Renounce the past, not the world

Question 1:

Maneesha, the whole past of man is full of those people who have renounced the world and society.

Renunciation has become part of almost all religions, a foundational principle.

The rebel is renouncing the past. He is not going to repeat the past; he is bringing something new into the world. Those who have escaped from the world and society are escapists. They have really renounced responsibilities, but without understanding that the moment you renounce responsibilities you also renounce freedom. These are the complexities of life: freedom and responsibilities go away together or remain together.

The more you are a lover of freedom, the more you will be ready to accept responsibilities. But outside the world, outside the society, there is no possibility of any responsibility. And it has to be remembered that all that we learn, we learn through being responsible.

The past has destroyed the beauty of the word 'responsibility'. They have made it almost equivalent to duty; it is not really so. A duty is something done reluctantly, as part of your spiritual slavery.

Duty to your elders, duty to your husband, duty to your children - they are not responsibilities. To understand the word 'responsibility' is very significant. You have to break it in two: response and ability.

You can act in two ways - one is reaction, another is response. Reaction comes out of your past conditionings; it is mechanical. Response comes out of your presence, awareness, consciousness; it is non-mechanical. And the ability to respond is one of the greatest principles of growth. You are not following any order, any commandment, you are simply following your awareness. You are functioning like a mirror, reflecting the situation and responding to it - not out of your memory, from past experiences of similar situations; not repeating your reactions but acting fresh, new, in this very moment. Neither is the situation old, nor is your response - both are new. This ability is one of the qualities of the rebel.

Renouncing the world, escaping to the forest and the mountains, you are simply escaping from a learning situation. In a cave in the Himalayas you won't have any responsibility, but remember, without responsibility you cannot grow; your consciousness will remain stuck. For growth it needs to face, to encounter, to accept the challenges of responsibilities.

Escapists are cowards, they are not rebels - although that's what has been thought up to now, that they are rebellious spirits. They are not, they are simply cowards. They could not cope with life.

They knew their weaknesses, their frailties, and they thought it was better to escape; because then you will never have to face your weakness, your frailty, you will never come to know any challenge.

But without challenges how are you going to grow?

No, the rebel cannot renounce the world and the society, but he certainly renounces many other things. He renounces the so-called morality imposed upon him by the society; he renounces the so-called values imposed by the society; he renounces the knowledge given by the society. He does not renounce the society as such, but he renounces everything that the society has given to him.

This is true renunciation.

The rebel lives in the society, fighting, struggling. To remain in the crowd and not to be obedient to the crowd but to be obedient to one's own conscience, is a tremendous opportunity for growth. It makes you bring out your best; it gives you a dignity.

A rebel is a fighter, a warrior. But how can you be a warrior in a cave in the Himalayas? With whom are you going to fight? The rebel remains in the society, but he is no longer part of the society - that is his renunciation and that is his rebelliousness. He is not stubborn, he is not adamant, he is not an egoist; he does not just go on fighting blindly.

If he finds something is right he obeys it, but he obeys his own feeling of rightness, not the commandment given by others. And if he sees that it is not right he disobeys it, whatsoever the cost may be. He may accept a crucifixion, but he will not accept any spiritual slavery.

The situation of the rebel is tremendously exciting: each moment he is faced with problems because the society has a fixed mode, a fixed pattern, fixed ideals. And the rebel cannot go with those fixed ideals - he has to follow his own still small voice. If his heart is saying no, there is no way, no power, to force him to say yes. You can kill him, but you cannot destroy his rebellious spirit.

His renunciation is far greater than the renunciation of Gautam Buddha, Mahavira and millions of others - they simply renounced the society, escaped into the forest, into the mountains. It was an easier way, but very dangerous because it goes against your growth.

The rebel renounces the society and still remains in it, fighting moment to moment. In this way he not only grows, he also allows the society to learn that there are many things which are not right, but have been thought to be right. There are many things which are immoral but have been thought moral; there are many things which have been thought very wise, but they are really OTHERwise.

For example, all the societies of the world have praised virginity in women. It is a universally accepted ideal that the woman should remain a virgin before marriage. Sometimes there is a small, thin barrier of skin in a woman's vagina and if the woman makes love to somebody, that small barrier prevents the sperm from going to the egg.

The first thing the man is interested to know about is the small barrier, whether it is intact or not. If it is not intact then the girl is not a virgin. Sometimes riding on a horse or climbing a tree or in an accident, that small barrier can be broken, can have holes, although the girl is a virgin.

In the Middle Ages it was impossible to get a husband for her, so there were doctors who used to make an artificial skin barrier and fix it so that the woman looked virgin, whether she was virgin or not. Stupidity has no limits.

In fact, virginity should not be a part of a truly understanding society. Virginity means the woman remains unaware of what she is going to face after marriage. A more compassionate society will allow boys and girls to know sex before they get married so they know exactly what they are going for, whether they want to go for it or not. And a woman should be allowed to know as many people before marriage as possible - and the same applies to the man - because before deciding on a right partner, the only way to know is to have experiences with many partners, different types of people.

But ignorance has been propounded in the name of virginity, in the name of morality.

Ignorance cannot be supported on any grounds. If in the world married people are so miserable, one of the major reasons is that they were not allowed to know many women, many men, before their marriage; otherwise they would have chosen, with more understanding, the right person who fits harmoniously with them.

Astrologers are consulted - as if the stars are worried about whom you get married to, as if the stars are at all interested in you! Palmists are consulted, as if there are lines on your hand which can give indications for a right partner. Birth charts are consulted... all these things are absolutely irrelevant.

When you were born and when the woman was born has no relationship to the life that you are going to live. But these were rationalizations. Man was trying to console himself that he has been trying every possible way to find the right partner.

There is only one way to find the right partner: that is, allow young boys and young girls to mix with as many partners as possible, so they can know the differences between women, the differences between men. Then they can come to know with whom they are polar opposites, with whom they are just lukewarm, with whom they are passionately in a harmony. Except that, there is no way of finding the right partner.

A man of rebellious spirit will have to be aware about every ideal, howsoever ancient, and will respond according to his awareness and understanding - not according to the conditioning of the society. That is true renunciation.

Lao Tzu, an authentic rebel - more authentic than Gautam Buddha and Mahavira, because he remained in the world and fought in the world - lived according to his own light, struggling, not escaping. He became so wise that the emperor invited him to become his prime minister. He simply refused. He said, "It won't work because it is improbable that we can come to the same conclusions about things. You live according to the ideals your forefathers have given to you; I live according to my own conscience." But the emperor was insistent; he could not see that there was any problem.

The very first day in his court a thief was brought in; he had been caught red-handed, stealing from the richest man in the capital - and he confessed that he was stealing. Lao Tzu gave six months in jail to both the rich man and the thief. The rich man said, "What? I have been robbed, I am a victim and I am being punished? Are you mad or something? There is no precedent in history that a man whose money has been stolen should be punished."

Lao Tzu said, "In fact, you should be given a longer term in jail than the thief - I am being much too compassionate - because you have gathered all the money of the city. Do you think money showers from the sky? Who has made these people so poor that they have to become thieves? You are responsible.

"And this will be my judgment in every case of stealing; both persons will go to jail. Your crime is far deeper, his crime is nothing. He is poor and you are responsible for it. And if he was stealing a little bit of money from your treasures, it was not much of a crime. That money belongs to many of the poor people from whom you got it. You went on becoming richer and richer and many more people went on becoming poorer and poorer."

The rich man thought, "This man seems to be crazy, utterly crazy." He said, "I want one chance to see the emperor." He was so rich that even the emperor used to borrow money from him. He told the emperor what had happened. He said to him, "If you don't remove this man from the court you will be behind bars just like me - because from where have you got all your treasures? If I am a criminal, you are a far bigger criminal."

The emperor saw the logic of the situation. He told Lao Tzu, "Perhaps you were right that it will be difficult for us to come to the same conclusions. You are relieved from your services."

This man was a rebel; he lived in the society, he struggled in the society. A rebellious mind can only think the way he thought. He was not reacting - otherwise there were precedents and law books. He was not looking in the law books and the precedents; he was looking inside his own self, watching the situation. Why are so many people poor? Who is responsible for it? Certainly those who have become too rich are the real criminals.

A rebel will renounce ideals, morals, religions, philosophies, rituals and superstitions of the society, but not the society itself. He is not a coward, he is a warrior. He has to fight his way and he has to make paths for other rebels to follow.

As far as the world is concerned... and the world and the society are not the same thing. In the past, the so-called religious people have renounced the society and the world, both. The rebel will fight against the society, renounce its ideals, and he will love the world - because the world, the existence, is our very source of life. To renounce it is to be anti-life. But all religions have been anti-life, life-negative.

The rebel should be life-affirmative. He will bring in all those values which make the world more beautiful, more lovable, which make the world more rich. It is our world - we are part of it, it is part of us - how can we renounce it? Where can we go to renounce it? The world is in the Himalayan cave as much as it is here in the marketplace.

The world has to be nourished because it is nourishing you. The world has to be respected because it is your very source of life. All the juice that flows in you, all the joys and celebrations that happen to you, come from existence itself. Rather than running away from it, you should dive deeper into it; you should send your roots to deeper sources of life and love and laughter. You should dance and celebrate.

Your celebration will bring you closer to existence, because existence is in constant celebration.

Your joy, your blissfulness, your silence, will bring the silences of the stars and the sky; your peace with existence will open the doors of all the mysteries it contains. There is no other way to become enlightened.

The world has not to be condemned, it has to be respected. The rebel will honor existence, he will have immense reverence for life in whatsoever form it exists - for men, for women, for trees, for mountains, for stars. In whatever form life exists, the rebel will have a deep reverence. That will be his gratitude, that will be his prayer, that will be his religion, that will be his revolution.

To be a rebel is the beginning of a totally new kind of life, a totally new style of life; it is the beginning of a new humanity, of a new man.

I would like the whole world to be rebellious, because only in that rebelliousness will we blossom to our full potential, will we release our fragrances. We will not be repressed individuals, as man has remained for centuries... the most repressed animal. Even birds are far more free, far more natural, far more in tune with nature.

When the sun rises, it does not knock on every tree, "Wake up, the night is over." It does not go to every nest of birds, "Start singing, it is time for song." No, just as the sun rises, the flowers start opening on their own accord. And the birds start singing - not by an order from above, but from an intrinsic inevitability, from a joy, from a blissfulness.

Once I used to be a professor in a Sanskrit college. Since there were no professors' quarters immediately available and I was alone, they made arrangements for me to live in the hostel with the students. It was a Sanskrit college, following the old traditional way: each morning every student had to wake up at four o'clock, had to take a cold shower and line up by five for prayer.

For many years I used to wake up on my own in the darkness of the very early morning... and they were not even aware that I had come as a professor, because I had not started teaching yet.

It was a mistake on the part of the government to send me to that college, because I had no qualifications to teach Sanskrit. It took six months for the government to correct their mistake.

Bureaucracy moves slowest, just as light moves fastest. They are the two polar opposites: light and bureaucracy.

So I had no business there and the students had no idea that I was a professor... and instead of prayer they were all abusing God, abusing the principal, abusing the whole ritual; in the cold of winter taking a cold shower - it was absolutely compulsory.

I heard this situation. I said, "This is strange... instead of being in prayer, they are doing just the opposite. Perhaps these six years in this college will be enough for them: they will never pray again in their whole lives. They will never wake up early, never again. These six years of torture will be enough of an experience."

I told the principal, "It is not right to make prayer compulsory. Prayer cannot be made compulsory; love cannot be made compulsory."

He said, "No, it is not a question of compulsion. Even if I remove the order that it is compulsory, they will still pray."

I said, "You try it "

He removed the order. Except for me, nobody woke up at four o'clock. I went and knocked on the principal's door at four o'clock. He himself was asleep - he was always asleep, he never participated in the prayer himself. I said, "Now come on and see; not a single student out of five hundred has woken up, and not a single student is praying."

The birds do not sing out of compulsion. This cuckoo is not singing because of any presidential order, because of an emergency - it is simply rejoicing with the sun, with the trees.

Existence is a constant celebration. The flowers have opened their petals not because of any order - it is not a duty. It is a response - a response to the sun, a respect, a prayer, a gratitude.

A rebel lives naturally, responds naturally, becomes at home and at ease with existence. He is an existential being. That defines the rebel correctly: the existential being. Existence is his temple, existence is his holy scripture, existence is his whole philosophy. He is not an existentialist, he is existential; it is his experience.

He is at ease with the trees, with the rivers, with the mountains. He does not renounce, he has no condemnation; he has only great honor in his heart, and gratitude. To me, this gratitude is the only prayer.

Question 2:

Sarjano, the blind cannot help the blind. Those who are groping in darkness cannot lead others to light. Those who don't know immortality cannot help others to drop the fear of death. Those who are not living totally and intensely, whose song is not yet of the heart, whose smile is only a painted smile on the lips, cannot help others to be authentic and sincere. Those who are hypocrites, pretenders, cannot help others to be honest.

Those who are not yet themselves, know nothing about themselves, have no idea of their individuality, who are still lost in their personality which is fake and created by the society, cannot help anybody else to attain individuality. Even with all good intentions, it is simply not possible.

If your flame of life is not burning, how can you make the unlit lamps of others aflame? You have to be aflame, Sarjano; only then can you put others on fire.

This is what I mean by being a rebel: you have to be rebellious, then you can spread rebellion all around you. If you are on fire, aflame, you can create a wildfire which goes faraway beyond your vision. But first you have to be aflame.

The blind man leading another blind man... Kabir says both fall into the well. His original words are:

ANDHA ANDHAM THELIA DONO KOOP PADANT. "The blind led the blind and both have fallen into the well."

You have to have eyes to lead the blind to a physician - there is no other way. You can only share with others that which you have got: if you are miserable, you will share your misery. When two miserable persons are together the misery is not only doubled, it is multiplied. The same is true about your blissfulness, the same is true about your rebelliousness, the same is true about all experiences.

Whatever you want the world to be, you will have to be a model first. You have to pass through a fire test to prove your philosophy of life by your example. You cannot just go on arguing about it.

Reasoning and argument will not help; only your experience can give to others the taste of love, of meditation, of silence, of rebelliousness, of religion.

Before you have experienced, never try to help anybody - because you will simply mess up the other person more. They are messed up already. Centuries of heritage have been messing up everybody.

It will be very kind of you not to help, because it is going to be dangerous; your help will be very risky for the other person.

First travel the path, know perfectly well where it leads - only then can you hold the hands of others and take them on the path.

An American Jewish visitor in Russia says to his guide, "In America I can say that Ronald Reagan is an idiot and nothing would happen to me."

The guide says, "You can say that in Russia and they will give you a medal."

It is very difficult in this world to communicate. You have to learn how to communicate your experiences so that what reaches others is exactly what you want to say; otherwise you may be thinking of sharing nectar and it may turn into poison in their lives. They are poisoned enough already!

It is better to first cleanse yourself, make your eyes more transparent so that you can see better.

Perhaps - then too, perhaps - you may be able to help others. The desire is good, but good does not happen just from good desires.

The ancient saying is that the way to hell is paved with good intentions. There are millions of people who are helping with good intentions, advising others - not even bothering about the simple fact that they don't follow their own advice. But just the joy of advising is so much... who cares whether I follow my own advice or not?

The joy of advising others is a very subtle, egoistic joy. The person you are advising becomes ignorant; you become knowledgeable. Advice is the only thing in the world which everybody gives and nobody takes; and it is good that nobody takes it because it is given by people who know nothing - although there is no bad intention behind it.

You are asking a very compassionate question - but in the very nature of things, if you want to change the world, you have to change yourself first. The revolution must come to you first. Only then can you radiate it into others' hearts. First the dance must happen to you, and then you will see a miracle: that others have started dancing too.

The dance is catching; so is love, so is gratitude, so is religiousness, so is rebellion - they are all contagious. But first you must have the flame that you want to see in others' eyes.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Beloved Master.