Exactly in the Middle

The first question:

Question 1:

DHARMEN, you have found it! this is the trick, this is the alchemy: to understand that nothing is in our hands is what is meant by surrender. Surrender is not something that you have to do or you can do. If you do it, how is it going to be surrender? It is not an act. It cannot be by its very nature. The very definition of surrender is that you cannot do it. Seeing the point, that nothing is in our hands - to be this way or that, to be egoful or to be egoless - seeing this, surrender happens. What is left then? If you have really seen this, you have understood the very secret.

Language creates the problem, because language turns everything, twists everything, into something other than it is. The moment I say "Surrender!" you start thinking "How to do it?" This is a linguistic fallacy. When I say surrender, this is exactly what I am saying: I am saying nothing is in your hands. In fact, you are not there behind your hands either. All is happening.

Yes, some days you are sad, and some days you are happy - and there is nothing to do. So some days be sad, and some days be happy - this is surrender. When happy, enjoy it, live it, dance it, sing it. When happy, don't be worried about sadness. There is no point - you cannot do anything about it. When sad, be really sad! Cry tears of sadness, sing sad songs. And DON'T try to become happy - it is not in your hands.

A Zen Master was asked, "What do you do when it is hot?"

He said, "I perspire."

"And what do you do when it is cold?"

He said, "I shiver."

So, when hot, perspire. When cold, shiver. When alive, live! When dead, die! What is in your hands? Nothing is in your hands. To think that "Something is in my hands" is the way of the ego.

That's what ego is. Ego says, "You can do this. Why are you sad? You can be happy. It is within your capacity. You can become more perfect, you can become more beautiful, you can become more good. You can become a saint. Why are you not doing something?"

The ego always prods you, goads you into doing: "Do something!" It creates the fallacy that it is within your hands to change, that you are the master of your destiny. That is the way of the ego.

That is the fallacy!

Nothing is in your hands.

The moment you see the fallacy, it disappears. The moment you see that there is only a rope and no snake... the snake was just a projection in the dark. Out of fear you had seen it. When you come close and you bring a lamp and you see that it is a rope, the snake is no more there! The question is dissolved. Seeing that nothing can be done, surrender has happened.

This is the whole secret of it. And, Dharmen, you have understood it. But still your ego is playing tricks with you. The ego is saying, "There must be some way to do it. There must be a trick! There must be something hidden, esoteric, that you don't know. There must be a key that can unlock the door."

There is no key, there is no lock, there is no door. Nothing has to be unlocked because nothing has been locked from the very beginning.

Your question is beautiful, Dharmen. If you can understand your question, all questions will dissolve - because your question carries the answer!

You say: YOU MAKE IT ALL SOUND SO EASY.

It IS easy! What can I do? It is not in my hands to make it difficult. It is easy because it is not an act.

Only if you have to do something can it be difficult. When you have NOT to do anything, how can it be difficult? How can non-doing be difficult? 'Difficult' - the very word is relevant only with doing.

Non-doing is an under-standing, is an insight, a sudden vision. And that's what has happened to you in this question.

You say: YOU MAKE IT ALL SOUND SO EASY. BUT IS IT? IS IT REALLY?

You don't want to believe in it. You don't want to believe in its easiness. See the point! You WANT it to be difficult, then you will be very happy. If I say, "It is very difficult, Dharmen," you will relax, you will be relieved. If I say, "It is almost impossible," a burden is removed from your head. Then you will say, "Then it is okay. Then I can travel. Then there is challenge. Then my ego can do many things - it is difficult and I am going to do it."

The more impossible it looks, the more appealing it is to the ego. Hence, I cannot say it is difficult, because I don't want to support your ego in ANY way. It is easy - it is absolutely easy. But the moment I say 'easy' you become uneasy. You start feeling, "Then? Then there is nothing left as a challenge." Then you are not attracted towards it. If it is SO easy that even a child can do it - in fact it is so easy that only a child can do it! - then your ego feels hurt. You want something arduous, some uphill task. It should be the Everest - so only you can reach and nobody else, If it is difficult, competition is possible. If it is difficult, fight and war art possible. If it is difficult, then politics is possible. Then only a few aye going to reach, not all. You can fight, you can plan, you can maneuver, you can invent strategies to pull others' legs and not to allow them to reach, to use others' heads as steps so that you can reach.

And if it is so difficult that only one can reach, then you will feel very thrilled: you can be that one!

A possibility is there that you can be that one, that special one. That's why people are interested in becoming the prime minister of India or the president of America. Why? Do you think they gain something? All that they gain is they reach a place where only one can reach - that's all. It is such a stupid game, but the joy is that out of millions of people only one can reach there. That's the only joy. Nothing is achieved! And only fools are attracted. But ego IS foolish. And the greater the fool, the greater the ego - and vice versa: the greater the ego, the greater the fool.

The foolish man's whole interest is in the difficult. Make things difficult and he becomes interested.

People solve crossword puzzles just for that one single reason - because it is difficult.

When I say it is easy, it is so easy, that you are not even needed to move your hands, you need not even go outside your room... so says Lao Tzu. It is SO easy that you need not even open your eyes. It is so easy that it can happen in a single moment. It is so easy that you need not compete, need not practice, need not cul-tivate.... Just WATCH inside: when I am saying it is so easy that it is possible just now, you start losing interest in it. Your ego says, "Then what is the point? If it is so easy that everybody can achieve it, then it is not worth it."

Just think: if there were Kohinoor diamonds on every beach of the ocean, and they were just like pebbles, available everywhere, would there be any value in the Kohinoor diamond? The value is there only because it is the ONLY one. There is no other diamond like it. It is rare, so rare that only one can possess it.

Man's ego always wants the difficult. Make things difficult and many people will become interested.

That's why more people are interested in Yoga - it is a difficult gymnastics. People are interested in difficult things. You can make them do ANYTHING. If you tell them: "Stand on your head for thirty years," they will stand. Just ONE joy has to be there, that nobody else has been able to stand on his head for thirty years: "I am the only one - I am the Kohinoor diamond. I am no ordinary person."

When I say it is easy, I kill your ego, I destroy your ego. I pull the very earth from underneath your feet. You fall flat on the ground.

That's why you cannot believe it, Dharmen. But my difficulty is that I cannot be untrue - it is so. It is easy. The easiest thing in the world is God - HAS to be! because we live in him, we breathe in him. He surrounds us just like a fish is surrounded by the ocean. He is everywhere! and ONLY he is. Each breath that you take in, you take God in. He circulates in your blood, he beats in your heart, he walks when you walk, he sits when you sit. He is ONE with you!

And it is easy because he has not to be attained - it is already the case. But then the ego loses interest. That's why you ask:

YOU MAKE IT ALL SOUND SO EASY. BUT IS IT?

Somewhere your ego goes on hoping that "Osho must be joking. It can't be that easy. It HAS to be difficult."

BUT IS IT? IS IT REALLY? IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE WHOLE THING IS OUT OF OUR HANDS.

And that's what I have been telling you all along. It is out of your hands because you don't have any hands except the hands of God! The moment you think yourself separate from God, everything is out of your hands. And the moment you think yourself one with God, everything is in your hands.

But those hands are no more YOURS - they are the hands of God.

For man everything is impossible: for God everything is possible. For the part, everything is impossible: for the whole everything is possible.

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE WHOLE THING IS OUT OF OUR HANDS.

That's what I have been insisting, day in, day out, year in, year out, that nothing is in your hands.

Relax. Don't try to cling. Don't try to impose your will, because nothing is in your hands. Don't be deceived by this will. It takes you into dreams and fantasies.

When it is summer, it is summer. And when it is winter, it is winter. And when it is sunny, it is sunny.

And when it is cloudy, it is cloudy. Just today it is very cloudy... enjoy it! Enjoy all climates. Enjoy all moods of nature. They are all in a deep harmony. Everything is needed to make this world a perfect world. Just sun and sun every day won't do.

I have heard an ancient parable - must be very ancient because God used to live on the earth in those days. Slowly slowly, he became very tired of man, because people would torture him continuously. In the middle of the night, somebody would knock and say, "Why have you done this?

Why not do it this way?" Everybody was advising; everybody was praying and their prayers were contradictory. A man would come and would say, "Today let there be sun, because I am going to wash my clothes."

And somebody else would come and he would say, "Today let there be rain, because I am going to plant trees." Now what to do? They were driving God mad!

He had to disappear from the earth. He had to escape just to survive. He had to become invisible.

One day a man came, a farmer, an old farmer, and he said, "Look, you may be God, and you may have created the world, but one thing I must say to you: you are not a farmer, and you don't know even the ABE of farming. And your whole nature and the functioning of your nature is so absurd, and this I say out of my whole life's experience. You have to learn something."

God said, "What's your advice?"

The farmer said, "You give me one year's time, and just let things be according to me, and see what happens. There will be no poverty left!"

God was willing and one year was given to the farmer. Now it was according to his will that everything was happening. Naturally, he asked the best, he thought only of the best - no thunder, no strong winds, no dangers for the crop. Everything comfortable, cozy, and he was very happy. The wheat was growing so high! No dangers were there, no hindrances were there; everything was moving according to HIS desire. When he wanted sun, there was sun; when he wanted rain, there was rain, and AS much as he wanted. In the old days, sometimes it rained too much, and the rivers would be flooded, and the crops would be destroyed; and sometimes it would not rain enough and the land would remain dry, and the crops would die... and sometimes something else, and sometimes something else. It was rare, very rare, that things were right. But this year everything was put right, mathematically right.

The wheat was growing so high that the farmer was very happy. He used to go to God and say, "Look! This time the crops will be such that for ten years if people don't work there will be enough food."

But when the crops were cut, there was no wheat inside. He was surprised - what happened?! He asked God, "What happened? what went wrong?"

God said, "Because there was no challenge, because there was no difficulty, because there was no conflict, no friction, because all was good, you avoided all that was bad, the wheat remained impotent. A little struggle is a must. Storms are needed, thunder , lightning is needed. They shake up the soul inside the wheat."

This parable is of immense value. If you are just happy and happy and happy, happiness will lose all meaning. You will become tired of it. You will be fed up with it. You remain interested in happiness because there are sad moments too. Those sad moments keep you interested in happiness. You cannot go on eating only sugar and sugar and sugar - something salted is a must, otherwise all taste will be lost.

If you are just happy, just happy, just happy... you will have diabetes from happiness. You will become impotent. You will be bored, utterly bored - your life will not have meaning. It will be as if somebody is writing with white chalk on a white wall. He can go on writing, but nobody will ever be able to read it. You have to write on a black board, then it comes clear and loud. The night is as much needed as the day. And the days of sadness are AS essential as the days of happiness.

THIS I call understanding. Once you understand it, you relax - in that relaxation is surrender. You say: "Thy will be done." You say: "Do whatsoever you feel is right. If today clouds are needed, give me duds. Don't listen to me. My understanding is tiny. My will is foolish. What do I know of life and its secrets? Don't listen to me! You just go on doing your will."

And, slowly slowly, the more you see the rhythm of life, the rhythm of duality, the rhythm of polarity, you stop asking, you stop choosing. Not that by choosing anything changes - nothing changes, just you become frustrated. Everything remains the same. If the river is going north, the river is going north; by your choosing that the river should go south, you become miserable, that's all. The river continues to go north!

Your will, your choice, your action, makes NO difference at all. But one difference, certainly, it makes - no difference in the situation of the world, in existence - but one difference in your psychology: you become frustrated, because the river is not going north, or going north, and you have the opposite direction in your mind. You are failing. Not that the river intends to make you a failure - the river has nothing to do with you. The river is simply going north.

The man of understanding goes with the river, flows with the flow, moves with the wind. Slowly slowly, the understanding that "Nothing is in my hands" becomes surrender. And that surrender brings great benediction. That surrender brings bliss.

Dharmen, you have found the secret! This is the secret. Live with this secret, and see the beauty.

Live with this secret, and you will be suddenly surprised: How great is the blessing of life! How much is being showered on you every moment! But you are living in your expectations, in your small, tiny, trivial desires. And because things are not fitting with your desires, you are miserable.

Misery has only one meaning, that things are not fitting with your desires - and things never fit with your desires, they cannot. Things simply go on following their nature.

Lao Tzu calls this nature Tao. Buddha calls this nature Dhamma. Mahavir has defined religion as the nature of things. Nothing can be done. Fire is hot and water is cool. Don't try to impose your will on the nature of things. That is what the stupid man goes on doing - and creates misery for himself, creates hell. The wise man is one who relaxes with the nature of things, who follows the nature of things.

And when you follow the nature of things, no shadow is cast. There is no misery. Even sadness is luminous then, even sadness has a beauty then. Not that sadness will not come - it will come - but it will not be your enemy. You will befriend it, because you will see its necessity. You will be able to see its grace, and you will be able to see WHY it is there and why it is needed. And without it you will be less not more.

This is the meaning of surrender. You go on misunderstanding me. When I say "Surrender!" you think you have to do something. No. I am saying: You have nothing to do, you cannot do, there is no way of doing anything... see this! This is surrender.

The second question:

Question 2:

YOU ARE CHANGED BY EVERYTHING! The sun rises in the morning, your sleep disappears. Not only yours - trees are awake, birds start singing, the earth wakes up. When the sun sets in the evening, you start falling asleep - not only you, but trees and birds and rivers and mountains. The whole earth plunges into sleep. When you listen to great music, is some chord in your heart touched and moved or not? Listening to great music, do you become music or not? Seeing a dancer, does not a great desire arise in you to dance? to participate? Does not your energy start becoming a dance? Listening to a poet, listening to great poetry, for a few moments, you attain to a poetic vision.

Some doors open, some mysteries surround you.

Exactly the same happens, on a more total level, in the presence of a Master - because the Master is a musician and the Master is a poet and the Master is a painter and the Master is a potter and the Master is a weaver... and the Master is all things together. A Master is a multi-dimensional phenomenon.

To be in the presence of the Master, to be really in the presence of the Master, to be open, vulnerable, available, available to his touch - then his magic starts flowing into you. And this happens every day to you! Still the mind goes on suspecting. Still the doubt goes on raising its head.

Have you not been transported into other worlds being with me? Has not it happened to many of you? Is it not happening right now? Are you the same person when you are away from me?

Have you not felt that something changes, something starts happening to you, strange, unknown, some energy starts moving, some light starts descending, some silence blooms inside you, some unknown song starts flowing in your being, as the wind that passes through the pines? Have you not heard this sound of running water? through my words, through my silences? Just looking at me, sometimes with open eyes and sometimes with closed eyes, has not it happened again and again to you?

But, I know, the question arises. The more it happens, the more mind creates doubts: Maybe it is just hypnosis? That's what people say all around the world about me, that "This man is a hypnotist."

Many people are afraid to come, because if they come and if they are hypnotized then what? The mind says, "Maybe this is just hypnosis." The mind says, "Maybe you have fallen into an illusion.

Maybe this is just a delusion, some magic - otherwise, why does it disappear?"

When you go away from me, when I am not with you and you are not with me, when you forget about me, why does it disappear? The mind, naturally, asks these questions. It disappears because you have not yet learnt how to remain on those high planes of being, how to remain in those plenitude.

With me, with great courage, unaware of where you are going, you start moving.... As if a small child goes with his father into the forest - unafraid of the wild animals, unafraid of the strangeness, up afraid of everything! He knows his father is with him. His hand is in his father's hand. The father may be afraid himself, but the child is not. The father may be worried whether he is on the right track, whether he will be able to reach home, but the CHILD is not. WHY should he be worried? He trusts the father; his trust is absolute. The father may look a little disturbed, but the child is thrilled with the adventure. He is looking at the trees and the flowers, and collecting wild flowers and running after butterflies.

But let the father go and leave the child alone in the forest, and immediately all joy disappears.

Now he is alone. He cannot trust himself. Now where is the right path? Now he cannot run after butterflies; now butterflies have no more colors - in fact they don't exist any more. Now there are no wild flowers; there are only wild animals behind each tree, and ghosts and things like that. And now he is afraid, and it is getting darker and the sun is going to set soon. And he starts crying. He is NO more in that wondrous state.

What has happened? Only one thing has happened: he is no more in trust.

When you are with me there is trust, and trust transforms. When you are alone, the trust is lost - you are not yet capable of trusting yourself. That's the function of a Master, to help you, slowly slowly, so that you can trust yourself, so that the Master is no more needed. The function of a true Master is to prepare the disciple in such a way that sooner or later the Master is no more needed, and the disciple can remain on his own in those higher planes of being - where joy is and grace is.

Those higher planes of being are called paradise or heaven. The highest is called MOKSHA, Nirvana. From that point there is no coming back; it is a point of no return. But the first glimpses are possible only with somebody who knows the path, with somebody who has gone to that peak and come back to the earth.

In the ancient scriptures, two types of enlightened people are talked about - and it will be significant to understand in reference to the concept of the Perfect Master.

In the Buddha tradition, one is called the ARHAT - one who becomes enlightened, reaches to the highest peak of consciousness, but knows not how to come back to the earth, how to relate to people. He never becomes a Master. He is enlightened, as much as any other Buddha, but he never becomes a Master. Because to become a Master not only is enlightenment needed - enlightenment is a must - but a second process is also needed. the capacity to come back to the valleys.

So two things are needed that make a person a Master. First, that he should go to the peak, to the sunlit peaks of consciousness; and second, that he should be able to find his way back to the dark valleys. Because people are living there! If you shout from the peaks, nobody is going to listen. Your voice will never reach to the people. They are worlds apart. The Master has to come back down, he has to descend into the dark, dismal valleys where people are living and groping. He has to become like them again. If you want people to go to the peak, first you will have to come to the valley.

So the Buddha tradition says: two types of enlightened people exist. One is called ARHAT - one who becomes enlightened and remains there and forgets all about the people who are groping in the dark, suffering in misery, in ignorance. And the other is called BODHISATTVA - the BODHISATTVA becomes the Master, he comes back. The moment he has reached the peak, immediately he starts descending. He remembers that many are there who will need his support. Many are there who will need him as a guide. Now he knows the path, now he can lead many people to the peak.

It is going to be a difficult task. To convince people that the peak exists is a difficult task. To convince people that "It is possible. You can reach the peak," is very difficult. They have lived in darkness for so many lives, for millions of lives, that they know only darkness. They can't believe that light is possible. They have always been blind! There is no word for light in their language. And if you talk about light, they think either you have gone mad or you are just being poetic.

That's what was reported to Buddha's parents. When he became enlightened, rum ours started reaching the palace, the old man: "Your son has become enlightened." Those who were negative about Buddha, they said, "He has gone mad." And those who were not negative, who were sympathetic, they said, "He has become a poet."

At the most, people can believe that you must be creating great poetry, you have great imagination.

You can visualize sunlit peaks, you are really a great visionary. You can see God in your vision, and paradise, and the angels - you are a great visionary.

But the mystic is not a visionary. What he sees is not a vision: what he sees is tangible reality. But how to convince the people who have not known? How to tell them what light is if they have never opened their eyes? If you tell them, "It is white," they will ask, "What is white?" If you tell them, "It is like snow, pure white," they will think light is a very cold thing and wet. Light is neither cold nor wet.

But don't be hard on people. What can they do? They have to translate everything into the language of the valley.

So the first distinction: a few people never come back from the peak, seeing the impossibility of it all, that nobody is going to trust them, nobody is going to believe them. And why bother? They have arrived... they disappear into the light.

The second type, the BODHISATTVA, who becomes a Master, has infinite compassion. He starts moving down, back into the darker world which he has left behind. Where people are just like crawling worms, where people are not yet people, have no consciousness, are living like robots.

And those people are not going to forgive this man who has come from the sunlit peaks - they will crucify him, they will kill him, they will poison him, because this man will disturb their comfort, their convenience. They have started to believe that darkness is all, and now here comes this man with the message that "No! Darkness is not all. There are sunlit Himalayan peaks, and I have been there."

Now this man disturbs their sleep, disturbs their cozy arrangement. Now this man AGAIN creates a longing in them to search for the peaks. They cannot forgive this man. Hence, Jesus is crucified, Mansoor is murdered, Socrates is poisoned, Buddha is stoned, Mahavir is driven out from each place wherever he goes. Why are people so antagonistic towards the Masters? There is a reason in it.

This man brings some news that creates a very very great desire in them, and that desire will disturb their whole arrangement. They have a wife, children they have, the shop, the factory, everything is going well. Somehow they have managed, and now comes this man to disturb everything. Now NO more does the wife seem to be so attractive, no more do the children seem to be so attractive, no more the money, the power politics... now a dream is released in them. And the touch of the Master is such that even if you are against him, he moves your heart. Even if you DON'T want to listen to him, something hits you, something goes into your heart like a seed and starts sprouting there.

The difficulty for the Master is how to speak to you about those peaks. The Perfect Master is one who manages. The Perfect Master is one who somehow manages to say things which cannot be said, somehow creates devices. If things cannot be said, then he tries to SHOW them to you, he creates situations in which some glimpses of the peak can come to you.

The Perfect Master is one who tries the impossible, and succeeds in it.

A Buddha is a Perfect Master. A Jesus is a Perfect Master. A Mohammed is a Perfect Master - so is Kabir, Nanak. A Perfect Master is one who has succeeded in the impossible task of convincing blind people that light exists, of convincing deaf people that music exists - and not only exists but is worth searching for.

IN THE PRESENCE OF A MASTER, YOU ASK, DOES IT REALLY HAPPEN THAT A MAN CHANGES?

What to say about man? - sometimes even animals have been known to change.

Not many years ago, just a few years ago, there was a great Master, Ramana Maharshi - a Perfect Master, In his DARSHANS - because he was a silent man, would speak rarely and very few words - each morning when he would sit for the darshan for one hour and people would come to sit with him, a cow would also come. The cow was so regular that no other disciple was so regular - the cow was just like Teertha! Regular.... It might rain, it might be summer, it might be winter - whatsoever!

- the cow might be ill, or healthy, whatsoever, but the cow was bound to come at the exact time.

She would come and stand in the verandah and look inside through the window, her head inside the window, and remain there for one hour, sometimes with open eyes and sometimes with closed eyes. And sometimes tears flowing... it has become a miracle!

One day the cow was very ill and could not come - so Ramana had to go! He had never gone to visit any other disciple, but for that poor cow he had to go. And all the disciples said, "What are you doing, Bhagwan?" And he said, "But I have to go. She was so regular. And I know she wants to come - the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

And when he went, she was just sitting in the direction of his room looking at the window from far away. She could not get up, she was dying. And when Ramana reached, she closed her eyes and tears started flowing. She died. That cow was the first animal in the whole history of humanity or of consciousness that was given a farewell as is given to an enlightened person. Ramana was present there.

Somebody asked Ramana, "Is this cow going to be born as a man?"

Ramana said, "No. She will not need to be born as a man - she has passed beyond that. She is not going to be born at all. She has attained enlightenment."

Yes, it is possible. What to say about man? Even animals, if they are receptive... and cows ARE very receptive. That's why in the East they have become sacred. It is not for no reason at all - they ARE very receptive, open. They can grow in consciousness. NO other animal can take this jump that the cow can take.

It was for no other reason than this that they became an essential part of all the ashrams in the East in the old days. They created a certain atmosphere - of purity, innocence.

Listen to this story:

Izzy's friend Yosef said he had found a parrot that not only would speak, but could speak Hebrew.

Izzy was skeptical, but when he went to Yosef's house, they put a yarmulke on the bird's head, and the parrot immediately recited the full Friday night services.

Izzy was amazed, and begged his friend to let him buy the bird. After much cajoling, Yosef agreed.

For the price of ten dollars, Izzy was able to take away the 'dovvining' bird.

On Rosh Hashanah, Izzy took the bird to the synagogue. He passed the word around that his parrot could sing the prayers. Everyone laughed at his pretensions, and he extracted wagers of ten to one that his bird couldn't follow the service for even three minutes.

When the prayers began, Izzy put a yarmulke on the parrot's head and commanded him to sing. But the bird was silent.

"Go, pray, like you did for Yosef," Izzy urged. But the parrot wouldn't open its beak.

"Pray, you numbskull! I have a bet on you!" But the parrot wouldn't utter a word. Finally, Izzy had to admit defeat, and left the synagogue downcast and deep in debt.

When he got home, he lashed into the bird. "So you shame me in front of everybody, eh? So you make me lose ten to one bets? So you pretend you don't know how to pray? Why did you do that?"

Finally, the parrot spoke up. "Don't be stupid!" said the parrot. "Comes Yom Kippur, you'll make a killing!"

If the parrot lives with a Jew, the parrot becomes a Jew, remember. If you live with the Master, something of the Master starts entering in you....

The third question:

Question 3:

YES, AKAM, ORDINARILY the artist is the most egoistic person in the world. But then he is not a true artist either. He has used art as a means for his ego trip. Artists are VERY egoistic, constantly bragging about themselves, and constantly fighting with each other. And everybody thinks that he is the first and the last. But this is not true art.

The true artist disappears utterly. These people are only technicians; I will not call them artists but technicians. I will not call them creators; I will only call them composers. Yes, to compose a poem is one thing, to create a poem is quite another. To compose poetry one needs to know language, grammar, rules of the grammar - rules of poetics. It is a game with words. And if you know the whole game, you can create poetry. It will not be very poetic, but it will have the appearance of poetry. Technically, it may be perfect, but it will have only the body - the soul will be missing.

The soul happens only when the artist disappears into his art - he is no more separate. When the painter paints with such abandon that he is not there, that he even feels guilty to sign his painting - because he knows he has not done it. Some unknown force has done it through him. He knows that he has been possessed - that has been the experience of all the really great artists down the ages: the feeling of being possessed. The greater the artist, the more clear the feeling is.

And those who are the greatest - a Mozart, a Beethoven, a Kalidas, a Rabindranath - these who are the greatest, they are absolutely certain that they have been nothing but hollow bamboos, and God has been singing through them. They have been flutes, but the song is not theirs. It has flowed through them, but it comes from some unknown source. They have not hindered - that's all they have done. But they have not created it. The paradox!

The real creator knows that he has not created it. God has worked through him. He has possessed him, his hands, his being, and he has created something through him. He has been instrumental.

This is real art, where the artist disappears - then there is no question of ego. And then art becomes religion. Then the artist is a mystic - not only technically right but existentially authentic.

You ask me: ONE DAY YOU SPOKE TO US ABOUT PERFECTION AND CREATIVITY. WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARTISTIC CREATIVITY AND PERFECTION?

First, the less of the artist is in it, the more perfect it is. When the artist is absolutely absent, then the creativity is absolutely perfect. In THIS proportion, you have to remember. The more the artist is present, the less perfect the product will be. If the artist is too much present, the product will be nauseating, it will be neurotic. It will be just ego - what else can it be? Ego is neurosis.

And one thing more to be remembered: ego always wants to be perfect. Ego is a very perfectionistic one. Ego always wants to be higher and better than others. Hence it is perfectionist. But through ego perfection is never possible. So the effort is absurd. Perfection is possible only when the ego is not. But then one never thinks of perfection at all.

So the real artist never thinks of perfection. He has no idea of perfection. He simply allows himself into a surrender, into a let go , and whatsoever happens happens. The real artist thinks certainly of totality, but never of perfection. He wants to be totally in it, that's all. When he dances, he wants to disappear into the dance. He does not want to be there, because the presence of the dancer will be a disturbance in the dance. The grace, the flow, will be disturbed, obstructed. When the dancer is not there, all rocks have disappeared, the flow is very silent, smooth.

The real artist certainly thinks of totality - how to be total? - but never thinks of perfection. And the beauty is: those who are total, they are perfect. And those who think of perfection are never perfect, never total. Rather, on the contrary: the more they think of perfection, the more neurotic they become. They have ideals. They are always comparing, and they are always falling short!

If you have an ideal that unless this ideal is fulfilled, you will not think yourself perfect, how can you be total in your act? If you think, for example, that you have to be a dancer like Nijinsky, then how can you be total in your dance? You are constantly looking, watching yourself, trying to improve, afraid to commit any fault... you are divided. A part of you is dancing, another part of you is there - judgemental, standing by the side condemning, criticizing. You are divided, you are split.

Nijinsky was perfect because he was total. It used to happen that when he danced and he would take leaps in his dance, people could not believe their eyes, even scientists could not believe their eyes. His leap was such that it was against the law of gravitation - it should not happen! And when he fell back, he would come so slowly, like a feather... that too is against the law of gravitation.

He was asked about it again and again. The more people asked, the more he became conscious of it, the more it started disappearing. A moment came in his life when it stopped completely, and the reason was that he became conscious of it - he lost his totality. Then he understood it, why it had disappeared. It used to happen, but it used to happen only when Nijinsky was completely lost into the dance. In that complete loosening, in that complete relaxation, one functions in a totally different world, according to different laws.

Let me tell you about one law which sooner or later science is going to discover. I call it the law of grace. Just as there is a law of gravitation... three hundred years ago it was not known. It was functioning even before it was known; the law need not be known to function. The law was always functioning. It has nothing to do with Newton and the apple falling from the tree. Apples used to fall before too! It is not that Newton discovered the law and then the apples started falling. The law was there, Newton discovered it.

Exactly like that another law is there: the law of grace, that uplifts. The law of gravitation pulls things downwards: the law of grace lifts things upwards. In Yoga they call it levitation. In a certain state of abandon, in a certain state of drunkenness, drunk with the divine, in a certain state of utter surrender, egolessness, that law starts functioning. One is uplifted. One becomes weightless.

That was happening in Nijinsky's case. But you cannot make it happen, because if you are there it will not happen. Ego is like a rock around your neck. When the ego is not there, you are weightless.

And have you not felt it sometimes in your own life? There are moments when you have a kind of weightlessness. You walk on the earth but still your feet don't touch the earth - you are six inches above. Moments of joy, moments of prayer, moments of meditation, moments of celebration, moments of love... and YOU ARE weightless, you are uplifted.

And I say, sooner or later science will have to discover it, because science believes in a certain principle: the principle of the polar opposites. No law can be alone: it must have its opposite.

Electricity cannot function with only one pole, positive or negative; both are needed. They complement each other.

Science knows it, that EACH law has its opposite to complement it. Gravitation must have a law opposite to it to complement it. That law, tentatively, I call grace - any other name may be possible in the future. Because scientists, if they discover it, they will not call it grace. But that seems to be the most perfect name for it. God uplifting you.

The real artist never thinks of perfection, but his act is so total that perfection is born out of it. The pseudo artist, the technician, always thinks of perfection, and because he thinks of perfection, he is not total, perfection is not born out of him.

This can be of immense help to you, in all walks of life - particularly for those who are inquiring into the reality of God, truth. Think of .totality! and perfection will come automatically on its own. Never think of perfection, otherwise you will go neurotic. All perfectionists become neurotic.

The fourth question:

Question 4:

A boy was constantly scratching his head. His father looked at him one day and said, "Son, why are you always scratching your head?"

"Well," the boy responded, "I guess because I am the only one who knows it itches."

THIS IS INNER SENSE. Only you know. Nobody else can know. It cannot be observed from the outside. When you have a headache, only you know. You cannot prove it. When you are happy, only you know - you cannot prove it. You cannot put it on the table to be inspected by everybody, dissected, analyzed.

In fact, the inner sense is so inner that you cannot even prove that it exists. That's why science goes on denying it, but the denial is inhuman. Even the scientist knows that when he feels love, he has an inner feeling. Something IS there! And it is not a thing, and it is not an object; and it is not possible to put it before others. And STILL it is.

Inner sense has its own validity. But because of the scientific training, people have lost trust in their inner sense. They depend on others. You depend so much that if somebody says, "You are looking very happy," you start feeling happy. If twenty people decide to make you unhappy, they can make you unhappy. They just have to repeat it the whole day whenever you come across them, they have to say to you that "You are looking very unhappy, very sad. What is the matter? Somebody died or something?" And you will start suspecting: so many people are saying that you are unhappy, you must be.

You depend on people's opinions. You have depended on people's opinions SO much that you have lost all track of inner sense. This inner sense has to be rediscovered, because all that is beautiful and all that is good and all that is divine can only be felt by the inner sense.

Stop being influenced by people's opinions. Rather, start looking in... allow your inner sense to say things to you. Trust it. If you trust it, it will grow. If you trust it you will feed it, it will become stronger.

Vivekananda went to Ramakrishna, and he said, "There is no God! I can PROVE it - there is no God." He was a very logical, skeptical man, well-educated, well-educated in the Western philosophical thinking. Ramakrishna was an uneducated, illiterate person. And Ramakrishna says, "Okay, so prove!"

Vivekananda talked much, all the proofs that he had. And Ramakrishna listened, and then he said, "But my inner sense says he is - and that is the final authority. All that you are saying is argumentation. What does your inner sense say?"

Vivekananda had not even thought about it. He shrugged his shoulders. He had read books, he had collected arguments, proofs for and against, and he had tried to decide whether God exists or not according to these proofs. But he had not looked in. He had not asked his inner sense.

It is so stupid, but the skeptical mind IS stupid, the logical mind is stupid.

Ramakrishna said, "Your arguments are beautiful, I enjoyed. But what can I do? I KNOW! My inner sense says he is. Just as my inner sense says I am happy, I am ill, I am sad, my stomach is hurting, that today I am not feeling well, so my inner sense says God is. It is not a question of debate."

And Ramakrishna said, "I cannot prove it, but if you want, I can show you." Nobody had told Vivekananda before that God can be shown. And before he could say anything Ramakrishna jumped - he was a wild man - he jumped and put his feet on Vivekananda's chest. And something happened, some energy jumped, and Vivekananda fell into a trance for three hours.

When he opened his eyes, he was a totally different man.

Ramakrishna said, "What do you say now? God is or God is not? What does your inner sense say now?"

He was in such tranquility, such stillness, as he had never known before. There was such jubilation inside, such well-being such overflowing well-being.... He had to bow down and touch his feet and say, "Yes, God is."

God is not a person but the ultimate sense of well-being, the ultimate sense of being at home, the ultimate sense that "I belong to this world and this world belongs to me. I am not alien here, I am not an outsider." The ultimate sense - existential - that "This whole and I are not separate." This experience is God.

But this experience is possible only if you allow your inner sense to function. Start allowing it! Give it as many opportunities as possible. Don't look always for outside authorities, and don't look for outside opinions. Keep yourself a little more independent. Feel more, think less.

Go and look at the rose flower, and don't just repeat parrot like, "This is beautiful." This may be just opinion, people have told you; from your very childhood you have been hearing, "The rose flower is beautiful, is a great flower." So when you see the rose, you simply repeat, like a computer, "This is beautiful." Are you really feeling it? Is it your inner feeling? If it is not, don't say it.

Looking at the moon, don't say that it is beautiful - unless it is your inner sense. You will be surprised that ninety-nine percent of the stuff that you carry in your mind is all borrowed. And within that ninety- nine percent of stuff, useless rubbish, the one percent of inner sense is lost, is drowned. Drop that knowledgeability. Recover your inner sense.

It is through the inner sense that God is known.

There are six senses: five are outer; they tell you about the world. I say something about the light; without eyes you will not know light. Ears say something about the sound; without ears you will not know anything about the sound. There is a sixth sense, the inner sense, that shows and tells you something about yourself and the ultimate source of things. That sense has to be discovered.

Meditation is nothing but the discovery of the inner sense.

The last question:

Question 5:

ALMOST EVERYBODY IS CAUGHT in some vicious circle or other - because mind cannot exist without a vicious circle. Somebody eats too much, gathers fat, becomes worried, starts dieting, fasting, eats less, feels hungry, becomes worried, starts eating more... and so on and so forth.

Mind exists like the pendulum of a clock: it goes from one extreme to the other extreme. And you cannot get out of the vicious circle by moving to the other extreme, because the other extreme is part of the vicious circle. When the pendulum is going to the right, in fact it is gathering momentum to go to the left. When the pendulum is going to the left, it is gathering momentum to go to the right.

This is the vicious circle, VERY subtle.

When you are feeling frustrated with indulgence in sexuality, what is happening? You are becoming interested in celibacy, in all those great ideas of BRAHMACHARYA, that celibacy is life, that celibacy is energy. Then you will start reading books on celibacy, and you will feel very much convinced. Not that those books are right. You are feeling convinced because you are frustrated with your sexual indulgence. You will become a celibate, but this is another extreme.

Soon, your sexual energy will become dammed; soon you will feel sexuality ready to burst forth.

Now, you will start thinking of magazines like Playboy and pornography. And if you don't look into those magazines, you will create your own private pornography in your dreams. Or, whenever you are sitting with closed eyes trying to meditate, nothing else will happen - just pornography. Now the energy has gathered so much momentum it wants to move to the other extreme. And sooner or later you will have to move.

You ask me: WHAT TO DO?

Learn the middle way. Learn the golden mean. Learn to remain exactly in the middle. And once the pendulum stops in the middle, the whole clock stops. If you stop in the middle, the mind disappears.

Mind is time, the clock.

A story:

The star salesman was doing great. Rubin and Cohen were shipping dresses at an enormous rate.

It's true that Sid Metofsky drew S400 a week, but he was certainly piling up the orders.

Only one thing bothered the partners. On top of his draw, and on top of a heavy expense account for travel, every so often Metofsky sent in an extra item of 50withanotation :

"Amanisnotmadeofwood."

When this expense item appeared for the third time, Cohen looked at Rubin and he said, "What should we do about this?"

"Well, considering the business he's sending in, we just better overlook it and pay up," answered Rubin.

But the following week, three tabs came in for fifty smackers each, and each tab read: "A man is not made of wood."

Rub in counsel led forbearing, but Cohen lost his temper. "Three times in two days!" he bellowed.

"Miss Jacobs!" he called to his secretary. "Send a telegram to Metofsky. 'Dear Sid: Wood, no. But a man is not made of iron either."'

One has to stop somewhere exactly in the middle. And it is very very simple if you understand.

Be natural. Be spontaneous. Be simple. When feeling hungry, eat. And when not feeling hungry, DON'T eat. People are very strange: when they are not feeling hungry, they go on eating; when they are feeling hungry, they fast. You go against nature, hence you suffer. Just move slowly, silently with nature.

Again, this is what I call surrender! Accept all that is natural. Forget all that your mahatmas have been telling you. Think of mahatmas as pathological; don't listen to them - they have corrupted your minds. A mahatma is a guy who takes great lab our to crack a nut, then eats the shell, and throws the real thing - and starts teaching others also to do the same.

Beware of mahatmas. Be just ordinary, and see the beauty of being ordinary.Just be simple! neither worldly nor other-worldly, neither materialist nor spiritualist, neither against money nor for money.

Just BE simple and natural! Just accept whatsoever is, and move according to your natural capacity, potentiality.

And don't decide a program me for your life. Be moment-to-moment. Don't make a schedule.

Don't make a style. Don't create a character! Just slowly slowly, moment-to-moment moving, living, challenging, accepting, responding, slowly slowly great awareness arises. And one starts coming closer and closer to the middle of it all.

And the day it happens, when you are exactly in the middle, mind stops. And to be beyond mind is to be in God. That's the work my sannyasins have to do. You are not to become indulgent, you are not to become celibate. You are not to create any structure upon yourself. You have to live without structure, with consciousness, with creativity, with sensitivity. And you have to live moment- to-moment, with no ideals, with no perfectionist neurosis. And the great day is not far away when suddenly one day you will find the pendulum is not moving either way.