Random Thoughts, pages 49 to 76

1. To which religion do I belong? To none. Dharma in the sense of virtue, piety, justice, equity, decorum etc. has a real existence. But in the sense of religious cults and sects it has no existence whatsoever. The unreal existence of the so-called cults and sects has obstructed the manifestation of the real dharma. To foster the true religious spirit what is necessary is the dissolution of all cults. That is why I do not belong to any particular religion, sect, or cult. He who aspires to belong to real virtue need not belong to religions.

Establishment of organized religions is verily to encourage evil that lives and flourishes in the name of religion. Evil is possibly worried on account of virtue: but it is jubilant over religions. I do not belong to any religion because I would not be of the Devil's party.

I have been told that one fine morning Satan and his disciples were pursuing some one engaged in the quest of Truth. Hence it was natural for Satan to be worried over him. His disciples informed him that Truth had been attained by that devout seeker. Seeing his disciples bewildered, Satan consoled them saying. "Oh, don't worry yet. Let this fact be known in every city. Let the people flock to him and make strenuous efforts to see that they frame codes and canons and organize themselves into a sect. You need no longer worry about anything."

2. What connection do "I" and "mine" have with "Truth"? With dharma? How can Truth be my Truth? How can dharma be my dharma? Truth cannot be my Truth and my truth cannot be Truth.

3. Thought cannot transcend the known. Howsoever high it may soar up, it is impossible for it to go beyond the frontiers of the known. Thought is the source of all that is known, and the extent of the known is its life. It is the essence of our past experiences, and recollection is its dwelling-place. But while recollection is dead and defunct and thought too is lifeless, Truth, though unknown, is life. That is precisely why thought is incompetent to lead anyone to Truth. Its entry into the living and the unknown is forbidden. Well may fishes live for a few moments out of water but it is impossible for thought to take even a step beyond the ambit of the dead recollections and of the 'known'.

4. In order to realize 'existence' one has necessarily to face 'non-existence'. Encompassed by it, one realizes that existence can be known, recognized and lived. Surrounded by the vast ocean of non-existence, one can have the intense experience of existence. For the same reason those who thirst for the realization of Truth have, of necessity, to enter the orbit of the void and those who are desirous of living their lives in their perfection and completeness must necessarily woo death. I am reminded of an event that took place one evening. I was then in an out-of-the-way village. The earthen lamps had been lit towards the evening. As darkness had not yet set in, it appeared as if the lamp had no flicker at all.

Had the lamp been sentient enough it could have realized at once that it did not have any light of its own. In the presence of the blazing midday sun it would not possibly have the faintest idea that it was itself luminous. But as the darkness advanced the lamps began gradually to shed their brilliance. The nocturnal darkness was steadily thickening, making this brilliance more and more lustrous. As the new-moon night gathered intensity, I continued to engage myself in observing livelines and vitality developing in the flame of the lamp. Now, if the lamp had known itself, it would have realized that it was no less than the sun. This event kindled a thought in me. Both the lamp and the flame were the same, there being no change int he lamp. The change had been in the darkness. But in the background of the developing gloom the brilliance of the lamp clearly manifested itself.

The darkness had helped the lamp to manifest and assert itself completely. This is true of the existence of the self. If it is encompassed by existence, it is not clearly realized; when the mind becomes a void in every respect, the full refulgence of the soul becomes manifest. Only through the door of non-existence can one gain access to existence.

5. Where does this mad race after wealth, fame, renunciation and knowledge lead man?

Where does the ambitious mind that rushes headlong take man? When I reflect on this, I am reminded of a dream which I have never been able to forget. In this dream which I had seen quite a number of times, a long ladder made its appearance with its upper end invariably lost in the clouds. It seemed as though the ladder was one that led to the sky.

Urged by an irrepressible desire to reach the sky, I began to climb the rungs. Each rung was climbed with great difficulty. Breathing was hard, and beads of sweat flowed from my forehead. Filled as I was with the desire to reach the sky, I went on climbing the ladder, but suffocation soon set in, and the desperate heart was about to give up the attempt. But at the psychological moment it was realized that I was not the sole climber, nor was mine the only ladder. There were infinite numbers of such ladders and endless was the number of persons climbing them. An intense sense of rivalry surges up on seeing them climbing on, and I too climb with accelerated rapidity. This mad race of ascending and employing all our might in the endeavour continues till it culminates in the fading away of the dream which was always the same. The ultimate rung was at last reached. There was no rung beyond! Turning round, it was realized that there was no ladder at all. The descent, the fall from that great height, more arduous and painful than the ascent, set in. It appeared that death was inevitable, and, to be sure, death it was. The shock of that death invariably wrecked my sleep, but the dream pointed to a great truth.

Thenceforward our so-called life in its entirety began to appear as an extension and continuation of that dream. Is there not in dreams something reminiscent of every mad rush in which mankind is involved? Do not all mad rushes terminate in death? Again, what does death mean? Does it not mean that there is no higher rung in the ladder? Death is the end of the rush of life. It concludes futurity. It means the impossibility of further possibilities. The racing, rushing mind leads a person to great heights. What more can death be than a downfall from that height? Death inevitably steps in wherever there is a mad rush. No matter whether the rush is after wealth, or religion, after enjoyment or renunciation. Moreover, where there is rush there is dream; where there is no rush, or racing mind there is truth. Life too is only there, such a life as has no death.

6. Words, scriptures, cults and tenets are meant to keep the soul fettered to the shore which is no other than slavery. He who gets tied up in the shackles of slavery is denied the freedom of limitless ocean. To enjoy the voyage in the sea one has to get released from the shores. Bonds have to be broken for attaining freedom. Anglers fix a lump of dough to the hook for catching the fish. Tempted by the dough, the fish is caught in the hook. Similar are the hooks of mental slavery which are invariably coated with the dough of apparent security. In the name of security people are always divested of freedom. This is an old conspiracy. And he who is not vigilant and alert in the face of this conspiracy will never attain that life and bliss which lie embedded in the freedom of consciousness.

There is no greater value, experience, or acquisition than freedom, because Truth can be realized only through it. Whoever is opposed to the freedom of man's soul is his enemy.

Temptation of security is the principal enemy. Excessive desire for security turns out to be a prison for the soul. This craving for security leads to superstitions and blind traditions which grip the mind. On eschewing these, we are seized with a vague fear because the well-known ground shifts and treading on strange grounds becomes inevitable. That is why, vampires, whether they be political leaders or religious priests, never wish to see us free from fear, because fear alone is the mainstay for their activities of extortion. For fear alone people cling to what is well-known and most popular even if it happens to be untrue. With an eye on his own safety no such man dares stray even an inch from the accepted traditions and recognized values of the rabble and the organized society, even though those traditions and values may be founded on blind belief and ignorance. Ultimately this fear deadens and blunts his capacity to think. for thought leads him to the realm of revolt. Thought is not faced with any more important activity than that of saving the freedom of the individual as long as the dragnet of extortion is spread around him and a well-planned and neatly executed conspiracy to destroy his individuality is going on. Political and economic slavery is nothing in comparison to the slavery that fetters the conscience of the individual to words and scriptures in the name of Truth. Being subtle, this slavery cannot be seen or felt. It is so deep that the individual accepts it to be as thick as his blood or bones. I oppose this slavery, because of it millions of souls have been deprived of the solar brilliance of Truth. Their hearts have not realized that liberation the absence of which deprives a man of experiencing the bliss and harmony of his own existence. A subservient mind and the supreme soul can never meet together since the supreme soul is brilliance and the subservient mind is the dense darkness.

7. Once I stayed in a building that had no window. it was a pretty old building. I said to the landlord, "Your building is like the mind of man. There is no window in it. You have not made arrangements for the convenient entry of light, of the open sky, and of fresh air." He said, "The building is very old." I said, "The mind of man too is very old." In fact, being old is itself an evidence of its incapacity to grapple with the problems of life.

Closure is death. It is a preparation for being entombed for ever. Yet, if you will, you can be in contact with the open sky by demolishing the wall that hides it. Is it not proper for what is within the walls to be in touch with what is without? Are the walls so precious that to reach the sky by pulling them down will be costlier? Verily the person encircled by walls cannot realize the real horizon of life. How fatal is it to be isolated from the sky owing to these old walls! How self-ruinous it is to be isolated from soul owing to the old mind!

8. That individual is not alive at all who at the time of crisis does not feel the existence of the self. Somehow he goes on living, or, rather, dying. In regard to the existence of the self ke is not yet infused with deliberation. Deliberation on life, at the very outset, makes a man wake up to the truth of death. The possibility of death deepens into a crisis. And the crisis ushers in the auspicious beginning of a search after the self. The beginning of the quest in the direction of Truth is marked by a crisis. A crisis also marks the moment of transit from death to immortality. That is exactly why I say, "Has a crisis in your life set in?" If not, how can the search after Truth be inaugurated? Man's consciousness must of necessity meet with a crisis. Crisis means meeting face to face the possibility of the cessation of the self. It is from this that the desire to attain supreme existence is generated and a campaign for its acquisition is inaugurated. Never has anyone set forth on a quest after life without peeping into the eyes of death, nor can he do so. Life is a quest; but until death is faced, this quest does not become the quest of life. Until then man goes on searching for insignificant trifles and goes on dying in vain. While he is still involved in trifles, death comes to gather him. But the moment his eyes face death, an unprecedented crisis is experienced. This shock is an impediment in his dreamy drowsiness. It becomes impossible to sleep any longer. This hour -- this hour of crisis -- wakens him to the possibilities of life. Then his consciousness becomes engaged in surmounting death. That is precisely why I say, go ahead and ferret out death. Better that you go in quest of it before it comes in quest of you. There is no other matter of everlasting import than this.

9. A sage had come. He used to say, "I am thinking about immortality." T told him, "it is not possible to think about immortality because whatever comes within the ambit of thinking cannot be immortal. Thought is mortal. How can it have any contact with the immortal? It would be better if you think about mortality. Search for death and recognize it. Facing death squarely takes the soul to immortality. But we are frightened of death and begin to deliberate on immortality. Is not our deliberation on immortality evolved out of the fear of death? Can that mind succeed in the acquisition of immortality, the mind that is scared of death? Friend, there is no fear in death; death is in fear. Death is unknown, unfamiliar. How then, can you fear it? How can you fear that of which you have no idea at all? One is afraid of missing and losing the known, the familiar. "Fear of death" is actually not "of death" but of losing what we know and recognize as life. This fear when solidified is transformed into death. That is why I say, "Search for death." This quest is fruitful, because at the end of that it is not death that is obtained. What is obtained is immortality itself.

10. I am opposed to blind belief and superstition. In fact, every belief is blind. The power of discrimination cannot become keen and fiery, should there be beliefs. If a healthy child is made to walk on crutches rather than on his legs, his legs would not function properly when he grows old. They would become lame. Similarly habitual dependence on beliefs makes the intellect lame. Can there be a greater adversity in man's life than the crippled intellect? But this is what beliefs bring about. In reality neither the society nor the nation ever wishes that the individuals should develop their faculty of thinking. All active tyrants and oppressors holding the reins of administration feel their existence endangered if men develop their faculty of thinking. There is a possibility of revolution in all successful quests after Truth. The so-called organized societies, religions, and kingdoms have their edifices founded on untruths. Hence?. collective effort is made the moment a baby is born to fetter him in bondage and make him dependent on beliefs. All types of educational systems so far have been doing only this. The avowed aim of education is to liberate man. But actually what is achieved is this. In the mind of the individual, restraints of subtle mental slavery are shrewdly infused. The system does not impart thinking but it inculcates beliefs. Since it does not encourage doubts and revolts, the products of such a system of education are usually incompetent to think independently. The active, lively quest for Truth springs from doubts, and not from beliefs. There is no healthier motive power than healthy doubts that help in quest for truth. Faith does not encourage quest; it is the outcome at the end. A well-planned investigation begins with doubts and concludes with faith and belief. The ill-organized investigation sets out with faith but lives and concludes in doubts. The faith in this instance cannot be founded on reality. How can the faith founded on belief be true? Perfect knowledge gives birth to true faith. Perfect knowledge and true faith go together. Belief is ignorance and True faith is perfect knowledge. Faith that is bought is only belief. Faith that is thrust and superimposed upon you is only belief. Faith that is practised is only belief. But faith that spontaneously wakes up within us, faith that voluntarily and naturally comes to us illuminated by perfect knowledge, can alone be the true faith. Such a faith need not be fetched from outside nor need it be learnt. It comes of itself. What has to be learned is doubt, the right kind of doubt. Right doubt marks the mode and process of attaining true faith. Doubt does not mean disbelief because disbelief is merely the negative aspect of belief. If doubt were to be disbelief it becomes unhealthy and incomplete. Doubt is neither belief nor disbelief. It is unfettered inquisitiveness. It is the irrepressible predilection for quest. It is the desire to attain knowledge. It is incessant investigation. It is the firm resolve not to stop anywhere before reaching Truth, the truth that falls within the ambit of one's own experience. As far as I can see, both belief and disbelief, are impediments. Doubt is the means of achievement. Only doubt can lead one ultimately to Truth. There was a person in quest after Truth. After years of search he came to a sage. The cave of the sage was filled with tomes and tomes of sacred scriptures. The topics were infinite in number. Scriptures and scriptures alone were seen as far as the eyes could reach. The sage said to him, "The entire knowledge of the universe is preserved in these scriptures. The texts full of mysterious secrets have been collected and preserved here, only for those who come here in their search for Truth. Every one of these searchers can take any single scripture of his choice. What is the scripture you wish to have?" The aspirant young man saw the endless chain of tomes, pondered over it for a while and said -- "Please give me that Text which supplies everything that all other texts profess to contain". The old sage laughed on hearing this and said -- "Of course have such a text but rarely does anyone come in search for it." Then the sage handed over to him a scriptural text whereon it was written "Scripture of the greatest doubt!" I too wish to give everyone the self-same scripture because it is only this scripture that can liberate the searcher after truth from the tangled mass of other scriptures and lead him to Eternal Truth.

11. I was standing on the bank of a river. It was a small stream. In the gathering gloom of the dusk, the village belles were hastening homeward with their earthen pitchers filled with water. I observed that one has to stoop down before one can draw water from the river. One has to know the art of stooping to fill oneself with water from the fountain of life. But man is gradually forgetting the art of bending down. His powerful ego does not let him stoop. Hence all love and fervent prayer are vanishing slowly. In fact, whatever is of any significance has begun to be evanescent. Life has become a sheer struggle instead of the sweet harmony and exquisite beauty that it ought to be. Only struggle remains where the mysterious secret of bending and yielding is unknown. It is not surprising at all if unrelenting and unlimited egotism becomes the source of unbearable pain where the hearty sympathy of bending down is unrecognized. Yielding and relenting links up the individual and the group. Eagerness not to yield and relent separates him from the universal existence. Of course this bending down must be spontaneous and natural.

Otherwise it too becomes an affectation, an effusion of rank egotism. Relenting, which is the outcome of deliberate thinking, is not real and complete because behind it, in some hidden corner, there is an element of resistance as well. Inasmuch as it springs from the intellectual level, it is unreal, for the full force of the heart, of all the vital parts is not a witness to it. Further, this type of yielding brings in a subsequent remorse, because, the ego feels hurt. (When one bends in opposition to the ego, the latter takes revenge on one in the form of remorse.) Only when the human heart is devoid of egotism does it bend naturally and perfectly. This stooping should be as natural and complete in every detail as the bending down of tiny blades of grass in a violent storm. They identify themselves with the stormy gusts of wind, as it were. They have no hostility towards the raging storm nor are they conscious of any egotism within themselves. The day when man assimilates this type of spontaneous bending and yielding, the mysterious secrets of the supreme soul lie bare in front of him. A certain young man once said to a Fakir, "Formerly there had been such persons as had seen the supreme Godhead with their own eyes. How is it that we do not have such persons now?" The venerable gentleman had replied, "Because now- a-days no one is ready to bow down so low!" Certainly, stooping down is necessary to have one's fill at the fountain of the Supreme Soul. How can they who stand near the bank with nose haughtily lifted up fill their pitchers with water?

12. There is nothing more essential and inevitable than a humble and free brain for the acquisition of perfect knowledge. But, as a rule, the brain is neither humble nor free. It is stricken with egotistical pride and imprisoned rigorously by obsessions and prejudices.

Egotism fetters it from within and bias and obsession from without. Thus imprisoned, the human intellect gradually loses its entire capacity to rip open the seal covering Truth.

Someone said to Albert Einstein, "What is that paramount principle without which scientific investigation is impossible?" Do you know what Einstein said in reply? The questioner could not have imagined even in his dream the ready reply that was offered.

We said, "Absence of egotism".

Certainly the key to perfect knowledge is absence of egotism. Egotism is ignorance. The mind which is filled with the notion of "I" is so occupied that it has barely ally space left in it worthy of receiving the guest, Truth. If it is free from "I-ness", Truth could reside there. The house of the heart is too narrow. Two entities cannot get adequate accommodation in it. Friend, Kabir was not wrong in what he had said. That street, that pathway is certainly narrow. It is egotism that collects together obsessions and complexes. What an easier way can there be to appear wise though living in ignorance? It is for further growth and development that egotism gathers knowledge. Armed with it, it assumes that it is well-protected. Holding steadfastly to pet ideas and notions is the means to guard egotism. Hence disputes on thoughts very soon turn out to be fights amongst egotisms. Thereafter, the entire force rests round the centre of "My Truth", "My Religion", "My Scripture", "My God" and not on Truth, Religion, Scripture and God. Is it not "I" that rests on these, centres round these? How can there be Truth where "I" asserts itself? How can there be "Religion?" How can there be perfect knowledge? Truth removes itself to the extent to which "I" asserts itself. In this situation the ego accepts the tenets and the words of the scripture as Truth and remains content. There is an element of fear in this contentment. There is the possibility of what has been accepted as Truth turning out to be untruth and suspicion. For the same reason, the ego begins to proclaim the accepted Truth in order to stabilize its own belief. It is prepared even to die for its sake. It is afraid of even listening to anything controverting the accepted Truth because of the possibility at any time of such facts emerging as would make the accepted Truth an untruth. In these circumstances he does not wish to hear nor even to think. He wishes to remain complacent in the blind belief in what he has already accepted. But this attitude is fatal to his search for Truth. In accepting cheap contentment he cannot find real Truth.

For the sake of reaching Truth he has to eschew complacency. The aim is Truth and not this satisfaction. When Truth is acquired, satisfaction too follows in its wake like a shadow. He who girds up his loins to seek Truth at any cost certainly attains satisfaction too but he who begins to seek satisfaction is denied access to Truth and eventually to satisfaction as well.

13. Love is liberation. Love's bondage itself is liberation. He who binds himself with the infinite bonds of love attains liberation. I say, seek not liberation; seek love. Because the search for liberation often leads to the fetters of egotism; on the other hand, the search for love cannot even start before the destruction of egotism. Search for love means getting ready to destroy egotism. And the destruction of egotism is itself liberation. The egotist dreams of acquiring the world. Afraid of death, it dreams of attaining salvation. He who does not understand it, falls into self-deception. This world, its slavery and bondage co- exist with egotism. Isn't egotism itself a bondage? Isn't that the source of all bondages?

How can the seeds of salvation spread on that land? What can be more stupid and absurd than the desire of egotism to get liberated? For salvation, it is not the ego that has to be liberated but we have to be liberated from the ego. That is why egotism is not afraid of renunciation, self-sacrifice, religion, perfect knowledge or even salvation. It is afraid of love. It can escape from renunciation, self-sacrifice or aspiration for salvation. But it is impossible for it to escape from love. Love is its death. Love is not its salvation, it is liberation from it.

14. I do not live in a different world. I live, in that world alone where everyone lives. But, certainly, my way of seeing life is altogether changed. And this change is, as it were, the change of the world itself, because in our vision we see what we are. Our vision alone is our world and our life. As is the vision, so is the creation. If life seems to be miserable, know that the creation is miserable. Then try to alter the vision and not the life.

Transformation of vision means transformation of the self. Everything depends on our own self. Hell and heaven live in our own self. The worldly existence and salvation too abide in our own self. What is there remains the same for ever, but while one vision makes it a bondage, another makes it a salvation. Seen from the point of egotism, life becomes hell, for that vision is all-opposing. I can remain "I" only by being different from and opposed to universal existence. The endeavour to become "l" is an attempt at opposing and struggle with the "All". The endeavour results in worry and distress. It leads to the fear of destruction and death. There is no wonder if misery steps in as the result of attaining what is untrue and impossible. But we can view the world from the point of egolessness too. The "I" is in opposition to the "All". The "not I" is a combination of the "All". Know that existence is unsevered and indivisible. All severed pieces and divisions are the products of human fancy, of the intellect. If "I am", I am only a piece, a part. If "I am not", I am in the undivided whole. Being in a part is bondage, being in a whole is liberation. If "I am", I am in misery, because that existence is an eternal conflict, an endless war. If "I am not", I am in bliss because not-being is infinite peace. Liberated from "I", our consciousness is released from tradition. The separation from the "I" is the merger into the Supreme Soul.

15. It is sheer foolishness to oppose nature. We cannot attain the Supreme Soul by opposing nature for the simple reason that the Supreme Soul lies hidden in nature. For the same reason, we shall have to co-operate with it. Nature is a curtain to be raised up. It is part and parcel of the godhead, his manifestation. He sits there, deeply embedded in it.

By quarrelling with nature we can never hope to approach Him, to attain enlightenment.

But God is always pitted against Nature. We are pitted against life itself, against all that sustains us. Man's spiritual poverty is the result of this quarrel. He has been told to seek God by fighting Nature, while God is in Nature and Nature is in God. There is no God apart from Nature. God is co-extensive with Nature. Educational systems antagonistic to nature have snatched away from man's life the ladder that takes him to God. Nature is the bridge. We are not to stop on it. We have certainly to pass over it, not to quarrel with it. It assists us. It is the road that leads us to our destination. There is no other way apart from it. We have to love Nature, with all our heart. Love alone can throw open its gates, through which we can see Him who is known as the Supreme Soul. But we have been told that Nature is a bondage, a prison, a sin. These wrong teachings have poisoned man's mind, spoiling his love of nature and preventing the possibility of perfect knowledge.

This has resulted in widening the gulf between him and God. It is incumbent to bring back Nature to man's life before attempting to bring God to his life. It is impossible to instal God in the heart of man before installing Nature in it. Love of Nature eventually transforms itself into a prayer unto God. Liberation is not from Nature but in Nature.

16. We were seated near a mountain stream. Just below it there was a water-logged pool with varieties of fish swimming about. On the nearby sand-bank there were many shells and conches. I took some of these and said to those near by, "See, there are many unborn creatures in these shells. When they are strong enough to break open the shells, they will be born." Are there not similar unborn creatures within us? Is there no hard coating like this shell encompassing us? Is not our egotistic self like the shell? Can't we too give birth to that unborn life by breaking this ego? The "I" stands opposed to the birth of that life. It knows very well how to protect itself. Of course, it protects itself by worldly assets, status, position, and fame. But in a more subtle form, it protects itself by religion, polity, merit, ideal, salvation etc. It wishes to survive, flourish and prosper. But let us remember that the stronger it grows, the dimmer becomes the chance of that life of which it is but the sheath The ruthless hardness of egotism brings about the death of the unborn soul in the womb itself. It is necessary that egotism should die for bringing about the birth of the soul.

17. What is it that I say? Words? No. No. Those who hear my words alone cannot understand what I talk about. Are we engaged in intellectual deliberations? No. No. We are not doing anything of the sort. In fact, we are not deliberating at all. Instead, we are seeking a situation in life, an aspect of existence. We are seeking entry into pure existence.... But then certainly understanding means an entry, a penetration, besides understanding. Life can be understood only after penetrating into it. Love can be felt only by passing through love, not through deliberation. We have to live life. Do I make you understand my word? Do not worry to understand it. Worry will not let you understand.

Just think and see. Flowers blossom on the trees. Just look out. What wonderful flowers adorn the Gulmohur trees. Do we ponder over them or see them? The cuckoo is cooing.

Do we ponder over it or hear it? Similarly listen and see what I say. It is not deliberation but sharp and penetrating vision that can take you as far as its meaning. Deliberation shudders at words. But vision pierces through silence. Deliberation goes on pondering in vain. But vision unfolds the meaning. Vision becomes deeper to the extent that it is free from deliberation. Deliberation entails time. It is an action. On the other hand, there is no element of time in realization, in inner vision. It is the stage of understanding excessively developed. Has it not been realized in the moments of experiences of beauty, love or bliss? Is it not profound consciousness alone that remains at the moment? Do not thoughts bid good-bye then? Truth, beauty, happiness, whatever is there in life, can only be known in the quietude and waveless stillness of thoughtlessness and not in the restless billows of thoughts.

18. I consider the so-called renunciation no better than ignorance. As far as I can see, how can there be renunciation where there is knowledge? In ignorance, there is detachment because there is attachment too; there is merit because there is sin also. But he who knows it becomes free from the tangle of attachments and detachments. In that state of realization there is no clash between attachments and detachments. That is the state of non-dual realization of truth where there are no worldly pleasures, no renunciation. That is the state of absolute truth and pure existence. Ignorance thrives on duality, letting the mind wander from one extreme to another. When enjoyments leave us, renunciation steps in. And what is this renunciation? Is it not the opposite of enjoyment?

What is detachment? Is it not the opposite of attachment or escape from the world in the opposite direction? But let us remember that it gets entangled with whatever it is inimical to. For the same reason, enmity can become a new form of slavery. But it is not independence. Independence is not attained by opposing untruth or running away from it.

Independence lies in the knowledge of Truth. Truth and truth alone makes us liberated.

19. What is Truth? Any tenet? Any cult? Any association? Any scripture? Any word? No, because tenet is death and Truth is life itself. Truth is not a cult, because there is no path leading to it. How can a known or unknown path lead to the unknown? Truth is not an association too; because it is an experience transcending time... extremely individualistic and personal.... How can it be put in a limited circle in the current of Time? Truth is not a scripture because all scriptures are man-made whereas Truth is unformulated, uncreated, beginningless and endless. Truth is not a word or sound. Sounds are born and they disappear whereas Truth exists for ever. It is eternal and permanent. Then, what is it? In fact, there is no truth in the language of "what?" It exists and what exists, that alone is that. It cannot be thought of or pondered about, although it can be lived in. Thoughts and ponderings alone are obstacles to being in it. In the cadence of music, in the fullness of love, in the beauty of nature, the individual practically ceases to exist. What exists then is Truth. The individual himself is untruth. The non-individual is truth. The "I" is untruth.

The Brahman is Truth.

20. The individual is enmeshed. So, too, is society. The problem of the world is the same as the problem of the individual. How is the individual faced with a problem? The individual is not in the problem, he himself is the problem His individualistic consciousness itself is the problem. His egotistic consciousness itself is the problem. If from "I am" the "I" ceases to exist and the experience "am" alone persists, the problem vanishes; the solution knocks at the door. Really life is a sheer existence. It is a natural flow of the current. The "I" is a superimposition on that flow. The "I" is a unnatural attempt to dam up that natural flow. Seek the "I" in yourself. It is nowhere to be found.

There is life, there is being, but there is no "I"? We build up our entire life on this "I".

What wonder is there if we are unable to experience peace in this life? Our religion, our civilization, everything stands on this "I". Is it not then natural if worry, tension, madness and bewilderment are generated by them. Whatever is built up on the site of "I" is unsound and unsafe. It is only the life built up round the "I" that undergoes transmigration. It is the "I" that is born and dies. Only dreams are born and disappear.

What exists cannot have birth or death. It merely exists -- exists -- exists. Forget the "I".

Leave it off. Wake up in the existence. Live in it. The "I" does not let you wake up in the existence. It does not let you live in it. It lingers either in the past or in its echo, the future, whereas life is the eternal present... always here and now. He who wakes up in the present shaking off the "I" realizes that the nectar of life, truth, beauty and music have encompassed him from all sides, from all quarters, from within and without, just as the fish is encompassed by the sea.

21. I know only two types of men -- those who have turned their backs on Truth and those who have opened their eyes to it. There is no other type apart from these two.

22. The power of thinking is exactly like the power of electricity or gravitation. We are familiar with the utility of electricity but all of us are not equally aware of the power of thinking. And those of us who have known it cannot utilize it, because for utilizing it, it becomes necessary to transform the individuality of the self from its very root.

23. Between Truth and the Self there is no gulf which we cannot bridge except that of cowardice.

24. How wonderful is man! Within him there abides the dirt of filthy rubbish as well as the precious store of gold. What we receive is entirely in our hands.

25. The moment we realize the Lord within, visions of Him begin to emerge everywhere.

We have the external experience of only that which is within us. If the Lord is invisible, understand that you have not sought Him yet, within.

26. Truth is not to be created. If the creation of anything is possible, know that it is untruth. Vision of truth is possible but not its creation. Truth is always present if only the self has eyes to see it.

27. It is necessary to transform the self into a mirror and to know that which exists. The shadows of thoughts cause the mind to be deformed. As thoughts subside and the mind becomes void, that mirror is acquired which is capable of reflecting Truth.

28. What has become existent can also become non-existent. What is done can also be undone. If man is capable of being entangled in action, he is also capable of being liberated. In his dependence lies his freedom.

29. Freedom is the form of the soul. If there is the will, one can rid of one's dependence in a moment. Freedom is in proportion to the will.

30. I die every day.... In fact, I die every moment. I have known this as the secret of life, of long life. He who bears the burden of the past becomes dead as the result of bearing the burden of the dead.

31. Even for the longest journey of life, it is enough if one has the courage to take one step, because no one can walk more than one step at a time. Even a journey of thousands of miles begins and ends with but one step.

32. What is this search for the Lord? It the search for the lost home. In this world man but a homeless stranger.

33. Do you ask me how Truth is defined? I say there is no definition of Truth, for how can there be the definition of the Self through the self?

Pilate had asked Christ, "What is Truth?" Christ just looked at him and kept quiet. Truth is no tenet, no sound. It is an experience of the extreme depth of the self. It is the identification with "what exists".