?"

The wife was feeling guilty - she had saved five rupees. She said, "Just one thing is new: I have saved five rupees, in case in the middle of the night we need it."

Mohammed said, "Then it must be that. You just go out and give those five rupees to somebody."

But she said, "In the middle of the night, whom am I going to find outside? There will be no beggar in the middle of the night."

Mohammed said, "You just go! and trust him."

She went out... and a beggar was standing there. And he said, "I have forgotten the way. I was going to some other town and I have entered into this strange place. And I have nowhere to stay and no money for food, and I have been hungry for three days. Can you help me?"

She gave those five rupees to the man. She came in and Mohammed said, "Do you see? If a man can come in the middle of the night to take five rupees, if we need he will send somebody to give money to us - you don't be worried. You mistrusted, you distrusted - that was my restlessness."

He became calm again. He covered his face with the blanket, and it is said immediately he left the body, in utter silence, in utter grace. That small thing was hindering... something was coming between him and God.

Sufism is based on trust. Ibrahim left the palace, trusted God, lived according to him. Wherever he led, he went; whatever he wanted, he did. On his own he disappeared. And this is how a religious person has to be. On one's own one has to disappear. The moment you are not, God takes possession of you.

And you are misery, and God is bliss. You are emptiness, and God is fullness. Unless you are gone, utterly gone, you will remain empty. Unless you are gone, utterly gone, you will remain miserable.

You cannot be blissful: you are misery. Your presence is misery: your absence is all that is needed on the path of Sufism - FAN A they call it. Disappear! Don't be: let God be.

Now, this beautiful parable:

IT IS RELATED THAT THE SUFI MASTER, IBRAHIM BEN ADAM, WAS SITTING ONE DAY IN A FOREST CLEARING WHEN TWO WANDERING DERVISHES APPROACHED HIM. HE MADE THEM WELCOME, AND THEY TALKED OF SPIRITUAL MATTERS UNTIL IT WAS DUSK.

FIRST THING: a SUFI IS ALWAYS IN THE STATE OF SITTING - even when he is walking, even when he is running. He is always in that inner state of sitting, what Zen people call 'sitting in Zen,' what they call 'zazen' - just sitting and doing nothing. And the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.

The Sufi's whole effort is not to move - not to move in desire, because that is real movement. First desire moves or you move in desire, and then other movements follow. The Sufi sits; deep inside he is always sitting. Even while walking he is not going anywhere. He is doing God's work, but in his own being he is just meditating. There is no desire for any movement. There is no effort to become anything - that is the meaning of sitting: no becoming - he is being. He is not trying to be more rich; he is not trying to be more pious, he is not trying to be more religious either, he is not trying to be more ascetic, he is not trying anything. He is simply relaxing in his being - that is sitting.

It is a special state. And whenever you come to a really religious person you will find it. Even walking, he does not walk. He remains still. Even talking, he does not talk - he remains silent. This is the paradox of the religious man. Eating, he does not eat. Sleeping, he does not sleep.. These things go on only on the surface , on the periphery. In the center noodling ever happens. In the center it is always the same.

IT IS RELATED THAT THE SUFI MASTER, IBRAHIM BEN ADAM, WAS SITTING ONE DAY IN A FOREST CLEARING WHEN TWO WANDERING DERVISHES APPROACHED HIM. HE MADE THEM WELCOME...

And a Sufi is a welcome to all. His heart is always in a state of welcome. He knows nothing else; he knows only welcoming, because he knows only God comes. Forms may be millions, but it is always God who comes to you. He may come as a breeze, or he may come as rains, or he may come-as a fragrance of a flower, or he may come as a person. He may come as day or as night, as summer, as winter, but it is always God who comes because there is nobody else. Hence the Sufi remains always in a state of welcome.

HE MADE THEM WELCOME, AND THEY TALKED OF SPIRITUAL MATTERS UNTIL IT WAS DUSK.

This is SATSANG. When Sufis meet, they talk about God, they talk about love, they talk about prayer - they create a milieu, they create a certain climate. When you meet you also talk, you also create a certain climate - you gossip about people, you condemn people, you talk about politics - you talk about things which are useless. And, of course, whatsoever you talk about creates you. Either poisons you or nourishes you.

All your talk is poisoning. Watch: when you meet with people what do you talk about? Remember, only talk about something higher. Talk about something that can become a nourishment. Talk about divine things! Talk about things of the beyond. They will create a climate around you; they will create a certain energy around you, they will create a vise. And what-soever you talk about, you listen to, you become. Slowly, it becomes a transforming force.

So, when Sufis meet, when devotees meet, BHAKTAS meet, they talk about God. Nothing else matters. All is childish - all else is childish. A mature person only talks of higher values - of good, of truth, of beauty. They sing songs, mad songs of love for God. They drink from each other's being and become drunk. They help each other. And it is of immense value.

When there are a few persons sitting together, sharing their inner experiences, they start riding on each other's waves; a tidal wave is created and they become complementary to each other. You may be missing something; it may have happened to some-body else - his insight may bring a light to you. You may have been doing something wrong, and somebody else has done something else, and it has helped, it has worked.

Let this be so for my sannyasins too. Stop talking of worldly things, of film actors and actresses and politicians - which are even worse. Don't gossip. Discuss gospel. Meditate over what Jesus has said, what Buddha has said. Tell stories of these strange visitors to the earth. Talk about these strange revolutions in consciousness. Talk about Buddha and Krishna and Mohammed and Lao Tzu and Zarathustra, and you will be immensely enriched.

Create a milieu of the spiritual.

AS SOON AS NIGHT FELL, IBRAHIM INVITED THE TRAVELERS TO BE HIS GUESTS AT A MEAL. IMMEDIATELY THEY ACCEPTED, A TABLE LAID WITH THE FINEST OF FOODS APPEARED BEFORE THEIR EYES.

Remember, this is a parable. This is simply an indication, a way of saying, that God cares for those who trust in him - that's all. Don't take it literally. Great misunderstanding arises when you start taking things literally. Then you become very much concerned about meaningless things: whether Jesus walked on water or not; whether he created wine out of water or not; whether he made unhealthy people healthy or not; whether he called Lazarus out of his grave and revived him or not.... You become interested in stupid things. These are parables.

Jesus certainly made people whole and healthy - he gave eyes to those who had none, he gave ears to those who had never heard a thing. He CERTAINLY revived people out of their graves - that's where everybody is living. It is not only a question of Lazarus: you are also in the same situation, living in a grave. He certainly resurrected dead people. But these are parables!

To hear is not to listen - he helped people to hear AND to listen. To see just as you see is not enough, because with these eyes you can see only matter and the essential is missed, the spiritual is missed. He made people able to see the spiritual. He helped people to see the invisible - and that is the only point worth seeing.

If there is anything worth seeing, it is God. And those who have not seen God, they are all blind.

If there is anything worth hearing, it is a Buddha, or a Lao Tzu - and those who have not heard a Buddha, they are deaf. And if there is any life, it is to live moment-to-moment in trust, in love, in joy, in celebration, in prayer, in thankfulness.

In short: to live means to live in God - consciously, totally. And those who are not living that way, they are dead. They are WORSE than dead! because they THINK they live, and they are not alive.

They are not yet even born. They are only seeds, potential but not actual. A Jesus has to happen to them, a Master has to happen to them, only then will they fall in the soil. A gardener is needed - only then will the seed die and be born as a tree. And then there will be great rejoicing, great flowering, and great fulfillment, great fruition.

So never become literal. About religion that is one of the dangers, that people take it literally.

Followers, believers take it literally, and those who are against, they also take it literally. Both are agreed upon that point. I insist again and again: never take religious parables literally - they are far more true than literal facticity. And always remember: facts are nothing - truth is far more profound.

Truth is there.... For example, in this story:

AS SOON AS NIGHT FELL, IBRAHIM INVITED THE TRAVELERS TO BE HIS GUESTS AT A MEAL. IMMEDIATELY THEY ACCEPTED, A TABLE LAID WITH THE FINEST OF FOODS APPEARED BEFORE THEIR EYES.

Ibrahim is not a magician. What is meant by this sudden appearance of the finest food? It is not a fact: it is a truth. A fact is a very poor thing, a momentary thing. An event is just a momentary thing.

It is not historical, it is metaphorical. It is a truth. Yes, God cares for those who relax themselves; God cares for those who remain in a let-go.

Food is just a symbol of nourishment: God is a mother to those who have renounced their egos, those who have become again like small children - then God takes care. Existence is not indifferent to you. If you trust existence, existence takes every care of you.

This is the truth! And this truth has to be told in such ways that people can understand. Hence, truth has always been clothed in parables. Parables can be remembered, stories people enjoy, stories people tell to each other; even children can understand them. They have many layers of meaning.

Children can under-stand them, and even the wisest of the wise may not be able to understand them totally, absolutely. This is the beauty of a parable. Everybody can understand it on his own level of being.

God is nourishment. God is care. God is motherly.

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A DERVISH?" ONE OF THEM ASKED IBRAHIM.

A WRONG QUESTION, SYMBOLIC OF A WRONG MIND. Religion is not a question of time, not a question of 'how long' - it is a question of depth. How intense? How deep? It can happen in a single moment. And it may not happen in centuries or in many lives. Time is irrelevant. Time does not count. The heart counts.

See the wrong question:

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A DERVISH?"

They are very much impressed. Such a miracle! Foolish people are always impressed by wrong things. They have missed the point - they have missed the point of trust. They have brought the question of time. What does trust have to do with riffle?

This is my observation. I have been observing thousands and thousands of seekers from all over the world. Somebody comes, and IN A SINGLE MOMENT there is a transformation. In a single moment life takes a jump. And then somebody else remains for years and goes on remaining the same.

It is not a question of time. Never think in terms of time. Think in terms of intensity, of totality. Time is again a mind question. The heart knows no time. The heart knows only now. Only the mind knows time: past, future, present... the mind knows time.

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A DERVISH?" ONE OF THEM ASKED IBRAHIM. "TWO YEARS,"

HE SAID.

This is a symbolic answer. Sufis talk of two steps. There are only two steps to reach the ultimate.

And one has to be taken by the seeker and the other is taken by God himself. So for you there is only one step. If you take one step, the other is taken by God. And what step does one have to take? One has to be surrendered, that's all. No practice is needed. No effort is needed - because all effort is of the ego, and all practice is nothing but refinement of the ego.

That's why you will find people who cultivate character or are very disciplined, or very virtuous, have done this and that fasting and ascetic practices, and have been to the mountains and the caves, and have lived religiously - you will find a great pious ego in such people. Their humbleness is false.

True humbleness never comes out of practicing.

Only one step is enough. A sudden understanding that "I am part of the whole - why am I fighting? I come from the whole - why am I fighting? And I will be going back to the whole - why am I fighting?

I am a wave in the ocean - WHY should I fight the ocean? What is the point? The ocean mothers me, and finally I will go back to the ocean and disappear in it. For the moment I have risen, but I am not separate, so why be worried?"

Why struggle? Why bring your will into it? Surrender, relax... be with the ocean. Flow with it. This is the single step. And once you have taken this step, the other step is taken by God of his own accord. God comes only when you are in utter relaxation.

Ibrahim says symbolically: "TWO YEARS."

"I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THE SUFI PATH FOR NEARLY THREE DECADES AND NO SUCH CAPACITY AS YOU HAVE SHOWN US HAS EVER MAN TESTED ITSELF TO ME," SAID THE MAN.

He is cultivating, following the Path, for three decades. A long journey. Of course, expectations are there: "Now things should be happening. And this man has followed for only two years!"

This looks unjust.

I love an ancient Indian story:

Narada, the great Indian mystic, is going to see God. Playing on his VEENA, he passes a forest, and comes across a very old sage sitting under a tree.

The old sage says to Narada, "You are going to God - please ask one question from me. I have been making all kinds of efforts for three lives, now how much more is needed? How much longer do I have to wait? When is my liberation going to happen? You just ask him!"

Narada laughed and said, "Okay."

As he progressed, just by the side, under another tree, a young man was dancing with his EKTARA, singing, dancing - very young. May have been only thirty. Jokingly, Narada asked the young man, "Would you also like any question to be asked of God - I am going. The old man, your neighbor, has asked."

The young man did not reply. He continued his dance - as if he had not listened at all, as if he was not there at all.

After a few days, Narada came back. He told the old man, "I asked God. He said three lives more."

The old man was doing his JAPA on his beads. He threw the beads. He was in a rage. He threw the scriptures that he was keeping with him, and he said, "This is absolutely unjust! Three lives more?!"

Narada moved to the young man who was again dancing, and he said, "Although you had not answered, and you had not asked, just by the way I asked God about you too. But now I am afraid - whether to tell it to you or not? Seeing the rage of the old man, I am hesitating."

But the young man did not say anything; he continued to dance. Narada told him; "When I asked, God said, 'Tell the young man that he will have to be born AS many times as there are leaves on the tree under which he is dancing.'"

And the young man started dancing even more ecstatically, and he said, "So fast?! There are so many trees in the world and so many leaves... only this much? Only these leaves? Only this many lives? I have already attained! When you go next, thank him."

And it is said the man became liberated that very moment. That very moment he became liberated!

If there is such test, such totality of trust, time is not needed. If there is no trust, then even three lives are not enough. And my feeling is that old man must be around somewhere on the M.G. Road! He cannot have become liberated yet. Even three lives won't do. Such a mind can't become liberated.

Such a mind is what hell is.

"I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THE SUFI PATH FOR NEARLY THREE DECADES AND NO SUCH CAPACITY AS YOU HAVE SHOWN US HAS EVER MANIFESTED ITSELF TO ME," SAID THE MAN.

IBRAHIM SAID NOTHING.

Nothing can be said about these things. A real seeker is silent about what is happening. A real seeker is silently thankful. He cannot claim anything; he cannot brag about it. Ibrahim did not say a single word.

WHEN THE FOOD WAS ALMOST FINISHED, A STRANGER IN A GREEN ROBE ENTERED THE GLADE. HE SAT DOWN AND SHARED SOME OF THE FOOD.

KHIDR IS KNOWN AS THE STRANGER. It is your innermost soul, but you have become so alienated from it that it has become a stranger. The people who are strangers to you have become your wives, friends, husbands, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters - the people who are strangers to you. And the REAL person inside you has become a stranger. Everything is topsy-turvy. You don't know who you are, and you know everything else. You have great knowledge about the world, and no acquaintance with yourself. Hence, Khidr is known as The Stranger.

When for the first time your inner guide speaks to you, you will not be able to believe that it is coming from you! You will think it is coming from somewhere else. That's why mystics think that God has spoken from the clouds, from the sky. He speaks always from your innermost core, but you have gone so far from yourself that he looks as if he is the stranger and he is coming from a very distant, distant source.

In reality, you have become a stranger to yourself.

Sufis say that Khidr is a stranger, and Sufis have chosen the color green, so Khidr uses the green robe. Just as in India we have chosen ochre, orange, as the color of the sannyasin, Sufis have chosen green as the color of THEIR sannyasins. Both are beautiful. Both have significance.

Green is the color of the trees and red is the color of the flowers. In India, we have looked to the ultimate, the flowering, and have chosen the color of the ultimate. Sufis have looked to the immediate, the color of the trees, and have chosen it. But in the final understanding, the immediate is the ultimate, and the ultimate is the immediate - because in the green is hidden the red, and the red is nothing but an expression of the green. The flower and the foliage are not separate - both are beautiful.

Khidr moves in a green robe.

HE ENTERED. HE SAT DOWN AND SHARED SOME OF THE FOOD.

ALL REALIZED BY AN INNER SENSE THAT THIS WAS KHIDR, THE IMMORTAL GUIDE OF ALL SUFIS. THEY WAITED FOR HIM TO IMPART SOME WISDOM TO THEM.

'By an inner sense' - you can understand these things only by an inner sense. If that sense is not functioning, you cannot understand at all. If you come to a Master and if you have the inner sense functioning, even if it is a little bit, you will understand. Immediate understanding will be there.

Immediately you will be bridged. But if that inner sense is not functioning, intellectually you can listen, you can try to analyze, but your understanding will remain just intellectual, poor. It will not connect you, it will not bridge you.

BY AN INNER SENSE THEY ALL REALIZED THAT THIS WAS KHIDR.

The green robe, the freshness of the green, the youth of the green, the aliveness of the green, the silence of the green... and the presence... by an inner sense, by intuition.

Remember: science is intellectual, religion is intuitive. They are basically and fundamentally different. So the man who becomes too much rooted in science becomes incapable of understanding religion. This is one of the problems modern humanity is facing. We are teaching science to every child, and, unknowingly, we are making every child incapable of understanding religion. And I am not saying don't teach science to children - science HAS immense value - but remember to teach religion TOO, so that they can keep a balance. Because science can only give them more power of the outer world - it will not give peace. Science can give riches from the outside, but it will keep them inwardly beggars.

Create a balance. Teach science, but also create an atmosphere in the schools, colleges, universities where people can meditate, pray, where people can also start growing their inner sense. Don't destroy their inner sense; otherwise, you have destroyed their humanity, you have dehumanized them. Then they will be just like robots. They will be just zombies. They will go to the office and work, they will go to the factory and work, they will produce but there will be no creativity.

They will produce, but there will be no joy. They will live and they will always wonder, "For what are we living?" They will live but there will be no meaning in their lives, no poetry in their lives.

Just look at people: they are living, but what kind of life is this? Just dragging, somehow dragging.

A great weight on their heads, and continuously feeling that the whole thing seems to be pointless, continuously feeling that all seems to be just accidental - there is no meaning. And when there is no meaning, how can there be joy and celebration?

Teach science, certainly, it is a must, but it is not a11. There is something beyond it too. Prose is good, but a man who does not know poetry is missing something of immense value. Mathematics is good, but a man who has no sensitivity for music is not a real man. Production is good, but man is not just a machine - some creativity some creative expression is needed. And that always comes through the inner sense.

ALL REALIZED BY AN INNER SENSE THAT THIS WAS KHIDR, THE IMMORTAL GUIDE OF ALL SUFIS. THEY WAITED FOR HIM TO IMPART SOME WISDOM TO THEM.

One has to wait for wisdom. One cannot ask for it. If you ask, you will get only knowledge. Wait, and wait patiently. Wisdom comes only when you are ripe. Wisdom comes of its own accord. God gives you only that much which you can contain and absorb - never more. They waited....

WHEN HE STOOD UP TO LEAVE, KHIDR SIMPLY SAID, "YOU TWO DERVISHES WONDER ABOUT IBRAHIM. BUT WHAT HAVE YOU RENOUNCED TO FOLLOW THE DERVISH PATH?

"You have not renounced anything. You are the same person. You are continuous with your past. There has been no breakthrough" - renunciation means a breakthrough - "What have you renounced?

" YOU GAVE UP THE EXPECTATIONS OF SECURITY AND AN ORDINARY LIFE.

"Yes, you have given something - just your dreams, expectations of security - and an ordinary life.

You had nothing to give. Religion has been cheap for you. You have not paid any price for it.

"IBRAHIM HEN ADAM WAS A MIGHTY KING, AND THREW AWAY THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SULTANATE OF BALKH TO BECOME A SUFI. THIS IS WHY HE IS FAR AHEAD OF YOU. DURING YOUR THIRTY YEARS, TOO, YOU HAVE GAINED SATISFACTIONS THROUGH RENUNCIATION ITSELF. THUS HAS BEEN YOUR PAYMENT. HE HAS ALWAYS ABSTAINED FROM CLAIMING ANY PAYMENT FOR HIS SACRIFICE." AND THE NEXT MOMENT, KHIDR WAS GONE.

Remember these words:

"YOU GAVE UP THE EXPECTATIONS OF SECURITY AND AN ORDINARY LIFE.

"You have not given up anything special. You had nothing. And you have given these things, which are nothing, with great expectation for other-worldly rewards. And you have been waiting for those rewards. Your renunciation is motivated. It is out of greed."

People are religious either out of greed or out of fear, and then they are not truly religious.

"IBRAHIM WAS A MIGHTY KING, AND THREW AWAY THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SULTANATE OF BALKH TO BECOME A SUFI."

"... AND THREW AWAY..." Listen to the words! He had not even renounced - he THREW it away.

When you renounce, you think it has some great value. You make much fuss about it. He simply threw it away! Seeing that it has no meaning, seeing the falsity of it, he simply threw it away.

The renunciation of Ibrahim is of immense significance - he never looked back. He forgot all about it, as if it had never existed at all.

"THIS IS WHY HE IS FAR AHEAD OF YOU."

God takes care of him. His trust is infinite.

"AND DURING YOUR THIRTY YEARS, TOO, YOU HAVE GAINED SATISFACTIONS THROUGH RENUNCIATION ITSELF.

"And you have been bragging around. And you have been talking about your renunciation. And you have not renounced anything! In fact, those who talk about renunciation have not renounced anything. Those who have really renounced don't talk about it. But you have been gaining satisfactions out of it, claiming that you are great sannyasins, Sufis. You have been gaining the respect of people, respectability; you have been worshipped, you have become famous, you are known as well-known dervishes.... Nobody knows about Ibrahim. You have been fulfilling your ego, so that is your price.

"THIS HAS BEEN YOUR PAYMENT. HE HAS ALWAYS ABSTAINED FROM CLAIMING ANY PAYMENT FOR HIS SACRIFICE.

"When the sacrifice is out of pure love, it claims nothing. It is sheer joy in giving. He has given all to God in sheer joy, in the understanding that 'It really belongs to him - it never belonged to me.' It is not that he has obliged God. It is not that he has done anything great... he has not done anything!

He has simply understood a truth. And in that understanding, great love has arisen in him. That love makes one a Sufi."

There are two kinds of love: the love of a man for his wife, for his beloved, which ought properly to express itself in secret and not where spectators are, for this love can only fulfill itself in a place secluded from other creatures; and the love for brothers and sisters and for children and friends and comrades and companions, which needs no concealment.

Similarly, Sufis say there are two kinds of love for God: the love through prayer and meditation - this love ought properly to be consummated in silence, in privacy, just as you love your beloved; and that love that expresses through action and service to others.

The man of God, a Sufi - the word 'sufi' comes from SUFA; SUFA means purity, cleanliness, clarity - the man of inner purity lives love in two dimensions. One is the private dimension, utterly private, personal, intimate, just as you love your woman or your man - in seclusion. You don't want it to be public. To make it public will be profane, trill be sacrilegious, will be a crime. In meditation, in prayer, the Sufi contacts God in absolute privacy.

Sufis say: Don't pray before others - not even before your wife. In the middle of the night when all is asleep - your family is asleep, your wife is asleep - wake up in the middle of the night, sit in your bed, and pray to God. Don't let anybody know, because the mind is very cunning: it can make an ego-trip out of that too. It can start bragging: "Look! what a great meditator I am."

Pray to God, meditate on him, in secrecy, in privacy - alone.

And the other dimension is of service, of loving his creatures - the trees, the mountains, the people, the rivers. Pour your love openly to his world, and pour your love in privacy to him - and you become a Sufi.

And the function of a Master is to give you these two dimensions of love. And the Perfect Master is one in whose presence this process is triggered, and you start growing in these two dimensions of love. The ultimate crescendo of these two loves is freedom - freedom from misery, freedom from mind, freedom from body, freedom from coming again into the world - freedom from ALL kinds of imprisonments. That freedom is the goal.

Keep the goal always in your vision. And, slowly slowly, go on dropping all that goes against that vision. Fall in harmony with the vision of this ultimate goal of freedom. Become more and more free.

And from the very first step one has to become free.

The real Master, the Perfect Master, about whom we have been talking all these twenty days - the Perfect Master helps you to become free, he gives you freedom. Love always gives freedom....