The ego's last attack

IT is very difficult to be nonattached in the world, but it is even more difficult to be nonattached when the spiritual world opens its doors. The difficulty of the second is a millionfold because the worldly powers are not real powers. They are impotent; and they never satisfy you, they never make you contented. In fact every new achievement in the world creates more desires. Rather than satisfying you it sends your mind into new trips, so whatsoever power you attain in the world, you use it only to create new desires.

Whatsoever money you can gather in the world, you invest it to gain more money. Then the more money comes; you invest it for still more money; and this way it goes on. Only means and means and means, and never does the end come closer. So even a stupid person becomes aware sooner or later that he is moving in a vicious circle and there seems to be no way out of it - except to drop out. For an intelligent person - one who thinks about his life, meditates about it - it is very obvious.

So nonattachment is not so difficult in the worldly things, but when it comes to the inner powers, the psychic powers, they are so close to your being and so infinitely satisfying, it is almost impossible to be nonattached to them. But if you are not nonattached, then you have again created a world and you will remain far, far away from the ultimate liberation.

Because whatsoever you possess possesses you, the sacrifice has to be total, utterly total.

You have to drop everything that you can possess - except your nude nature. That which cannot be sacrificed, only that can be left. That which can be sacrificed should be sacrificed.

In this sutra Patanjali is asking almost the impossible, but that too becomes possible through understanding. It is very satisfying, gratifying, to have spiritual powers, and it gives you such a subtle joy of the ego, so pure, that you cannot feel any sting in it. It never frustrates you. In the worldly things there is much frustration - in fact nothing but frustration. It is a miracle how people can avoid seeing this. It is a miracle how people can go on deceiving themselves and believing that there is some hope. The outside world is hopeless, it is doomed.

Howsoever big a house you can make, or howsoever powerful you become politically, economically, socially, death is going to take them all away from you - and not much intelligence is needed to understand this - but the inner powers, death cannot take them away. They are beyond death. And they never frustrate you. They are your powers, your potentialities come to flower. There seems to be no need to sacrifice them, no need to renounce them, but Patanjali is saying that they have also to be renounced. Otherwise you will start living in a world of visions - again the power trip. And religion is not a power trip.

You are not seeking the ego; rather you are trying to find out the whole; and the whole is possible only when all sorts of egoistic trips are dropped and sacrificed. When you are not, God is.

Let me tell you one very famous Sufi story, "The Holy Shadow."

There once lived a saint so good that the angels came from heaven to see how a man could be so godly. This saint went about his daily life diffusing virtue as the stars diffuse light and the flowers scent, without being aware of it. His day could be summed up by two words - he gave, he forgave - yet these words never passed his lips. They were expressed in his ready smile, his kindness, forbearance, and charity.

The angels said to God, "Lord, grant him the gift of miracles."

God replied, "Ask what it is that he wishes."

They said to the saint, "Would you like the touch of your hands to heal the sick?"

"No," answered the saint. "I would rather God do that."

"Would you like to convert guilty souls and bring back wandering hearts to the right path?"

"No, that is the angels' mission. It is not for me to convert."

"Would you like to become a model of patience, attracting men by the luster of your virtues, and thus glorifying God?"

"No," replied the saint. "If men should be attracted to me, they would become estranged from God." "What is it that you desire, then?" asked the angels.

"What can I wish for?" asked the saint smiling. "That God gives me his grace; with that would I not have everything?"

The angels said, "You must ask for a miracle, or one will be forced upon you."

"Very well," said the saint. "That I may do a great deal of good without ever knowing it."

The angels were perplexed. They took counsel and resolved upon the following plan:

every time the saint's shadow fell behind him or to either side, so that he could not see it, it would have the power to cure disease, soothe pain, and comfort sorrow.

When the saint walked along, his shadow, thrown on the ground on either side or behind him, made arid paths green, caused withered plants to bloom, gave clear water to dried- up brooks, fresh color to pale children, and joy to unhappy men and women.

The saint simply went about his daily life diffusing virtue as the stars diffuse light and the flowers scent, without being aware of it. The people, respecting his humility, followed him silently, never speaking to him about his miracles. Soon they even forgot his name, and called him "The Holy Shadow."

This is the ultimate: one has to become the holy shadow, just a shadow of God. This is the greatest revolution that can happen to a human being: the transfer of the center. You are no longer your own center; God becomes your center. You live like his shadow. You are not powerful, because you don't have any center to be powerful. You are not virtuous; you don't have any center to be virtuous. You are not even religious; you don't have any center to be religious. You are simply not, a tremendous emptiness, with no barriers and blocks, so the divine can flow through you unhindered, uninterpreted, untouched - so the divine can flow through you as he is, not as you would like him to be. He does not pass through your center - there is none. The center is lost.

This is the meaning of this sutra: that finally you have to sacrifice your center so you cannot think in terms of the ego again, you cannot utter "I," to annihilate yourself utterly, to erase yourself utterly. Nothing belongs to you; on the contrary, you belong to God.

You become a holy shadow.

It is difficult to conceive of it because it is so difficult to be unattached with useless rubbish. You go on collecting in the hope as if whatsoever you accumulate can fulfill you. You go on accumulating - knowledge, money, power, prestige. You go on just accumulating. Your whole life is a stuffing in. And of course if you become a dead weight there is no wonder in it. That's what you have been doing: collecting dust and thinking of it as if it is gold.

The valueless becomes of immense value if seen through the ego. The ego is a great falsifier, the great deceiver. It goes on lying to you, and it goes on creating illusions, dreams, projections. Watch it. It is very subtle. Its ways are subtle and it is very cunning.

If you stop it in one direction, it moves in another direction. If you stop one path, it finds another path, and in such a Gunning way that you cannot think that the other path is also of the ego.

I have heard about an old woman who had fallen down the stairs and broken her leg:

The doctor put it in a cast and warned her not to walk up and down the stairs. It finally mended after six months and the doctor announced the cast could be removed.

"Can I climb the stairs now ?" asked the old lady. "Yes," said the doctor.

"Oh, I am glad," she giggled. "I am sick of going up and down the drainpipe."

If you block the ego coming from the staircase, it comes from the drainpipe - but it comes.

See your so-called religious men. They have renounced all - but they have not renounced renunciation. They have renounced all; now they are clinging to their renunciation. That renunciation has become their wealth - the drainpipe. Now they are climbing to the same ego but in a more cunning and subtle way; so subtle that, not only are others deceived, they themselves are deceived.

Watch. You are a worldly man; then one day you feel the frustration. One day everybody feels it; there is nothing special in it. Then you start becoming religious auld you start feeling very egoistic about it. You are becoming "religious." You look at others as sinners, worldly people. You are religious: you have become a sannyasin, you have renounced.

Just watch. The enemy has entered from another door. The world is not to be renounced; the ego has to be renounced. So one has to be very, very careful not to allow it.

The ego cannot be repressed, remember. It has to be simply evaporated - through the heat of understanding, through the fire of understanding. If you repress it, it is easy. You can become humble, you can become simple, but it will hide behind your simplicity.

A woman told her doctor that she was convinced she had a very dangerous illness. He advised her not to be so foolish, that she could not possibly know whether she had it or not because, "the disease," he added, "carries with it no discomfort whatsoever!"

So there is no way for her to know.

"But doctor," she told him, "that's exactly how I feel - no discomfort whatsoever! The disease is there."

You can go on deceiving yourself and you can find rationalizations, and on the surface they look very reasonable - on the surface they look almost like proofs - but look into them.

And it is nobody else's business, remember. It is for you to see. The whole world can see it, but if you have Not seen it that is useless.

Now modern psychology is by and by turning from individual therapy to group therapy, and the only reason for it is this: that it is very difficult for the psychoanalyst to convince the patient, person to person, about what he is doing to himself. About the patient, about his complexes, about his rationalizations, repressions, about his deceptions, stupidities; it is very difficult to convince him person to person. But in a group it becomes easier because the whole group can see the foolishness, the obviousness of it - that he is clinging to something and unnccessarily becoming miserable. The whole group can see it, and the understanding of the whole group functions more tremendously and deeply than the understanding of one person can function on you. That's why group therapy is growing, individual therapy is disappearing.

Group therapy has a tremendous advantage. Twenty persons working in a group: nineteen persons become alert that you are doing something which you don't want to do and to which you are still clinging.

A sannyasin came to me, a very good man, but he was feeling very, very happy because I had given him a beautiful name. I give beautiful names to everybody. He had made an ego trip out of it. He said, "Osho, you are wonderful. You have given me such a beautiful name - it exactly represents me." Your names don't represent you. These are my hopes, not realities. These are my dreams, not realities. I called that sannyasin "Satyananda" - the bliss that arises out of the experience of truth. Hmm?... that is the ultimate. But he said, "Osho, 'Satyananda' - you have exactly, exactly got me. I am so impressed by your understanding."

Now I became alert that this had been very, very wrong. It had been a misunderstanding.

I should not have given him this name. I wanted to pull him down from his euphoria, so when after a few minutes he started saying, "I don't want anger, greed, this and that; these are all animalistic"; I said, "Don't be a coward." Immediately he exploded: "Coward? You call me a coward?" He was almost ready to hit me, screamed - completely forgot about satyananda - and he started defending himself. "Why have you called me a coward? I am not a coward." And I told him, "If you are not a coward, then why are you defending?

Then simply you can say, 'You are wrong.' Or even that is not needed. You are not a coward; why are you worried about it? Why have you got so red hot? Why are you screaming at the top of your voice? Why have you got so mad? I must have touched something."

Now everybody who was present became aware that the man was defending something, and defending very fanatically; but only he could not see it.

In a group, if you work for a longer time, by and by you have to become aware that the whole group is seeing that you are doing something foolish, stupid, contrary to your own wishes - against your own fulfillment, against your own growth. You are clinging to a disease and you go on saying, "I want to get rid of it."

Almost everybody knows where you are doing wrong - except you. Everybody knows that you are an egoist - except you. Only you think you are a humble man, a simple man.

Everybody knows your complexity. Everybody knows your double bind. Everybody knows your madness except you. You go on defending it. And because of politeness, etiquette, formalities, in the society nobody will tell you. Hence, the group is helpful - because it is not going to be polite. It is going to be truthful. And when so many people say that this is your problem, and pinpoint it and finger it, and put their fingers on your wound and it hurts.... It is very difficult to make you alert, individual to individual because you can think this man may be wrong, but twenty persons? The possibility of twenty persons being wrong is less, and you have to fall back on yourself and see the point of it.

That's why Buddha created a great sangha, a great order of monks - ten thousand monks.

It was the first experiment of group therapy. It was a great experiment.

That's what I am doing. Sixteen thousand sannyasins - one of the greatest experiments in therapy. A community, a commune, in which you have to become aware because, otherwise, you will not be part of this commune, where everybody is understanding and seeing your error and showing it to you. Because sannyasins are not meant to be polite or formal. None of that rubbish. A sannyasin is here to transform himself and become a situation for others' transformation.

See, whenever somebody points at some fault about you, don't get angry. That is not going to help you. Don't get mad. That is not going to help you. Try to see the point.

Maybe the other is true; and there is more possibility for the other to be true because he is so detached from you, he is so far away from you. He is not involved in you. Always listen to people, what they are saying about you. Ninety-nine percent they will be right; there is only one percent possibility they may be wrong. Otherwise they are not wrong.

How can they be wrong, because they have a detached view about you?

That's why a Master is needed: to show you your wounds. And it is possible only if you are in deep respect and trust. If you get angry and you start fighting, then there is no trust and no respect. If you are here to defend your illnesses and diseases, then it is for you - don't be here. What is the point of wasting your time here?

If I say that you are a coward and you cannot see the point, rather you have to fight and prove to me that you are not, then, simply there is no point of being here. The relationship is finished with me. Now I cannot be helpful to you. When I say something to you, you have to look into the fact. Why should I call you a coward? There is no investment with you, and I have not invested anything in your cowardness. I simply said so because of compassion, because I see the illness is there. And unless you know it, unless it is diagnosed, how are you going to get rid of it?

If the doctor puts his hand on your pulse and says that you have fever and you jump on him and start fighting, "What are you saying? How can I ever have any fever? No, you are wrong, I am perfectly healthy," then why in the first place had you gone to the doctor?Just to get a certificate of health?

You are here - remember it - you are here not to get recognition for your illnesses auld certificates that they don't exist. You are here to be diagnosed, dissected - destroyed - so that your real nature can arise, bloom. But if you are defending, then it is for you to defend. It is none of my business; defend it. But then you will suffer. Then don't come and tell me, "I am suffering, I am tense."

From the world it is very difficult to move inwards because inwards you have been hiding illnesses and diseases. They force you to go out. That's a way of diverting the attention. That's why so many Masters have been teaching you, "Go in. Know thyself," but you never go there. You talk about it, you read about it, you appreciate the idea, but you never go in. Because in you have only darkness and wounds and diseases. You have been hiding things which are not good, not healthy to you. You have been, on the contrary, protecting them rather than destroying them. Now you open the door... and you start feeling such stinking, such dirt, such ugliness, a hell opens. You immediately close the door and you start thinking, "What is the matter?"

Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, they all have been teaching, "Go in and you will be tremendously blissful, eternally blissful"; but you open the door and you move in a nightmare. This nightmare is created by your repressions. On the surface you are simple; deep down you are very complex. On the surface you have a face of a very innocent man; deep down you are very ugly.

Because of that "repressionness" you cannot look within and you have to continuously divert yourself into something listening to the radio, seeing the TV, reading the newspaper, going to see friends. Just wasting time somewhere till you fall asleep. The moment you are awake you start running again. From whom are you running? You are running from yourself Give space to yourself to see your being; then suddenly you will see that there is no attachment with things. How can it be? It is absurd.

I have heard one very beautiful story, a Sufi story, "The Golden Door."

Two men prayed, and went their separate ways. One gathered wealth and power, people said he was famous, but there was no peace in him. The other saw the hearts of men - glowing as lamps even in the darkness of their Own secret fears. He too had found richness and power; and his wealth, his power, was love. When simply, kindly, tenderly he touched his fellowmen with all the richness and power of this love, the light within grew clear and bright with courage and with peace.

Both men one day stood before that golden door through which all men must pass to the greater life beyond. The angel in the soul of each asked, "What do you bring with you?

What have you to give?"....

God always asks, "What do you bring with you? What have you to give?" God goes on giving to you, but finally, the last day before you enter into his innermost shrine, he asks, "Now, what have you brought for me? What's your gift for me?"

... The one who was famous recounted his exploits. Why, there was no end to the people he knew, and the places he had been, and the things he had done - and the things he had accumulated.

But the angel answered, "These are not acceptable. These things that you did, you did for yourself. I see no love in them"....

If there is ego there cannot be love. Remember this. I am going to discuss it later on, because it is one of the most important things: if there is ego there can be no love.

... And the famous one sank outside the golden door and wept....

For the first time he could see the whole futility of all his efforts. It was almost like a dream that has passed and his hands are empty. If you are too full of things, one day or other you will see your hands are empty. It was dream stuff that you were carrying in your hands; they have always been empty. You were just dreaming that something is there. Because you were afraid of emptiness, you had projected something, you had believed. You have never looked deeply whether really it is there or not.

... And the famous man sank outside the golden door and wept. He had been too busy to be kind....

Too occupied to love, too engaged to be himself, too concerned with futile things to be concerned with the essential.

... Then the angel in the soul of the other asked, "And what do you bring? What have you to give?"

And he answered, saying, "No one knows my name. They called me the wanderer, the dreamer. I have only a little light in my heart, and that which I have, I have shared with the souls of men"....

The real people look like dreamers in this world of mad people. Always the sages have been known as wanderers, dreamers, poets, imaginative, living somewhere, lotus-eaters, navel-gazers. These types of labels have been given to real people because the world belongs to paper people. They are not real. Paper people, whenever they come across a real person, call him "dreamer," "poet." That is their way of condemning him, and that is their way of defending themselves.

... And he answered, saying, "No one knows my name. They called me the wanderer, the dreamer. I have only a little light in my heart - nothing else, just a little light in my heart - and that which I have, I have shared with the souls of men."

Then the angel said, "Oh, blessed one, you have the greatest gift of all. It is love. Always and always, there is enough and to spare. Enter"....

That's the beauty of love: the more you give, the more you have it. Let this be a criterion in yom life: don't accumulate that which by giving disappears; only accumulate that which by giving accumulates. Only accumulate that which by sharing increases and grows. That is worth: which you can share and by its very sharing it grows and you have more than before.

... "Always and always, there is enough and to spare. Enter."

Then said the wanderer, "But first let me give the extra measure to my brother, that we may both walk through the door."

The angel was silent; for in that moment a great light shone around the simple wanderer like a radiant mantle, enveloping both himself and his friend.

The golden door was opened wide and they walked through it together.

He shared at the very last moment also. This is real richness. A miser is never rich; if you are attached to things in the world, you are not rich. Richness arises out of the heart.

Richness is a quality of the heart, glowing with love.

One of the greatest poets of India, Rabindranath Tagore, has written a poem, "Beloved of My Heart." In essence, the poem means this:

One day in a small village in Bengal an ascetic woman from the neighborhood came to see me....

And this is not only a poem; it is based on a real incident.

... She had the name of Sarvakhipi, given to her by the village people, the meaning of which is "the woman who is mad about all things"....

Sarvakhipi: who is mad about all things. Not only in one thing is she mad but in all things she is mad - absolutely mad.

... She fixed her starlike eyes upon my face and startled me with the question: "When are you coming to meet me underneath the trees?" Evidently she pitied me, who lived, according to her, imprisoned behind walls, banished away from the great meeting place of the all, where she had her dwelling.

Just at that moment, my gardener came with his basket, and when the woman understood that the flowers in the vase on my table were going to be thrown away to make place for the fresh ones, she looked pained and said to me, "You are always engaged in reading and writing. You do not see." Then she took the discarded flowers in her palms, kissed them, and touched them with her forehead, and reverently murmured to herself, "Beloved of my heart."

I felt that this woman, in her direct vision of the infinite personality in the heart of all things, truly represented the spirit of the East.

Love is the spirit of the East. Love is the spirit of man. Love is the spirit of God. Love is the only richness there is, the only happiness there is.

Now, if you are attached to things, you cannot be a lover. Only a nonattached man can raise himself towards that sky which we call love. There is much misunderstanding about it. People who leave the world and become detached almost simultaneously become loveless also; then something has gone wrong. Because love is the criterion, the very test, the touchstone. If your nonattachment to the world makes you loveless, something has gone sour. Your nonattachment is not true, authentic, real. It is pseudo. Because you are afraid of love, that shows you are afraid of being attached, so you avoid all situations where love can flower - because you are afraid deep down that if love flowers you will become attached again.

That's why your so-called mahatmas are afraid of love so much. They will not stay in one place for more than three days. Why so much fear? Because if you remain in one place for many more days, you will start feeling love for people. Somebody will come every day to massage your feet, and you will start feeling love for him. Somebody will bring food for you every day, and you will start feeling love for her. A certain affection will arise, and the fear of being attached again: move before you become attached.

These so-called nonattached people are simply afraid people. They live in deep panic.

They can never touch the real core of life, because it is always touched by love.

Remember, if your nonattachment to things is true, has come out of understanding, has grown out of awareness, you will become more loving. Because the same energy that was involved in attachment will be released. Where will it go? You will have more energy at your disposal. Attachment is not love. It is an ego trip - to possess, to dominate, to manipulate. It is violence; it is not love. When this energy is relieved, suddenly you have much more energy with which to love. A really nonattached person is full of love, and always and always he has more and more to give, and always he goes on finding new sources of love. His source is infinite.

"By being nonattached TO EVEN THESE POWERS...." And the ultimate nonattachment comes when you have attained some miracles, siddhis, powers, when you can do things - things which are miraculous, things which are unbelievable. If you become attached to them, sooner or later you will be back in the world again. Beware. It is the ego's last attack on you; don't be caught. The ego is throwing its last net on you.

"By being nonattached to even these powers, the seed of bondage is destroyed." The seed of bondage is attachment. And the seed of liberation is love. And how alike they look.

They are diametrically opposite: attachment is lovelessness; love is always nonattached.

Where is the difference?

You love a woman or a man and you feel attached. Why do you feel attached?

Attachment means that tomorrow also you would like to have this woman with you, that's all. Tomorrow and again the day after tomorrow you would like to have this woman in your possession. That simply shows you have not been able to love today; otherwise the tomorrow never enters. Who bothers about tomorrow? Who knows about tomorrow?

Tomorrow never comes. It enters only into the mind who has not been living today. You have not loved this woman today, so you are waiting for tomorrow to come so that you can love. Your love is incomplete, unfinished. For that unfinished love attachment arises.

Then it is natural, logical. You are painting and the painting is incomplete; you would like to have the canvas tomorrow also, to complete it.

There is a very deep law in life: it wants to complete everything. The bud wants to flower; the seed wants to become a sprout.

Everything is moving towards completion, so whatsoever you leave incomplete becomes a desire in the mind and says, "Possess this woman. You have not loved yet; you have not yet travelled through her being through and through. Still much unknown territory remains in her. Still much potentiality which has not been actualized is there - many songs of being and many dances to be danced." Attachment arises. Tomorrow is needed, the day after tomorrow is needed, future is needed. And if you are really incapable of living in the present, then a future life is also needed, and people go on promising each other, "We will remain spouses in the future life also." That simply shows these people have become absolutely incapable of living. Otherwise this day is enough unto itself This moment, if you complete your love, if you have loved with your full heart - totally, surrendered, dissolved into it; you have not been holding anything back - then the idea of tomorrow never arises. It is impossible for the idea of tomorrow to arise. It always comes when something is unfulfilled; then you hanker for the future. If you have loved your woman today and death comes, you will accept it. Or, if the woman falls in love with somebody else, you will say a goodbye - sad, but not miserable. And sadness has a beauty, and misery is ugly. Sad, not because of attachment; sad because your love is still there arising in you and the person is going away who could have understood it. Sad but fulfilled. There is no complaint, no grudge.

But if you have loved totally this never happens, that the woman can go or the man can go. If you have loved totally it is impossible, because that total love satisfies so deeply.

One cannot even think of some other. It is impossible to dream of the other. The dream arises only because of dissatisfaction with this one. You think of other women because it has not been a satisfactory relationship with your own woman. You think of other men because the mind wants to pour itself and this has not happened in this relationship. So the mind goes on wandering all over the place. Any woman that passes by the road, you start feeling love for her, or for men.

And if your love has become frustrated so much that you cannot imagine now that it is possible to love any human being, you start loving dogs and cats. Seems to be less complicated - Alok should make a note of it. Seems to be less complicated.

Loving a dog is very simple... Loving a cat a little more difficult. That's why men call women "cats." A cat is less predictable than the dog, more clever than the dog - has her own mind. You can kick the dog and he will come again; you kick the cat, she will not come again. Finished. Always ready for the divorce.

People fall in love with animals. How unfortunate. I am not saying don't love animals; I am saying don't make them substitutes for human beings. You should love human beings so deeply that your love starts overflowing and it reaches to animals also. Then it is totally different. Then it reaches to the trees also. Then it is totally different. To the rocks also, because you go on overflowing. An infinite source of love, nobody can contain your love. It goes on overflowing, overflowing, overflowing. Then it reaches to animals; then it has a totally different quality to it.

But the doors with humans are dosed and you have to find someone to love, otherwise you feel very much frustrated, a relationship is needed; then you relate with dogs, Cats.

Even that too proves sometimes to be unsatisfactory, because dogs are people, cats are people - they also have their own ideologies, their own ideas, and they want to do their thing. No dog is there to fulfill your desires. You may be thinking while you are taking a dog for a walk that you have tamed the dog, that you possess the dog, because you have never asked the dog what he thinks. He thinks he possesses you, and he has tamed this man. I have heard dogs talking to each other.

When it becomes difficult even to love animals, then people start loving things - a house, a car, a bike. And they become much too romantic about these things.

I have seen a man, he used to live just in front of my house. He loved his scooter so much that I have seen him cleaning his scooter in almost? romantic way - as if he is cleaning his woman. Looking from this side and that, and feeling so happy. And he would never use it because it may get dirty. He would go on his old bike. I told him many times, "What are you doing? You have got a beautiful scooter.' He would say, "It is, but there is a possibility of rains coming. You see? Clouds are there." Or even it is too hot and his scooter may lose its shininess. No, I have never seen him using it. He simply cleans it, cares for it. The scooter is the beloved.

This is a degradation of human consciousness. The more attached you become, the more degraded you become; the less the attachment, the higher you rise, soar.

And there comes a moment Patanjali is talking about when spiritual powers happen to you. Remember, don't get attached to them, because they are really beautiful, very fulfilling. You would like to possess them. Many people become interested in yoga not because of yoga, not because of kaivalya, liberation, but only because of vibhutis, siddhis. They study yoga, they go to the Masters - they want to do miracles.

"By being nonattached to even these powers, the seed of bondage is destroyed." This is the last possibility of getting caught in bondage again. If you can cross this, the seed is burned.

"Then follows KAIVALYA" - then follows liberation. Then you are totally free - freedom, absolute freedom - not attached to anything and full of love, showering your love on the whole of existence... a benediction to existence and to yourself, a blessing.

But one has to be alert on each step. The mind is cunning. And you may be thinking, "Yes, when miracles come I am not going to be attached to them." Think again. You will find in yourself somewhere a desire working, "Let them come, then we will see. First kt them come." Who bothers about kaivalya, liberation? Does not seem to be like a goal.

Just to be liberated, free? What is the point in it?

People come to me and they say, "What are we going to get out of meditation?" I say, "More meditation." They say, "But what is the point? Peace? Peace is okay, but what real power are we going to get out of it?

Peace doesn't look like a goal. Power - something that you can do with, something through which you can prove.

I have heard an anecdote, a very beautiful one.

"Tell me, where do you Catholics get all the money to build cathedrals?" asked a rabbi to his friend.

"Well, Abe, you see, we Catholics have a system called Confession. Whenever anybody does something wrong, he comes to church, confesses his sin, puts a little in the kitty, and is forgiven; and in this way we can collect large amounts of cash."

"Really, what a wonderful system. Maybe we could adopt it for use in our synagogue.

But let me go along with you tonight so I could get a for instance of how you work."

"Well, Abe, it is strictly forbidden for me, as a priest, to have you along, but seeing as how you have been such a good friend all these years, I will permit it just this once."

That evening they are seated in the confessional box, the priest in front and Abe, all agog, behind. Presently a man's voice is heard from behind the curtain:

"Father, I have sinned grievously."

"What have you done, my son?"

"Last night I consorted with two women."

"Well, then, put two pounds in the kitty and your sins will be forgiven."

Abe is very excited. Presently another man's voice is heard: "Father, I have sinned grievously."

"What have you done my son?"

"Last night I consorted with three women."

"Well, then put three pounds in the kitty and your sins will be forgiven, my son."

Abe can contain himself no longer:

"What a way to make money; what a wonderful system. Do me a favor. Let me do the next one, just to get some practice."

"Well, Abe, strictly speaking it is not permitted, but seeing as how you have been such a good friend all these years, I will permit it just this once."

So they exchange places and Abe sits in front waiting. Presently a woman's voice is heard:

"Father, I have sinned grievously."

"Now, now, what is it that you have done?"

"Last night I consorted with four men."

"Now, put five pounds in the kitty and I will give you a credit for one."

Watch out! The mind is very greedy; the ego is nothing but greed.

Patanjali wrote this chapter; many have felt it would have been better if he had not written it. But he has a very scientific mind. He wanted to map out the whole thing that is possible, and he wrote this chapter just to make people aware that these things happen.

As far as I am concerned, I think it has been perfectly good that he has included it, because in ignorance there is more possibility for greed to take possession of you. If you know and you understand the territory and you know where the last attack of the ego is going to come, you can prepare more cautiously and when it happens you will not be caught unawares.

I am perfectly happy that he included "Vibhuti Pada," this chapter about siddhis and powers, because even if you are not looking for them they happen on their own. The more you grow inside, many things start happening on their own. Not that you are seeking or looking for them - they are consequences. Each chakra has its own powers.

When you pass through them, they become available to you. It is good to be alert and move knowingly where one is going.

When these powers start happening, you start receiving invitations from higher entities, supraphysical entities. You must have heard or you must have read about the Theosophists. Their whole work had to do with these supraphysical entities. They used to call them "the Masters." There are superphysical entities who go on communicating with human beings, and whenever you rise high, you become available to them; you become more in tune with them. You receive many invitations, many messages.

That's what Mohammedans call "paigam," the message; and they call Mohammed "paigambar," one who received the message. They don't call him an avatar, they don't call him "God reincarnate." They don't call him a Buddha, one who has become enlightened.

They don't call him a jina, one who has conquered. They don't call him a messiah, a Christ, no. They have a very, very perfect, scientific terminology for it: they call him "the messenger" - paigambar. It means simply that he has risen high and now he is functioning no more; some other entities, higher entities, have taken possession of him.

He has become a medium.

And it is so. Mohammed was illiterate; it is almost impossible to think or imagine that he could have given birth to the beautiful poetry of the Koran. It is incomparably beautiful; it is one of the greatest songs; and if you can hear somebody singing it, you will be affected by it immediately. Even if you don't understand its meaning, it has tremendous power. The very sound has tremendous power to stir you.

Mohammed was illiterate, not knowing how to read, how to write, not knowing anything about literature and the world of letters. Suddenly, meditating on a mountain, he became available, and he heard, "Read!" this word "read," but said, "How can I read?" The word "koran" means "read." "How can I read? I don't know," Mohammed said, and he became very much bewildered, who has said this. He could not see anybody anywhere. Again this voice came, "Read!" It was coming from his own heart; he had become a channel. And, of course, he was thinking about his past, and the voice was saying something about his future. The voice was saying, "I can read, don't be worried.Just read - I will be reading through you. You recite - I will be reciting through you. You say - I will be saying through you. Just put yourself out of the way."

It was so strange, so unexpected, that he had a high fever; he became puzzled so much.

He came home, fell ill. The wife asked, "What has happened? Just in the morning you were perfectly well, and such a high fever?" He said, "I will tell you one thing. Either I have gone mad or something has happened from the beyond. I cannot believe that I am capable of anything, but I have heard a voice which says, 'Read! Recite!' and I don't know what to recite - and not only that, I started reciting! I heard myself saying things I have never thought about, and they were coming in perfect poetry, with meter, rhythm, and everything. I cannot believe it. Either I have gone mad or I have been taken possession of by somebody - but I am no longer the same husband. Run and fetch a physician; I will need treatment. I am going continuously mad, and I am still hearing this voice,'Recite!' - and beautiful poetries are descending in me and filling my heart."

The wife was his first disciple. She touched his feet. She could see the radiance all around him. It was not fever; it was the first explosion of his aura. He was feeling feverish because it was so hot, so new, and he was disturbed because he was not ready, he was never expecting, he had not planned for it.

This would not have happened if he had known about Patanjali. Patanjali has noted everything; he has mapped the whole journey, the inner journey. Then he would have understood this sutra. This sutra was needed.

"There should be an avoidance of any attachment or pride to invitations from the superphysical entities in charge of various planes because this would bring the possibility of the revival of evil." But Patanjali says remember, when you become a vehicle of higher planes, don't start feeling proud, and don't start feeling yourself to be the chosen few or the chosen one. Don't start feeling that you have been elected, selected, chosen, and you are special. Otherwise that will be the cause of your fall.

There is a Sufi story:

The Murshid of the Murshid of the Murshid was speaking to a group of people when he was still a young man. In the group was a wide-eyed dervish dressed simply in brown clothes. This dervish looked continuously at the speaker. He looked with such a knowing stare that the speaker was embarrassed and turned away. At the end of the talk the dervish approached him and told him that he had been sent to initiate him. "That cannot be so, you see my father has already arranged for my initiation."

"I told you that I have been sent," said the dervish.

"No matter, I must obey my father's wish." With this insistence of the young man the dervish departed.

That night the man dreamed that his father was instructing him to be initiated by the dervish. In the morning the dervish came to his room, saying that he was there to initiate him.

"Do you not remember from day to day? Go, my father is arranging my initiation."

The dervish looked at him, smiled with his eyes, and said, "Have you already forgotten your dream?"

At this the man bowed and was initiated by the dervish. For days afterwards the man put all kinds of spiritual questions regarding life and holy scriptures to the dervish, who simply shrugged them off unanswered. One night the young man was sitting in his room thinking that surely he would get nowhere with this teacher who seemed so unknowledgeable regarding his questions.

As he thought this the dervish appeared and said in a whisper, with great conviction, "I am the answer to your questions."

Now these stories look just like stories - mythological, fantasies, allegorical, or at the most symbolic. It is not so. They are factual. If you are ready, immediately, from the higher plane messages and messages start coming to you. They have been waiting long for somebody to become a receptive center. When this happens don't deny them. When this happens become vulnerable. One thing - open your heart, trust. And the second thing - don't feel proud. If you can do these two things, God starts functioning through you. You become like a flute, a hollow bamboo. He starts singing through you.

But once the pride enters, the song stops. Once you start feeling superior the song starts faltering. It has happened to many people. They had come in contact with the superior world, the higher world, the supraphysical world, and then they started feeling proud:

sooner or later that contact was lost again; they became ordinary.

But then they become great pretenders because they cannot accept this, that now the contact is lost. I have seen a few people who really came to have miraculous powers, but then they became proud. Then the powers were lost, and then they became just ordinary magicians, because they cannot accept the idea that they cannot do it. They used to do it, it had happened once.

This is what has happened to Satya Sai Baba. He had come in contact. The first things that he did were not from him, but now everything is from him. The first things had just happened, but he got proud, special, a miracle-monger. Now whatsoever he is doing is just pretension; now he has to keep his prestige. Now he is even lower than an ordinary magician because at least the ordinary magician accepts that he is doing just tricks.

But this seems logical. Once you can do something and then you cannot do it, what to do then? You substitute it with something. You start learning something and doing something, somehow to manage your status that you have created around you, your image that you have created around you.

Whenever something happens to you - and it is going to happen to many, because I have made available many techniques to you; if you go on deeply in them, many things are going to become available to you - the first thing is remain available; the second thing is don't get proud about it. Take it as a matter of fact; never exhibit it.

And if it is forced on you, then ask the forces that you should be made just-a shadow, that you should not be in any way aware of what is happening through you. Because if you are aware there is every possibility you may fall. You may start accumulating the ego - I can do this, I can do that - and you start slipping lower.