The Alpha is the Omega

The first question:

THAT IS TOO MUCH ASKING from positive thoughts because enlightenment is beyond duality: it is neither negative nor positive. When both the polarities are dropped, it happens. With positive thoughts many things are possible - not enlightenment.

You can be happy, but not blissful. Happiness comes and goes; the opposite always exists with it. When you are happy, just by the side of happiness unhappiness is waiting for its own time. It is standing in the queue. When you are loving, it is positive; hate is waiting for its own time.

Positive cannot go beyond duality. It is good as far as it goes, but to ask enlightenment from it is too much. Never expect that. Negative has to be dropped to attain to the positive. Positive has also to be dropped to attain to the beyond. First drop the negative, then drop the positive; then nothing is left. That nothingness is enlightenment; then there is no more mind.

Mind is either negative or positive, happy, unhappy, loving, hateful; anger, compassion, day and night, birth and death - all belong to mind. But you don't belong to mind. You are beyond it - encased in the mind, but beyond it.

Enlightenment is not of the mind. It is of you. The realization that "I am not the mind" is enlightenment. If you remain negative you remain in the valley part of the mind. If you are positive, you attain to the peak part of the mind. But neither transcends the mental plane of your being: drop both.

It is difficult to drop the positive. It is easy to drop the negative because the negative gives you misery. It is a hell; you can drop it. But look at the misfortune: you have not even dropped that. You cling to the negative also. You cling to misery as if it is a treasure. You cling to your unhappiness just because it has become an old habit, and you need something to cling. Not finding anything, you cling to your hell. But, remember, to drop the negative is easy, howsoever difficult it seems. Compared to the positive it is very easy because it is misery.

To drop the positive means to drop the happiness; to drop the positive means to drop all that looks like flowers, all that is beautiful. The negative is the ugly, positive is the beautiful. The negative is death, positive is life. But if you can drop the negative... so take the first step. First feel the misery, how much misery is given by the negative to you. Just watch how misery arises out of it: just watch and feel. The very feeling that the negative is creating misery will become the dropping.

But mind has a very deep trick. Whenever you are miserable, it always says somebody else is responsible. Be alert, because if you are a victim of this trick then the negative can never be dropped. This is how the negative is hiding itself. You are angry. The mind says somebody has insulted and that's why you are angry - that is not right. Somebody may have insulted, but that is just an excuse. You were already waiting to be angry. Anger was accumulating within you, otherwise somebody would have insulted - there would have been no anger.

The insult may become the visible cause of it, but it is not really the cause. You are boiling within. In fact, the person who insults you helps you. He helps you to bring your inner turmoil out and be finished with it. You are in such a bad shape that even insult helps you. The enemy helps you because he helps you to bring all negativity out. At least you are unburdened for a time being.

Mind has this trick always to divert your consciousness towards the other. Immediately something goes wrong and you start looking who has done this. In that looking you miss, and the real culprit is hiding behind.

Make it an absolute law that whenever something is wrong, immediately close the eyes and look for the real culprit. And you will be able to see because it is a truth. It is a reality. It is true that you accumulate anger; that's why you become angry. It is true that you accumulate hate; that's why you feel hatred. The other is not a real cause. In Sanskrit, they have two terms. One term is karan - the real cause, and another term is nimitta - the unreal cause. And the nimitta, the unreal cause which appears as cause but is not the cause, befools you. It has been befooling you for many, many lives.

Immediately close the eyes and go in whenever you feel something miserable happening, because that is the right moment to catch the culprit redhanded. Otherwise you will not be able to catch it. When the anger has disappeared, you will close the eyes. You will not find anything there. In a red-hot situation, don't miss the point. Make it a meditation.

And if you start feeling no need is there for any method to drop the negative... Negative is so ugly, it is such a disease - how you are carrying it is amazing. Dropping is nothing; carrying is amazing. It has riddled all the Buddhas - how you carry and why you carry all of your diseases so lovingly? You are so careful about them; you protect all that is wrong. Protected, it gets deeper and deeper roots in you.

Once realized that this is my own negativity which creates the problem, it falls by itself. And then there is a beauty, when the negative mind falls by itself. If you try to drop it, it will cling - because the very effort to drop it shows that your understanding is not mature. All renunciation is immaturity; you are not ripe for it. That's why effort is needed to drop it. I am carrying rubbish; do I need any effort to drop it, except the understanding that this is rubbish? If I need any effort to drop it, that means I am supplementing my understanding with effort. Understanding itself is not enough - that's why effort is needed.

All those who have known, they say effort is needed because your understanding is not there. It may be an intellectual thing, but really you have not felt the situation, otherwise you simply drop it. A snake passes the path; you simply jump. There is no effort in the jump. You don't decide to jump; you don't make a logical syllogism within you that "There is a snake, and wherever there is a snake there is danger; hence, I must jump." You don't make a logical step-by-step syllogism. Even Aristotle will jump. Later on he can make the syllogism, but right now, when the snake is there, the snake doesn't bother about your logic, and the whole situation is so dangerous... the very understanding that the situation is dangerous is enough.

For the negative to drop, no effort is needed - only understanding. Then arises the real problem: how to drop the positive - because it is so beautiful. And for you who have not known the beyond, it is the ultimate in happiness - so happy. Look at a couple in love; look at their eyes, the way they walk hand in each other's hand: they are happy. Tell them to drop this positive mind and they will think, "are you crazy?" For this they have been waiting and now it has happened. And here comes a Buddha and says, "Drop it."

When somebody is succeeding, reaching higher and higher on the ladder, tell him to drop it. That is his very purpose, in his eyes. And if he even thinks to drop it, he knows he will drop in misery.

Because from the positive where you will move? - you know only two possibilities: positive or negative. If you drop the positive, you move to the negative. That's why negative has to be dropped first so there is nothing to move to the negative. Otherwise, if you drop the positive, immediately the negative enters. If you are not happy, then what you will be? - unhappy! If you are not silent, what you will be? - a chatterbox! Hence, drop the negative first so one alternative is closed - you cannot move that way. Otherwise energy has a routine movement from positive to negative, from negative to positive. If the negative exists, there is every possibility the moment you drop the positive you will become the negative.

When you are not happy, you will be unhappy. You don't know that there is a third possibility also. That third possibility opens only when negative has been dropped and then you drop the positive. For a moment there will be a halt. Energy cannot move anywhere, not knowing where to move. The negative door is closed, the positive has been closed. You will be for a moment... and that moment will look like eternity. It will look very, very long - non-ending.

For a moment you will be just in the middle, not knowing what to do, where to go. This moment will look like madness. You are neither positive nor negative, then who you are? What is your identity?

Your identity, name and form drop with the positive and negative. Suddenly you are nobody that you can recognize - just an energy phenomenon. And you cannot say how you are feeling. There is no feeling. If you can tolerate it, bear this moment, this is the greatest sacrifice, the greatest tapascharya, and the whole yoga prepares you for this moment. Otherwise the tendency will be to go somewhere, but don't remain in this vacuum. Be positive, be negative, but don't remain in this vacuum. You are nothing, as if you are disappearing. An abyss has opened, and you are falling into it.

At this moment a Master is needed who can say "Wait! Don't be afraid; I am here." This is just a lie, but you need it. Nobody is there. Not even a Master can be there because the Master also ends when your mind ends. Now you are absolutely alone, but to be alone is so fearsome, so scary, so deathlike, that somebody is needed to give you courage. Because it is only a one moment's question and the lie helps.

And I tell you, all the Buddhas have been liars just because of compassion towards you. The Master says, "I am here. You don't worry; you go ahead." You gain confidence, you take the jump. Just a moment's question, and everything hangs there. The whole existence hangs there; the crossing point, the boiling point. If you take the step, you are lost to the mind forever. There will be no positive, no negative again.

You can be scared. You can again go back and enter into the negative or in the positive which is cozy, comfortable, familiar. You were entering into the unknown: this is the problem. First, the problem is how to drop the negative - a ripe understanding is needed - and which is the easiest, and you have not done even that.

Then the problem is how to drop the positive which is so beautiful and gives you such happiness. But if you drop the negative, if you become that much ripe, you will have a second understanding, a second transformation, in which you will be able to see that if you don't drop the positive, the negative will come back.

Then the positive loses its all positivity. It was positive only in comparison to the negative. Once the negative is thrown, even the positive becomes negative because now you can see all this happiness is momentary. And when this moment is lost, where you will be? The negative will enter again.

Before the negative enters, drop it. Hell always comes through heaven. Heaven is just the gate; hell is the real place. Through heaven and the promise of heaven you enter hell. Hell is the real place; heaven is just the gate. Sooner or later - how can you remain at the gate forever? - you have to enter. Where you will go from the positive?

Once negative is dropped, you can see that positive is just the other aspect of it - not really contrary, not opposite, but a conspiracy. They are both in conspiracy; they are together. When this understanding arises, the positive has become the negative, you can drop it.

In fact, to say you can drop it is not good. It also drops. It has also become negative. Then you know that in this life there is nothing like happiness. Happiness is a trick of unhappiness to come in too. It is just like the egg and the hen relationship. What is a hen? It is the way of the egg to come back. And what is an egg? It is a way of the hen to come back.

Positive and negative are not real opposites. They are like hen and egg, mother and child. They help each other and come from each other. But this understanding is possible only when negative has been dropped. Then you can drop the positive also. And then you can stay in that transitory moment, which is the greatest moment in existence. You will never feel another moment so long - as if years are passing, because the vacuum... You lose all bearing; the whole past is lost, suddenly empty, not knowing where you are, who you are, what is happening.

This is the moment of madness. If you try to return from this moment, you will remain always mad. Many people go mad through meditation. From this moment they fall back, and now there is nothing to fall back to because the positive/negative has been dropped. They no more exist; the house is no more there. Once you leave the house it disappears. It depended on you; it is not a separate entity.

Mind is not a separate entity. It depends on you. Once you leave it, it is no more there. You cannot come back, fall back to it. That is the state of madness. You have not attained to the transcendence, and you come back and you look for the mind - it is no more there; the house has disappeared.

To be in this state is very, very painful. The real anguish for the first time happens. Hence, the Master - the need of the Master, who will not allow you to come back, who will force you to go ahead, because once you turn back it will take much effort to bring you again to that point. Maybe for many lives you may miss it because now there is no mind to understand even

In Sufism this state is called the state of a mast - the state of a madman. This state is really difficult to understand because the man is and is not - both. He laughs and weeps together; he has lost all orientations. He does not know what is weeping and what is laughing. Is there any contradiction? He beats himself and enjoys, celebrates, beating himself. He does not know what he is doing, whether it is harmful or not harmful. He becomes completely dependent. He becomes like a small child; he has to be taken care of.

Without a Master, if somebody goes into meditation this can be the outcome. With a Master, the Master will be the barrier. He will be just standing behind you and he will not allow you to go back. He will become a rock. And finding no way to go back, you will have to take the jump. Nobody can take it for you. Nobody can be with you at that moment. But once you take this jump you have transcended all dualities. Negative, positive, both gone - and this is enlightenment.

I talk about the positive so that you can drop the negative. Once you drop the negative you are trapped. Then the positive has to be dropped. Each step leads to another in such a way that if you take the first step the second is bound to come. It is a chain. In fact, only the first has to be taken. Then all else follows. The first is the last, if you understand. The beginning is the end; the alpha is the omega.

The second question:

This is the difference: a man who has become absolutely positive is the man of spiritual attainment. The person who has become absolutely negative... When I say absolutely negative, I mean ninety- nine percent negative, because absolute negativity is not possible. Neither absolute positivity is possible. The other is needed. The quantity can change; the degrees differ.

The man who is ninety-nine percent negative and one percent positive is the most fallen man, what Christians call the sinner - one percent positive! That too is needed only to help his ninety- nine percent negativity. But in everything negative, whatsoever you say, only no is the response. Whatsoever existence asks, only no is the response. The atheist who cannot say yes to anything, who has become incapable of saying yes, who cannot trust - this man suffers hell. And because he says no to everything, he becomes a no, a yawning no; anger, violence, suppression, sadness, all together - he becomes a hell personified.

Difficult to find such a man because it is difficult to be such a man. To live in ninety-nine percent hell is very difficult. But just to explain to you, I am telling this. This is the mathematical possibility. One can become if one tries. You will not find such a man anywhere. Even a Hitler is not that destructive. The whole energy becomes destructive - not only of others, but of oneself also. The whole attitude is suicidal. When a person commits suicide what he is saying? He is saying no to life through his death. He is saying no to God, that "you cannot create me. I will destroy myself."

Sartre, one of the great thinkers of this age, says that suicide is the only freedom - freedom from God. Why freedom from God? Because there is no freedom. You don't have any freedom to create yourself. Whenever you are, you find yourself already created. Birth you cannot take: that is not your freedom. Sartre says, "But death you can commit; that is your freedom." You can say at least one thing definitively to God - that "I am free". This man who lives always near the abyss of suicide is the last, the greatest sinner.

In existentialism, which Sartre preaches, these words have become very meaningful - anguish, boredom, sadness. They have to become meaningful because this man will live in anguish, boredom. One percent positive is needed. He will say yes to boredom, to suicide, to anguish, only for this much: he has a need to say yes. This is the modern man who is coming nearer and nearer to this last shore. On the other peak exists the spiritual man. This is the sinner, the fallen. On the other peak - ninety-nine percent positive, one percent negative - is the spiritual man. He says yes to everything. He has only one no and that no is against no, that's all. Otherwise he is yes. But because total yes cannot exist, he has a need to say no.

This man attains many things because the positive mind can give you millions of things: this man will be happy, serene, collected, calm and quiet. And because of this the mind will flower and give all its positive qualities to him. He will have certain powers. He can read your thoughts, he can heal you. His blessing will become a force. Just by being near him, you will be benefited. In subtle ways, he is a blessing.

All the siddhis - all the powers that yoga talks, and Patanjali will talk later on - will be easy to him; he will be a man of miracles, his touch will be magical. Anything is possible because he has a ninety-nine percent positive mind. Positivity is a force, a power. He will be very powerful. But still he is not enlightened. And it will be easier for you to think this man that he is enlightened than to think an enlightened man as enlightened, because the enlightened man simply goes beyond you. You cannot understand him; he becomes incomprehensible.

In fact an enlightened man has no power because he has no mind. He is not miraculous. He has no mind; he cannot do anything. He is the ultimate in non-doing. Miracles can happen around him. But they happen because of your mind, not because of him, and that is the difference. A spiritual man can do miracles; an enlightened man no. Miracles are possible, but they will happen because of you, not because of him. Your trust, your faith, will do the miracle, because you become the positive mind in that moment.

Jesus says: a woman touched his gown; he was moving in a crowd, and the woman was so poor and so old she never could believe that Jesus will bless her. So she thought it will be good to be in the crowd, and when Jesus passes, just to touch his gown. "It is his gown, and the very touch is enough. And I am so poor and so old, who will take care of me, who will bother? There will be many people, and Jesus will be interested in them." So she simply touched the garb.

Jesus looked back, and the woman said, "I am healed." Jesus said, "It is because of your faith. I have not done anything: you have done to yourself."

Many miracles can happen, but the man who is enlightened cannot do anything. Mind is the doer - doer of all. When mind is not there, happenings are there but no more doings. An enlightened man, in fact, is no more. He exists as a non-entity, as an emptiness. He is a shrine - empty. You can enter in him, but you will not meet him. He has gone beyond the polarities; he is a great beyond. You will be lost in him, but you cannot find him.

A man of spiritual powers is still in the world. He is your polar opposite. You feel helpless; he feels powerful. You feel unhealthy; he can heal you. It is bound to be so. You are ninety-nine percent negative; he is ninety-nine percent positive. The very meeting is between impotence and power. Positivity is power; negativity is impotence. And you will be very much impressed by such a man, and that becomes the danger for him. The more you are impressed by him, the more ego strengthens. With a negative man, the ego cannot be very much because ego needs positive power.

That's why, in sinners, you can find very, very humble people, but never in saints. Saints are always egotistic. They are somebody - powerful, chosen, elite, messengers of God, prophets. They are somebody. A sinner is humble - afraid of himself, moves carefully; he knows who he is. It has happened many times that a sinner has taken a direct jump and has become enlightened, but it has never been so easy for a man of spiritual power because the very power becomes the hindrance.

Patanjali will talk much about it. He has a complete section of these sutras devoted to vibhuti pada - to this dimension of power. And he has written the whole part just to make you beware that don't become a victim of it, because ego is very subtle. It is such a subtle phenomenon and such a deceptive force, and wherever there is power it sucks on it. It is a sucking phenomenon, this ego. So in the world the ego finds politics, prestige, power, wealth. Then it feels somebody - you are a president of a country or a prime minister: then you are somebody. Or you have millions of rupees - then you are somebody: ego is strengthened

The game remains the same because the positive is not out of the world. The positive is within the world - better than the negative, but then the danger is also more, because a man who feels himself very great because he is a prime minister or a president or a very rich man he also knows that he cannot carry these riches beyond death. But a man who feels powerful because of psychic forces - ESP, thought-reading, clairvoyance, clair-audience, astral traveling, healing - he feels more egoistic. He knows he can carry these powers beyond death. And, yes, they can be carried, because it is mind who is reborn, and these forces belong to the mind.

Wealth belongs to the body, not to the mind: you cannot carry it. A political power belongs to the body - when you are dead, you are nobody. But these forces, these spiritual powers, belong to the mind, and the mind moves from one body to another. It is carried. You will be born in next life as a charismatic child from the very beginning, you will have a magnetic force in you. Hence, more attraction; hence, more danger.

Remember, don't try to become spiritual. Spiritual is against material just as negative, positive. In fact, they are not opposites. The quality of both is the same. One is superior and subtle; another is gross and inferior, but both are the same. Don't be deceived by spiritual powers. And whenever spiritual powers start arising in you, you have to be more alert than ever. And they will arise! The more you will meditate, the mind will become refined. And when the mind is refined, seeds which you have been carrying always start sprouting. Now the soil is ready and the season has come. And beautiful are those flowers...

When you can touch somebody and heal immediately, it is difficult to resist the temptation. When you can do much benefit to people, you can become a great servant; it is very difficult to resist the temptation, and immediately temptations arise and you rationalize because this is just for the service of the people that you are doing it. But look within: through the service of the people the ego is arising, and now the greatest barrier will be there.

Materialism is not such a great barrier. It is just like the negative mind - not a great barrier to drop. It is suffering. Positive is difficult to drop, spirituality is difficult to drop. You can drop the body easily: to drop the mind is the real problem. But unless you drop both the material and the spiritual - neither this nor that - unless you go beyond both, you are not enlightened.

A man who is enlightened in fact becomes simply very, very ordinary. He has nothing special, and that is the specialty. He is so ordinary that you can bypass him on the street. You cannot bypass a spiritual man. He will bring a wave around him; he will be energy. You will be simply bathed by him if he passes you on the road - attracted like a magnet.

But you can pass a Buddha. If you don't know that he is a Buddha, you will not know. But you cannot pass a Rasputin. And Rasputin is not a bad man: Rasputin is a spiritual man. You cannot pass a Rasputin. The moment you see him, you are magnetized. You will follow him your whole life. This happened to the Csar. Once he saw this man he became a slave to him. He had a tremendous power. He will come like a strong wind, it is difficult not to be attracted by him.

It is difficult to be attracted to a Buddha. Many times you can bypass him. He is so simple and so ordinary, and that is the extraordinariness, because now the negative, positive are both lost. He is no more under the electric realm. He exists! He exists like a rock, like a tree. He exists like a sky. If you allow him, he can enter in you; he will not even knock at your door - no! - he will not be even that much aggressive. He is a very very silent phenomenon; he is a nothingness.

But this is the greatest thing to achieve because only he knows what existence is, only he knows what being is. With the negative and the positive you know the mind: negative is impotent, positive is powerful. Never try to be spiritual - it will happen automatically, you need not try it. And when it happens, remain detached.

There are many, many stories in the past. Buddha had a cousin-brother: Devadatta was his name. He took initiation from Buddha. He was a cousin-brother and of course, deep down, jealous - and very powerful man like Rasputin. Soon he started gathering his own following, and he started telling people that "I can do many things and this Buddha cannot do anything."

Followers again and again came to Buddha and said that "This Devadatta is trying to create a separate sect, and he says that he is more powerful." And he was right, but his power belonged to the positive mind. He made many efforts to kill Buddha. He made an elephant mad. When I say he made an elephant mad, I mean that he used his positive power, and it was such a strong phenomenon the elephant became intoxicated. He rushed madly; he tore down many trees. Devadatta was very happy because just behind the trees was sitting Buddha, and the elephant was going mad - just a mad energy. But when the elephant came near Buddha, he looked at the Buddha - sat silently in deep meditation, that elephant... Devadatta was puzzled.

What happened? When there is emptiness, everything is absorbed. Emptiness has no limits to it. The madness was absorbed. Not that Buddha has done anything - he has not done anything - he is just a vacuum. The elephant came and lost his energy, became silent. He became so silent that it is said Devadatta tried many times, but again he could not make that elephant mad.

The enlightened man is not a man at all - one thing. He is not at all - another thing. He appears to be there but he is not. You see his body but not him. The more you search him, the less is the possibility to find him. In the very search you will be lost. He has become the universal. The spiritual man is still an individual.

So remember, your mind will try to become spiritual. Your mind has a hankering to be more powerful, to be somebody in this world of nobodies. Be alert of it. Even if much benefit can be done through it, it is dangerous; the benefit is only on the surface. Deep down you are killing yourself, and soon it will be lost and again you will fall into the negative. It is a certain energy. You can lose it: you can make use of it; then it is gone.

Hindus have a very scientific category; nowhere exists that categorization. In the West they think in terms of hell and heaven - just two things. Hindus think in three categories - hell, heaven and moksha. It is difficult to translate the third into western languages because there exists no category. We call it liberation, but it is not. It gives the feeling, the fragrance of it just, but not exactly the same.

Heaven and hell, they are there. The third is not there. Hell is negative mind in its perfection; heaven is positive mind in its perfection. But where is the beyond? In India they say if you are a spiritualist, when you will die you will be born in a heaven. You will live there for millions of years happy, absolutely enjoying everything - but then you will have to fall back to the earth again. Energy lost, you will have to come back. You earned a particular energy, then you used it. You will fall back again to the same situation.

So they said don't seek heaven in India. Even if for millions of years you will be happy, that happy is not going to be forever. You will lose it, you will fall back; it is not worth the effort. What Hindus call devatas - those who live in heaven, the people who reside in heaven...

They are not muktas: they are not enlightened. But they are positive; they have reached to the peak of their positive energy, the mind energy. They can fly in the sky; they can move from one point of space to another immediately with no time gap. The moment they desire something, immediately it is fulfilled with no time gap. Here you desire, there it is fulfilled. They have beautiful, ever-young bodies. They become never old. Their bodies are golden. They live in golden cities with young women, with wine and women and dancing, and they are continuously happy. In fact, only one trouble exists there - that is boredom; they get bored. That is the only negative - one percent negative, ninety-nine percent they are happy - simply they get bored, and sometimes even they try to come on the earth. They can come; they come and they try to mingle with human beings just to get out of the boredom.

But finally they fall back... as if finally you come out of a dream, a beautiful dream, that's all. Heaven is a dream according to Hindus - beautiful dream. Hell is also a dream - a nightmare. But both are dreams because both belong to the mind. Remember this definition: all that belongs to the mind is a dream. Positive, negative, whatsoever: mind is dream. To go beyond the dream, to awake, is to become enlightened.

Difficult to say anything about the enlightened man, because he cannot be defined. Definition is possible if there is some limitation. He is vast as a sky; definition is not possible. The only way to know an enlightened man is to become enlightened. The spiritual man can be defined; he has his limitations. Within the mind, there is no difficulty in defining him.

When we will come to vibhuti pada - to Patanjali's sutras about siddhis, powers, we will see he can be defined completely. And in the West, scientific research is going on which they call psychic research. Psychic societies exist all over the world; many universities now have labs for psychic research. Sooner or later, what Patanjali says will be scientifically categorized and proved

In a way it is good. It is good because then you will be able to know that this is something of the mind which can be even examined by mechanical devices, categorized and finished. You cannot have any glimpse through any mechanical device of enlightenment. It is not a phenomenon of the body or of the mind. It is very elusive, mysterious.

Remember one thing: never try to gain any spiritual powers. Even if they come on your path by themselves, drop them as immediately as possible. Don't move in their company and don't listen to their tricks. They will say that "What is wrong in it? You can help others; you can become a great benefactor." But don't become that. You say simply that "I am not in search of power and nobody can help anybody." You can become an entertainment but you cannot help anybody.

And how can you help anybody? Everybody moves according to his own karmas. In fact, if a man of spiritual power touches you and your disease disappears, what is happening? Deep down your disease was to disappear; your karmas were fulfilled. It is just an excuse that it disappeared by the touch of a spiritual man. It was to disappear: because you did something, that's why it was there. The time has come...

You cannot help anybody in any way. There is only one help, and that is you become that which you would like everybody to become. You simply become that. Your very presence, not your doing, will be helpful.

What Buddha does? He is simply there, available, like a river. Those who are thirsty, they come. Even if a river tries to satisfy your thirst, it is impossible if you are not ready. If you don't open your mouth, if you don't bow down to receive the water, even a river may be flowing, you can remain thirsty. And this is what is happening: the river is flowing and you are sitting on the bank thirsty. The ego will always remain thirsty, whatsoever it attains. Ego is thirst. Satiety is of the soul, not of the ego.

The third question:

Because I don't work at all! I am simply there; it doesn't make any difference how many are around me. If I work, then, of course, how can I work on so many at the same time? My work is of a different quality. It is not, in fact, work. I have to use these words because of you. I am simply here; things will happen if you are also here. I am available; if you are also available, things will happen by themselves; nothing is needed to be done.

A meeting is needed of two availabilities, of two presences; then things happen by themselves. What you do when you put a seed in the earth? What you do? There is just the meeting of the seed and the earth, and things happen by themselves, just like that.

I am here. If you are also here... and that is the problem: you may seem to be here and you may not be here. Then nothing happens. I am here. If you are also here, things happen by themselves - just like that; I am not doing anything, otherwise, I will get tired of you. I am never tired because I am not doing anything. You cannot tire me; I am not bored - otherwise, I will be bored. Even you are bored with yourselves - so many of you.

It happened in a Jewish community: a rabbi threatened to leave, and the holy days were coming near and the trustees were worried what to do. It is difficult now, at this moment, to find a rabbi, a new rabbi, and he was adamant - the old one. So they tried to persuade him; they sent a delegation of three trustees, and they told the trustees to persuade anyhow. If he wants more salary, say okay, or tell him: "At least for few weeks be here and then you can leave; then we will be able to find." So they went, and they persuaded and they tried in every way. And they said that "We love you and we respect you. Why are you leaving?" The rabbi said that "If only five persons were like you here, I would have remained!"

They felt flattered because he had said, "If only five persons were like you here, I would have remained." They felt very good and they said, "But it will not be very difficult: three we are here; two more can be found." The rabbi said, "It is not difficult; that is the problem. There are like you two hundred persons here, and it is too much!"

You are bored with yourself. Look in the mirror: you are bored with your face. And so many of you are here, I must be bored to death! And the same problems you go on bringing to me every day. But I am never bored because I am not working. This is not a work at all. You may call it a love, but not a work - and love is never bored. Thousand times you can bring the same problems to me - again and again... and there are not many problems.

I have been watching thousands of people. The same problems repeat again and again. Your problems are just like seven days of the week - not more than that. Again comes the Monday, again comes the Tuesday: it goes on and on. But I am not bored a little bit because I am not working. If you are working, then of course it is very very difficult. That's why I can work - because I am not working.

On so many of you, the only thing required is from you, not from me. So you may be tired someday of me; that's possible. You may try to escape from me; that's possible. Only one thing is required of you. If you can do that, then there is no need to do anything either on my part or on your part. And that thing is your availability: you be here and now, and then it makes no difference whether you are here in this city, in this ashram, or to the other corner of the world.

If you are available, the seeds will sprout. I am available everywhere: that is not the point. Even when I am not in this body, I will be available. But it will be more and more difficult for you, because you are not available even when I am in this body here and now just talking to you - but you are not listening. You are hearing of course, but not listening. You are looking at me, but not at me. Look at me! It is not a work It is just a love available, and through love everything is possible - every transformation.

The fourth question:

Many things are involved. One thing: society is against love because love is a greatest bond, and love separates you from the society. Two lovers become a world in themselves; they don't bother about anybody. Hence, society is against; society doesn't want you to love. Marriage - granted; but not love, because once you love a person you become a world in yourself, separate. You don't bother what is happening in the world to others; you simply forget them. You create a private world of your own.

Love is such a creative force, it becomes a universe. Then you start moving around your own center - and this society cannot tolerate. Your parents cannot tolerate your love because if you are in love you forget them completely, as if they never existed. Then they exist on the margin, somewhere very distant. How can they allow you to love? They will make arrangements for your marriage. That will be their arrangement. You will exist... as part of the family.

Mulla Nasrudin fell in love with a woman. He came very happy home and when they were taking their supper he told the family that "I have decided." The father immediately said, "This is not possible. Impossible - I cannot allow it because the family of the girl has not left a single paisa for her. She is bankrupt. Better girls are available with better dowries. Don't be foolish."

The mother said, "That girl? We never could imagine that you can be such a stupid. Because she never does anything except in reading silly novels. She is of no use. She cannot cook; she cannot clean the house. Look at the dirty house she lives in."

And so on, so forth. Every member rejected according to his own conception. The younger brother says, "I am not agreeing because of her nose. The nose is so ugly." And everybody had his opinion.

Then Nasrudin said, "But one thing that girl has which we don't have." They all asked in a chorus, "What is that?" He said, "The family: she doesn't have the family. That is one thing beautiful about her."

Parents will be against love. They will train you from the very beginning - train you in such a way that you don't fall in love, because love will go against family, and the society is nothing but a greater family. Love goes against society, civilization, religion, priests. Love is such an involvement, such a total commitment, it goes against everybody. And everybody has an investment in you.

No, it cannot be allowed. You have been trained not to love - that's the difficulty. This difficulty comes from the society, culture, civilization, all that is around you but this is not the greatest difficulty. There is still one that comes from you and which is even greater, and that is: love needs a surrender; love needs that you should drop the ego.

And you are also against love. You would like love to become a celebration of your ego; you would like love to become an ornament for your ego. You would like love to follow you like a dog, but love never follows anybody like a dog. Love needs you in a total surrender. It is not that the woman surrenders to the man or that the man surrenders to the woman - no! Both surrender to love. Love is a god; love is really the only god, and it requires you, both the lovers, to be completely surrendered to it.

And lovers - what they are doing? The husband tries that the wife should surrender to him and the wife tries the husband should surrender to her. How can love be possible? Love is something else - both should surrender to it, and both should disappear into it.

This becomes the greatest barrier: you cannot love because of you. These two things together and love becomes impossible: and if love becomes impossible, life becomes impossible. If love becomes impossible, prayer becomes impossible. If love becomes impossible, God becomes impossible. All that is beautiful grows out of love. The soil of love is a must; otherwise you will remain crippled. And then you try to complement and supplement it in other ways, but nothing can supplement it. No substitute exists.

You can go on doing prayer, but your prayer will lack the grace that comes when one has loved. How can you do prayer? Your prayer will be just rubbish - a verbal phenomenon. You will say something to God and talk to him and go to sleep, but it will lack the essential quality. How can you pray when you have not loved? Prayer comes through the heart - and your heart has remained closed, so prayer comes from the head, and head cannot become the heart.

So all over the world, people go on praying. They are just gestures; the essential is not there. The prayer is without roots. Love prepares the soil. It prepares the ground for the prayer to come. Prayer is nothing but a higher love - a love which transcends individuals, a love which goes to the whole, not to the part. But you need learning with the part.

You cannot just jump into the ocean. Learn swimming in a swimming pool. Love is a swimming pool where you are protected and you can learn; then you can go to the seas, to the wild seas.

You cannot take the jump into the wild seas directly - if you take, you will be in danger - that's not possible. Love is a small swimming pool - two persons only: the whole world very small... possible to enter into each other.

Even there you are afraid. In a swimming pool you are afraid that "I may be gone, drowned." Then what to say about ocean? Love is the first grounding, the first readiness to take a greater jump. I teach you love, and I tell you that whatsoever is at stake, don't bother: sacrifice it, whatsoever - prestige, wealth, family, society, culture - whatsoever is at stake, don't bother. Be a gambler because there is nothing like love. If you lose everything, you lose nothing if you gain love. If you lose love, whatsoever you gain you gain nothing. And be aware: these two things.

The society will not help you; it is against. Love is an anti-social force, and the society tries to suppress love - then you can be used in many ways. For example, if you are really in love, you cannot be made a soldier; you cannot be sent to the war. Impossible because you don't bother... You say, 'What is a country? What is this patriotism? Nonsense!" Love is such a beautiful flower; one who has known - patriotism, nationalism, country the flag, all look nonsense. You have tasted the reai thing.

The society tries to divert. The real thing should not be tasted. Then you are hankering for love, and your love can be diverted to any direction. It can become patriotism; then you can go and become a martyr. You are a fool, because you are wasting yourself! You can go and die; your love has been diverted. If you don't love your love can become love of money. Then you become an accumulator, hoarder. Then your family is happy - you are doing beautifully.

You are simply committing suicide. The family is happy because you are accumulating so much wealth. They missed their life; now they are forcing you to miss your life. And they do it in such a loving way that you cannot say no also. They make you feel guilty. If you hoard money they are happy. But how a man who loves can hoard? Difficult; a lover is never a hoarder. A lover shares, distributes, goes on giving; a lover cannot hoard.

When love is not there, you become miserly because you are afraid. You don't have the shelter of love, so you need some shelter. Wealth becomes the substitute. The society also wants you to hoard, because how wealth is to be created if everyone becomes a lover? The society will be very, very rich, but rich in a totally different way. It may be poor materially, but it will be rich spiritually.

But that richness is not visible. The society needs visible wealth, so in the whole world, religion, society, culture, they are in a conspiracy because you have only one energy: that is love energy. If it moves rightly into love, then it cannot be forced to move anywhere else. If you don't love, your very missing of love may become a research into science.

Freud had many glimpses of truth. He was really a rare man; so many insights happened to him. He said whenever you penetrate anything, it is penetrating the woman, and if you are not allowed the woman, you will try to penetrate something else. You may penetrate toward being a prime minister of a country.

Politicians you will never find lovers: they will always sacrifice love for their power. Scientists will never be lovers, because if they become lovers they relax. They need a tension, a constant obsession. Love relaxes; constant obsession is not possible. They go madly to their laboratory. They are obsessed, possessed. Night and day they work.

History knows that whenever a country's love-need is fulfilled, the country becomes weak. Then it can be defeated. So the love-need should not be fulfilled. Then the country is dangerous because everybody is a maniac and ready to fight. For slightest provocation, everybody is ready to fight. If love-need is fulfilled, then who bothers! Just think, if really the whole country has been in love, and somebody attacks... we will say to them, "Okay, you also come and be here. Why bother? We are so happy - you also come, and the country is vast; you also be here and be happy. And if you want to be the rulers, be the rulers - nothing is wrong; so far so good. You take the responsibility - good!"

But when love-need is not fulfilled, you are always ready to fight. You just remember. Just try to watch your own mind. If you have not loved your woman for few days, you are constantly irritated. You love and you relax. Irritation goes, and you feel so good - you can forgive. A lover can forgive everything. Love has been such a blessing, he can forgive all that is wrong.

No, leaders won't allow you to love because then soldiers cannot be created. Then where you will find warmongers, maniacs, mad people who would like to destroy? Love is creativity. If love-need is fulfilled, you would like to create, not to destroy. Then the whole political structure will fall down. If you love, then the whole family structure will be totally different. If you love, then the economy and the economics will be different. In fact, if love is allowed, the whole world will take a totally different shape. It cannot be allowed because this structure has its investments. Every structure pushes itself onward, and if you are crushed it doesn't bother.

Whole humanity is crushed, and the chariot of civilization goes on and on. Realize this, watch this, be aware of this - and then love is so simple; nothing is more simple than that. Drop all that society needs; remember your inner needs. That is not going against society. You are simply trying to enrich your own life. You are not here to fulfill anybody else's expectations. You are here for your thing - for your own fulfillment.

Make that the primary, the base, and don't bother about other things. Because mad people are all around you, they will push you toward madness. No need to go against the society; just drop out of its investments, that's all.

You need not become rebellious, a revolutionary, because that too again is coming to the same thing. If your love is not fulfilled, you will become a revolutionary, because that too is a destruction in garb. And then comes the real problem: drop your own ego. Love needs total surrender.

Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 2 153 Osho