A Single Shout

The first question:

Question 1:

I AM. You are. Everybody is. God is nothing but the totality. The trees are, the rivers are, the mountains are. These are the proofs. The sun rises in the morning and the moon is in the night, and the stars. These are the proofs. The flowers and the butterflies and the grass, these are the proofs.

God is not a syllogism. God is not a conclusion. God is an experience of beauty, of truth, of good, of consciousness. Where are you looking for the proofs? Your very being is the only proof. The seeker is the sought. God resides in you as you. God is a tree in a tree and a dog in a dog and a man in a man. God is all these things. God is this whole.

But you want an intellectual conclusion; you will go on missing God. There is no proof - in that sense there is no proof. There has never been a proof in that sense. And the people who have been supplying proofs for God simply don't know what they are doing. The people who have tried to argue for God are the people who don't know God. Otherwise they wouldn't argue. It is better to sing if you know God, it is better to dance if you know God, it is better to laugh if you know God. It is better to weep, cry, if you know God, rather than to argue.

Philosophers have been arguing about God, for and against, both. And philosophers are the farthest from God. Because the more you become entangled inwards, the more you become obsessed with theories, systems of thought, the farther away you are from life itself. And God is life.

The second question:

Question 2:

That's my whole work here. To sabotage all your possibilities of enlightenment. If your desire for enlightenment is not sabotaged you will never become enlightened.

But don't be angry at poor onions, they are innocent people. And they are as spiritual as you are, and far deeper in meditation than you can ever be. And I don't believe that a man of the understanding of Raman Maharshi would have said it. But if he has said it then he must be joking.

But the so-called spiritual people have been obsessed with such things. The so-called spiritual people are obsessed with absolute nonsense. Now how can the onion or the chillies or the salt prevent you from becoming enlightened? Stupid ideas. Rather than looking deeply into your being, and rather than facing real problems, you create false problems. These are false problems. This is a strategy of the mind, so that the real problems can be bypassed. The real problem is not onions, it is greed. The real problem is not chillies, it is anger. The real problem is not salt, it is possessiveness.

The real problem is not what you should eat and what you should not eat. The real problem is what you should be.

To avoid real problems we create false problems. And there is something beautiful about false problems: they can be solved, easily solved. What is the problem? You stop eating onions. And you become spiritual and you are enlightened because you don't eat onions. So simple. But not to be greedy will be difficult, arduous. Not to be an egoist is going to be an uphill task. You will need immense understanding. you will need great awareness. Only in the fire of awareness real problems will be burned.

You know you cannot solve those real problems. So the best way is, create false bogus problems and start solving them. This is one of the most basic tricks of the human mind.

For example, India is suffering for centuries because of poverty. And Morarji Desai thinks prohibition will solve the problems. Now this is a false problem. Prohibition has no thing to do with it. Prohibition or no prohibition, the poverty will remain. The poor will become even more miserable, that's all.

Because through alcohol sometimes he can forget his suffering, sometimes he can drown himself.

Once prohibition is there he will not have even that possibility to drown himself. Then his suffering will be utter.

Or, Morarji Desai thinks if cows are not murdered, if cows are not butchered, then all problems will be solved. These are tricks of the mind. And this is how one can go on befooling oneself, for centuries.

India suffers because of these false prophets. And false prophets are those who tackle false problems. First they create a problem, then they start solving it. And they make much fuss about it and they seem to be much too active. If they fail, certainly nothing is achieved. If they succeed, then too nothing is achieved. But one thing, they can camouflage the real problem. They can focus your attention on something false, like a toy. It looks a real problem, it is not.

Now see into it. How can onions prevent you becoming meditative? How can onions prevent you from becoming silent? There is not a problem there. But you want to be spiritual and you want to be known as spiritual, you start doing foolish things.

In my new commune I am going to have a bar also. And a smoking room. If tea can become a ceremony then why not smoking? If people can drink tea and make it a meditative process, so can be smoking. I am not saying you should smoke, I am not saying you should drink, but I am saying that these are not the things that prevent you from becoming spiritual. Jesus used to drink, Gurdjieff used to drink. That has not prevented them from becoming enlightened.

Remember, anything that prevents you from becoming enlightened is your knowing, your thought- process, nothing else. And there is the real task - how to drop the thought-process. And because you feel impotent there, you create small problems: how to eat only once a day, how to eat without salt, how to eat without ghee, how to eat this way or that way. Jaina monks eat standing. If you eat sitting, enlightenment is sabotaged. Jaina monks eat only once a day. If you eat twice, enlightenment is sabotaged.

One Jaina monk come to see me and he said 'Eating twice is not good.' I said 'Eating once?' He said 'Eating once is okay.' I told him 'Half the enlightenment is sabotaged.'

And enlightenment does not come in parts. Either it comes whole or it doesn't come. If twice a day is dangerous then once a day is fifty percent dangerous. You can eat thrice a day, it makes no difference. I am not saying eat thrice a day, because it is not going to help you to become enlightened either. It does not affect you, this way or that; it is irrelevant.

Don't bring irrelevancies into your spirituality. Otherwise you will become obsessed with fads. And those fads are a kind of insanity, psychosis.

But these people become mahatmas - Morarji Desai is a mahatma. He does not drink wine but he drinks his own urine. And that's perfectly good, that helps enlightenment. He would like everybody to drink his urine, that seems to be the cure for all the illnesses of this country. I think it is time he should graduate and go to the ultimate mahatmahood, he should start eating his...And that will solve the food problem.

People just become faddists. And it simply shows some neurosis, some psychopathology is in it.

Sixty years ago, he came to know that a young man, completely drunk, had tried to rape his own sister. That has been his antagonism against alcohol. Now this has to be understood. Even in his antagonism against alcohol there is somehow sex involved. And drinking one's own urine...he needs Freudian psychoanalysis. There must be some sexual repression in it, it is somehow an obsession with sexuality. And for almost fifty years he has been trying to remain a celibate. Now this too much concern creates all kinds of problems. Nothing is solved, more problems are created. But people will think he is a mahatma.

I would not like you to become a mahatma. If you can become simple innocent human beings, that is more than is required. Eat whatsoever feels good to you. Take care of the body, be respectful of the body. Be respectful how much you eat, don't overburden the body, because that is a kind of anger, violence. And violence is so subtle that you have to watch it. When a person goes on stuffing himself he is being violent with his own body, he is destructive. Or he can go on a fast, then again he is violent. Just see the point of it. You can eat too much and you can be violent, and you can fast and you can be violent. Eating or fasting is not the question: Don't be violent.

Love your body, respect your body, it is God's shrine.

But it is very easy to move from too much stuffing to fasting, because the mind always easily moves from one extreme to another, from one obsession to another obsession. First you go on stuffing your body and hurting it, loading it unnecessarily. Then one day you turn against it, you become the enemy of the body. As if it has been the body's fault. Then you start fasting, and again you start torturing your body. But it is violence.

And violence is so deep in man that you have to watch it continuously, otherwise it will come from some other way.

Morarji Desai goes to other countries - he is against innoculation, any kind of innoculation. Now this is violent. He can carry diseases from this country to another country and he can bring diseases from another country to this country. But he insists. And he is a non-violent man, a great follower of Mahatma Gandhi. But this is being very violent, disrespectful to people. Now this single man can create problems for a whole country. In fact he should not be welcome in any country of the world.

One can be in a very subtle way violent. Watch it.

If you don't like onions it is perfectly good, don't eat them. But you need not condemn them. And if others like them, you need not think they are unspiritual or something. Don't become spiritual so easily, don't depend on such bogus things. Spirituality has only one taste and that is of awareness.

Onion or no onion, chillies or no chillies, salt or no salt. Spirituality has only one taste, the taste of awareness. Stick to it! And don't get distracted by small things.

The third question:

Question 3:

It is there, the misery is there. But there is no need to reconcile. My whole teaching is to be total wherever you are. Listening to me, if you are feeling joyous feel totally joyous. Dancing in the ashram, participating in Sufi dance or meditating, if you are ecstatic be totally ecstatic. When you go outside and the misery is there and ugliness is there and beggars are there and poverty is there and illness is there, be totally miserable there.

The only thing to be remembered is totality. Seeing a beggar, cry. If you can do something, do. If you cannot do anything you can hold his hand, you can sit by his side. You can feel, you can watch.

And you can keep remembering that you should not do anything to make people poor.

There is no need to reconcile. Reconciliation will mean you have found a way to console yourself.

For example, you can fall upon the theory of karma. You can say this man is suffering because of his karma. Now you are reconciled, now you need not worry about it, you need not go into it. This is none of your business, he is suffering from his karma. That's what Indians have been doing down the ages. A poor man is suffering from his karma, he has to suffer, he has done something wrong in his past lives. This is a punishment; he should not do such a thing again. Then you are no more disturbed by it, then you think you are not a part to his misery.

No, I will not say that. We are all part, we are all together here. No man is an island, we make one vast continent. We are involved with each other. If you are happy the world that surrounds you is involved in your happiness. If you are miserable the world that surrounds you is involved in your misery. We are not separate.

So when outside seeing misery, feel miserable. Why think of reconciliation? Nothing is wrong in being miserable, if you can remember only one thing: then be totally miserable. Then inside the ashram or outside the ashram you will have one thing common, that is totality. And that is what is needed. When you cry, cry totally. When tears come to your eyes then don't be a miser, then don't hold them back. Then overflow in them, then let them take your whole being, let them possess you.

While dancing dance totally possessed, mad. When laughing let there be laughter. But be total.

One thing more: India and the Indian people suffer because of their stupid notions. Feel sorry for them. Down the ages, the so-called religious people have been preaching poverty. That is the root cause. They have been praising poverty like anything, as if poverty is a value in itself. Poverty is not a value in itself. Discomfort is not a value in itself, inconvenience is not a value in itself. Illness, disease, is not a value. But down the ages, the so-called Indian mahatmas have been preaching tO people that poverty has a spiritual value. If you are poor you are spiritual, if you are rich you are materialist.

That's why Indians go on saying that Americans are materialists. Because they are rich. To be rich and to be materialist is synonymous to the Indian mind. And Indians are spiritual because they are poor. To be poor and to be spiritual is synonymous. This is absurd. A man can be poor and materialist, and a man can be rich and religious and spiritual.

According to me, the rich man has more possibilities to be religious than the poor man. He can afford religion. The poor man cannot even think about it. The poor man is BOUND to be materialist. The rich man has the possibility to get out of materialism - because he has seen it all, he has experienced it all, and he has come to recognize that it doesn't give the thing that you are searching for. That it doesn't fulfill. That the aching heart remains aching. That the emptiness in the spirit remains the same - no riches can fill it, no riches can give you the feeling of fulfillment and flowering. Only the rich man can know the absurdity of richness. The poor man cannot know - he still hopes, he still has much to arrange.

Only in a really rich world, religion will become a universal phenomenon. In a poor world the only religion that can have any appeal is communism. No other religion can have any other appeal.

If you look down deeply into the Indian mind you will find it absolutely materialistic. I have been watching, observing, it is one of the most materialistic minds in the world. The reason is its poverty.

But the problem is that the whole heritage supports poverty, the whole heritage has been praising poverty. That's why I am an outsider here, a stranger. There is a rift between me and the Indian mind, because I don't support his heritage. I cannot support it. I am not violent - how can I support his heritage? It is his heritage that has made him poor. I am against his past, I want him to drop his whole past. And unless the Indian consciousness is freed from its past, the poverty is going to remain there, the suffering is going to remain there.

So the only thing that you really can do is to help people to understand that they have to get rid of their past. Their whole stubborn attitude has become their imprisonment. If you are against riches you will not produce riches, obviously. If you are against riches you will not create the technology which can produce riches. If you are against wealth, you may desire deep down to be wealthy but your very attitude will prevent you. You will go on doing things which will keep you poor. And the problem is, if you support the heritage of the Indian mind then you support his poverty. And the Indian mind will follow you.

Now look - Morarji Desai goes on saying that the only way to prevent the population explosion is to teach people celibacy. Not birth-control - celibacy. Now, through celibacy the population explosion cannot be prevented. But this appeals to the Indian mind. The Indian mind will say 'This is right.'

Because the support is there in all the scriptures for celibacy, BRAHMACHARYA.

They are bound to be against me. I support birth control, I support abortion, they are bound to be against me. Abortion? A spiritual man cannot support abortion. People come to me and they say, I support abortion? I support murder? Abortion is murder. I say to them: You know the soul is immortal. So how can the murder happen? Have you forgotten Krishna and his Bhagavad Gita? He says to Arjuna 'You can kill all these people, nobody is ever killed. Because the soul is immortal.'

Now, if I support abortion, if I support birth-control, I am not spiritual. Obviously I am not, in their definition. It is not accidental that the Indian mind feels an antagonism towards me. It is very simple for me not to antagonize them, but then I will be their enemy. You see the paradox? The problem is, if I love them I have to antagonize them. But then they will not come to me. If I don't love them then I can go on supporting their ideas. Then they will come in thousands - millions will come. But then I will be their enemy. Then I will be keeping their poverty, their suffering, their ugliness.

So I know, when you go out you have to face an ugly world. Whatsoever you can do, do. If you cannot do anything you can cry and weep, you can help people. That's my message to my sannyasins:

Always go to the roots. I am not saying to you to give some money to the beggar, because that is not going to help. Money has been given down the ages, that has not helped. In fact that has made beggary rooted in the soil. I am not saying give money to the beggar, I am not saying don't give money to the beggar that is irrelevant. Whether you give or not, it is not going to help. Giving the money may help you. Mm? You will find a reconciliation, you have done something. You will feel good. You can go to the Blue Diamond and fall asleep, feeling good, saintly, holy, that you have done something. But that is not going to help.

And I am not saying don't give money. But remember, that is not going to help. If you feel good it is perfectly good to feel good.

But the real thing that is going to help is enlightened people. Help them to see WHY they are miserable. They have made a religion out of poverty. It is not because of their past karmas that they are suffering, it is because of their past philosophies that they are suffering. It is not that in their past life they committed murder and suicide and robbery so they are suffering. It is simply that their whole past they have been taught poverty. Poverty has been praised so much.

Mm? Those questions come to me. Just the other day there was a question: Why do I move in an Impala car? I also think about it - why do I move in an Impala car? Because I don't have a Rolls Royce, that's why. I understand, you feel for me...

But my whole approach is different than the so-called spiritual mind. It is not spiritual to me. Life has to be lived as beautifully as possible. And poverty is not a value, and discomfort is not spirituality.

But this is the problem. People who are poor would like to see me also in the same discomfort. Then they will feel happy. And if I am in the same discomfort, naturally I have to praise the discomfort.

That is the only way to remain in discomfort, you have to praise it. You have to make much of it, that you are doing something great.

If you look healthy, if you look beautiful, if you look graceful, if you live a natural life, then people are not happy. Then what are you doing? Then you are an ordinary man. Let me repeat: To be utterly ordinary is to be spiritual. To be utterly ordinary is the meaning of spirituality to me. To try to be extraordinary is an ego trip. How you manage it, that is a different thing, but to try to be extraordinary is to be on an ego trip.

Relax. Here, feel as joyous as you can. I am trying to create an alternative world, a small world.

But beyond the gate the old world exists. You will be going there and you will have to encounter it.

And in fact when you really start feeling joyous then you see the misery more, because the contrast exists. Ordinarily you may not be so aware of the misery. Indians are not so much aware of the misery. They have lived in it, they are accustomed to it. When Westerners come they feel it more.

I overheard two American travellers at Bombay's Santa Cruz airport. And one said to the other 'Look! They have bread too.' They must have been thinking that India is so poor that no bread, no butter, nothing. He was surprised to see bread. 'Look! They have bread too.'

When you come from the West, from affluent societies, it is natural for you to become more aware of the poverty, of the degradation that this society exists in. And then you come to me, and here the whole effort is to create a climate of celebration. Then you start feeling very joyous, flowing. With that joy, and with your Western consciousness, moving outside is difficult, I understand. Everything hurts, everything is an eyesore.

But reconciliation is not possible. We have to accept it. The only thing that is possible is, feel. Feel the misery. And help people to get rid of their dangerous poisonous past. Only then, someday there is a possibility that people will not be so miserable.

The third question:

Question 4:

There is a Chinese saying: Man is a puppet when he acts, a poet when he describes. All that you think is your freedom is nothing but your poetry. An unconscious man cannot be free, cannot have any freedom. Freedom comes as a consequence of consciousness, freedom is the function of consciousness. An unconscious man exists like a machine, like a robot. You may not know, but you are continuously functioning as a robot.

Somebody abuses you and anger arises. It is almost like when you push the button and the fan starts moving. Somebody pushes the button and you become angry. What kind of freedom is this?

You don't have any choice, to be angry or not to be angry. If the choice is not there there is no freedom. Freedom means freedom to choose - you can decide whether to be angry or not, then you are free. But can you decide? At the most you can decide to show your anger or not - that is another thing. But to be angry or not to be angry, have you got any decision about it, any choice about it?

The moment somebody pushes your button you are angry INSTANTLY, not a single moment is lost.

You may not show it, that is another thing. You may control, repress, that is another thing. But anger has flashed in your being. And about that you have no choice. You function like a machine.

A parable:

Once upon a time there was a magnet, and in its close neighbourhood lived some steel filings. One day two or three little filings felt a sudden desire to go and visit the magnet, and they began to talk of what a pleasant thing it would be to do. Other filings nearby heard their conversation, and they too became infected with the same desire. Still others joined them, till at last all the filings began to discuss the matter, and more and more their vague desire grew into an impulse.

'Why not go today?' said one of them; but others were of the opinion that it would be better to wait till tomorrow.

Meanwhile, without their having noticed it, they had been involuntarily moving nearer to the magnet, which lay there quite still, apparently taking no heed of them. And so they went on discussing, all the time insensibly drawing nearer to their neighbour. And the more they talked, the more they felt the impulse growing stronger, till the more impatient ones declared that they would go that day, whatever the rest did. Some were heard to say it was their duty to visit the magnet, and that they ought to have gone long ago.

And while they talked they moved always nearer and nearer, without realizing that they had moved.

Then at last the impatient ones prevailed, and with one irresistible impulse the whole body cried out 'There is no use waiting. We will go today. We will go now. We will go at once. ' And then in one unanimous mass they swept along, and in another moment were clinging fast to the magnet on every side.

Then the magnet smiled - for the steel filings had no doubt at all but that they were paying that visit of their own free will.

Unconscious, you don't have any will. Unconscious, you don't have any freedom. So don't think about it. You ask, HOW TO SEE WHAT IS MY WILL AND GOD'S WILL? YOU have none. God is the magnet and you are the filings.

But you go on believing that you have your will, you go on believing that this is your choice. That you have chosen this woman to be your wife. Think about it again, remember this parable. Have you chosen this woman? Or was it just an accident? Have you chosen? Was there really any choice in it? Or had you been a victim of a certain impulse called love? Was it possible for you not to choose?

Was it your decision? Then you will see that it has not been so. Whatsoever has happened in your life has happened more or less accidentally. And don't laugh at those iron filings - that is the situation of humanity.

But you can rise out of your unconsciousness. Then you will have will. But you will not be there, you will disappear. Because in consciousness you cannot remain, you can remain only in unconsciousness. Now let me make it clear: When you are, you have no will. In unconsciousness the ego exists but there is no will. In consciousness the will exists but the ego disappears. Then there is no point of asking '...my WILL AND GOD'S WILL?' Then there is no distinction between you and God. You are God and God is you.

The whole problem can be reduced to a simple thing To be conscious or not to be conscious.

The unconscious man exists without any will. He only dreams that he has will. With consciousness ego starts disappearing on one hand, on another hand will arises. But it will not be your will, it will be always God's will. Then what is the difference between the unconscious man and the conscious man? The difference is, it is always God's will - the unconscious man thinks 'It is my will' and the conscious man knows 'I am not, only God is.'

The fifth question:

Question 5:

Vidya, it is not only possible, it is certain. You will become a fool. But foolishness has its own wisdom.

You will become a fool and wise together. The so-called wise who are never foolish are not really wise. Because wisdom is paradoxical. Wisdom is not only serious, it is playful too. And foolishness is playfulness. Wisdom is not only intellectual knowledge, it is existential celebration. Wisdom is not cerebral - it is not of the head, it is of the total being. And the total being has emotions, sentiments, feelings. And the total being is far bigger than the poor small intellect.

And whatsoever goes beyond intellect, the intellect says is foolishness: Beware - don't move, don't take another step, otherwise you will become a fool. So people remain confined in the intellect. They remain knowledgeable but they never become wise.

A wise man is playful. He can afford to be foolish, he is so much in trust with life. He has no need to prove himself always wise, he has no need to convince others that 'I am always wise.' That need exists only because you are afraid of your foolishness. The really wise is one who is relaxed. Yes, he can play like a fool, he can laugh like a fool.

Just think of Christ, think of Lao Tzu, think of Bodhidharma. These people are really wise people, but they can act foolishly. Lao Tzu has said 'Everybody seems to be so wise, except me.' And he is the wise man. Lao Tzu says 'Everybody seems to be so confident and I am so hesitant. Everybody seems to be so clear about life. And I am so unclear, surrounded by a cloud.'

What is he saying? He is saying that clarity that has no clouds in it is a poor clarity. Because it will not have any mystery in it. Without mist how can you have mystery? It will be plain, superficial, hollow, it will not have any depth.

Have you not heard about it, that in ancient days every king's court used to have a fool? For a certain reason - so that the fool keeps balance. Otherwise all the viziers and the prime ministers are so knowledgeable, they will create a lopsidedness. A fool was needed, a perfect fool was needed. And the fool was a must. If modern governments behave foolishly, the reason is, the fool has disappeared. Jimmy Carter needs a fool there in the cabinet, a special department for the fool must be there - who can bring people to laughter, who can disperse seriousness, who can make you like children. Who can make you aware of the mystery of life, that it is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived.

There is a famous story about Mulla Nasruddin. The emperor was talking to him, and the emperor said 'I have decided to destroy all untruth from my country.' Nasruddin laughed. The emperor said 'Why are you laughing?' Nasruddin said 'This is foolish. Nobody can destroy untruth, because untruth and truth exist together. If you destroy untruth, truth will be destroyed, Sir. They are like day and night.'

But the king was a logician. He said 'What nonsense you are talking! They don't exist together. Truth is against untruth, they are enemies. And I have decided, and you will see that I will destroy untruth.

From tomorrow morning, every day I am going to hang one man who is found to be Lying. He will be hanged in the marketplace so the whole capital knows. And every day a man will be hanged, so people become afraid.'

Nasruddin asked 'Where are you going to find that man?' The king said 'At the city gate. I will be there at the city gate and if anybody lies, immediately he will be caught.' Nasruddin said 'Then I will see you tomorrow at the city gate.'

And the first man who entered was Nasruddin on his donkey. And the king asked 'Nasruddin, where are you going?' He said 'To the gallows.'

Now he created a problem. If you send him to the gallows he has asserted truth, and a true man has been killed. If you don't send him to the gallows then he has asserted a lie, but you.... Now what to do?

And Nasruddin said 'I am here, Sir. Now do whatsoever you want. I am going to the gallows!'

The king bowed down. He said 'You are true. Life is so vast, logic cannot contain it.'

Vidya, don't be afraid. Become a fool, and a totally new kind of wisdom will arise out of it that comes only to fools. Logic in itself is not very logical, reason alone is not very reasonable. Reason must have some space for irreason, and logic must have some space for love. And your seriousness must be coloured by playfulness. Then you have your total being. Then you are dark and light and summer and winter, life and death.

That totality brings joy.

The sixth question:

Question 6:

The question is from Lawrence Melkin.

There is no path. If you understand that, there is no need to go on any path, my path included.

But if you don't understand that, if that revelation does not make you enlightened immediately....

I am ready to make you enlightened right now. But you say 'Wait, Sir. I am not ready right now.

Tomorrow.' Then you will have to become a sannyasin. And then the whole nonsense follows.

It is your responsibility. I am ready to make you enlightened this very moment, unconditionally. Then there is no need for the change of the name and no need for the mala and no need for the orange.

But you say 'Tomorrow - not today. The day after tomorrow - not today, not right now.' Then I suggest: Become a sannyasin. And when you become a sannyasin then the whole abracadabra.

But this is YOUR decision. I was ready to declare you enlightened but you say 'No Sir, I want to become a sannyasin. I want to follow a path. I don't want to become enlightened right now.'

Then it is perfectly okay. Then I give you a path. It is just to console you, it is a toy. The day you will understand, there will be no need - no need for anything. But those who have not taken sannyas should not start thinking that they are enlightened. Those who have not taken sannyas should not start thinking 'So, good - good that we have not taken it yet.' But then you have to become enlightened this very moment. If you don't become enlightened and don't become a sannyasin then you remain wherever you are, whosoever you are.

The sannyas is a bridge. The bridge is not the goal. The sannyas is a means, the means is not the end. It is better to become a sannyasin than not to become one. But if you can gather so much passion and fire that you can burn in a single moment, that you can become aflame in a single moment, instantly - then there is no need for sannyas or anything.

And moreover, I am a man of contradictions. I am paradoxical. One day I say one thing, another day I say just the opposite. That is my way to destroy your mind. On one hand I say there is no path.

And every evening I give you the path. On one hand I say there is no need for any belonging to anything, to any church. Every night I give you entry into the church. The reason is that I would like you to come closer and closer to me. The closer you are, the more is the possibility to understand the instantaneousness of enlightenment. The farther you are, the more difficult to understand it.

The human mind works logically. Then through logic, gradualness is natural. You say 'One day we will do some thing, another day something more, and then more, step by step.' You think, through logic, as if life is a ladder - 'So we will go one rung, another rung, another rung, THAT way.' But life is not a ladder, it is an abyss. And you need not step slowly slowly, gradually. You can take a jump, a leap, a quantum leap. One step is enough then if you take a jump. The remaining work will be done by gravitation, you need not do anything else.

So I go on enlightening you every morning. A few people become enlightened, at least for the moment. They forget outside the gate - that is their problem. Again I have to make them enlightened, they again forget, I have to make them enlightened again. I will go on hammering you that you are enlightened, that you have never been otherwise. Some day in some ripe moment you may be able to hear it.

Then what is the purpose of sannyas? The purpose of sannyas is so that you can go on hanging around me for that right moment, for that ripe moment, when a single shout from me or just a look in your eyes or just a touch of my hand will bring you back to yourself.

The seventh question:

Question 7:

Krishna Gopa has asked it.

People ARE afraid of being loved. Because love brings misery, love brings lies. Love brings imprisonment, love brings slavery, love destroys freedom. That's why people are afraid.

And people cannot remain without love, because love is a necessary nourishment too. So they hanker for love, they desire to be loved and to love. They cannot remain alone. But the moment they meet the person, the other - the woman, the man - they become frightened too. Because they know now they are getting into a cage.

Because love is not yet unconditional, that's why people are afraid of love. And because love brings so many compromises. They have to compromise so much that they almost lose their original face.

That's why people are afraid. And they cannot remain without it either, because it is a necessary nourishment for the soul. In fact because it is a necessary nourishment of the soul, that's why people have learned to exploit it. If it was not such a necessity then there would have been no exploitation.

Love is such a necessity that you can exploit it, you can make conditions. You can say 'I will love you only if you do this. I will love you only if you will love only me and nobody else, never. And I will love you only if you accept my conditions.'

These are the conditions. And a hungry man is bound to accept the conditions. He starts lying, he starts playing games, he starts being phony. He starts doing things which he never wanted to do, and he stops doing things which he always wanted to do. And then sooner or later he thinks it is too much a price for love, it is better not to be in love, it is better to be alone.

So people go on moving from aloneness to love, from love to aloneness. When they are alone the hunger is felt. When they are together, the ugliness of it.

I have heard:

The weary old priest arriving in Heaven before Saint Peter: 'No more service. Rest at last.'

Saint Peter: 'Just choose yourself the softest cloud, and sleep. You've earned your rest.'

With a deep sigh the priest sinks himself in a woolly Heavenly cloud and dozes off. But then there is no real rest. Every now and then, little bells ring and wake him up. After some hours, in a state of total neurosis, he gets up out of his cloud, runs up to Saint Peter and complains: 'What do you mean by I can rest? This is a hell. Hear those penetrating bells, ringing every time I'm just falling asleep!'

'Oh, I'm so sorry, but I can't do a thing about it. You'll get used to it. They are only part of the system of registering whenever a serious lie is being told down on Earth. Now that you know, they won't bother you any more. Sleep well.'

And sure as hell, Peter's words came true. After retiring to his cloud the priest falls into a deep sleep.

But then in the middle of the night he jumps with a scream, grabs his head, goes mad in a second.

Thousands of bells ringing all around with thunderous noise. 'Peter, Peter, save me. What's happening?' Peter is there already and covers the ears of the poor priest with his loving hands.

'Poor man, this is the hour when lovers meet and say beautiful things to each other.'

Love brings a thousand and one lies in life. It is humiliating. One feels caged, imprisoned, compromised. One feels paralyzed, crippled. One feels chained in a thousand and one ways.

That's why, Gopa, people are afraid of love.

One of my basic messages to you is: Never exploit love. That will be a great religious revolution in your life. Never exploit love. If somebody loves you, don't bring any conditions to it. If you love somebody, don't make him a cripple. Let your love become spacious. Give more space to the person than he had when he was alone. Give him nourishment. But don't poison his nourishment, don't possess him. Let him be free. More free than he ever was. And then love grows into deep intimacy.

When love brings freedom then love goes deepest. When love makes the other feel respected, not humiliated, not destroyed but enhanced. When love feels nourishing, liberating, then love goes deepest. Then love becomes prayer. It becomes the utmost, the ultimate experience of life.

Don't exploit love. Whenever you are in love, remember. And you will have to remember hard, because for thousands of years man has exploited love, and that has become habitual.

In the end, I would like to repeat Hakuin's song of meditation.

ALL BEINGS ARE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING BUDDHA.

IT IS LIKE WATER AND ICE:

APART FROM WATER, NO ICE, OUTSIDE LIVING BEINGS, NO BUDDHAS.

NOT KNOWING IT IS NEAR, THEY SEEK IT AFAR.

WHAT A PITY!

IT IS LIKE ONE IN THE WATER WHO CRIES OUT FOR THIRST; IT IS LIKE THE CHILD OF A RICH HOUSE WHO HAS STRAYED AWAY AMONG THE POOR.

THE CAUSE OF OUR CIRCLING THROUGH THE SIX WORLDS IS THAT WE ARE ON THE DARK PATHS OF IGNORANCE.

DARK PATH UPON DARK PATH TREADING, WHEN SHALL WE ESCAPE FROM BIRTH-AND-DEATH?

THE ZEN MEDITATION OF THE MAHAYANA IS BEYOND ALL OUR PRAISE.

GIVING AND MORALITY AND THE OTHER PERFECTIONS, TAKING OF THE NAME, REPENTANCE, DISCIPLINE, AND THE MANY OTHER RIGHT ACTIONS, ALL COME BACK TO THE PRACTICE OF MEDITATION.

BY THE MERIT OF A SINGLE SITTING HE DESTROYS INNUMERABLE ACCUMULATED SINS.

HOW SHOULD THERE BE WRONG PATHS FOR HIM?

THE PURE LAND PARADISE IS NOT FAR.

WHEN IN REVERENCE THIS TRUTH IS HEARD EVEN ONCE, HE WHO PRAISES IT AND GLADLY EMBRACES IT HAS MERIT WITHOUT END.

HOW MUCH MORE HE WHO TURNS WITHIN AND CONFIRMS DIRECTLY HIS OWN NATURE, THAT HIS OWN NATURE IS NO-NATURE - SUCH HAS TRANSCENDED VAIN WORDS.

THE GATE OPENS, AND CAUSE AND EFFECT ARE ONE; STRAIGHT RUNS THE WAY - NOT TWO, NOT THREE.

TAKING AS FORM THE FORM OF NO-FORM, GOING OR RETURNING, HE IS EVER AT HOME.

TAKING AS THOUGHT THE THOUGHT OF NO-THOUGHT, SINGING AND DANCING, ALL IS THE VOICE OF TRUTH.

WIDE IS THE HEAVEN OF BOUNDLESS SAMADHI, RADIANT THE FULL MOON OF THE FOURFOLD WISDOM.

WHAT REMAINS TO BE SOUGHT?

NIRVANA IS CLEAR BEFORE HIM, THIS VERY PLACE THE LOTUS PARADISE,