The very perfume of love

Question 1:

The energy called passion is always addressed towards someone. It is possessive, and because it is possessive it is ugly. To transform passion into compassion means that your energy for love is not addressed to anybody in particular; it is simply your fragrance, it is simply your presence, it is simply the way you are. It is not directed, not one-dimensional. It is radiation, so whoever comes close will feel your love - and it is non-possessive.

The possessive love is a contradiction in terms because possessiveness means you are reducing the other person into a thing. Only things can be possessed, not persons. Only things can be owned, not persons.

The person's essential quality that differentiates him from things is his freedom; and possession, ownership, destroys freedom.

So on the one hand you think you are loving a person; on the other hand, you are destroying his very essence.

Compassion is releasing love from the clutches of possessiveness. Then love is just a soft glow, undirected, unaddressed. You simply shower it because you are so full of it, but it is not a question of just thinking.

Passion has to go through the whole process of meditation to become compassion. Meditation will take away all possessiveness, ownership, jealousy, and will leave only the pure essence, the very perfume of love.

Only a man deeply rooted in meditation can have compassion.

So when I say change your passion into compassion, I am saying let your energy be purified through meditation from all that is garbage in it. Let it become simply a fragrance available to all. Then it does not destroy anybody's freedom but enhances it, and the moment your love enhances somebody's freedom love becomes spiritual.

Question 2:

I cannot say to you to render unto Caesar what belongs to him because nothing belongs to him, and your so-called Caesars are just great robbers - so big that the law cannot catch hold of them.

All your political leaders are criminals, but they are the ones who determine the law of the country and they are the ones who punish the small robbers.

One never thinks of how all these royal families and royal blood came into existence. Nature does not produce royal families separately, neither is there any such thing as royal blood. There are different kinds of blood, but there is not any category for royal blood. What is today a royal family was once a robber's gang, a mafia; it possessed land, it killed people, it possessed people, and slowly, slowly there was no need for them to remain robbers. They had got enough, and they were respected out of fear.

In the long history slowly, slowly they settled as royal families. Their blood became special.

And still even in the twentieth century things have not changed. Just as kings and queens have come from robbers' generations, the politicians are coming from other sources of criminality.

So I cannot say to you that Caesar has to have rendered what belongs to him. Nothing belongs to him and nothing has to be rendered to him.

That has been the old compromising attitude - why get into trouble, give to the Caesar what belongs to him, and in return he gives you safety, security.

If you are really disturbed and feeling sincerely that there is something criminal in it, then move to something which is not taxable. For example, cultivation in many countries is not taxable.

It will not give you so much money, and it will make you have to work hard just to earn your bread, but you will have a great blissfulness and peace, integrity and individuality. You are producing, you are creative, you are helping yourself and you are helping others; but you are not helping the criminals.

And in every nation there are things which are not taxable.

People should start moving towards those things which are not taxable. That will weaken the powers of criminal politicians.

To exist in this world without compromising is certainly getting into trouble, but it is worth it. It is immensely valuable. We need people who are ready to get into trouble but they will not compromise; these are the real salt of the earth - humanity can be proud of them.

Question 3:

They are connected. They are like rungs of a ladder. For example, in the beginning it was impossible for man to cultivate. He had no idea that cultivation is possible. He had seen animals eating animals, that gave him the first idea of hunting - that this is the only way to get food. There was some example.

But you cannot go on hunting forever. As human population became bigger and bigger and the population of the poor hunted animals started shrinking - because they were being killed - man had to find some other way to survive.

It is always only in a very deep crisis that man finds something new.

Then he looked at trees, their fruits, and the wild growth of vegetation. And there was no other way so they tried it, and it worked. And just watching, they found that they need not depend on nature; otherwise, again they will destroy. They can cultivate.

They saw fruits falling on the earth and sprouts coming up. It is just by watching they learned cultivation.

It is connected and overlapping.

Hunting continues, but now it has become a game. Man does not depend on it. There are professional killers who have started cultivating animals; just the way you cultivate fruits or wheat they cultivate animals, and bring meat for you. The whole earth still remains meat-eating.

Just a small fraction in India and a few individuals outside India have dropped completely that ugly, insensitive way of living.

And if the whole humanity decides to drop it, it will immediately find new ways.

The whole ocean is available. The ocean has its own vegetation, which is very nourishing. The way we cultivate the earth the ocean can be cultivated.

Everything is connected as steps to a higher step.

There was no family in the beginning, only tribes, so you could not say who was the father of the boy. Only the mother was known. So there are countries where the father's name is not asked when you are filling a form for something, but the mother's name is asked still.

For example, Mohammedans don't believe that Mary became pregnant by a holy ghost. To anybody who is not a Christian it looks a stupid idea.

But one thing is certain, that Joseph is not the father of Jesus Christ, and to cover up the whole thing the holy ghost has been brought into the story.

Mohammedans don't believe in the virgin birth. So when they speak about Jesus, they say "Jesus Ibn Mariam" - Jesus, the son of Mariam, not the son of Joseph.

It was the situation all over the world. People knew only their mothers.

In the UPANISHADS there is a tremendously beautiful story which shows how a real saint responds.

I lived for almost twenty years in Jabalpur in India. It must be a very old city because its name is derived from a great sage, Jabali, and this story is concerned with Jabali.

One young man wanted to study under Jabali, but only Brahmins could study. And the problem with the young man was that his mother was so poor that she never got married and she worked in many people's houses, and she was so beautiful that many men took advantage of her poverty. So when Satyakam became a young man he said, "I want to go to some great sage to study."

The mother said, "It is going to be difficult because only Brahmins are accepted, and I cannot be certain that your father was a Brahmin. I don't know who your father was. So you can go, and when the master asks you about your name, you tell your name, tell my name, and say that you are my son. And certainly he will be surprised because the mother's name is not usually mentioned. And he will ask, 'Who is your father?' Tell him exactly what I have told you."

So when Satyakam went to ask Jabali, he said "My mother was very beautiful but very poor. She could not get married, and many people took advantage of her poverty so she does not know who my father is. And she sent me to tell you exactly the truth. Now it is up to you to accept or reject me."

The whole congregation of the disciples fell silent.

Jabali said, "One who can say such a truth must be a Brahmin. You are allowed. Only a Brahmin can have this much courage, to say 'I don't know who my father is. I know only the name of my mother.'"

And Satyakam became a great sage in his own right. Because Jabali had accepted him, there was no question of anybody being skeptical.

The reason that he had given is tremendously beautiful. He has said it is possible that a Brahmin may be untrue, but it is not possible that a truthful man can be anything else but a Brahmin.

The society has passed through a tribal maternal state to the joint family, where all the brothers were living together - their children, their wives, their uncles, their father; and it was economical because only few people could work and the whole family could be supported.

But then the population went on growing and the joint family had to disperse.

So first the tribe was divided into joint families. The tribe was a big phenomenon. Then the joint family was cut into unitary families with only father, mother and his children.

And now the situation has come when even that family cannot be supported - it is too costly, uneconomical, unpsychological.

Hence the commune, which will be many things - freedom from marriage, which has become a psychological burden; freedom from the responsibilities of parenthood; freedom from the nuisance of the children; freedom for the children from the parents' dictatorial and monopolistic attitude, because they will belong to the commune. And because the commune will not be cut into fixed units but will be a mobile phenomenon, it will be more alive, more joyful. Whenever people get stuck they can separate. There is no need for anybody to ask either for marriage or for divorce; the only thing they have to ask is about children because now the responsibility is on the commune.

Unless the commune allows, they cannot produce children.

That will help the whole world immensely to reduce its population - not only to reduce its population but to bring only the children who are needed. The unnecessary, the mediocre, the idiots, are a burden. The whole consciousness of the society can be raised.

Sooner or later children are going to be produced outside the mother's womb; because that is a great wastage - for nine months the woman is absolutely incapable of doing anything. That is why in the whole history although half the people on the earth have been women they could not produce anything, they could not create anything, they could not be geniuses from their side. And they had to become slaves to man because they had to depend on man.

Children can be produced in the scientific lab far more perfectly. They will be more healthy with less defects. We can give them whatever we want - what kind of color, what kind of hair, what length of life, what kind of health, what kind of mind. Everything is now in the hands of man.

So the children should be the commune's responsibility and the commune will take care of it by means of the scientific lab.

It looks strange just because it is new.

Everything new looks strange.

When the first train started from the London station, just an eight mile run, nobody was ready to sit in it even for free. Lunch was also served free. Because all the churches were sermonizing for months that God never made the train and this is the devil's invention. And they were telling people, "You can sit in it. It can start, but what guarantee is there that it will stop?" - Naturally it has never stopped before because it has never started - "Once you are in it, you are gone forever. It is not going to stop. It is a devil's trick."

Only very courageous people - atheists, agnostics, scientists - came to sit in it, and they were also feeling very nervous because they were taking a risk. Their families were persuading them not to do it because of what might happen to them if the train does not stop.

But the train went. It stopped. It came back. Now nobody bothers about the train. Nobody bothers whether it was created by God or not.

For centuries man has been very proud, "This is my child" - whether he is an idiot or not does not matter, he is proud that he has given birth to a child.

In the coming world the man will be proud, the woman will be proud, that they have given to their child the best sperm and the best egg. Neither the egg is of the woman nor the sperm is of the man, but a new pride - "we have given the best sperm and the best egg to our child."

Just now it looks absurd - "in what way is he your child?" But to look at it in a more scientific, rational way, it is not the question that your sperm has any speciality or your egg has any speciality. And when you are giving birth to a child, you should find the best egg and the best sperm. This should be a simple arithmetic - when you can have a genius as a child then why create one of the crowd?

Humanity has to go on progressing.

All these are links. Just as from tribes came the family, from the family the commune, finally from the commune will come the universal gypsy.

Why remain confined to one place when the whole universe is yours? When you can be in the mountains sometimes, and you can be in the ocean sometimes, and you can be on the earth sometimes, why remain confined? Why remain closed? Why not make yourself available to all that is possible?"

And tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the planets will be available. Some day the stars will be available. Before that happens, man has to become a universal gypsy; only then will people be available to go to the moon, to go to Mars.

There was a time that nobody left his own village.

In India I have seen people who have never left their village, who have not seen a railway train - who have been born in that village and will die in that village. That village is their whole world. It cannot be very rich. It is bound to be very poor.

Then people started moving, finding new continents, new countries. And just three hundred years ago, Columbus found America.

The stars are not very far; man has just to change his structure of thinking to the idea that living means becoming richer, experiencing more and more.

And certainly there are planets where life has evolved up to the level of humanity or perhaps even further, and contact with them will bring a revolution to humanity too.

We have brothers and sisters all over the universe, and we are not aware of them. And they must have learned different skills to live in a different climate, in a different atmosphere. Much can be learned.

And man can mature with this learning.

And if Albert Einstein is right - and most probably he is right - that if we can find vehicles of the same speed as light then man will not age; he will leave this planet when he is thirty years old, he will come back after fifty years, sixty years, and all his friends would either have died or would be almost on their deathbed, but he will be still thirty years old. At that speed aging stops.

And when a man like Albert Einstein gives a hypothesis you cannot simply reject it - because all his other hypotheses which were rejected in the beginning had to be accepted by and by. It took time, but they had to be accepted.

And when I say man can become a universal gypsy, he can become almost immortal. He need not grow old. And then his experience, his knowledge... everything goes on growing and he remains as young as ever.

Today it may seem impossible, but nothing is really impossible. Some way can be found and will be found - because once an idea has taken shape, it is only a question of time before it becomes a reality.

Question 4:

Premda, it all depends on you. If you want to do another round, it is very easy. You have done many rounds before - millions, because since the beginning we have been here doing rounds, circling.

But if you are satisfied that enough rounding has been done and it is time now to stop, that too is not difficult. Nature is very simple, and it gives you total freedom - you just have to be decisive.

To stop the round, you will have to drop many things - your desires, your ambitions, aspirations, greed, ego - the laundry list is long. But if you can do without laundry, you can stop any moment the wheel of life and death.

It was necessary that you should go through all these rounds to bring you to the realization that now it is enough and you should stop, because there is another world that begins with stopping - another universe, desireless, passionless, full of love, full of joy, just absolute in every sense. Nothing can be more than that.

So by stopping you are not losing anything, just stopping the sorry-go-round. People call it merry- go-round. I have always been puzzled why they call it merry-go-round. Nobody seems.... So I have made my own word, 'sorry-go-round'.

And if you see the suffering and the anguish of it all, that very seeing will stop it and then begins a totally new world of which only a few indications can be given, and those indications are not descriptions of its entirety. They are just arrows pointing. It is infinite, it is eternal, it knows no sadness, no sorrow.

And everything depends on a single thing: your decision.

And my whole effort is somehow to stop your sorry-go-round, but you insist that you want just one time more - as if you have not been on the same trip millions of times - just one time more.

Try to understand your life as it is, and there will be no problem. The stopping will come on its own accord.

Maneesha will also stop, she has just to finish her editing. She has got into a trouble because unless I stop speaking she cannot finish her editing - and I am not going to stop! But the work that I have given her will help her more than anything to stop. She may not stop because she has to finish the work - which will help millions of people to stop, but the words that she continually has to come across are bound to penetrate her more than anybody else.

So don't feel jealous of Maneesha.

Milarepa is already on the verge of stopping. Chetana already thinks he is a ghost! Just one thing is wrong, that ghosts are never known to play on the guitar.

Everything is possible in this universe. So we can take his guitar any moment and he can disappear.

But while I am speaking he has to play on the guitar.

But you all are going to disappear, this way or that.

So by the way, Milarepa, you keep hold of your guitar as hard as possible. Whatever happens, don't leave it. Chetana may try to take the guitar - "Nothing doing," tell her, "this is the only thing. I am holding the wheel; otherwise it is going to stop." But a guitar can be dropped any moment, there is no problem; or you can pass it on to somebody else who still wants to have a few rounds.

Take life playfully. Take the stopping of life also playfully. There is nothing to be serious about. And once a person learns to take everything playfully then nothing is going to prevent him. He is going to disappear into the universe, into godliness.