The desireless path of yoga

The first question:

It is neither. It is not pessimistic, it is not optimistic, because pessimism and optimism are two aspects of the same coin. A pessimist means one who was optimist in the past; an optimist means one who will be pessimist in the future. All optimism leads to pessimism, because every hope leads to hopelessness.

If you are still hoping, then yoga is not for you. The desire is there; hope is there; the samsar is there, the world is there. Your desire is the world, your hope is the bondage, because hope will not allow you to be in the present. It will go on forcing you towards the future; it will not allow you to be centered. It will pull and push, but it will not allow you to remain in a restful moment, in a state of stillness. It will not allow you

So when I say total hopelessness, I mean that hope has failed and hopelessness also has become futile. Then it is total hopelessness. Total hopelessness means even hopelessness is not there, because when you feel hopeless a subtle hope is there. Otherwise, why you should feel hopeless? Hope is there, you are still clinging to it; hence, the hopelessness.

Total hopelessness means now there is no hope. And when there is no hope there cannot be hopelessness. You have simply dropped the whole phenomenon. Both the aspects have been thrown; the whole coin has been dropped. In this state of mind you can enter the path of yoga; never before. Then there is no possibility. Hope is against yoga.

Yoga is not pessimistic. You may be optimistic or pessimistic; yoga is neither. If you are pessimistic, you cannot enter on the path of yoga because a pessimist clings to his miseries. He will not allow his miseries to disappear. Optimist clings to his hopes and pessimist clings to his miseries, to his hopelessness. That hopelessness has become the companion. Yoga is for one who is neither, who has become so totally hopeless that even to feel hopelessness is futile.

The opposite can be felt only if you go on clinging somewhere deep down with the positive. If you cling to hope you can feel hopelessness. If you cling to expectation you can feel frustration. If simply you come to realize that there is no possibility to expect anything, then where is the frustration7 Then this is the nature of existence that there is no possibility to expect anything, there is no possibility for hope. When this becomes a certainty, how you can feel hopeless7 And then both have disappeared.

Patanjali says, NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA. That "now" will happen only when you are neither. Pessimistic attitudes or optimistic attitudes both are ill, but there are teachers who go on talking in terms of optimism - particularly American Christian missionaries. They go on talking in terms of hope, optimism, future, heaven. In the eyes of Patanjali that is just juvenile, childish, because you are simply giving a new disease. You are substituting a new disease for the old. You are unhappy and you are seeking somehow happiness. So whosoever gives you an assurance that this is the path that will lead you to happiness, you will follow it. He is giving you hope. But you are feeling so much misery because of your past hopes. He is again creating a future hell.

Yoga expects you to be more adult, more mature. Yoga says there is no possibility to expect anything, there is no possibility of any fulfillment in the future. There is no heaven in the future waiting for you and no God waiting for you with Christmas gifts. There is nobody waiting for you, so don't hanker after the future.

And unless you become aware that there is nothing which is going to happen somewhere in the future, you will become alert here and now because there is nowhere to move. Then there is no way to tremble. Then a stillness happens to you. Suddenly you are in a deep rest. You cannot go anywhere; you are at home. Movement ceases; restlessness disappears. Now is the time to enter yoga.

Patanjali will not give you any hope. He respects you more than you respect yourself. He thinks you are mature and toys will not help. It is better to be alert to what is the case. But immediately when I say "total hopelessness" your mind will say, "This appears pessimistic," because your mind lives through hope, your mind clings to desires, expectations.

You are so miserable right now that you will commit suicide if there is no hope. If really Patanjali is true, what will happen to you? If there is no hope, no future, and you are thrown back to your present, you will commit suicide. There is nothing to live for then. You live for something which will happen somewhere, sometime. It is not going to happen, but the feeling that it may happen helps you to be alive.

That's why I say when you have come to a point where suicide has become a meaningful thing, where life has lost all its meaning, where you can kill yourself, in that moment yoga becomes possible, because you will not be ready to transform yourself unless this intense futility of life has happened to you. You will be ready to transform yourself only when you feel there is no way - either suicide or sadhana, either commit suicide or transform your being. When only two alternatives are left, only then yoga is chosen, never before. But yoga is not pessimistic. You are optimistic, then yoga will appear to you as pessimistic. It is because of you.

Buddha has been taken in the West as the peak of pessimism because Buddha says life is dukkha, anguish. So western philosophers have been commenting on Buddha, that he is a pessimist. Even a person like Albert Schweitzer, a person we can expect to know certain things, even he is in the confusion. He thinks the whole East is pessimistic. And this is a great criticism for him. The whole East - Buddha, Patanjali, Mahavira, Lao Tzu, they are all pessimists for him. They appear! They appear because they say your life is meaningless. Not that they say life is meaningless - life that you know. And unless this life becomes absolutely meaningless, you cannot transcend it. You will cling to it.

And unless you transcend this life, this mode of existence, you will not know what bliss is. But Buddha, Patanjali, they will not talk much about bliss just because they have a deep compassion for you. If they start talking about bliss, you again create a hope. You are incurable: you again create a hope. You say, "Okay! Then we can leave this life. If a more abundant life, a richer life is possible, then we can leave desires. If through leaving desires the deepest desire of reaching to the ultimate, the peak of bliss, is possible, then we can leave desires. But we can leave only for a greater desire."

Then where you are leaving? You are not leaving at all. You are simply substituting a different desire for the old ones. And the new desire will be more dangerous than the old because with the old you are already frustrated. To get frustrated with the new, you may take even a few lives - to come to a point where you can say God is useless, where you can say heaven is foolish, where you can say all future is nonsense.

It is not the question of worldly desires, it is the question of desire as such. Desiring must cease. Only then you become ready; only then you gather courage; only then the door opens and you can enter into the unknown. Hence, Patanjali's first sutra: NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA.

The second question:

Again, yoga is neither. It is a simple science. It is neither theistic nor atheistic. Patanjali really is superb, a miracle of a man. He never talks about God. And even if he mentions once, then too he says it is just one of the methods to reach the ultimate the belief of God, just a method to reach the ultimate; there is no God. To believe in God is just a technique, because through believing in God prayer becomes possible, through believing in God surrender becomes possible. The significance is of surrender and prayer, not of God.

Patanjali is really unbelievable! He said God - the belief of God, the concept of God - is also one of the methods, in many methods, to reach the truth. Ishwara pranidhan - to believe in God is just a path. But it is not a necessity. You can choose something else. Buddha reaches to that ultimate reality without believing in God. He chooses a different path where God is not needed.

You have come to my house. You have passed through a certain street. That street was not the goal; it was just instrumental. You could have reached to the same house through some other street; others have reached through other streets. On your street there may be green trees, big trees; on other streets there are not. So God is just one path. Remember the distinction. God is not the goal. God is just one of the paths.

Patanjali never denies; he never assumes. He is absolutely scientific. It is difficult for Christians to think how Buddha could attain the ultimate truth, because he never believed in God. It is difficult for Hindus to believe how Mahavira could attain liberation; he never believed in God.

Before the western thinkers became alert of eastern religions, they always defined religion as God- centered. When they came upon eastern thinking, and then they became aware that there has been a traditional path, godless path reaching toward truth, they were shocked: it is impossible.

H. G. Wells has written about Buddha that Buddha is the most godless man and yet the most godly. He never believed and he will never tell anybody to believe in any God, but he himself is the suprememost phenomenon of the happening of divine being. Mahavira too travels a path where God is not needed.

Patanjali is absolutely scientific. He says we are not related with means; there are a thousand and one meanS. The goal is the truth. Some have achieved it through God, so it is okay - believe in God and achieve the goal, because when the goal is achieved you will throw your belief. So belief is just instrumental. If you don't believe, it is okay; don't believe, and travel the path of belieflessness, and reach the goal.

He is neither theist nor atheist. He is not creating a religion, he is simply showing you all the paths that are possible and all the laws that work in your transformation. God is one of those paths; it is not a must. If you are godless, there is no need to be non-religious. Patanjali says you can also reach - be godless; don't bother about God. These are the laws and these are the experiments; this is the meditation - pass through it

He does not insist on any concept. It was very difficult. That's why YOGA SUTRAS of Patanjali are rare, unique. Such a book has never happened before and there is no possibility again, because whatsoever can be written about yoga he has written; he has left nothing. No one can add anything to it. Never in the future there is any possibility to create another work like Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. He has finished the job completely, and he could do this so totally because he is not partial. If he is partial, then he could not do it so totally.

Buddha is partial, Mahavira is partial, Jesus is partial, Mohammed is partial - they have a certain path. And their partiality may be because of you - because of a deep conception for you, a deep compassion for you. They insist on a certain path; they go on insisting their whole life. And they say, "Everything else is wrong; this is the right path," just to create faith in you. You are so faithless, you are so filled with doubt, that if they say that this path leads, others' paths also lead, you will not follow any. They insist that only "this" path leads.

This is not true. This is just a device for you - because if you feel any uncertainty in them, if they say, "This also leads, that also leads; this is also true, that is also true," you will become uncertain. You are already uncertain. You need someone who is absolutely certain. Just to look certain to you they have pretended to be partial.

But if you are partial, you cannot cover the whole ground. Patanjali is not partial. He is less concerned with you, more concerned with the past designs of the path. He will not use a lie; he will not use a device, he will not compromise with you. No scientist can compromise.

Buddha can compromise; he has compassion. He is not treating you scientifically. A very deep human feeling is for you; he can even lie just to help you. And you cannot understand the truth; he compromises with you. Patanjali will not compromise with you. Whatsoever is the fact, he will talk about the fact. And he will not descend a single step to meet you; he is absolutely uncompromising. Science has to be. Science cannot compromise; otherwise it will become a religion itself.

He is neither atheist nor theist. He is neither Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian nor Jaina nor Buddhist. He is absolutely a scientific seeker just revealing whatsoever is the case - revealing without any myth. He will not use a single parable. Jesus will go on talking in stories because you are children and you can understand only stories. He will talk in parables. Buddha uses so many stories just to help you to attain a little glimpse.

I was reading about a Hassid, a Jewish Master, Baal Shem. He was a rabbi in a small village, and whenever there will be some trouble some disease, some calamity in the village - he will move into the forest. He will go to a certain spot under a certain tree, and there he will do some ritual and then he will pray to God. And it always happened that the calamity will leave the village, the illness will disappear from the village, the trouble would go.

Then Baal Shem died. So his successor... The problem came again. The village was in trouble. There was some calamity, and the villagers asked the successor the new rabbi, to go to the forest and pray to God. The new rabbi was very much disturbed because he didn't know the spot, the exact tree. He was unacquainted, but still he went - under any tree. He burned the fire, did the ritual and prayed, and said to God, "Look, I don't know the exact spot my Master used to come, but you know. You are omnipotent, you are omnipresent, so you know - so there is no need to seek for the exact spot. My village is in some trouble, so listen and do something." The calamity was gone!

Then when this rabbi died and his successor was there, again the problem came. The village was under a certain crisis, and they came. The rabbi was disturbed: he has even forgotten the prayer. So he went into the forest, chose any place. He didn't know how to burn the ritual fire, but anyhow he burned the fire and said to God, "Listen, I don't know how to burn the ritual fire, I don't know the exact spot, and I have forgotten the prayer, but you are all-knowing, so you know already; there is no need. So do whatsoever is needed." And he came back and the village passed through the crisis.

Then he also died. His successor... And the village was again in trouble, so they came. He was sitting in his armchair. He said, "I don't want to go anywhere. Listen, you are everywhere. I don't know the prayer, I don't know any ritual. But that doesn't matter; my knowing is not the point. You know everything. What is the use of praying and what is the use of a ritual and what is the use of a particular sacred spot? I know only the story of my successors. I will tell you the story, that this happened in Baal Shem's time, then his successor, then his successor: this is the story. Now do the right, and this is enough." And the calamity disappeared. It is said that God loved the story so much.

People love their stories and people's God also, and through stories you can have certain glimpses. But Patanjali will not use a single parable. I told you, he is just Einstein plus Buddha - a very rare combination. He has the inner witnessing of Buddha and the mechanism of the mind of an Einstein.

He is neither. Theism is the story; atheism is the antistory. They are just myths, man-created parables. To some the one appeals, to some the other. Patanjali is not interested in stories, not interested in myths. He is interested in the naked truth. He will not even clothe it, he will not put any dressing; he will not decorate it. That is not his way. Remember this.

We will move on a very dry land, a desert-like land. But the desert has its own beauty. It has no trees, it has no rivers, but it has a vastness of its own. No forest can be compared to it. Forests have their own beauties, hills have their own beauties, rivers their own beauties. Desert has its own vast infinity.

We will be moving through desert land. Courage is needed. He will not give you a single tree to rest under, he will not give you any story - just the bare facts. He will not use even a single superfluous word. Hence, the word, "sutras". Sutras means the basic minimum.

A sutra is not a complete sentence even. It is just the essential - just as when you give a telegram you go on cutting superfluous words. Then it becomes a sutra because only ten words or nine words can be put in it. If you were going to write a letter you will fill ten pages, and even in ten pages the message will not be complete. But in a telegram, in ten words, it is not only complete it is more than complete. It hits the heart; the very essence is there.

These are telegrams - Patanjali's sutras. He is a miser; he will not use a single superfluous word. So how can he tell stories? He cannot. And don't expect. So don't ask whether he is a theist or atheist; these are stories.

Philosophers have created many. stories, and it is a game. If you like the game of atheism, be an atheist. If you like the game of theism, be a theist. But these are games, not the reality. Reality is something else. Reality Is concerned with you, not what you believe. The reality is you, not what you believe. The reality is behind the mind, not in the contents of the mind, because theism is a content of the mind, atheism is a content of the mind - something in the mind. Hinduism is a content of the mind, or Christianity is a content of the mind.

Patanjali is concerned with the beyond, not with the content. He says, "Throw this whole mind. Whatsoever it contains, it is useless." You may be carrying beautiful philosophies, Patanjali will say, "Throw them. All is rubbish." It is difficult. If someone says "Your Bible is rubbish, your Gita is rubbish, your scriptures all rubbish, rot, throw them," you will be shocked. But this is what is going to happen. Patanjali is not going to make any compromise with you. He is uncompromising. And that's the beauty. And that is his uniqueness.

The third question:

Neither a theist nor an atheist, they cannot be disciples. They have already taken the attitude, they have already decided, so what is the point of being a disciple? If you already know, how can you be a disciple? Discipleship means the realization that, "I don't know." Atheists, theists - no, they cannot be disciples.

And if you believe in something you will miss the beauty of discipleship. If you know something already, that knowing will give you ego. It will not make you humble. That's why pundits and scholars miss. Sometimes sinners have reached, but scholars never. They know too much; they are so clever. Their cleverness is their disease; that becomes the suicide. They will not listen because they will not be ready to learn.

Discipleship simply means an attitude to learn - moment to moment remaining aware that "I don't know." This knowing that "I don't know," this awareness that "I am ignorant," gives you opening; then you are not closed. The moment you say, "I know," you are a closed circle; the door is no more open. But when you say, "I don't know," it means you are ready to learn. It means the door is open.

If you have already reached, concluded, you cannot be a disciple. One has to be in a receptive mood. One has to be continuously aware that the real is unknown and "Whatsoever I know is trivial, is just rubbish." What do you know? You may have gathered much information, but that is not knowledge. You may have accumulated much dust through universities; that is not knowledge. You may know about Buddha, you may know about Jesus, but that is not knowledge. Unless you become a Buddha, there is no knowledge. Unless you are the Jesus, there is no knowledge

Knowledge comes through being, not through memory. You can have a trained memory; memory is just a mechanism. It will not give you a richer being. It may give you nightmarish dreams, but it will not give you a richer being. You will remain the same covered with much dust. Knowledge, and particularly the ego that comes through knowledge - the feeling that "I know" closes you. Now you cannot be a disciple. And if you cannot be a disciple, you cannot enter the discipline of yoga. So come to the door of yoga ignorant - alert of your ignorance, alert that you don't know. And I will tell you: this is the only knowledge which will help, the knowledge that "I don't know."

This will make you humble. A subtle humility will Come to you. The ego, by and by, will subside. Knowing that you don't know, how can you be egoistic? Knowledge is the most subtle food for ego: you feel you are something. You know; you become somebody.

Just two days before, I initiated a girl from the West into sannyas and I gave her a name, "Yoga Sambodhi" and I asked, "Will it be easy for you to pronounce?" She said, "Yes. It looks just like the English word 'somebody'." But sambodhi is quite the opposite. When you become nobody, then sambodhi happens. Sambodhi means enlightenment. If you are somebody, sambodhi will never happen. That "somebodiness" is the barrier.

When you feel you are nobody, when you feel you are nothing, suddenly you are available to many mysteries to happen to you. Your doors are open. The sun can rise; the sunrays can penetrate you. Your gloom, your darkness, will disappear. But you are closed. The sun may be knocking on the door, but there is no opening; not even a window is open.

Atheists or theists, Hindus or Mohammedans, Christians or Buddhists, they cannot enter on the path. They believe. They have already reached without reaching anywhere. They have concluded without any realization. They have words in the minds - concepts, theories, scriptures. And the more the burden, the more they are dead.

The fourth question:

No, I never said that yoga doesn't ask for faith. I said yoga doesn't ask for any belief. Faith is totally different, trust is totally different. Belief is an intellectual thing, but faith is a very deep intimacy. It is not intellectual. You love a Master, then you trust and there is faith. But this faith is not in any concept, it is in the very person. And this is not a condition; it is not required - remember this distinction. It is not required that you must have faith in the Master; it is not a precondition. All that is said is this: if trust happens between you and the Master, then satsang will be possible. It is just a situation, not a condition. Nothing is required.

Just as love... If love happens then marriage can follow, but you cannot make love a condition, that first you must love and then marriage will follow. But then you will ask, "How one can love? If it happens, it happens; if it is not happening, it is not happening." You cannot do anything. So you cannot force trust.

In the old days seekers will roam all over the world. They will roam from one Master to another, just waiting for the phenomenon to happen. You cannot force it. You may pass through many Masters, just in search if somewhere something clicks. Then the thing has happened; it is not a condition. You cannot go to a Master and try to trust him. How can you try to trust? The very try, the very effort, shows you don't trust. How can you try to love someone? Or can you? If you try, the whole thing has become false. It is an happening.

But unless this happens, satsang will not be possible. Then the Master cannot give his grace to you. Not that he will prevent himself from giving, you are not available. He cannot do anything. You are not open.

The sun may be waiting near the window but it is closed, what the sun can do? The rays will reflect back. They will come, knock on the door and go back. Remember, it is not a condition that you open the door and sun will rise; it is not a condition! The sun may not be there, it may be night. Just by opening your door you cannot create the sun. Your opening of the door is just your being available. If the sun is there, he can enter.

So seekers will move, will have to move from one Master to another. The only thing to remember is, they must remain open and they should not judge. If you come near a Master, you don't feel any turning with him, move - but don't judge. Because your judgment will be wrong. You have never been in contact. Unless you love, you don't know, so don't judge. Simply say, "This Master is not for me; I am not for this Master. The thing has not happened." You simply move.

If you start judging, then you are closing yourself for other Masters also. You may have to pass through many, many situations, but remember this: don't judge. Whenever you feel that something is wrong with the Master, move. That means you cannot trust. Something has gone wrong, you cannot trust. But don't say the Master is wrong; you don't know. You simply move; that's enough. You seek somewhere else.

If you start judging, condemning, concluding, then you will be closed. And these eyes which judge will never be able to trust. Once you have become a victim of judgment you will never be able to trust because you will find something or other which will help you not to trust, which will give you a closing.

So don't trust, don't judge, move. Someday, if you go on moving, the thing is bound to happen: someday, somewhere, in some moment, because there are moments - you cannot do anything about them when you are vulnerable, and when the Master is flowing. You are vulnerable, you meet. In a certain point of time and space, the meeting happens. Then satsang becomes possible.

Satsang means close proximity with a Master, with a man who has known. Because then, he can flow. He is already flowing. Sufis say that that's enough. Just to be in close proximity of a Master, that is enough. Just to sit near him, just to walk by the side of him, just to sit outside his room, just to watch in the night just sitting outside his wall, just to go on remembering, that's enough.

But it takes years, these years of waiting. And he will not treat you well, remember he will create every type of hindrance. He will give you many chances to judge. He will spread rumors about himself so you can think that he is wrong, you can escape. He will help you in every way to escape. Unless you pass all these hurdles... And they are necessary, because a cheap trust is of no use. A trust, a seasoned trust, which has waited long, has become a strong rock... Only then the deepest layers can be penetrated.

Patanjali doesn't say that you will have to believe. Belief is intellectual. You believe in Hinduism, it is not your trust. It is just that accidentally you were born in a Hindu family, and so you have heard; from the very childhood you have been impregnated. You have been impressed about theories, concepts, philosophies, systems. They have become part of your blood. They have just fallen into your unconscious; you believe in them. But that belief is of no use because it has not transformed you. It is a dead thing, borrowed.

A trust is never a dead thing. You cannot borrow a trust from your family. It is a personal phenomenon. you will have to come to it. Hinduism is traditional, Mohammedanism is traditional.

The first group around Mohammed - they were the real Moslems - because it was a trust for them; they had come personally to the Master. They had lived with the Master in close proximity; they had satsang. They believed in Mohammed, and Mohammed is not a man easily to be trusted. Difficult.

If you had been to Mohammed you will escape-he had nine wives. Impossible to believe in such a man. He had a sword in his hand, and on his sword was written, "Peace is the motto"; the word "Islam" means peace. How can you believe this man?

You can believe in a Mahavira when he says "Nonviolence"; he is non-violent. Obviously, you can believe in Mahavira. How can you believe in Mohammed with a sword? And he says, "Love is the message and peace is the motto." You cannot believe. This man is creating hurdles.

He was a Sufi; he was a Master. He will create every difficulty. So if your mind still functions, you doubt, you are skeptical, you escape. But if you remain, wait, if you have patience - and infinite patience will be needed - someday you will come to know Mohammed, you will become a Moslem. Just by knowing him, you will become a Moslem.

The first group of disciples was a totally different thing. The first group of disciples of Buddha was a totally different thing. Now Buddhists are dead. Mohammedans are dead. They are traditionally Mohammedans.

Truth cannot be transferred like property. Your parents cannot give you truth. They can give you property because the property belongs to the world. Truth doesn't belong to the world; they cannot give it to you, they cannot have it treasured. They cannot have it in the bank so that it can be transferred to you. You will have to seek on your own. You will have to suffer, and you will have to become a disciple and you will have to pass through rigorous discipline. It will be a personal happening. Truth is always personal. It happens to a person. Trust is different, belief is different. Belief is given by others, trust is earned by yourself.

Patanjali doesn't require any belief, but without trust nothing can be done, without trust nothing is possible. But you cannot force it - understand. You cannot force your trust; it is not in your hands to force it. If you force, it will be false. And no-trust is better than a false trust, because you are wasting yourself. It is better to move somewhere else where the real can happen.

Don't judge, go on moving. Someday, somewhere, your Master is waiting. And the Master cannot be shown to you - "Go here and this will be your Master." You will have to seek, you will have to suffer, because through suffering and seeking you will be able to see him. Your eyes will become clear; the tears will disappear. Your eyes will be unclouded and you will realize that this is the Master.

It is reported: one of the Sufis, Junaid, came to an old fakir, and he asked him, "I have heard that you know. Show me the path." The old man said, "You have heard that I know. You don't know. Look at me and feel." The man said, "I cannot feel anything. Just do one thing: show me the path where I can find my Master." So the old man said, "You go first to Mecca. Have the pilgrimage and search such and such a man. He will be sitting under a tree. His eyes will be such: they will be throwing light, and you will feel a certain perfume like musk around him. Go and seek."

And Junaid traveled and traveled for twenty years. Wherever he heard a Master is, he will go. But neither the tree was there, nor the perfume, the musk, nor those eyes the old man has described. The personality was not there. And he had a ready-made formula, so he will judge immediately, "This is not my Master," and he will move ahead. After twenty years he reached under a tree. The Master was there. The musk was floating in the air, just like a haze around the man. The eyes were fiery, a red light was falling. This is the man He fell into his feet and said, "Master, I have been searching for you for twenty years."

The Master said, "I am also waiting for you twenty years. Look again." He looked. This was the same man twenty years before who has shown him the way to find the Master. Junaid started weeping. He said, "What? You played a joke upon me? Twenty years wasted Why couldn't you say that you are my Master?"

The old man said, "That would not have helped; that was of not much use - because unless you have eyes to see... These twenty years helped you to see me; I am the same man. But twenty years before you had told me that "I don't feel anything." I am the same, but now you have become capable to feel. You have changed. These twenty years rubbed you hard. All the dust has fallen; your mind is clear. This fragrance of musk was there that time also, but you were not capable to smelling it. Your nose was closed; your eyes were not functioning; your heart was not really beating. So, contact was not possible."

You don't know nobody can say where the trust will happen. I don't say trust the Master, I simply say find a person where trust happens - that person is your Master. And you cannot do anything about it. You will have to wander. The thing is certain to happen, but the seeking is necessary because seeking prepares you. Not that the seeking leads you to the Master, seeking prepares you so that you can see. He may be just near you.

The fifth question:

Yes and no! Yes, a physical closeness is necessary in the beginning because you cannot understand anything else right now, as you are. You can understand the body; you can understand the language of the physical. You exist at the physical, so yes, a physical closeness is necessary - in the beginning.

And I say no also because as you grow, as you start learning a different language which is of the non-physical, then physical closeness is not necessary. Then you can go anywhere. Then space doesn't make any difference. You remain in contact. Not only space, but time also doesn't make any difference. A Master may be dead, you remain in contact. He may have dropped his physical body, you remain in contact. If a trust happens, then time and space both are transcended.

Trust is the miracle. You can be in closeness with Mohammed or Jesus or Buddha right now if trust is there. But it is difficult! It is difficult because you don't know how. You cannot trust a living person, how can you trust a dead1 If trust happens, then you are close to Buddha right now. And for persons who have faith, Buddha is alive. No Master ever dies for those who can trust. He goes on helping; he is always there. But for you, even Buddha is there physically, standing behind you or in front of you, just sitting by your side, you are not close to him. There may be vast space between you. Love, trust, faith, they destroy space, time, both.

In the beginning, because you cannot understand any other language, you can understand only the language of the physical, physical closeness is necessary - but only in the beginning. A moment will come when the Master himself will send you away. He will force you to go away because that too becomes necessary - you may start clinging to the physical language.

Gurdjieff almost always, all his life, will send his disciples away. He will create such a miserable situation for them, then they will have to leave. It will be impossible to live with him. After a certain point, he will help them to go away. He will force really them to go away, because you should not become too much dependent on the physical. The other, the higher language, must develop. You must start feeling close to him wherever you are, because body has to be transcended. Not yours only, the Master's body has also to be transcended.

But in the beginning it is a great help. Once the seeds are sown, once they have taken root, then you are strong enough. Then you can go away, and then you can feel. Just going away, the contact is lost - then the contact is not much importance. Trust will grow, further you go away. Trust will grow more, because wherever you are on the earth you will feel the Master's presence continuously. The trust will grow. He will be helping you now through hidden hands, invisible hands. He will be working upon you through your dreams, and you will feel constantly, like a shadow, he is following you.

But that is a very developed language. Don't try it from the very beginning because then you can deceive. So I will say, move step by step. Wherever trust happens, then close your eyes and follow blindly. Really, the moment trust happens you have closed your eyes. Then what is the use of thinking, arguing? Trust has happened and trust will not listen to anything now.

Then follow and remain close unless the Master himself sends you away. And when he sends you away then don't cling. Then follow. Follow his instruction and go away, because he knows better. And what is helpful he knows.

Sometimes, just near the Master, it may become difficult for you to grow - just like under a big tree a new seed will have many difficulties to grow. Under a big tree, a new tree will become crippled. Even trees take care to throw their seed far away so that the seeds can sprout. Trees use many tricks to send the seed away; otherwise they will die, they fall down just under the big tree. There is so much shadow. No sun reaches there, no sun rays reach.

So a Master knows better. If he feels that you should go away, then don't resist. Then simply follow and go away. This going away will be coming nearer to him. If you can follow, if you can silently follow without any resistance, this going away will be a coming nearer. You will attain a new closeness.

The sixth question:

Yes, mind has to cease, but it has not ceased yet. Mind has to be worked upon; an understanding has to be created in the mind. Through that understanding this mind will die. That understanding is just like poison. You take the poison. You are the taker, and the poison kills you. The mind understands, but the understanding is poison for the mind. That's why the mind resists so much. It tries and tries not to understand. It creates doubt, it fights in every way, it protects itself because understanding is poison for the mind. It is elixir for you, but for the mind it is poison.

So when I say understand clearly, I mean your mind, not you, because you need not any understanding. You are already understanding. You are the very wisdom - the pragnya.

You need not any help from me or from anybody else. Your mind has to be changed. And if understanding happens to the mind, mind will die, and with the mind the understanding will disappear. Then you will be in your purity. Then your being will reveal a mirrorlike purity - no content, contentless. But that inner being needs no understanding. It is already the very core of understanding. It needs no understanding - just the clouds of the mind, they have to be persuaded.

So what is understanding really? Just a persuasion for the mind to leave. Remember, I don't say fight, I say persuasion. If you fight, the mind will never leave, because through fight you show your fear. If you fight, you show that the mind is something of which you are afraid. Just persuade. All these teachings, all meditations are a deep persuasion for the mind to come to a point where it can commit suicide, where it simply drops, where mind itself becomes such an absurdity that you cannot carry it any more - you simply drop it. It is better to say mind drops itself.

So when I say an address for a clear understanding, I am addressing your mind. And there is no other way. Only your mind can be approached because you are unaVailable. You are so hidden deep inside, and just the mind is on the door. The mind has to be persuaded to leave the door and to leave the door open. Then you will become available.

I am addressing mind - your mind, not you. If mind drops, there is no need to address - I can sit in silence and you will understand; there is no need to address. The mind needs words; the mind needs thoughts; the mind needs something mental which can persuade it. Buddha or Patanjali or Krishna talking to you, are addressing your mind.

A moment comes when mind simply becomes aware of the whole absurdity. It is just like this: if I see you, that you are pulling the strings, your shoelaces, and trying to pull yourself up through them, and I tell you, "What nonsense you are doing; this is impossible." Just through your own shoelaces, you cannot pull yourself up. It is simply impossible; it cannot happen. So I persuade you to think more about the whole thing: "This is absurd. What are you doing! And then you feel miserable because it is not happening, so I go on telling you, insisting, hammering. One day you may become aware that, "Yes, this is absurd. What I am doing?"

Just like pulling yourself by the shoelaces is your whole effort at the mind. Whatsoever you are doing is absurd. It can never lead you anywhere than the hell, than the misery. It has always led you to the misery, you are still not aware. All this communication from me is just to make your mind alert that the whole effort is absurd. Once you come to feel that the whole effort is absurd, the effort disappears. It is not that you will have to leave your shoelaces, and you will have to make some effort and it is going to be arduous, you will simply see the fact and you will leave and you will laugh. You have become enlightened if you leave your shoelaces and simply stand and laugh. This is going to be the case.

Through understanding the mind drops. Suddenly you become aware that no one else was responsible for your misery, you were creating it continuously; moment to moment you were the creator. And you were creating the misery, and then you were asking how to go beyond it, how to be not miserable, how to achieve bliss, how to achieve samadhi. And while you are asking you are creating. Even this asking, "How to achieve samadhi?" is creating misery because then you say, "I have been making so much effort and samadhi has not been reached yet. I am doing everything that can be done, and the samadhi has not been reached yet. When I will become enlightened?"

Now you are creating a new misery when you have made enlightenment also an object of desire, which is absurd. No desire will come to a fulfillment. When you realize this, desires drop - you are enlightened. Desireless, you are enlightened. With desires you go moving to a circle of misery.

The last question:

Yes, you cannot move on the path of yoga with motivation, with desire, with hope. Really, there is no movement on the path of yoga. When you come to understand that all desire is absurd, all desire is misery, there is nothing to do, because every doing will be a new desire. There is nothing to do! Simply you cannot do anything because whatsoever you do will lead you into a new misery. Then you don't do. Desires have dropped, mind has ceased, and this is yoga; you have entered. This is not a movement, it is a stillness. Because of the language, problems arise. I say that you have entered, it appears that you have moved. When desire ceases, all movement ceases. You are in the yoga: NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA.

With motivation, in the name of yoga, you will create again other miseries. I see every day people. They come: "I have been practicing yoga for thirty years; nothing has happened." But who told you something is going to happen? He must be waiting for something to happen; that's why nothing has happened. Yoga says don't wait for the future. You meditate, but you meditate with the motive that through meditation you will reach somewhere, some goal. You are missing the point You meditate and enjoy it. There is no goal, there is no future, no further; there is nothing ahead. Meditate, enjoy it - without any motivation.

And suddenly the goal is there. Suddenly the clouds disappear because they were created by your desire. Your motivation is the smoke which creates the clouds; they have disappeared. So play with the meditation; enjoy it. Don't make it a means. It is the end. This is the whole point to be understood.

Don't create new desires. Understand the very nature of desire, that is misery. Just try to understand the nature of desire, you will come to know that it is misery. Then what is to be done? Nothing is to be done! Becoming alert that desire is misery, desire drops. NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA. You have entered the path.

And it depends on your intensity. If your realization is so deep that it is total, that desire is misery, you will not only have entered yoga, you have become a siddha. You have reached the goal.

It will depend on your intensity. If the intensity is total, then you have reached the goal. If your intensity is not so total, you have entered the path.