THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 The ...

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 

The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 9 


Chapter 1 Be on guard 

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FOR IF IN YOUR RENUNCIATION YOU ARE RECKLESS AND BREAK YOUR WORD, IF YOUR PUR- 

POSE WAVERS, YOU WILL NOT FIND THE LIGHT. 

DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO RESOLUTELY, WITH ALL YOUR HEART. THE TRAVELER WHO 

HESITATES ONLY RAISES DUST ON THE ROAD. 

IT IS BETTER TO DO NOTHING THAN TO DO WHAT IS WRONG. FOR WHATEVER YOU DO, YOU 

DO TO YOURSELF. 

LIKE A BORDER TOWN WELL GUARDED, GUARD YOURSELF WITHIN AND WITHOUT. LET NOT 

A SINGLE MOMENT PASS LEST YOU FALL INTO DARKNESS. 

FEEL SHAME ONLY WHERE SHAME IS DUE. FEAR ONLY WHAT IS FEARFUL. SEE EVIL ONLY IN 

WHAT IS EVIL. LEST YOU MISTAKE THE TRUE WAY AND FALL INTO DARKNESS. 

SEE WHAT IS. SEE WHAT IS NOT. FOLLOW THE TRUE WAY. RISE. 

Gautama the Buddha has given to the world the most psychological religion. It is incomparable; no other 

religion even comes close to it. Its heights, its depths, are tremendous. And the reason why Buddha succeeded 

in giving such a beautiful vision of life is very simple: he did not believe; he inquired, he explored. He did not 

believe in the tradition, he did not believe in the scriptures, he did not believe in the priests. 

This was one of his fundamentals: that unless you know, you don’t know. You can borrow knowledge, you can 

become knowledgeable, well informed, a scholar, a pundit, a professor, but you will not be a seer. Deep down 

the ignorance will persist and will affect your life. Deep down you will remain the same childish self, immature, 

ungrounded, uncentered, unintegrated. You will not be an individual, you won’t have any authenticity. You will 

be pseudo, false, phony. 

It is a quantum leap into the unknown. When you don’t believe in the tradition, when you don’t believe in the 

scriptures, when you don’t believe in anything except your own experience, you are going into the unknown all 

alone. It needs guts, it needs courage. And only a courageous person can be truly religious. 

Cowards are there in the churches, in the temples, in the mosques in millions, but they don’t create any religious 

beauty, any religious fragrance in the world. They don’t make the world more beautiful, more alive, more sensitive. 

They don’t create anything. They only go on doing formalities, rituals. They themselves are dead and they go on 

deceiving others; they themselves are deceived. 

Borrowed knowledge creates great deception because you start feeling as if you know and that ”as if” is a big 

”as if.” 

Truth liberates, belief binds. Truth liberates because it has to be yours; it has to be an inner experience, an 

encounter with that which is. 

Buddha is a nonbeliever. He is not an atheist like Karl Marx or Friedrich Nietzsche; neither is he a theist like 

all the priests of all the religions. He is an agnostic. He neither believes nor disbelieves; he is open. That is his 

great gift to the world: to be open to truth. 

Go utterly naked, without any conclusions, without any ideology, any prejudice. Otherwise there is every 

possibility that you will project your own idea. You will not see that which is, you will see only that which you 

want to see. You will be creating your own reality which is bound to be false. Reality has not to be invented, 

it has to be discovered. It is already there. And remember, it is not the reality which is hidden, it is your eyes 

which are covered with layers of dust. 

Buddha gave to the world a non-metaphysical religion, a psychological religion. He simply helps you to go 

beyond mind. He helps you to understand the mind because it is only through understanding that transcendence 

happens. 

1

2 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 

But when I say that Buddha has given the most psychological religion to the world, don’t misunderstand me. 

He has not given a psychology; he has given a psychological religion which is a totally different phenomenon. He 

has not given a psychology like Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Adler, Pavlov, Skinner, etcetera. These people 

are confined to the mind; they think mind is all. There is nothing beyond the mind, so analyze the mind. If you 

have found the truth of the mind you have found the truth, according to them. That is beginning with a wrong 

attitude. 

Man is neither the body nor the mind. Man is the awareness within which can look at the body, which can 

look at the mind, which is capable of witnessing all. You are the witness. 

Hence I say, Buddha has not given a psychology. A psychology is a very ordinary phenomenon. It does not 

bring transformation to your life because it cannot bring any transcendence. At the most it helps you to be a 

little more adjusted to yourself and to the world that surrounds you, to the society, to the people with whom you 

have to live. It helps you to become a little more adjusted. 

Psychology is basically orthodox; it is not revolutionary, it cannot be. It serves the status quo, it serves the 

establishment. It keeps you within the boundaries; it does not help you to go beyond the boundaries. It is not 

in your service. It is controlled by those who are in power by the state, by the church, by the society. In a 

very disguised way it keeps you tethered to the collective mind. It does not help you to become an individual, 

because to be an individual is to be rebellious, to be an individual is to go on your own, to be an individual is to 

be a danger to the society. Capitalist, communist, whatsoever the society is Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan it 

doesn’t matter; the individual is a danger because the individual tries to live out of his own light. He does not 

follow anybody. He is not a follower, he is not an imitator. 

Buddha gives a psychological religion. Religion means he helps you to understand the mind so that you can go 

beyond it not so that you can become adjusted to the collective but so that you can rise to the heights of your 

individuality, to the peaks of your destiny. 

Psychology believes that man lacks meaning in his life and meaning can come only through therapy. Psychology 

in essence means meaning through therapy. And religion is just the opposite; religion means therapy through 

meaning. Religion gives you meaning first and then automatically the meaning becomes a healing force, it 

becomes therapeutic. 

Buddha says again and again that, ”I am a healer,” that ”I am a physician,” that ”My function is not that 

of a philosopher but that of a physician. I help people to become healthier, to become whole.” And what is his 

process? His process is to impart meaning to your life. That too he does in a profoundly new way; it has never 

been done before like that. He does not give you an arbitrary meaning because the arbitrary meaning will be seen 

sooner or later to be arbitrary, and the moment it collapses you will fall into deep darkness. The darkness will 

be far darker than it was before. Now you have lost meaning. You will feel suicidal; you will not feel life is worth 

living at all. Even breathing will become hard, difficult. The question will arise: Why? Why should I go on living 

if there is no meaning? 

Buddha does not give you any arbitrary meaning. Hence I say he has no metaphysics. He helps you to discover 

the intrinsic meaning of your life. He does not give you meaning, but he gives you methods and means to discover 

the meaning that you are already carrying within yourself like a seed. 

Psychologists go on saying: First seek ye the kingdom of Freud, Jung, Adler, Pavlov, Skinner and company, 

and then all else shall be added unto you. It never happens; it has never happened yet to a single individual. It 

can’t happen in the very nature of things. Even Freud knows no meaning, lives without meaning, lives deep down 

in despair. He says that there is no hope for man, that man can never be happy, it is impossible. It must be his 

own understanding, his own experience of life. He says that at the most we can help man to be less miserable, 

that’s all. What kind of goal is this? helping man to be a little less miserable! It is not very appealing. 

Man needs blissfulness, not less miserableness. Man needs something positive something to live for and 

something to die for, something so full of worth that even life can be sacrificed to it. But it should not be 

arbitrary. There are many arbitrary meanings. 

Adolf Hitler gave Germany an arbitrary meaning: Live for the Aryan race, live for the pure Nordic blood, 

because you are born to rule the world. He gave great hope, but it flopped. It was bound to happen. He himself 

committed suicide; that was almost destined. 

Religions go on giving false meanings to your life. They go on talking of the other life, the beyond: ”After 

death there is paradise for those who are virtuous and there is hell for those who are not virtuous.” And who is 

virtuous? The person who follows the priest is the virtuous person. The person who does not follow the tradition, 

the convention, the person who is not a conformist, is bound for hell.

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 3 

Yes, out of fear and greed you can give a little meaning to life, but it is so arbitrary, so artificial, that there is 

not a single individual on the earth who is so stupid that sooner or later he will not see the falsity of it. 

And now man has come of age; hence religions are disappearing. There is no possibility in the future for 

Christianity, for Islam, for Hinduism, for Judaism, to exist. And if they want to exist they will have to change 

their whole outlook, their very foundations. 

But there is every possibility for Buddha and his message to prevail. In fact, his day has come. He came 

twenty-five centuries ahead of his time. Now is the time, the right time for him. He does not talk of fear, he 

does not talk of greed, he does not talk of hell and heaven, he does not talk even about God. He is so modern, 

so contemporary; he belongs to our century. Even we are not so contemporary as he is. He destroys all the old 

structures. He frees religion from all frozen ideologies. He brings many revolutionary changes in the religious 

outlook. 

First he says there is no need to be knowledgeable; one has to be innocent. It is through innocence that the 

truth is known, not through knowledge. 

A neighbor was saying, ”Your cat was making an awful noise last night.” 

The other replied, ”You are right. Ever since she ate the canary, she thinks she can sing.” 

You can go on eating the scriptures; you will not be able to sing at all. You can know all the Vedas, the 

Upanishads, the Gitas, the Korans, the Bibles, but you will remain as stupid as ever. Of course you will start 

bragging about your knowledgeability. You will start showing it, you will become an exhibitionist. Even when 

you don’t know anything you will pretend that you know. 

Spinster Peabody’s proudest possession was Count, her exquisite cat. Unfortunately, he had been missing for 

two days. When she opened the freezer door, Miss Peabody nearly died of shock. There was Count frozen solid. 

She immediately called the priest, who said there still might be a chance to save the poor animal. ”Give it two 

tablespoons of gasoline,” he told her. 

With trembling hands, Miss Peabody opened Count’s mouth and carefully spooned in the priest’s strange 

prescription. 

The seconds ticked away and nothing happened. She was about to give up hope when suddenly the cat opened 

his eyes, let out an ear-piercing screech and shot across the room at a hundred miles per hour, running over the 

furniture, the walls, even the ceiling. Count kept this up for two minutes and then suddenly stopped dead in his 

tracks, not moving a muscle. 

Miss Peabody called the priest again. 

”What do you think happened?” she asked. 

”Simple,” said the priest. ”He ran out of gas.” 

The priests have all the answers. Ask them anything, any stupid thing. They can’t say, ”We don’t know,” 

that is impossible. The priests have never said that they are ignorant; their whole business depends upon their 

knowledgeability. 

Socrates says: I know only one thing, that I know nothing. That is exactly Buddha’s approach too and Socrates 

and Buddha were contemporaries; they have much in common. If Socrates was born in India he would have been 

called a buddha. He also trusts innocence, the innocence of a child who knows nothing. If you can become a child 

again, then only the doors of the mysterious can open for you. You can see. The dust on your eyes is nothing but 

knowledge, information, scripture. 

The psychotherapists are called by people ”shrinks”; they are! A psychotherapist’s whole effort is to reduce 

you; he is a reductionist. He studies rats, and whatsoever he comes to know about the rats he applies to you. It 

is so disgusting, so humiliating, so absurd, illogical! He studies the lowest to know the highest. 

You can know nothing of the flower by studying the seed, by dissecting the seed, by analyzing the seed. For 

thousands of years you can go on analyzing the seed; you will never come across the colors of the rose, the lotus, 

or the fragrance. You will never know what fragrance was hidden in the seed. Analysis cannot yield it to you. 

Studying rats and then applying that knowledge to man is simply saying that man is nothing but a kind of 

animal, a little more complex maybe, but nothing more than that. Reductionism means always bringing things 

to ”nothing buts.” 

The real understanding of man is only possible not by studying the rats but by studying the buddhas, the 

christs, the krishnas the highest. By studying the peaks you will know exactly who you are, not by the lowest 

denominator but by the highest manifestation. When you study a buddha, a great longing arises in you to reach 

to those heights. When you study rats, then there is no longing. In fact, you feel very satisfied whatsoever you 

are. In fact, you feel greatly contented that you are a little better than the rats, a little more complex, a little 

more clever. You feel gratified. Religion disappears.


Religion lives in your longing to reach to the peaks, to attain to the ultimate heights, to bring your total 

potential into manifestation, into actuality. Religion is the science of self-actualization. 

If a psychotherapist can be called a ”shrink,” then a real religious person should be called a ”stretch.” He 

stretches you to the ultimate possibilities. 

Now the sutras: 

FOR IF IN YOUR RENUNCIATION YOU ARE RECKLESS AND BREAK YOUR WORD, IF YOUR PUR- 

POSE WAVERS, YOU WILL NOT FIND THE LIGHT. 

Buddha will talk again and again about light and darkness; hence those two words have to be understood. They 

are metaphors. Buddha has to use metaphors. All the buddhas, all the awakened ones, have to use metaphors. 

The ordinary language is not enough, is very inadequate. When you start expressing something inner you feel the 

difficulty. The language has no words for it, or even if the words are there they are too small and the experience 

is too big. The experience cannot be contained in those words, hence the use of the metaphor. 

A metaphor simply means, don’t cling to the literal meaning of the word. Understand it as a finger pointing 

to the moon. Don’t cling to the literal meaning; otherwise you will be in difficulty because then you will only 

misunderstand. A metaphor is a metaphor. It is poetry, it is not prose. You have to be a little poetic, a little 

imaginative, a little sympathetic to understand it. Literal meaning has been a disaster. 

But that’s how we always read. Even if we are reading a buddha we try to read him literally. Then light means 

light and darkness means darkness. That’s not so. 

Jack was home from college for the holidays. One day he asked his uneducated mother if he could tell her a 

narrative. His mother, not being used to such big words, asked him the meaning of ’narrative’. 

”A narrative is a tale,” Jack said. 

That night, when going to bed, Jack asked his mother if he might extinguish the light. She wanted to know 

the meaning of ’extinguish’. 

”To put out,” Jack said. 

A few days later Jack’s mother was giving a party at their home, and the cat wandered into the room. Jack’s 

mother raised her voice and said confidently, ”Jack, take the cat by the narrative and extinguish him.” 

Beware of that fallacy. 

When Buddha uses the word ’light’ he means the state of no-mind, because the state of no-mind is a state of 

tremendous light, as if thousands of suns have risen simultaneously within your soul. And whenever Buddha says 

’darkness’ he means the state of mind. Mind is dark; it is a dark night, not even a ray of light. And we all live 

in the mind, we all live in the dark night, and we have no idea of the dawn because we never go out of the mind. 

We cling to the mind. Mind is our blindness. 

A man has eyes only when he goes beyond mind. Then he starts seeing things as they are. The mind distorts. 

The mind never allows you to see reality as it is; it projects. It does not allow the whole reality to penetrate to 

your heart. It allows only two percent; ninety-eight percent is rejected. And this two percent that is allowed in is 

distorted in a thousand and one ways interpreted, colored and by the time it reaches you it is no longer real. So 

you live in a very unreal world. If you live in the mind you live in dreams, you live in sleep. 

So whenever Buddha says ’darkness’, he means a state of unconsciousness, a mechanical state in which you 

function but you are not aware what you are doing, in which you move but your movement has no quality of 

alertness in it. You talk, you listen, you eat, you walk, you go to sleep, but like a zombie, unconscious. This is 

darkness. 

When you start becoming more aware of what you are doing, of what you are thinking, of what you are feeling, 

when you become more and more aware, more and more light penetrates you. When you are a hundred percent 

aware you are full of light. 

That’s exactly the meaning of the word ’enlightened’. The word ’enlightened’ is a translation for the word 

’buddha’. Buddha means the enlightened one, the awakened one, the aware one. He says: FOR IF IN YOUR 

RENUNCIATION YOU ARE RECKLESS AND BREAK YOUR WORD, IF YOUR PURPOSE WAVERS, YOU 

WILL NOT FIND THE LIGHT. 

Renunciation means sannyas. Renunciation can be of two types. The first type the wrong type is the 

renunciation that happens through fear or greed. You have been told that if you renounce the world then you 

will attain the pleasures of heaven. You have been told if you don’t renounce you will suffer eternal pain and hell. 

Many people become afraid of hell and many people become greedy for heaven, and they renounce the world. 

This is a wrong renunciation. 

Anything that you do out of fear and greed is bound to be wrong because fear and greed are unconscious states. 

Out of fear you have dreamed about hell, out of fear you have dreamed about heaven. There is no hell, no heaven.


These are all your dreams. When you are not dreaming at all, when the sleep has disappeared and you are awake, 

there is no heaven, no hell. That state Buddha calls ”liberation”: liberation from greed, liberation from fear. 

And if you act out of awareness, if your renunciation happens out of awareness, it is true renunciation because 

then you really don’t do anything, things start happening. You see something is wrong; it drops, it simply drops. 

You don’t have to make any effort. You see the ugliness of anger and anger evaporates; the very seeing becomes 

the transformation. You understand your desire and the futility of your desire that it cannot be fulfilled, that it 

is unfulfillable, that you are in a vicious circle. Seeing it that you are moving in circles you jump out. This is 

also renunciation, but you don’t jump out of desire for another desire: to get into heaven, to avoid hell. You are 

not jumping out of desire; you are only changing one desire for another. You are exchanging worldly desires with 

unworldly desires, but desire is desire. You can change the object, but the nature of desire remains the same. 

This is a great contribution of Buddha to religious consciousness. He says: Don’t renounce, let renunciation 

happen. If it happens on its own accord it has a beauty of its own, it has grace, and you never repent, you never 

look back. If you renounce, if you make effort, your renunciation will bring sadness to you. And many times you 

will start thinking whether you have done right or wrong. Many times your mind will waver, many times desire 

for the renounced will again surround you like a cloud. Many times you will be full of lust and greed and fear. 

Many times the world will attract you again. That is natural. 

Hence Buddha says: FOR IF IN YOUR RENUNCIATION YOU ARE RECKLESS AND BREAK YOUR 

WORD, IF YOUR PURPOSE WAVERS, YOU WILL NOT FIND THE LIGHT. 

It can happen only in a wrong kind of renunciation that your purpose wavers, because when you renounce with 

effort it is always a halfhearted affair. A part of your mind says, ”Renounce, because if you don’t renounce you 

will suffer.” A part of your mind says, ”Don’t renounce. Who knows whether there is any life after death or not? 

And who knows whether renunciation is rewarded or not? Nobody comes back from the other shore to tell the 

truth. It may be all imagination, it may be all a strategy of the priests. Who knows?” 

Doubt is bound to persist, and when doubt is there there is wavering, and when doubt is there you are split. 

When doubt is there you can never be wholeheartedly into anything; you remain divided. You can never be an 

individual, indivisible. And the person who renounces for some motive is renouncing through the mind and that 

is impossible. You cannot renounce through the mind. 

Mind is the first thing to be renounced and you are trying to use mind for renunciation? Mind will poison 

everything. It will create new desires in you, it will create new greeds, it will create new ambitions, it will create 

new egos in you. Look at the so-called holy people, the so-called saints and mahatmas. They look more egoistic 

than anybody else. Their faces look sad, as if they are in great pain, suffering. And their eyes? They are looking 

at you always with that attitude of ”holier-than-thou.” They are condemnors; they will call you sinners. They 

are ready to throw you into hell and hellfire. For themselves they are hoping that they will be in heaven enjoying 

heavenly pleasures forever and forever. 

What kind of renunciation is this? This is a wrong kind of renunciation and you cannot attain to light through 

it; you will go on falling into deeper and deeper darkness. You have taken the first step in a wrong direction, and 

the first step is the most important step because the second will follow the first, and so on, so forth. And you will 

go on farther and farther away from the truth. 

Hence I don’t tell my sannyasins to renounce, although renunciation happens. Many of my sannyasins write to 

me, ”Beloved Master, you deceived us. We were thinking nothing has to be renounced, and now many things are 

simply disappearing.” 

Just the other day there was a letter. One sannyasin has written that his sexual desire has completely disappeared 

and he had tried his whole life to renounce it and he had never succeeded. And here we are not teaching to 

renounce anything, not even sexual desire, so his letter has a relevance. He says, ”You tricked us. I was thinking 

that I have come here to enjoy my sexual desire for the first time, because the whole life I have been trying to be 

a monk. Tired of it, utterly a failure in renouncing it, I had come here and now it has disappeared!” 

This is beautiful, if it has disappeared on its own accord. If you have not dropped it, it won’t come back again. 

If you have dropped it, it is bound to come back again because dropping it simply means repressing it. Dropping 

does not mean anything else; it simply means you have repressed it forcibly. Sooner or later, in some weaker 

moment, it will be back again and with a vengeance. But if it drops on its own... you have not done anything to 

drop it, not even a decision; you have not willfully acted on it, it is through understanding. Seeing the futility of 

it, seeing that it does not fulfill, that it is a kind of a toy.... You can remain engaged in it, it keeps you occupied. 

It keeps you so much occupied that you don’t have any time to look inwards. But it never takes you anywhere; 

you are always the same. It brings no integrity, it brings no joy. The more you know it, the more it becomes a 

boring phenomenon. The more you know it, the more boredom it brings.


If you really want to enjoy sex, be a monk, be a nun. Then you will enjoy it. Then you will not think of 

anything else; twenty-four hours you will be enjoying it. In a monastery what else is there to enjoy? Of course it 

will be just fantasy. Fantasy is personal pornography. Nobody else can see what you are seeing and you can go 

on giggling and enjoying. You can go on reading the Bible, the Koran, so everybody thinks how religious you are, 

how pious and nobody knows what you are really doing inside. 

The so-called religious people are very pornographic; they are bound to be. The more you make an effort to 

escape from men and women, the more the unfulfilled, the repressed, is bound to become cerebral. It will become 

a fantasy in your mind, it will capture your imagination. You will dream about it, you will think about it, you 

will be surrounded by it. You can look into the records of all the monks and the nuns of all the world and you 

will be surprised: things were happening to them which are not happening to anybody anymore. 

In the Middle Ages the nuns were reporting in thousands that the devil comes and makes love to them. Now 

what has happened to the devil? He does not come anymore. The ordinary devils are enough. But those nuns, 

they were imagining. And when for years you have been starved, you have willfully tried to do something, the 

imagination gathers force. A moment comes when you start dreaming with open eyes; you can see the devil 

standing there. 

And what imagination those nuns had! If you just look into the records you will be surprised. The devil has a 

forked penis! It is not an ordinary genital organ but forked, so that it can enter both the holes! Now these nuns 

must have been mad, utterly mad. And false pregnancies were happening... nothing but hot air in the belly, but 

the belly would go on becoming bigger and bigger. Just fantasy has taken so much grip of the mind, of the body, 

that the nun thinks she has become pregnant, so she starts accumulating air in the belly. She looks to everybody 

as if she is pregnant. She walks like a pregnant woman. And of course, what can she do? If the devil comes, she 

has to yield. Who knows? he may not come again! 

And this is not only about one religion; this is the case with all the religions. In India, the scriptures tell so 

many stories of the great monks, ascetics, doing their penances in the forests. And when they are coming just on 

the verge of success, beautiful women descend from heaven to distract these poor fellows. They have not done 

any wrong to anybody and even if they have done wrong, what kind of punishment is this? This is something 

like reward! Beautiful women come from heaven, goddesses, apsaras, and they dance naked around them, and 

they make all kinds of obscene gestures to the poor fellows. Details are given in the scriptures, very detailed 

descriptions, what they do, how they do, how they seduce the poor fellow. And then he falls from his great 

heights, becomes an ordinary mortal. Then they don’t come anymore. This is nothing but mental masturbation, 

but this is bound to happen if you repress. This is a wrong kind of renunciation. It has dominated the whole 

religious scene for ages, it has been very destructive. 

The right kind of renunciation is very natural and spontaneous. It is not against anything. It allows you to 

watch, see, understand, be more meditative, so that you can bring more understanding to your actions, to your 

thoughts, to your feelings. Out of that accumulated understanding, things start happening. Then the mind is 

no more there to waver. Nothing has been repressed so nothing can come back again. Then things simply start 

disappearing like dewdrops in the early sun. That’s the only possibility to find the light. 

And remember, even these people who have been teaching repression, they don’t call it repression they call it 

willpower. They give it beautiful names. Ugly things can be hidden very easily behind beautiful names. Willpower 

is nothing but ego power. When you call it willpower it looks beautiful; when you call it ego power you see the 

ugliness of it. 

A religious person is one who has no more use for ego. Ego means violence with yourself. It may be very 

subtle, it may not look like violence. You may be doing violence to yourself in a very graceful manner. And the 

priests have been forcing you to do things, but they don’t say that they are forcing. They have been conditioning 

children, hypnotizing whole societies, to do certain things. And once you are hypnotized and conditioned you 

think you are doing it on your own, out of your own freedom. And that is sheer nonsense. A Hindu who has 

been conditioned for thirty years to be a Hindu cannot do anything out of his own freedom unless he drops all his 

Hindu nonsense. And the same is the case with the Christian and the Jew and the Jaina and the Mohammedan 

and the Parsi and the Sikh. 

The first step is to drop that which has been forced upon you. It may look almost as if it has not been forced 

because it has been so long, you have completely forgotten. Thirty years, forty years, fifty years conditioning who 

remembers when it began, how it began? You were so young, three years old or four years old... and then the 

teaching starts and it goes on conditioning you. It can condition you for anything, any stupid thing. Everybody 

else will see the stupidity; only you will not. You will think you are doing something great, something religious, 

something sacred.


Stalin was giving Mao Zedong instructions in practical communism. ”Comrade,” he said, ”how would you make 

a cat eat chili pepper?” 

”There are two ways,” said Mao. ”I could force it down him or I could stuff a fish with the pepper and give 

the fish to the cat.” 

”Wrong,” replied Stalin. ”It is not compatible with our ideology. The first method is coercion, the second 

deception. You know we never coerce or deceive the people.” 

”Then how would you do it?” asked Mao. 

”I would rub the pepper on the cat’s tail. When this started to smart, the cat would turn around and lick its 

tail, thus eating the pepper voluntarily.” 

This has been done by the priests for centuries. They rub the pepper on your tail, and one day you start licking 

your tail and you think you are doing it voluntarily. 

The first step towards real religion is to drop Christianity, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Jainism; 

to drop all ideologies, to unlearn what has been forced upon you to be a child again. Then you can start seeing 

things in their true colors, then you can start seeing things as they are. Children are more aware of the reality than 

you are. The older you become, the less aware you are because the more you become burdened with experience, 

knowledge, opinions, ideologies. 

DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO RESOLUTELY, WITH ALL YOUR HEART. THE TRAVELER WHO 

HESITATES ONLY RAISES DUST ON THE ROAD. 

Buddha says: DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO RESOLUTELY.... But by resolution he does not mean will, as 

it is ordinarily meant in the dictionaries. Buddha is compelled to use your words, but he gives a new meaning to 

his words. By ’resolution’ he means out of a resolved heart not out of willpower but out of a resolved heart. And 

remember, he emphasizes the word ’heart’, not the mind. Willpower is part of the mind. A resolved heart is a 

heart without problems, a heart which is no longer divided, a heart which has come to a state of stillness, silence. 

That’s what he calls a resolved heart. 

DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO RESOLUTELY, WITH ALL YOUR HEART. Remember the emphasis on 

the heart. Mind can never be one; by its very nature it is many. And the heart is always one; by its very nature 

it cannot be many. You cannot have many hearts but you can have many minds. Why? because the mind lives 

in doubt and the heart lives in love. The mind lives in doubt and the heart lives in trust. The heart knows how 

to trust; it is trust that makes it one. When you trust, suddenly you become centered. 

Hence the significance of trust. It does not matter whether your trust is in the right person or not. It does not 

matter whether your trust will be exploited or not. It does not matter whether you will be deceived because of 

your trust or not. There is every possibility you may be deceived the world is full of deceivers. What matters is 

that you trusted. It is out of your trust that you become integrated, which is far more important than anything 

else. It is not a question that first you have to be certain whether the person is worthy of trust or not. How will 

you be certain? And who will inquire? 

It will be the mind, and the mind knows only how to doubt. It will doubt. It will doubt even a man like Christ 

or Buddha. It can’t help. 

Judas doubted Jesus. He could not trust even a man like Jesus. And Jesus trusted Judas; he could not doubt 

even a man like Judas. See the point. Who is the gainer? If you superficially look, then it seems Jesus has lost 

because he is crucified. If he had not trusted Judas he would have saved his life. But that is only a superficial 

understanding. In fact the loser is Judas, not Jesus. One has to die some day or other, and one cannot die a 

better death than Jesus. It is his death that brought a revolution into the consciousness of humanity. 

If Buddha had also been crucified we would have been far richer. Dying on a bed would not have been of much 

help. And what difference does it make to Jesus where he dies? But a man like Jesus uses even his death as 

a situation, as a device. He used it and he used it very skillfully. Socrates could not use his death so skillfully. 

Maybe it is because of Socrates’ death that Jesus has learned a lesson: how to use death. There are foolish people 

who cannot use their lives usefully, artistically, gracefully, beautifully, and there are people like Jesus who can 

even use their death. Their death is also a device. 

The real loser is Judas, and he understood immediately. When Jesus was crucified he felt so ashamed that he 

committed suicide the next day. Now, committing suicide is ugly; being crucified has a beauty. It is a sacrifice, 

the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate offering one can make to God. And Jesus made it. His last words were, ”Thy 

kingdom come, thy will be done.” He surrendered totally: ”Let thy kingdom come.” He effaced himself totally, 

he dropped his ego totally: ”Thy will be done.” He trusted Judas absolutely. He hugged him, he kissed him, he 

washed his feet. He knew that the man was going to betray him and still his trust was total.


So remember, trust does not mean that first you have to inquire, that first you have to make everything certain, 

guaranteed, and then you trust. That is not trust, that is really doubt: because you have no more possibilities 

to doubt, hence you trust. If another possibility arises of doubt you will doubt again. Trust is in spite of all the 

doubts, in spite of what the man is or what the man is going to do. It is of the heart, it is out of love. 

When you trust and love with a resolved heart it brings transformation. Then you never hesitate. Hesitation 

simply keeps you in fragments. Taking a quantum leap, without any hesitation or in spite of all the hesitations, you 

become integrated. Hesitations disappear; you become one. And to become one is to be liberated liberated from 

your own stupid crowd that exists inside you, liberated from your thoughts and desires and memories, liberated 

from mind itself. 

THE TRAVELER WHO HESITATES ONLY RAISES DUST ON THE ROAD. 

IT IS BETTER TO DO NOTHING THAN TO DO WHAT IS WRONG. FOR WHATEVER YOU DO, YOU 

DO TO YOURSELF. 

It is better to do nothing... but to do nothing is very difficult. When you think you are not doing anything... 

that is not what Buddha is saying. To do nothing means to be so still, so silent, that there is no action within or 

without, no thought even, no desire. 

IT IS BETTER TO DO NOTHING one will have to be very conscious to do nothing THAN TO DO WHAT 

IS WRONG. The wrong can be done only when you are unconscious. The definition of the wrong and the right 

according to Buddha is a very different one; it is not moralistic. He will not say, ”This is right and that is wrong.” 

He will not give you a list of Ten Commandments; he has not given any commandments. He gives you rather a 

criterion so that you can judge in your life what is right, what is wrong. He has not decided it. It can’t be decided 

because life goes on changing. What is wrong one day may be right another day; what is wrong this moment may 

be right another moment. So you cannot label actions as right or wrong. Situations change, you change, people 

change. So there is no possibility of giving you a list that says, ”Do these things and don’t do these things.” 

All other religions have done that; Buddha has not done that. He gives you a criterion, he gives you an insight. 

He gives you a touchstone so you can see what is gold and what is not gold. Consciousness is his touchstone. If you 

are conscious and not doing anything, that is far better than doing something wrong, because doing something 

wrong means you are unconscious. Doing anything out of unconsciousness is wrong and doing anything, even 

nothing, out of consciousness, is right. 

When the bottle of Scotch broke on the floor, the three little mice lapped it all up. Now they were really blind. 

”I’m going to find Muhammad Ali and knock his brains out,” said the first one. 

The second said, ”Just let me at that Idi Amin! I’ll give him what’s coming to him!” 

”You guys do what you want,” said the third mouse. ”Me, I’m going upstairs and making love to the cat!” 

That’s what is happening to everybody, because everybody is living in an unconscious state. You are unaware 

of what you are doing, why you are doing, who you are, why you are, where you are going. Everything seems to 

be in darkness, and still you go on doing things. 

It is better, Buddha says, to do nothing. Be quiet, silent, still, in a state of nondoing, because that is possible 

only if you bring more and more alertness. And then out of that silence, out of that awareness, out of that 

nothingness, out of that nondoing, whatsoever arises is good, is virtue. 

FOR WHATEVER YOU DO, YOU DO TO YOURSELF. If you harm people, the harm will come back to you. 

If you love people, the love will come back to you. The world goes on echoing back, reflecting back. The world 

gives you only that which you have given in the first place to the world. 

LIKE A BORDER TOWN WELL GUARDED, GUARD YOURSELF WITHIN AND WITHOUT. 

That’s what he calls awareness: Be on guard. 

LET NOT A SINGLE MOMENT PASS LEST YOU FALL INTO DARKNESS. 

Not even a single moment should be left unguarded. Each moment you have to be alert, conscious. Walking, 

walk consciously. Breathing, breathe consciously. Eating, eat consciously. Do whatsoever you are doing, but 

bring the quality of consciousness into your work. Sitting, sit consciously. Let consciousness become a constant, 

running underground stream, so you go on doing your usual things, but there is an undercurrent of consciousness. 

That will make your life religious not going to the church, not going to the temple, not praying to some imaginary 

God, not repeating scriptures. 

FEEL SHAME ONLY WHEN SHAME IS DUE. FEAR ONLY WHAT IS FEARFUL. SEE EVIL ONLY IN 

WHAT IS EVIL. LEST YOU MISTAKE THE TRUE WAY AND FALL INTO DARKNESS. 

Buddha says: FEEL SHAME ONLY WHEN SHAME IS DUE. Don’t be bothered what others say. Unless your 

consciousness says it is shameful there is no need to be worried. Even if the whole world says that what you are 

doing is shameful, let them say it; you need not be worried about it.


This is a very revolutionary message. Ordinarily you have been told to follow others, to follow the collective, 

to follow the official religion, to follow whatsoever has been told for centuries. Buddha says it is immaterial what 

others say. What really matters is that if your consciousness says it is shameful, then drop it. In fact, there will 

be no need to drop it; it will drop on its own accord. Let your consciousness be decisive in every matter. 

FEAR ONLY WHAT IS FEARFUL... and don’t be afraid of hell and don’t be afraid of punishment after 

death. These are strategies of the priests to exploit people, to exploit their fear. Everybody is afraid because 

everybody has become an ego and the ego is always afraid. The ego means you think yourself separate from the 

whole; then fear arises because you are not separate from the whole. And when you think you are separate, the 

question arises: How long can you remain separate? Death will come; then what will happen to you? 

The ego makes you so selfish, so self-centered, that you forget completely that you belong to the eternal universe. 

There is no need to fear that you are just a wave in the ocean; you will be here, whether as a wave or not as a 

wave, but you will be here. Nobody can destroy you. Nothing ever dies and nothing is ever born. The wave arises 

and disappears. Even before it has arisen it was there and when it has disappeared it is still there. That arising 

and disappearing is just a momentary phenomenon: something that was unmanifest becomes manifest. 

But we are very much afraid, and the fear arises because we have believed, we have been told again and again, 

hypnotized to believe in the ego. This whole social structure up to now, hitherto, has been propounding an egoistic 

life attitude. Then fear, then greed, then ambition, are natural. And ego is being taught to every child; his ego 

is strengthened so that you can make him ambitious. Out of ambition arises politics. Ego is created so that you 

can make him afraid. Out of fear arises religion the so-called religion. 

Little Sheldon seemed to be enjoying himself at the zoo with his father. As they were looking at the tigers, 

however, a troubled look came over the boy’s face. His father asked him what was the matter. 

”I was just wondering, Daddy. In case a tiger breaks loose and eats you, what number bus do I take home?” 

Even small children are poisoned with the idea of the self. Buddha says there is no self, no ego. Deep down 

you are not separate. You are not an island; you are part of the universal continent. So: FEAR ONLY WHAT 

IS FEARFUL. SEE EVIL ONLY IN WHAT IS EVIL. Don’t believe others; believe only your own eyes, your own 

insight... LEST YOU MISTAKE THE TRUE WAY AND FALL INTO DARKNESS. 

Believing in others’ ideas you are going to fall into darkness. They are in darkness and following them you will 

go into darkness. If you want to reach to light you will have to travel alone. 

SEE WHAT IS.... Such a simple statement, but it contains the very essence of religion. 

SEE WHAT IS. SEE WHAT IS NOT. FOLLOW THE TRUE WAY. RISE. 

SEE WHAT IS.... That is meditation. Put your mind aside. Face reality directly. Encounter it, be face-to-face. 

Put the mind aside. Look into reality silently, without any thought, so that the thought cannot be a hindrance, 

a barrier, a distortion. That’s what meditation is: seeing what is and seeing what is not. 

The past is not, but the mind remains in the past. The future is not, but the mind remains in the future. And 

the present is, but the mind has no contact with the present. And whenever you are in contact with the present, 

the past is no more there, the future is no more there. When you are absolutely here and now, totally, utterly 

here and now, your life will have a new quality to it. That is true holiness because you will know the whole and 

you will become the whole. 

Buddha calls it the true way, the way of the awakened ones. You can also rise to these heights. Rise! Awake! 

Enough for today. 


Chapter 2 Is there life before death? 


The first question: 

Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, IS THIS REALLY ALL THERE IS? MY LIFE SEEMS SO MEANINGLESS AND 

EMPTY. I KEEP THINKING THERE MUST BE SOMETHING MORE. I WANT THERE TO BE SOME- 

THING MORE. 

Prem Barkha, there is infinitely more, but your wanting it is a barrier in reaching to it. Desiring is like a wall 

that surrounds you; non-desiring becomes a door. This is one of the most paradoxical but very fundamental laws 

of life: desire and you will miss, don’t desire and it is yours. 

Jesus says: Seek and ye shall find. Buddha says: Seek ye not; otherwise you will miss. Jesus says: Ask and 

it shall be given to you. Buddha says: Ask not; otherwise it will never be given to you. Jesus says: Knock and 

the doors shall be opened. Buddha says: Wait... look... the doors are not closed at all. If you knock, your very 

knocking shows that you are knocking somewhere else on the wall because the doors are always open.


Jesus is as much enlightened as Buddha because there is no question of being more enlightened or less enlightened. 

But then why this difference? 

The difference comes from the people to whom Jesus is speaking. He is speaking to people who are uninitiated, 

uninitiated into the mysteries of life. Buddha is speaking to a totally different kind of group, the initiates, the 

adepts, those who can understand the paradoxical. The paradoxical means the mysterious. 

Barkha, you say, ”My life seems so meaningless and empty....” 

It seems so meaningless and empty because you are constantly hankering for more. Drop that hankering, and 

then you will go through a radical transformation. The emptiness disappears immediately as you stop asking for 

the more. The emptiness is a by-product of asking for more. It is a shadow that follows the desire for more. Let 

the desire disappear and look back: there is no shadow anymore. 

Asking for more is what our mind is constantly asking for more. It makes no difference how much you have, 

it will go on asking for more. And because it goes on asking for more you go on feeling you are empty, you are 

missing so much. See the point: the emptiness is created by asking for more. The emptiness is not there, it is a 

fallacy, but it will look very real when you are caught in the net of desiring. 

See that desire is the cause of your emptiness. Watch your desiring, and in watching it disappears, and with 

it disappears the emptiness. Then comes a deep, deep fulfillment. You feel so full, so overfull that you start 

overflowing. You have so much that you start sharing, you start giving giving for the sheer joy of giving, for no 

other reason. You become like a cloud full of rainwater: it has to shower somewhere. It will shower even on the 

rocks where nothing is going to grow; it will shower unconditionally. It will not ask whether this is the right place 

to shower or not. It will be so burdened with rainwater that it has to shower to unburden itself. 

When desiring disappears you are so full of bliss, so full of contentment, so full of fullness that you start sharing. 

It happens on its own accord. And then there is meaning in life, then there is significance in life. Then there is 

poetry, beauty, grace. Then there is music, harmony your life becomes a dance. 

Barkha, this emptiness and meaninglessness is your doing, so you can undo it. 

You say, ”I keep thinking there must be something more.” 

That’s what is creating the trouble. And I am not saying there is not something more, there is much more 

than you can ever imagine. I have seen it! I have heard it! I have experienced it! There is infinitely much more! 

But you will never come into contact with it if desiring continues. Desiring is a wall, no-desiring is a bridge. This 

is the very essence of Buddha’s teaching. This is his basic message to the world. Bliss is a state of no-desire, 

misery is a state of desire. 

You say, ”I want there to be something more.” 

The more you will want the more you will miss. You can choose. If you want to remain miserable, want more, 

more and more, and you will be missing more and more. This is your choice, remember, this is your responsibility. 

Nobody is forcing you. If you really want to see that which is, don’t hanker for the future, for more. Just see to 

that which is. 

The other day Buddha was saying: See that which is and see that which is not. That is meditation, and 

meditation takes you beyond mind. Mind is constantly asking, desiring, demanding and creating frustration 

because it lives in expectations. The whole world is suffering through meaninglessness, and the reason is that for 

the first time man is asking more than he has ever asked. For the first time man is desiring more than he has ever 

desired. Science has given him so much hope, so much support to desire more. 

In the beginning of this century there was great optimism all over the world because science was opening new 

doors and everybody was thinking, ”The golden age has arrived, it is just by the corner. We have reached it. In 

our very life we will see it that paradise has descended on the earth.” Naturally everybody started desiring for 

more and more and more. Paradise has not descended on the earth. Instead, the earth has become a hell. 

Science released your desiring, it supported your desires. It supported your hopes that those desires can be 

fulfilled. And the outcome is that the whole world is living in deep misery. It has never been so before. It is very 

strange, because for the first time man has more possessions than ever. For the first time man has more safety, 

more security, more scientific technology, more comfort than ever before. But more meaninglessness is also there. 

Man has never been in such a despair, in such a desperate effort to get more. 

Science gives you desiring; religion gives you an insight into desiring. That insight helps you to drop desire. 

And then suddenly something that was hidden up to now becomes unhidden, becomes manifest. Something wells 

up within your being, and everything that you had ever desired is fulfilled... and more. More is available than 

you could have imagined, than anybody has ever imagined. Unimaginable bliss descends on you. But prepare the 

ground. Prepare the right soil. Non-desiring is the name of the right soil.


I have given you the name Prem Barkha. It means ”love showering.” Yes, exactly that can happen. Love can 

shower, bliss can shower, God can shower on you. Just be in a receptive mood. You are aggressive, you want more 

that is aggression, subtle aggression. Be receptive, open, available, and then you are entitled to all the miracles 

possible. 

The second question: 

Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, I FEEL LIKE I AM GETTING DETACHED FROM SEX. NOW WHAT IS NEXT? 

Sant, that is only a feeling. It happens to almost everybody here. And the simple reason is not that you have 

become detached, but you have become afraid. 

So many women write to me, ”Why in your commune are men so afraid of us?” 

Man has always been afraid. This is nothing new. But one man was living with one woman; he was afraid but 

was able to manage somehow. Now here he sees women and women and women. He becomes really afraid. There 

are biological reasons for the fear. 

Women are capable of multiple orgasms, man is not. Sexually man is very poor compared to women. No man 

is capable of satisfying any woman. If the woman is allowed freedom she will make anybody afraid, because she 

will make you feel very inferior. She is capable of multiple orgasms: within seconds she can have many orgasms 

and you can have only one orgasm. And with one orgasm you are finished! She has not even started and you are 

finished that is very embarrassing. Because of this fear, man has repressed women all over the world. It is not 

that man is stronger, that is why he has repressed women. No, it is out of fear. 

Man has destroyed women’s capacity for orgasm. For centuries man has told them that orgasm is possible 

only to men, not to women. He has taught women to be absolutely unalive in a sexual relationship. He has told 

women, conditioned them, hypnotized them for centuries that it is more womanlike, ladylike, to be just silent, 

unmoving. It is for the man to make all the movements, take all the initiative. Hence man makes love, not the 

woman. The woman is just there, a silent partner. And the reason is great fear because, if she becomes an active 

partner, she will reduce the man to almost nothingness. If she becomes active the man is very much afraid. How 

is he going to satisfy her? All his manhood will be at stake. He will no longer be capable of bragging that he is 

man, something higher, superior. Sexually he is not; sexually he is very inferior. In a muscular way he may be 

stronger than the woman, but sexually he is not. 

There are countries in Africa where operations are even done on small girls. The clitoris is cut when they are 

very small a very painful operation just to make sure that they don’t have any idea of orgasm. In Sudan you will 

not find a single woman who knows anything about orgasm because their very mechanism for orgasm is damaged; 

their vagina is more like a wound than a healthy organ. What fear! to cut the clitoris. Then they will always 

be inferior. In India I have asked many women, ”Have you ever achieved orgasm?”, and they say, ”What is it?” 

I have never come across an Indian woman who knows what orgasm is, because that is very un-Indian, for an 

Indian woman to feel orgasmic, to rejoice in making love. 

I have heard that a man was making love to a woman on the seabeach. And then the policeman came and said, 

”Are you mad or something? She is dead! What are you doing?” 

He said, ”My God! I thought she was Indian!” 

The Indian woman has to just be there, not doing anything. She has not to show any signs of joy. If a woman 

really becomes orgasmic she will wake up the whole neighborhood! She will shout and sing and dance and jump. 

She will do Dynamic Meditation! And the whole neighborhood will know what is happening. 

Afraid of women, man has repressed them in subtle ways and sometimes not so subtle, like these Sudanese 

people. In Africa many Mohammedan countries do it the operation, the surgery on the clitoris. Not only that, 

they sew the vagina of the woman so much that making love to a woman becomes almost impossible. And the 

childbirth is so painful that once a woman has made love to a man she decides never to do that again, it is so 

painful! Once she has given birth to a child she decides never to be pregnant again; the whole experience is 

nightmarish. And this has been done by man, and the priests have been behind it. 

Sant, in my commune it is a totally different phenomenon. Centuries-old taboos are broken, centuries-old 

inhibitions are thrown to the winds. I am all for freedom, particularly sexual freedom, because all other freedoms 

are rooted in that. If a man or a woman is not orgasmic he is not alive, she is not alive they are dead. They 

breathe, they eat, they walk, but that is not life. They only vegetate. 

A scientist was doing an experiment on a certain species of fish. In that species the female fish, whenever 

approached by a male fish, starts moving away in a very coquettish way, alluring, enchanting, inviting, but starts 

escaping does not really escape but pretends that she is escaping. That excites the male; he starts running after

12 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 

her. The more he runs after her, the more he becomes excited, his passion is aroused. Then, of course in a very 

diplomatic way, the female fish allows him to make love. 

One scientist, Lorenz, trained a female fish just to do the opposite: that whenever she comes across the male, 

go, take the initiative, jump upon the male fish. And Lorenz was surprised: whenever this was done, the male 

fish was so much afraid; the male fish could not believe his own eyes, what is happening! And the male fish 

was unable to make love a sudden impotence! The mechanism works in a certain way: the female has to be 

seductive but unavailable not absolutely unavailable because that will destroy the whole game, just a pretension 

of unavailability. That excites the male energy. That makes the male more and more interested, obsessed. He is 

functioning at the optimum, and when he is functioning at the optimum he makes love easily because the male 

mind, whether in men or in mice, is the same. The male mind wants to conquer. 

And, Sant, you are in the same situation like the male fish. Now female fish are jumping upon you, making you 

afraid, and you are trying to hide the fact in a beautiful religious term: detachment. It is nothing! If you feel it is 

detachment, just go to the Himalayas for one month sit in a cave, and you will think only of women and women! 

I am just like another Lorenz. This commune is a pond, and I am training female fish to embrace every male 

fish! 

When one is really detached out of understanding, out of meditation then there is no detachment either; that 

thing has to be understood. When one is really detached one is neither attached nor detached. The whole thing 

becomes irrelevant as if there is no question anymore of attraction, of non-attraction. The whole question drops. 

You are simply yourself. You don’t think in terms of women, women don’t think in terms of men. Thinking, ”I 

am attached” or ”detached” means you are still thinking in terms of women. 

Real detachment that which comes out of understanding has no reference to the other. You are simply yourself, 

utterly joyous, happy, so blissful that you don’t need the other. The other has been forgotten completely, the 

other exists no more. A woman will pass and you will not think whether she is a man or a woman. That is 

transcending your biology, and that is one of the greatest things in life to transcend your biology because only 

then, for the first time, you become something superior to the animals. Otherwise there is not much difference, 

maybe some difference of quantity but not of quality. Unless you transcend biology you remain part of the animal 

kingdom, another species of animal, that’s all. 

Sant, now watch your detachment, whether it is fear or understanding. Have you understood the stupidity of 

the whole game? If you have understood, then you will not ask, ”Now what is next?” There is nothing next then. 

You have transcended biology and you will be really at rest with yourself. You will become orgasmic without the 

help of the other. And orgasmicness will become so natural, so spontaneous, it will have no reference to sex at all. 

A Buddha is orgasmic twenty-four hours a day because he is rejoicing each moment in its totality; there is 

nothing more. If you have transcended the biology, if sex has disappeared through understanding, remember, not 

through some kind of repression or fear then you have entered into God, you have become divine. 

The third question: 

Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHATEVER I DO, I TRY TOO HARD. PLEASE TELL US ABOUT BUDDHA’S 

”RIGHT EFFORT.” 

Anand Nagaro, Gautama the Buddha has taught only one thing, and that is the middle way. Never go to the 

extreme. All extremes are the same. Be exactly in the middle and you will be freed, you will be liberated. 

There are people who are obsessed with sex; that is one extreme. Then there are people who escape from 

women, and if they are women they escape from men; they escape to the monasteries, to the caves. They are also 

obsessed of course, in the opposite direction. That is the other extreme. There are people who are greedy, too 

much greedy; their whole life is nothing but greed. And then there are people who renounce, who become afraid 

of touching anything. 

There are Jaina monks; in Buddha’s time they were very influential. Buddha’s whole fight was with Jaina 

monks, because they were extremists. They remain naked because if you wear clothes you may become attached 

to the clothes. They will not carry anything with them, not even a razor; when their hair is too long, they will 

pull it out. They will not wear shoes, they will walk barefoot, because shoes are a luxury. Naked, without any 

possessions, they impress people very much. 

Extremists are always very impressive. You are greedy, you are after money, after power, prestige; they have 

renounced all. Certainly, a great respect arises in your heart for them because you know you cannot do this; it is 

too cold to be naked. And to live without money.... The Jaina monk cannot touch money; he is not allowed to 

touch it, he is not even allowed to see money. How can you live without money? A great respect arises in you. 

You live on one extreme and you respect the other extreme. Sooner or later, when you will become fed up with


your extreme, you will start moving to the other extreme. But no basic change happens. The man who is afraid 

of touching money is still in a state of ignorance, unawareness. 

Buddha says: Stop in the middle. There is no need to be indulgent, there is no need to renounce either. Just 

be in the middle, exactly in the middle. He has a great point there: if you remain exactly in the middle, that is 

the point from where transcendence happens. 

It is like the pendulum of a clock. It goes from the right to the left, from the left to the right. Try to understand 

the pendulum and its process because it is very similar to the process of your mind. When the pendulum is going 

towards the right, visibly it is going towards the right, but invisibly it is gaining momentum to go to the left. 

When it is going to the left it is gaining momentum to go to the right. 

When you are indulging you are gaining momentum for renouncing the world, and when you are renouncing 

you will gain momentum to indulge again. And this can go on for lives together. But hold the pendulum in the 

middle and the clock stops. 

That’s what Buddha says: hold the pendulum in the middle and the mind stops. The mind is the clock because 

the mind is time, the mind is desire. It brings past and future it IS time. Hold it in the middle. Don’t live in 

the past and don’t live in the future. Be in the present, that is the middle. Don’t be indulgent and don’t be a 

renunciate; be in the middle. Fulfill the necessities of life. Don’t be obsessed by possessing things and don’t be 

obsessed by renouncing them. Both are obsessions and both are pathological states. Avoid both, be in the middle. 

In the middle is balance. 

You ask me, Nagaro, ”Whatever I do, I try too hard. Please tell us about Buddha’s ’right effort’.” 

Right effort means don’t try too hard. Right effort also means don’t stop trying completely. It means, just try 

in a relaxed way, neither too hard nor too soft, just in a relaxed way, in a very playful way. When you are trying 

too hard you become tense; when you are not trying at all you become lazy. When you are trying playfully you 

are neither lazy nor tense. Your life has a beauty, a grace, a balance, a harmony. Be in the middle, that’s exactly 

the meaning of right effort. 

Whenever Buddha uses the word ’right’, remember, he means balance. ’Right’ is a translation of a word which 

means balance, because the extreme is wrong, both the extremes are wrong. Buddha’s word is samyak; sam means 

balance, equilibrium. He uses that word more than any other word; he uses it for everything. If you are making 

effort for anything, let it be samyak, balanced, exactly in the middle. 

If you are meditating, Buddha says, let it be samyak right meditation. Don’t make too much fuss about it, 

don’t make a tension out of it. Don’t create anguish. Don’t become mad. Don’t be aggressive. And he also 

says that that does not mean to forget all about it and go on living the way you are living. No, make efforts for 

meditation, but in a joyous way, a graceful way, always in the middle. Be gentle, be gentlemanly. Buddha is the 

perfect gentleman; the emphasis is on gentle. He is a rare person in that way. 

Mahavira seems to be an extremist another enlightened person who was Buddha’s contemporary, the last 

prophet of the Jainas. He seems to be very extremist. It is said that for twelve years he was silent, didn’t speak 

a single word. Now, this is going too far. Don’t speak too much.... 

I have heard a story about Morarji Desai: 

Whenever he speaks, his wife will send him a note. Every-body around him became curious, naturally, ”What 

is that note?” Always it comes, inevitably.... And on the note they found there is only one word: Kiss. 

They told Morarji Desai, ”This is rare in this age of unfaithfulness; your wife still loves you so much. You are 

eighty-four, she must be seventy-five or more. Still such romance that whenever you stand to speak she sends you 

a note always welcoming you with a kiss.” 

Morarji looked angry as he always looks, that is nothing new! When he smiles, that is rare. Even in his smile 

there is no smile; still he looks as if he is angry. The smile seems to be painted. But he was really angry. He said, 

”You don’t know what she means. It is a short form; it means, ’Keep it short, stupid.’ That is the meaning of 

’kiss’.” 

If you keep it short, that’s okay, but there is no need to become dumb for twelve years. Be telegraphic, use only 

words which are necessary. Don’t go on chattering twenty-four hours a day, either with others or with yourself. 

People are chattering constantly, day in, day out. In the day they are chattering, in the night they are chattering. 

Mulla Nasruddin’s wife went to the physician and said that ”My husband talks in his sleep. Something has to 

be done. I am very much disturbed about it.” 

The physician said, ”I can understand. Take this medicine and within a week or two he will stop talking in his 

sleep.” 

The wife said, ”You misunderstand me. I don’t want him to stop, I want him to talk clearly so I can hear what 

he is saying.”


People are talking in their sleep, people are talking while they are awake. People are constantly talking; needed, 

not needed, they go on talking. Talking seems to be a kind of escape from themselves. So Buddha says it is good 

for a few hours to be silent, but there is no need to be silent forever. 

It is said that Mahavira ate only once in a while. Ten days he would fast or twenty days or thirty days and 

then one day he would take food. In those twelve years he took food only three hundred and sixty-five times; that 

means only one year. In twelve years, if that is the proportion, it comes to once every twelve days. 

Buddha says that is unnecessary, that is torture, that is making an extreme effort for no reason. It is perfectly 

good if you eat only as much as is needed; people are eating too much, people are stuffing themselves with food. 

That is again another way of keeping yourself away from yourself, keeping yourself engaged. 

People feel so empty like Prem Barkha everybody feels empty. And there is some unconscious desire to fill 

this emptiness through food, through smoking, through drink, through something; through talk, through the 

television, through the radio. Just remain occupied so you feel full. 

Just the other day I was reading that in America they have now invented a new kind of refrigerator. You open 

the door and the refrigerator immediately says, ”Excuse me, be kind to yourself. Please close the door.” People 

are constantly moving towards the fridge; that seems to be their only exercise. Even in the night when they have 

nothing to do or they are not feeling sleepy they will go to the fridge. 

There are people, and their number is big... out of ten, one person is capable of sleepwalking. They walk in 

their sleep and the direction is always towards the fridge. Even in sleep they know where the fridge is! They don’t 

stumble anywhere, they go directly like an arrow. Now this is one extreme, and not eating for eleven or twelve 

days then eating only for one day, that is another extreme. 

Buddha says ”right food.” Be in the middle. Eat as much as is necessary for your health, for your well-being, 

don’t eat too much. And that goes for everything in your life. 

A lady went into a shoe store to buy a pair of shoes. The salesman brought her a pair which she tried on. 

”Ah,” she said, ”I don’t like these shoes. They are too wide. I don’t want them too wide, I don’t want them too 

narrow. I just want them in between.” 

So the salesman gathered up the shoes and returned with another pair which were tried on. This time she 

frowned and said, ”These shoes won’t do. The holes in the toes are too big. I don’t want them too big and I don’t 

want them too small. I just want them in between.” 

So the salesman went back to the store room and got her another pair at which she exclaimed, ”Ah, I don’t 

like them. The heels are too high. I don’t want them too high and I don’t want them too low. I just want them 

in between.” 

At this point the salesman looked at her and said, ”Madam, if you will stand up and bend over I will give you 

a shoe not too high and not too low just in between!” 

The salesman seems to be a Buddhist: just in between! 

In every action, remain just in between. Through that balance comes transcendence, through that balance 

mind disappears. The mind is an extremist. It lives only through extremes; it dies if you stop moving from one 

extreme to another. 

The fourth question: 

Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH? 

Nijanando, first ask: is there life before death? People ask: Is there life after death? What concern is that for 

you? You are alive. Ask the significant question, the really relevant question: Is there life before death? Are you 

really alive? 

A woman went to the insurance company and said, ”Can I get the money for which my husband has been 

insured?” 

The man in the office said, ”But he is still alive. He is not dead. You will get the money only when he is dead.” 

She said, ”I know that he is not dead, but no life is left in him either.” 

That’s the situation: people are not dead and yet not alive either. They are somehow walking, talking, doing 

things, keeping themselves together, but there is no aliveness, there is no flavor of aliveness. 

And you are concerned, Nijanando, with what happens after death. Forget all about it. You are alive first live 

it totally. And remember one thing: whatsoever you do with your life now, that is going to create your future. 

Your future comes out of your present. If you live miserably now you will live miserably after death even more 

miserably because your whole life lived in misery will produce more misery for you. 

I am not concerned about life after death; my whole concern is life before death. And whatsoever you do with 

your life now will produce, as a consequence, your future. The tomorrow will be born out of today, the next


moment will be born out of this moment. So if this moment is lived rightly, totally, wholly, meditatively, then the 

next moment is bound to be more total, more holy, more meditative, because life goes on accumulating. If you 

live blissfully, bliss accumulates. You will take with you when you die whatsoever you have gained in this life. 

But down the ages people have remained concerned about the other life. I also talk sometimes about the other 

life, but just to joke, to laugh at it. It is not really a concern. 

In hell, as punishment for his sins, Ayatollah Khomeini and Jimmy Carter had to walk together hand in hand 

for eternity. As they were strolling along, they came across Morarji Desai arm in arm with Gina Lollobrigida. 

Carter asked, ”Mr. Desai, how come I am stuck for eternity with this turkey, while you get the gorgeous 

Lollobrigida?” 

Morarji Desai answered, ”Jimmy, she is not my punishment I am hers!” 

Only for jokes I talk about hell and heaven and life after death, but it is not my concern at all; I am not 

interested. My whole interest is in my present moment. Now is my interest, here is my interest, because God 

knows only one time now and God knows only one space here. If you want to be in contact with God you will 

have to learn how to be now and here. 

The fifth question: 

Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE DESIRES A ”NO-NO,” BUT LONGING FOR THE HEIGHTS OKAY? I 

GET LOST IN THE SUBTLETIES OF THE WORDS. THE BUDDHA MADE A SUPREME VOW NOT TO 

RISE FROM MEDITATION UNTIL ATTAINING ENLIGHTENMENT. FOR THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS 

HE HAD VISIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS, INCLUDING ONES OF HELL, DEMONS, ETCETERA. WHAT 

KIND OF EFFORT IS THIS? 

Jyotirmaya, when Buddha made that vow he was not a buddha; he was as ignorant as you are. In ignorance, 

whatsoever he has done, please forgive him. Don’t take much note of it. In ignorance everybody goes on doing 

stupid things. That vow is stupid. 

Truth is not something that you can force by your willpower. Taking a vow that ”I will not rise from meditation 

until attaining enlightenment” shows violence and ignorance. But Buddha was not Buddha at that time, he was 

Siddhartha Gautama stumbling, groping in the darkness as everybody else is groping. He was not in any way 

different from you. He had himself yet not learned the art of being in the middle; he was an extremist. This is 

extremism. 

For six years he tried hard and failed. That hard work upon himself did not yield any result; it cannot. That’s 

why when he became a buddha he was very much against hard effort, he was very much against extremes. He 

had lived through all kinds of extremes: he had lived like an ascetic, tortured himself. For six years he suffered as 

much as a human being can suffer but truth cannot be bought by your suffering. It is not a commodity and it is 

not possible to attain to it just by sheer force of willpower. You can sit for three days or three lives under a tree, 

and you won’t attain it. 

He didn’t attain it, remember. What he attained was hallucinations, visions of hell, demons, etcetera. That 

was his punishment, so beware of it. 

How he became enlightened is a totally different story. After three days, when he was tired, utterly tired of 

his effort, and he saw the frustration, the failure... those six years’ continuous torturing himself, and no gain, no 

success. He had not moved even an inch nearer to truth; he was still where he had started. Only one thing had 

happened: he had become weaker because he had been fasting. He had become ugly; he had become just bones, 

all flesh had disappeared. He had become just a skeleton. He looked like he had come out of a grave. No gain, no 

success... all efforts had failed. 

Then one evening he saw the futility of human effort. He saw the futility of human ego because all efforts are 

egoistic: ”I will attain.” The ’I’ is always behind all your achievements, desires of achievement. The ’I’ is very 

ambitious: it wants to be successful in this world, it wants to be successful in the other world. It wants to have 

money, it wants to have God too. It wants to have power; it wants to have liberation, moksha, truth, nirvana. It 

wants to have everything. 

Buddha saw it and in that seeing he dropped that mad effort and he dropped the very source of ambition. It 

was a full-moon night. He laughed at himself, at the whole stupidity of six years. He relaxed, he sat under a tree. 

For the first time after six years, just sitting not to achieve anything, just sitting, not meditating. Hence in Zen, 

meditation is called zazen. Zazen means just sitting doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. 

That evening he sat there under the tree with no desire, because all desires had failed. The worldly desires had 

failed, the otherworldly desires had failed.


You will be surprised to know: enlightenment is not a success. Enlightenment happens only when you have 

totally failed. Enlightenment is born out of total failure because if you succeed, the ego remains. When the 

failure is total, absolute, irrevocable, categorical, when there is no going back, the ego disappears. Ego lives, feeds 

on success; it cannot live in failure. It leaves you. 

That evening the ego disappeared. The full moon rose. He watched the full moon, he enjoyed the full moon. 

For six years he had not seen the moon at all, he was so much preoccupied with his own spiritual attainment. 

The night was cool and beautiful. The forest was silent, and just by the side was flowing the river Niranjana. He 

enjoyed the reflection of the moon in the Niranjana. He enjoyed the silence. Then he fell asleep. He slept without 

any dreams, because all dreams are by-products of desires. 

In the morning when it was dawn and the birds started singing he was awakened by their songs. Lying under 

the tree, nowhere to go, nothing to do, he watched the sun rise above the horizon; the east becoming red and a 

beautiful morning and the cool breeze.... And something happened, something clicked. He became enlightened 

not out of six years’ effort but only one night’s effortlessness. Not out of six years’ constant striving of the ego, 

but only one night’s state of no ego, no desire. And in the morning he was enlightened. 

Then again he laughed. He laughed because he saw that he was always enlightened but could not see the fact, 

the truth of it, because he was so much concerned with attaining it. If you are so much concerned with attaining 

it you will not be able to see that it is already the case. 

You are all buddhas. Nobody is born otherwise, everybody is born a buddha. It is not a question of achieving, 

Jyotirmaya, remember it: buddhahood, enlightenment, is not a question of attainment. It is a question of becoming 

silent, still, egoless, desireless, so that you can see with unclouded eyes who you are. You are a buddha already, 

you are enlightened. 

He laughed in the night because his whole life had failed; it was ridiculous. In the morning he laughed because 

he was searching for something that was already inside his soul; there was no need to seek and search for it. In 

fact, seeking and searching was keeping him away from it. 

Seek, and ye will not find; seek not and it is yours. 

The sixth question: 

Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, IS IT POSSIBLE TO LOVE AN ITALIAN MAN WITHOUT WANTING TO KILL 

HIM? 

Satya Bharti, it is impossible. But remember, the moment you stop thinking of killing him, love will also 

disappear. To fall in love with an Italian in the first place is very crazy, and then this desire to kill him is natural. 

Love is a kind of fight Italian or not Italian. Love is a kind of fight; it is a struggle. And when you stop fighting, 

when you stop struggling, love disappears. I am not talking about the love of the buddhas; I am talking about 

the love Satya is asking about. 

And do you know who this Italian is? Sarjano, the most Italian out of all Italians! 

After the Ark had pushed off, Noah assembled all the animals in the central cabin and made a short speech. 

He pointed out that the trip was liable to be a long one, and that quarters were somewhat limited. ”Therefore,” 

he said, ”I want to emphasize that we can’t have any population increases at all until the flood subsides and we 

can get to land. I am appointing the giraffe, as the tallest of you, to stand guard and make sure my instructions 

are carried out.” 

Finally the water subsided, the Ark landed and the doors were opened. Out came the animals, two by two, as 

they had come in no more of any species. Then the cats came out followed by a litter of little kittens. As they 

passed the giraffe, one of the cats looked up and winked. ”I will bet,” he said, ”you thought we were fighting.” 

The seventh question: 

Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY? 

Ismail Nagdum, I don’t believe in anything and I don’t disbelieve anything. My whole effort here is to help 

you to destroy all beliefs and all disbeliefs, because only then will you be able to know. Knowing happens only 

when the inner being is utterly empty of beliefs and disbeliefs, when you are neither a Catholic nor a communist, 

neither an atheist nor a theist. And that was Buddha’s attitude too: he was an agnostic. 

A real seeker of truth does not believe in anything, positively or negatively. He does not believe in God, he 

does not believe in no-God. So what to say about astronomy and astrology? Belief is not his concern; knowing, 

experiencing, seeing, is his concern, because it is only through seeing that transformation happens. 

But people go on believing all kinds of things because belief gives you a false idea of knowledge. It makes you 

feel good it hides your ignorance. Otherwise belief is the most stupid thing that one can do. Belief means you


don’t know and yet you believe. Remember, belief is irrelevant when you don’t know and belief is irrelevant when 

you do know. When you don’t know, your belief is false, rooted in ignorance. When you know, there is no need 

to believe you know already. 

Do you believe in the sun, in the moon? Does anybody ask you, ”Do you believe in the earth?” Nobody asks 

such questions. People ask, ”Do you believe in God? Do you believe in astrology? Do you believe in life after 

death?” These questions seem to be relevant because nobody seems to know. 

I don’t believe in anything. And remember, if you start believing, then there is no end to it; you can believe in 

any nonsense. Once you believe, there is no problem. 

Harry came home from work earlier than usual one afternoon. ”Darling, I’m home,” he cried and rushed 

upstairs to the bedroom, where he found his wife lying on the bed, a surprised look on her face. The curtains 

were drawn, the sheets and blankets were in disorder. ”Is everything all right?” he asked. 

”Why, yes... yes, of course, dear,” she replied uncertainly. 

Taking off his jacket he went to the wardrobe and to his surprise found a man crouching inside. 

”Hello, what are you doing here?” said Harry in astonishment. 

”Oh... I... I’m the gas man.... I’ve, er... come to check the gas meter.” 

”Hmm, I see,” said Harry and hung up his jacket. 

Then reaching under the bed for his slippers, he found another man lying there. 

”Well... and who are you?” he asked. 

”Ah, yes... well.... I’m the, er... the electrician... I’ve come to fix the wiring.” 

”I see,” said Harry. ”All right then.” 

Then, taking off his tie and shirt, he remarked, ”I say, dear, it is a bit dark and stuffy in here, don’t you think?” 

and drawing back the curtain he saw a man perched outside on the window ledge. 

”Hello,” said Harry, ”and what are you doing here?” 

”Well,” said the man, ”if you believed those other guys actually, I’m waiting for a bus.” 

The eighth question: 

Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, IS IT REALLY BAD LUCK TO HAVE A BLACK CAT CROSS YOUR PATH? 

Narendra, it depends on whether you are a man or a mouse! 

The last question: 

Question 9 BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS LAUGHING AT THE KNOWLEDGEABLE 

PEOPLE? 

Govindo, what should I do? Should I cry and weep over spilt milk? If you cannot laugh at knowledgeable 

people, at whom are you going to laugh? They are the most stupid people in the world, the most ridiculous. 

A British couple after a few years of marriage finally had a child. As the child’s hair was completely red 

and both parents’ hair was brown, things looked a little suspicious. The bewildered wife, upset at the obvious 

insinuations, suggested that they both go to see a doctor. 

The doctor, after taking note of the unusual phenomenon, looked even more puzzled than the couple. ”According 

to the laws of genetics,” he explained, ”it is impossible that a man and a woman with brown hair can give birth 

to a child with red hair.” The doctor decided to make inquiries in another direction. ”How frequently do you have 

sexual intercourse?” he asked. 

The answer was a British embarrassed silence. 

”Once a day?” encouraged the doctor. 

”Well, not really,” was the embarrassed answer of the couple. 

”Well, once a week then?” asked the doctor. 

”Ahem, I wouldn’t say that,” answered the man. 

”Once a month?” probed the doctor. 

”Well, ahem, we don’t not that often,” was the reply. 

”Aha!” cried the doctor. ”Now I get it! Nothing to be worried about it’s only rust!” 



Chapter 3 Buddhas only point the way 


I SHALL ENDURE HARD WORDS AS THE ELEPHANT ENDURES THE SHAFTS OF BATTLE. FOR 

MANY PEOPLE SPEAK WILDLY.


THE TAMED ELEPHANT GOES TO BATTLE. THE KING RIDES HIM. THE TAMED MAN IS THE 

MASTER. HE CAN ENDURE HARD WORDS IN PEACE. 

BETTER THAN A MULE OR THE FINE HORSES OF SINDH OR THE MIGHTY ELEPHANTS OF WAR 

IS THE MAN WHO HAS MASTERED HIMSELF. 

NOT ON THEIR BACKS CAN HE REACH THE UNTRODDEN COUNTRY, BUT ONLY ON HIS OWN. 

THE MIGHTY ELEPHANT DHANAPALAKA IS WILD WHEN HE IS IN RUT, AND WHEN BOUND HE 

WILL NOT EAT, REMEMBERING THE ELEPHANT GROVE. 

THE FOOL IS IDLE. HE EATS AND HE ROLLS IN HIS SLEEP LIKE A HOG IN A STY. AND HE HAS 

TO LIVE LIFE OVER AGAIN. 

MY OWN MIND USED TO WANDER WHEREVER PLEASURE OR DESIRE OR LUST LED IT. BUT 

NOW I HAVE IT TAMED, I GUIDE IT, AS THE KEEPER GUIDES THE WILD ELEPHANT. 

AWAKE. BE THE WITNESS OF YOUR THOUGHTS. THE ELEPHANT HAULS HIMSELF FROM THE 

MUD. IN THE SAME WAY DRAG YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR SLOTH. 

The fundamental problem is not metaphysical, it is not concerned with the ultimate reality. It is concerned 

with you, your mind, your functioning of the mind, your sleep, your state of a sleepwalker. 

Man ordinarily exists only mechanically. He is not aware although he believes he is aware. In fact that belief 

hinders him from becoming aware. Man is fast asleep not only in the night but in the day too. He is constantly 

dreaming. You can watch it yourself. Any time close your eyes, relax a little and you will be surprised: dreams 

start moving. They were already moving like an undercurrent. You were occupied with outside reality, hence you 

were not looking at them, but they were there all the time. Your back was towards them. Just look a little in 

and you will find thousands of dreams crowding you: possible, impossible, consistent, inconsistent. 

When you see this state, you will understand why humanity has missed always the awakened ones. The 

awakened one has no more any undercurrent of dreaming in him. He is fully alert, aware. He speaks the language 

of awareness and you are asleep. There is no possibility of communication between you and the awakened one. He 

shouts, he makes every effort to reach you, to penetrate you, to penetrate your sleep and unconsciousness, but it 

is thick, dense and very deep. Rarely do you hear him, very rarely, and even when you hear him you misinterpret 

him. Even when you hear him you don’t listen to him. You are like a drunk who seems to be hearing, but still 

goes on interpreting according to his drunken state. The whole humanity needs to be part of an organization like 

Alcoholics Anonymous. You may not be alcoholic, you may not be taking any intoxicant, you may not be taking 

or injecting any drug, but the society goes on injecting into your blood, into your being, many poisons. 

For example, each child is poisoned by the society through teaching him ambition. Ambition is a poison far 

more dangerous than any alcohol can ever be, far more dangerous than marijuana or LSD, because ambition 

destroys your whole life. It keeps you moving in a false direction. It keeps you imagining, desiring, dreaming, 

it keeps you wasting your life. Ambition means a subtle creation of the ego, and once the ego is created you 

are in the grip of darkness. And the whole social structure depends on ambition. Be the first! Wherever you 

are, whatsoever you are doing: be the first! as if being the first has something divine about it. By what means 

you become the first is irrelevant. By right means or wrong means, succeed! As if success in itself has become 

equivalent to life, synonymous with life. 

Life has nothing to do with success. Success keeps you rushing towards the future and that becomes your 

intoxicant. Hoping, hoping for the tomorrow, wasting that which you have or that which you don’t have and will 

never have. 

Rabinowitz walked into Gold’s theatrical agency with a puppy under his arm. 

”I got here an attraction that will make you a million dollars. I got a little puppy dog that plays an electric 

piano and sings ’My Yiddish Mama’.” ”I don’t believe it,” said Gold. 

Rabinowitz opened up a suitcase, pulled out a tiny piano, put the puppy at it and the dog began playing and 

singing. 

The theatrical agent leaped up and shouted, ”My God! We will clean up a fortune!” 

Just then the door opened and in walked a big dog, grabbed the puppy by the neck, and ran out with him. 

”What the hell was that?” asked the agent. 

”That is the puppy’s mother,” answered Rabinowitz. ”She wants him to be a doctor!” 

That is being done to every child. Your mother wants you to be a doctor, your father wants you to be an 

engineer, your uncle wants you to be a scientist and so on, so forth. And nobody asks what you are intrinsically 

meant to be. They go on imposing their ideas on you. Their ambitions have remained unfulfilled, they project 

their ambitions through you. They want their ambitions and egos fulfilled through you. And they are going


to remain unfulfilled again; hence you will have to do the same damage to your own children. It is from one 

generation to another generation that the poison is passed on. 

For centuries man has lived in this mad situation. Now it has reached to a climax. The whole earth has become 

almost a madhouse. 

If Buddha was not understood twenty-five centuries ago, it will be even more difficult to understand him now, 

because the unfulfilled ambitions of twenty-five centuries are overwhelmingly there, they are surrounding you. 

You are flooded with them. All the people who have lived and died have left their ambitions as a heritage for you. 

Your eyes are blind, your ears are deaf, your hearts only pump the blood, they no more feel.... 

The vicar was driving home one night when suddenly his car made a terrible noise and ground to a halt. 

Taking out his flashlight and a box of tools, he pulled up the bonnet and started to look over the engine. 

While he was tinkering away with a spanner in hand, the local drunk staggered by and stopped to ask, ”Anything 

wrong, Vicar?” 

”Yes. Piston broke.” 

”So am I,” replied the drunk. 

You are not in your senses. Hence buddhas have been misunderstood, and to understand them has become 

more and more difficult. Keep it in your mind when you meditate on these beautiful words simple words, because 

buddhas have always used simple words, but with tremendous meaning. 

The Buddha says: 

I SHALL ENDURE HARD WORDS AS THE ELEPHANT ENDURES THE SHAFTS OF BATTLE. FOR 

MANY PEOPLE SPEAK WILDLY. 

I SHALL ENDURE HARD WORDS.... Buddha expects that that is going to be his reward. He will shower 

you with his love and compassion and all that you can do is insult him, throw hard words or stones at him. All 

that you can do is some kind of harm. You are going to hurt him. Hence he says in the beginning: I SHALL 

ENDURE HARD WORDS. He expects that, and every buddha has expected that down the ages. 

Once a disciple of Buddha was going to preach his word to the masses. He had become enlightened, and Buddha 

said, ”Now you are ready to go, you need not accompany me any longer. Once in a while you can come to see 

me; otherwise you can help people on your own. Go and help people to become more aware, more meditative.” 

But he said also, ”One thing I would like to ask: What part of the country would you like to go to?” There 

was a part of Bihar, where Buddha lived, where no sannyasin of Buddha’s had ever gone. The name of the part 

was Suka. This newly enlightened sannyasin said, ”I will go to Suka.” 

Buddha said, ”Please don’t go there. Nobody has gone there yet for a certain reason. The people there are 

very wild, uncultured, stupid, mischievous, murderous, very violent. Don’t go there.” 

But the disciple said, ”If they are in such a bad situation they need us more than anybody else. The physician 

is needed only where people are ill.” 

Buddha said, ”That I can understand, but before you go, before I bless you to go, I will ask three questions. 

First: If they insult you, what will be your response?” 

The young man said, ”I will thank them, I will feel grateful that they are only insulting me. They could have 

beaten me. They are good people. They are not beating me; they are simply insulting me and what can words 

do? Words are words, they can’t hurt me.” 

Buddha said, ”The second question: If they beat you, what will be your response?” 

The young man said, ”I will thank them, I will feel grateful that they are beating me. They could have killed 

me. They are only beating me they are so compassionate, so kind. It would have been so easy for them to kill 

me.” 

Buddha said, ”Now, the last question. If they kill you, dying, in the last moments, what will be your response?” 

The young man said, ”Still I will be grateful and thankful to them because they are taking a life away from 

me in which I may have done something wrong. If I had lived more I may have committed some crime, some sin; 

I may have fallen from my peak of awareness. They are simply taking that life which is useless to me. I have 

attained the treasure, I don’t need life anymore. They are taking something useless away from me and I will be 

grateful because, who knows, if I had lived more, in some situation I may have gone astray.” 

Buddha said, ”Now you can go anywhere you like with my blessings. You have not only become enlightened, 

you have become capable of being a master.” 

Remember it, that every enlightened person is not a master, although every master has to be enlightened. 

Many enlightened people have lived on the earth without ever becoming masters for the simple reason that to be 

a master needs certain qualities which are not necessary for being enlightened. Enlightenment is an individual 

process; it is something inward, subjective, it can happen within you. To be a master means the capacity to


communicate, and not only to communicate but to commune with others, others who are almost mad, others who 

are almost incapable of seeing things. 

Keller paid a lot of money for Buck, a golden retriever. One morning Keller went duck hunting with Buck. 

Within ten minutes he shot a duck that fell into a pond. 

Buck ran over the surface of the water, picked up the duck, returned running over the top of the water, and 

laid it at the feet of his master. 

The rest of the morning every bird that fell into the pond when shot was retrieved by Buck running over the 

top of the water without even wetting his feet. 

Around noontime Keller met a fisherman. While they chatted a duck flew by and Keller quickly sent it hurtling 

down into the middle of the pond. 

Once again, Buck ran out over the top of the water, retrieved the duck, and brought it back. 

”I just bought this dog yesterday and he cost me a lot of dough,” said Keller. ”Well, they pulled a fast one on 

you,” said the fisherman. ”The dog can’t even swim!” 

To communicate, to commune about the unknown, about the invisible, about the mysterious, is one of the 

greatest of arts. To help people to see that which they have never seen before although it is always around the 

corner, to help people to hear that which they have never heard before although it has been always there, to help 

people to be silent, to be meditative, is one of the most difficult arts because people are mad. They don’t know 

what silence is. To wake them up out of their sleep is almost a miracle. 

A deaf man was visiting his friend and the dog of the friend barked at him like mad. Being unable to hear 

anything, he said to his friend after they had exchanged greetings, ”Your dog did not sleep well last night.” 

”Why do you say that?” 

”He looked at me and kept yawning.” 

A deaf man can’t hear, he can’t hear the dog barking; he can only see the movement, the gesture, the lips 

moving, the mouth opening and closing, and he will interpret it according to his own understanding. He says, 

”He looked at me and kept yawning.” 

That’s how we have listened to the buddhas. We have not listened at all, we have heard their words, certainly. 

If we had listened to them there would have been no need for us to crucify Jesus or poison Socrates or kill al-Hillaj 

Mansoor. 

Buddha says the first thing to remember: I SHALL ENDURE HARD WORDS AS THE ELEPHANT EN- 

DURES THE SHAFTS OF BATTLE. It is a battle between the awakened one and the unawakened crowd. It is 

really a great battle, it is a war, and the unawakened are many and the awakened is one. And all the unawakened 

feel a certain humiliation in the presence of the awakened. They feel as if his presence proves to them that they 

have not risen to their real heights, that they have wasted their lives. Rather than rising to their heights they 

would like to remove the presence of the awakened one so that they can feel at ease. You always feel at ease with 

people who are just like you; their presence does not in any way make you feel inferior. The presence of a Buddha 

makes you feel inferior and you are bound to take revenge. It is a battle, and a buddha has to be like an elephant 

who endures the shafts in a battle. 

FOR MANY PEOPLE SPEAK WILDLY.... Not only will their words be hard, they will be almost wild, mad. 

I know it from my own experience. 

For twenty years I was traveling around this country. I have encountered all kinds of wild people. It was 

necessary to invite them, it was necessary to choose my people from the crowds, hence I had to go. But the 

way they were behaving was really strange. I was not harming them; I was simply telling them to wake up in 

a thousand and one ways, but they were throwing stones at me, they were disturbing my meetings, they were 

preventing me from entering their towns. They were preventing me from getting down from the train in their 

towns. They were doing all kinds of things... they were really wild for no reason at all. 

They are still doing it, although I don’t go to their towns; although I never move anywhere now, they are still 

behaving in a wild way. Strange things they go on saying and not only saying, but believing. And now it is not 

only in India that they are saying hard words about me, it is almost all over the world. 

Just yesterday I received an article published in London. They say that I brainwash people here and when 

their brains are washed away completely, then the men are sent for smuggling jobs and the women are sent 

for prostitution. That’s what I am doing to you, so beware! Once your brain is washed completely these two 

alternatives are left. And the man who writes it, writes it with great confidence as if he knows. 

Just the other day I received a news from Bombay. A sannyasin has come across a few photographs in a studio. 

The sannyasin could see in the pictures somebody who looks like me. At the first glance he was shocked; when 

he looked closely then he could see that it was somebody else, but with some similarity. Now, they have bribed


this man to be naked among naked women, and they have taken his pictures, and now they are going to publish 

them all over the world. Great idea! I really loved it. Some imagination. 

But this is how they have been doing always. And I am not saying that they do it knowingly. No, they may be 

thinking that they are serving humanity, they are making people aware of the danger that I am. They may have 

every good intention behind all these things; that makes it more complex. They are simply servants of humanity. 

Buddha says: FOR MANY PEOPLE SPEAK WILDLY. 

So if you want to live in this world and be awakened you will have to be ready to accept their hard words, their 

wild actions patiently, silently, with a deep understanding that what can they do? Whatsoever they can do they 

are doing. It is not their fault, they are simply asleep, and in their sleep they are saying absurd things. 

When somebody is drunk and starts saying absurd things you don’t take much note of it. You say, ”He is a 

drunkard” but that’s how people are. 



THE TAMED ELEPHANT GOES TO BATTLE.... By ”tamed elephant” Buddha means ”the disciplined 

one.” The words ’tamed elephant’ are not very accurate; it will be better to say ”the disciplined one.” There is a 

great difference between taming and discipline. You can tame through force, coercion, violence, but you cannot 

discipline through coercion. Discipline comes out of understanding. You can help people to understand their own 

minds and the functioning of their minds, the state of their sleep, mechanicalness. Out of that understanding a 

change happens, a radical change happens: they become soft, compassionate, silent, peaceful, more understanding, 

more available, more open. 



The disciplined man also becomes a master, also becomes a king. He rides on his own discipline, on his own 

understanding. He lives in the world with wild people, uncultured, uneducated in the real sense of education: 

they don’t know who they are. That should be the first step for a right education. They are not acquainted with 

their own interiority. What kind of education is this that does not make them aware of their inner kingdom, that 

goes on stuffing them with nonsense, useless information? geography, history... what are you going to do with 

Genghis Khan and Tamerlane? What is the point of it all? 

But we go on stuffing people with unnecessary information. What is the point of knowing where Timbuktu 

is? Let it be where it is. Even if it is not anywhere, it doesn’t matter. And histories of murderers called kings, 

murderers called great conquerors, Alexander the Great or Napoleon.... And in future people will be reading about 

Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Ayatollah Khomeiniac. It is all absolutely irrelevant. 

The basic education is missing. The first thing to be taught is meditation, the art of going in, because only out 

of that arises a discipline. The word ’discipline’ is beautiful; it means the capacity to learn. A disciplined man 

is always ready to learn more. He is never closed, he never claims that he knows everything. He knows what he 

knows, and he also knows what he does not know and what he knows is very small, and what he does not know 

is immense. He cannot brag about his knowledge. In fact the more he knows the more he becomes aware of the 

uncharted, of the unmapped, of the unknown; and not only of the unknown but the unknowable. The more and 

more he feels the mystery of existence, the more and more he wonders. That is true knowledge, true education, 

true culture. 

Then a man becomes a master, a king; only then can he make an effort to reach people. Only then can he 

communicate his love, his understanding, his knowing, his seeing. 

BETTER THAN A MULE OR THE FINE HORSES OF SINDH OR MIGHTY ELEPHANTS OF WAR IS 

THE MAN WHO HAS MASTERED HIMSELF. 

Buddha is not concerned with God, Buddha is concerned with you. His religion is man-oriented, not Godoriented. 

One of the great poets of India, Chandidas, has condensed Buddha’s whole teaching into a simple 

sentence: sabar upar manus satya the truth of man is the highest truth, there is no truth higher than it tahar 

upar nahin; there is nothing higher than that. 

Buddha has given man such dignity as nobody else has ever done. All other religions condemn man, they 

condemn man in order to praise God; and their ”God” is nothing but their imagination. Hence there are as many 

gods as there are religions. There are at least three hundred religions in the world, three thousand sects of those 

religions, and there must be thirty thousand subsects. And there are as many gods as there are sects in the world. 

Every sect has its own idea of god, and God does not exist at all. 

What exists is a godly existence, a divine existence. God not as a person but as a presence certainly exists. 

But to understand that presence, you have to understand your own inner presence first, because it is from there


that you can take off, it is from there that you can have the first glimpse of what godliness is. If you have not 

known yourself you will never know God. 

You can go on worshipping in the temples, in the mosques, in the churches, but your God is childish. Compared 

to Buddha’s teachings the gods that are worshipped look very stupid. The worshippers look stupid, and their gods, 

because they are created by the stupid worshippers, also look silly. Your gods are nothing but your projections; 

they can’t be more than your own state of mind. Just watch. Different gods are created by different people. If 

horses could think of a religion, then their god must be a supreme horse. It can’t be man, that much is certain. 

No horse can believe that man has any divinity in him. Man seems to be the most barbarous animal. If horses 

were to imagine, they would imagine the dfvil in the shape of man. Man imagines God in his own image; hence 

Negroes have their god like Negroes. You can see the hair of the Negro gods, they are Negroid; you can see the 

lips of the Negro gods and they are thick. Hindu gods are Hindu, and Chinese gods are Chinese, the cheek bones 

showing prominently and the noses of course Chinese. 

Every country, every race, every religion thinks of God according to its own idea of how man should be. But 

those are all our projections. Buddha is not concerned at all with them. Buddha wants you to become a god. He 

wants you to become divine. You are divine; he wants you to recognize the fact. There is nobody higher than 

you. This declaration is something superb, something unique. Nobody had dared before Buddha to respect man 

so much. 

Father O’Reilly had taken up golf and was practicing on the church lawn while Sister McCarthy looked on. 

Father O’Reilly raised his club, and swung at the ball. 

”Oh, shit! I missed,” he shouted. 

”Father O’Reilly,” admonished Sister McCarthy, ”God will be very angry if you use such language.” 

”Yes, Sister,” answered Father O’Reilly. ”I shall try to control my tongue.” He raised his club for another try 

and swung at the ball. ”Oh, shit! I missed,” he shouted. 

”Father O’Reilly, I am sure God will punish you severely if you say that again!” said the Sister. 

”Yes, I will try especially hard next time, Sister McCarthy,” said the priest. He raised his club again and swung 

at the ball. ”Oh, shit! I missed,” he shouted. 

Just then a bolt of lightning flashed out of the sky and Sister McCarthy disappeared in a holocaust of flames. 

Then a great voice boomed from the sky. ”Oh, shit! I missed.” 

Our gods can’t be very different; they are our gods, they will reflect us. Hence Buddha says: Get rid of all 

gods. What you are worshipping in the temples is nothing but your own image. It will be better if you keep a 

mirror and worship your reflection in it. That will be far better, at least far truer, less deceptive. 

Buddha’s emphasis is on man. It is the only man-oriented religion in the world. And of course it transforms 

man, it does not make you superstitious, it does not give you any belief. It gives you a key to open the doors of 

your own being. And when you know who you are, you will know what this whole existence is and its beauty and 

its grace and its splendor. 

NOT ON THEIR BACKS CAN HE REACH THE UNTRODDEN COUNTRY, BUT ONLY ON HIS OWN. 

Remember, you cannot reach to the untrodden country on anybody else’s back. You will have to reach on your 

own. The last words of Buddha were: Be a light unto yourself because there is no other light. 

He gives you total freedom, he wants you to be free from all kinds of bondages. He does not want you to be a 

follower, an imitator; he wants you to be authentically your own self. 


WILL NOT EAT, REMEMBERING THE ELEPHANT GROVE. 

Even though it is a mythological elephant, Dhanapalaka is said to be the greatest elephant who has ever been 

on the earth, the wisest elephant. It is just a beautiful story. But even Dhanapalaka with such might, with such 

wisdom, goes wild when he is in rut; when he is sexually aroused he is no more in his senses, he becomes mad. 

Sex is really an internal process of intoxicating you. It is chemical. You have nothing to do with it. It is your 

body chemistry, it is your physiology that releases certain chemicals in your body and then in a sexual state you 

can do something for which you will repent. Later on you will say, ”I cannot believe how it happened. It happened 

in spite of me.” And it is not only sex; so many things are happening in you through your physiology. When you 

are angry, it is not you. Again certain poisons are released in your blood and you are under the impact of those 

poisons. 

Buddha says: If you start watching the processes of sexuality, anger, greed, you will be able to see that it is not 

out of you that these things are born. You are only a witness. These things are born in your body, in your mind; 

and body and mind are not two things, they are one. You are psychosomatic. The mind is your inner body, and


the body is your outer mind. Hence the body affects the mind and the mind affects the body. You are a third 

force. 

That third force is known only through meditation; there is no other way to know it, because it is through 

meditation that you become disidentified with the bodymind mechanism. Otherwise you can be very mighty, 

very knowledgeable, even sometimes in some moments very wise, but all that can go in a second. Your body can 

possess you, your physiology can become so powerful over you that you become a slave. You lose your mastery. 

Whenever you are angry, whenever you are in a sexual arousal, you are no more a master, you are simply a slave. 

Buddha is not against sex, remember. Buddha is not against anger or greed, he is against slavery. And anything 

that creates slavery in you, he would like you to transcend it. Remember the difference. There are people who 

are against sex they are against sex because sex is hedonistic, they say; they are against sex because sex makes 

you happy. They are against happiness. They can’t tolerate any happiness anywhere. They are sadists, they 

would like the whole world to be in suffering; they enjoy suffering. They not only want others to suffer, they make 

themselves suffer too. Suffering is their joy. That is a perverted state, a pathological state. 

Buddha is not against sex because it gives you pleasure; he is simply trying to make you aware of the fact that 

these are the things that keep you tethered into a kind of inner slavery. You are a slave of your own chemistry, 

you are a slave of your own physiology and this slavery has to be transcended. 


WILL NOT EAT, REMEMBERING THE ELEPHANT GROVE. When he is under the impact of his sexuality 

he cannot eat; he thinks only of the elephant grove, he thinks of female elephants. His whole mind is possessed 

by fantasy and that’s true about you too. Whenever you are under the impact of any chemical process you are 

no more yourself, you are distracted from your true being. You are no longer centered. You become eccentric. 

That’s exactly the meaning of the word eccentric: you lose your center, you go off center. 



Buddha wants you to be reminded that if you live like a fool idle, lazy, without making any effort to transform 

your being, without making any effort to transcend your slavery, without making any effort to become a master 

if you live like a fool, just eating and rolling in your sleep, LIKE A HOG IN A STY, you will have to live again 

and again the same stupid life. You will have to repeat it. In fact you have already repeated it many times, and 

you have not yet understood why you are repeating it again and again. You have to learn the lesson. The lesson 

is freedom. If you don’t learn it you will be sent back to the same school, to the same grade again and again. 

That is one of the greatest contributions of Indian spirituality to the world. India has contributed a few things; 

this is one of the contributions of great significance. The idea is that existence is an opportunity for understanding, 

for transcending, for going through a radical change. It is a school. Life is a school. If you learn rightly, if you 

discipline yourself rightly you will not be coming back again, you will exist in the universal. You will never become 

again a separate individual; you will never have to be an ego again. You will live an egoless existence, like the 

wave which has disappeared in the ocean. 

That has been the ultimate goal of the mystics: to disappear into the universal, not to be separate; to melt 

and merge into the universal. Separation brings anxiety, separation brings death, separation brings misery. We 

are miserable because we are feeling separate from God or the universe. Bliss arises whenever you feel one with 

the universe; when you are in harmony with the universe bliss arises. There is great joy, rejoicing; you disappear, 

you die in a way, but you are reborn. You are reborn as the ocean, you die as the dewdrop. 

But if you don’t learn the lesson you will have to come back again. Unless you learn you will have to repeat 

the same process. 

David, a student of a university, received a telephone call from his brother Blake, back home. 

”Hi, David,” said Blake. ”Your cat is dead.” 

David fell apart. He began crying uncontrollably. When finally he was able to compose himself, he scolded his 

brother. 

”Damn it, Blake,” he told him. ”You know how I loved that cat. You did not have to call me and just spill it 

out, first thing ’Your cat is dead.’ You should have broken it to me gently. You could have said, ’Dave, the cat 

got out of the window the other day and crawled up the rainspout and got up on the roof and slipped and fell,’ 

and then you could have said it died.” 

”I am sorry,” apologized Blake. 

”Okay, forget it,” said David. ”How is Mom?” 

”Well, Mom got out the window the other day and crawled up the rainspout....”


It is so difficult to learn, we go on repeating the same mistake again and again maybe in a new way, in a new 

fashion, in a new style, but it is the same mistake. You watch your life: you have not done many mistakes, you 

have been doing the same mistakes again and again. You move in a circle. How are you going to learn? I am not 

against making mistakes. Make as many mistakes as you can, but please at least don’t make the same mistake 

twice. Then certainly there will come a great understanding to you. One learns through mistakes, so nothing is 

wrong in mistakes as such. The wrongness is in repeating them again and again. That means you are not learning 

anything. 

Your whole life you have been angry. What have you learned out of it? Your whole life you have been jealous. 

What have you learned out of it? If you are not learning out of these experiences, you will have to repeat your life 

again. Learn out of every experience, small or big. Whenever you are jealous you are in a fire, your heart burns 

and you know what you are doing to yourself. You know the wrongness of it, but you know it only because others 

say so. It is not your own understanding, your own insight. Let it become your own insight, so the next time the 

situation arises to be jealous you can laugh at it, so the next time the same situation arises you don’t behave in 

the same old pattern; you can get out of the old pattern. 

To me this is sannyas: getting always out of the old patterns, becoming always new, remaining always fresh, 

young, learning. Then your whole life will teach you something of tremendous value and you will be able to die 

in deep silence, peace, joy. Then there is no coming back. Then you become part of the whole. That is nirvana, 

that is moksha. 

In Western religions there is no word which can translate moksha or nirvana. In Western religions Christianity, 

Islam, are offshoots of one religion, Judaism there are two words, hell and heaven. In Indian religions there are 

three words: hell, heaven and moksha. Hell means nothing but misery; it is a psychological state of misery, a 

state of negativity, a state of darkness, of utter loneliness. And heaven is joy, happiness, health, light. But there 

is a third word, moksha. Moksha means freedom, freedom from both heaven and hell, freedom from pain and 

pleasure because pain binds you as much as pleasure binds you. Pain may be an ugly chain and pleasure may be 

a beautiful chain, decorated, maybe made of gold, but it chains you. Hell may be a poor place and heaven may 

be a very rich place but poverty and riches are two aspects of the same coin. One has to be free of both. 

When you are free of both, you are free of mind, because mind lives in the duality of heaven and hell, of darkness 

and light, of misery and happiness, of day and night, of life and death. When you have transcended both and 

reached to the third which is beyond, which is transcendental, it is moksha. Moksha means nirvana; it is cessation 

of the ego, and meeting and merging into the universal. That has been the goal of the Eastern mystic. 

Just as science has reached its ultimate peaks in the West, religion has reached its ultimate peaks in the East. 

Whenever East and West will meet there will be a great meeting of science and religion. And that is going to 

be one of the greatest moments in the history of humanity, because then man can live outwardly a rich life and 

inwardly a full life. Then there is no need to be as poor as India is or to be as empty inwardly as America is. One 

can be rich outside, and one can be rich on the inside simultaneously. 



An elderly German sat before the fire and in a reflective moment spoke to his dog, ”You is only a dog, but I 

wish I was you. Wen you go your bed in, you shust turn round dree times and lie down; wen I go de bed in, I haf 

to lock up de place, and wind up de clock, and put out de cat, and undress myself, and my wife wakes up and 

scolds, and den de baby wakes and cries and I haf to walk him de house around, and den maybe I get myself to 

bed in time to get up again. 

”Wen you get up, you shust stretch yourself, dig your neck a little, and you was up. I have to light de fire, put 

on de kiddle, scrap some vit my wife, and get myself breakfast. You be lays round all day and haf blenty of fun. 

I haf to work all day and haf blenty of drubble. Wen you die, you was dead; wen I die, I haf to go somewhere 

again.” 

You need not if you learn; if you learn the lesson you need not go anywhere again. You disappear into the 

whole, you are everywhere and nowhere then. You are no more an entity, confined into boundaries. 

MY OWN MIND USED TO WANDER WHEREVER PLEASURE OR DESIRE OR LUST LED IT. BUT 

NOW I HAVE IT TAMED, I GUIDE IT, AS THE KEEPER GUIDES THE WILD ELEPHANT. 

This also is something new in Buddha. Christians believe Jesus is special; he is the only begotten Son of God. 

Hindus believe Krishna is special; he is the perfect incarnation of God. Mohammedans believe Mohammed is 

special; he is the only prophet of God, the only messenger. Jainas believe Mahavira is special; he is the last, the 

twenty-fourth tirthankara, the last prophet of Jainism; there will be no more prophets after Mahavira. Unique 

they are, these people, special, not just ordinary human beings like you and me.


Buddha is different again. He says, ”I am an ordinary human being.” He says, MY OWN MIND USED TO 

WANDER. 

Gospels never say anything like that, no Hindu scriptures will ever say anything like that about Krishna or 

Rama because that will make them ordinary like you. They are born gods. 

Buddha simply says, ”I was a human being just like you. I was groping in darkness just like you. I was doing 

all kinds of things as you are doing; I am in no way special. All that happened to me is happening to you and 

something more has happened to me which can happen to you if you allow it to happen. I was as ordinary as you 

are; just only one thing has happened to me which has made all the difference. I have become aware and you are 

unaware. You are carrying the truth in you as much as I am. I am aware of it; you are not aware of it. 

”But remember, whether you know the truth or you don’t know, it makes no difference to the truth. The truth 

remains true. Knowing or not knowing does not make any difference. Truth is truth. It is behind you,” Buddha 

says, ”it is in front of me. I have turned in; I have taken the hundred-eighty-degree turn, that’s all. It is not much 

to brag about. You can do it.” 

This is again very special about Buddha. He never claims that he is unique; hence he is of more help to humanity 

than anybody else. Because he says: I was just like you.... MY MIND USED TO WANDER WHEREVER 

PLEASURE OR DESIRE OR LUST LED IT. 

He does not deny that there was lust in him from the very beginning. He does not deny that there was desire, 

he does not say that he was born pure. He simply says, ”I was as much after pleasure I was as much full of desire 

as you are, and I was as much full of lust as you are. So nothing is wrong in lust, in desire, in pleasure; if anything 

is wrong it is in your unawareness. Be aware; and lust disappears, and desire disappears and the constant greed 

for pleasure disappears.” 

When you become aware, you are so at ease, so full of bliss, who bothers about pleasure? When you have 

diamonds who cares about pebbles? When you have inexhaustible sources of inner bliss who goes on begging for 

small pleasures, ugly pleasures? they simply disappear. 

Buddha says: BUT NOW I HAVE IT TAMED, I have disciplined my mind, I have meditated, I have gone into 

the functioning of the mind, I have seen it through and through. Now I have become the master. Seeing it I have 

become the master. Knowing it I have become the master. Understanding makes you the master. Now I GUIDE 

IT, AS THE KEEPER GUIDES THE WILD ELEPHANT. 

So don’t feel guilty that is Buddha’s message don’t feel guilty for your greed, don’t feel guilty for your anger, 

don’t feel guilty for your lust. All that you need to do is become aware of your greed, become aware of your 

lust, become aware of your desire, and see the miracle happen. Just as you bring light in the room and darkness 

disappears, exactly like that, precisely like that, as you bring awareness in all desire, all greed, all anger, all lust 

simply disappears as if it has never been there. Don’t try to escape, don’t try to renounce, because if you renounce 

you are simply renouncing the opportunity. 

A man escapes from his wife, goes to the Himalayas or moves to a monastery.... There are monasteries where 

no woman has been ever allowed in; there are monasteries where once you go in, you are not allowed to go out 

again your whole life. Now, this is not a transformation, this is simply escaping from the opportunity. 

Dick brought Sally to his bed. ”What would you like to do?” he asked. 

”I would like to see today’s newspaper,” she said. 

”Sure,” said Dick, ”I will send my dog for it. He is so smart he will even bring back the change.” Dick gave 

the dog ten dollars and sent him for the paper. In an hour when the dog didn’t return, Dick and Sally went out 

looking for him. They found the dog making it with a French poodle. 

”Did he ever do this before?” asked Sally. 

”No,” said Dick, ”this is the first time he ever had any money.” 

Opportunity.... You can escape from the opportunity, that will not change your being. Outwardly you will 

become a monk; inwardly you will remain the same person. Outwardly you will become a nun; inwardly you will 

remain the same person. And the real question is of your inner consciousness, not of your outer circumstances. 

The mind is not bad if it is used as a mechanism and you are the master. The mind is beautiful as a servant. 

When it becomes the master then it is ugly. Let consciousness be the master, the guide, and let the mind be like 

an elephant tamed, disciplined. How can you do it? 

Buddha says: 

AWAKE. BE THE WITNESS OF YOUR THOUGHTS. 

In these simple words he has given to the world the greatest meditation: Vipassana. More people have become 

enlightened through Vipassana than through any other method. There are thousands of methods but Vipassana 

seems to be the easiest, the most perfect, and very natural. It does not demand any unnaturalness from you.


Reverend Johnson, an old black preacher, was warning his parishioners about sin. 

”Sin,” he said, ”is like a big dog. There is the big dog of pride, and the big dog of envy, and the big dog of 

gluttony, and finally there is the big dog of sex. Now, folks, you gotta kill those big dogs before you are ever gonna 

get to heaven. It can be done I know because I’ve done it. I killed the big dog of envy, and the big dog of pride, 

and the big dog of gluttony and yes, brethren, I killed the big dog of sex!” 

”Brother!” came a voice from the back of the church, ”Are you sure that last dog didn’t die a natural death?” 

You cannot kill these dogs. Either they die a natural death but that does not bring any transformation to 

you or you have to become masters. There is no need to kill... Buddha will not suggest you kill anything. Why 

kill anything? If you kill anger you will never be compassionate in your life, because it is anger, and the energy 

involved in anger, which becomes compassion. If you kill sex you will be simply impotent, that’s all; you will not 

attain to love. It is sex transformed that creates love energy. Love energy is confined to sex. When you bring 

awareness to it, sex disappears but love energy is released. Anger disappears but compassion is released. Greed 

disappears and sharing comes in its place. 

It is not a question of killing; these are energies. Don’t be such a fool as to kill anything, because if you kill it 

you will miss something very essential in your life. Transform. Religion has to be the real alchemy, the science of 

transformation. It is not murderous. 

But the stupid religious people go on murdering, destroying. They are destructive, self-destructive. Hence even 

if they drop their anger they don’t become graceful, they don’t attain to creativity, they don’t contribute to the 

world and its beauty. They are burdensome, they are not in any way a help. They are a hindrance in the progress 

of humanity. Buddha will not suggest to you to kill anything. He says: Just be awake. BE THE WITNESS OF 

YOUR THOUGHTS. 

Anger is a thought, sex is a thought. Just watch, be alert, let them move on the screen anger, greed, lust 

and you remain aloof, cool, just a witness. In the beginning it is very difficult, but only in the beginning. If you 

persist then within three to nine months you will be able to do the impossible. 

One day it happens that your witness has become so perfect that the screen remains empty, nothing passes no 

thought, no desire. That day you have attained to the first state of samadhi, the first satori. And the first satori 

is the beginning; it triggers many satoris in you, culminating ultimately into samadhi, into nirvana. 

When the mind becomes just a pure mechanism... when you want to use it, you use it, when you don’t want 

to use it, it remains silent. 

THE ELEPHANT HAULS HIMSELF FROM THE MUD. IN THE SAME WAY DRAG YOURSELF OUT 

OF YOUR SLOTH. 

Buddha insists again: nobody can pull you out of your mud, nobody can help you. So don’t believe that Jesus 

will come and everything will be solved. Jesus has been before and nothing has been solved. Don’t believe in 

salvation through somebody; no messiah can help you. Buddhas only point the way. You have to do everything 

on your own. Nobody can do it for you. I cannot see for you, I cannot hear for you; you have to do it on your 

own. 

There are a few things which cannot be done by anybody else for you, on your behalf, and those are the most 

precious things which only you can do. Awareness is one of those most precious things. 

Buddha says: THE ELEPHANT HAULS HIMSELF FROM THE MUD. Just like that, IN THE SAME WAY 

DRAG YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR SLOTH. 

By awareness Buddha does not mean presence of mind. Many people misunderstand. Whenever Buddha uses 

the words ’awake’, ’awareness’, people think he is talking about presence of mind. Presence of mind is presence 

of mind; awareness has nothing to do with the mind. Awareness is something beyond the mind. 

Presence of mind is very ordinary. In any danger it comes to you. If somebody is going to shoot you, you will 

have presence of mind in that moment. If a tiger suddenly jumps in front of you, you will have presence of mind; 

you will do something which you have never done before. 

Frank and Gene were tossing down a few brews at the neighborhood pub. 

”Boy, did I have a close call with Angie last night,” said Frank. 

”What happened?” asked Gene. 

”Well, I got home real late, so I took off my shoes, climbed the stairs, opened the door of the bedroom, tiptoed 

in, and closed the door without making any noise. Just as I am about to get into bed, the wife wakes up and says, 

’Is that you, Toto?’” 

”What did you do?” 

”For once in my life I really used my head,” said Frank. ”I licked her hand.”


This is presence of mind. She is thinking he is the dog, Toto. But presence of mind is not awareness; it is a 

small phenomenon, a tiny thing. Mind can do it. 

Awareness is something beyond the mind. You have to watch the mind, you have to watch the presence of 

mind as much as absence of mind. You have to watch both, you have to go beyond both. It comes, it certainly 

comes, and when it comes it takes all that is your misery, your ego, your insensitivity, your cruelty. It takes all 

mud from you... and out of that mud arises the lotus, the one-thousand-petaled lotus of samadhi in you. 



Chapter 4 Freedom is something inner 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, THIS MORNING WHEN YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT WAKING UP AND RIS- 

ING FROM SLOTH, I FELT SO STUPID AND I THINK I AM GETTING STUPIDER AND STUPIDER! 

WHAT TO DO... IS IT ENOUGH TO JUST BE HERE WITH YOU? I FEEL VERY HOPELESS. AND IT 

MAKES ME SAD. 

Krishna Gopa, it is a good sign that you feel that you are becoming stupider and stupider. That simply means 

the borrowed knowledge is disappearing, hence the feeling. You are unlearning whatsoever you had learned up to 

now. Unlearning is the basic process of becoming innocent again. 

But don’t call it becoming stupid; don’t use that word that is condemnatory. And then one starts feeling sad. 

You are becoming more innocent. You are becoming more and more unburdened from unnecessary knowledge, 

information. You are becoming more natural, more like a child, more full of wonder. And if you call it being 

stupid you will miss the whole point. 

Your mind can call it stupid because the mind is losing its ground. The mind is dying, and the mind is bound 

to make all possible efforts to save itself, to survive. And the first step is to condemn the state of not-knowing 

that is growing in you. Every meditator comes across it and every meditator finds that mind condemns it. It is 

against the mind; you are becoming a no-mind. And who wants to die? The mind does not want to die; it wants 

to keep its possession of you. Hence the condemnation. Beware of it. 

Let the knowledge disappear. Don’t be worried at all because that knowledge has not given you anything. In 

the first place, borrowed knowledge creates only bondage, not freedom. It burdens you; it does not give you wings. 

It does not make you light, it makes you heavy. It makes you hard, it makes you more and more mechanical, 

because through the thick wall of knowledge you cannot see the mysterious surrounding you. And the moment 

you don’t see the mysterious you are almost dead. 

Life is in harmony with the mysterious. Life is in being full of wonder. Life is knowing the art of wondering, 

of being in awe. The knowledgeable person is a poor person, very poor, utterly impoverished and he himself is 

responsible. He thinks he is very rich because he knows about roses, although he has not seen a single rose. He 

knows all about love, although he has never loved himself. He knows about God, but to know about God is not 

to know God. To know about light is not to know light. 

A blind man can know all there is to know about light, but he will still remain blind. He will not experience the 

joy that light brings, that the morning brings, that the sunrise brings. He will not see the colors of the rainbow, 

of the flowers, of the butterflies. He will remain utterly oblivious of the world of light and color. He is blind! He 

knows about... but knowing about light is of no use if you are blind. And if you have eyes, whether you know 

about light or not, it makes no difference at all. Even without knowing light you experience it and that is true 

knowing. Knowledge is not true knowing, it is not wisdom. Knowledge comes through information; wisdom comes 

through experience. 

Gopa, don’t condemn your innocent state that is growing in you. Don’t call it stupid. That is mind playing a 

trick upon you; it always plays the trick. In the old scriptures, the same mind is called the devil; there is no other 

devil. It is the mind that tempts you to go wrong because the mind can exist only when you are wrong. The mind 

is not needed at all when you are moving towards truth, when you are right. When you are on the right track, 

mind has no utility; it simply loses its power over you. And that’s what is happening. 

You say, ”This morning when you were talking about waking up and rising from sloth, I felt so stupid and I 

think I am getting stupider and stupider!” 

You are blessed. Go on becoming more and more stupid stupid in the sense of innocent. 

Jesus was called a fool. Saint Francis was called a fool; used to call himself ”the fool of God.” Why have Jesus 

and Francis and people like these been called fools? Even they themselves have called themselves fools for the


simple reason that there is something which the fool can know and the knowledgeable can never know. The fool 

is innocent. The fool is not so foolish as the knowledgeable person is. Sometimes he seems to be wiser than your 

so-called wise people. 

It was an ancient custom in almost all the countries of the world that every great king used to have a fool in 

his court. Why? for the simple reason that sometimes the fool says things which the wise so-called wise cannot 

say. The fool is so innocent that he simply utters the truth. The so-called wise are cunning; they will not say the 

truth, they will say that which appeals. It may be a lie and lies have great appeal because people live in lies. 

And particularly in the courts, all kinds of lies remain prevalent. The king is surrounded by all kinds of cheats, all 

kinds of cunning people; hence a fool was needed, so that he can depend on the fool. The fool will not be cunning 

and he will say whatsoever is the case. He is so foolish that he will not be bothered about the consequences of it. 

This is strange, but something significant to be understood. The fool was a necessary part in every great king’s 

court, and the fools have saved many kings many times. They have saved their kingdoms because their advice 

came from a state of not-knowing, utterly innocent. They have a clarity that the knowledgeable person cannot 

afford; he is clouded. 

Gopa, your knowledge is disappearing. This is really satsang; this is what it means to be with a master. He 

takes away your knowledge and gives you wonder in return. He makes you a child again. And unless you are a 

child you will not enter into my kingdom of God. 

But because you are calling it stupidity, condemning it, giving it a negative name, you are feeling sad, hopeless. 

We live through words; we have become so much attached to words that we are deceived by words. Just change the 

word and you will see the change in your inner climate. Call it innocence and just feel the texture, the taste. Call 

it stupid and feel the texture and the taste. When you call it stupid you suddenly feel surrounded by darkness; 

when you call it innocence, as if a flower starts opening within your heart, a fragrance surrounds you. 

Beware about words, what words you use, because we have lived so long with words, through words.... 

I have heard: 

A hunter lost his way in the forest. By the evening he reached a private land, but he was afraid to enter because 

just on the gate there was a big signboard saying: Beware Of Dangerous Dogs. But the night was descending and 

the forest was full of wild animals. It was better to encounter the dogs than to be eaten by the wild animals. And 

he was so tired, so utterly tired; he wanted to rest. And there was some hope: if dogs are there, there may be 

somebody the owner of the dogs, the owner of the land, the man who has put these big signs. 

He entered in, a little afraid, shaky, but there was no other way, there was no alternative. Just a few yards he 

entered in and again there was a board, an even bigger one: Beware Of The Dangerous Dogs. His heart started 

sinking, but there was no way to go back, nowhere to go back, so he had to go in. Again, even a still bigger board. 

And then... just a small dog, a very small dog, standing before the cottage of the owner. So small a dog that 

you could simply take him by the feet and throw him at least a hundred yards! 

The hunter was very much puzzled. He asked the owner, ”Where are the big, dangerous dogs?” 

He said, ”There are none. This is my only dog.” 

The hunter asked, ”Can this dog prevent people coming in?” 

The man said, ”No, but the signboards do. You are the first man in years who has entered. Even if there is no 

dog, those signboards will do.” 

People live through words. In a crowded theater, if somebody suddenly shouts, ”Fire! Fire!” people will start 

running. Nobody will bother whether there is any fire. The very word ’fire’ and your imagination starts working. 

Gopa, don’t call it stupid, otherwise you create your own sadness and you are a victim of your mind. Your 

mind will feel happy because it has made you sad. If you are sad you will start collecting the knowledge that has 

fallen from you; you will put it back into its old place. You will again start collecting information so that you 

don’t feel stupid. Call it innocence. 

Be very careful what words you use. Words have associations, deep associations. They have become almost 

concrete realities in our life; they are no more words, they are things. 

You say, ”I feel very hopeless. And it makes me sad.” 

Hopelessness always comes if you have been hoping too much; it comes in the same proportion. Expect and you 

will be frustrated. Hope and sooner or later you will feel hopelessness. Hence my whole effort here is to make you 

free from hoping. If you become free from hoping you will never be trapped into any hopeless state. Hopelessness 

is a by-product of hoping. Frustration is a by-product of expectation. But it is natural, in a way. 

When you come to me, you come with great hopes; you want to become enlightened, you want to become a 

buddha. But the problem is, I cannot help you to become a buddha because you are already a buddha! There is


no need for you to become a buddha. Becoming is not the question at all buddha is your being. And whenever 

you drop this idea of becoming, suddenly you will recognize the buddha within. 

What I am doing here is not helping you to become somebody, but just to recognize who you are. All the 

devices here are just devices to make you remember not devices to help you become, but only to remind you. 

The family moved from the city to the suburbs and was told to get a watchdog to guard the premises at night. 

So they bought the largest dog they could find. 

Shortly afterwards the house was broken into by burglars who made a good haul while the dog slept. 

The householder went to the kennel-owner and told him about it. ”Well,” said the dealer, ”what you need is a 

little dog to wake up the big dog.” 

That’s what you need! Buddha is fast asleep in you. Just a little device, a little dog will do to wake up the 

big dog! 

Mrs. Mulla Nasruddin and her neighbor were chatting about their teenagers. 

”Is your son hard to get out of bed in the morning?” asks the neighbor. 

”No,” replied Mrs. Mulla Nasruddin. ”I just open the door and throw the cat on his bed.” 

”How does that wake him?” 

”He sleeps with the dog.” 

My work consists of such things, throwing a cat on your bed.... It is not some great work it is sheer fun! 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT MODERN ART? 

Asang, the first thing is, it is not art. For the first time something exists in the name of art which is not art 

at all. It is more a therapy than an art. Look at the modern paintings and you will be convinced of what I am 

saying. The painters must be insane; they have poured their insanity on the canvas. It helps them because it 

releases some tensions inside their being. It is a catharsis, but it is not art. It is therapy through art, but not art 

itself. 

If Picasso is prevented from painting, he will go mad. Vincent van Gogh went mad before he committed suicide. 

And I have been looking into his life deeply and my feeling is he went mad because he could not paint as much 

as he wanted. He had no money to paint. His brother was giving him money enough just to survive, and he was 

not eating for four days per week. He would eat only for three days and four days he will fast to save money to 

paint. How long can you do that? But painting was more important for him than food and it ended in madness. 

He could not paint as much as he wanted, and when he saw that there was no possibility to paint anymore the 

brother is tired, the family is tired and nobody wants to help him and nobody wants to purchase his paintings 

he committed suicide. 

The same would be the case with Picasso if he was prevented from painting: he would go mad or he would 

commit suicide. Suicide is the ultimate in insanity. But his paintings are a great help, a great relaxation. 

And it is not only so with painting; it is so with poetry, music, dance. Everything modern is a little crazy 

because modern man is a little crazy, off the center. 

Gurdjieff has divided art into two categories. The modern art he calls subjective art. The ancient art the real 

art the people who made the pyramids, the people who made the Taj Mahal, the people who made the caves 

of Ajanta and Ellora, they were of a totally different kind. He calls that art objective art. Subjective art is like 

vomiting. You are feeling sick, nauseous; a good vomit helps you to feel good. The poison is thrown out, you feel 

relieved. It is good for you, but not good for others. 

Now, in the name of modern painting, you are hanging vomited, nauseous, sickening things in your rooms. In 

the name of modern music you are simply getting into crazier spaces within you. It is subjective art. 

Objective art means something that helps you to become centered, that helps you to become healthy and whole. 

Watching the Taj Mahal in the full moon, you will fall into a very meditative space. Looking at the statue of 

Buddha, just sitting silently with the statue of the Buddha, something in you will become silent, something in 

you will become still, something in you will become buddhalike. It is objective art, it has tremendous significance. 

But objective art has disappeared from the world because mystics have disappeared from the world. Objective 

art is possible only when somebody has attained to a higher plane of being; it is created by those who have 

reached the peak. They can see the peak and they can see the valley both. They can see the height of humanity, 

the beauty of humanity, and the sickness and the ugliness of humanity too. They can see deep down in the dark 

valleys where people are crawling and they can see the sunlit peaks. They can manage to create some devices 

which will help the people who are crawling in the darkness to reach to the sunlit peaks. Their art will be just a 

device for your inner growth, for maturity.


Modern art is childish not childlike, remember, childish; not innocent but stupid, insane, pathological. We 

have to get rid of this trend. We have to create a new kind of art, a new kind of creativity. We have to bring to 

the world again what Gurdjieff calls objective art. 

The farmer was looking at one of those modern, abstract paintings. ”It is a perfect picture of those fellows in 

New Delhi,” he said. ”No matter which way you look at it, it does not make sense.” 

But the farmer is saying something which Picasso himself has said. Picasso has said, ”The world today does 

not make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?” 

If the world today does not make sense, that means more pictures, more music, more poetry is needed that 

makes sense to help humanity to come out of this absurd state. That was the function of objective art: to help 

you come out of your absurd state. But Picasso says, ”The world today does not make sense...” as if it was making 

sense in the past. It has never made any sense; the world has always been the same. But he finds a rationalization. 

He is saying, ”If the world itself makes no sense, why should I paint pictures that do?” 

If you ask me, that should be precisely the reason to make pictures that DO make sense. Otherwise, how is the 

world going to be helped? It needs music, it needs poetry, it needs dance. It needs paintings which can help it to 

rise above its misery, its schizophrenia, its neurosis, its psychosis. 

But Picasso himself is only a representative of the neurotic mind. Picasso became so famous for the simple 

reason that he represented us very clearly. 

The marriage broker introduced a really ugly girl to a young man. The victim protested that the lady had 

misplaced eyes, a broken nose and a deformed face. 

”Ah,” said the marriage broker, ”it is apparent that you do not like Picasso.” 

Looking at Picasso’s paintings, have you not felt it? Everything is deformed, misplaced. 

I have heard that a very rich lady wanted a portrait of herself done by Picasso. He agreed for a fantastic sum. 

The lady was ready to pay. Six months he took to make the portrait. 

When the portrait was ready, the lady looked at it and said, ”Everything is okay; I just don’t like the nose. 

You will have to improve it.” 

Picasso looked at the lady, then he looked at the painting and he said, ”It is impossible.” 

The lady said, ”Why? I am ready to pay. If you want more money, I am ready to pay.” 

Picasso said, ”It is not a question of money. I don’t know where the nose is.” 

His paintings are nightmarish. And it is not only Picasso; Picasso simply symbolizes the whole of contemporary 

art. He is the most representative modern artist. He is right, in a sense, because the world makes no sense. 

The world has never made any sense, but there have been people who created such art that it helped people to 

find some sense in a senseless world. And that finding of sense helps you tremendously to become centered. 

”It is terrible to see men looking like girls, with long hair and all. You can’t tell the difference. I was sitting 

in a restaurant when a girl came in. I turned to the person at the next table and said, ’Isn’t it terrible how girls 

look like boys these days?’” 

”That’s my son,” she said, pointing to the girl. 

”Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were the mother.” 

”I’m not,” the neighbor said indignantly. ”I’m the father!” 

Things are topsy-turvy. Things are becoming more and more topsy-turvy. The world seems to be less a cosmos 

now and more a chaos. 

In the ancient philosophies, cosmology was one of the most important things to be discussed. Now there seems 

to be no cosmos, no cosmology. The whole world seems to be in a chaos, as if all is accidental. Nothing seems to 

be essential, intrinsically valuable; everything seems to be just happening as an accident. And this is reflected in 

everything. It is reflected in art, it is reflected in science, it is reflected even in religion. 

We need again a cosmology. I know the world is a chaos; that is a challenge for human consciousness to create 

a cosmos out of it. It is a tremendously valuable opportunity to create a cosmos. Just to say that it is a chaos, 

remain with it as it is, is to fall below human dignity; it is not accepting the challenge. It is really a great challenge 

to change yourself and the world. It is a puzzle, but it is a puzzle only if you have already concluded that there 

can be no meaning at all; otherwise it is a mystery, not a puzzle. 

A mystery may not have any meaning, but it has significance. And there is a difference between meaning and 

significance and significance is far more meaningful than meaning itself; significance is far more important. What 

meaning is there in a roseflower? but significance certainly is there. Just think of a world without roses. It will 

be a poor world; some significance will be lost. What significance is there when you hear the sound of running 

water? Have you not felt some significance? Yes, meaning you cannot prove.


Meaning seems to be imposed by the mind upon existence; significance seems to be part of existence itself. We 

have lost contact with the language that can understand significance; we only understand meaning. Meaning is 

intellectual, significance is existential. There is no meaning in love, but great significance; no meaning in God, 

but great significance; no meaning in meditation, but great significance, great splendor. 

I would like to say to my sannyasins, Asang, that my sannyasins have to be not only meditative, they have also 

to be creative. And they have to create what Gurdjieff calls objective art. They have to create something which 

can help a wandering humanity to come to a resting place. Yes, much can be created that can give shelter, that 

can become a deep, deep experience of communion with nature. 

That is the real function of art: helping people to commune with nature, because out of that communion arises 

religion. Science is an intellectual effort to understand nature, art is an emotional effort to understand nature, 

and religion is an existential effort to commune with nature. Art is higher than science, religion is higher than 

art. Science has to be objective; if science is subjective it will be just fiction science fiction. Art has also to 

be objective; otherwise it will be fiction. And that’s what modern art is fiction. And religion has also to be 

objective, really authentic; otherwise it is speculation, philosophy. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, I WANT TO GIVE UP SMOKING. WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT IT? 

Mahendra, why? Why in the first place do you want to give up smoking? What is wrong in smoking? Yes, it is 

a little stupid, silly just poisoning your breath, taking smoke in and out, wasting money, life. But it is not a sin, 

it is not a crime either. You should not feel guilty about it. Maybe you will live a little less, two or three years 

less than you would have lived. But what is the point of living three years more? What will you do by living three 

years more? You will create a little more trouble in the world so better you go a little earlier. And the world is 

too much populated. 

Nobody had thought about birth control before. Now we are thinking constantly everywhere how to reduce the 

population, how to prevent new children from being born. Sooner or later we will have to think about the other 

end: how to help the old people to go faster, because that is absolutely logical, part of it. If we prevent children 

from coming in just to keep the world a little less populated it is already too much populated sooner or later 

we have to think about ways and means how to help old people to go quicker, faster. We will have to make it a 

birthright. 

If somebody decides to die, it should not be a crime. In fact, he should be supported, respected, because he 

is creating space for new people to come. He is helping the world he is a great servant of humanity. You say, 

Mahendra, ”I want to give up smoking.” 

Why in the first place? because you have been reading that it is bad for your health? But what will you do 

with your health? 

There is a beautiful story about Jesus, not related in the Christian gospels. My feeling has always been that 

it has been deleted somewhere down the centuries because it is a dangerous story. But Sufis have kept it intact, 

recorded. There are a few Jesus stories which Sufis have guarded, and they should be thanked for it because they 

are the most beautiful stories out of all the stories that the gospels contain. This one is a beauty. 

Jesus came to a village. He saw a man lying in the gutter, shouting, talking incoherently, making noise. It was 

difficult to understand what he wanted to say; he was completely drunk. 

Jesus came close just to understand what he wanted to say maybe he needed some help. When he came close 

he recognized the face. He shook the man. The man opened his eyes, and Jesus said, ”Don’t you recognize me? 

I recognize you.” 

The man said, ”I also recognize you, but please leave me alone.” 

Jesus said, ”As far as I remember you were ill, very ill, almost on the verge of death, and I cured you. I have 

done a miracle and I don’t see any gratitude in your eyes.” 

The man said, ”Gratitude? I was going to die and that would have been a rest from this ugly life. You made 

me healthy again and now I am suffering again. Who is responsible? Why did you make me healthy again? Who 

gave you the right?” 

Jesus was shocked he had never thought about it. Jesus said, ”But you are healthy you can use your health.” 

And the man said, ”That’s what I am doing. When one is healthy one drinks, eats, enjoys the things of life. 

What else can I do with my health?” 

It is really a very pertinent question: What will you do with your health? Eat, drink, be merry! And the man 

seems to be almost angry at Jesus.


Jesus walked away very puzzled, and he saw another man who was running after a prostitute. He stopped the 

man and said, ”Young man, I know you perfectly well. You were blind and I gave you eyes.” 

And the man said, ”What else should I do with the eyes? The eyes are meant to look and search for beauty. 

And that woman have you not seen how beautiful she is? Leave me alone! I have no more time for you.” 

Jesus was very sad because he was thinking he had helped these people. He came out of the village and a man 

was preparing to kill himself. He asked the man, ”Life is so valuable! Why are you killing yourself?” 

The man looked at Jesus and he said, ”Don’t you recognize me? I had died and you are the man who disturbed 

my death and you brought me back from my death. It is too much! I cannot bear this life any longer. Enough 

is enough! And please, you have come again... and I have made every preparation to kill myself. Don’t do your 

miracle again I don’t want any of your miracles!” 

This is a strange story, but of great significance. Man is such, so blind, that he will do something wrong if he is 

healthy, he will do something wrong if he is alive, he will do something wrong if he has eyes he will see something 

wrong. Unless you are conscious you are going to do wrong. 

That’s why in the East, Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tzu and people like them have never done any miracles or 

they have done only one miracle, and that miracle is the transformation of unconsciousness into consciousness 

because unless that happens everything is going to be wrong. It is giving a sword into a child’s hand: either he will 

cut himself or somebody else. You don’t give poison to a child to play with; it is dangerous. Man is unconscious, 

almost in a state of drunkenness. 

So what will you gain out of it if you stop smoking? 

O’Leary walked into a bar and ordered a beer and a whisky. He drank the beer and poured the whisky into his 

vest pocket. O’Leary repeated this routine several times, and finally the puzzled bartender asked, ”What is the 

idea?” 

”None of your business!” said the Irishman. ”And what is more, you are so nosy I have a good mind to punch 

you in the eye!” 

Just then a mouse stuck his head out of O’Leary’s vest pocket and said, ”And that goes for your damned cat 

too!” 

Man is unconscious. He only appears conscious, he is not conscious at all. 

So rather than asking me what I have to say about it, you should watch. The most important thing is not 

stopping smoking; the most important thing is to watch why you smoke in the first place. If you don’t understand 

the cause of it and if the cause is not removed, you can stop smoking then you will start chewing gum, because 

the basic cause is there and you will have to do something. If you don’t start chewing gum, then you may start 

talking too much. 

I don’t smoke. If any day I have to stop talking I may have to start smoking! You will do something.... 

This amorous playboy cornered the girl in the back seat of his sedan and was eagerly trying his hand at her. 

She kept resisting and pushing him away, but he kept coming with more hands than an octopus. 

She finally slapped him away and hollered, ”I don’t know what has come over you. You have always been so 

restrained and gentlemanly.” 

He said, ”Yes, I know, but I just can’t help it. I am trying to give up smoking.” 

Smoking is keeping many people from many things which will be far more dangerous. Your hand is engaged, 

your mouth is engaged, your mind is engaged. And you are not harming anybody in particular, only harming 

yourself. That is your birthright, that is your freedom. Otherwise you will do something else. 

Have you watched? Whenever you feel nervous, tense, you start smoking. It helps you to cool down, to relax 

a little bit; otherwise life will become too much. When you are not feeling nervous, when you are enjoying, when 

you are relaxed, you don’t remember smoking. Hours may pass and you may not smoke for the simple reason that 

there is no cause. Otherwise you become afraid you may do something wrong. Better to keep yourself engaged. 

Mahendra, my suggestion is: first go deep down into your smoking habit. Meditate over it, why in the first 

place you smoke. It may take a few months for you to go into it, and the deeper you go the more you will be freed 

of it. Don’t stop smoking. If it disappears on your understanding, through your understanding, that is totally a 

different matter. If it disappears because you went to the root cause of it and you saw the point.... 

For example, it may be that your mother’s breast was taken away from you earlier than you wanted and it is 

just a substitute. 

To many people I have suggested and it has been of help to smokers I say, ”If you really want to stop smoking, 

then start sucking your thumb.” They say, ”But that will look very stupid!” That is true... smoking looks as if 

you are doing something great! You are doing the same thing, in fact a little more harmful. Just sucking on your


thumb is not harmful at all, but smoking is harmful. But because everybody is smoking and it is an accepted 

thing and it seems to be a very grown-up thing.... 

Small children want to grow up, if not for anything else than just for being allowed to smoke. Seeing grown-up 

people smoking they feel very inferior they are not allowed. They are told, ”You are too small wait a little. 

This is something which only grown-up people can do.” It symbolizes a grown-up person. And if you are really 

smoking costly cigarettes, costly cigars, rare, exotic, then it shows your success, it shows that you have arrived. 

It gives you dignity. 

Go deep into it. It may be that your mother’s breast was taken away too early. Then my suggestion is: in the 

night before you go to bed, Mahendra, have a bottle with a rubber nipple fixed to it and suck it. Every night 

before you go to sleep become a child again. Go on sucking on it. Fill the bottle with warm milk. That’s what 

the smoking is doing. The warm smoke going in and out symbolizes the milk of the mother. You will have to go 

deep into the causes. 

One of the great things in life is that if you understand the root cause of something you can overcome it without 

any trouble, without any willpower. If you use willpower to stop it you will find some substitute you will have to 

find some substitute. Maybe you are not allowed to speak; in the office the boss won’t allow you, in the home the 

wife won’t allow you. She goes on talking, she gives you no time to talk. And you are also afraid if you talk you 

get into trouble; whatsoever you say is wrong. And the wife jumps upon it, takes the cue from that and starts 

nagging you. So in the home you have to hide behind a newspaper. Whether you read the newspaper or not is 

not the point, but you have to hide behind the newspaper. You have to look engaged, occupied, so you need not 

talk and you need not hear what the wife goes on saying. 

Women all over the world, except for a few countries in the West, don’t smoke, for the simple reason that they 

talk too much. Their lips have so much exercise, there is no need! In a few countries in the West they have started 

smoking and the reason is the Women’s Lib movement. They have to compete with men in everything; whether it 

is sense or nonsense that doesn’t matter. I am very much afraid they may start pissing standing any day, because 

they are equal to men! Howsoever stupid it is, they will do it. 

Go into the cause of it, Mahendra, and if you can find the cause it will simply melt away. But don’t stop by 

force let it go on its own accord, through watchfulness, through awareness. 

So I will not say to stop smoking or stop anything, but I will suggest always: watch, meditate, be aware, go 

into the roots. This is a fundamental law of life: if you can understand the root of something it disappears, it 

evaporates. Unless you understand the root it will continue in one form or another. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM IN LOVE WITH A BEAUTIFUL GIRL, BUT SHE IS POOR. THERE IS A HAG 

WITH LOTS OF LOOT IN LOVE WITH ME. SHALL I MARRY THE RICH GIRL OR THE POOR GIRL? 

Narayano, marry the rich girl and be good to the poor! 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM IN LOVE. WHAT SHOULD I DO? 

Mahesh, the only cure for a man in love is marriage. If that does not cure him, nothing will. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS I LIVED IN PRISON, MOSTLY MADE BY MYSELF. 

NOW I KNOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO BECOME MORE AND MORE FREE. BUT WHAT TO DO, WHEN 

YOU FEEL YOU NEED A SAFE PLACE, A GOOD CLIMATE TO GROW? ANOTHER PRISON? HOW TO 

BE FREE ANYWHERE, ANY TIME? I FEEL SORROW AND REBELLION IN ME ABOUT THAT. 

Yvonne, freedom has nothing to do with the outside; one can be free even in an actual prison. Freedom is 

something inner; it is of the consciousness. You can be free anywhere chained, in a jail, you can be free and 

you can be unfree outside the jail, in your own home, visibly absolutely free, but you will be a prisoner if your 

consciousness is not free. 

You are confusing outer freedom with inner freedom. As far as the outside is concerned you can never be 

absolutely free let it be clear once and forever. As far as outside is concerned you are not alone, so how can you 

be absolutely free? There are millions of people around you. On the outside, life has to be a compromise. If you 

were alone on the earth you would have been absolutely free, but you are not alone. 

On the road you have to keep to the left. And Yvonne will feel this is a great bondage: ”Why? Why should 

I be forced to be on the left? I am a free man. If I want to walk on the right I will walk on the right. If I want


to walk in the middle of the road I will walk in the middle of the road.” In India you can do it India is a free 

country, remember! It is the greatest democracy in the world, so right, left, middle, anywhere you can walk! 

But one man’s freedom becomes so many people’s problem. You are free to be yourself, but you should not be 

an interference in other people’s lives. 

A man of understanding will respect his freedom as much as he will respect others’ freedom, because if nobody 

respects your freedom, your freedom will be destroyed. It is a mutual understanding: ”I respect your freedom, 

you respect my freedom, then we both can be free.” But it is a compromise. I have not to interfere with your 

being, I am not free to trespass on you. 

You want to sing loudly in the middle of the night. Of course you are a free person, and if you cannot sing 

loudly in your own house, what kind of freedom is this? But the neighbors have to sleep too; then there has to 

be a compromise. 

On the outside we are interdependent. Nobody can be absolutely independent. Life is an interdependence. Not 

only with people are you interdependent, you are interdependent with everything. If you cut all the trees you will 

die because they are constantly supplying you with oxygen. You are dependent on them and they are dependent 

on you because you are constantly giving them carbon dioxide. We take oxygen in and exhale carbon dioxide; the 

trees do just the opposite, they exhale oxygen and inhale carbon dioxide. 

So when people like Mahendra are smoking, trees must be feeling tremendously happy because more carbon 

dioxide is being created for them! Listening to me these trees will be feeling very sad that I am telling you to go 

to the root cause of it and then smoking will disappear. That means trees won’t get as much carbon dioxide as 

they were getting before! 

We are interdependent, not only with the trees with the sun, with the moon, with the stars. Everything is an 

interdependence. 

Just tomorrow there is going to be a solar eclipse, a total eclipse. It will have tremendous effects on the life 

on earth. If you look at the sun directly you can go blind forever. Avoid looking at the sun in fact, don’t come 

out. There will be every temptation to come out because in the middle of the day, nearabout four-thirty in the 

afternoon, you can see stars in the sky; just as in the night you have always seen them, in the middle of the 

day you can see stars. There will be great temptation to come out and see, but avoid it, don’t come out. It is 

dangerous to the eyes, it is dangerous to your nervous system, it is dangerous to your mind mechanism. Many 

people will go berserk, many people will go blind. Women who are pregnant should avoid coming out absolutely 

because the child in the womb is very, very vulnerable. He has no safeguards yet; he is soft, so soft he can be 

affected by anything. And in the solar eclipse, when it is total, dangerous rays enter into the atmosphere. 

So when the eclipse happens I would like all my sannyasins to go inside their rooms, close the doors, sit in deep 

meditation. It will last only a few minutes. Avoid the temptation of coming out, and don’t try to find out devices 

through which you can see it without being harmed. No device is absolutely foolproof; it is better to avoid it. 

Now life is so interdependent... the sun is so far away. It takes ten minutes for the rays of the sun to reach to 

the earth, and rays move with tremendous speed one hundred eighty-six thousand miles per second. But we are 

related to other suns and other solar systems too. Everything in existence is interdependent, so you cannot be 

absolutely free on the outside and there is no need either. 

Enjoy this interdependence. Don’t call it bondage. It is not dependence, it is interdependence. You are 

dependent on others, others are dependent on you. It is a brotherhood, it is relatedness. Even the smallest grass 

leaf is related to the greatest star. 

But in the inner world, in the inner kingdom, you can be absolutely free. So the whole question is of the 

inner. And then, Yvonne, you will not feel sad and rebellious; there is no need. Understand that the outer 

interdependence is a must, it is inevitable; nothing can be done about it. It is part of how things are. Accept 

it. When nothing can be done about it, acceptance is the only way. And accept it joyously, not as a resignation. 

Accept it! This is our universe; we are part of it. We are not islands, we are part of the whole continent. We are 

not egos. 

Yvonne, your idea of freedom is rooted somewhere in the idea of the ego. We are not egos. The ego is a false 

entity because we are not separate, how can we have egos? It is good as far as language is concerned; it is 

utilitarian to use the word ’I’, but it has no substance in it. It is pure shadow, utterly empty. A useful word, 

utilitarian, but not real. 

But inner freedom is possible. It happens as you go deeper and deeper into awareness. Watch your body, watch 

your thought processes. 

Just the other day Buddha was saying: Watch, witness the whole process of your thoughts. And slowly, slowly 

you will see you are neither anger nor greed, neither Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian, neither Catholic nor


communist. Slowly, slowly you will be aware that you are not any thought you are not mind at all. You are a pure 

witness. The experience of pure witnessing is the experience of total freedom, but it is an inward phenomenon. 

And a man who is inwardly totally free has no hankering to be outwardly free. He is capable of accepting nature 

as it is. 

Yvonne, create inner freedom through witnessing. Sannyas is only for the inner freedom. And live out of inner 

freedom and then you will be able to see the interdependence on the outside. It is beautiful and it is a blessing. 

There is no need to rebel against it. Relax into it, surrender to it. And remember: only a person who is really 

free can surrender. 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, I ALSO THINK THAT A MAN OF KNOWLEDGE IS BETTER THAN AN IGNO- 

RANT MAN. AM I ABSOLUTELY WRONG? 

Sanatan, a man of knowledge is a totally different phenomenon. I was saying that the man of knowledge and 

the knowledgeable man are not the same. The man of knowledge is what a buddha is: one who knows. But 

the knowledgeable man is not a buddha; he does not know. He has accumulated great information, but that 

information is borrowed. It is from the scriptures, from the books, from others. He has not experienced it; it is 

about and about. He can talk, he can write, he can sermonize, but he knows nothing. He talks about God; he 

has no idea what God is. He has no glimpse even what to say about experience. 

The priests all over the world of all the religions are knowledgeable people. Jesus knows, but the pope is not a 

man of knowledge. He is a knowledgeable man, he has great information. He can quote scriptures. 

One of the great thinkers of the West was Ingersoll. Whenever he would deliver discourses and he was a great 

orator too he would make a mysterious sign in the air with his finger before he would start speaking. And when 

he would end, after that again he would make something with his fingers some very mysterious thing in the air. 

He was asked again and again, but he would laugh and he would not answer. 

When he was dying somebody asked, ”Now please tell us, otherwise we will be always curious and wondering 

what were you doing your whole life? Is there some magic in it? Why do you make some mysterious signs before 

you speak and then again when you end?” 

He said, ”There is no magic in it, but I could not tell it before. Now I can tell it. Before I started my speech 

I was making the sign of inverted commas, and after I ended I had to close the inverted commas. I was saying 

to myself and to you too that it is all just quotation, it is not my experience. The whole thing is borrowed it is 

within inverted commas.” 

That is a knowledgeable man. But Ingersoll is sincere, at least honest. The knowledgeable man is not better 

than the ignorant man, remember, Sanatan. The man of knowledge is certainly better than the ignorant man, of 

course, obviously, but the same is not true about the knowledgeable man. The knowledgeable man is even worse 

than the ignorant man. The ignorant man at least knows that he is ignorant; he has no pretensions, he has no 

facade. The knowledgeable man has a beautiful facade, a mask. 

And the problem is: if you go on deceiving others, slowly, slowly you become autohypnotized. You start thinking 

that you know. But there is no difference. The knowledgeable person is only on the surface painted with great 

knowledge and the ignorant person is not painted; he is raw. The knowledgeable person is a little polished. But 

deep down they are the same person. Both will be greedy, both will be full of lust, both will be full of anger, both 

will be full of ego. Their lives will be nothing but ego trips. Their lives will be nothing but sexuality, violence, 

greed, jealousy, possessiveness. There will be no difference at all. 

Sanatan, remember, you have to become a knower on your own. If you quote me, that is knowledgeability; if 

you know it on your own, that is knowing. And knowing brings freedom, knowing brings truth. Knowledgeability 

is respectable; you become an expert. The more you know, the more people think you are great, but deep down 

you go on living the same animal kind of life, no difference at all or maybe only one difference: you are a bigger 

hypocrite than the ignorant man. 

Norman Bush had a terrible stutter. His wife Rose suggested that he go and see a specialist. Reluctantly he 

was persuaded to visit the best man in Harley Street who told him, ”Well, Mr. Bush, there is only one thing we 

can do about this stutter of yours. You see, the problem is your balls are too big. However, we should be able to 

transplant a smaller pair. That would undoubtedly cure your ailment.” 

Norman was given a week to think it over and reluctantly accepted to undergo surgery. When he came out, 

his speech fully restored, his wife was delighted. Then came those long nights when Rose was eager and Norman 

showed no interest. As the weeks went by she grew more anxious and frustrated.


Then one night she said to him, ”You know, I think I preferred you the way you were before, with your big 

balls and your stutter. I would go and see that doctor again and have the operation reversed.” 

Reluctantly, Norman was dragged off again to the specialist. ”You know, Doctor,” said Norman, ”my wife says 

she liked me better the way I was before with my stutter and all, and, um, well, ah, do you think I could have my 

old balls back again?” 

”Not f-f-f-fucking likely!” said the doctor. 



Chapter 5 The risk is worth taking 


IF THE TRAVELER CAN FIND A VIRTUOUS AND WISE COMPANION, LET HIM GO WITH HIM 

JOYFULLY AND OVERCOME THE DANGERS OF THE WAY. 

BUT IF YOU CANNOT FIND FRIEND OR MASTER TO GO WITH YOU, TRAVEL ON ALONE LIKE 

A KING WHO HAS GIVEN AWAY HIS KINGDOM, LIKE AN ELEPHANT IN THE FOREST. 

TRAVEL ON ALONE, RATHER THAN WITH A FOOL FOR COMPANY. 

DO NOT CARRY WITH YOU YOUR MISTAKES. DO NOT CARRY YOUR CARES. 

TRAVEL ON ALONE LIKE AN ELEPHANT IN THE FOREST. 

Nirupa says that this is my serious day. The fault is not mine; the whole fault is Gautama the Buddha’s. That 

old guy is absolutely serious. 

It is said of Jesus that he never laughed. That can’t be true because Jesus is very much a man of the earth, 

very earthly. It is impossible that he never laughed. He loved people, he loved mixing with people, with ordinary 

people farmers, carpenters, fishermen, gamblers, drunkards, prostitutes. Seeing his company, it seems absolutely 

improbable that he never laughed. He enjoyed eating, drinking; he enjoyed company. He must have gossiped, 

joked, laughed. 

But it is possible that Buddha never laughed. He is utterly serious. He is very much Indian. He is pure water... 

I mix as much wine as I can! 

So Nirupa, forgive me, because if I mix more wine, then that old guy will be really angry! As it is, he already 

thinks I am corrupting him, but he can’t do anything I am alive and he is dead! I am not an Indian at all. 

Once an American lady was asking me, ”What ’nese’ are you? Japanese, Chinese, Javanese?” 

I told her, ”I am no one.” And then I asked her, ”Who are you? monkey, donkey or yankee?” 

I belong to no country, to no tradition, to no race, to no religion. I am just a white cloud floating all over the 

world. I don’t have any roots anywhere; hence I am free. Buddha has roots in the Indian soil, in the Indian mind. 

Buddha would have remained the same, unavailable, unapproachable. It is through the Chinese and the 

Japanese that he became a little more human. Otherwise he would have remained a god above the clouds, almost 

unreachable. When Buddhism was introduced into China they brought it down to the earth. Chinese are very 

down-to-earth people. They have never given birth to any men like Buddha. They had their own awakened people 

Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu but they are full of laughter, full of joy, full of gratitude. They belong to this 

existence; they are not in any way escaping from it. They are living it in its totality. 

And the Japanese are even more earthly. When Buddhism reached Japan via China, its very color, texture, 

its very fragrance changed. It became tremendously multidimensional, creative, more life-affirmative. Laughter 

came in. The Japanese masters transformed the very seriousness of Buddha into its opposite. 

But in India the effort has never been made. In India Buddha has remained old, for twenty-five centuries. 

My effort here is to make him alive again. And to make him alive means to make him a contemporary, to help 

him to speak to you the way you would like to be spoken to, the way you will be able to understand him. He has 

to be brought from his heights. The earth has its own beauty and any height has to be based on this very earth. 

So, Nirupa, forgive me, because speaking on Buddha something of him is bound to come in; that is unavoidable. 

I try my best to give new colors to his colorless way of expression, to give him more liveliness, but still, I cannot 

go too far from his sutra. Although I take enough rope, I go as far as it is possible nobody has gone so far as I 

have been trying to go but still the point of reference remains his sutras. 

I love the man he has a beauty of his own but there is no need to be so serious. But it was the way in India 

in those days, and it is the way even today, to be serious. Religion is thought to be a very serious phenomenon. 

I may be the first person in the whole history of India who is mixing religion with jokes. Let us start with a 

few jokes. 

The first:


Pierre, a Frenchman, Tonio, an Italian, and Stash, a Pole, were traveling through the country when their car 

broke down. 

They found lodging at a farm, and in the course of the night the Frenchman decided to sneak into the farmer’s 

daughter’s room. 

The farmer heard him walking up the stairs and said, ”Who is it?” 

Thinking quickly, Pierre whispered, ”Meow, meow....” 

Twenty minutes later, Tonio made the same attempt. As he neared the farmer’s daughter’s room, the girl’s 

father shouted, ”Who is there?” 

The Italian also imitated the feline sound, ”Meow, meow....” 

Stash decided that he, too, should make an attempt. Just as he got to the girl’s room, the farmer shouted, ”All 

right, who is it?” 

The Polack replied, ”It is me, the cat.” 

The second: 

Benson and his dog were sitting at a bar. He ordered two martinis. Benson handed one to the dog, who 

promptly drank it, then ate the glass until only the base and the stem remained. Then he left. 

”That’s the craziest thing I have ever seen,” said the bartender. 

”Yeah, he’s a dumb dog,” said Benson. ”The stem is the best part.” 

Third: 

Mr. Benchley was quietly drinking his martini in a corner when a lady approached him and said, ”Don’t you 

know that stuff you are drinking is slow poison?” 

”That’s all right,” he answered. ”I’m in no hurry.” 

Fourth: 

The car hit her and a hundred yards away he stopped and looked back. 

”Watch out!” he shouted. 

The woman raised herself on her elbow and screamed, ”Why are you coming back?” 

The fifth and the last: 

Roxanne, a beautiful, well-built blonde, applied at a circus for the job of a lion tamer. Ralph was another 

candidate. 

”I will give you both a chance,” said the manager. ”The girl can go first.” 

Roxanne, wearing a full-length mink coat, entered the cage. A huge lion was let in with her and immediately 

the animal started to charge. 

Suddenly, Roxanne opened her fur coat and stood there, completely naked. The lion stopped dead in his tracks 

and began licking her feet, then her hands, then he went meekly back to the corner. 

The manager was amazed. He turned towards the young man. ”Well, pal, do you think you can top that?” 

”I sure can,” said Ralph. ”You just get that stupid lion out of there and I will show you.” 

Now, the sutras: 

These stories are about the state of humanity. They are different aspects of man’s unconsciousness, his mechanicalness, 

different aspects of man’s unawareness. Man goes on living like a robot. All his behavior comes out 

of a dark space within him. Hence the misery of the world. Unless that inner space is lit, becomes full of light, 

there is no hope for humanity. 

In the past we would survive because the weapons to kill man were not yet perfect. Now they are. Now we 

have perfect atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, laser rays, death rays and what-not. Now we have become so efficient 

in destroying humanity and the earth that if within this last part of the century we don’t bring a light within 

millions of people’s hearts, humanity is doomed. Then there is no future. We may be living the last years of 

human existence on the earth. 

But this critical state can become also a great blessing in disguise. It may make us more aware, more responsible. 

It may provoke us to do something so that humanity takes a surge towards the higher plane of consciousness. 

Buddha’s whole message is concerned with consciousness: how to raise consciousness in humanity, how to make 

him more alert, more capable of seeing things as they are, how to make him capable of becoming more spontaneous 

and functioning out of awareness and not out of unawareness. We function out of unconsciousness. 

All these sutras are just to prepare the ground, a right ground from where you can take off. 



Each single word has to be meditated upon. The first word is ’if’; it is a big ’if’. Buddha says: If THE 

TRAVELER CAN FIND....


It is very difficult to find an awakened master for the simple reason that very few people ever try to get out 

of the routine of unconsciousness. The routine of remaining unconscious is comfortable, cozy, because it keeps 

you confined to the world of the familiar and it keeps you with the crowd. It is risky to go away from the crowd 

because the crowd never forgives a person who goes away from it. The crowd wants to possess you all in all, body 

and soul. The crowd wants to dominate you. The crowd lives through domination. 

This effort to dominate is what politics is all about. Politics means the crowd is trying to dominate the 

individual, to destroy the individual, to destroy freedom, to destroy spontaneity, to destroy any idea of going on 

one’s own, of living one’s own life according to one’s own light. The crowd wants you to follow the mass, the 

collective mind. The crowd does not want you to have your own way. The crowd has already made a superhighway; 

you can simply follow it. And in a way it is more comfortable, it is cozy. You are surrounded with people, it is 

warm. 

When you move alone into the dense and deep and dark forest of the unknown, it is cold, and there are thousands 

of fears arising. You don’t know, in the first place, how to cope with the unknown. You are efficient in coping 

with the known; your system of education makes you capable of coping with the known. Your education is very 

much against the unknown. 

You will be surprised to know that your education is against intelligence. Society needs imitators. It wants 

you to be good in memorizing, not in becoming intelligent. It wants you to become good machines, not beautiful 

people; efficient machines, but machines all the same. It needs you to function well, but it does not want you to 

be more conscious. Then you would start saying no to many things; you will not be so obedient. 

The society wants yea-sayers. It wants blind people. It does not want you to see because if you see you are 

bound to be affected by your seeing, you are bound to change your ways. The society wants blind followers. 

Hence it is very rare that a person becomes awakened because the first thing to become awakened, to be a 

buddha, means to go away from the collective mind; to become so much an individual, integrated, that even if 

the whole world is against you you don’t care. You have decided that you will live according to your inner voice. 

That is the first step, but a great step, a quantum leap. It is moving into danger, it is risky. You will be 

creating enemies. And you will be going into a world which is uncharted, a territory of which you know nothing. 

No maps exist; no maps can exist, in the very nature of things. 

Hence it is very rare to find the awakened master. In hundreds of years it happens only once that there is 

a man like Jesus or Buddha or Lao Tzu. There are thousands of pretenders and they are easily available and 

they are very cheap. In fact, even if you don’t find them, they will find you. They are constantly searching for 

followers. Their whole business depends on how many followers they have. Each religion is concerned in having 

more followers because more followers mean more power. 

Just a few days before, the Protestant church of Germany has released a report against me a big report, eighteen 

pages! To all the churches the report has been sent. They have been alerted that, ”This man is dangerous. And 

the danger is more so,” says the report, ”because this man quotes Jesus. And sometimes he explains Jesus in such 

a beautiful way that Christians may get hooked by him.” 

I am sitting here. I have never been to Germany and I will never be there. What is the fear? 

A small commission was made to study all of my books to prepare the report. The commission seems to be a 

little bit confused. It seems a few people of the commission have become interested... because if you have a little 

bit of intelligence, even just a little bit of intelligence, how can you avoid seeing that there is something? So they 

say, ”There is something, there seems to be something. And it happens to be very much like Jesus’ teaching. But 

beware. Jesus has said, ’False prophets will be coming who will speak like me.’ But Jesus is the only begotten 

Son of God.” 

There is a great fear that if a few people go away from the crowd, the crowd feels reduced, its power lost. So 

no crowd wants anybody to leave its fold. It will create all kinds of hindrances. And if you want to become 

enlightened you have to pass all those hurdles created by the society, by the church, by the state, by everybody 

around you, by your own family. 

Remember Jesus. He has said: Unless you hate your mother and your father and your family you cannot come 

with me. It looks a little harsh and hard on Jesus’ part. It looks as if these words can’t be his but they are his. 

And the man was so loving and so compassionate; why should he be so hard on his family? because they were 

creating all kinds of hindrances for him. 

And every family is going to create hindrances because when you go in search of truth you are going away from 

the power of the family. And everybody is power-hungry. The father is power-hungry, the mother is power-hungry, 

the husband, the wife. Even the children are power-hungry. Even the children don’t want you to go out of the 

fold.


To become an enlightened person is almost like going the whole way AGAINST the current. Hence it is very 

rare. 

That’s why Buddha starts the sutra: If THE TRAVELER CAN FIND.... 

And it is a pilgrimage, the greatest, the most adventurous, of coming to oneself. It is a strange journey. You 

have gone so far away from yourself that you have to come back. You have forgotten the way how to come back 

home. You need a guide, but only somebody who has come home can guide you. And there are thousands of 

pretenders. It is very easy to pretend. Anybody can talk, advise, say beautiful things; it costs nothing. Anybody 

can read the scriptures, anybody can quote the scriptures and that’s what is happening all around the world. 

And religion is a good business. You can exploit people very easily; ”for their own good” you can exploit them. 

Buddha says: IF THE TRAVELER CAN FIND A VIRTUOUS AND WISE COMPANION.... Remember: the 

real master from his side is only a companion, a friend. From your side he is a master; from his side he is only a 

friend. From your side he is a master because you are unawakened and he is awakened. From his side he is only 

a friend because he knows there is no essential difference between him and you. You are just asleep; that is not 

much of a difference no difference in quality. 

You can be awakened. 

Your buddhahood can become manifest. 

You are just a bud and he has become a flower, but any bud can become a flower any moment. He was also a 

bud before; now he has opened his petals, he has become a flower. He has released his fragrance. Everybody is 

capable of doing it. From the master’s side, the disciple is a friend, a companion. 

The pseudo master will always pretend that he is higher than you, holier than you, superior to you. He will 

talk always in such a way that you cannot understand; that is his way of hiding himself. He will talk in spiritual 

jargon, he will talk in esoteric ways. And there are foolish people who become victims, because people have some 

idea that if you cannot understand something, there must be something in it. If you cannot understand, it must 

be very deep, very profound. 

Even here... I am with you, but there are a few people who pretend they are my mediums. And they tell people 

that, whatsoever they are saying, I am speaking through them. I am fully alive I can speak on my own! Wait a 

little. Let me die, then you can do your business. You will do it, but not now. 

But I can forgive these people because they earn a little money and they exploit a few people. I cannot 

understand the people who become victims of these persons. They can’t see the point. I am here: what is the 

need of somebody to function as a medium, to tell them what I want to tell them? I will tell you myself. Am I 

not telling you enough? Do you want more? Year in and year out I go on speaking to you every day. 

But there are a few people... they don’t come to listen, they don’t come here. They avoid the commune, but 

they go on sitting in the Blue Diamond, and a few foolish people go on meeting them there. And they roll up 

their eyes and they pretend to go in a trance, and then they start talking nonsense. The more nonsense it is, the 

more philosophical it seems, the more metaphysical it seems. And they always get a few people to listen to them, 

to follow them. It is a strange phenomenon, but somehow the pseudo has an appeal. 

One thing about the pseudo master is that he manages a facade, he wears a mask. He wears a mask that you 

would like him to wear. He fulfills your expectations. The true master never fulfills anybody’s expectations. 

Jesus proved that he was a true master because at the last moment he frustrated everybody, even his closest 

disciples. They were hoping that he would do some miracle: ”If he can raise people from death, if he can cure 

blind people, if he can cure crippled persons, he is going to do something when he will be crucified. Some great 

miracle is going to happen....” And nothing happened, nothing at all! That proves his authenticity. He was not 

there to fulfill your expectations. 

But the pseudo master always tries to fulfill your expectations. Sometimes he manages beautifully. Sometimes 

he will do miracles. 

I know one man. He told his story to me himself because he fell in love with me. He was worshipped by many 

as enlightened. By and by he became tired of playing the role. It is tiring. When you are not enlightened and 

you have to pretend to be enlightened and you have even to manage a few miracles, it is tiring. 

He came to see me. He cried and wept and he said, ”Save me from my followers! I am utterly tired and bored, 

and I have to do things just to keep them satisfied.” He said to me, ”Once I had to do a miracle because my 

followers were expecting something big so that many more people can come.” 

Followers are also interested that if many more people come to their master, they feel that they are with the 

right person. If they are alone with the master, then they start feeling a little doubtful. Nobody believes in his 

own being, nobody trusts in his own intelligence. When you see thousands of people you say, ”It must be right. 

So many people can’t be wrong.” Remember, the reality is just the opposite: so many people can’t be right!


The man said to me, ”I had to manage a miracle. I stopped a train for seven minutes.” 

I said, ”How did you manage it?” 

He said, ”Simple! I had to bribe three persons. One was the ticket collector. I had managed it that I would be 

traveling without the ticket and he would come and ask for the ticket. And I would get angry and I would say, 

’There is no need for any ticket for me. We are saints and we are allowed every freedom.’ So I became very angry. 

When I became angry, he became angry he was bribed and he was told to become very angry.” He pushed the 

man outside the railway compartment. 

This man was traveling with a big group of his followers; almost half of the train was full of his followers. They 

all got down, and the man said, ”Okay, then try to take your train. I will not allow it to move a single inch” and 

he stood there with rolled-up eyes. And the driver tried, and the guard was showing the flag and the stationmaster 

was showing the flag, and nothing was happening. The train was stuck because the driver was bribed, the guard 

was bribed. Three persons were bribed. 

Finally they rushed to him, fell at his feet, asked to be forgiven, asked him to come in again and told him, 

”Nobody will ever again ask you for the ticket. We are stupid people forgive us!” 

He entered the train and immediately it moved. That created a great sensation. Thousands of people became 

his followers because he managed to do this miracle. 

All miracles are done in this way. If you want to do miracles, you can come in private to me and I will teach 

you because these tricks cannot be taught publicly! Once you know, everybody knows; then they lose their whole 

mystery. All these tricks are done in this way. But people’s expectations are fulfilled. 

The pseudo masters speak the language of your desires. They say, ”If you meditate, you will become rich, you 

will become successful.” That is absolute nonsense. 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says to people, ”If you meditate you will become healthy, you will become rich, you 

will become successful, you will become famous. In whatsoever line you are working you will be at the top.” 

That’s what you want, so you say, ”Okay, then it is not much of a problem to meditate. Fifteen minutes in 

the morning, fifteen minutes in the evening...” just half an hour lost and all success is yours. This is the most 

successful formula for success and you want to succeed. You want a thousand and one desires to be fulfilled. 

Now, there are masters who say, ”Whatsoever you want, you will get it through meditation. Money will pour 

in. Just ask in deep meditation and it is going to happen.” 

This is speaking the language of your desire. The truth is just the opposite. If you ask me, if you really 

meditate you will be a failure in life, an utter failure. If you are succeeding, even that success will disappear 

because meditation will make you so relaxed, so nonviolent, so loving, so noncompetitive, so non-egoistic, that 

who cares for success? Meditation will make you so joyous that who wants to bother about the tomorrow? Who 

wants to stake today for the tomorrow? 

Meditation will make you inwardly rich, certainly. Inwardly you will become ecstatic, but outwardly it can’t be 

guaranteed that you will become rich, that you will become successful, that you will become very healthy, that 

no disease will ever happen to you. That is all sheer bullshit! 

Maharshi Raman died of cancer, Ramakrishna Paramahansa died of cancer. Can you find greater meditators? 

J. Krishnamurti suffers from many illnesses; he has been suffering from severe headache for almost twenty years. 

The headache is so severe that sometimes he wants to hit his head against the wall. Can you find a greater 

meditator? Can you find a greater buddha alive? If J. Krishnamurti suffers from a headache, if Raman Maharshi 

dies of cancer, if Ramakrishna dies of cancer, do you think meditation is going to give you health? Yes, in a way 

it will make you more healthy and more whole, but only in a very inner way. Deep down you will be whole, deep 

down there will be an inner spiritual health. 

Raman is dying with cancer, but his eyes are full of joy. He dies laughing. This is real health. In deep agony 

is his body, but he is just a witness. This is meditation. 

Buddha says: 



If you can find a man who is awakened, who is really virtuous and wise, whose virtue is not only a cultivated 

facade but a spontaneous fragrance, whose wisdom is no longer knowledge, whose wisdom is his own authentic 

experience... if you can find such a person, then go with him joyfully, wholeheartedly, totally. Then don’t hold 

back, because this is a rare opportunity. 

How will you recognize the real awakened person? How will you recognize that he is authentic, true, that what 

he is saying he knows? How will you recognize him? That is one of the most important questions that has been


asked for centuries, and it has not been answered adequately because it can’t be answered adequately. Only a few 

hints can be given. 

You cannot recognize a true master through the head. To your head he may look very illogical. Let that be 

one of the hints because the pseudo master tries to be very logical. He has to convince you, and you can be 

convinced only if he is logical. He tries even to give logic about God. He creates theology, which is the most 

stupid thing in the world logic about God! There is no way to prove God logically, but the pseudo master tries 

to prove everything logically because you can understand only logic. 

The true master speaks paradoxically. He is a living paradox. He contradicts himself, because truth is the 

meeting of the opposites. And in the true master the truth has happened, the opposites have met. The polar 

opposites have disappeared in him; they have become one, they have melted into one unity. He is as paradoxical 

as existence itself. That should be the first hint. 

The head can only give you this much, so if your head feels somewhere that something is illogical, don’t escape 

from the place. That illogicality simply means something mysterious is there. Now move to the heart. When 

your head says something is illogical, the head is saying, ”It is beyond me drop it. I can’t understand it. It is 

incomprehensible.” Rather than dropping it, drop the head! Then you will be able to see the true master. 

The true master can only be felt. It is a question of a loving openness on your part. The disciple has to open 

the heart. The true master comes through the heart, not through the head. He is felt as love, not as logic. He is 

felt as a song, not as syllogism. He is felt as poetry, not as prose. He is a dance; you can know him only through 

participation. 

Be with a true master. Just being with him, sitting by his side in deep silence, with no prejudice, with no idea 

what is happening, something transpires. Something jumps from the master into your heart. You can feel it. It 

is energy, it is an energy phenomenon. It is not a question of a theory, of any hypothesis, of philosophy. It is a 

jump of energy, a quantum leap. Something invisible radiates from the true master and penetrates to the true 

disciple. And who is the true disciple? the one whose heart is open. 

And once you have felt the presence of the true master, Buddha says: GO WITH HIM JOYFULLY... not 

reluctantly, not with doubts joyfully, dancing, celebrating. You have found the master. There can be no greater 

blessing than that, because on the way you will find many problems without the master. The first step will not 

be possible; only the master can push you. And you can allow him to push you only if you trust. 

It is just like a new bird who has come out of the egg and sits on the edge of the nest, looks at his mother, 

father, parents, other birds flying in the sky. A great longing arises in his heart too. He flutters his wings, but he 

cannot gather courage; he is afraid he may fall down. He has never flown before. He does not know what it is all 

about, how these people are managing. They may be different, they may have certain qualities. Who knows that 

he has wings also? He can have a certain feeling that there are wings; he can see a certain similarity. But the fear 

of falling, of killing oneself or crippling oneself, is also there. 

The mother goes and calls from the tree far away, gives him a call. He wants to go, but the fear.... The mother 

goes around the nest, flies, to show him that ”What I am doing you can do.” Slowly, slowly he gathers courage, 

and one day the mother simply pushes him. He has to be pushed. In spite of his fear, when he is pushed he can 

see that he opens his wings; he is able to balance himself. Of course, in the beginning it is a little awkward, but 

soon he becomes efficient. 

Without the master the first step is difficult, the most difficult thing. How to move into the unknown if there 

is nobody to push you? But the master can push you only if you trust him, if you love him. It is just like the 

bird loves the mother and he knows that whatsoever she is doing she will not do any harm. Out of that trust he 

allows her to push him; in fact, deep down he wants to be pushed. He knows, ”I cannot do it on my own.” But if 

the mother is doing it she must be doing it right. 

When the disciple feels such a love affair with the master, then things become possible. And then there are 

many dangers on the way. The first step is the most difficult; then as you move deeper and deeper many more 

things have to be dropped. Who is going to tell you what to drop and what not to drop? It is all unknown to 

you. Somebody needs to constantly watch you. 

And then comes the last step, when the ego dies. That is also very difficult it seems as if you are dying. The 

master has to help you die because only through death you will be reborn. The master has to help you understand 

that this is not death. The seed disappearing in the soil is not dying; it is really being born as a tree. And the 

river disappearing in the ocean is not dying, it is simply becoming the ocean. It is not losing anything, it is gaining 

much more. It is losing nothing and gaining all. 

BUT IF YOU CANNOT FIND.... Buddha says: It is not easy to find an awakened master, so: 

... IF YOU CANNOT FIND FRIEND OR MASTER TO GO WITH YOU, TRAVEL ON ALONE....


Travel you must. If you can find a master, a companion, a friend, you are blessed, you are fortunate. If you 

cannot find, just don’t make it an excuse that what can you do? there is nobody like Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu 

available. ”What can I do? I have to live the ordinary life. I cannot go into the unknown on my own.” No, you 

can go. It will be a little bit difficult, hazardous, risky, but the risk is worth taking. 

TRAVEL ON ALONE LIKE A KING WHO HAS GIVEN AWAY HIS KINGDOM, LIKE AN ELEPHANT 

IN THE FOREST. 

Don’t be worried that you are alone. Slowly, slowly you will become able to balance yourself. Slowly, slowly in 

slow steps, you will be able to go beyond the known. Slowly, slowly you will be able to die as an ego and be born 

as an egoless presence. It may take a little longer time. It may take you sometimes astray because you are alone 

and there is nobody to call you back again and again to the right path, but still it is better to travel alone than 

not to travel at all. 

The greatest fault, the greatest misery is that people are not traveling at all towards truth. They are simply 

going in circles in their mundane affairs: the business, the wife, the husband, the children, the office and the home. 

And they go on in circles. Their whole life is just pointless; it makes no sense. It has no meaning, no significance. 

Still, somehow they go on, afraid of risking. 

Don’t be afraid of risking. If you can risk, the whole universe is going to help you because this universe is not 

in any way aloof and unconcerned about you. 

Buddha has said, ”When I became enlightened, the whole universe rejoiced. That moment I felt that the whole 

universe was helping me, waiting for me to become enlightened.” 

The story is beautiful. Don’t take it literally. It is symbolic, it is a metaphor. When Buddha became enlightened, 

trees bloomed out of season. Trees cannot bloom out of season, but we have to express somehow the joy that was 

felt in existence itself. 

Whenever there is a man like Buddha, the whole humanity takes an upward surge; it soars higher. Just take 

two dozen names from human history Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Mohammed, Bahauddin, Kabir just two 

dozen names. Take them out of human history and you will not be human at all; you will lose all your humanity. 

It is through these few people that great consciousness has been released. And even though you have not done 

anything you have been blessed by it. It has showered on you without your becoming aware of it. 

So if you have to travel alone, travel, but travel you must, in spite of all the dangers and risks. The greatest 

risk is not to travel, because then you are stuck, you don’t grow, you are like a stone, you will never flower. In 

traveling maybe you will go astray, you will commit a few mistakes. So what? One learns through mistakes, one 

learns through going astray. And if one keeps alert one can’t go very far away; that alertness brings one back. 

TRAVEL ON ALONE, RATHER THAN WITH A FOOL FOR COMPANY. 

Buddha says: Just for the company’s sake, don’t move with a fool. Beware of that. 

I have been observing thousands of saints and mahatmas Jaina, Hindu, Mohammedan and I was surprised to 

find one thing: ninety-nine percent of them look foolish, stupid. Something dull and dead seems to be inside them. 

There seems to be no flash of insight; no intelligence radiates around them. They look like walking graves. They 

have already died. They are worshipped because people worship death, and because people worship them they 

think they have arrived. They have not moved a single inch! They have even fallen below the ordinary humanity. 

This is my experience: that your so-called saints are far below the ordinary humanity as far as intelligence is 

concerned, awareness is concerned. They are not meditators, they don’t know what meditation is. In the name 

of meditation they go on doing something else. They are utter fools! 

When Buddha uses the word ’fool’ he means somebody who is living an unconscious life. Somebody is accumulating 

money in an unconscious way, not knowing why, not knowing for what, not knowing that death will come 

and everything will be taken away. Somebody else has renounced money, but he is as unconscious as the one who 

is greedy for money. Somebody goes on stuffing himself with food and somebody else goes on long fasts. Both 

are torturing their bodies in different ways, but both are self-destructive. The man who eats too much tortures 

his body, remember it he is also ascetic in his own way and the man who fasts also tortures his body. Both are 

self-destructive. 

And by self-destruction you cannot attain to liberation, to God, to nirvana. It is only through a tremendous 

creativity, sensitivity, awareness, that one comes home. 

So Buddha says: Beware of the company of the fool. It is better to be alone rather than to be with a foolish 

person, because the foolish person is bound to affect you. You will be with him and he will certainly infect you 

with his foolishness.


Intelligence is also contagious. If you live with an intelligent person you start becoming intelligent, because we 

are not so separate, we vibrate together. If we live with somebody for a long time we start synchronizing with the 

person. 

That’s the whole secret of satsang the communion with the master. If he is awakened, his disciples slowly, 

slowly start moving towards a subtle awakening. It is bound to happen. If the disciple can simply be in the 

presence of the master, surrendered, relaxed, in a state of let-go, he may not have to do anything at all. The 

presence of the master will start flooding him, will start changing his being. We are joined together. 

Have you not watched it? If four persons are laughing and you are in a sad mood and you go to these people, 

you forget your sadness; you start laughing. Later on when you remember that you were sad, it looks very strange. 

How did you forget your sadness? How did you start laughing? What happened? The energy there, the space 

there, was totally different from you: it was more powerful than you. Those four persons were creating a certain 

vibe. Hence the significance of a buddhafield. The master creates a field around himself; through his disciples he 

creates an energy field. To be in that energy field is a transformation in itself. 

But the same happens if you move with the foolish people. Just to keep company, people would like to be with 

anybody. They are so afraid of being alone. 

Buddha wants you to beware of that. It is better to be with trees and the clouds and the river and the mountains 

and the ocean, because they will not make you more foolish than you are; they may even help you to become a 

little more intelligent, because the whole existence is nothing but intelligence. If you can be in deep communion 

with nature you will become more intelligent. There is all around you tremendous intelligence available, but only 

intelligent people can feel it. The foolish person remains closed. 

The fool lives in his own world; that’s why he is called the idiot. The word ’idiot’ means one who lives in his 

own world, one who has his own idiom, one who has his own private reality. He is closed to the real; he has his 

own fantasy. He lives in his dreams. 

Pat went to see the doctor about his eyes. The doctor suggested he bathe them every morning in brandy. 

The next time Pat came to see the doctor, the doctor asked him how his eyes were. 

”Did you follow my advice?” he asked. 

”I tried to but I can’t raise the glass higher than my mouth!” 

The fool is not only the person who is ignorant. The fool can be very knowledgeable; often he is. He can be 

a pundit, he can be a priest, he can be a professor. And then he is more dangerous because he appears to talk 

sense, and deep down he is as ignorant as anybody else, as foolish as anybody else. 

A famous professor walked into a travel agency to buy a steamship ticket. 

”To where?” the agent asked. 

”Have you got a globe of the world?” 

The travel agent handed him a globe. The professor turned the globe around and around looking at all the 

countries and continents. After thirty minutes he said, ”Pardon me, haven’t you got anything else?” 

Your professors, your pundits, your scholars, are not very much different. 

And remember, the foolish person may have a certain character. It is easy for the fool to create a certain 

character because he is stubborn. Stupidity is always stubborn. If some idea gets into his head he may be able to 

practice it more consistently than the intelligent person because he is stubborn, he cannot be flexible. He is not 

dynamic, he is stagnant. 

That helps many foolish people to become respectable because they can do stupid things nobody else will be 

able to do, but they do them with such perseverance, with such patience, with such strength, that they succeed 

in doing them. They can create great characters, they can be great moralists, they can be very pious, and they 

can impress you. 

Remember, character is not of much value. What is valuable is consciousness not conscience but consciousness. 

Conscience is created by the society. The more foolish you are, the more the society is able to create a conscience 

in you. It gives you an idea how to live your life. It manipulates you in a very subtle way. It hypnotizes you and 

conditions you. And the conditioning is so long that you forget completely that these are not your ideas. 

For example, if you are born in a vegetarian family you will be a vegetarian, thinking that you have renounced 

all meat-eating, etcetera, that you are great you are a vegetarian. But if you were born in a nonvegetarian family 

you would have been a nonvegetarian. It depends on the conditioning; you are not doing it consciously. You are 

allowing other people to dominate you, to decide for you. 

The intelligent person is rebellious. He does not allow others to decide for him; he keeps the right to himself. 

Hence, stupid people become saints very easily because they allow the society to condition them. At least in that


particular society they will be very much respected. To others they will look very stupid, to others they will look 

insane, but to that particular society which has conditioned them they will be great saints. 

Just a few days before in Bombay, a naked Jaina saint has come Acharya Vidyananda. He lives naked. To the 

Jainas he seems to be a great saint; to others he seems to be a little bit crazy, eccentric. And if you look at his 

face he looks stupid, although he talks on great scriptures. But his face shows simply stupidity, no radiance. His 

body seems ugly. If there is going to be a competition, a world competition in ugliness for Mr. Universe, then he 

may succeed. But to his set, to his followers he looks so great that he has transcended his body. And all that he 

is doing is unnecessarily torturing his body. 

If you torture the body it becomes ugly. It is a gift of God make it beautiful. It is your home, you have to live 

in it make it beautiful. 

But once you are in a certain conditioning, that is your whole universe. You think in terms which others have 

told you. Unless by some accident you come across a new idea.... 

Old maid Sarah possessed several million dollars, a pedigree female cat, and some very Victorian ideas on the 

subject of sex. In fact, her feelings about sex were such that for five years she had never allowed her cat to go out 

of the house for fear of ”contamination.” 

Deciding to take a vacation in Hawaii, Sarah instructed her housekeeper, ”Now be sure you don’t let the cat 

out. I repeat, do not, under any circumstances, let the cat out.” 

After Sarah had been gone about a week, the housekeeper received a telegram, ”Having a wonderful time. Met 

the nicest young man. Let the cat out!” 

People are living in small ponds of their own ideology and it is very rare that they will come across something 

new that will go through their thick layer of conditioning and will make them aware what they are doing to 

themselves. These are the people you worship, you respect, whom for centuries you have worshipped and respected. 

And because of this worship and respect the whole humanity has remained tethered to the lowest possibility of 

intelligence. You could have reached to the Everest of intelligence, but we have not allowed our intelligence to 

soar high, higher than the collective mind wants it to. 

DO NOT CARRY WITH YOU YOUR MISTAKES. DO NOT CARRY YOUR CARES. 

Buddha says: Go alone, just remember two things. Don’t carry your mistakes that means, don’t carry your 

past. There is no need even to repent about the past. Your religious people go on teaching you, ”Repent!” because 

it is through repentance that they make you feel guilty, and when you are guilty you can be exploited. 

A real master always makes you feel good about yourself, not guilty; respectful towards yourself, not guilty. 

But the priests live on creating guilt in you. They would not like you to forget your mistakes; they want to remind 

you again and again. They have not even forgotten the sin that was committed by Adam and Eve; they go on 

reminding you about the original sin. You have not committed it, but you are born into the chain in which the 

first man and woman committed it and you are carrying the load of it. You have to feel guilty even for that, 

what to say about your own mistakes? The priests have lived in great power for the simple reason that they have 

reduced you into guilty sinners. 

The elderly priest listened in while the young curate took his first confession. 

”You did well,” he told the young priest, ”but I suggest that when you hear the confessions of these pretty 

young ladies it would be more appropriate if you went, ’Tsk, tsk, tsk,’ and not ’Wow!’” 

DO NOT CARRY WITH YOU YOUR MISTAKES. Don’t repent, don’t feel guilty. Drop the past; it is no 

more. 

And: DO NOT CARRY YOUR CARES. That is: don’t think about the future, don’t be worried about it. 

Live in the present. That is what meditation is all about: living in the present. Mind lives in the past and in the 

future; and if you can be in the present, mind disappears, and silence prevails profound silence, virgin silence. 

See it as a fact... right now, here. If there is no past and no future, then this moment has such beauty, such 

grace. Then the birds singing and the traffic noise and this beautiful silence... and something will transpire 

between me and you. It can transpire only in the present. 

TRAVEL ON ALONE LIKE AN ELEPHANT IN THE FOREST. 

Be in the present and travel on alone if you cannot find a master. But if you can find a master, let him go 

with you; go with him joyfully.... AND OVERCOME THE DANGERS OF THE WAY. 



Chapter 6 Truth cannot be lost 


The first question:


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM REJECTING MY MIND AND CLINGING TO AWARENESS. 

Prem Shahido, mind has not to be rejected at all; if you reject it, it will remain. Rejection means repression. 

Anything rejected never leaves you; it simply moves from the conscious to the unconscious, from the lighted part 

of your being to the dark layers where you cannot face it. You become oblivious of it, but it is there, more alive 

than ever. It is better to face the enemy than to keep the enemy at your back; that is far more dangerous. 

And I have not told you to reject the mind. Mind is a beautiful mechanism, one of the miracles of existence. 

We have not been able yet to make anything comparable to human mind. Even the most sophisticated computers 

are nothing compared to it. A single human mind can contain all the libraries of the world; its capacities are 

almost unbounded. But it is a machine, it is not you. To get identified with it is wrong, to make it your master is 

wrong, to be guided by it is wrong. But to be the master and the guide is perfectly right. The mind as a servant 

is of tremendous value, so don’t reject it. To reject it will impoverish you, it will not enrich you. 

I am not against the mind; I am in favor of transcending it. And if you reject you cannot transcend. Use it as 

a stepping-stone. It all depends on you: you can make it a hindrance if you start thinking that the mind has to 

be rejected, denied, destroyed; or you can make it a stepping-stone if you accept it, if you try to understand it. 

In the very effort of understanding it, transcendence happens. You go beyond it, you become a witness. 

And, Shahido, a second thing.... 

You say, ”I am clinging to awareness.” 

That is bound to happen. If you reject mind you will start clinging to awareness. And clinging is nothing but 

mind functioning from the back door. Clinging is a process of mind. But that is bound to happen to people who 

reject, repress. 

The question is of transformation. The mind has to be used rightly; then there will be no clinging to awareness. 

Otherwise, afraid of the mind, that it may come back, you will cling to awareness and in clinging it has already 

come back, it is already there. Clinging is mind; nonclinging is intrinsic to awareness. You cannot cling to 

awareness; if you cling, it is just a mind phenomenon. Your awareness too is just a pseudo thing created by the 

mind because you were asking too much for it. It is false, utterly false; if you have to cling to it, it is false. 

Real awareness remains with you; you need not cling to it. Who will cling to it? You are awareness. Who will 

cling to whom? In awareness there are not two the clinger and the object of clinging; in awareness you are one. 

There is only awareness and nothing else. One cannot cling to awareness. But it is bound to happen if you reject 

the mind; the very first step has gone wrong. Don’t reject it understand it. 

And in fact, the word ’understand’ is very significant. When you understand something it stands under you. 

You become transcendental, you go beyond it; it is below you. It has its utility; great utility. There will be no 

science without mind and there will be no technology without mind. All human comforts will disappear without 

human mind. Man will fall back into the world of the animals or even far below without the mind. Mind has 

given much. 

The problem is not the mind; the problem is your identification with it. You think you are it, that is the 

problem. Disidentify. Watch the mind, and you be the watcher and let the mind be there watched, witnessed, 

observed. And a great radical change happens through observation. Mind functions far more efficiently when you 

observe it because all that is rubbish drops and mind need not carry unnecessary weight; it becomes light. And 

when you become a watcher, mind can have some rest too. Otherwise your whole life mind is working, working, 

day in, day out, year in, year out; it stops only when you die. It creates a deep fatigue, mental fatigue. 

Now scientists say even metals become tired metal fatigue. So what to say about the mind which is very subtle, 

which is very delicate? Handle it carefully. But you remain aloof, unconcerned, uninvolved. When you are writing 

you don’t become the fountain pen, although you cannot write without it. A good fountain pen is very essential 

for good writing. If you start writing with your fingers nobody will be able to read what you have written, not 

even you, and it will be very primitive. But you are not the fountain pen, and the fountain pen is not the writer 

but only a writing instrument. 

The mind is not the master but only an instrument in the hands of the master. 

Shahido, be more alert, aware, but don’t cling to it. Clinging will destroy the whole beauty of it. Why cling? 

What is the fear? We cling only out of fear. You are awareness, you cannot lose it. Even now, when you are 

unaware of the fact that you are awareness, you have not lost it. 

Truth cannot be lost. Whether you know it or you know not, it makes no difference. The truth remains the 

truth, known or unknown. Your innermost being is still pure awareness. You live on the circumference, hence you 

are not able to see your own center.


Sannyas means exploring your interiority, moving towards the center. That’s what meditation is all about. 

When you become centered, suddenly there is great freedom because you know you are not the mind and you 

are not the body. That does not mean that you start rejecting the body or the mind. You respect the body, you 

respect the mind. You love the body more so, more than ever. It is a beautiful house. It is your home and you 

have to live in it seventy, eighty, ninety years. And it is serving you so beautifully; its service is of great value. 

You respect it, you befriend it, you take care of it. But still you know: ”I am neither the body nor the mind. I 

am consciousness.” 

And then there is no question of clinging. Knowing that ”I am consciousness,” you become part of God. Then 

there is no birth for you, no death for you. Then you are part of eternity, and to be part of eternity is to be 

blissful. When you know you cannot die, all fear disappears and the energy involved in fear is released as love. 

When you know you are part of the whole there is no anxiety left, no anguish possible, and the energy involved 

in anxiety, in anguish, is released. You become compassion, love, joy; it starts overflowing you. You are not only 

a blessing to yourself, you become a blessing to everybody else; you become a blessing to existence itself. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, IS IT NECESSARY TO GO THROUGH DREAM ANALYSIS FOR ATTAINING 

ENLIGHTENMENT? 

Gautami, dream analysis cannot help you to become enlightened, but dream witnessing can certainly help you. 

That is the difference between psychology and religion: psychology analyzes dreams; religion watches them, 

helps you to become aware of them. And the moment you become aware of your dreams they disappear; they 

can’t exist for a single moment longer. They can exist only when you are utterly unaware; for their existence that 

is an absolute condition. 

A buddha never dreams, he cannot dream. Even if he wants to dream he cannot. Dreaming simply disappears 

from his being because even in the night while he is asleep, deep down in his innermost core he is awake. A flame 

of awareness continues and he knows what is happening. He knows that his body is asleep. Witnessing becomes 

so ingrained that not only in the day but in the night also it continues. And then dreaming disappears. You 

dream because you desire; your dreams reflect your desires. Now, you can go on dissecting your desires for lives, 

and you will not attain to anything. You can go on analyzing your dreams.... 

There are many systems of analysis. If you go to the Freudians they will analyze your dreams in one way: they 

will interpret everything as sexuality. Imaginable things, unimaginable things, everything has to be reduced to 

sexuality. If you go to the Adlerians with the same dreams, they will interpret them according to their ideology. 

Then every dream is reduced to Adler’s idea: will to power. Then everything is nothing but will to power; each 

dream has to fit with his philosophy. And so is the case with the Jungians and others. 

And one thing has been observed again and again a very strange phenomenon happens. If you go into 

psychoanalysis of any kind Freudian, Jungian, Adlerian you start dreaming in the way your psychoanalyst 

expects you to dream. If you go to the Freudian, sooner or later you start dreaming according to his idea. People 

are very obliging; they feel sorry for the poor analyst. And he is making such hard effort to analyze your dreams. 

First he starts giving you interpretations and then you start dreaming according to his interpretations. Soon you 

fit with each other you are as if made for each other. Then he is happy and you are happy. He is happy because 

his theories are confirmed and you are happy that you are a good boy, dreaming according to the great expert. 

And when you see your psychoanalyst happy, you feel happy. Seeing you feel happy, he feels happy. It is such a 

mutual arrangement! And nobody is really helped... dreaming continues. 

I have never come across a fully psychoanalyzed person, because according to Freud, a fully psychoanalyzed 

person is one whose dreaming has disappeared. And that was not true even about Sigmund Freud himself; he 

continued to dream to his very last. And he was very afraid of psychoanalysis, you will be surprised to know, 

because he knew his disciples would only prove that all his dreams were sexual. 

Once Jung wanted to psychoanalyze Freud. Jung was his most beloved disciple in those days, just as once 

Judas was one of the most beloved disciples of Jesus. And what Judas did to Jesus, Jung did to Freud. People 

whose names start with ’J’ are dangerous! 

Freud and Jung were traveling and they started talking. Jung said, ”This idea occurs to me again and again: 

that I would like to psychoanalyze you. You have not been psychoanalyzed. In fact, nobody who has not been 

psychoanalyzed should be authorized to psychoanalyze other people. And you are the founder you should be 

psychoanalyzed.” 

Freud actually started trembling and he said, ”No, no, never! That will destroy my prestige.”


Jung said, ”If that is so, then it has already destroyed your prestige, at least for me. If you are so much afraid 

to talk about your dreams, that simply shows what kind of dreams you must be having.” 

There is not a single person in the world who is totally psychoanalyzed. And unless dreams disappear, your 

mind will remain in a turmoil. Dreams simply say you don’t know how to put your mind off; you don’t know 

where the switch exists so that you can put it on and off according to your needs. When you are going to sleep 

you can’t put if off; it goes on chattering. Even if you say to it, ”Shut up!” it does not listen to you at all; it does 

not care. And you know perfectly well it won’t listen. You feel so impotent as far as your own mind is concerned 

that you have to move according to it, it does not move according to you. If it wants to chatter it will chatter; 

when you fall asleep, still it goes on chattering. 

The art of meditation makes you aware where the switch is: it is in witnessing. Witnessing is the switch that 

can put your mind on or off. You become the master, so when you want to use it you use it and when you don’t 

want to use it you simply put it off and it gives rest to the mind. 

Hence the mind of a meditator is far more brilliant, far more intelligent, far more alive, sensitive, than the mind 

of a non-meditator, because the mind of a meditator has a few periods of deep, deep rest that rejuvenates it. If 

you see a meditator and he is not intelligent, that simply means he is not a meditator at all. A meditator cannot 

be stupid, a meditator cannot be mediocre; that is impossible. If he is a meditator, then he will radiate sharpness, 

intelligence, brilliance. He will be a genius, he will be creative. 

In fact, if we can create more and more meditators in the world, in every dimension of life there will be more 

creativity, more intelligence, less stupidity, less lethargy. But it has not happened down the ages. Just the opposite 

has happened because in the name of meditation, something else has continued. In the name of meditation people 

either have been concentrating or contemplating. Both are not meditation. 

Concentration is just the opposite of meditation and so is contemplation, in a different way. Concentration 

means closing your mind, focusing your mind, on a certain point, on a certain object. You are so focused on a 

certain object that you become unaware of everything else; that is concentration. It excludes everything else; it 

includes only one thing: the object of your concentration, whatsoever it is. 

And meditation means absolute openness. It includes all, it excludes nothing. Hence it is not concentration at 

all. It is a state of vulnerability, openness, availability. 

The person who is trying to concentrate can be distracted. He can be easily distracted by anything. Just a dog 

in the neighborhood starts barking and he is distracted, a child starts giggling and he is distracted, a bird starts 

singing and he is distracted. Anything will do, as if he is just waiting for anything to distract him; he is tired of 

focusing his mind. It is a tension, it is a strain. 

Meditation is not a tension, it is not a strain. One is never tired of meditation. It is relaxation how you can 

be tired of it? It is deep rest, it is utter restfulness. One is available to everything; nothing can distract you. 

You can listen to me either as concentration or as meditation. If you listen to me as concentration, then 

anything can distract. A car passes by... the cuckoo starts calling from the distance the chattering of the birds. 

Anything can distract you, any small thing. Not that the birds are interested in distracting you; they are not 

concerned with you at all. But you will feel anger arising in you. 

That’s why so-called religious people become more angry than anybody else. They live almost in rage. If a 

single person in your house becomes religious, he is enough to create trouble for everybody, because each small 

thing distracts him and then he takes revenge. 

You can listen to me in meditation. Then you are not concentrating on me; you are simply sitting available, 

open. The birds go on chattering; that too comes to you, but because you are not concentrating it is not a 

distraction it enriches. What I am saying to you is enriched. The singing of the birds becomes a background to 

it. And you never feel angry and you never feel tense. 

Contemplation is also not meditation. Contemplation means thinking. Thinking can be of two types. One is 

zigzag, in jumps from one object to another, a little crazy; that is ordinary thinking. Anything leads to anything. 

A dog starts barking and you start thinking about your girlfriend. There seems to be no relationship, but maybe 

your girl had said once, ”I go on barking at you and you don’t listen!” Suddenly the dog reminds you. Or maybe 

she also has a dog who barks at you whenever you go to see her. And then from one thing to another... you 

will not stay with anything long. The girlfriend reminds you of her mother, and so on, so forth. Nobody knows 

where you are going to end. When you will look retrospectively you will be surprised: just the dog barking in the 

neighborhood started the whole process of thought. 

Contemplation means remaining concerned with one object, thinking about it and only about it. Thinking has 

a consistency. If you are thinking about love, then you are thinking about love and all its aspects. You don’t 

jump from one thing to another. Yes, you have a little rope just so that you can move around the subject of love,


but you keep moving around it, around and around. You forget the whole world love becomes your world for the 

moment. 

Meditation is not contemplation either because it is not thinking at all consistent, inconsistent, crazy, sane. 

It is not thinking at all; it is witnessing. It is just sitting silently deep within yourself, looking at whatsoever is 

happening inside and outside both. Outside there is traffic noise, inside there is also traffic noise the traffic in 

the head. So many thoughts trucks and buses of thoughts and trains and airplanes of thoughts, rushing in every 

direction. But you are simply sitting aloof, unconcerned, watching everything with no evaluation. 

You ask me, Gautami, ”Is it necessary to go through dream analysis for attaining enlightenment?” 

No, not at all. Have you ever heard anybody becoming enlightened through psychoanalysis? Yes, people have 

become mad, but nobody has become enlightened. 

Psychoanalysis depends on analysis of the mind, and they don’t see anything else in you. The body is taken 

care of by the physiologists; then all that remains is a constant traffic in the mind either of thoughts or of dreams, 

memories, imagination, desires. The psychoanalyst has nothing else to do: he looks into your dreaming process. 

And why does he choose dreams? because if he asks you what you think when you are awake you are never 

authentic, you are never sincere. You are so deceptive, so dishonest, that whatever you say about your thinking 

is bound to be managed; it is not going to be true. You will say only that which is worth saying and you will 

delete many things. You will edit your thoughts. You will not allow the psychoanalyst to look into your thoughts 

without any censor, without any editing. You will not allow him the raw material of your thoughts because that 

will look like you are insane. 

You can try it. Sit in your room, close all the doors so nobody can come in, and start writing whatsoever is 

happening in the mind whatsoever it is. Just go on writing for fifteen minutes, then read it and you will be 

shocked. This is your mind? All these thoughts are going on in your mind? Are you mad or something? You 

can’t show it to anybody. 

It is good that people don’t have windows in their heads; otherwise the wife will look through the window in 

the head of the husband and she will find everything. She finds everything anyway, window or no window! 

The psychoanalyst has to depend on your dreams because in dreams it is very difficult for you to deceive him. 

You don’t know yourself what your dreams mean so you have to say them as they are, and he can find a few clues 

about you. But this is not going to make you enlightened. This may help you a little bit to become more normal, 

but what is normality? Even the people who are normal are not normal they are normally abnormal, that’s all. 

So you will be normally abnormal. 

There are two kinds of abnormal people in the world: normally abnormal, abnormally abnormal. The work of 

the psychoanalyst is to bring abnormally abnormal people to the first category: normally abnormal. He helps you 

to adjust with the society, with people, with yourself, but he can’t help you to become enlightened. 

You can go on and on analyzing your dreams and you will never come to your witnessing soul through that 

analysis. How can you come to the witness by analyzing the dreams? One dream will lead you into another 

dream. Maybe you will become a very skillful dreamer, very artful. Maybe you will start dreaming in a better 

way, in a more scientific way, but dreams are dreams. They cannot take you to the witness of the dreams which 

is your reality. 

Al: ”I had a great dream I dreamed I broke the bank at Monte Carlo.” 

Charles: ”I had a great dream too I dreamed I was in a room with Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot.” 

Al: ”Wow! Bardot and Sophia! Why didn’t you call me?” 

Charles: ”I did, but your maid said you were in Monte Carlo!” 

You can analyze this dream. What will be the gain? Neither the bank in Monte Carlo nor Sophia Loren or 

Bardot nothing is going to be your gain. But the psychoanalyst will analyze it. If you go to the Adlerian, his 

emphasis will be on the bank in Monte Carlo: will to power, money, prestige. He will forget all about Sophia 

Loren and Bardot; he is not interested that is nothing. If you go to the Freudian he will not think about Monte 

Carlo and the bank at all; that is nonessential, accidental. The real thing is Sophia Loren and Bardot. 

And if you go to a Jungian, then nobody knows what he will do with your dream. He is so confused! But he will 

make much fuss about it, that much is certain. He will create much dust esoteric dust. He may start looking into 

your dream and finding things which you would have never suspected some ancient mysteries, maybe Egyptian. 

Or he may go even farther back Atlantis. He is really a grave digger. And he goes on finding things which are 

not there. 

You must have heard the definition of a philosopher. The philosopher is a man who is blind looking in the dark 

night, in a dark room, for a black cat which is not there. But Jung finds it there! That’s the beauty of Jung he


finds the black cat which is not there; he finds it still. And he creates so much smoke and dust that you cannot 

deny him. He creates great argument. And he himself is very much afraid of going towards the witness. 

He has been in India, and there was a man a man the like of whom happens only once in a while. Maharshi 

Raman was alive. And wherever Jung went in India, almost everywhere people suggested to him, ”Why are you 

wasting your time here and there, going to Varanasi and Bombay? Why don’t you go to Maharshi Raman?” 

People knew that he is a great psychoanalyst, world-famous. ”You should go to Maharshi Raman, who has gone 

beyond the mind. Sitting by his side you may have a few glimpses. You may come away a totally changed person.” 

But Jung avoided him, he did not go there. On the contrary, back home he started writing against Eastern 

mysticism. He could not write against mysticism as such because he was himself creating great mysteries superficial 

because he was not an initiate in any mystery school. He was gathering things from superficial sources. He had 

never been in contact with a living master. He had come so close to a buddha Maharshi Raman yet he missed. 

And in self-defense he started writing back home that Eastern mysticism is not meant for the Western mind as 

if there are Eastern souls and Western souls too. Yes, there is a difference in the skin of the Eastern people and 

the Western people; it is not much of a difference, just a little color pigment four annas’ worth. And remember, 

the black person has it more than the white. He is more valuable four annas more valuable because he has a 

certain pigment that makes him black which the white skin is missing. 

And yes, there is a certain difference in the mind, because the Eastern mind is conditioned in a different way 

and the Western mind is conditioned in a different way. Conditionings are different, but the witness is the same. 

Jesus and Buddha, Mohammed and Mahavira, are not different. Saint Francis and Ramakrishna, Eckhart and 

Krishnamurti, are not different. One who has known the witness is neither Eastern nor Western. He is no more 

the body and no more the mind how can he be Eastern or Western? 

And Jung started talking this nonsense in self-defense. He said, ”That’s why I avoided Maharshi Raman, because 

Eastern methods are not suitable to us. The West needs its own yoga, the West needs its own meditations.” What 

difference can there be in being aware? Whether you are in the East or in the West, awareness will be the same 

and that is the essential core of meditation. 

They are great interpreters of dreams... the whole world of the psychoanalyst is the world of dreams. And as 

far as the enlightened person is concerned, for him the whole world is nothing but a dream. For the psychoanalyst, 

dreams are his whole world, and for the enlightened person the whole world is nothing but a dream. 

The analyst was annoyed with her patient who said she did not dream the night before. 

”Look,” he warned her, ”if you don’t do your homework, I can’t help you.” 

Dreaming is a necessity; that is your homework. Do it at home and then come to the psychoanalyst, and he is 

there with his whole expertise to analyze it. 

Gautami, enlightenment means going beyond desires and dreams. There is no need to waste your time in 

analyzing. Just go beyond, put your whole energy in going beyond. And when you go beyond, all dreams 

disappear on their own accord. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO I KEEP LOSING EVERYTHING BUT MY EGO? 

Sughanda.... Odum, an elderly black called before the justice of the peace, was charged with keeping a vicious 

dog. 

”That dog bit my girl Bobbie Jo three times,” complained the mother. 

”Did your dog bite little Bobbie Jo?” asked the judge. 

”No, sir,” said Odum. ”My dog, he never bit any little girl.” 

”Well,” said the judge to the mother, ”this man says that the dog did not bite your little girl.” 

”I will go home and bring Bobbie Jo here and show you,” said the woman. 

”Hold on,” said the black man. ”In the first place, the dog is so old he ain’t got no teeth and he can’t bite. In 

the second place, the dog is blind and could not see Bobbie Jo anyhow. In the third place, the dog is deaf and 

can’t hear a thing. And in the fourth place, he ain’t my dog in the first place.” 

Sughanda, you cannot lose your ego because in the first place it does not exist at all. You can lose everything 

else because those things really exist, but how can you lose something which does not exist? You cannot lose 

your shadow; it does not exist. And the ego is far more false than your shadow; it is not even a shadow. It is not 

substance, it is not even a shadow. It is just an idea planted by society within you. It has no reality, so how can 

you lose it? 

The only way to lose it is to look for it and you will not find it. And when you don’t find it you have lost it. 

Go within and look for it, search for it.


That’s what the meditators have been doing for centuries. They close their eyes and they go in and they search 

for the ego, where it is and they can’t find it. When you can’t find it and you have looked in all the nooks and all 

the corners of your being and it is not found anywhere, then you know you have lost it. In the first place, really 

it was never there; it was only your belief. 

It is like you see a rope in the dark and you believe it is a snake. Then you are trembling and perspiring 

and running and trying to save yourself from the snake which does not exist at all. All your running and your 

perspiration and all your shouting is just futile, but it can be dangerous to you. Even a false snake can kill you 

you may have a heart attack! That’s the trouble with false things; you cannot lose them they are not there but 

they can do real things to you. 

You may have experienced it sometimes in your dream, when you are having a nightmare. You are running, 

and a tiger is chasing you, and the tiger is coming closer and closer, and you are running faster and faster and 

you know that only few moments are left. You can almost feel the hot breath of the tiger on your back. 

And then suddenly you come to a cul-de-sac; the road ends. You can’t go back the tiger is there; you can’t go 

ahead. If you jump into the valley you will be dead before you reach the bottom. 

In that state you wake up. The nightmare is too much; it wakes you up. Your heart is palpitating, your breath 

is disturbed, you are perspiring on a cold winter night. And there is no tiger just your wife putting her hand on 

your back, breathing so close.... You are awake, the nightmare has disappeared. You know there is no tiger ”It is 

only my poor wife” but still, for a few minutes the perspiration will continue, the heart will go on beating faster, 

you will start up. Still, knowing perfectly well that all was false, you are trembling. 

Exactly is the case with the ego: it is a false entity. When you wake up you can’t find it. So the question is not 

of dropping it. How can you drop something which is not? The question is seeing into it, looking for it, searching 

for it. 

I don’t say to you, ”Seek and search for God.” That is nonsense. How can you seek and search for God, and 

where? You don’t know the address. And even if you meet the gentleman you won’t recognize him. Even if he 

says hello, you won’t understand his language. He does not speak German, he does not speak French, he does not 

speak Italian not even Italian! 

But every nation believes that ”He speaks our language.” The Indians think that he speaks Sanskrit, that he 

himself has written the Vedas. And the Mohammedan thinks he speaks Arabic he himself has spoken in Arabic 

through Mohammed, the only messenger. And of course, the Jews think they are the chosen people of God he 

speaks Hebrew. 

After the second world war one German general was talking to an English general. He said, ”I can’t believe how 

it happened, how we failed. We had better armies than you, more advanced technology, we were better equipped 

in every way. How did we fail and you succeeded?” 

The English general smiled and he said, ”The reason is we used to pray before starting to fight every day.” 

The German said, ”But we also did. We also used to pray before we started to fight.” 

The Englishman said, ”That we know, but we used to pray in English and you in German and he does not 

understand German at all.” 

Every country believes its language is divine, God’s language. But God knows only the language of silence and 

you don’t know silence. So when he will say hello it will be a very silent hello. It will not be uttered, it will not 

be said; it will be only a gesture. And it is almost impossible for you to hear it because it cannot be heard. 

You cannot recognize his face because it does not resemble Jesus’, it does not resemble Krishna’s, it does not 

resemble Buddha’s. All faces are his and still he has no face. The Zen people call that face ”the original face”; 

it resembles nobody. Christians will not recognize him because they will be looking for Christ’s face and Hindus 

will not recognize him because they will be looking for Krishna’s face. Yes, in Krishna’s face also he was and in 

Christ’s face also, but they are just waves Krishna, Christ, Buddha, Mahavira and he is the ocean. You can’t 

recognize the ocean if you only know about a single wave; the ocean is not a wave although all waves belong to 

the ocean. 

You cannot search for God, and you are so asleep that all your search is going to be wrong. The first thing is 

to search for your ego; that is the right direction for the seeker. And when you don’t find the ego when the ego is 

not found at all, it simply disappears then is the possibility of recognizing God’s face, because he is egolessness. 

And when you have the taste of egolessness, a little taste, you will understand him. When the ego disappears you 

will know what silence is, what space is, what emptiness is. You are so full of nonexistential ego; when it is gone 

you will know great spaciousness within you. And he is space, pure space. Something of him will be known by 

you; then you can recognize him, you are bridged to him. 

Sughanda, you say, ”Why do I keep losing everything but my ego?”


Because everything else has a concrete reality and the ego has no reality at all. If you want to lose your ego 

you will have to go in. Maybe that’s why people don’t go in afraid that they may lose themselves. And their fear 

is right. Beware! If you are ready to lose yourself, then only decide to go in. 

But that moment is the greatest moment in life when you lose your ego because that very moment, immediately, 

God is found. The moment you are not, God is. The moment you evaporate, God descends in you. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, I ALWAYS FEEL THAT ANIMALS ARE VERY FRIENDLY WITH ME. WHY? 

Roberto, you are an Italian! I will tell you one Italian story. 

”It is wonderful the power I have got over dumb animals,” boasted Rizzoli to his wife. ”You notice wherever 

we go, dogs big ones, small ones no matta how mean, they all-a come up and lick-a my hand.” 

”Maybe,” said Mrs. Rizzoli, ”if you would eat-a with a knife and fork-a once in a while, they would not be so 

friendly!” 

Just be a little less Italian, Roberto, so that even human beings can be friendly to you. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT WAY TO HANDLE A WOMAN? 

Somesh, there is only one way to handle a woman. The trouble is, nobody knows what it is. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, I DID NOT LIKE YOUR TELLING TO US NOT TO LOOK AT THE SUN TODAY 

WHILE IT IS IN TOTAL ECLIPSE. I THOUGHT YOU BELIEVED IN ABSOLUTE FREEDOM. 

Sunderam, you are not the only one to ask this question. At least twenty other fools have also asked the same. 

Please forgive me that I told you not to look at the sun directly do it! Please do me a favor! I was utterly wrong 

to say it so your freedom is destroyed. Enjoy your freedom; at least today, don’t forget to enjoy it. Look as 

much as you can at the sun and don’t use any device because that will hinder your freedom. With the naked 

eyes natural eyes look at the sun. Enjoy it to your heart’s content. 

I was not going to say it to you. The whole blame goes to Vivek! She nagged me and nagged me to tell you; 

otherwise I was not going to tell you anything. 

A few of these twenty fools have said, ”We had never thought that you are superstitious.” This is not superstition 

these are scientific facts. There are millions of superstitions also. For example, in India, after the eclipse is over 

then take a bath and if you can take the bath in a holy river like the Ganges it is thought to be very religious, holy 

because Indians believe that the sun has been in deep difficulty and it is out of the difficulty. That is superstition. 

The sun is not going into any difficulty at all. The eclipse is not happening on the sun; the sun has nothing to do 

with the eclipse. It is just the moon coming between you and the sun; it is not happening on the moon either. It 

is only happening for us. 

Indians give donations after the eclipse is over, rejoicing that the sun god is out of trouble. Those are superstitions. 

But looking at the sun is dangerous scientifically dangerous; it is not a question of superstition. You can try 

it. A few of the others have written, ”How can we believe in what you say when your date was wrong, your day 

was wrong?” That is true. Even if my date is wrong and my day is wrong, the sun in eclipse will have the same 

effect. About days and dates I am not so sure. In fact, I have no idea of time. I have to go on looking at the 

clock again and again, otherwise I will go on talking and talking. 

Just last month it happened: the clock stopped... at eight twenty it stopped. I looked at it again and again... 

it was ten to ten. And I am so superstitious that I still believed the clock! I was still thinking it was eight twenty. 

Finally I started seeing some restlessness around me. I thought, ”What is the matter? Something somewhere is 

wrong.” I looked at the clock again eight twenty. I said, ”There is no problem; there is still time enough.” 

Yes, on the fourteenth I said, ”Tomorrow.” Naturally, my date was wrong, but that does not mean that what 

I said is wrong. Fifteenth or sixteenth, that doesn’t matter; dates are arbitrary. They are just our creation days 

are arbitrary. But just because of that, if you ask me how you can believe.... 

I am not telling you to believe anything. You can go and check with the scientists it is dangerous to the eyes, 

and sometimes so dangerous that the blindness that will be caused by it will be incurable. 

But this is not a commandment. I am not saying that looking at the sun in eclipse is a sin or a crime. I am 

not saying that it is something immoral, irreligious, unspiritual. It is simply stupid! 

The last question:


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, IS IT TRUE THAT MONEY CANNOT BUY HAPPINESS? 

Anando, yes, it is true. Money cannot buy happiness but it makes misery more comfortable. That’s why I am 

not against money, I am all for it. It is better to be comfortably miserable than uncomfortably miserable. I have 

lived in poverty and I have lived in richness, and believe me: richness is far better than poverty. 



Chapter 7 How sweet it is 


TO HAVE FRIENDS IN NEED IS SWEET AND TO SHARE HAPPINESS. AND TO HAVE DONE SOME- 

THING GOOD BEFORE LEAVING THIS LIFE IS SWEET, AND TO LET GO OF SORROW. 

TO BE A MOTHER IS SWEET, AND A FATHER. IT IS SWEET TO LIVE ARDUOUSLY, AND TO 

MASTER YOURSELF. 

OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO ENJOY LIFE, LIVING IN HONESTY AND STRENGTH! 

AND WISDOM IS SWEET, AND FREEDOM. 

Gautama the Buddha does not talk about God, but he talks about love, freedom, truth, authenticity. He talks 

about the essential religion. He does not waste his breath on heaven and hell, the theory of reincarnation. He is 

absolutely unconcerned about the so-called great metaphysical problems. He is non-metaphysical in a sense, very 

down to earth. He means business. He wants to give you a science which can transform your life. He is interested 

in creating an alchemy of inner revolution so the baser metal can be changed into gold. His religion is unique, in 

a way. 

There are three types of religions in the world. Jainism is the only religion which is emphatically atheistic. It 

denies God and raises man to his ultimate peak. It declares that man is God and there is no other God. Except 

Jainism, all other religions Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity are theistic. They are rooted in the idea of 

God; without God they will be at a loss what to do. They are at a loss because since Nietzsche declared ”God is 

dead,” humanity, by and by, has agreed with Nietzsche. His statement became very prophetic; it represents the 

twentieth-century mind. And the religions which have depended on the idea of God for centuries feel uprooted. 

They are dying, withering away. 

Buddha is unique. He is neither atheistic like Jainism, nor theistic like other religions. He is a superb agnostic. 

He says there is no need to worry about unnecessary things. Think of the essential, think of the intrinsic, and 

don’t be bothered about the accidentals. 

If you are authentic, if you are compassionate, if you are meditative, then if there is a God he will come to you; 

you need not go in search for him. And if there is a paradise it will descend in your heart. There is no need to be 

bothered about such abstract ideas; they simply waste your time. And if you are not authentic, not meditative, 

not compassionate, not wise enough, even if you come across God what are you going to do? You will feel a 

little embarrassed and God will feel a little embarrassed facing you. You both will be unnecessarily in a strange 

situation what to say, what to do, what not to say, what not to do. You would like to escape and he would like 

to escape. 

Just think: if suddenly you come across God, what will you do? You will run away from him as fast as you can! 

Rabindranath has a beautiful parable. In one of his poems he sings: I searched for God for many lives. I 

saw him sometimes far away on a star, but by the time I reached there he had left the star long before; he was 

somewhere else. He was always somewhere else and I was chasing him. The very adventure was beautiful; I was 

enjoying the thrill of it. 

And then one day I happened to reach his home. For a moment I was ecstatic that I had arrived, but the next 

moment I became very sad. Standing at his door I was just going to ring the bell, but my hand became frozen. 

I thought for a while, ”If I ring the bell and he comes out, then what? Then what am I going to do? And after 

that whom am I going to search? All is finished! My whole past has been nothing but a search for God; it was 

meaningful because of the search. If the search disappears, all meaning will disappear.” 

So Rabindranath says, ”I descended back from his steps. I took my shoes in my hand so that he would not 

hear that somebody had come. Otherwise, who knows? He may simply open the door and he will say, ’Come in!’ 

And then I ran away from the place as fast as I could. 

”And again I am searching for God, and now I know where he is so I avoid that space only and I search 

everywhere else, knowing perfectly well that I am not going to meet him there and my search can continue. I can 

go on hoping and desiring and deep down I know the whole ridiculousness of it because he is just by the corner; 

I can reach his home any moment.”


This is a true parable about man: you also know where he is. If he is anywhere at all he is within you, not 

even by the corner. If he is anywhere, he is in your consciousness, in your heart of hearts. He is your life. There 

you don’t look at all, afraid you may find him. And you go on searching in Kaaba, in Kailash, in Kashi, and you 

go on and on searching knowing perfectly well that you will not find him. And the search can continue and the 

thrill can continue and you can go on hoping and desiring. 

Buddha simply cuts all your hoping and desiring. He does not say there is no God, he does not say there is. 

He simply says it is irrelevant. It does not matter whether he is or he is not; it is absolutely beside the point. 

What matters is your inner transformation, and the inner transformation cannot be postponed for tomorrow; it 

can happen right now. 

That’s the trouble with Buddha: if you go with him you have to drop your hopes, you have to drop your desires. 

You have to be in the present, utterly silent. And then life has a new color, a new joy, a new music. Then life has 

a new beauty. 

Right now, in the first place, you cannot meet God because you don’t have eyes to see him and you don’t have 

ears to hear him and you don’t have the right heart to feel him. You are not loving enough. Your eyes are not 

clear; they are so full of dust dust of knowledge, memories, experiences. Your ears only appear to hear, but they 

don’t listen. 

But by chance even if you meet him, what are you going to ask? A new wife, a new husband, another place to 

live, a little longer life, youth...? What are you going to ask? money, power, prestige? Whatsoever you ask will 

be stupid. 

A black man worshipped God, praying every day for six years. He was always asking for this or that problem 

to be resolved. 

God became very fed up with him and decided to pay him a visit. So one day while the man was praying, God 

came to his side in living flesh and said, ”Hey man, here I am! What do you want to know? Ask!” 

The man could not believe his eyes, but he finally asked, ”Ah my God, why is my skin so black?” 

God answered, ”Because the sun in your country is very hot and you must survive.” 

”And why is my hair so short and kinky?” 

”Because in the jungle you have many trees and your hair would get caught.” 

”And why am I so thin and fast?” 

”So that you can fight with lions and other animals in the jungle.” 

”Then, God, what the fuck am I doing in New York?” 

That’s going exactly to be the case with you. What are you going to ask God? All your questions will come 

out of your unconscious. In fact, all questions will be absurd. That’s not the way to encounter reality. One has 

to be silent, utterly silent. 

Hence Buddha says, don’t be bothered about God. Be concerned with your own preparation, be prepared. 

The emphasis is totally different. All the religions emphasize God, the object of search; Buddha emphasizes you, 

the subject. All other religions emphasize the sought; Buddha emphasizes the seeker. And it is certainly more 

significant to change yourself and prepare yourself for the ultimate encounter with reality call it God, existence, 

truth, liberation, or whatsoever you would like to call it. The real thing, the essential thing, is to be prepared for 

that encounter. 

And if you are ready, if your heart is flowing with love and your head is no longer crazy, no longer full of 

rubbish, and your eyes have clarity and your ears are ready to listen, then the whole reality turns into God; then 

everything is divine. Buddha does not say anything about it; he goes on emphasizing your inner change. 

These sutras are simple but immensely beautiful. Truth is always simple; it is untruth which is complicated. 

The untruth has to be complicated so that you don’t find that it is untrue, so that you can’t find it. Truth is 

simple, utterly simple and naked. 

Buddha says: 

TO HAVE FRIENDS IN NEED IS SWEET AND TO SHARE HAPPINESS. 

He emphasized friendship very much. To translate his word for friendship maitri is a little difficult because it 

has the quality of friendliness more than friendship. Friendship becomes a relationship, fixed; friendliness is more 

flowing, more fluid. Friendship is a relationship, friendliness is a state of your being. You are simply friendly; to 

whom, that is not the point. If you are standing by the side of a tree you are friendly to the tree, or if you are 

sitting on the rock, you are friendly to the rock. To human beings, to animals, to birds, you are simply friendly. 

It is not something static; it is a flow, changing moment to moment. 

He says: TO HAVE FRIENDS IN NEED IS SWEET.


Friendliness is one of the most significant qualities for the seeker to develop; it is really sweet. It makes your 

whole life full of sweet music, full of sweet harmony. In Buddha’s vision it is higher than so-called love. Your 

so-called love is tethered to your biology; friendliness is freedom from biology. The ordinary so-called love is the 

same in human beings as it is in animals, as it is in the trees. It is sex-oriented. It is only a sugarcoating around 

the bitter pill of sex. In fact, if love is taken away from your sex, sex will look very ridiculous. It is because of the 

sugarcoating that you can swallow the pill. 

Watch animals having sexual intercourse and one thing you are bound to observe; it is impossible not to observe 

it, it is so emphatically there: they don’t seem to be joyous. They seem to be in a hurry and their faces look sad, 

as if they are being forced by some unknown energy into certain acts in which they are not interested. Hence 

animals have their sexual seasons when their biology takes a grip on them, forces them to do something which 

they are not really interested in at all. They have to do it almost like slaves. And once they are finished with 

their sexual intercourse they move away from each other not even a thank-you! They don’t look at each other. 

Scientists say love has grown in man for the simple reason that man is the only animal in the world who makes 

sexual intercourse face-to-face. You have to say something, you have to smile, you have to say good-bye, you have 

to say so long. Otherwise it will look so awkward to finish suddenly and escape! Because you are facing each 

other you have to be a little polite, a little cultured, a little polished. You have to behave in a certain manner; 

you can’t be rude. 

Animals are not facing each other while making love so they don’t encounter, they don’t look into each other’s 

eyes. It is a simple biological process and they are almost forced by their biology, by their hormones, to go through 

it. They go through it, they are dragged through it like slaves. And the same is the situation with you; only the 

sugarcoating is different. 

Friendship is a higher phenomenon. It is pure love; it has nothing to do with your biology. Love ordinary 

love can be explained through biology, but friendship cannot be explained. It is a mystery. Friendship is like 

fragrance; love is gross, because of its sexuality, because of its origins. It is a little heavy. It functions under the 

law of gravitation: it goes on falling downwards, it has no wings. Friendship has wings. It is nonbiological; it 

makes you really human, it helps you to transcend your animality. 

Buddha praises friendship, friendliness, very highly. He has even chosen that when he comes back again his 

name will be Maitreya the friend. He must have loved the word very much. I don’t think he will come again 

or anybody ever comes again. God never makes the same mistake again, remember! Once is more than enough, 

twice will be too much. But he must have loved the word so much that he says, ”Next time, if I am at all going 

to come, my name is going to be Maitreya the friend.” The word contains his whole philosophy. 

He says: TO HAVE FRIENDS... IS SWEET. 

Why is it sweet? because with friends your relationship is not physiological, it is not even psychological; it is 

a spiritual communion. With friends you can sit in silence. When you are with your lover you can’t sit in silence; 

silence looks awkward. The woman will think, ”Why are you silent? Are you angry or something?” And if she is 

silent you will think something is wrong she is sulking. Why is she so silent? Silence becomes heavy, a burden; 

it has to be removed. 

So people go on talking, whether it is needed or not. They go on talking about anything. 

Mulla Nasruddin was coming from his village to see me in his bullock cart, with his dog. It was too hot, a 

summer afternoon, and suddenly he was surprised that the dog said, ”It is too hot.” 

He looked around; there was nobody, just his dog. He said to the oxen, ”Have you heard? Have you heard 

what has happened?” 

And the oxen said, ”Yes, he is just like anybody else always talking about the weather and doing nothing.” 

If people have nothing else to talk about they talk about the weather. Anything will do, just go on talking. It 

keeps you, in a way, connected. In fact, it keeps you disconnected. It is not a bridge; rarely it is a bridge. It is 

a bridge only between a master and a disciple; otherwise it is not a bridge. When the master speaks out of his 

silence and the disciple listens out of his silence, it is a bridge. Otherwise it is a wall, a China Wall. 

Lovers are facing each other. They have to say something; otherwise silence becomes awkward, embarrassing. 

Friends don’t face each other in that way. They face something else maybe the sunset, a bird on the wing, a 

beautiful white cloud. Holding hands, sitting together, they face something else. They both are facing something 

else. They are in a sort of deep communion, they are one. Their hearts are beating in harmony. Real friends 

sitting together will find that their hearts start beating in the same way. They even start breathing in harmony; 

when one exhales, the other exhales. This happens on its own accord; it is a synchronicity. When you are feeling 

in communion, this happens. 

This happens here every day. When you are in communion with me it happens.


Many sannyasins write to me, ”Beloved Master, how does it happen? Just before you are going to say something 

we know you are going to say this. It is so clear and then you say it.” It happens because of a deep communion. 

As it arises in my being it starts arising in your being. 

Hence the ultimate between the master and the disciple is silence, sitting together. There is no need to say 

anything. Whatsoever happens in the master’s being also starts happening in the disciple’s being. The disciple 

starts reflecting the master like a mirror. 

On a smaller scale the same happens with friends. But by friends Buddha does not mean acquaintances. By 

friends he means a love which has gone beyond sexuality, a love which has gone beyond biology, a love which has 

transcended ordinary nature, transcended gravitation and has become part of the higher law of grace. 

TO HAVE FRIENDS IS SWEET AND TO SHARE HAPPINESS.... 

You can share your happiness only with the friends. Sharing is possible only when two hearts are open to each 

other; only in deep trust can you be open to the other. In fear you are closed, in doubt you are closed. You are on 

guard. You are afraid the other may be some danger to you, the other may do some harm. You are not vulnerable 

when you are in fear. Only with friends you can be vulnerable, open, available. Then sharing is possible. And 

sharing is one of the greatest spiritual qualities. 

The miracle is that the more you share your bliss the more you have it. The more you share, the more it comes 

to you. The more you share, the more you become aware of an inexhaustible source within yourself. 

Happiness is great in itself, but to share it makes it immensely rich, multidimensionally rich. If one is a miser 

about one’s happiness he will kill it. To hoard your happiness is to destroy it; to spread it far and wide is to help 

it grow more and more. Miserliness is very dangerous as far as bliss is concerned. 

But with whom you will share if you don’t have friends, if you don’t know the art of being friendly? If you 

know the art of being friendly you can share with as many people as possible, with as many animals as possible, 

with as many trees as possible. You can go on sharing every moment of your life because you are always with 

someone. You can share it with the sun, with the moon, with the stars. No distance prevents. You can share 

your bliss with a friend who is far, far away, thousands of miles away from you. In that moment of sharing spaces 

disappear, time disappears. There is no time gap, no space gap. You are suddenly together. You can even share 

with friends who are no longer alive. In deep communion they become available to you, nonphysically. 

AND TO HAVE DONE SOMETHING GOOD BEFORE LEAVING THIS LIFE IS SWEET, AND TO LET 

GO OF SORROW. 

Friendship is good, it is virtue. Sharing your joy is good, it is great virtue. In fact, all other virtues are byproducts 

of sharing your bliss. Sharing is the very foundation, the source. Share your truth, share your meditation, 

share your love. Share whatsoever inner beauty arises in you, whatsoever inner glow arises in you. Share your 

inner flame and never be a miser, and you will become richer and richer, and there is no end to that richness. 

In the ordinary world sharing will make you poor. If you share your money you will become poor. You have to 

be a hoarder, you have to be miserly. In the inner world just the opposite is the case: hoard, and you will lose; 

share, and you will have it. 

In the inner world a totally different kind of law exists. There you can have your cake and eat it too. And it 

would be better if you don’t eat it alone, if you invite your friends to eat with you. 

AND TO HAVE DONE SOMETHING GOOD.... What does Buddha mean by ”something good”? Buddha 

always emphasizes that unconscious acts are bad and conscious acts are good. You can do something apparently 

good, but if you are unconscious it can’t be good. Your intention is good, but the action and its consequences are 

going to be bad. 

For example, just the other day somebody had asked, ”I want to stop smoking. What should I do? What do 

you say about it?” Now, he is asking a simple question. You can ask the same question to any of your so-called 

saints Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, Jaina, Buddhist and they will all say, ”Stop it immediately! Smoking 

is bad.” But I can’t say it that way. I can say to you, ”Become more conscious. If your consciousness changes 

something in you and smoking disappears, good; otherwise, please continue to smoke.” Why? 

Adolf Hitler never smoked, but I can’t call him a virtuous man. He was always getting up before the sunrise 

brahmamuhurt. In India this is a must for a saint. Brahmamuhurt means God’s moment as if all other moments 

are the devil’s and just the few moments before the sunrise are God’s! Getting up early in the morning before 

sunrise is thought to be very religious. And if you are sleeping late and getting up at nine or ten, certainly you 

are a sinner. 

Adolf Hitler was a very religious man, if this is what religion is getting up early. And he was going to bed also 

very early. He was not a smoker, he was not a drinker.


In that sense, Jesus is less religious than Adolf Hitler. He loved drinking, he loved good wine. He loved it so 

much that once he transformed the whole sea into wine, you know! Now, what kind of religious man is this Jesus? 

He loved eating with friends, inviting friends. He was always in a festive mood. 

Adolf Hitler used to eat alone. He was a perfect dog! Dogs eat alone. Even if you are just looking they will 

keep their backs towards you, afraid you may snatch away their food or something. Some other dog may come 

and start barking and fighting may start. They can’t invite anybody. Dogs don’t believe in parties! They are 

loners, very meditative! They eat alone. And of course they eat very silently, no conversation. And they eat quick 

and fast; they don’t waste time. Adolf Hitler did the same. He was also afraid of people, just like dogs. 

It is said that he had not a single friend in the whole of Germany. And Buddha says: Be friendly. It is sweet 

to have friends. He had no friend because he was so afraid of people, so suspicious, that he could not afford 

friendship. To be friendly means to be intimate. To be friendly means to be available to the other. To be friendly 

means to trust the other. 

He never got married in his whole life. He got married only at the very end, just three hours before he committed 

suicide. When it was absolutely decided that he was going to commit suicide he called a priest and got married, 

so that at least in death he can have a companion. The woman had to commit suicide with him also. A strange 

marriage! Why did he avoid marriage his whole life? for the simple reason that he was not sure whether to 

allow a woman in the same room in the night when he was asleep. Who knows? she may cut your throat, kill 

you, poison you. You may start uttering some secret in your sleep; she may hear it. She may open your letters. 

Women are known to do such things, well known, really. In fact, it is very difficult to get your letter without it 

being read by your woman; she is bound to read it. 

Mulla Nasruddin’s wife was fighting with him. ”Something has to be done you have to write to your mother. 

She has been very cruel and crude towards me.” 

Nasruddin said, ”But she is a thousand miles away. How can she be suddenly cruel and crude towards you?” 

The wife said, ”Yes, she has been. Look at this letter!” 

In the letter there was a postscript. The letter was written to Nasruddin and the postscript to Nasruddin’s 

wife, ”Please, after you have read it, give the letter to my son!” 

Women know each other! 

Adolf Hitler was very afraid to get married. He remained a bachelor, a brahmachari, a celibate. Now, what 

more religious qualities do you need in a saint? no smoking, no drinking, no wife, no friends. He lived the life of 

a monk! 

But my feeling is, if he had smoked a little, if he had got drunk once in a while, had fallen into the hands of 

some woman, had loved somebody, had some friends, played chess or gambled a little bit, he would have been a 

far more human being and the world would have been saved from the second world war. But he became almost 

stonelike. 

You can do good things, but if you are not conscious your good things are bound to result into something 

disastrous. 

In Manhattan, a policeman strolling his early morning beat stopped in front of an East Eighties brownstone. 

Sitting on the stoop was Millarney, completely snookered. 

”Why don’t you go home?” suggested the cop. 

”I live here,” said Millarney. 

”Why don’t you go inside then?” 

”I lost my key,” answered the drunk. 

”Why don’t you ring the bell?” 

”I did, an hour ago.” 

”Why don’t you ring it again?” asked the officer. 

”To hell with them!” snorted Millarney. ”Let them wait!” 

The ordinary humanity is really in a state of stupor. People are asleep. There is no need to be a drunkard, 

people are already drunk. Naturally we are not born conscious, we are born unconscious, and then we go on 

becoming more and more unconscious in life because we are unconscious, we want to be more unconscious. It 

seems to be natural, it fits with us. To be conscious seems to be a very uphill task. 

Hence the immense attraction for alcohol or for other drugs. From the times of the Vedas up to now it has been 

the same. The Vedas praise somaras very highly. Somaras seems to be something like marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, 

something like that. It has not yet been discovered exactly what it was, but whatsoever it was, it was one of the 

most perfect of drugs.


Aldous Huxley, one of the most intellectual, philosophic persons, a great scholar, has called the perfect LSD 

”soma.” He says that in the twenty-first century we will be reaching to that perfection. From the Vedas to Aldous 

Huxley, drugs have been an obsession with humanity, for the simple reason that we are born unconscious and 

the problems of life, anxieties of life, dangers of life, make us sometimes conscious. They wake up our deep, 

deep slumber, they disturb it. So we need more drugs, more and more drugs, to remain undisturbed in our 

unconsciousness. And out of that unconsciousness we act, we live our lives. 

Ferguson and Malone decided to go hunting one morning. 

”Listen,” said Ferguson, ”I will bring all the guns and such and you bring all the provisions.” 

”Fine,” said Malone. 

The next morning when they met, Ferguson was loaded down with guns and ammunition. Malone was carrying 

a loaf of bread and six bottles of whisky. 

Ferguson blew his stack. ”Look what happens when I leave the provisions to you!” he shouted. ”A loaf of bread 

and six bottles of whisky! What the hell are we gonna do with all that bread?” 

When Buddha says, AND TO HAVE DONE SOMETHING GOOD, he means when you do something consciously. 

You cannot do anything bad consciously; that is an impossibility. It is as much impossible to do anything 

bad consciously as it is impossible to do good unconsciously. 

Before leaving this life be conscious, act out of your consciousness, so that you can beautify this existence a 

little bit, so that you can sing a little song, so you can dance a little dance, so the world is enriched, so that 

you can be a little more creative, so that the world is a little more divine than it was before you came into it. 

Contribute something to it. Don’t be just a wastage. 

AND TO LET GO OF SORROW. People think sorrow is clinging to you; that is utter nonsense. You are 

clinging to sorrow, because you have invested so much in sorrow. Your greatest investment is your ego. When 

you are sad, when you are miserable, your ego can feed on these illnesses, diseases. The ego can keep alive only 

through these pathologies; the ego lives on them. 

When you are blissful, really blissed out, ego disappears. You are, but there is no ego, no idea of I, no idea of 

separation. In bliss there is a merger with the whole; in misery you are alone and separate. Misery makes you an 

island and bliss takes all your boundaries away from you. In bliss, the river disappears in the ocean. And we are 

very afraid to disappear as an ego. We want to keep our identity intact. 

Mulla Nasruddin came across a small boy sitting in the gutter crying loudly. ”My boy, don’t cry like that,” 

said the Mulla. 

Said the little boy, ”Listen, mate, you cry your way and I will cry mine.” 

Sorrow has something very personal about it; bliss is impersonal. Your misery is your misery; it defines you. It 

is nobody else’s misery, it is especially yours; it gives you a certain uniqueness. But bliss? Bliss is universal. 

Hence Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Lao Tzu, these people have disappeared into bliss. They don’t have any 

personality. They are no-persons, they are nonentities. They are tremendously alive, but they are not separate 

from the whole. They have allowed the whole to live through them. 

Buddha says: AND TO LET GO OF SORROW. 

Please watch how you are clinging to your sorrow, your misery. Drop it, let go of it! And your life will have a 

great sweetness. 

TO BE A MOTHER IS SWEET, AND A FATHER. IT IS SWEET TO LIVE ARDUOUSLY, AND TO 


TO BE A MOTHER IS SWEET.... Why? Just giving birth to a child is not to be a mother, remember. 

Otherwise there are millions of mothers on the earth and there seems to be no sweetness. In fact, if you ask the 

psychologists they will say just the opposite. They will say the only problem to be solved is the mother. The only 

pathology that millions of people are suffering from is the mother. And what they are saying they are saying after 

fifty, sixty years of constant analysis of thousands of people. Everybody’s illness basically comes to one point: 

that it has been given to you, transmitted to you by your mother. 

There are people who are afraid of women; and if you are afraid of women you can’t love them. How can love 

arise out of fear? And why are you afraid of women? because your childhood was lived in fear of your mother. She 

was constantly after you, she was constantly hammering you. She was constantly telling you to do this and not to 

do that of course, for your own good. She has crippled you, she has destroyed many things in you. She has made 

you phony because she has told you what is right to do. Whether you like it or not, whether it is spontaneously 

arising in you or not, you have to follow the order. And you were so helpless... your survival depended on the 

mother so you had to listen to her. She conditioned you. And it is because of the fear of your mother that you 

are afraid of women.


Millions of husbands are henpecked for the simple reason that their mothers were too strong. It has nothing to 

do with the wife; they are simply projecting the mother on the wife. The wife is only a new edition of the mother. 

They are expecting everything from the wife that they expected from the mother. On the one hand it cripples 

them; on the other hand they start expecting things which are not possible from the wife’s side because she is 

not your mother. So you feel frustrated. And how can you make love to your wife? 

A boy who has really been dominated by the mother, who has been reduced into absolute obedience, will not 

be able to make love to a woman, because as he will come close to the woman psychologically he will go impotent. 

How can you make love to your mother? It is impossible. 

Hence many people become impotent with their wives, but only with their wives. With the prostitutes they 

are not impotent. It is strange: why are they not impotent with the prostitute? for the simple reason that they 

can’t think of their mother as a prostitute; that is impossible. Their mother, and a prostitute? The prostitute 

is a world apart. But they can think of their wife as a mother, they can project the mother. The wife becomes 

simply a screen. They want the wife to take care of them like a small child, and if she is not taking care they feel 

offended. 

Thousands of neurotic people and psychotic people are there in the world because of the mother. And Buddha 

says: TO BE A MOTHER IS SWEET. He must mean something else. He can’t mean a Jewish mother! He 

means not just giving birth to a child; that does not make one a mother. To be motherly is a totally different 

phenomenon. It is something absolutely human; it transcends animality. It has nothing to do with biology. It is 

love, pure love, unconditional love. 

When a mother loves unconditionally and only a mother can love unconditionally the child learns the joy of 

unconditional love. The child becomes capable of loving unconditionally. And to be able to love unconditionally 

is to be religious. 

And it is the easiest thing for a woman to do. It is easy for her because naturally she is ready for it. She is 

just on the verge of transcending biology through being a mother. You can be motherly without giving birth to 

a child. You can be motherly to anybody. You can be motherly to an animal, to a tree. You can be motherly to 

anything. It is something inside you. 

Being motherly means being capable of unconditional love, loving the person for the sheer joy of loving, helping 

the person to grow for the sheer joy of seeing somebody grow. 

A real therapist is a mother. If he is not, he is not a real therapist. He is only a professional exploiting people, 

exploiting them because of their misery. But a real therapist is a mother. He becomes a womb for the patient. 

He gives the patient a new birth. He starts the life of the patient again from ABC. He gives him a clean sheet to 

write his life again. 

That’s what I mean when I say ”the psychology of the buddhas”; that is real therapy. A master is a real 

therapist; his very presence is therapeutic. He surrounds you like a mother. He is a cloud who surrounds you 

from everywhere, from all the sides, in all the dimensions, like a mother. 

TO BE A MOTHER IS SWEET, AND A FATHER. To be a father is a little more difficult. To be a mother is 

easier because each woman is born intrinsically to be a mother. But fatherhood is an institution invented by man; 

hence it is very difficult to come across a real father. But when you come across a real father it is a miracle. A 

real father is also a mother. He is called a father because he is a man, but his whole approach is of unconditional 

love. 

In ordinary life lovers are exploiting each other; it is a mutual exploitation. Unconditional love means no 

exploitation. The other is not being used as a means but is respected as an end unto himself or herself. 

Give your children your love, but don’t give your ideologies. Don’t make them Catholics and communists; 

that is poisoning them. Don’t make them Hindus and Jainas and Buddhists; that is very destructive. Give your 

love, give your loving nourishment, and give them strength enough to inquire who they are, what this reality is 

all about. Give them every support so they can go on in life with an adventurous spirit. Then you are helping 

them; then you are really educating them. Ordinarily, whatsoever exists in the name of education is nothing but 

mis-education. 

Real education is helping the person to be himself. It is possible only if you love the person for his own sake, for 

no other motive. If there is a motive, your love is contaminated. Then you are not a real father or a real mother. 

IT IS SWEET TO LIVE ARDUOUSLY, AND TO MASTER YOURSELF. 

Life is basically insecure. Only death is secure. Life insurance is a contradiction in terms; there can be only 

death insurance. Life is an adventure, unpredictable. Hence one has to live it arduously. Life is dangerous; only 

death is safe. So the people who want to live safely die before their death, and the people who want to live without 

any danger don’t live at all.


Life means danger, life means risk. Life means going always from the known to the unknown, from one peak to 

another peak, always climbing peaks which have not been climbed before, always moving into the uncharted sea 

with no maps, with no guidelines. Only then you live ecstatically, and only then you know what life is. Through 

living dangerously one becomes integrated. Through living a life of insecurity one passes through fire and becomes 

pure gold. 

The only way to become a master of oneself is to go into the unknown, unafraid or in spite of all the fears. 

Buddha invites you for an arduous life. That’s what sannyas is all about. 

”Hello, hello, police. Please come quickly. There is a big black cat coming to get me. Hurry up! I am afraid.” 

The policeman replied in a tired voice, ”Now, come on! What kind of man are you, afraid of a black cat?” 

”I am not a man. I am a peacock.” 

It is very rare to find a real man. Even to find a peacock is very rare. There are only rats, white and black 

and all colors of rats! It is not an accident that psychologists go on studying rats to understand man. Strange, 

trying to understand rats so as to understand man! But not really, not really so strange as it appears, because 

the majority of men live like rats. 

The psychology of Pavlov is based on the study of dogs, and the psychology of Skinner is based on the study 

of rats. And both are perfectly true as far as the majority of humanity is concerned. Only once in a while they 

may not be right. If they try to apply their psychology on a buddha they may not be right, but as far as the 

ordinary humanity is concerned they are perfectly right. What has happened to man? He has lost all meaning 

and significance for the simple reason that he has become a very cowardly being. He lives in such cowardly ways, 

he is so afraid of anything new. 

I know people who have been listening to me for years ten years, twelve years, fifteen years and they go 

on saying to me, ”We want to become sannyasins, but we are still thinking.” And they go on finding excuses, 

sometimes one excuse, sometimes another excuse. They love me, but they are not courageous enough to declare 

it. They hide the fact. They are not courageous to move into this unknown dimension of sannyas. They love me 

so they listen to me, and they love me so sometimes they think that one day they are going to become sannyasins, 

but they go on finding excuses to postpone it. 

It is because of this cowardliness that man has lost all meaning and significance. All joy, all bliss, all ecstasy, 

has disappeared. Man looks very sad. Even if he laughs, his laughter looks phony, mechanical, false something 

cultivated, managed, not coming from the depths. It has no profundity, it does not sound like it is coming from 

the center. It is only a painted smile on the circumference. 

Do you know how the word ’phony’ came into existence? It came because of the telephone. When the telephone 

was invented and people started listening to others thousands of miles away on the telephone, the voice sounded 

strange. It is bound to be so. It is mechanical; it has not that authenticity. And there was nobody behind it; it 

was coming out of nowhere. Hence the word ’phony’. You smile, but you don’t seem to be behind it; you may 

not be there at all. 

And now even a new thing has come into existence. At least in the old days you could imagine that on the 

other side there must be somebody. Now there may be just a tape recorder saying, ”Hello. How are you?” 

I have heard: 

One psychologist became very tired with a patient, tired because he was saying the same things again and 

again. And he was so rich that there was no hope of getting rid of him! So the psychologist said, ”You do one 

thing. I will leave my tape recorder and you go on talking to the tape recorder. And whenever I have time I will 

listen to it.” 

The man said, ”That’s perfectly right” because psychologists sit behind a screen, particularly Freudian psychologists. 

The patient lies down on the couch and the psychologist sits behind a screen. It is a good device... so 

that the psychologist can go to sleep, can read a newspaper, or may even leave. And the patient goes on talking, 

believing that he is there. Only once in a while he has to say, ”Hmm. Yes. Go on,” but this can be done by a 

tape recorder. 

Next time, next session, and the psychologist said, ”You did perfectly well last time. Now my tape recorder is 

here again. You go on talking to it. I am going to see a matinee show. When I am back I will listen.” 

When he was outside he saw the patient walking out. He said, ”Where are you going?” 

The patient said, ”To the matinee show.” 

He said, ”What happened? Aren’t you going to talk to the tape recorder?” 

He said, ”I have put my tape recorder there. I have told everything to my tape recorder, and my tape recorder 

is talking to your tape recorder, so what’s the need of me being there? I’m also coming to the matinee show!”


Life has become phony because of us, because we are living in a very cowardly way. We are not living arduously. 

We are not trying to climb new mountains, new peaks. We are not trying to explore. We have become more 

concerned with comfort, with security, safety. 

Buddha says: IT IS SWEET TO LIVE ARDUOUSLY. 

Have you ever enjoyed climbing to the peak of a mountain? It is hard. You perspire, breathing becomes difficult, 

you become tired. And then you reach to the sunlit peak and then you lie down on the grass, and what relaxation 

and what joy arises in your being! The silence of the peak and the arduous climb, and you have reached, and the 

joy of reaching! You could have been dropped by a helicopter, but then there would have been no joy. It would 

have been comfortable. 

Edmund Hillary could have reached to the peak of Everest by a helicopter it was easier but he tried the hard 

way. And he writes, ”I have never known such bliss. When I reached to the peak I was all alone, the first man 

on Everest.” Nobody had seen the sky from that point, nobody had seen the world from that point. It was sheer 

ecstasy. He danced. 

Sooner or later buses will be going there and hotels will be there and cinema houses, and it will become very 

comfortable. But don’t hope that you will have the same ecstasy as Edmund Hillary had, although you will be 

standing on the same spot. You will look a little silly and stupid, that’s all. And you will not believe why this 

Hillary danced; you don’t see any point. All around there are hotels and tourist centers and guides and everything 

is available; the whole world is there. You don’t see why he laughed, why he enjoyed, why he danced, because 

you don’t feel any dance. 

Life is joy only when you live it raw, when you live it in all its wildness, when you live it naturally, spontaneously. 

Yes, there are bound to be difficulties, there are bound to be dangers, but they are part of life, and without them 

life will not be life at all. And this is the only way to master yourself. 


Strange words from the mouth of Buddha. They would be perfectly right from the mouth of Zorba the Greek, 

but from the mouth of Buddha? OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO ENJOY LIFE, LIVING IN HONESTY AND 

STRENGTH! 

Just the other day I received a very angry letter from someone who was here for a few days. He is the librarian 

in Dharmashala of the Dalai Lama’s library must be a scholar! 

He writes to me, ”You are saying things which are not Buddhist at all. In Mahayana sutras,” he quotes, 

”Mahayana scriptures, it is perfectly and clearly stated that one has to live life ascetically. And you are changing 

the whole color of Buddha you are making him look as if he is a hedonist!” 

I don’t care about the Mahayana sutras and the scriptures, but I know Buddha, I know his heart. I know that 

space from my own experience. I am not a scholar; in fact I have never read these sutras before! Every day I have 

to look at them and start talking to you. I am not concerned much with what Buddha said, but I know what 

Buddha would have said. I cannot believe that he was a pessimist. He believes, of course, in a totally different 

kind of life. He does not believe in the ordinary, unconscious life dishonest, inauthentic, unloving, unmeditative. 

He calls that life misery, but only a certain kind of life he calls misery. True life cannot be misery, true life is bliss. 


We have forgotten all honesty. Out of fear we have become dishonest, out of fear we have become false. Out 

of fear we follow the crowd and become phony. Out of fear we wear masks so that we look like everybody else 

and we are not like everybody else. Everybody is unique; nobody is like anybody else. We have fallen below the 

animals as far as honesty is concerned. 

Kaflin was planning a vacation and did not know what to do with his collie. He wrote to the resort hotel and 

asked if dogs were allowed. 

He received this answer from the manager: ”Dear sir, I have been in the hotel business for over thirty years. 

Never yet have I had to call in the police to eject a disorderly dog in the small hours of the morning. No dog has 

ever attempted to pass off a bad check on me. Never has a dog set the bedclothes afire through smoking. I have 

never found a hotel towel in a dog’s suitcase. Certainly, your dog is welcome. P.S. If he will vouch for you, you 

can come too.” 

Of course, a dishonest life cannot be a life of bliss. You think you are deceiving others; you are simply destroying 

yourself and destroying all possibilities of growth, because growth comes through sincerity, honesty, authenticity. 

Growth comes through accepting your truth in its total nudity. And then life is certainly a joy, then life is certainly 

a bliss.


But you cannot expect anything else from a scholar. A scholar is bound to be stupid, otherwise why should 

he be a scholar in the first place? An intelligent person will seek and search for truth. He will not bother about 

Mahayana sutras and scriptures. I have no respect for scholarship. 

And this man became very much disturbed, so much so that he has left already. If he had been here I would 

have hammered him a little more, but I received his letter just the other day when he had left. I hope that 

sometime again he will come, because to me the space of Buddha is a totally different space from what Buddhist 

scholars think it is. 

He said, ”Whatsoever you are saying is illogical and against the scriptures.” So far so good! If it is against the 

scriptures it must have some truth in it. If it is illogical then it must be closer to truth, because truth is illogical. 

Life is illogical. Those who think that life is logical are simply befooling themselves. Life is absolutely illogical 

because life contains contradictions and logic cannot contain contradictions. Logic is stupid. 

A cyclist was stopped on the road by a policeman. He was no ordinary man he was a professor of logic. 

”Ah so! No light, that is twenty marks. No brakes, that is fifty marks. No bell, that is ten marks.” 

The cyclist turned round and looked at the row of traffic lined up behind him. He pointed at the man behind 

him and said, ”all right, that is eighty marks. But the poor man behind me, what will he have to pay? He has no 

bicycle even!” 

Logically, that’s true. If no bells, ten marks, no brakes, fifty marks, no light, twenty marks no bicycle, how 

much will he have to pay? 

A male scorpion was walking along the bank of a river. At a certain point he saw on the other bank a most 

beautiful female scorpion dancing erotically to attract him. He desired very much to cross the river, but he could 

not swim. 

Suddenly he saw a big red frog and called to him, but the frog, being afraid of the scorpion’s poison, started to 

hop away. 

The scorpion, however, was a philosopher, and he said to the frog, ”Come on, don’t be afraid. Look at it 

logically. I am not interested in you, I am interested in her. I just want you to get me across the river. Everything 

will be okay. I am obviously not going to sting you because if I do, not only will you die, but I will die too because 

I can’t swim. So come on, be logical and help me get across.” 

The red frog reluctantly agreed. The scorpion jumped on his shoulders and they began to cross the river. The 

frog swam very carefully, always looking towards the approaching shore. 

Suddenly the frog felt a shooting pain in his ass and shortly after he felt the coolness of death slowly overtaking 

him. He turned to the scorpion and said, ”Shit! This is not logic at all!” 

”Yes,” the scorpion agreed. ”It is not logic, it is my nature.” 

Logic is one thing, life is totally another. My concern here is not logic but life. My statements may not be 

logical they cannot be but they are alive; they have the flavor of life. 

Buddha says: OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO ENJOY LIFE, LIVING IN HONESTY AND STRENGTH! 

AND WISDOM IS SWEET, AND FREEDOM. 

Buddha says: Meditation brings two things. It brings wisdom, it brings freedom. These two flowers grow out 

of meditation. When you become silent, utterly silent, beyond the mind, two flowers bloom in you. One is of 

wisdom: you know what is and what is not. And the other is of freedom: you know now there are no more any 

limitations on you, either of time or of space. You become liberated. 

Meditation is the key to liberation, to freedom, to wisdom. 



Chapter 8 The nature of things 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, I UNDERSTAND YOU TO SAY THAT THE INTELLECT IS A BARRIER TO SELF- 

REALIZATION. PLEASE EXPLAIN FURTHER WHAT YOU MEAN BY THIS. I HAVE BEEN VERY IN- 

TERESTED TO LISTEN TO YOUR LECTURES DURING THE PAST FEW DAYS. FAR FROM BEING 

UNINTELLECTUAL, THEY COULD BE DESCRIBED AS AN INTELLECTUAL TOUR DE FORCE. FUR- 

THERMORE, A SCIENTIST CANNOT DISCARD HIS SHARE OF KNOWLEDGE ON WHICH HE BASES 

HIS JUDGMENTS: SURELY HIS JUDGMENTS MUST BE OBJECTIVE. I FEEL THAT I MUST HAVE MIS- 

UNDERSTOOD YOU.


Richard, I have been saying nothing against intelligence, intellect, but against intellectuality and that’s a 

totally different phenomenon. When somebody becomes identified with his intellect, intellectuality is born; when 

somebody remains the master, unidentified with his intellect, intelligence is born. Intellect is the same. The whole 

thing depends whether you get identified with it or you remain transcendental to it. If you become identified, it 

is intellectuality; if you remain unidentified, it is intelligence. 

Intelligence is of tremendous importance; intellectuality is a barrier. Intellectuality is a barrier even in the world 

of science. Intellectuality can, at the most, give you scholars, wordy people who go on and on spinning, weaving 

systems of thought with no substance at all. 

In the scientific endeavor, intelligence has to be focused on the objective world; in the religious exploration, 

intelligence has to move inwards. It is the same intelligence, only the direction changes. In science, the object, 

the outer object, is the goal of inquiry; in religion, your subjectivity, your interiority, is your adventure. The 

intelligence is the same. 

If you become an intellectual then you will not be a scientist; you will only write histories of science or 

philosophies of science, but you will not be a scientist, an explorer, an inventor, a discoverer, on your own. You 

will be simply accumulating information. Yes, that too has a certain use; as far as the outside world is concerned, 

even information has a certain limited utility, but in the inner world it has no utility at all. It is a barrier; it has 

a negative effect on the inner experience. 

You say, ”I understand you to say that the intellect is a barrier to self-realization.” 

The intellect is neither a barrier nor a bridge; intellect is neutral. Get identified with it, it becomes a barrier; 

remain unidentified with it, it is a bridge. And without meditation you cannot know your transcendental nature. 

In science, concentration is enough; at the most, contemplation is needed. In religion, meditation is the only 

way. Concentration is not needed, is not a help; it is a positive hindrance. Contemplation also is not a help; it 

is a compensation for not being meditative, it is a poor substitute for it. Meditation only meditation can bring 

the inner revolution. 

Meditation means getting out of the mind, looking at the mind from the outside. That’s exactly the meaning 

of the word ’ecstasy’: to stand out. To stand out of the mind makes you ecstatic, brings bliss to you. And great 

intelligence is released. When you are identified with the mind you cannot be very intelligent because you become 

identified with an instrument, you become confined by the instrument and its limitations. And you are unlimited 

you are consciousness. 

Use the mind, but don’t become it. Use it as you use other machines. Mind is a beautiful machine. If you can 

use it, it will serve you; if you cannot use it and it starts using you, it is destructive, it is dangerous. It is bound 

to take you into some trouble, into some calamity, into some suffering and misery, because a machine is a blind 

thing. It has no eyes, it has no insight. Mind cannot see; it can only go on repeating that which has been fed into 

it. It is like a computer; first you have to feed it. 

That’s what your so-called education is, you go on feeding it. Then it becomes a great memory in you, so 

whenever you need to remember anything it can supply. But you should remain the master so that you can use 

it; otherwise it starts directing you. 

Don’t be guided by your car; remain a driver. You have to decide the direction, you have to decide the goal. 

You have to decide about the speed, when to start and when to stop. When you lose control and when the car 

takes over and it starts going on its own you are doomed. 

But I am not absolutely against information. Information is good if it is stored in the memory and whenever 

you need it you can find it easily. It is dangerous only when you don’t need it and it goes on hammering itself 

on you; when it forces you to do something, when you are just a victim, then it is dangerous. Otherwise it is 

beautiful. It is a beautiful means, but it is not the end. 

At school the teacher was asking his class questions. He turned to Jenkins, ”Who knocked down the walls of 

Jericho?” 

”Please, sir,” replied Jenkins. ”It was not me, sir.” 

The teacher was very angry. He went straight to the headmaster and said, ”I have just asked Jenkins who 

knocked down the walls of Jericho and he said it was not him. What do you think about that?” 

The headmaster said, ”I have known the Jenkins family for years, and if he said it wasn’t him, it wasn’t him.” 

The teacher was even more angry. He phoned the Minister of Education and said, ”I asked a boy in class who 

knocked down the walls of Jericho and he said it wasn’t him. I then went to the headmaster to complain. He said 

he had known the family for years and if the boy said it wasn’t him, it wasn’t him. What do you think about 

that?”


The minister was silent for a second, then said, ”Listen, I am fed up with complaints from your school. Get 

the walls repaired and if there are more complaints, I am going to shut that school down!” 

Information is not bad in itself you have to know who knocked down the walls of Jericho! But if information 

becomes so powerful in your mind that it goes on and on and you cannot put it off, you cannot put the mind 

in a state of relaxation, then the mind becomes wearied, tired, bored, exhausted. In that state, how can you 

be intelligent? Your energies are dissipated. Intelligence needs overflowing energies. Intelligence needs health, 

wholeness. 

A meditator will be more intelligent than anybody else and a meditator will be able to use his mind objectively 

and subjectively both. He will be able to move outside as easily as he will be able to move inside. He will be more 

flexible. He is the master. He can take the car forward, he can take the car backward. 

When Ford had made his first car there was no reverse gear in it. It was a difficult problem to come back home. 

You had to go round, you had to take the long route, just to come back home. Even if you had gone a few yards 

past your garage you could not come back to the garage there was no reverse gear in it. Later on it was added. 

Meditation gives you the reverse gear. Ordinarily you don’t have it and you have to go round the world again 

and again, and still you cannot find where your home is; you cannot come back. You cannot go in; you know only 

how to go out. You cannot back in. A meditator becomes more fluid, more flexible. He becomes more enriched. 

I am not in favor of those people who in the past, in the name of religion, became fixated into their introversion; 

that is another extreme. A few people are fixated as extroverts; as a reaction, a few other people become fixated 

as introverts. Both become dead. Life belongs to the flexible one who can move from extroversion to introversion 

and from introversion to extroversion as easily as you move outside your house and inside your house. When it 

is too cold inside you come out in the sun; when it becomes too hot you come inside under the shelter, in the 

coolness of the house and there is no problem. It is as simple as that. 

Meditation does not mean going against the outside world. It has been so in the past. That’s why religion 

has failed, it could not succeed; it could not have succeeded in any way. Life belongs to the fluid, to the flowing. 

Whenever you become fixated you become a thing. Your monks were introverts; they closed their eyes to the 

outside world. 

That’s why in the East we could not develop science, although the first steps were taken in the East. Mathematics 

was developed in India. The first steps towards technology were taken in China. But there it stopped for 

the simple reason that the greatest people in the East became fixated introverts; they lost interest in the objective 

world, they closed themselves totally to the objective. This is being only half of your total potential. 

Now the West is doing just the opposite: it has become utterly extrovert, it does not know how to go in. It 

does not believe that there is any ”in,” it does not believe in any soul. It believes in man’s behavior, not in man’s 

inner existence. It studies the behavior and it says there is nobody inside it it is all mechanical. 

Man has become a robot. If you don’t know the soul, man becomes a robot. He is understood to be just 

a beautiful mechanism developed over millions of years the long,long journey of evolution but he is only a 

sophisticated machine. 

It was not difficult for Adolf Hitler to kill so many people so easily for the simple reason that if man is a machine, 

what is the harm in killing people? If you destroy your wristwatch you don’t feel guilty; howsoever sophisticated 

it was, it was only a wristwatch. If you decided to destroy it, it is for you to decide; nobody can object to it. You 

cannot be dragged into a court as a murderer. 

Stalin could kill millions of people easily without any prick in his conscience for the simple reason that Marxism 

believes that there is no soul. Man is nothing but matter; consciousness is only a by-product of matter. This is 

one extreme. 

Science has developed in the West, but religion has disappeared. In the East, religion developed but science 

disappeared. In both the ways man remains poor and half. 

My effort here is to create the whole man who will be able to be scientific and religious together. 

A big, mangy dog was threatening a mother cat and her kittens. He had backed them into the corner of a 

barn, when suddenly the cat reared back on her hind legs and started barking and growling loudly. Startled and 

confused, the dog turned and ran from the barn, its tail tucked between its legs. 

Turning to her kittens, the mother cat lifted a paw and told them, ”Now do you see the advantage of being 

bilingual?” 

I want man to be bilingual. He should know science as much, as deeply as he should know meditation. He 

should know mind as much as he should know meditation. He should know the language of the objective world 

that is science and he should know also the language of the subjective world that is religion.


Only a man who is able to bridge the objective and the subjective, a man who is able to bridge the East and 

the West, a man who is able to bridge the materialist and the spiritualist, can be a whole man. The world is 

waiting for the whole man. If the whole man does not arrive soon, then there is no future for humanity. And the 

whole man can come only through deep, profound intelligence. 

I am not against intellect, I am not against intelligence; I am against intellectuality. Don’t get identified with 

your mind. Always remain a watcher on the hills; a witness to the body, to the mind, a witness to the outer and 

to the inner, so that you can transcend both the outer and the inner and you can know that you are neither you 

are beyond both. That beyond is God. 

God is neither an object nor a subject. God is neither the outside nor the inside. He is both and he is neither. 

Richard, you say, ”I have been very interested to listen to your lectures during the past few days. Far from 

being unintellectual, they could be described as an intellectual tour de force.” 

When I am talking to you, even if I am talking about something supra-intellectual, I talk in intellectual ways 

because otherwise you will not be able to understand what I am saying. Intellect is the only possible communication 

right now. Unless you learn the language of total silence I have to go on talking in your language. You understand 

logic, I use logic for very strange purposes: to help you go beyond logic. I use every possible way to help you 

transcend duality. 

I am not unintellectual or anti-intellectual, but my effort here is to help you to go beyond intellect and antiintellect 

both, to go beyond logic and illogic both. It is possible. When you are in absolute silence you are neither 

logical nor illogical, but that silence cannot be expressed directly; that silence has to be translated into your 

language. That’s what I am doing here. It is an arduous effort because much splendor and grandeur is lost in 

translating it. That experience of silence is so vast it cannot be put into words, but it has to be put into words. 

Only then will you be able to hear it. Even then very few people hear it, because people are not present; they are 

absent, they are asleep. 

I have to start with your language, and slowly, slowly you will start learning my language. I am bilingual and I 

will make you also bilingual. There are two languages: the language of words and the language of silence. Right 

now I have to use the language of words to translate the poetry of silence, the music of silence. Later on, when you 

have developed a little meditativeness, you will be able to understand the poetry of silence, the music of silence 

directly just by sitting near me. There will be no need for me to say anything at all. 

I am waiting for that day and I am really in a hurry for that day, because talking is becoming more and more 

difficult for me. To you it may seem that I can go on talking forever; as far as I am concerned it is becoming more 

and more difficult because I can see the impossibility of putting the unknowable into words. It seems murderous 

the whole beauty is lost. Only something reaches you and that too depends on you: if you are available to me it 

reaches to you; otherwise it will not reach you. You will go on listening to that which you want to listen to and 

you will go on seeing that which you are capable of seeing. 

For a holiday, Donnelly decided to go to Switzerland to fulfill a lifelong dream by climbing the Matterhorn. He 

hired a guide and went up. Just as they neared the top, the men were caught in a snow slide. 

Three hours later, a Saint Bernard plowed through to them, a keg of brandy tied under his chin. 

”Hurray!” shouted the guide. ”Here comes man’s best friend!” 

”Yeah,” said Donnelly. ”And look at the size of the dog that is bringing it!” 

You hear that which you can hear, you see that which you can see. It is a tug of war between me and you to 

bring you to a point from where you can see something that I am seeing. 

Once I have accomplished the right number to create the buddhafield I will go into silence. The way you are 

going into meditation makes me hopeful soon it will be happening; it will not be long. Soon the right amount of 

energy will be available. Then I can just sit silently with you; you can dance and sing around me or sit in silence. 

And there will be a communication more a communion than a communication. Something is bound to transpire 

then. But before that can happen I have to go on persuading you through words, through logic. It is a kind of 

seduction. I have to seduce you towards something which you have utterly forgotten. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, CAN YOU PUT YOUR PHILOSOPHY IN A NUTSHELL? 

Vandan, any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell, belongs there. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS PESSIMISM?


Gyanesh, man can look at life in two ways: either through a no or through a yes. Either he can be negative in 

his approach or positive. These are the two easily available ways for the mind. 

There is also a third way, but to achieve to the third you have to go through arduous effort of becoming more 

and more aware. To the sleeping person these two ways are ready-made, available from the very birth. 

The positive person lives through a kind of optimism. His optimism is shallow, but he is full of hopes. He 

counts only the roses on the rosebush; he does not look at the thorns, he ignores them. Sooner or later he is 

bound to be disappointed. 

Every child begins with a positive attitude towards life. That is natural because if the child begins with a 

negative attitude he will not begin at all; he would have died in the mother’s womb. He waited for nine months, 

he passed through the birth canal, which is a painful process, suffocating. There must be deep down an unconscious 

hope; hence he is patiently waiting for the day when he can see the sun, see the light, be in the world. He is like a 

seed, very unconscious; he is not aware of it. But every child is born with great hopes, every child is an optimist; 

he looks through the positive. 

But life disappoints everyone. Life is very strange, in a way: if you don’t get what you want, you are disappointed, 

naturally; but if you get what you want, then too you are disappointed. Disappointment seems to 

be the destiny. If you don’t get what you want, you suffer you have failed. You have not been able to prove 

yourself, you have not been able to prove your mettle. Others have succeeded, you are a failure. You can’t respect 

yourself. And if you can’t respect yourself, you can’t respect life. It seems like a curse. You would like to return 

the ticket to God. If you meet him, your first question will be, ”Why have you created me? For what? for all 

these disappointments? Are you a sadist or something, creating so many people and then giving them so much 

misery?” 

And the religious people say, ”It is God’s play, his leela.” What kind of play is this? God does not seem to be 

in his right senses. It seems as if he is enjoying the tortures. He seems to be more like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, 

Mao Zedong, than like Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus. 

These people don’t seem to be like God, because when all your hopes are turned into hopelessness, when all 

your desires are frustrated, when nothing comes out of your optimism, naturally you become sour, you become 

bitter, and pessimism is born. 

Pessimism is nothing but the failure of optimistic attitudes. Then you start counting the thorns and ignoring 

the roses. Then you look always for the darker side. That is the philosophy of pessimism. 

Contemplate on these laws of Murphy: 

First: If anything can go wrong, it will. 

Second: Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. 

Third: Everything takes longer than you expect. 

Fourth: Left to themselves all things go from bad to worse. 

Fifth: Nature always sides with the hidden flaw. 

Sixth: Mother Nature is a bitch. 

Seventh: It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. 

Eighth: If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something. 

Ninth: If you can keep your head when, all around you, others are losing theirs, you just don’t understand the 

situation. 

And the tenth: For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution and it is always wrong. 

Pessimism simply means looking at life negatively, always searching for the flaw, for the loophole, for something 

negative, and accumulating all those negativities. And when you look at the dark side, always, of course, there 

are two nights and only one small day sandwiched between the two nights dark, dark nights. 

Optimism ends into pessimism. Every pessimist has been an optimist once he is an ex-optimist. He hoped 

too much and because those hopes were not fulfilled he has become sour, angry, enraged. Now he cannot see the 

flowers and the stars. He can’t see anything beautiful; he goes on looking for the ugly. And when you look for 

the ugly you will find it on every step. Whatsoever you look for you are bound to find it, remember, because life 

consists of both positivity and negativity in the same quantity. Life cannot exist without the other; the other 

pole is a must. 

It is just like electricity. Electricity cannot exist only with one polarity, positive or negative; it has to have both 

the poles together. It is possible only through the tension that is created between the negative and the positive. 

But there is a third kind of person I call that person the awakened, the enlightened who looks at life in its 

totality, who is neither a pessimist nor an optimist, who simply accepts life as it is; who accepts the night, who 

accepts the day, who accepts the rose and the thorn, because he understands that life is out of necessity dual,


dialectical. And in his awareness grows a synthesis between the polar opposites. The synthesis never grows on 

the outside, as Karl Marx says. 

Karl Marx says life is a dialectical process between thesis and antithesis and it always comes to a synthesis. 

Then synthesis turns again into a thesis and creates its antithesis. That is utterly wrong. Outside, life is always 

thesis and antithesis; it never comes to any synthesis. 

Synthesis is achieved only in the inner vision of an enlightened being. Synthesis is attained when you have 

attained to absolute silence. In that silence you are so clear, so transparent, that you can see through and 

through. Then you know that life needs both: day and night, birth and death. Then there is nothing wrong 

in death; it is perfectly useful, needed, inevitable. Then a deep acceptance arises in you. Buddha calls that 

acceptance tathata suchness. Life is such. You understand it and through that understanding you transcend it. 

Don’t be a pessimist and don’t be an optimist. Just watch, be a watcher and attain to the ultimate synthesis 

where you become a third force rising higher and higher and seeing from above, a bird’s-eye view. Deep down 

everything is in conflict, but it is okay because you understand life cannot exist without it. It is not God’s fault. 

There is no God as a person who can be blamed for it. It is just the nature of things Tao, dhamma that life 

functions through duality. But consciousness can soar so high that it can transcend all duality and can reach to 

oneness. 

The real meditator is neither pessimist nor optimist. He lives in a kind of suchness, in total ”accept-ability.” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM BORED WITH MY HUSBAND. I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING, BUT NOTH- 

ING SEEMS TO WORK. HAVE YOU ANY SUGGESTIONS? 

Geetama, not many, just one. Write a letter to five of your friends like this: 

Hello there! 

This letter was started by a woman like yourself, in hopes of bringing relief to a tired and discontented wife. 

Unlike most chain letters, this one does not cost anything. Just send a copy of this letter to five of your friends 

who are equally tired. Then bundle up your husband and send him to the woman at the top of the list and add 

your name to the bottom of the list. 

When your name comes to the top of the list you will receive 16,478 men and some of them are bound to be a 

hell of a lot better than the one you already have. 

Do not break the chain... have faith! 

One woman broke the chain and got her own sonofabitch back. 

At the date of writing this letter, another friend of mine received 183 men. They buried her yesterday.... But 

it took three undertakers thirty-six hours to get the smile off her face. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, YOUR MESSAGE IS UNIVERSAL, BUT IS IT ONLY FOR THOSE WITHOUT A 

RELIGION? WHY ARE NOT YOUR FELLOW INDIANS CROWDING AT THE GATE TO GET IN? 

Charles Gardiner, my message is universal. That does not mean that everybody will be able to understand it. 

The more universal a message is, the less people will be able to understand it, because the more universal it is, 

the more mysterious it is. It is so beyond the reach of the ordinary, stupid mind just because it is universal. 

People can understand things which are not so universal more easily. They can understand racial things, they 

can understand national things, they can understand ideological things. But any message that is really universal 

is bound to be understood only by a very few chosen people. 

Only the most intelligent people will be interested in what I am doing here. Hence you will see gathering around 

me intelligent people from all over the world, young, fresh, intelligent. 

India is not young, it is not fresh. It is very rare to find an Indian who is young. In India everybody is born 

old. It is such an ancient country with such a long, long tradition that everybody is burdened. A younger country 

is of course more receptive. 

For example, America is more receptive to any new message than any other country for the simple reason that 

it is the latest country in the world with only a three-hundred-year tradition, it is nothing. India has lived at 

least ten thousand years ten thousand years according to the historians, one hundred thousand years according 

to Indians themselves. The truth may be somewhere in between. I can settle on fifty thousand years but that 

too is very long. And as the country becomes old it goes on gathering rubbish, junk. And every generation goes 

on giving its junk and rubbish to the new generation, thinking that this is heritage, thinking that they are giving 

something very valuable.


America is the most receptive. And next to America, Germany seems to be very receptive for the simple reason 

that Adolf Hitler killed the old Germany completely, he destroyed the old completely. He created a discontinuity. 

The new German generation is no longer looking backwards. Adolf Hitler is standing there and nobody wants to 

look at him, so better forget all about it! Adolf Hitler has done a great service to Germany. He has destroyed 

the old heritage not knowing that he is doing such good work, otherwise he would not have done it not knowing 

that he is doing something immensely valuable. Unconsciously he has done it. 

India also needs a discontinuity with the past. The past hinders. 

Hence people from other countries are coming to me more. And certainly one becomes curious, just as Gardiner 

has become curious: ”Why are not your fellow Indians crowding at the gate to get in?” 

India is too old, my message is too new. India is ancient, traditional; I am rebellious. There is no meeting 

ground between me and India. I am not an Indian, in fact. So please don’t call them ”fellow Indians” they 

are not. I am not an Indian, I belong to no nation; only then can I be universal. If I am an Indian, then I am 

already prejudiced in favor of India. Then my message cannot be universal; it will be deep down Indian, basically 

Indian camouflaged, hidden behind beautiful words, abstractions, but it will remain essentially Indian; it can’t 

be universal. 

Mahatma Gandhi used to say that the whole universe is one, all religions are one. In his ashram he used to 

teach that Hindus and Mohammedans and Christians are all one. In his prayer meetings all the prayers of all the 

religions were recited. He loved one prayer the most which says: Allah ishwar tere nam Ishwar and Allah, both 

are your names, God. 

But when he was killed he forgot all about Allah. He said, ”Hey Ram!” Then the hidden Hindu came to the 

surface. His whole life he was saying, ”Both are the same, both are names of the same.” But when the bullet 

went into his heart he forgot all his philosophy. It would have been really beautiful if he had said, ”Allah!” But 

he said, ”Ram!” 

He used to say that the Gita and the Koran and the Bible have the same message, but he worshipped the Gita 

and he called the Gita his mother. Then what is the Koran? He has not even called the Koran his auntie! The 

Gita is his mother and of course he has chosen a few pieces from the Koran and from the Bible which are in 

agreement with the Gita. Anything that disagrees with the Gita has not been chosen by him, so the Gita remains 

the criterion. Now this is so clear, that anything that does not fit with the Gita is wrong; it may be in the Koran, 

it may be in the Bible, but it is wrong. He would not say it so clearly because he was a politician. 

I am not a politician I say things as they are. I call a spade a spade and sometimes a fucking spade! I am not 

a politician; I simply say whatsoever is the case. 

Indians are not very happy with me, they cannot be. Neither am I very happy with them, so why should they 

be? I am utterly against their traditionalism, their egoistic idea that they are holier than everybody else in the 

world. Nobody is holier than anybody else. I am against their idea that their country is the only religious country 

in the world, that they are the source of all that is great. These are stupid ideas. Every country carries them and 

every country believes in them. 

You ask the Chinese, you ask the Japanese, you ask the Italians, you ask anybody. Every country believes it. 

And you can find always great arguments to support it. 

Indians would have crowded at the gate if I was helping in some way, nourishing and feeding their ego. I am 

not doing that, I cannot do that. Only then can I be universal. I am continuously hammering on their ego. I am 

continuously trying to destroy their ”holier-than-thou” look. They are angry at me. How can they crowd at the 

gate to come in? 

If sometimes a few of them out of curiosity come in, within five to seven minutes they start getting up. Only a 

few stupid Indians get up from here. What I am saying does not suit them. They would like me to praise their 

Vedas as the only scriptures, the real scriptures, written by God himself. They would like me to praise everything 

that is Indian. I cannot do that. I can praise only that which is praiseworthy, not because it is Indian. I can 

praise things, not because they are Hindu, Jaina, Buddhist, but simply because they are beautiful. 

I praise the Taj Mahal not because it is Mohammedan, but just because it is a beautiful piece of objective 

art. I praise the Upanishads not because Hindus have written them but because they are so immensely valuable, 

intrinsically valuable. I praise Lao Tzu in the same way, I praise Jesus in the same way, I praise Mohammed in 

the same way. Wherever truth has happened, whomsoever it has happened to to Bahauddin or to Buddha it 

does not make any difference to me. 

That makes Indians very angry. They would like me to criticize Mohammed and to praise Mahavira, or if I 

cannot do that then at least praise Mahavira more than Mohammed, but create a hierarchy in which Buddha, 

Krishna and Mahavira are at the top. Yes, Jesus is also good and Mohammed is also good, but not at the top


far below in the hierarchy. That I cannot do because I see the same phenomenon happening in Buddha and the 

same experience in Jesus. I am not helping Indians’ ego in any possible way I am doing just the opposite. They 

cannot crowd at the gate to come in. 

What I am trying here is not something of the past; it belongs to the future. So only a few Indians will be able 

to come to me a few Indians who are capable of rising above their Indian mind, very rare individuals who are 

ready to rise with me above nationality, above race, above all kinds of egoistic attitudes. They are here, but they 

are here because they are also no longer Indians. 

Indians believe that they know, they are very knowledgeable. Naturally it is an ancient country; you need 

not read the scriptures, the scriptures are in the atmosphere. And my idea is that the knowledgeable person can 

never be religious. And up to now India has believed in the knowledgeable person the pundit, the scholar, the 

professor. And my effort is to help you become more and more childlike, more innocent, full of wonder not full of 

knowledge, full of awe not full of information. There is no need to read the Vedas because anyway ninety-nine 

percent of the Vedas is absolutely rubbish! Now this hurts the Indians. Only one percent is beautiful; you have 

to be very choosy. 

The same is the case with other scriptures of the world. You look at the Bible, look at the Old Testament; 

ninety-nine percent is just rubbish. It would be better if we got rid of that rubbish so only diamonds can shine 

forth. Otherwise the pebbles are so many, the diamonds are lost. But no no Jew will be ready to drop anything 

out of the Old Testament. And the same is the case with the New Testament, and the same is the case more so 

with the Koran. 

I have many Mohammedan sannyasins. They go on asking me when I am going to speak on the Koran, and I 

go on postponing it for the simple reason that there is not much in it to speak on. Very rarely do you come across 

a line one can manage to speak about in a beautiful way. Otherwise, just very ordinary statements.... 

But the reason is, in those days everything was written in the religious scriptures: history, geography, mythology. 

That was the only way. The old religious scriptures are like Encyclopedia Britannica; they are the encyclopedias 

of the old days. Everything is written, whatsoever was happening in those days and whatsoever was thought 

important. It may have been important in those days; now it is irrelevant. 

And even when I speak on Buddha, Mahavira, Krishna, I speak in an absolutely nontraditional way. I speak 

out of my own experience, I am not a commentator. I love Buddha because I have known the same light, I have 

experienced the same truth. So when I comment on Buddha it is not a commentary. Buddha’s statements are 

only excuses, just pegs; I go on hanging myself on those pegs. 

The Indian mind is very much against that. They think I am distorting. They think I should comment according 

to the scriptures. I am commenting according to my consciousness, not according to any scripture. And when I 

see something which cannot be said by a buddha I simply drop it, I don’t comment on it. 

I know what buddhahood is! I go on creating Buddha again. That is resisted very much. They would like 

me to be just a historian, a commentator, a scholar. They would like me to quote their scriptures, refer to their 

scriptures. I never refer, I never quote. In my books you will not find any footnotes. I don’t believe in all that 

nonsense. I speak out of my heart. I love Buddha, I love Jesus. I speak, I use their statements as grounds to take 

off, that’s all just jumping boards. It goes against the Indian approach, Indian scholarship. 

Gardiner, because my message is universal it will appeal only to those people who are universal, who don’t 

belong to any country anymore, to any religion, to any church. Yes, you are right. You say, ”Is it only for those 

without a religion?” 

Yes, it is for those who are without a religion, without a nation, without a race; it is only for those liberated 

ones. It is for the new generation. The new generation is courageous; it has dropped much of the load that people 

have been carrying for centuries. Only then can there be a communion between me and you. 

And you can see this is a universal gathering. People from at least forty countries are here. Except the Chinese 

and the Russians except the communist bloc you will find people from every country here. And even in Russia 

the orange people are starting to work underground. Small cells have started functioning. People are meeting 

really in underground basements, meditating. A few people even have become sannyasins. It is very difficult to 

send them malas and names, but we have found ways and they have found ways. They cannot wear orange in the 

open. 

One woman who has become a sannyasin wrote to me, ”What to do?” I said, ”Use red instead of orange. Wear 

red and tell people that you love communism so much that you cannot resist the temptation of wearing red!” She 

loved the idea. She said, ”This is beautiful!”


But when they meditate and they meet in underground basements they wear orange, they wear malas, they 

read the books, they listen to the tapes. They have even translated a few books into Russian; just hand-written, 

those books are passed from one hand to another. But they are not here; it will be difficult for them to be here. 

One woman has written that she is ready to escape from Russia if somebody can help her so that she can 

remain here forever. She is ready to leave her husband, her home, her security, safety, everything. 

Soon from China and Russia also people will be coming here. This is becoming a universal temple and it is 

especially for those who have no more interest in religion. They can understand me, because the priests have 

destroyed their interest in religion. The churches have destroyed any possibility for any intelligent person to be 

religious. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO I ALWAYS GET SEXUALLY EXCITED WHEN I SEE A BEAUTIFUL 

WOMAN? 

Nanda Kishor, the first thing is that you are an Indian. It is very difficult for an Indian not to get excited when 

he sees a beautiful woman. Long, long repression... your unconscious is full of repressions so you don’t miss any 

opportunity. 

Of course you don’t show it. It is courageous of you that you have asked the question. 

Nothing is wrong in being sexually excited by seeing a beautiful woman. You are simply paying a compliment 

to her, that’s all. You are saying she is beautiful and attractive. In a more understanding world you will simply go 

to the woman and thank her and she will accept your compliment with gratitude. If a woman passes and nobody 

gets excited about her, nobody ever, that is really a miserable thing to go through. 

I was a professor in a university for a few years. One day it happened: I was sitting in the vice-chancellor’s 

room. A girl came, she was crying and weeping and she said that one boy was continually teasing her. He was 

throwing small stones at her, writing love letters to her. 

The vice-chancellor was, of course, very angry. I was sitting there so he told me, ”Can you help this girl? Can 

you console her?” 

I asked the girl, ”If nobody ever teased you and nobody ever wrote a love letter and nobody threw pebbles at 

you, would that be right? Would you be happy?” 

Her tears disappeared. For a moment she was shocked. Then she said, ”I have never thought of it in that way.” 

I said, ”That will be real misery! This simply shows that somebody is interested in you. Go to him and thank 

him! Nothing is wrong in it. He is simply a little foolish; he does not know how to pay compliments to a beautiful 

girl. Send the boy to me and I will teach him a few things! He needs a little tuition he has no intuition. And 

you need not be worried and you need not be crying: this is natural!” 

You are, Nanda Kishor, one of the species of animals. Man is an animal unless he becomes a buddha. If you 

become a buddha and then you are excited by seeing a beautiful woman, come and ask the question. Then it will 

be something worth asking because then it will be a problem. But you are not a buddha so meanwhile enjoy! 

Once you become a buddha, then I cannot help nobody can help. Then even if you want to get down, there is 

no way. 

It is an animal instinct, as much in animals as in human beings. Yes, it has to be transcended, but by repression 

you cannot transcend. Accept it. Acceptance is the first step towards transcendence. And don’t feel guilty about 

it it is not a sin. 

When you see a beautiful sunset you don’t feel any guilt. When you see a beautiful flower and you are attracted 

you don’t feel any guilt. When you see a beautiful face of a man or a woman, why should you feel guilty if you 

are attracted, if you want to look back, if you want to go close and have a closer look? Why should you feel guilty 

about it? But that’s how you have been taught for centuries. If you go closer to the woman, the woman will start 

shouting for the police and you will start finding excuses. 

Nobody looks into each other’s eyes. It is thought to be offensive. Even if you want to look into some beautiful 

eyes you cannot. Only three seconds is allowed. How all over the world people have come to agree on three seconds 

is something mysterious. Just for three seconds you can look at somebody and the other will not be offended. If 

you look more than that, the other feels offended. 

Maybe there is a reason. You don’t know how to look at the other; you don’t know how to look gracefully. 

Maybe your look is ugly and it is bound to be ugly if you are carrying much repressed sexuality. Your look will 

be pornographic. Deep down in your imagination you will be undressing the woman, and she feels offended. Who 

are you to undress her even in your fancy? Your look is ugly; it looks as if you are penetrating her being, as if you 

have found a substitute for sexual penetration through the eyes. You are reducing her into a thing, and nobody


wants to be reduced into a thing. Your look has no respect in it. If your look has respect, if your excitement has 

beauty, grace, there is no problem. 

Yes, it has to be transcended one day because this is also a duality man/woman the same duality as between 

positive and negative, birth and death, summer and winter. It has to be transcended. One has to come to a point 

from where nothing disturbs your coolness, nothing distracts you from your center. 

But the way to come to it is not repression, Nanda Kishor. The first step is acceptance: it is natural. Accept 

it as part of your nature, as part of your biology. And then try to understand it, watch it, observe it, witness 

it. Slowly, slowly as your witnessing will grow, you will go beyond it. One day you will not find any difference 

between a man and a woman: you have gone beyond sexuality. That is true brahmacharya, true celibacy, but it 

is not what has been told to you. 

In the name of celibacy, sex has been repressed for centuries and you have become just full of sexuality. Rather 

than transcending it you are boiling within. 

In order to find out whether his wife was cheating on him, a man bought a parrot. The parrot was an amazing 

bird, but in a fight had lost both legs and had to balance itself on its pelvis. 

One day the man questioned the parrot and found out that his wife was, in fact, cheating on him. Quickly he 

asked the parrot, ”What happened?” 

The parrot said, ”First your wife was kissing a strange man, and then she started to take off her clothes....” 

”And then?” interrupted the man. 

”And then they both got on the bed....” 

”And then?” cried the man. 

”Then she pulled on the blankets....” 

”And then, and then?” 

”I don’t know,” said the parrot. ”I fell over!” 



Chapter 9 The monkey in the forest 


IF YOU SLEEP, DESIRE GROWS IN YOU LIKE A VINE IN THE FOREST. 

LIKE A MONKEY IN THE FOREST YOU JUMP FROM TREE TO TREE, NEVER FINDING THE FRUIT 

FROM LIFE TO LIFE, NEVER FINDING PEACE. 

IF YOU ARE FILLED WITH DESIRE, YOUR SORROWS SWELL LIKE THE GRASS AFTER THE RAIN. 

BUT IF YOU SUBDUE DESIRE, YOUR SORROWS FALL FROM YOU LIKE DROPS OF WATER FROM 

A LOTUS FLOWER. 

THIS IS GOOD COUNSEL AND IT IS FOR EVERYONE: AS THE GRASS IS CLEARED FOR THE FRESH 

ROOT, CUT DOWN DESIRE LEST DEATH AFTER DEATH CRUSH YOU AS A RIVER CRUSHES THE 

HELPLESS REEDS. 

FOR IF THE ROOTS HOLD FIRM, A FELLED TREE GROWS UP AGAIN. IF DESIRES ARE NOT 

UPROOTED, SORROWS GROW AGAIN IN YOU. 

Gautama the Buddha’s most fundamental message to humanity is that man is asleep. Man is born asleep. He 

is not talking about the ordinary sleep; he is talking about a metaphysical sleep, a deep, deep unconsciousness 

within you. You are acting out of that unconsciousness, so whatsoever you do goes wrong. It is impossible to 

do right with this unconsciousness within you. This unconsciousness perverts all of your efforts, it leads you into 

wrong directions. It is bound to be so. 

Even if a buddha is with you, you will misunderstand him for the mere reason that you are not conscious. If 

you are really asleep and a buddha is sitting by the side of you, you cannot recognize him, you cannot see him, 

you cannot feel him. You will go on dreaming in your own way; you will remain confined to your own private 

world of dreams. 

The most private thing in life is your dreaming. When the dreaming disappears you enter into the world of the 

universal. Then you enter into truth, into God, into nirvana. But with all your dreams, that is impossible; you 

are lost in your own dreams. And it is not only one dream within you; millions of them are constantly growing... 

one is being replaced by another. You think that now you are awake because one dream has left you, but another 

has taken its place. You can even dream that you are awake. Buddhas go on shouting, but you don’t hear. 

Jesus says: If you have eyes to see, see. If you have ears to hear, hear. He is not talking with deaf and blind 

people, he is talking with people like you. He is saying exactly the same thing that Buddha is saying: that you 

are asleep.


Jesus had been to India, and when Jesus came to India, Buddha was very much alive. Although he had left 

his body five hundred years before, the air was still full with his songs. There were still people deeply connected 

with him; there were still people for whom he was almost a tangible reality. 

Buddha had said that ”My religion will last for five hundred years.” Those years were coming to an end; it was 

the last phase. The sun was setting, but the sun was still on the horizon. 

Jesus must have visited Buddhist schools, monasteries. In Ladakh there is still a hand-written scripture in 

existence in which Jesus has written about his coming to India, his visit, his experiences, what he had gained here. 

Christian scriptures are completely silent about his life. He is mentioned once when he is twelve years old and 

then for eighteen years there is a gap. Then he is mentioned when he is thirty, and then he lives only three years 

more. Where had he been for eighteen years? The people who were writing the gospels must have been aware of 

the gap, but they were afraid to say anything about those eighteen years, because he was traveling, moving from 

one mystery school to another mystery school. 

He talked very much the way Buddha talked. He carried a similar message and a similar understanding to his 

people. He was misunderstood for the simple reason that he had brought something which was not part of Jewish 

tradition; he had brought something alien. And the most alien thing was that he was telling people, ”You are 

asleep, you are really dead.” 

Just being born is not enough to be awake. Awakening has to be achieved through arduous effort; otherwise you 

can pass your whole life wandering in the forest of dreams. And he was aware that the people who were listening 

to him were not capable of understanding him at all. He was saying one thing and they would understand another. 

He was aware that there was something that seemed to be hindering the message. 

Jesus is sitting at the table with his twelve disciples, eating beef and drinking wine. At a certain point he looks 

intensely up at his disciples and says, ”One of you will betray me. Judas, Judas, why, why you?” 

At this, in a fit of anger, Judas gets up and screams at the disciples, ”Why the hell is it that every time he gets 

drunk he takes it out on me?” 

Jesus looks drunk to Judas. Buddha also looks drunk to the people. And in a way, they are drunk drunk with 

the divine. They belong to another world. We live in the night, they have seen the dawn. We live in our dreams 

of achieving this and that, in our ambitions, in our ego trips for power, for money, for prestige. And they live at 

a totally different point. They live as beings, we live as becomings. We live as desires, as dreams; they are real 

beings: they have no dreams, no desires. We live in the past or in the future; they live in the present. We live in 

words, they live in silence. We live in thousands of frustrations, they live in deep peace. 

Why do we live in frustrations? How do we manage to live in so many frustrations? We have become experts 

in creating frustrations although we don’t do it intentionally. We don’t do anything intentionally; our whole lives 

are accidental. In sleep, your life is bound to be just accidental, at the mercy of the winds. We are just as straws 

in the wind or dry leaves in the wind. We don’t know who we are, we don’t know where we are going, we don’t 

know from where we are coming. We don’t know anything about our being and we know great information about 

facts, figures which are utterly meaningless. 

Unless you know yourself, no knowledge is of any meaning. At the very center of your being there is darkness; 

no light from the outside can dispel it. 

The greatest problem in the world is how to commune your awakening with those who have never tasted it. 

They are bound to misunderstand. Misunderstanding is almost inevitable. 

The color TV was invented in the USA. News of this beautiful new toy arrived up to the kingdom of God. God, 

being very curious, sent one of his archangels down to the earth to get one. 

As God sat in front of his new color TV set with the archangel sitting beside him, he pressed the first button. 

Immediately, the image of naked, tired, sweating people appeared on the screen. They were working incredibly 

hard in a Johannesburg diamond mine. 

Upon seeing this, God shouted, ”Ah Christ, holy shit, what the hell are they doing down there?” 

Saint Peter replied, ”They are being good and working hard, my Lord, just as you wanted.” 

”No, no, no, that is not what I meant! They have missed the whole point!” screamed God at the top of his 

thunderous voice. 

Then he pushed another button. The image changed to the glorious Vatican in all its pomp and splendor, 

with his holiness the pope, dressed in gold. He was surrounded by luxuriously dressed nobles and velvet-cloaked 

cardinals with massive crowns on their heads. 

God turned to Peter, shouting, ”And who are they?” 

Saint Peter humbly replied, ”These are the ones who did not miss the point....”


In fact, everybody misses the point; it is bound to be so. Coming from the peaks of awakening to the dark 

valleys of sleep one cannot expect that it will be understood rightly. 

Hence Buddha insisted, he always emphasized to his disciples, ”Before you start trying to understand what I 

am saying and what I am doing, be silent at least for two years, utterly silent, thinking nothing. When you have 

attained to stillness, then you will be able to communicate with me. Then if you have any questions you can ask, 

and then it will be possible for me to pour my heart into your heart.” 

But it used to happen that whenever somebody would come and would stay for two years in silence, he would 

never ask anything because silence is the answer of all the answers. Silence is the answer for all the questions. 

There would be no need to ask Buddha because in silence he would see the glory, the splendor of Buddha, and it 

would start permeating his being like a flood, taking away all dust accumulated down the centuries. 

The first sutra: 

IF YOU SLEEP, DESIRE GROWS IN YOU LIKE A VINE IN THE FOREST. 

Desire cannot be dropped unless you wake up. Millions of people have tried to drop desiring without waking 

up. In fact, the very idea of dropping desire was another desire and nothing else. They heard from the buddhas, 

from the awakened ones, that there is great peace if you drop desire, there is great bliss if desires wither away; that 

you will attain to eternity, that you will not know any birth, any death anymore, that you will become part of the 

universal celebration that goes on and on if you drop desire. Millions became greedy, thinking that by dropping 

desire they will attain all these joys. Now, this is a new desire taking root in you. The desire for God, the desire 

for truth, the desire for liberation, the desire for becoming desireless, is still a desire. You have misunderstood 

the whole point again. A new greed religious greed has taken possession of you. 

Millions of people have lived in the monasteries monks and nuns and all kinds of ascetics torturing themselves 

in the hope, in the desire, that this is the way to destroy desires. When all desires are destroyed they are going to 

attain to heavenly pleasures. And those pleasures are real pleasures; they are not momentary like the pleasures 

on this earth, they are eternal. How can you drop desire by creating a new desire, a bigger desire, a far more 

dangerous desire? 

As I see it, the religious people are more in the grip of desire than the nonreligious. The nonreligious is satisfied 

with small things a good house, a beautiful wife, children, a little bank balance small things. But religious people 

go on condemning these people that they are sinners. And they themselves are saints because they want a bank 

balance in the other world, and a bank balance which will be inexhaustible! 

It is very difficult to drop desire; unless you wake up you cannot drop desire. Desire is a natural phenomenon 

when you are asleep. Desire is dreaming and nothing else. When you wake up dreams disappear, and when you 

wake up desires disappear. 

Hence it has to be understood: the real point is not to fight with your desires but to fight with your sleep. That 

is cutting the very root; otherwise you remain the same. You will function out of your unconsciousness and you 

will go on doing the same; it does not matter what it is. 

Three men were riding in a bus on a hot summer day in Israel. One of them was a rabbi, a Jew, another a 

Greek, and the other a Palestinian. 

The bus departed, and a fly flew onto the shoulder of the Greek. He simply slapped it away. The fly then 

flew over to the rabbi’s shoulder and he did the same. The fly then flew over to the Palestinian. The Palestinian 

immediately grabbed the fly and ate it. 

A second fly flew into the bus and exactly the same thing happened: the fly landed on the Greek, the Greek 

slapped it away over to the Jew, the Jew also slapped it away, and finally it landed on the Palestinian who grabbed 

it and ate it. 

At this point, the Greek and the Jew both looked at the Palestinian in amazement. 

Sure enough, a third fly flew into the bus. It flew over to the Greek and was slapped away. It flew over to the 

rabbi and this time the rabbi grabbed the fly, went over to the Palestinian and asked, ”You want to buy a nice 

fly?” 

Rabbi or no rabbi, a Jew is a Jew! If there is some business he is not going to miss it. 

You are living in dreams. Your priests, your rabbis, your monks, your nuns, your bishops, your popes, they are 

all living in the same sleep. Maybe your dreams are a little bit different from each other, but the quality of the 

dream is the same. 

Why do you dream? because there are so many desires unfulfilled, and to live with unfulfilled desires is painful. 

In dream you try to fulfill them; in dream you create a false feeling of fulfillment. Hence your dreams show much 

about you: what your desires are, what you want to become. But if you want to become anything in life, you are 

asleep.


The man who is awake knows there is nowhere to go, nothing to become. He is already that which he ever can 

become. Seeing the grandeur of his being, desires wither away on their own accord. You are not even expected to 

drop them; they drop by themselves, like dry leaves falling from the trees. 

IF YOU SLEEP, says Buddha, DESIRE GROWS IN YOU.... 

Remember: desire grows only when you are asleep, unconscious, unaware, unmeditative. And this is natural. It 

grows... LIKE A VINE IN THE FOREST. And whatsoever you do in this sleep is going to be wrong, remember. 

You can become an ascetic, you can fast, you can pray, but your prayers will be wrong. 

Hence, Buddha never says pray; he says meditate. What can you pray? You will always pray for something; 

it will be a desire. You can go to the churches and the temples and listen to people’s prayers, and you will be 

surprised: they are always asking and asking. Their prayers are superficial. They had not gone there to thank 

God; their prayers are not full of gratitude but full of complaints. They want more and they are ready to pray. 

Their prayer is nothing but buttressing: they praise the Lord; they hope that this buttressing will help their 

prayers to be fulfilled. And behind the prayer there is a desire. 

Buddha says: Don’t be bothered with prayers, because you are asleep and your prayer is bound to be nothing 

but a desire. Your asceticism is bound to be nothing but an expression of your desire. Your asceticism is going to 

be nothing but a deep hedonism. Hence all religions talk about the joys and the pleasures of heaven and paradise. 

These are the allurements which keep people going to the temples and to the churches and to the mosques. 

Buddha says: Go into silence, because silence creates the right space to wake up. Silence goes to the very center 

of your being like an arrow and wakes you up. And when you are awake, your whole life is a prayer! And don’t 

go on doing things in your sleep because you can do much more harm. It is better to be ordinary when you are 

asleep your harm will be ordinary. Don’t try to be extraordinary, don’t try to be a saint or a mahatma; your 

harm will be far bigger. 

Contemplate on this maxim of Murphy: 

If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three. 

What else can you do when you are asleep? Try and try and try again; go on trying. But if the fundamental 

is wrong, whatsoever you do is going to be wrong. 

And the problem with desire is this: if you don’t get it which is almost inevitable because all your desires are 

impossible.... You ask for the impossible; it can’t happen in the nature of things; hence you feel frustrated when 

it doesn’t happen. And if at all it happens by some miracle, by some accident... if it happens, then, too, it is 

not going to fulfill you or make you contented because the moment it happens, again your mind starts asking for 

more; or, by the time it happens you are no longer interested in it. 

The soldier boy was unhappy. 

”But this is Christmas time,” I tried to cheer him up. ”Santa Claus and all that!” 

”What Santa Claus?” he cried. ”Twenty years ago I asked Santa for a soldier suit now I get it!” 

Murphy’s maxim: Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disaster in life begins when you get what you 

want. 

Blessed are those who don’t get what they want, because at least they can hope. The real disaster happens 

when you get what you want, because then there is no possibility to hope; then you are stuck with it. And it is 

you who have desired it, who had worked for it. But out of sleep nothing else is possible. 

Sleep is our common disease; we are born with this disease. It is so common, that’s why we don’t think about 

it at all as a disease; otherwise this is the greatest disease, according to all the awakened ones. 

Buddha’s suggestion is: Be conscious. Bring more consciousness to your inner being and also to your outer 

actions. He does not want you to create new desires holy desires instead of unholy desires. He does not want you 

to become a saint as against being a sinner. He does not want you to substitute your mundane desires with sacred 

desires. He wants you to do something totally different, that is his great contribution to humanity: he wants you 

to become conscious. 

Out of consciousness a radical transformation happens: desires disappear and peace descends the peace of 

desirelessness. 

LIKE A MONKEY IN THE FOREST YOU JUMP FROM TREE TO TREE, NEVER FINDING THE FRUIT 

FROM LIFE TO LIFE, NEVER FINDING PEACE. 

Observe what you have been doing: LIKE A MONKEY IN THE FOREST.... 

Charles Darwin became aware of the phenomenon very late: that man is a descendant of monkeys. And he 

may not be right, because he thinks that physically man is a descendant of the monkeys. That does not seem to 

fit the reality: man seems to be essentially different from monkeys as far as the body is concerned.


For millions of years, monkeys have been seeing man standing on two feet and they have not learned the trick 

yet. You don’t see suddenly a monkey walking like a man. How did it happen in the first place that a few monkeys 

started walking on two feet and became the ancestors of humanity? It does not seem to be likely. 

But all the awakened ones of the world have known that as far as the mind of man is concerned, it is very 

like the monkeys; it is not much different. The real monkey is not in your body but in your psychology; it is not 

physiological, it is psychological. 

Your mind is continuously jumping from one tree to another tree. It is constantly restless; it cannot remain 

restful even for a single moment. It wants to be continuously occupied. And what is the gain? 

Buddha says: LIKE A MONKEY IN THE FOREST YOU JUMP FROM TREE TO TREE, NEVER FINDING 

THE FRUIT FROM LIFE TO LIFE, NEVER FINDING PEACE. 

Peace is the fruit and the mind has no idea what peace is. It knows only conflict, it knows only war, violence, 

destruction. It knows only all sorts of perversions, neurosis, psychosis. It knows a deep inner split, but it knows 

nothing of peace; it has never tasted it, it is absolutely unknown. It is only a word, empty of any meaning. 

Meaning comes through experience, otherwise all words are empty. God is an empty word to you because you 

have not experienced it. Peace is an empty word to you because you have not experienced it. 

Buddha does not use the word ’bliss’. That was always the case before Buddha: that bliss is the fruit. Satchit-anand 

truth, consciousness, bliss these are the three aspects of the ultimate fulfillment. But Buddha does 

not talk about bliss for a certain reason. The reason is that the moment you talk about bliss you are bound to 

be misunderstood. People start thinking about happiness and pleasures maybe on a higher plane, but their idea 

of pleasure remains the same, their idea of happiness remains the same. They think of sexual pleasure even in 

paradise. 

There are religions who even allow homosexuality in paradise, because they were born in countries where 

homosexuality was very much prevalent. And every religion promises you beautiful women in paradise. Who has 

projected these ideas? Frustrated people, those who have failed here; now they are hoping they will succeed in 

the other world, on the other shore. 

Buddha does not use the word ’bliss’ for the simple reason that it can create a misunderstanding. It creates it 

because you know something about happiness, and you think maybe there is a great difference between bliss and 

happiness, but happiness gives you some idea of what bliss will be. 

Bliss is not happiness. Bliss is more like peace than like happiness. Bliss is neither unhappiness nor happiness; 

it is peace from that turmoil, that conflict. It is peace, absolute peace, because it is a transcendence of duality. 

Happiness always lingers with unhappiness; unhappiness is always with its other side, happiness. They are two 

sides of the same coin. When the whole coin drops from your hand you are neither happy nor unhappy. 

It is because of this that Buddha never had a great appeal to the Indian masses. Who wants peace? Everybody 

wants happiness and everybody knows that happiness is followed by unhappiness, as day is followed by night, as 

death is followed by birth, birth is followed by death. It is a vicious circle: if you are happy, you can be certain 

that soon you will be unhappy; if you are unhappy, you can be certain that soon you will be happy again. 

Seeing this game of happiness and unhappiness, the watcher, the meditator becomes unidentified with both. 

When happiness comes he knows that unhappiness will be coming, so why get excited? When unhappiness comes 

he is not at all disturbed because he knows happiness will be coming just around the corner, so why become 

disturbed? He is neither excited by happiness nor disturbed by unhappiness. This is peace. He remains the same, 

in a deep equilibrium; his silence is undisturbed. Day comes and goes, night comes and goes, everything comes 

and goes. He remains a witness, unconcerned, cool. That coolness, that unconcernedness is peace. 

But nobody wants peace. People who are asleep cannot want peace. Hence Buddha, although while he was 

alive thousands of people were transformed by him, as had never happened before.... Many more people became 

enlightened around him than around anybody else in the whole history. Still, his religion disappeared from India; 

it did not appeal to the masses. That carrot was not there hanging in front of you: bliss. He was talking of peace. 

Peace seems to be very unalluring; it does not ring bells in your heart. Peace, just peace? So much effort for 

meditation and so much effort for waking up, and the result is only peace? You want something more exciting, 

more sensational. You want ecstasy, not peace. Your sleep creates the dream of bliss, of ecstasy, of great joys, 

eternal joys. 

But Buddha’s choice of the word is very right, absolutely right. He never moves from the inner truth, he goes 

on insisting on it. Whether it appeals to you or not, he is not much concerned about that. He is not at all going 

to compromise with you and your desires and your sleep. 

Of course, when Buddha died, the scholars started interpreting his peace as bliss another name, they said, for 

bliss. But from India it disappeared, the religion disappeared. The scholars and the pundits learned it a little


late. When the religion had disappeared from India, then they thought over it, and why it had happened. And 

this was the cause: Buddha was talking about peace, about nirvana. Nirvana means cessation, that you will cease 

totally. Who wants to cease totally? Deep down you want to remain, abide. Yes, you can accept that the body 

will not be there, the body will fall into dust dust unto dust. But your spirit, your soul will be there. 

And Buddha says you don’t have any soul, because your soul is nothing but a holy name for your old ego. And 

what is your spirit? nothing but another facade for the ego to survive. He is very compassionately cruel. He says 

you will not be there at all. 

People used to ask him, ”Then why should we meditate? It seems like committing absolute suicide!” 

And Buddha said, ”Yes, exactly it is that. But peace will be there.” 

Now the problem becomes even more complicated. You can even become interested in peace; tired of your joys, 

happiness, unhappiness, sadness, misery, suffering, you can even reluctantly, in a resigned way, agree to attain to 

peace but you will not be there. Then another problem arises which is far more significant to you in your sleep: 

”If I am not there, who is going to experience peace? And what is the point of attaining something if you can’t 

experience it, if you are not there at all?” 

And Buddha is absolutely right. He says: If you are there, peace cannot be. When you are not there, peace is. 

Shakespeare says: To be or not to be is the question. Buddha says: Choose not to be. To be is the problem; 

not to be means all problems have been transcended, all worries have been transcended. 

Buddhists learned that there is something dangerous in Buddha’s message; it has to be changed. They changed 

it. In Tibet, in China, in Japan, they dropped Buddha’s words or they gave new meanings to those words. While 

they were translating Buddhist scriptures into Tibetan, into Chinese, into Japanese, Korean, they made it a point 

that all negatives should be dropped from Buddha and they should be replaced by positives. ”You will be there 

in all your glory, in all your grandeur, in all your beauty. You will be there in your purity. Your soul will be there, 

utterly purified, pure gold. And you will attain to bliss: mahasukh great bliss.” 

And then, like fire, the religion of Buddha spread all over Asia. It disappeared from the country of its origin 

for the simple reason that Buddha would not compromise with your sleep; it succeeded all over Asia because the 

followers compromised. They destroyed the purity of Buddhism; they brought it down to your level. Buddha’s 

effort was to raise you to his level, and his followers brought him to your level. 

That’s what happens always with the followers, because they are also asleep; they are people like you. They 

are also dreaming like you, they are also desiring like you. There is a certain understanding between you and 

them. They can understand your dreams because they are their dreams too. Buddha is as far away from them as 

he is from you. It is a strange phenomenon, but it has always been so. Christians succeeded when they betrayed 

Christ and Buddhists succeeded when they betrayed Buddha. You have to betray the master, then you can be 

a success. When the master starts speaking like sleepy people, then sleepy people become interested; then he is 

speaking in your language. 

The other night, Veet Marco had a dream: 

While Jesus Christ was on the cross, three soldiers were playing cards beneath him. At a certain point one of 

the soldiers got up and pierced Jesus’ rib with his spear. Jesus moaned, and the soldier laughingly returned to 

his seat and continued playing cards. 

Soon after a second soldier got up and held a sponge soaked in vinegar up to Jesus’ face. 

Jesus screamed, ”Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?” 

The soldier started laughing, then went back to his seat and resumed playing cards. 

Suddenly the sky became dark, the earth started to tremble, lights beamed from the north and from the south 

and a mysterious silence filled the air. 

The nails on Jesus’ hands and feet started disappearing. The third soldier, seeing this, ran to Jesus’ feet and 

began praying and worshipping God. A terrible wind started blowing and Jesus began to ascend. The soldier 

hung on to his legs, screaming and crying, ”Jesus, Jesus, yours is the power and the glory!” 

Jesus’ face was filled with light, his hair blowing in the wind, his body donning a white silken robe, ascending 

up and up into the sky, with the third soldier clinging to his legs, ascending along with him. 

The soldier, suddenly realizing what was happening, became frightened and cried up to Jesus, ”Jesus, Jesus, 

where are you going?” 

Jesus smilingly replied, ”I am going to my father up in the Kingdom of God.” 

”And how about me?” quizzed the frightened soldier. ”Where am I going?” 

Jesus, kicking him off, screamed down to the falling figure, ”You sonofabitch, you go back to your fucking 

mother!”


Now, Marco’s dream is Marco’s dream; it has nothing to do with Jesus. But in your dreams, Jesus will take a 

form that is really imposed by you, Buddha will take a form that is imposed by you. Rather than allowing them 

to transform you, you would like to transform them according to your ideas. This has been happening down the 

ages. 

IF YOU ARE FILLED WITH DESIRE, 

says Buddha, 

YOUR SORROWS SWELL LIKE THE GRASS AFTER THE RAIN. 

The more desires you have, the more misery you will create for yourself. Misery is a consequence of desiring 

and you go on desiring. In fact, you think that if your desires are fulfilled your miseries will disappear. In the 

first place they are never fulfilled; in the second place, if they are fulfilled, nothing is fulfilled by their fulfillment. 

You remain as empty as you have always been or even more, because up to now you were occupied with a certain 

desire; now even that is fulfilled. A deep, deep emptiness comes to you. 

You wanted to have a beautiful house; now you have it. Suddenly, you don’t know what to do. You were so 

much engaged in earning money, you were so mad after getting the house; now you have got it. For a moment 

you feel good not because of the house, remember, but just because the whole tension, that mounting tension 

has disappeared the house is yours. All that strain and tension is relaxed; it is the relaxation of that tension 

that gives you a little experience of pleasure. That you could have experienced any time if you had relaxed; it has 

nothing to do with the house. 

See the mechanism of desire! But after that relaxation, after a few moments or a few hours or maybe a few 

days... it depends how intelligent you are. If you are really intelligent, then within seconds that disappears you 

can see the futility of it. If you are not that intelligent, then a few hours; if you are really stupid, then a few 

days. It is in the proportion of your stupidity: you will remain happier for a longer period if you are more stupid 

because you will not see the point. But sooner or later, howsoever stupid you are, it is bound to disappear. And 

then you will be left with a great emptiness, hollowness, and you would like again to strive for something else. 

Maybe you need more money now or a beautiful woman to suit the beautiful house. Again a new desire, and you 

rush. Again you will attain... and for a few moments, the relaxation. 

It is like the sexual experience. What pleasure you attain in sexuality is nothing but the pleasure of a mounting 

excitement, tension, and then the relaxation. Your energies go on mounting higher and higher and higher, and 

then you explode you ejaculate. And suddenly you fall back into a certain calmness; the excitement is gone. But 

you don’t learn anything from it: that this is the whole secret of all your pleasures. Running, rushing, competing, 

fighting for something creates great tension. 

That’s why it happens that if you are involved into something really deeply you may not feel any interest in 

sexuality. If you are involved deep in scientific endeavor you may not be interested in sex at all. You may be a little 

puzzled, confused: ”Why are people so much interested in sex? What is there?” You have found a new sexuality 

for yourself. Science is your wife; now you are running after science. Or you may be a politician; then politics is 

your wife. But one day, when you become the prime minister of the country or the president of the country, you 

have reached to the climax, and then after the climax there is nowhere to go... a certain calm falls over you. That 

calm is misunderstood as if you have attained it through the experience, by becoming the president, the prime 

minister, famous, respectable, a Nobel Prize winner. It is not that; it is because of relaxation. 

If you relax right now without attaining anything, that same calm will fall over you even deeper because you 

will be full of energy. But we never look into anything, and even if we look into anything we conclude very 

superficially. 

I have heard about a man who was passing through a forest, felt his bladder was full, stopped his car, went 

behind a bush. As he was pissing, a wild bee stung his prick. He screamed the pain was too much and he did 

not know what to do. 

Then suddenly he remembered, twenty years back when he was just a child it had happened once and his 

mother had a remedy for it. She had given him a glass of milk and told him to put his prick in the glass, and it 

had soothed him, calmed him. But where to find the glass of milk? And the pain was excruciating! And tears 

were coming down from his eyes as he started driving in the hope of finding somebody in the forest. 

He was able to find a small hut. He knocked on the door. He was feeling very embarrassed how to say it and 

what to say? A woman opened the door, but the pain was so much that he had to say something. So he said, 

”Please don’t ask me why, just give me a glass of milk. I am in terrible pain, I am dying! Just give me a glass of 

milk and please, don’t ask why because I cannot answer it. I am feeling so embarrassed!” 

The woman could see the pain of the man. She rushed in, brought a glass of milk. 

The man took the glass of milk, rushed towards the back of the house.


The woman was curious, naturally, as to what was happening. She had never seen such a thing before! So she 

went back just silently so she would not disturb the man. And what she saw... she could not believe her eyes! She 

said, ”My God, I have been married for thirty years, and now I know how you fill up these things! I was always 

wondering how you fill up these things again and again and again! Now I know!” 

Your conclusions are as superficial as that! That poor man is not filling it up! You pass through experiences, 

but you never go deep into them to find out the truth, what really happens. 

You must have made love many times, but have you ever thought about it? what really happens that gives 

you calmness, a certain pleasure, a certain joy? Nothing much... just a mounting tension is relaxed. First you go 

into mounting it higher and higher, and then you fall from that height in a deep, deep valley of calmness. But 

this calmness is available to any meditator without creating any tension. 

Hence, meditation takes you beyond sex; nothing else can ever take you beyond sex. Everything else is a 

substitute for sex. Somebody is running after money money is his sex; and somebody is running after power 

power is his sex; and somebody is running after something else. Those are all sexualities, substitutes for sex. 

These people can easily avoid sex because they have found their own new version. 

IF YOU ARE FILLED WITH DESIRE, YOUR SORROWS SWELL LIKE THE GRASS AFTER THE RAIN. 

BUT IF YOU SUBDUE DESIRE, YOUR SORROWS FALL FROM YOU LIKE DROPS OF WATER FROM 

A LOTUS FLOWER. 

The word ’subdue’ has to be rightly understood. It does not mean repression; it means understanding, it means 

transforming. It means transcendence. It means that you have become master of your own soul, that now nothing 

dominates you sex, power, money, nothing dominates you. It does not mean that you have to renounce the world; 

it simply means that you have to renounce your unawareness. 

Desire disappears as you become more and more aware. When awareness is one hundred percent, there is no 

desire at all. YOUR SORROWS FALL FROM YOU LIKE DROPS OF WATER FROM A LOTUS FLOWER. 

Ordinarily, people are not raising their consciousness. On the contrary, they live through conscience, not 

through consciousness. To live through conscience is to live according to the mob psychology, is to follow the 

crowd. Conscience is created by the crowd; consciousness is an individual phenomenon you have to create it. 

The society won’t help you at all; it will hinder you in every possible way. The society does not want conscious 

people at all. They are rebellious, they are dangerous for the status quo, for the establishment, for the church, for 

the state, for the nation. They are dangerous because they have gone through a revolution and their very vibe 

creates revolution in others. 

The society lives through conscience. It gives you the idea about what is right and what is wrong: ”Do this 

and don’t do that.” It goes on giving you commandments. It gives you detailed information about what is right 

and what is wrong. And in fact that is absolutely absurd, because life goes on changing every day. 

What was wrong in the times of Moses is no longer wrong today, and what was right in the days of Krishna is 

no longer right today. Nobody can give you a detailed map of what is right and what is wrong. In fact, something 

may be right in the morning and may be wrong in the evening. Next moment it may not be right! Life is a flux, 

and conscience is a static thing. Consciousness goes on moving with life; it is a flow. 

Murphy says: A conscience cannot prevent sin it only prevents you from enjoying it. 

Conscience prevents nothing; it simply prevents you from enjoying your life. You remain the same; you simply 

become more miserable! That’s why your saints have such long, long faces, look so serious, sad, dead. Nothing 

has changed in them: they don’t radiate life, they don’t radiate love, they don’t radiate peace. They only show 

you what conscience can do. It can kill you, it is a slow poisoning. 

Buddha does not believe in conscience; he believes in consciousness. But buddhas talk about consciousness and 

you always understand conscience. In fact, there are languages like French in which conscience and consciousness 

are not two words; ’conscience’ means both, consciousness and conscience. That’s actually the process, how you 

understand. 

A man lost in the woods finally arrived at his destination, The Old Log Inn. On his arrival, however, he was 

all beaten up, with swollen eyes, bloody nose and mouth. 

The alarmed receptionist demanded, ”My God, what happened to you?” 

The man replied, ”I was lost and found a couple making love in the woods, and all I asked was ’How far is The 

Old Log Inn?’” 

Please remember, consciousness does not mean conscience. Don’t translate it as conscience; it has been translated 

so for centuries. 

And then sorrows fall away from you LIKE DROPS OF WATER FROM A LOTUS FLOWER. So naturally 

they disappear, they don’t leave a trace behind.


THIS IS GOOD COUNSEL AND IT IS FOR EVERYONE: AS THE GRASS IS CLEARED FOR THE FRESH 

ROOT, CUT DOWN DESIRE LEST DEATH AFTER DEATH CRUSH YOU AS A RIVER CRUSHES THE 

HELPLESS REEDS. 

The unconscious man is a helpless victim of circumstances; he is accidental. He has no intrinsic value yet 

because he has not created any inner light yet. Only with consciousness you have intrinsic value; otherwise your 

life is just accidental. 

When a child was born in Bethlehem, three kings came bearing gifts for him in the stable where he lay. 

The first king came forward, putting down his gift of frankincense and myrrh before the cradle. The second 

king set down his gift of a large bar of gold. The third king advanced with his gift, but tripped over the bar of 

gold. 

”Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed. 

The father of the child looked up at him and said, ”That’s a good name! We were thinking of calling him Fred.” 

Your names, your lives, your everything is accidental. Consciousness will make you go beyond accidents. 

FOR IF THE ROOTS HOLD FIRM, A FELLED TREE GROWS UP AGAIN. IF DESIRES ARE NOT 

UPROOTED, SORROWS GROW AGAIN IN YOU. 

Remember: there is no other revolution except consciousness. It cuts the desires from the very roots and it 

brings freedom to you. 



Chapter 10 Intelligent people are dangerous 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, IT IS LIKE DRIVING A CAR IN FORWARD AND REVERSE AT THE SAME TIME. 

I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE. IS THE IGNITION SWITCHED ON OR AM I JUST A BAD DRIVER? 

Ray Horton, the very idea of going somewhere is basically wrong. Nothing is going anywhere. Existence is 

now-here; it is not moving towards a particular destiny. There is no destiny, there is no ultimate purpose. But 

we have been taught for centuries that existence is moving towards a certain goal and we have been also taught 

to live ambitiously, to prove that you are something, somebody: ”Reach somewhere.” But existence is absolutely 

purposeless. 

I am not saying that it is not significant. Precisely because it is purposeless it is significant, but its significance 

is not that of the marketplace. It is a totally different kind of significance: the significance of a roseflower, the 

significance of a bird on the wing, the significance of poetry, music. It is an end unto itself. 

We are not to become something we are already it. This is the whole message of all the awakened ones: that 

you are not to achieve something, it has already been given to you. It is God’s gift. You are already where you 

should be, you can’t be anywhere else. There is nowhere to go, nothing to achieve. Because there is nowhere to 

go and nothing to achieve, you can celebrate. Then there is no hurry, no worry, no anxiety, no anguish, no fear of 

being a failure. You can’t fail. In the very nature of things it is impossible to fail, because there is no question of 

success at all. 

It is just a conditioning by the society that creates the problem in you. And then you start thinking, ”I am 

not reaching anywhere, and life is slipping out of my hands and death is coming closer. Am I going to make it or 

not?” And then there is great fear of missing, frustration that so much is lost. And who knows? tomorrow may 

never arrive. ”I have not yet been able to prove myself, my worth. I have not become famous yet. I have not 

accumulated much wealth. I am not a president of a country or a prime minister.” 

Or you can start thinking in otherworldly terms, but the process is the same. You can say, ”I have not yet 

become enlightened. I have not yet become a Buddha or a Jesus. Meditation is far away. I don’t know who I 

am.” And you can go on creating a thousand and one problems for yourself. 

All these problems are created because the society wants you to be ambitious, and ambition can only be created 

if there is a goal in the future. For ambition, future is needed. And without ambition, the ego cannot be created. 

And the ego is the basic strategy of the society to rule over you, to exploit you, to oppress you, to keep you 

miserable. The ego exists in the tension between the present and the future: the bigger the tension, the bigger 

the ego. When there is no tension between your present and future, the ego disappears because there is no point 

where it can have shelter, where it can exist. 

Hence society teaches you, ”Become this, become that.” It teaches you becoming. Its whole education system 

is based on the idea of becoming.


And what I am telling you here is just the opposite of it. I am talking about being, not about becoming. 

Becoming is an invention of the crafty politicians and the priests and these are the people who have poisoned the 

whole humanity. They go on giving you goals. If you become tired of the worldly things money, power, prestige 

they are there to tell you about paradise, God, samadhi, truth. Again the whole process starts. 

And it is easy to be frustrated with the worldly things. Sooner or later you can see the whole stupidity of 

having more money or more power. Sooner or later you are going to see the futility of the very idea of ”more,” 

because the more brings nothing else but more misery. It takes away all bliss from you, all peace from you. It is 

destructive. It gives you only fear, trembling, anxiety, neurosis. It makes you insane; that can be seen very easily. 

It has made the whole earth a madhouse. 

But to see that the otherworldly goals nirvana and moksha and God and paradise are also the same is very 

difficult. You will need tremendous intelligence to see that those goals are also of the same quality. There is no 

qualitative change because you are still thinking in terms of becoming, you are still thinking in terms of the future. 

Future does not exist, it is nonexistential. It is as nonexistential as the past. The past is no more, the future 

is not yet; only the present is. And in the present there is no possibility for desiring, no possibility of being 

ambitious, not space enough for the ego to exist. Whenever you are now and here there is no ego to be found. 

You are a pure silence. Right now... see what I am saying. I am not propounding a theory or a philosophy; I am 

simply stating a fact. 

Ray Horton, just for a second see... this very moment! Where is the ego? And what heights and what depths 

of peace suddenly become available to you. They are always within you, but you never look at them you are 

running and running. And because you are not arriving anywhere you are very much worried. 

You say, ”It is like driving a car in forward and reverse at the same time. I am not going anywhere.” 

There is no need. This very moment, wherever you are, it is a blessing, it is divine. Where else do you want to 

go? Why live in the past? It is the past that gives you goals. It is the past that you are carrying in your head 

which projects goals in the future. Future is only a reflection of the past. 

From your very childhood you have been told, you have been hypnotized, by the society, by the priests, by the 

politicians, by your parents, by the pedagogues. You have been hypnotized continuously that you should have a 

goal in your life, that you should have some purpose, that you should be a great achiever, that you have to be 

famous a Nobel Prize winner or something that you are not to die just an ordinary man. To die just an ordinary 

man is ugly; you have to die like a president or a prime minister as if their death has something special! 

Because of this constant hammering on your head you have become so much accustomed to the idea that it is 

driving you crazy. Otherwise, life is so beautiful as it is; no purpose, no goal is needed. Future can be completely 

dropped. You live in the future just to escape from the present, and you become so psychologically obsessed with 

the future that you go on missing that which is for that which is not. 

Among the first things that a Jewish boy learns is the biblical injunction: ”Honor thy father and mother or 

else!” 

Herschel, aged six, was reminded of the admonition the day his father came home and announced that he had 

decided to buy a car, the first his family had ever owned. 

The father was in high spirits. ”Imagine, we are in this country only a few years and soon we will own a new 

car,” he said proudly. ”I can just see us riding around in Central Park. In the front I am steering, and sitting 

next to me is Mamma, and in the back is our little Herschel.” 

Mamma nodded, smiling her approval. ”So, when are you planning to buy the car?” she asked. 

”In two weeks, a month maybe no later.” 

The pleasant interlude was suddenly shattered by Herschel’s mournful cry, ”I don’t wanna sit in the back! I 

wanna sit in the front and help steer!” 

”Only one steerer we need in this family,” the father reminded his son. ”In the front sits Mamma, in the back 

sits you.” 

”If I have to sit in the back I will bang my head on the wall, you will see!” wailed Herschel. He ran to the wall 

and assumed a threatening pose, ready to give action to his words. ”Mamma is sitting in the back, I am sitting 

in the front!” 

”No, Herschel, you are in the back,” said the father sternly. 

”In the front, not in the back!” Herschel’s voice rose in a sudden screech. ”I ain’t gonna sit in the back!” 

Father, his manner grim, extended his arm and pointed a commanding finger. ”Herschel,” he said coldly, ”get 

out of my car!” 

People go on living in the future!


And the same is the case with your paradise, just like the car. The same is the case with your nirvana, your 

enlightenment the same as with the car. 

It is only the mediocre mind that becomes psychologically obsessed with the future. But the society destroys 

everybody’s intelligence and makes everybody mediocre. The society does not want you to be really intelligent; it 

is afraid of intelligence. Intelligent people are dangerous people. They are radicals, they are revolutionaries; they 

are always sabotaging the status quo. The society wants you to remain mediocre, stupid. It wants you certainly 

to be efficient, mechanically. It wants you to accumulate as much information as possible, but it does not want 

you to be really intelligent because if you are intelligent you will not care for the future. You will live in the 

present and for the present, because there is no other life. 

Listen to the birds chirping, chattering... the trees flowering... the stars, the sun, the moon. The whole existence 

lives in the present except you, except human mind. And it is only human mind that suffers. 

Come out of the future! It is your dream. You are not supposed to go anywhere. Be happy wherever you 

are. Be contented with your being and drop the idea of becoming. Then each moment is so precious, then each 

moment has such beauty, such grandeur, such splendor. Then each moment is exquisite. Then you can feel God 

everywhere each moment. 

God is not a goal; God is the presence right now. If you are present, God is available. If you live in the moment, 

you are enlightened; there is no other enlightenment. And then ordinary life is so extraordinary. Then to be just 

a nobody is so fulfilling. 

I call this whole approach sannyas: dropping the goals, the purposes, the future becoming part of existence 

this very moment, not postponing it. Then in this very moment, a great explosion is possible in you: the ego 

disappears, you are no more, but God is. And that is bliss and that is truth. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE SO MANY JEWS HERE? 

Alexandra, Jews are intelligent people, the most intelligent in the world. That’s why they are hated so much. 

They have committed only one mistake in their whole history: they crucified Jesus and missed the greatest business 

that was available to them! It is such a rare phenomenon, that it went into the hands of the Italians the whole 

business! It is inconceivable Jews losing it to the Italians! If the Italians are selling spaghetti, that is okay, but 

they are selling Jesus! Otherwise, the Jews have never committed any mistake. 

But that one mistake has cost them very much: they became uprooted. But sometimes blessings come in the 

form of curses. When they became uprooted, when they lost their land, they became naturally more intelligent 

than anybody else because they had to exist in adverse conditions. No other race has existed in such adverse 

conditions as the Jews. And when you live in adverse conditions the challenge is such, you can survive only if you 

bring your intelligence to its highest peak. If you behave stupidly you will be destroyed. They were living always 

amongst strangers antagonistic to them; they became more and more intelligent. 

More Nobel Prizes go to Jews than to anybody else. And wherever they are they succeed, whatsoever they are 

doing they bring a certain magic to it. So whenever they feel a certain vibe, a certain phenomenon happening 

anywhere, they are the first to reach, they are the first to reap the crop. 

Yes, the question arises to many people. Almost fifty percent of my sannyasins are Jews so many Jews that 

sometimes I become suspicious whether perhaps I am a Jew! 

Alexandra, you are right, your curiosity is right. But they can understand what I am saying. In fact, they have 

to drop a certain guilt that they have carried for two thousand years. If they can feel in tune with me, their guilt 

for killing Jesus will disappear. Deep down the guilt is there; they need somebody who can take away that guilt. 

It is like a thorn in their very soul it hurts. They may not say it, but it hurts. They destroyed their greatest 

flowering. 

Jesus was their highest potential actualized; he was the highest peak of Jewish intelligence and they destroyed 

it. They are carrying the wound; they are wounded people. They want somebody who can heal the wound. 

But the problem is: if you go to the priests they wound you more. Go anywhere, you will be wounded more, 

because your so-called religions all exist on your guilt. The greater the guilt, the more is their power over you. 

They make you feel guilty, they make you feel sinners. 

I am a totally different kind of man: I help you to get rid of your guilt. I want to tell you that you are not 

sinners, and to commit mistakes is just human to err is human. There is no need to make much fuss about it. 

And your errors are small; just a little awareness and they will disappear. You do not need to be thrown into hell.


And just see the stupidity of the idea.... Christians say that once you are in hell you are there for eternity. 

Nobody comes out of hell. It has no exit, only the entrance. And then for eternity! the very idea is absurd. Even 

the greatest criminal need not be punished for eternity. 

Bertrand Russell has said, ”When I look at my sins, if I confess all my sins that I have committed, they are 

not many, they are not very big. I have not murdered people. Then the cruelest magistrate can send me to jail 

at the most for four years. And if my thoughts are also to be included, not only my actions, then eight years jail, 

that’s all.” He has written a beautiful book, Why I Am Not A Christian. And among the many that he has given, 

this is one of the reasons: ”I cannot agree with the idea of eternal hell. Nobody has committed such a sin that he 

should be thrown for eternity into hell forever, no escape. And nobody has done so much good that he should 

be enjoying paradise for ever and ever.” 

But religions have existed, and they are powerful, for the simple reason that they create fear in you fear of 

hell and they create greed in you greed for heaven. They wound you deeply. The more you bleed, the more your 

wound bleeds, the more powerful they are over you. 

My effort here is to redeem you from all your wounds, to redeem you from the fear of hell and the greed for 

heaven. There is no hell and no heaven. Those are not places somewhere, those are just your own states of mind. 

Whenever you are in anger, in rage, you are in hell; and whenever you are in love, in compassion, you are in 

heaven. So you can move from heaven to hell many times in a day. 

It is not a question to be decided after death; it is to be decided each moment. And it is absolutely within your 

capacity to decide. 

One Sufi mystic was dying. His disciples had gathered and they said, ”One thing we want to know. You 

are departing forever and then we will never know what was the secret. We have never seen you sad, unhappy, 

miserable. It seems so superhuman. We have watched you for thirty years, forty years; there are a few people who 

have lived with you for fifty years, sixty years” the man was almost a hundred years old ”and nobody remembers 

that you were ever sad, not even a small sadness. What is your secret?” 

He said, ”There is no secret at all. Every morning when I get up, before I open my eyes I say to myself, ’Listen, 

old man, a new day is there. What do you want? to be sad or to be happy?’ And I always say, ’To be happy.’ So 

then I remain happy! I decide in the morning and I remain happy. I have to follow my decision. This I do every 

day. It is a decision.” 

You choose misery; it is not a punishment, it is your choice. And you choose joy; it is not a reward, it is your 

choice. 

Jews have suffered very much; they are wounded. Of course, two thousand years of suffering have made them 

very mature, intelligent, alert. Hence they can recognize me better than anybody else. That’s why, Alexandra, 

they are here. 

In July 1974, President Nixon was in the Soviet Union, hoping to achieve a nonaggression pact between that 

country and the United States, but he was having a hard time of it. 

”Before we sign,” declared Prime Minister Brezhnev, ”you Americans will have to announce to the world that 

Adam and Eve were communists.” 

Nixon, uncertain as to how he should cope with this dilemma, decided to consult an authority on Genesis in 

this case, Henry J. Kissinger who assured him that he had read several pages of the Bible in his younger days. 

Kissinger retired to his study, pored over the Old Testament and the text. Next day he told Nixon to go 

ahead and sign the pact with the Soviet Union. ”The Russians are right,” he said, ”Adam and Eve were indeed 

communists. After all, they did not have a stitch on their backs, they had nothing to eat but apples, and they 

still thought they were in paradise!” 

Three boys, a Catholic, a Presbyterian and a Jew, were discussing how they each spent Christmas Day. The 

Catholic boy had gone to mass, come back, kissed all his family and given them presents, and later on had 

Christmas dinner. The Presbyterian boy had not gone to church, but had kissed all the family, given out his 

presents, and then had Christmas dinner. 

The Jewish boy said, ”Well, dad and I went down to our toy factory, looked at all the empty shelves, sang 

two verses of ’What a friend we have in Jesus!’ and then caught a plane for Osho Commune International, Pune, 

India.” 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, IF YOU WERE HERE RIGHT NOW, I THINK I WOULD HIT YOU. IF YOU DON’T 

RECOGNIZE ME SOON AND START SAYING YES TO ME INSTEAD OF NO, I AM GOING TO HAVE TO 

KILL YOU.


Somendra... thank you, Somendra! I also will need a Judas; otherwise the story will remain incomplete. I can 

be a Jesus only with a Judas. Yes, somebody has to do the work of Judas it is hard work. 

There are secret mystery schools which carry the tradition that Judas was one of the most obedient disciples 

of Jesus. He betrayed Jesus because Jesus wanted to be betrayed. 

That’s exactly what George Gurdjieff used to say: that Judas was not a renegade, he was simply following 

Jesus. And his obedience was so total that when Jesus said, ”Go and betray me, and sell me for thirty silver 

coins,” he went and did it. Of course, he felt very sorry for doing it, miserable, in deep anguish, but he had to 

follow the master. So he betrayed Jesus, Jesus was crucified, and next day Judas committed suicide. Judas died 

the next day. He must have felt very bad, although he had to follow the master. He was the most intelligent of 

all the disciples of Jesus. 

So, Somendra, somebody has to do the hard work of Judas. Some day, I may choose you don’t be worried and 

don’t be in a hurry! One day I may order you, ”Now, Somendra, you can kill me.” But before that, let me kill 

you! 

And that’s why I go on saying no to you. That is my device to kill you. You would like to be recognized, but 

it will be too early if I recognize you. It will be nothing but a recognition of your ego. I will recognize you only 

when I see the ego has disappeared; while the ego is there I will go on destroying it. My no’s are nothing but hits 

on the ego. 

Yes will also be said when you have become capable of accepting my no’s joyfully. When you have become 

worthy of receiving the yes, it will come on its own accord; you need not remind me. Your reminding me will only 

delay it. Your reminding me will make me say more no’s to you. You cannot force yes from me, you cannot force 

me to say yes to you. If you can force yes from me, my whole function of being a master is destroyed. You cannot 

force anything from me. 

Pass through these no’s: this is the dark night of the soul. And when the night is the darkest, the dawn is very 

close. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, ARE SCRIPTURES NOT REALLY OF ANY USE WHATSOEVER? 

Thomas, scriptures are beautiful, but beautiful only for those who can understand them not for you. You 

cannot understand them, you can only misunderstand them. I am not against the scriptures how can I be? I 

am speaking on one of the scriptures, The Dhammapada, Buddha’s sayings. I have spoken on Jesus’ sayings, I 

have spoken on Mahavira, on Krishna. I have spoken on the Upanishads, I have spoken on Tao Teh Ching. I have 

spoken on almost all the beautiful scriptures of the world. How can I be against them and how can I think they 

are useless? although I insist that you don’t depend on them. For you they are of no use. 

Then what is their use? Their use is a totally different thing. When you become more meditative, the deeper 

you go into meditation, the more will be your capacity and clarity to understand the scriptures. Scriptures will 

become witnesses to you that you are on the right track. And when you reach to your innermost core, when 

you realize your being, then you will know what Jesus means by the kingdom of God, then you will know what 

Buddha means by nirvana, then you will know what the Upanishads mean by truth not before that. 

Right now, if you read the Bible or the Koran or the Gita, you will interpret them according to your unconscious 

state, according to your non-meditative state. You will misinterpret, you will misunderstand. You are not in the 

right shape; you are upside down, you are topsy-turvy. You are a confusion, a chaos. You are a crowd, you are 

not yet an individual. You don’t have a center at all. So how are you going to understand Jesus or Buddha or 

Krishna? 

Remember one very fundamental thing: you can understand Jesus only if you have tasted something of Christconsciousness 

in you; otherwise there is no way. You can have some glimpses of Buddha only when you have 

attained something of buddhahood, some texture, some taste, some fragrance. When you have entered into the 

country of Buddha and the buddhas, then you will be able to see the meaning. 

Otherwise, words are there, but who will put meaning into those words? You will put meaning into those words. 

You will be reading Krishna but you will not be really reading Krishna you will be reading yourself through 

Krishna. The words will be Krishna’s, the meanings will be yours and it is the meaning that is significant, not 

the word. 

Chauncey de Plotkin was suffering from the heartbreak of psoriasis. After vainly trying the usual patent 

medicines sold over the counter he finally consulted a doctor and was given a prescription and told how and when 

to take it.


That evening at home Chauncey’s wife was astonished to see her husband swallow a spoonful of the medicine, 

race out of the house and dash around the block. When he returned he was so exhausted that he flopped down 

onto the bed and fought to catch his breath. 

On the second evening he repeated the performance: he gulped down the medicine, galloping around the block 

and returning home a few minutes later. 

On the third evening he changed his tactics. This time he took his medicine as usual, but instead of racing he 

began to skip around the room with all the grace of a prancing pachyderm. 

The wife could stand it no longer. ”Chauncey,” she cried, ”what in the world are you doing racing around the 

block and jumping about like that? Have you lost your mind?” 

”Of course not,” replied the weary hubby. ”I am just following the doctor’s orders. He told me to take my 

medicine two nights running and to skip the third night.” 

The words may be of Christ, Buddha, Zarathustra, but who is going to give the meaning to them? Chauncey 

de Plotkin he will put meanings into those words! He will impose his meaning, he will project his meaning. 

I am not against scriptures. How can I be? I am for all the scriptures, but I cannot say to you that through 

the scriptures you can find the truth. That is not possible. 

A Christian missionary and a rabbi were traveling together in a train. The Christian missionary said to the 

rabbi, ”Jesus saves.” 

The rabbi looked at the missionary and then said, ”But Moses invests.” 

Words are bound to be colored by you, they are bound to be part of you. They may descend from very high 

sources.... It is just like rainwater. When it comes from the clouds it is pure, the purest, but when it falls on the 

ground it depends on the ground. If it falls in cow dung, then it may be holy for the Hindu but for nobody else! 

Pure water descending from heaven will have the color of the earth on which it falls, will have the taste of the 

earth on which it falls. 

Exactly the same is the case with the words falling from Buddha, Jesus, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu. It depends 

on your earth on your mind. And what is the state of your mind? Can you think anything original? Can you 

understand anything original? Your mind only repeats that which it has heard or read, that which it has been 

taught. It is a machine; it can never produce a single original thought. The original thought never comes from 

the mind; it comes from the beyond. 

Buddha uses the mind to communicate with you. He has to use words, obviously, and by using words he is 

taking a dangerous step. For seven days he was hesitating.... When he became enlightened, for seven days he 

didn’t utter a single word. 

The story is that the gods came from heaven, touched his feet, and asked him to deliver the truth that he had 

attained because the masses were so thirsty for it. Millions of people would be benefited. 

He listened in deep silence. He simply said one thing: ”As far as I am concerned, for seven days I have been 

pondering over it and this is my conclusion: that those who can understand me need not hear my words. Those 

who can understand me are already meditative, they are already on the way. They don’t need my words; they 

will reach anyway, with me or without. Maybe with me they will reach a little earlier, alone a little later, but 

what difference does it make in eternity whether you come one year earlier or one year later? 

”Those who can’t understand me are bound to misunderstand. My words will become a problem for them. 

They are already confused and I don’t want to confuse them any more. My words will create more confusion in 

them.” 

The gods were at a loss what to say, how to persuade Buddha. They went away. They discussed it among 

themselves to find out some way, and then they came back with a new argument. They said, ”You are right, there 

are people, a very few people, who will understand you immediately. And yes, we agree with you totally, they 

don’t need it; they will reach anyway. They are just on the borderline: one step more and they will be buddhas. 

Even without you they will become buddhas, that is certain. If you could become a buddha without any other 

buddha helping you, they can also become we can understand it. 

”And your other point is also right: there are millions of people who will not understand you. But we don’t 

agree with you that your words will create more confusion. Those people are so confused, there cannot be more 

confusion. They have already reached to the rock bottom of confusion; you cannot confuse them any more. So 

don’t be worried about them. 

”And we have thought about a third category also. There are a few people who are just in between these two 

categories: who are not so evolved that they will immediately understand you and become enlightened and who 

are not so unevolved either that they will simply become more and more confused by hearing you. They are just


in the middle a small minority, but those people are there. With your help they will reach to the other shore; 

without your help they may wander and wander for centuries and centuries. 

”And you are right in saying that what difference does it make in eternity? It does not make any difference to 

you because you know eternity, but for those poor people who live in time it makes much difference. For many, 

many lives they will be suffering. For you it makes no difference you have entered eternity but they are living in 

time, and time means birth, death and the wheel of birth and death. And they will have to go on the wheel, in the 

vicious circle, millions of times. Compared to eternity it is nothing, but compared to a small life a seventy-year 

life, a sixty-year life it is too much. You have to think about that third category too.” 

Buddha listened to them and immediately agreed to speak. He followed the argument: yes, there is a third 

category. The first category is of those people who cannot understand at all. Words they can understand; 

intellectually they are capable of understanding whatsoever is said to them. But deep down the meaning is 

missed, the significance is missed. They hear the music, but they don’t get the melody of it. They hear the noise, 

but they don’t feel the harmony; that is a subtle phenomenon. They hear the words. 

All the three categories are here. The majority is hearing my words, but they will not feel my silence, they will 

not feel my presence in them. It is the same to them. They can read a book, they can listen to a tape or they 

can hear me directly; it is all the same to them, no difference, because the words are the same. 

But to the second category there is a difference. To read my words in a book is one thing, because I will not 

be there in those words, my presence will not be there. I will not be breathing in those words; they will be dead. 

When you listen to the tape it is a little better than the book, but still my presence is not there. Tapes are 

mechanical repetitions; there is nobody behind them. 

Here when you are listening to me, my words are there and my silence is there. My silence can go with the 

words if you are available. The second category of people will be able to feel my presence, my silence, my song. 

And the first category of people will immediately realize that this is it! A sudden enlightenment... not even a 

moment’s gap. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, THE OTHER DAY I READ THAT TARU MET YOU ONCE IN THE STREETS OF 

BOMBAY WHILE YOU WERE CARRYING A BAG OF GIN AND WHISKY IN BOTH HANDS. ARE YOU 

REALLY A DRUNKARD? 

Prem Aditya, if Taru says so, it must be so. I am such a drunkard that I can’t remember! Yes, vaguely I 

remember Taru meeting me on the streets of Bombay. I can remember her hug it is difficult to forget! But my 

memory is not very good... so maybe I was carrying bottles of whisky in both of my hands. 

That has been very usual for Zen masters in Japan. That is the last stage of enlightenment! To be enlightened 

means to be utterly drunk drunk with the divine. 

Maybe those bottles of whisky were empty. They must have been, because a drunkard like me cannot keep 

those bottles full very long. The moment I get them I drink them. I don’t postpone anything! But my memory 

is not very good.... 

”Doctor, I have a very serious problem,” Max began. ”I am losing my memory maybe I have already lost it 

completely. I can’t seem to remember anything.” 

The psychiatrist smiled indulgently. ”I am sure it is not quite that drastic. You must remember something.” 

”No, nothing at all. I tell you, I can’t remember a single thing.” 

”You mean, of course, such things as names and faces and dates? We all tend to forget them now and then.” 

”Doctor, you don’t understand. I mean everything!” 

”Ah, that is pure nonsense!” snapped the doctor. ”No one just forgets everything he has ever known. Even a 

person suffering from amnesia remembers something such as whether he drinks coffee or tea or whether he smokes 

cigarettes or not.” 

”Listen, Doc,” Maxwell said despairingly, ”I am telling you for the last time I can’t remember anything at all. 

Everything I see, everything I hear, everything I read, it just makes a temporary impression and then goes out of 

my head forever. That’s it, Doctor, I swear to you. I simply can’t remember one single goddamn thing!” 

The psychiatrist frowned, leaned back in his chair and pondered this unique malady for several moments. Then 

he asked, ”How long has this been going on?” 

”How long has what been going on?” 

That’s my situation too! I don’t remember much. I am not much interested in the past, I am not interested in 

the future either. My whole interest is in the present moment.


And you can see right now I am a drunkard! Why bother what Taru says, and somewhere it is written and 

you read it? Why bother? You can look into my eyes... and they are full of whisky! 

And if you don’t believe me, come to me in private, and I will cry a little and you can taste my tears. And you 

will know how they taste they will taste of whisky! If Jesus can turn the whole ocean into wine, can’t I turn my 

own tears? 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, NO ERECTION HAPPENS. AM I STILL SEXY? FISHES COME, BUT GO THIRSTY. 

Sant... Sant, contemplate on Murphy’s maxim: If you play with something long enough, you will surely break 

it. 

The big tomcat was eyeing the cute angora from behind a barbed wire fence. Finally, he decided to jump over 

it to get to her. With a big leap he landed on the other side. 

”Say, aren’t you Toby, the tomcat?” asked the angora. 

”Not anymore,” he replied. ”That fence was higher than I thought.” 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT ARE THE ABC’S OF PSYCHOLOGY? 

The A of psychology: neurotics build air castles. The B of psychology: psychotics live in them. The C of 

psychology: psychiatrists collect the rent. 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SPEAK INSTEAD OF WRITING YOUR PHILOSO- 

PHY? 

Gautam, my spelling is far worse than my pronunciation! 



Chapter 1 Beyond happiness is bliss 

THIRTY-SIX STREAMS ARE RUSHING TOWARD YOU! DESIRE AND PLEASURE AND LUST.... PLAY 

IN YOUR IMAGINATION WITH THEM AND THEY WILL SWEEP YOU AWAY. 

POWERFUL STREAMS! THEY FLOW EVERYWHERE. 

STRONG WINE! IF YOU SEE IT SPRING UP, TAKE CARE! PULL IT OUT BY THE ROOTS. 

PLEASURES FLOW EVERYWHERE. YOU FLOAT UPON THEM AND ARE CARRIED FROM LIFE TO 

LIFE. 

LIKE A HUNTED HARE YOU RUN, THE PURSUER OF DESIRE PURSUED, HARRIED FROM LIFE 

TO LIFE. 

O SEEKER! GIVE UP DESIRE. SHAKE OFF YOUR CHAINS. 

YOU HAVE COME OUT OF THE HOLLOW INTO THE CLEARING. THE CLEARING IS EMPTY. WHY 

DO YOU RUSH BACK INTO THE HOLLOW? 

DESIRE IS A HOLLOW AND PEOPLE SAY, ”LOOK! HE WAS FREE. BUT NOW HE GIVES UP HIS 

FREEDOM.” 

Gautama the Buddha’s whole religion can be reduced to a single word. That word is freedom. That is his 

essential message, his very fragrance. Nobody else has raised freedom so high. It is the ultimate value in Buddha’s 

vision, the summum bonum; there is nothing higher than that. 

And it seems very fundamental to understand why Buddha emphasizes freedom so much. Neither God is 

emphasized nor heaven is emphasized nor love is emphasized, but only freedom. There is a reason for it: all that 

is valuable becomes possible only in the climate of freedom. Love also grows only in the soil of freedom; without 

freedom, love cannot grow. Without freedom, what grows in the name of love is nothing but lust. Without 

freedom there is no God. Without freedom what you think to be God is only your imagination, your fear, your 

greed. There is no heaven without freedom: freedom is heaven. And if you think there is some heaven without 

freedom, then that heaven has no worth, no reality. It is your fancy, it is your dream. 

All great values of life grow in the climate of freedom; hence freedom is the most fundamental value and also 

the highest pinnacle. If you want to understand Buddha you will have to taste something of the freedom he is 

talking about. 

His freedom is not of the outside. It is not social, it is not political, it is not economic. His freedom is spiritual. 

By ”freedom” he means a state of consciousness unhindered by any desire, unchained to any desire, unimprisoned


by any greed, by any lust for more. By ”freedom” he means a consciousness without mind, a state of no-mind. It 

is utterly empty, because if there is something, that will hinder freedom; hence its utter emptiness. 

This word ’emptiness’ shunyata has been very much misunderstood by people, because the word has a 

connotation of negativity. Whenever we hear the word ’empty’ we think of something negative. In Buddha’s 

language, emptiness is not negative; emptiness is absolutely positive, more positive than your so-called fullness, 

because emptiness is full of freedom; everything else has been removed. It is spacious; all boundaries have been 

dropped. It is unbounded and only in an unbounded space, freedom is possible. His emptiness is not ordinary 

emptiness; it is not only absence of something, it is a presence of something invisible. 

For example, when you empty your room: as you remove the furniture and the paintings and the things inside, 

the room becomes empty on the one hand because there is no more any furniture, no more paintings, no more 

things, nothing is left inside; but on the other hand, something invisible starts filling it. That invisibleness is 

”roominess,” spaciousness; the room becomes bigger. As you remove the things, the room is becoming bigger and 

bigger. When everything is removed, even the walls, then the room is as big as the whole sky. 

That’s the whole process of meditation: removing everything; removing yourself so totally that nothing is left 

behind not even you. In that utter silence is freedom. In this utter stillness grows the one-thousand-petaled lotus 

of freedom. And great fragrance is released: the fragrance of peace, compassion, love, bliss. Or if you want to 

choose the word ’God’ you can choose it. It is not Buddha’s word, but there is no harm in choosing it. 

Meditate over these beautiful sutras: 

THIRTY-SIX STREAMS ARE RUSHING TOWARD YOU! 

”Thirty-six” is only a Buddhist metaphor; it stands for ”many.” Many streams are rushing towards you. Each 

moment you are surrounded by a thousand and one desires, and they are all pulling you in different directions. 

You are a victim and you are falling apart. 

A young man entered an hotel. He saw a very beautiful woman sitting alone in the corner drinking coffee. She 

was so beautiful and so attractive, the young man could not resist the temptation. He went close to her and asked 

her, ”Can I join you?” 

The woman looked at him for a few seconds and said, ”Do you think I am falling apart?” 

But that’s exactly the case: everybody is falling apart, even that woman. If I had been in the place of that 

young man I would have said, ”Yes. You need to be glued together.” 

Everybody is falling apart. You are not one; you have become many, many fragments, and all the fragments are 

going in different directions. That’s why there is so much misery in your being, because when your parts, which are 

essentially your intrinsic parts, are being pulled in different directions you feel the pain of it. That’s what misery 

is: the pain of falling into different directions simultaneously, rushing into different directions simultaneously. 

That is what creates craziness, insanity. 

Buddha says: THIRTY-SIX STREAMS ARE RUSHING TOWARD YOU! Beware! Not only one but many 

streams are rushing toward you. And if you don’t take care, if you are not alert, you will be possessed by them. 

If you remain unconscious, if you remain sleepy, you will be defeated by those streams. Those streams are not 

basically enemies to you. They are pure energy, and energy is always neutral. But when you are asleep those same 

streams are dangerous; when you are awake, those same streams become great creative energies for you. They 

are rushing towards buddhas too, but in the hand of a buddha, dust turns into gold. The touch of awareness is 

alchemical. In your hands, even if by chance you come across gold, it turns into dust. You are so asleep, you 

impart your sleepiness to whatsoever comes to you. 

Those thirty-six streams he is talking about are gifts of existence, gifts of great energy. It is coming from 

everywhere. Now, it depends on you whether you can transform those energies into a synthesis, whether you can 

transform those energies into an integrated whole, whether you can create an orchestra out of all those energies. 

Then you become a song, you create great music. Your life becomes a melody. 

But if you cannot transform those energies, then you will be a victim and you will be divided into so many 

parts. You will lose all integrity. You will become a crowd; you will not be an individual anymore. 

THIRTY-SIX STREAMS ARE RUSHING TOWARD YOU! 

DESIRE AND PLEASURE AND LUST.... 

And so on, so forth. What is desire? Desire means greed for more. It is unfulfillable. It is impossible to fulfill 

the greed for more because that ”more” has no limitation. ”More” simply means an unlimited phenomenon. You 

have ten thousand rupees, you want one hundred thousand rupees. One day you get one hundred thousand rupees 

now you want more. You want more and more and more. Whatsoever you get, the distance between you and 

your goal will remain the same; it is never reduced, not even by a single inch.


That’s why beggars are beggars, obviously, but emperors are also beggars. Both are still hankering for more. 

What is the difference? No difference as far as the quality of their consciousness is concerned. Of course, the 

beggar does not possess much and the emperor possesses much, but that is not the point. The distance between 

the beggar’s possessions and what he wants and the emperor’s possessions and what he wants is exactly the same. 

One is a poor beggar, the other is a rich beggar; that much difference you can make. But both are beggars all the 

same. 

To be in the grip of ”more” is to be really eccentric, off-center. If you can’t see it then you are not intelligent 

at all. It is such a simple phenomenon that just a little intelligence is needed to see it. In your whole life you 

have been trying and it is not that you have always failed; it only looks as if you have always failed. You have 

succeeded many times, but each time you succeed, your desire for more is projected again and you remain in the 

same position: miserable, unhappy, frustrated. If you don’t get what you want, you will be frustrated; if you get 

what you want, you will be frustrated. It seems frustration is the destiny, the absolute destiny, of the unconscious 

man. 

A psychiatrist was going around a mental hospital. He saw one man beating himself, pulling his hair, looking 

very suicidal. He was kept in a cell he was dangerous. He asked the superintendent, ”What happened to this 

man?” 

The superintendent said, ”He loved a woman, he loved her very much, but he could not get her. She married 

somebody else. Since then he has been in this state. He wants to commit suicide, he does not want to live. He 

says there is no meaning in life: ’My meaning was in that woman. If I could not get that woman, that means my 

life is finished!’” 

Feeling sorry for the man he was young and beautiful they moved ahead. They saw another cell and another 

man was inside it, and he was even more ferocious, very murderous. 

The psychiatrist asked, ”What has happened to this man?” 

The superintendent said, ”This is the man who married that same woman! Since he has married her he wants 

to kill her, and if he cannot kill her then he wants to kill anybody instead, but he wants to kill and destroy. He 

wants to kill the whole world! That woman drove him mad.” 

One is mad because he could not get her, the other is mad because he could get her. This is the whole history 

of every human being, more or less. It may not be so extreme, so you don’t see it, but the differences are only in 

degrees. The man in the grip of desire is bound to become insane. 

And Buddha says: PLEASURE.... Pleasure means that you think the body is the only source of happiness. 

That is sheer stupidity. The body’s pleasures are very momentary; they are not real pleasures. But everybody 

is caught in the net of the body. We are born as bodies, but we need not die as bodies. If we die as bodies, our 

whole life was a sheer wastage. You have to grow up. 

And remember: growing old is not growing up. Everybody grows old, but very few people, very rare people 

grow up. One who really grows up becomes a buddha. Growing up means you start becoming alert about bodily 

pleasures that they are momentary and they can change into their opposite very easily. 

For example, you love eating and you can go on eating too much. Then it becomes a pain. It was pleasure in 

the beginning, but there is a limit to that pleasure. It is said of Nero that he used to have four physicians always 

with him. Even when he was going into war those four physicians used to accompany him. When Nero would 

eat, their whole work was to help him to vomit so that he could eat again. He used to love eating so much that 

he would eat twenty times, twenty-five times per day. You will call him mad and he was mad. 

Now, what is the pleasure of eating? Maybe just a little pleasure of taste.... On your tongue there are little 

buds which experience taste. They can be operated on very easily and then you will not feel anything at all. Then 

the whole pleasure of eating disappears. That’s what happens when you are in fever: your buds become dull, 

insensitive, so you eat but you don’t feel any taste. People are living for eating; there are very few people who 

eat to live. Millions are living only to eat. 

Humanity can be divided into two types of mad people: one type is obsessed with food, another type is obsessed 

with sex. And there is a deep relation between the two. The person who is obsessed with sex will not bother 

much about food and the person who is repressive of sex will become obsessed with food. 

Whenever a country is repressive of sex it becomes very obsessed with food. That’s what has happened in this 

country: for centuries it has been repressive of sex. That’s why Indians have been very inventive about food new 

sweets, thousands of sweets. The world is completely unaware of all those sweets! And their food is so spicy.... 

When a foreigner comes he cannot eat it; he cannot see how people can eat it. It is burning hot! Why so much 

spicy food? It is repression of sex! If your sex is not repressed you will not eat such spicy food.


Just the other day I received two letters, one from a Western sannyasin, Mudita. She says, ”Beloved Master, 

listening to you I feel great joy, but then suddenly I become horny.” She must have been brought up with Victorian 

ideas, with Victorian education outmoded thoughts. 

And another letter has come from Rekha, an Indian sannyasin. She says, ”Listening to you, suddenly I had a 

great desire to eat spicy food.” Now, she is an Indian! An Indian woman cannot recognize even in herself that 

she is feeling horny that is impossible. The whole desire has to move towards spicy food. But both are the same, 

there is no difference. 

Food and sex have one thing in common. Food is needed for the individual’s survival; without food you will 

not survive. And sex is needed for the species’ survival; without sex the species will disappear. 

Another phenomenon: the person who is living a natural life will neither be obsessed with sex nor will be 

obsessed with food. He will not be obsessed at all. But religions don’t allow that: you have to be obsessed with 

something or other. If you are not obsessed you will not go to the temples and the mosques and to the churches 

and to the synagogues. That is the very secret of their trade. This whole business of religion goes on and on with 

no sign of ever stopping, for the simple reason that you go on being obsessed with something or other. 

The person who is obsessed with sex will be less selfish; the person who is obsessed with food will be more 

selfish, for the simple reason that food means your survival and sex means survival of the species. It is better to 

be sexual and to be after sexual pleasures than to live just to eat. 

This country has become very selfish for the simple reason that sex has been completely denied; brahmacharya 

celibacy has been propounded down the ages as one of the greatest values. And the ultimate result has been 

that everybody has become obsessed with food. Whenever people are obsessed with food they become selfish 

obviously, because they are no longer interested in the species. 

Immanuel Kant, one of the great thinkers of the world, says: This to me is the fundamental criterion of all 

morality: that any principle, if followed, destroys humanity. It is immoral. Now, what will Immanuel Kant say 

about brahmacharya? If brahmacharya is followed by the whole humanity it will destroy humanity. It will be a 

suicidal phenomenon. According to Immanuel Kant, brahmacharya is immoral more immoral than stealing, more 

immoral than dishonesty, more immoral than breaking your promise, more immoral than anything. 

And I agree with Immanuel Kant, rather than with the whole Indian tradition. The criterion is this: you should 

think what will be the result if the principle is followed by everybody. It will be suicidal it will be global suicide. 

There will be nobody left to be celibate anymore. 

And the same is true about the so-called old escapist sannyas renunciation; that too is immoral. If everybody 

follows the escapist idea and drops out and escapes to the Himalayas, the whole humanity will die. 

In fact, your so-called mahatmas and saints live because you are in the world and you go on supporting them. 

If you are not in the world if you are also in the Himalayas, following your saints and mahatmas they will be at 

a loss. Who will feed them? Who will support them? They will have to commit suicide with their followers and 

the Himalayas is a really beautiful site if you want to commit suicide, the best place in the world. If you could 

not live beautifully, at least you can die in a beautiful place. Your mahatmas are supported by the worldly people 

and still they go on condemning the world. It is an immoral act. Escapism is an immoral act. 

I agree with Immanuel Kant; his criterion has something really valuable about it. 

Pleasure means either the pleasure of the tongue, food which is very childish or the pleasure of sex, which is 

also very childish because you are not just the body, you are more than that. 

Rise from pleasures to happiness. Happiness is psychological, pleasure is physiological. Listening to great music 

or reading great poetry or watching a sunset or just enjoying a morning walk and the wind passing through the 

pines and the music that it creates, the sound of running water it thrills you. Although it comes through the 

body, it reaches deeper deeper than food or sex. It is more fulfilling. But that, too, is not the end because 

anything that is psychological is bound to be momentary. 

Beyond happiness is bliss which is of the spirit, which is a timeless phenomenon. You go beyond time, you go 

beyond mind and body both. Then you know who you are. Then you function from your center. For the first 

time you are not eccentric. You become centered, you are not off-center. For the first time you have roots in your 

being, and those roots connect you with God, with the whole. You become holy only when you are blissful. But 

pleasure prevents you; it prevents you at the lowest. 

I am not against pleasure, remember. I am not against anything. Everything has to be used as a stepping-stone 

for the ultimate peak. The body IS beautiful and enjoying your food is good. Just don’t be obsessed by it. But 

if your saints are continuously condemning it, you will be obsessed by it. 

Obsession is created by your so-called saints. Whatsoever they condemn becomes your obsession. In fact, the 

more they condemn, the more attractive it becomes, the more magnetic it becomes.


I am not against sex, but I would like you to go beyond it. Use it as a stepping-stone, use it as a ladder. It 

is beautiful in itself, but it is not the end, only the beginning. Don’t stop at the first chapter of your life; it has 

much more, much more hidden value that has to be discovered. 

... AND LUST. Lust is even far below pleasure. Pleasure at least respects the other. If you love a woman, you 

love her company, or a man... you respect the other. But in lust you don’t have any respect; you simply use the 

other. Lust is even more degraded than pleasure; it is falling below humanity. You are simply using the other as 

a means. 

When you make love to a woman without any respect towards her, what you really are doing is nothing more 

than masturbation. You are using the woman only to deceive yourself. There is no connection between you and 

her. When you go to a prostitute, that is not pleasure; that is lust. You are paying. Love cannot be purchased; 

only bodies can be purchased. 

And remember, when you purchase a body it is a dead body; the soul is not there. The woman is somehow 

tolerating you because she needs money. She hates you from her very guts; she would like to kill you. But she is 

pretending to be very loving, very affectionate, because she is being paid for it. With her closed eyes she thinks of 

other things; she simply tolerates you. You are using her as a means, and she is using you as a means. She wants 

the money, you want the body; it is a mutual exploitation. 

Lloyd went to visit his favorite lady of the evening. He rang the bell and found there was no answer. Then he 

put on his glasses and read a note that was pinned to the door: ”On vacation. Do it yourself.” 

It is not more than that. It is a mutual masturbatory practice ugly. It is not even pleasure. 

Buddha says: All these streams are rushing towards you DESIRE AND PLEASURE AND LUST.... 

PLAY IN YOUR IMAGINATION WITH THEM AND THEY WILL SWEEP YOU AWAY. 

And you are all full of imagination. Making love to your wife you are not making love to her; you may be 

thinking of Sophia Loren or Lollobrigida, and she may be thinking of somebody else. Both are pretending. Their 

imagination is somewhere else. If you could look into the minds of people who are making love you would be 

surprised.... It is very rare to find only two persons in a single bed; you will find a crowd. At least four are 

absolutely certain. It is always group sex, because their minds are fancying, fantasizing. 

Even grown-up people so-called grown-up people are living in imagination. Not only children live in imagination; 

even old people live in imagination. People go on playing with toys, they never wake up. Their imagination 

continues to keep them asleep. 

Once again we enter that handy vehicle, the time capsule, and journey back through the sexy sixties, the nifty 

fifties, the fighting forties, the dirty thirties, and on into the roaring twenties where we stop, hat askew and 

shirt-tails flying from that fast and breezy trip. We are at that point in time when the transplanting of monkey 

glands and other such operations for the restoration of male vigor were in vogue. 

Surgery for the restoration of youth had just been performed on a seventy-year-old man who had hoped that, as 

a result, his chromosomes would henceforth be bouncing off the ceiling. As he came out from under the influence 

of the ether he began to weep bitterly. 

Mrs. Bernstein, the attending nurse, bent over him. 

”Mister, it is not necessary for you to feel worried,” she said kindly. ”The operation was a big success. Take 

my word, when you leave here you will feel twenty years younger. Maybe more, who knows?” 

But the poor old man only continued to wail, the tears coursing down his cheeks and losing themselves in his 

long white whiskers. 

”Please don’t cry,” pleaded Mrs. Bernstein. ”The pain will soon go away.” 

”Who is crying from pain?” sobbed the patient. ”I am afraid I will be late for school.” 

Just look deep down inside yourself and you will find the child intact; it has not grown up. The ordinary mental 

age of every human being is not more than twelve. Physiologically you may be eighty; psychologically you are 

hanging around twelve. Hence, once in a while, you start behaving like a child in spite of yourself. If you are 

pushed and pulled too much you forget that you are a grown-up person. The child is sitting there, covered by 

many experiences, but those experiences have not been digested; covered by much knowledge, but that knowledge 

has not become your wisdom because it has not been achieved through awareness. You have been collecting and 

accumulating it in your sleep, so you have accumulated much rubbish alongside. Yes, once in a while you may 

have picked up a diamond too, not knowing that it is a diamond just another colored stone. 

PLAY IN YOUR IMAGINATION WITH THEM AND THEY WILL SWEEP YOU AWAY. If you allow desire 

and pleasure and lust and greed and anger and jealousy and possessiveness and violence and all these rushing 

streams towards you, they will sweep you away. Don’t play with them in your imagination; that is strengthening 

them, that is getting under their sway.


And the miracle is that everybody can understand everybody else’s imagination, except his own. When somebody 

falls in love with somebody else you say, ”How foolish!” Everybody thinks they have gone crazy. ”Look at 

the face of that woman. She looks like a Picasso painting! And why is this man crazy about her? What does he 

see in her?” And when you fall in love, then it is totally different. She is a Cleopatra! Nobody else will agree with 

you; it is your imagination. And the same goes on and on in different layers, in different dimensions. 

The nonsense that is written in your religious scriptures is absolutely right; it is scientific. The nonsense that is 

written in others’ scriptures is so clearly nonsense; there can be no question about it, no doubt about it. Hindus 

can see all kinds of stupidities in the Bible, and Christians see all kinds of stupidities in Hindu scriptures. But this 

seems to be really a miracle: that no Hindu will see in his own scriptures anything wrong; everything is scientific. 

And not only does he think it is scientific, he tries to prove it. 

Once a Hindu monk was brought to me. He came with many followers. One of his followers said, ”He is a very 

great scholar; he has written many books. And his whole effort in his life has been to prove that Hinduism is the 

only scientific religion of the world.” 

I said, ”Can he give any example?” 

He said, ”You can ask anything and he will say why it is scientific.” 

I asked him, ”Why do Hindus cut all their hair but keep a small bunch the choti on the top of their heads?” 

He said, ”Simple! Have you ever looked at big buildings? They keep there an iron rod.” 

I could not see the point immediately. 

He said, ”It is to protect the building from electricity. Hindus discovered it long ago: if you keep a choti a 

little bunch of hair standing up on your head, it saves you, protects you from electricity.” 

Now, what nonsense he is talking! But he is known as a great mahatma because he is helping your egos; he is 

proving that your religion is scientific. He had come to see me with all his disciples. They were all wearing wooden 

shoes, wooden chappals kharaoon and making great noise. The way Hindus have been using those wooden shoes 

for centuries.... It is really difficult because you have to hold them on with your toes, between your toes. It is 

heavy. 

I asked him, ”Why this? What science is there?” 

He said, ”It keeps one celibate. The pressure of it is such that it keeps one’s sexual glands nonfunctioning.” 

Great, just great! 

So I said, ”Then India need not bother about population. Just give wooden shoes to everybody and let them 

all grow chotis so electricity does not affect them, sexuality does not affect them. They will all be saints. Such 

simple formulas!” 

But Hindus think he is doing a great service to Hinduism. That’s how it is with all the religions. Your 

imagination is truth; others’ truth is only imagination. 

A rabbi and a priest were discussing the differences between the Old Testament and the New. It was the priest’s 

contention that the New Testament gave more proof of divine cooperation because of all its purported miracles. 

”Remember,” argued the priest, ”our Lord walked on water, he raised the dead, he fed hundreds of people with 

a few loaves of bread and some little fishes, he changed water into wine, and he ascended bodily into heaven.” 

”So what does that prove?” insisted the rabbi. ”The Old Testament includes such miracles as parting the Red 

Sea, making the sun stand still, Moses ascending bodily to Mount Sinai to talk personally with God and to receive 

the Decalogue from the very hands of the Almighty.” 

The priest nodded. ”I believe in those miracles too,” he acknowledged. ”But be honest about it do you really 

think your miracles have as much substance as ours?” 

The rabbi glared at him. ”What is the matter with you?” he snapped crossly. ”Can’t you distinguish between 

fact and fiction?” 

Our fiction is a fact and your fiction is fiction your fact too is fiction. 

Beware of imagination. It can cloud your mind. It can destroy your capacity to see clearly. Hence I say: Unless 

you drop being Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, you will not be able to see clearly. Your imagination has been 

contaminated for centuries. All your ideas and ideologies have to be put aside so that your eyes can face, can 

encounter truth as it is. 

Imagination keeps you asleep. If you come out of your imagination you start waking up. 

Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples that the most important thing is to remember in a dream that ”This is 

a dream.” But how to do it? It seems almost impossible. How to remember in a dream that ”This is a dream”? 

But if you practice the Gurdjieffian method, one day you can remember it. 

The method is simple. You have to go on remembering the whole day, whatsoever you see, that ”This is a 

dream.” Walking on the street, ”This is a dream”; the dog barking, ”This is a dream.” Go on remembering the


whole day, ”This is a dream, this is a dream....” It takes three to nine month for the idea to sink into your heart. 

Then one day, suddenly, in your dream you remember and you say, ”This is a dream!” and that is a moment of 

great illumination. Immediately, the dream disappears. The moment you say it is a dream, it disappears and you 

are awake, fully awake, in the middle of the night. 

Of course, these trees and the people on the road are not a dream so they don’t disappear. You can go on 

saying, ”This is a dream.” That was just a method to practice. But when you really remember in a dream that 

”This is a dream,” the dream disappears. The dream can exist only if believed; the dream disappears if you don’t 

believe in it. Our imagination is intoxicating. 

Lend an ear to this exchange of dialogue, circa 1936, when Dr. William Goldman was professor of English at 

Brandeis University. 

It was Graduation Day, and the father of one of the students had celebrated, not wisely, but all too well. He was 

in the parking lot adjacent to the university campus, peering owlishly at the cars, when Dr. Goldman appeared. 

”Say, mister,” called the weaving celebrant. ”Is my car the one on the left or on the right?” 

”Yours is the car on the right, sir,” replied the professor. ”The car on the left is a subjective phenomenon.” 

It does not exist just a subjective phenomenon. That’s exactly the meaning of the Indian word maya: a 

subjective phenomenon, it does not exist. But if you believe, it exists. It depends on you. You can make it almost 

function as real. And there are many things which don’t exist, but you are believing in them and for you they 

are realities. And you are surrounded by fictions religious, spiritual, metaphysical. There are so many fictions 

surrounding you and you have to wake up from all these. 

POWERFUL STREAMS! Buddha says. 

They are everywhere.... 

THEY FLOW EVERYWHERE. 

These streams are powerful, and your sleep is so deep. It seems very difficult to wake up but you can wake up. 

My own observation is that these streams are powerful only in the proportion that you are asleep. If you become 

less sleepy they are less powerful. If you become fully awake, their power disappears totally. 

A drunk was passing a bus intersection when a large Saint Bernard brushed against him and knocked him down. 

An instant later a foreign sports car skidded around the corner and inflicted more damage. 

A bystander helped the poor fellow up and said, ”Are you hurt?” 

”Well,” he answered, ”the dog did not hurt so much, but that tin can tied to his tail nearly killed me.” 

Now, when you are not in your senses you go on seeing things which are not there at all or you go on projecting 

things. The world becomes a screen and you live in a private world. That’s exactly the meaning of the word 

’idiot’: to live in a private world, to live in a subjective phenomenon. That’s the meaning of ’idiot’. 

After each drink at the local pub, Murphy took a small, furry kitten from his pocket, put it on the counter and 

stared at it. Finally the barman could no longer contain his curiosity and asked Murphy what he was up to. 

”Well, you see, it is this way,” said Murphy. ”So long as I can see one kitten it is all right. But when I see two 

of them I have to do something.” 

”Like what?” 

”I pick up the two of them, put them in my pocket, and go home,” said the Irishman. 

If you are intoxicated you will see the same world but in a different way. Your imagination will get mixed with 

it. You will not be able to make any distinction between what is fiction and what is fact. You will not have any 

power of discrimination. That’s exactly what makes these streams so powerful. THEY FLOW EVERYWHERE. 

STRONG WINE! IF YOU SEE IT SPRING UP, TAKE CARE! PULL IT OUT BY THE ROOTS. 

So whenever you see some imagination arising in you, be alert. Don’t let it grow, don’t let it become a big 

tree. It will be far more difficult then for you to get rid of it because you may become attached to it; you may 

have invested many things in it; you may have started liking its company; you may feel unsheltered without it. 

It is better to cut it from the very roots in the very beginning. The moment you see it arising in you, take care, 

beware beware means be aware PULL IT OUT BY THE ROOTS. 

People go on changing. They don’t pull out things by their roots; they substitute one fiction with another 

fiction. That may give you a relief for the moment, but it does not transform your life. Somebody is running after 

money, then he stops running after money; he starts running after power. Then he stops running after power and 

starts running after God or meditation or enlightenment. But he goes on running after something or other. He 

goes on substituting a new fiction for the old; the old functions no more. He has seen it is fictitious, but he has 

not yet got the point that one has to uproot all imagination in one’s being. 

Lovebirds are supposed to be so devoted to one another that if one dies the other dies of a broken heart. A 

woman who owned a very cute pair had a fire in the house and one of the lovebirds was suffocated. Right away


the other bird began to pine. The woman wondered if there was not some way to keep it alive so she put a mirror 

in the cage. 

The lovebird let out a joyous coo and cuddled up against the mirror, and lived for two years. It then died of a 

broken mirror. 

One can postpone but don’t go on postponing. Your life is very precious. If one lovebird dies it is better to 

come to your senses rather than replace it by a mirror or by something else. 

PLEASURES FLOW EVERYWHERE. YOU FLOAT UPON THEM AND ARE CARRIED FROM LIFE TO 

LIFE. 

Watch out. It is a risky phenomenon to remain too much attached to your pleasures, to your imagination, 

because this is how you have been going from one life to another. The seed cause of birth and death is desire, 

imagination, hankering for more. And remember, you are feeling so discontented in life because of your 

imagination. The more imaginative you are, the more discontented you will feel. 

Poets are very discontented people, so are painters, for the simple reason that they can imagine very well. They 

can imagine such a beautiful world that this world, in comparison, starts looking like hell. Ordinary people are 

not so discontented for the simple reason that they don’t have that much imagination. This world seems to be 

good enough for them. 

When imagination simply disappears from you, this world this very world is the lotus paradise. It is because 

of your imagination that you go on condemning this world. And remember, your imagination will be with you 

even if you are taken by the back door into heaven. You will condemn it, you will find faults. You will find a 

thousand and one things which should not be. You will find loopholes, flaws. Even in paradise you are going to 

be miserable. And a man without imagination, without desire, even in hell will find paradise. It is not outside 

you that paradise or hell exist; they exist inside you. 

If your mind is unclouded, if you can see clearly, then everywhere you will find bliss showering. Each moment 

you will find paradise descending in you. Each moment you will find yourself surrounded by God. You need not 

go to Kaaba, you need not go to Kashi, you need not go anywhere. God is coming to you in thirty-six streams, 

but because you are asleep that which could have been a blessing becomes a curse. Be aware and transform your 

curses into blessings. Just by being aware the transformation happens on its own accord. 

LIKE A HUNTED HARE YOU RUN, THE PURSUER OF DESIRE PURSUED, HARRIED FROM LIFE 

TO LIFE. 

You think you are the pursuer, you think you are the hunter; that is not true. You think you are the possessor; 

that is not true. The possessor is really the possessed: your things start possessing you. You watch, and you will 

see the fact in your own life. Your things start possessing you. You don’t use them they start using you. And 

you are not a hunter... in fact you are hunted by your desires; those are the real hunters. And you are running, 

pursuing shadows which you will never find. And who is pushing you from the back? Who is making you run? 

The real power is in the hands of your desire, imagination, in your unconsciousness. 

O SEEKER! GIVE UP DESIRE. SHAKE OFF YOUR CHAINS. 

One day Miss Tilly saw her big tomcat corner a cockroach in the kitchen. He was about to kill the bug when 

it addressed Miss Tilly: ”Have your cat spare my life and I will grant you three wishes.” 

”A million dollars?” asked the spinster. 

”Granted!” said the roach, producing the money. 

”I want to be young and beautiful!” 

”You got it!” And she was. 

”Now,” said Tilly, ”turn my tomcat into a tall, handsome prince lying next to me in bed!” It was done. 

”I am so happy!” she exclaimed. 

”I am glad,” said the prince beside her. ”But aren’t you sorry now you had me fixed?” 

Even if your desires are fulfilled, something or other will be missing. 

O SEEKER! GIVE UP DESIRE. SHAKE OFF YOUR CHAINS. The more you desire, the more you become 

imprisoned. People are imprisoned in things, people are imprisoned by wives and husbands, people are imprisoned 

by their power. People are creating so many prisons prisons within prisons, boxes within boxes and still they 

want to be happy, they want to be joyous. How can you be joyous? Your life is suffocating! And nobody else is 

responsible except you. 

The kindly rebbetzyn asked, ”Tell me, my good man, why do you drink all that whisky?” 

”Madam,” replied the good man, ”what else should I do with it?” 

You don’t know what else you can do with your life. You know only how to create prisons. You know only how 

to create more misery. You have become really skillful! For centuries, for lives together, you have done only one


thing: creating chains, creating misery, creating pain for yourself and for others. You are sadomasochistic; that is 

your whole art. Either you will torture others or you will torture yourself, but you will torture. You don’t know 

that life can be a dance, a celebration. You can’t know it till you drop your desiring. 

Desire exists like a cloud of smoke around you; you can’t see anything. And you go on giving more fuel, you go 

on creating more and more smoke around yourself. Your eyes are burning, your eyes are full of tears, you can’t 

see, but still you think what you are doing is going to help you one day attain all the joys of life. What you are 

doing to yourself is only going to give you more pain, more misery, more suffering. 

YOU HAVE COME OUT OF THE HOLLOW INTO THE CLEARING. THE CLEARING IS EMPTY. WHY 

DO YOU RUSH BACK INTO THE HOLLOW? 

Once in a while, it happens to you too; that you come out of your black hole the black hole of desiring into 

the clearing. Once in a while you can see. 

Right now many of you can see that yes... a deep yes arises in you. You know perfectly well that you have been 

creating your misery, and you don’t want.... It is just that you have become very skillful in the art; you don’t 

know what else to do so you go on doing it. Without doing it you feel very empty and you are very afraid of 

being empty. 

For centuries emptiness has been condemned. Emptiness is beautiful. And the foolish people have been telling 

you, ”The empty mind is the devil’s workshop.” The empty mind is God’s workshop! The occupied mind is the 

devil’s workshop. 

But one has to be truly empty. Just being lazy does not mean that you are empty; not doing anything does 

not mean that you are empty. Thousands of thoughts are clamoring inside. You may be lazy on the outside, but 

inside much work is going on. Many walls are being created, new prisons are being prepared, so that when you 

get fed up with the old you can enter into the new. Old chains may break any time so you are creating new chains 

in case the old chains break; then you will feel very empty. 

Once in a while it happens naturally because it is your very nature to be free. So once in a while, in spite of 

you... seeing a sunset, suddenly you forget all your desires. You forget all lust, all hankering for pleasure. The 

sunset is so beautiful, so overwhelming, that you forget the past and the future; only the present remains. You 

are so one with the moment, there is no observer and no observed. The observer becomes the observed. You are 

not separate from the sunset. 

You are bridged; in such a communion you come into a clearing, and because of the clearing you feel joyous. But 

again you are back into the black hole for the simple reason that coming out into the clearing you need courage 

to remain in the empty sky. 

That’s what I call sannyas. 

This courage I call sannyas not escaping but coming into the clearing, seeing the sky unclouded, listening to 

the songs of the birds without distorting. And then again and again you are becoming more and more attuned 

with the emptiness and the joy of being empty. And slowly, slowly you see that emptiness is not just emptiness; 

it is fullness, but a fullness of which you have never been aware, a fullness of which you have never tasted. So in 

the beginning it looks empty; in the end it is full, totally full, overflowingly full. It is full of peace, it is full of 

silence, it is full of light. 

YOU HAVE COME OUT OF THE HOLLOW INTO THE CLEARING. Sometimes while meditating it happens, 

sometimes while listening to music it happens, sometimes while dancing it happens, sometimes while just 

sitting doing nothing it happens. That’s what meditation is all about: allowing these moments to come more and 

more, welcoming these moments, cherishing these moments, so that you become easily capable of coming out of 

the black hole. And as you become accustomed to the clearing and the beauty of it and the blessing of it, you 

move less and less into the black hole. One day, suddenly you abandon the black hole; it is no more your home. 

The clearing becomes your home, clarity becomes your home. That is the day of great rejoicing. 


FREEDOM.” 

I can see it happening in you. Many times I see a certain person coming into the clearing and then moving 

again into the black hole. 

This is what is happening to Somendra. He was coming into the clearing, he had tasted something of the 

clearing, but then the very experience of the clearing made him egoistic. It gave him a certain pious egoism. He 

started feeling special; hence, just the other day he was asking for recognition. He used to sit here in the third 

row; he wanted to sit in the first row. Now he has disappeared from the third row. He sits somewhere in the back, 

and there too he sits not facing towards me; his BACK is towards me! Moving into the black hole again!


And this is happening to many people. Many people come into the clearing and then so easily they move into 

the black hole. In a way it seems logical, because they have lived in the black hole so long. The new experience 

is new and threatening and the black hole starts claiming them again and again. 

This is happening to Turiya. She was coming into a clearing, and now moving into a black hole on her own 

accord. And the beauty of the whole thing is that when people start coming into the clearing they don’t thank 

me at all. They don’t write letters to me saying, ”Thank you, Beloved Master.” But when they start moving into 

the black hole they write great letters to me: ”Why are you doing it to me? Why are you taking it away?” They 

had never thanked me. In the first place I had not given it to them, so how can I take it away? These things are 

not given or taken away. 

These things, you have to understand, happen from your very center. And you have to learn one very fundamental 

rule: that when they happen there will be every possibility of moving back to the old pattern. You are so 

familiar with it, so accustomed to it you have lived in it for so long; it seems so safe, secure, cozy, warm. And 

the clearing seems to be cold, vast, empty, insecure. But in the clearing is real security because in the clearing is 

eternity. That black hole is only your mind, a small mind. But with the small mind you are familiar. 

You have to learn to love the unfamiliar, the unknown, and one day finally, the unknowable. Then you move 

into the mysterious more and more. Only then can you say one day, ”I know nothing” because existence is not 

knowable; it is a mystery, not to be solved. It is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived, to be loved, 

to be shared. 


FREEDOM.” And you are ready to give up your freedom you are ready to give up anything. You are so ready 

to give up your freedom for any toy. You don’t know the value of freedom. 

When the daughter of an aristocratic French family announces her engagement to a black man, Big Sam, her 

parents decide they must try to stop the marriage. 

They call Big Sam in and tell him that their daughter is used to every luxury and has to have the finest, largest 

house in Paris to live in. The black man draws himself up and announces, ”When Big Sam loves, Big Sam buys,” 

and off he goes. 

Sure enough, he buys the biggest and best house in Paris. 

So the parents call him in again and tell him that their daughter longs for the largest, brightest diamond in all 

of France. 

”When Big Sam loves, Big Sam gets,” says the groom-to-be, and off he goes, returning with the biggest, 

brightest diamond the parents have ever seen. 

In the last-ditch attempt to stop the marriage, the girl’s father goes to see him privately, and tells him that to 

make their daughter happy he absolutely must have a prick that is twelve inches long. 

The black man answers firmly, ”When Big Sam loves, Big Sam cuts.” 



Chapter 2 Whatsoever happens is good 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, CANNOT THE PRIESTS HELP HUMANITY IN SOME WAY OR OTHER? 

Veeresh, they have been helping humanity for centuries; hence this miserable state of things. They have helped 

a lot to create as many lies as possible lies which appear comfortable. But in the end, lies are lies. Maybe for the 

time being they give you a feeling of warmth, coziness, security, but only for the moment. Sooner or later you are 

in a far darker state, far colder than ever. 

Priests have been inventing down the ages strategies for you to remain as you are. You don’t want to change; 

you simply want comfortable lies to be handed over to you so that you can go on living the way you are. To change 

oneself needs courage. Priests help you to remain cowards. You are afraid of death. Priests go on consoling you, 

”Don’t be worried. Your soul is eternal.” And you don’t have any idea of the soul at all. 

George Gurdjieff used to say that it is very rare to come across a person who has a soul. Others are only empty; 

there is nothing inside. Yes, there is a potential to create the soul in everyone, but it is not an actuality. You can 

be a soul, you can become part of eternity, you can be immortal, but that is only a possibility. Much work hard 

work, arduous work will be needed to make it a reality, to realize it. 

But priests have been telling you for centuries that you already have a soul. Only the body dies and the soul 

continues on its eternal pilgrimage. It consoles you. It keeps you, in a certain sense, together. You don’t become


too scared of death. In fact, it would be better if you were too scared of death. That very fear might start an 

inquiry in you. That very shock might trigger a process of transformation in you. 

Buddha used to send his disciples to see the dead bodies being burned, to meditate there, to go on watching 

the flames consuming a body. And then in the end nothing is left, only a few bones and ashes. This was his usual 

procedure for the new sannyasins to be sent to watch the burning bodies, for three months at least, so that they 

can feel the reality of death, so that the reality of death sinks deep into their hearts. Only that can wake you up. 

But the priests are helping, by giving you tranquilizers, to keep you asleep as comfortably as possible. That has 

been their service and we have paid them enough for their service. They are as ignorant as you are, as unaware 

as you are. They are in the same situation as you are: they also need consolation. They look into scriptures for 

their consolation. They go on reading the scriptures, continuously repeating the same scripture again and again, 

because that’s how one gets autohypnotized. The Christian priest goes on reading the same Bible again and again, 

and the Hindu priest goes on reciting the Gita again and again. Every day, every morning he recites the same 

scripture. It becomes mechanical. It becomes like a gramophone record. He goes on repeating. It becomes part of 

his memory with no meaning, no significance. He is just like a parrot. But it gives consolation. Repeating again 

and again certain truths hypnotizes you. 

Krishna says: When the body dies, the soul does not die. You can burn the body, but the fire cannot consume 

the soul. Na hanyate hanyamane shareere you can kill the body, but you cannot kill the spirit, you cannot kill 

the soul, because no arrow can reach to it, no sword can cut it. Nainam chhindanti shastrani, nainam dahati 

pavakah neither any weapon can cut me nor fire burn me. Go on repeating it again and again and again, year in, 

year out; you become autohypnotized. You start believing it, although you have not created any soul in you yet. 

Krishna is right: the soul is eternal but in the first place you have to have it. It is not there. Soul means 

consciousness, soul means integratedness. Soul means that you know through your own experience that you are 

not the body and not the mind. It arises only through witnessing the bodymind mechanism; it is not created by 

repetition. Repetition is hypnosis. It is experienced just the other way: you have to become dehypnotized, you 

have to become unconditioned. You have to forget all the scriptures and all the priests and you have to look into 

yourself. Howsoever fearful it is, you have to encounter your interiority. 

The priests help you to remain on the circumference. They seem to be great friends, but in the final reckoning 

they are the greatest enemies. It is not Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong who are the real enemies 

of religion. The real enemies are the priests, the popes, the shankaracharyas, and so on, so forth. They don’t 

know what they are doing. How can they help you? They simply go on repeating tradition, handing over to you 

conventions ancient conventions, but dead. 

You ask me, Veeresh, ”Cannot the priests help humanity in some way or other?” 

Yes, they can help... if they disappear! We no more need them. Man has come of age. All these consolations 

are not needed. We need people, rebellious people, not conventional priests. We need buddhas, awakened people 

to wake you up. We need buddhas, not these priests who go on giving you new toys to play with. And they have 

created beautiful toys, no doubt about it. They are very clever, cunning. Centuries of experience is behind them, 

how to exploit humanity, how to exploit humanity’s weaknesses. 

But remember: they don’t differ from you in any way as far as consciousness is concerned. Maybe they know 

more than you know, their information is more than yours. That is a quantitative difference; it is not a difference 

that makes a difference. Some qualitative difference is needed. 

And being led by blind people is dangerous. They have destroyed the whole beauty of human beings, they 

have destroyed the freedom of human beings. They have destroyed all that is valuable. They have left you just 

deserted, empty, meaningless. It is felt all over the world. Why are people feeling so empty and meaningless? Who 

has done this to them? Centuries of priesthoods, of different religions, have been giving them false consolations. 

All those false consolations are no longer applicable. Man has become more adult. It is good to give children toys 

to play with, but when somebody comes of age and you go on giving him toys to play with, he will start feeling 

life is meaningless. He needs something more; he needs something more real. 

Beware of being led by blind people! 

A young woman, hardly more than a girl, went to see the local rabbi. ”You don’t know me,” she began with a 

catch in her throat, ”but I just had to speak to somebody. You see, I have no mother or father and I don’t know 

much about worldly matters.” 

”You don’t have to say another word,” said the rabbi. ”I understand perfectly. It is a man, isn’t it?” 

”Yes, and he is always trying to kiss me. Kiss, kiss, kiss that’s all he ever thinks of.” 

You must be firm,” said the rabbi sternly. ”That kind of man you don’t need. Just tell him you don’t allow 

such kinds of goings-on.”


As she left, the rabbi said, ”Come back in a week and let me know how you are making out.” 

Sure enough, the girl returned a week later, but this time she was even more disturbed than before. 

”What is the matter now?” asked the rabbi. 

”I stopped him from all that kissing,” said the unhappy young lady, ”but now well, I don’t know how to put 

it....” 

”Put, put!” urged the rabbi. ”With me you got nothing to be ashamed.” 

”He’s trying to er touch me with his hands,” she stammered in embarrassment. 

The rabbi rose from his chair in righteous anger. ”You tell that no-goodnik he should keep his dirty hands to 

himself!” barked the rabbi. ”What kind of a way is that to treat a decent Jewish girl? Tell him to stop at once, 

you hear?” 

But when she visited the rabbi again she was almost in tears. ”I did everything you said,” moaned the girl, 

”but now he insists he wants to sleep with me.” 

”What!” yelled the outraged rabbi. ”I never heard of such chutzpah in my whole life. You go right home and 

the next time you see him I want you to throw that bum out of the house. You understand? I am ordering you! 

Throw him out!” 

A few days later she visited the rabbi once more. Her eyes were red from weeping and her face was a picture 

of misery. 

”Did you do like I ordered?” demanded the rabbi. 

She nodded, and, still sobbing, she said through her tears, ”Now he wants a divorce!” 

Your priests are as unconscious as you are, or even more. They are not even aware of the situation man is 

passing through. They go on handing out old recipes which are no more relevant. They go on giving you great 

advice which may have been useful sometime in the past but is utterly out of context in the present situation. 

You don’t need more priests and their help. You need a few awakened people in the world. You need more 

meditators not mediators. The priests have been mediators between you and God. You need more meditators, 

people who go deeper into their being, people who become centered, people who know the inner silence, the virgin 

silence and the tremendous beauty of it. They will help humanity, and they will not help humanity directly either. 

Their very presence will radiate new vibes which can transform. 

A real person always helps people indirectly. He is not aggressive. He does not command you, ”Do this, don’t 

do that.” He does not destroy your freedom in any way. He simply lives his life in the light that he has found 

within himself. And being with him, something transpires between you and him. 

A real master is never a priest. And I have never heard about a priest who was a real master. If you are a 

master you cease to be a priest, and if you are a priest it is impossible for you to be a master. The priest belongs 

to a certain ideology Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan. The master belongs to no ideology. He is more conscious, 

not more knowledgeable. He has more being, not more knowledge. He has more soul, not a bigger memory. He 

may not know the scriptures because he himself is the scripture! And you will not find him in the temples and 

the mosques and the churches. 

I have heard about a very religious Negro who wanted to go to the church, but there was only one church in 

his neighborhood and that belonged to white people. 

The priest was a kindly man as priests are supposed to be. When the Negro knocked on the door one day, 

the priest came out. The priest was in an embarrassing situation whether to say yes to him or no. To say yes 

was dangerous because the whole congregation will be against it. It was the white people’s church and no black 

person had been allowed; that was a tacit agreement. But how to say no to this simple man whose eyes were full 

of tears and who said, ”I want to come in and I want to pray to Jesus Christ”? 

But priests are cunning people. Howsoever kind they may appear on the surface, deep down they are cunning. 

If they are not cunning they will not be in the profession of the priests at all, because that profession is far worse 

than any other profession. Even prostitutes are better than priests! At least they sell only their bodies, and 

priests are selling even their souls. 

The priest immediately invented some strategy. He said, ”Good, you can come, but not right now. First purify 

yourself, only then your prayer will be heard.” 

That was a tricky strategy. No white man was ever asked to purify himself first, and then enter into the church. 

And who is going to decide when the man is pure enough? That will be up to the priest and he can always go on 

saying, ”You are not pure enough yet.” 

The Negro went back. He was really in a deep love affair with God; he cried and wept, and he tried in every 

possible way not to do anything wrong, to avoid anything that may make him impure. For three weeks he remained 

in isolation, fasting, praying. And after three weeks God appeared to him: his desire was fulfilled.


After that experience he went to the church. The priest was very much afraid this man was coming again, and 

he had such a beautiful aura around him that the priest was very much afraid to say, ”You are not pure yet.” His 

purity was shining; it was like a sun rising on the horizon. It was so clearly there that to deny it would be a sin, 

and the priest was afraid. 

The man came very close to the door, just near the steps, stood there, laughed loudly, turned back and went 

home. The priest was very much puzzled why he did this. He ran after him, got hold of him and said, ”Why did 

you do this? Don’t you want to come in the church?” 

He said, ”No, I don’t want to come in the church. I had just come to see you and the church once more, because 

last night God appeared and I asked him when he himself was there I asked him, ’Can I enter into the church? 

Am I pure enough now?’ God said, ’You are pure, more pure than anybody else who goes into the church, more 

pure than the priest himself. But please, don’t go into the church. They won’t allow you in. I know it from my 

own experience because for years I have been trying to go into that church and they don’t allow me. If they don’t 

allow me into the church, how can they allow you? You drop the whole idea. I have dropped it myself!’” 

Your churches, your temples are empty. They are graves of religion. Religion no more flowers there. Yes, when 

a Jesus is alive there is a great flowering, when Buddha is alive there is a great flowering, but not in a Buddhist 

temple, not in a Christian church. 

Priests are the people who take advantage of the awakened ones. Once the awakened person goes, leaves his 

body, the priests jump upon his doctrine, start making a great business out of it, start making interpretations 

according to themselves. 

Christianity has nothing to do with Christ, remember, and Buddhism has nothing to do with Buddha, and 

Jainism has nothing to do with Mahavira. It is a strange thing, but it has been happening consistently. No 

religion has anything to do with the original source. In fact, Christians are more destructive to Christ’s message 

than anybody else, and the priests are the leaders of the Christians. They don’t have any relationship with Christ 

they can’t have. They are afraid of Christ. They must be afraid deep down that if sometime they come across 

Christ and he asks, ”What have you done to my message?” how are they going to answer it? 

I have heard: 

Once the phone rang in the pope’s room in the Vatican. There was nobody else there so the pope himself took 

the call. It was from New York, and the archpriest from New York was trembling, his voice was trembling. He 

said, ”Look! Listen! Believe me one man has come into the church and he looks exactly like Jesus Christ. What 

am I supposed to do now?” 

The pope pondered over it for a few moments and then said, ”Look busy!” 

What else to do? 

Priests have dominated humanity. They are the politicians of the inner world, just as politicians are the priests 

of the outer world. And there is a conspiracy between the priests and the politicians, a mutual understanding, a 

division: ”You rule man in his subjectivity and we will rule man from his outside.” They have exploited, oppressed. 

They have destroyed much. 

And, Veeresh, you ask me, ”Cannot the priests help humanity in some way or other?” 

The only way that I can conceive is that because they are no longer needed, they should disappear. That will 

be their greatest service to humanity. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, I FEEL AN URGE FOR ARTISTIC EXPRESSION AND HAVE HAD A DISCI- 

PLINED, CLASSICAL TRAINING IN WESTERN MUSIC. OFTEN I FEEL THIS TRAINING IMPRISONS 

SPONTANEOUS CREATIVITY AND I HAVE FOUND IT VERY DIFFICULT TO PRACTICE REGULARLY 

LATELY. I AM NOT SURE ANYMORE WHAT THE QUALITIES OF TRUE ART ARE AND BY WHICH 

PROCESS THE ARTIST PRODUCES AND DELIVERS AUTHENTIC ART. HOW CAN I FEEL THE ARTIST 

IN ME? 

Barbara Limberger, the paradox of art is that first you have to learn its discipline and then you have to forget 

it totally. If you don’t know its ABC you will not be able to move very deep into it. But if you know only its 

technique and you go on practicing the technique your whole life you may become very skillful technically, but 

you will remain a technician; you will never become an artist. 

In Zen they say, if you want to be a painter, for twelve years learn how to paint and then for twelve years forget 

all about painting. Just completely forget it has nothing to do with you. For twelve years meditate, chop wood, 

carry water from the well. Do anything, but not painting.


And then one day you will be able to paint. Twenty-four years training: twelve years training in learning the 

technique and twelve years training in forgetting the technique. And then you can paint. Now the technique 

has become just a part of you; it is no longer technical knowledge, it has become part of your blood and bones 

and marrow. Now you can be spontaneous. It will not hinder you, it will not imprison you. That’s exactly my 

experience too. 

Now don’t go on practicing. Forget all about classical music. Do other kinds of things: gardening, sculpture, 

painting, but forget about classical music, as if it does not exist at all. For a few years let it remain deep down in 

your being so that it becomes digested. It is no longer a technique then. Then one day a sudden urge will take 

possession of you and then start playing again. And when you play again, don’t be bothered too much about the 

technique, otherwise you will never be spontaneous. 

Be a little innovative that’s what creativity is. Innovate new ways, new means. Try something new that 

nobody has ever done. The greatest creativity happens in people whose training is of some other discipline. 

For example, if a mathematician starts playing music he will bring something new to the world of music. If a 

musician becomes a mathematician he will bring something new to the world of mathematics. All great creativity 

happens through people who move from one discipline to another. It is like crossbreeding. And children that 

come out of crossbreeding are far healthier, far more beautiful. 

That’s why in every country for centuries, marriages between brothers and sisters have been prohibited; there 

is a reason in it. A marriage is better if it is between people who are very distantly related or not related at all 

as far as blood is concerned. It will be good if people from one race marry into another race. And if some day we 

discover people on some other planet, the best way will be a crossbreeding between earth and the other planet. 

Then newer kinds, newer people will be coming into existence. 

The prohibition, the taboo against brother/sister relationship, their marriage, is significant, scientifically significant. 

But it has not been worked out into detail to its extreme, to its logical extreme. The logical extreme 

is that no Indian should marry another Indian, no German should marry another German. The best thing is 

that a German marries an Indian, an Indian marries a Japanese, a Japanese marries a Negro, a Negro marries an 

American, a Jew marries a Christian, a Christian marries a Hindu, a Hindu marries a Mohammedan. That will 

be the best thing. That will raise the consciousness of the whole planet. It will give better children, more alert, 

more alive, richer in every possible way. 

But we are so foolish that we can do anything, we can accept anything. Then what am I saying...? 

Chauncey, a handsome, almost pretty young man, was speaking earnestly with his mother. 

”Mumsie, the time has come it really has when we must have a heart-to-heart talk about my relationship with 

Myron. To be quite candid about it, our relationship has blossomed into how shall I say it without sounding 

indelicate? well, into something beautiful and good and even holy. The truth is, Mumsie dear, I love Myron and 

Myron loves me in return. We want to be married as soon as possible and we both hope you will give us your 

blessings.” 

”But Chauncey,” the mother protested, ”do you realize what you are saying? Can you honestly expect me to 

condone such a marriage? What will people say? What will our friends and neighbors think?” 

”Ah, Mumsie, you are going to be dreary I can feel it in my bones. And after we have been such good pals, 

too. I never would have believed it of you of all people. I could just cry!” 

”But, son, you can’t go against convention like this!” 

”All right, Mumsie, let us have it right out in the open like civilized persons. Exactly and precisely what 

possible objection could you or anyone else have to Myron and me becoming husband and husband?” 

”You know perfectly well why I object: he is Jewish!” 

She is not objecting to a homosexual marriage; she is objecting because he is Jewish. People are so much against 

each other. They have been conditioned for this antagonism for so long that they have forgotten completely that 

we are all human beings, that we belong to the same earth, to the same planet. 

The greater the distance between the wife and the husband, the better will be the by-product of the marriage. 

And the same happens in music, in painting, in mathematics, in physics, in chemistry: a kind of crossbreeding. 

Whenever a person moves from one discipline to another discipline he brings the flavor of his discipline, although 

that discipline cannot be practiced. What can you do with your music when you go into physics? You have to 

forget all about it, but it remains in the background. It has become part of you; it is going to affect whatsoever 

you do. Physics is so far away, but if you have been disciplined in music, sooner or later you will find theories, 

hypotheses, which somehow have the color and the fragrance of music. You may start feeling that the world is a 

harmony not a chaos but a cosmos. You may start feeling, searching into deeper realms of physics, that existence 

is an orchestra. Now, that is not possible for one who has not known anything of music.


If a dancer moves into music he will bring something new, he will contribute something new to music. 

My suggestion is that people should go on moving from one discipline into another discipline. When you become 

accustomed to one discipline, when you become imprisoned with the technique, just slip out of it into another 

discipline. It is a good idea, a great idea to go on moving from one discipline into another. You will find yourself 

becoming more and more creative. 

One thing has to be remembered: if you are really creative you may not become famous. A really creative 

person takes time to become famous because he has to create the values new values, new criteria, only then can 

he be judged. He has to wait at least fifty years; by that time he is dead. Only then people start appreciating 

him. If you want fame, then forget all about creativity. Then just practice and practice, and just go on doing 

the thing that you are doing more skillfully, more technically perfectly, and you will be famous because people 

understand it; it is already accepted. 

Whenever you bring something new into the world you are bound to be rejected. The world never forgives 

a person who brings anything new to the world. The creative person is bound to be punished by the world, 

remember it. The world appreciates the uncreative but skillful person, the technically perfect person, because 

technical perfection simply means perfection of the past. And everybody understands the past, everybody has 

been educated to understand it. To bring something new into the world means nobody will be able to appreciate 

it. It is so new that there are not any criteria against which it can be valued. No methods are still in existence 

which can help people to understand it. It will take at least fifty years or more; the artist will be dead. By that 

time people will start appreciating it. 

Vincent van Gogh was not appreciated in his day. Not even a single painting was ever sold. Now each of his 

paintings is sold for millions of dollars and people were not ready even to accept those paintings as gifts from 

Vincent van Gogh the same paintings. He had given them to friends, to anybody who was ready to hang them 

in their room. Nobody was ready to hang his pictures in their rooms because people were worried. Others would 

ask, ”Have you gone mad or something? What kind of painting is this?” 

Vincent van Gogh had his own world. He has brought a new vision. It took many, many decades; slowly, slowly 

humanity started feeling that something was there. Humanity is slow and lethargic; it lags behind time. And the 

creative person is always ahead of his time, hence the gap. 

So, Barbara, if you really want to be creative you will have to accept that you can’t be famous, you can’t be 

well-known. If you really want to be creative, then you have to learn the simple phenomenon: art for art’s sake, 

for no other motive. Then enjoy whatsoever you are doing. If you can find a few friends to enjoy it, good; if 

nobody is there to enjoy, then enjoy it alone. If you are enjoying it, that is enough. If you feel fulfilled through 

it, that is enough. 

You ask me, ”I am not sure anymore what the qualities of true art are.” 

True art means: if it helps you to become silent, still, joyous; if it gives you a celebration; if it makes you dance 

whether anybody participates with you or not is irrelevant; if it becomes a bridge between you and God that is 

true art. If it becomes a meditation, that is true art. If you become absorbed in it, so utterly absorbed that the 

ego disappears, that is true art. 

True art comes very close to religion. So don’t be worried what true art is. If you rejoice in doing it, if you feel 

lost in doing it, if you feel overwhelmed with joy and peace in doing it, it is true art. And don’t be bothered what 

critics say. Critics don’t know anything about art. In fact, the people who cannot become artists become critics. 

If you cannot participate in a running race, if you cannot be an Olympic runner, at least you can stand by the 

side of the road and throw stones at other runners; that you can do easily. 

That’s what critics go on doing. They can’t be participants, they can’t create anything. 

I have heard about a Sufi mystic who loved painting, and all the critics of his time were against him. Everybody 

would come and show him, ”This is wrong, that is wrong.” 

He became tired of these people, so one day, in front of his house he hung all his paintings and he invited all 

the critics and told them to come with brushes, with colors, so that they can correct his paintings, because they 

have criticized enough; now the time has come to correct. 

Not a single critic turned up. It is easy to criticize, it is difficult to correct. And since then critics stopped 

coming and stopped criticizing his paintings. He did the right thing. 

People who don’t know how to create become critics. So don’t be worried about them. The decisive thing is 

your inner feeling, inner glow, inner warmth. If making music gives you a feeling of warmth, joy arises in you, ego 

disappears, then it becomes a bridge between you and God. And art can be the most prayerful thing, the most 

meditative thing possible. If you can be in any art, music, painting, sculpture, dance, if any art can take a grip 

of your being, that’s the best way to pray, the best way to meditate. Then you don’t need any other meditation;


that is your meditation. That will lead you slowly, slowly step by step, into God. So this is my criterion: if it 

leads you towards God, it is true art, it is authentic art. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF LIFE AFTER DEATH? 

Sargamo, I totally agree with Tristan Bernard, the French-Jewish writer, who was once asked the same question. 

He was asked what he thought of life after death. He replied, ”With regard to the climate, I would prefer heaven, 

but with regard to the company I would give preference to hell.” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT TO DO WITH THE PERSISTENCE OF UNBLISSFUL, SEEMINGLY INFI- 

NITE RESISTANCE? 

Amit Prem, accept it, don’t resist it. Don’t resist the resistance. That’s what you are doing. The first resistance 

is not the problem at all; the second resistance creates the problem. You are resisting your resistance. Your misery 

is unnecessarily multiplied. You drop the second resistance and you will be surprised: if you drop the second, the 

first will evaporate on its own accord. 

Jesus says: Resist not evil. A very strange statement... no other awakened person has given such a rebellious 

statement. Christian priests, missionaries, don’t talk about it at all. They talk about other things, but they don’t 

talk about this strange statement: Resist not evil. It seems very illogical, irreligious. Evil has to be resisted and 

Jesus says: Resist not evil. Why? 

There is a secret in it. If you resist evil, you give energy to it. Every resistance gives energy to the thing 

resisted. ”Don’t resist evil” means if you don’t resist it, it will drop on its own accord because you will not be 

nourishing it by your energy; you are disconnected immediately. 

Amit Prem, you say, ”What to do with the persistence of unblissful, seemingly infinite resistance?” 

Nothing has to be done. If you do anything you will create this resistance more and more; that’s how you have 

made it infinite. It is not infinite. Only God is infinite, nothing else. How can your resistance be infinite? But 

you are making it infinite because you are pouring your energy into it. You are trying to resist it, fight it, repress 

it in subtle ways so it comes up again and again. 

My suggestion is: Accept it, and then see what happens. Whatsoever happens is good. In the beginning you 

may be afraid in accepting it. In the beginning you will think, ”If I accept it then I will have to follow it.” No, 

that is not the truth. If you totally accept it you will see it dying immediately you have cut the very roots. 

That’s what Jesus means. He wants to destroy evil totally; hence he says: Resist not evil. If you resist you will 

go on feeding it. 

The first resistance is never the problem, the second resistance is. And you cannot do anything about the first; 

you can do something only about the second, because that is yours. What can be done? If resistance is there it 

is there welcome it, accept it. But you are doing that in many ways. 

Amit Prem goes on writing letters to me: ”I feel very sad, I feel very miserable, depressed. I suffer from 

an inferiority complex.” When I was reading his letter in which he talks about his suffering from an inferiority 

complex I was reminded about a politician who was going through psychoanalysis.... 

After three years of great psychoanalytic work, the psychoanalyst one day welcomed him beaming with joy, and 

he said, ”Come in. I have found everything. Now there is no need for any psychoanalysis anymore. Your problem 

is solved!” 

The politician was also happy. He said, ”What solution have you found?” 

And the psychoanalyst said, ”You are not suffering from an inferiority complex you simply are inferior, so 

there is no problem!” 

This is acceptance. Amit Prem, you simply are inferior accept it! You suffer from an inferiority complex 

because there is a great desire to be superior. That desire for superiority creates in its wake the suffering of an 

inferiority complex. Accept it. 

I am inferior look at me! You can’t be more inferior than me. I am so ordinary! I cannot do any miracle, I 

cannot walk on water. I must be suffering from an inferiority complex because Jesus walked on water. You see 

how ordinary I am! But I am so blissful because I go on saying, ”So what?” I can’t walk on water, that’s true. I 

don’t make a problem out of it. You can make a problem out of anything. 

I have heard:


When Moses was coming from Egypt and the enemies were following on his heels and they came close to the 

sea, now there was a problem: What to do? The sea was a barrier and the enemy was closing in. They were 

coming closer and closer every moment. 

And then suddenly a miracle happened: the sea became divided into two parts. Huge columns of water on both 

the sides and a small pathway.... 

Moses looked at the sky and said, ”My God, only one thing I have to ask you. Why is it always me who has 

to be the first? Now I have to enter into this danger! Why do I have to be the first always?” 

You can even complain about your miracles and I don’t complain even about my ordinariness. 

Golda Meir, the ex-prime minister of Israel, used to say again and again, ”I cannot forgive Moses. For forty 

years he led our people in the desert, and he found Israel the only place where there is no oil! I cannot forgive 

this man. And he passed many places which had oil.” 

Amit Prem, simply accept the way you are. You can’t be anybody else. Because you are trying to be somebody 

else, that creates the trouble. 

He goes on writing to me, ”I want to be an insider in the ashram, and I remain on the periphery.” So what is 

wrong with being on the periphery? I am not even on the periphery! You are at least on the periphery. Wherever 

you are, enjoy it. If you become accustomed to creating misery for yourself, even if you are at the very center 

you will be suffering. You will say, ”God, why do I have to be at the center always and to carry the whole 

responsibility?” 

I say, I am not at the center because I carry no responsibility at all. You will not find a more irresponsible 

person in the whole world than I am. I have no responsibility at all. Even on the periphery you have some 

responsibilities. Even the guards sitting on the gate have some responsibility. 

Learn to enjoy wherever you are and whatsoever you are. Don’t make much fuss about it. If there is resistance 

it is natural, because this whole process is of surrender. Sannyas is surrender. Resistance is natural. So accept it, 

and through acceptance it will die a natural death. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, ARE YOU AGAINST THE WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT? 

Shakti, I am not against women, I am all for them. But the liberation movement is something ugly and I 

know the responsibility is on the male chauvinists. They have been doing so much harm to women down the ages 

that now the woman wants to take revenge. But whenever you start taking revenge you become destructive. The 

movement is still in a destructive phase; it has not become creative. And I am against destructiveness. 

It is of no use to go on looking at past wounds. It is of no use to take revenge because of the past. One should 

learn to forgive and forget. Yes, it was wrong accept it. Whatsoever has been done to women down the ages was 

absolutely wrong. Man has exploited them. Man has been very brutal, very animalistic. Man has reduced women 

to slaves; even more than that, he has reduced them to things, to possessions. But what is the point of taking 

revenge? Then you become the pursuer and man becomes the pursued. Then another kind of chauvinism begins 

to take form and shape. Then the female chauvinist is born. And this is not going to put things right. Then the 

women will start doing harm to men, and sooner or later they will take revenge. Where is this going to stop? It 

is a vicious circle. 

And my feeling is that instead of men stopping it, it is far easier for women to stop it, to come out of the vicious 

circle because they are more loving, more compassionate. Man is more aggressive, more violent. I don’t have 

much hope from men, I hope much from women. Hence I am not in favor of the aggressive attitude and approach 

of the Women’s Lib movement. 

Mrs. Farid presented herself at the gate of heaven and knocked with trembling hand. 

”Madam,” said Father Abraham, peering suspiciously through a peephole, ”from whence did you come?” 

”From Flatbush I came,” replied Mrs. Farid with embarrassment, as great beads of perspiration spangled her 

spiritual brow. 

”Never mind, my daughter,” replied the patriarch compassionately. ”Eternity is a long time; you can live that 

down.” 

”Mister, I got something to confess,” she went on, obviously worried. 

”In our religion we don’t have confessions.” 

”But this is different. If you will take a look in your records, you will see that maybe I don’t belong here. I I 

well I poisoned my husband and I chopped up my brother-in-law. Not only that, I....” 

Father Abraham suddenly grew stern. ”Your aggressive behavior does indeed present a problem, madam. Were 

you a member of the Women’s Liberation movement?”


”No.” 

The gates of pearl and alabaster swung open upon their golden hinges, making the most ravishing music, and 

the patriarch bowed low. 

”Enter into thy eternal rest.” 

But Mrs. Farid hesitated. ”The poisoning, the chopping, the... the....” she stammered. 

”Of no consequence, I assure you. We are not going to be hard on a lady who did not belong to the Women’s 

Lib. Take a harp.” 

”But I applied for membership. They would not let me in.” 

”Take two harps.” 

Don’t be worried, Shakti. There are many women here who have belonged to the Women’s Lib movement. But 

as they have come closer to me, their attitudes have changed, their approach has changed. Life’s problems can 

only be solved by love, they cannot be solved by any violent approach. 

Men and women are different worlds; hence it is difficult to understand each other. And the past has been full 

of misunderstandings, but that is not necessarily to be so in the future. We can learn a lesson from the past, and 

the only lesson is that man and woman have to become more understanding of each other and more accepting 

of each other’s differences. Those differences are valuable, they need not create any conflict; in fact, they are 

the causes of attraction between them. If all the differences between men and women disappear, if they have the 

same kind of psychology, love will also disappear because the polarity will not be there. Man and woman are 

like negative and positive poles of electricity: they are pulled towards each other magnetically; they are opposite 

poles. Hence, conflict is natural. But through understanding, through compassion, through love, through looking 

into the other’s world and trying to be sympathetic to it, all the problems can be solved. There is no need to 

create more conflict enough is enough. 

Man needs as much liberation as woman. Both need liberation liberation from the mind. They should cooperate 

with each other and help each other to be liberated from the mind. That will be a true liberation movement. 

That’s what sannyas is all about. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, ARE YOU GOD THE CREATOR? 

Sudheer, do you think I am mad? 

For almost a year, Grandpa Sulzberg had been a constant embarrassment to his family. He would mount a 

soap box on street corners in his neighborhood and proclaim himself the messiah. Then he would proceed to 

harangue the amused crowds that gathered, hurling fierce warnings and injunctions, reminding them of the dire 

consequences of their evil ways. In his long white robe which he had fashioned from a bedsheet, and his flowing, 

silvery beard, he did indeed look like a biblical patriarch. 

Old Sulzberg’s delusion gradually worsened, and finally his sons and daughters and grown grandchildren held 

a conference and reluctantly agreed to send him to an institution. There, they hoped, with proper treatment, he 

might regain his sanity and then return home. 

At the Cedars of Lebanon Home for the Mentally Disturbed, the ”messiah” got along famously with his fellow 

patients. Until, that is, he made the mistake of exhorting them to abandon their godless ways. 

”I am Moses reincarnated,” he thundered like a prophet of old. ”I am the messiah!” 

”Oh yeah?” yelled one of the patients. ”Who said so?” 

”I will tell you who said so,” yelled Mr. Sulzberg-turned-messiah. ”God said so!” 

And from the outer circle of patients an indignant voice rang out: ”I did not!” 



Chapter 3 Meditation requires courage 


IT IS NOT IRON THAT IMPRISONS YOU NOR ROPE NOR WOOD, BUT THE PLEASURE YOU TAKE 

IN GOLD AND JEWELS, IN SONS AND WIVES. 

SOFT FETTERS, YET THEY HOLD YOU DOWN. CAN YOU SNAP THEM? 

THERE ARE THOSE WHO CAN, WHO SURRENDER THE WORLD, FORSAKE DESIRE, AND FOLLOW 

THE WAY. 

O SLAVE OF DESIRE, FLOAT UPON THE STREAM. LITTLE SPIDER, STICK TO YOUR WEB. OR 

ELSE ABANDON YOUR SORROWS FOR THE WAY.


ABANDON YESTERDAY, AND TOMORROW, AND TODAY. CROSS OVER TO THE FARTHER SHORE, 

BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. 

DO YOUR THOUGHTS TROUBLE YOU? DOES PASSION DISTURB YOU? BEWARE OF THIRSTINESS 

LEST YOUR WISHES BECOME DESIRES AND DESIRE BINDS YOU. 

The most fundamental message of Gautama the Buddha is not God, is not soul... it is freedom: freedom 

absolute, total, unconditional. He does not want to give you an ideology, because every ideology creates its own 

slavery. He does not want to give you a religion, because religion binds you. That’s exactly the meaning of the 

English word ’religion’ that which binds you together. Religion is a bondage, very subtle, so subtle that unless 

you are very aware you will not be able to see it. He does not want to give you a philosophy of life, because 

any philosophy given by somebody else is going to fetter you. You have to live according to your own light, not 

according to somebody else’s light. 

The whole world is full of slaves for the simple reason that everybody is living according to somebody else. 

Somebody is living according to Jesus, somebody is living according to Mahavira, somebody is living according 

to Krishna, somebody is living even according to Buddha. 

Buddha says: Be a light unto yourself. Unless you create a light within your own being you will remain a slave, 

you will be dominated. And there are crafty priests, cunning, very clever, very worldly; and they know, they 

are very experienced in creating new bondages for you. If you escape from one prison, they immediately create 

another. They are very clever with words. They go on interpreting words in such subtle ways that you will never 

be able to understand how these words of the buddhas are being manipulated, distorted. Words that were meant 

to give you freedom have been made into chains. 

But man is very unaware; hence he goes on remaining a victim a victim of all kinds of psychological exploitation. 

Buddha teaches you freedom as the ultimate goal, the summum bonum, the highest good. There is nothing 

higher than freedom. Every other value is a by-product of freedom; they follow freedom as a consequence. 

Jesus says: First seek ye the kingdom of God, then all else shall be added unto you. Buddha will not say that. 

He will say: First seek ye total and absolute freedom, and then all else shall be added unto you. If you seek God 

you are again seeking a new prison, maybe better than the old, maybe made of gold, very precious but a prison 

is a prison all the same. Whether your chains are made of iron or gold, it makes no difference at all. In fact, if 

the chains are made of gold it will be more difficult to come out of them because you will become attached. You 

will think those chains are not chains but ornaments. You will protect them, you will guard them somebody may 

steal them away from you! 

Freedom is the fragrance of Buddha’s whole message. No other enlightened person has emphasized freedom so 

much. Why did Buddha emphasize freedom so much? for the simple reason that he had seen all other ideals 

being changed into imprisonments. He had seen all beautiful philosophies poisoned by the priests. Beware of the 

priests! 

Buddha is not a priest, neither is Jesus, nor is Mahavira. No enlightened person is a priest. The priest lives on 

the words of the enlightened people and goes on exploiting the unenlightened. He certainly is clever but not wise, 

knowledgeable but not enlightened. He succeeds in manipulating you because you are unconscious. 

Hence, the second thing Buddha emphasizes is meditation, awareness. Freedom can come only through being 

more and more aware. By freedom he does not mean any social phenomenon or any political change. There are 

people... I have come across books written by communists, Marxists, socialists, who try to prove that Buddha’s 

freedom means communism, socialism, that his freedom means a social revolution, a political revolution. That is 

utter nonsense! Buddha has nothing to do with the outside world; his concern is your interiority. He wants to 

change your unconsciousness into consciousness, he wants to change your darkness into light, he wants to change 

your death into deathlessness. 

He is really doing the work of the seers of the Upanishads who have been praying to God, ”asato ma sadgamay. 

O God, O Lord, take us away from the false, from the untrue, to the truth. tamaso ma jyotirgamay. O God, 

O Lord, take us away from darkness into light. Mrityor ma amritamgamay. O God, O Lord, take us away from 

death to eternal life.” But they were praying to God. 

Buddha says: No prayer is going to help. Unless you do something, your prayer is impotent. There is no need 

to pray, but there is great need to meditate. His religion is not a religion of prayer. His religion is very scientific in 

the sense that he does not presuppose any belief. You need not believe in God, you need not believe in afterlife. 

He says when you can experience, then why believe? All beliefs ultimately reduce you to slaves. 

Buddha is against all kinds of beliefs and disbeliefs. He is an agnostic. He says remain open; if you believe 

you become closed. The Hindu is closed, the Mohammedan is closed, the Christian is closed: they have already 

concluded. They have already accepted a certain belief as true without experiencing it. This is dishonesty! And


these people are thought to be religious people. They are not even authentic, they are not even honest what to 

say about their religiousness? From the very beginning they are dishonest; belief makes you dishonest. 

The very process of belief is believing in something that you have not experienced on your own. How can you 

believe if you are sincere? If your search for truth is authentic you cannot believe; you cannot disbelieve either. 

You cannot say God is, you cannot say God is not. You can only say, ”I don’t know and I am searching and I am 

seeking and I am experimenting and I am trying to experience.” 

That is the way of meditation. 

Prayer requires belief as a presupposition; without belief there is no possibility of prayer. To whom will you 

pray? To whom will you address your prayers? to some God which you have accepted because it has been told 

to you from your very childhood, you have been hypnotized. 

Every belief is nothing but hypnosis. One is hypnotized as being a Hindu, another is hypnotized as being a 

Mohammedan; both are living in a kind of deep sleep. Hypnosis means sleep; the very word means sleep. You 

have been given so much poison, slowly, slowly through belief that you have fallen asleep. You are no longer aware 

what you are doing, why you are doing. Why are you going to the temple? Why are you bowing down to a stone 

statue? Why are you reciting something meaningless? Why are you going to Kaaba or Kashi or Girnar? For 

what? There is something a priori. You already believe that is what religion is, without experiencing, without 

inquiring. 

This is the way of the coward, this is the way of the zombie. 

Meditation requires courage. It requires the basic integrity, sincerity, respect towards your own being. At least 

don’t deceive yourself. 

Buddha says: Let your own experience decide. If this is understood you are bound to move towards meditation 

instead of prayer. Then meditation will bring a prayer of its own a prayerfulness, rather. You will not be praying 

but you will be in prayer, because more and more you will become silent, more and more you will become still. 

More and more you will experience the presence, the mysterious presence that overwhelms everything, penetrates 

everything. You may like to call it God, you may not like to call it God; it doesn’t matter what you call it. You 

may not like to call it anything; you may be silent about it, because that is the most appropriate thing to do. It 

cannot be put into any words; no words are adequate enough to express it. 

But Buddha has not been listened to. Humanity has remained in its old, zombielike, sleepy way. It has remained 

hypnotized, unconscious. 

Howard Rabinowitz, a huge, granite-fisted, supertough young fellow, was drinking a whisky in a bar when he 

heard the announcement of the Six-Day War on the radio. Filled with excitement and Jewish fervor, he rushed 

to the airport and took the first available flight to Israel where he was immediately inducted into the army. 

But his reception at the military base was rather cool. He was not exactly avoided by the Israeli soldiers, but 

neither did they go out of their way to welcome him. 

”Listen, what’s with you guys?” he complained to his sergeant. ”Here I come halfway around the world to help 

you out and I’m practically ignored. What must an American do to get accepted in this army?” 

The sergeant eyed the muscular young giant, glanced around somewhat furtively so that he might not be 

overheard, and then, in a voice that was almost a whisper, he said, ”Confidentially and off the record, if you really 

want to be one of us, there are three things you must do.” 

”Name them,” said Rabinowitz. 

”First,” explained the sergeant, ”You must drink down a whole quart of our strongest Mount Carmel wine 

without stopping for a breath. Second, you must kill an Arab army officer. Third, you must make love to an 

Israeli beauty.” 

So Howard Rabinowitz chug-a-lugged a whole quart of Mount Carmel wine without stopping. 

”Now,” he demanded, ”where can I find an Arab officer?” 

”Right across the Suez Canal,” said the sergeant. ”I’m afraid you’ll have to swim both ways that is, if you’re 

still alive.” 

”I’ll be alive,” promised the American as he lurched off. ”Hell, I was the roughest, toughest, biggest guy on the 

East Side. What’s a little adventure like this?” 

A few hours later he returned, soaking wet from his return swim, his clothes torn and his face scratched and 

bloody. 

”Okay, I took care of that Arab officer,” he roared. ”Now, where’s that Israeli beauty you want killed?” 

That’s exactly the situation of humanity. You don’t know who you are, you don’t know what you are doing, 

you don’t know why you are doing it in the first place. You don’t know, even if you succeed, what is the point of 

it all. But still you go on doing something. It keeps you engaged and keeps you unaware of your unawareness.


All your occupations are basically nothing but an effort to remain unaware of your unawareness because it 

hurts. It hurts to know that ”I am a zombie,” it hurts to know that ”I am a slave.” So you go on bragging 

about your slavery as if it is something very precious and valuable. You go on bragging about your being Indian 

or Pakistani or Israeli or German or American. You go on bragging about your being Hindu, Mohammedan, 

Christian, Jaina and you don’t know you are bragging about your prisons! 

It is as if two prisoners are talking: ”My prison is better than your prison. Look at the flag! My prison has the 

best flag in the world, the highest pole. And never say a word against my prison; otherwise you will suffer for it, 

you will have to pay for it.” 

My nation, my country, my church, my religion is higher than your religion, is higher than your church, is 

greater than your nation and we are bragging about our prisons. This is utterly stupid. But why do we go on 

doing it? because that is the only way to save our faces. 

If we try to see the point, that all these are prisons, how can we avoid knowing that we are a prisoner not of 

one prison but of many prisons, prisons within prisons? And that will destroy our ego. It helps our egos very 

much that ”We are a great nation,” that ”Our history is full of bravery,” that ”We have created the greatest 

warriors”... or greatest saints, or whatsoever it is. ”We have created the most religious society in the world,” or 

the most democratic society or the most communist society. This helps us to protect our egos. We find in every 

way methods and means, devices and strategies so that our ego remains intact. 

And the ego is the most false phenomenon in existence; there is nothing more false than the ego. It has no 

substance. It is a balloon full of hot air or maybe there is no balloon, only hot air! But we are living according 

to the dictates of this false god, the ego. And there are priests who go on helping us, who go on giving us new 

strategies, new interpretations. As times change, priests are ready to give us new interpretations. 

A small boy in the Sunday school was very much puzzled when the priest said that God made everything. The 

boy looked puzzled, almost a question mark in his eyes. 

The priest asked him, ”What is the matter, Johnny? You look very puzzled.” 

Johnny said, ”Yes. You say everything do you really mean everything? Then where is the reference that God 

made railway trains? I have never come across it.” 

And the priest said, ”Yes, you must have overlooked it. There is a reference. It is said in the Bible that God 

made all creeping things; it includes the railway train!” 

And it is not only that they are deceiving small children; they do the same to you. 

”Rabbi,” said the worried father, ”I wish you would speak to my son. Here he is, bar mitzvah age, and all he 

ever thinks about is baseball.” 

The rabbi sighed to himself. ”With so many delinquent children getting into trouble,” he thought, ”this is 

indeed a minor problem.” 

”I am sorry to disappoint you,” he said, suppressing a desire to show his annoyance, ”but I cannot scold your 

son for something we Jews have been practicing for thousands of years. In fact, there are several references to 

baseball in the Bible.” 

”Are you serious?” demanded the father incredulously. ”What are they?” 

”Well, for example, you will recall that Eve stole first and Adam stole second; Gideon rattled the pitchers; 

Goliath was put out by David; and the prodigal son made a home run!” 

Priests are the most cunning people in the world. 

In Baltimore, at the turn of the century, an itinerant maggid, or preacher, looking for all the world like a 

prophet of old, with his majestic white beard and flowing, snow-white robe, was invited to speak at the Sanhedrin 

Temple. The synagogue’s regular rabbi was somewhat apprehensive about the old man’s ultra-orthodox views, but 

he had come highly recommended. The rabbi’s fears, as it turned out, were justified. The maggid harangued the 

congregation with a scorching sermon that would have done credit to a Bible-thumping, fundamentalist Baptist 

preacher. As the venerable patriarch brought his sermon to a close he shouted, ”And I say unto you, the Day of 

Judgment is at hand, and unless you have lived in strict accordance with the law as handed down to us by Moses 

himself, there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth!” 

An old lady in the front row, frightened half out of her wits, cried out, ”But, Rebbe, I have no teeth!” 

”My good woman,” thundered the righteous maggid, ”teeth will be provided!” 

Buddha is not a priest, he is not a prophet either; he is a totally different kind of person. He is an awakened 

being, he has come to know himself. He is not an incarnation of God he has no claims like that. He is not a 

special messenger of God; he has no ego like that. He does not claim that ”I am the only begotten Son.” All this 

looks absurd if you think of Buddha. He is very simple and yet his message is the most practical, most scientific, 

most penetrating.


He says, ”I was as unconscious as you are; now I have become conscious and all my fears and sorrows have 

disappeared. One day I was like you, one day you can be like me; there is no qualitative difference between us. 

I am awakened, you are asleep; that is the only difference. I am not extraordinary, I am just as ordinary as you 

are. The only thing that has happened to me is that I have opened my eyes and you are still keeping them closed. 

Open them and see for yourself!” 

The sutras: 

IT IS NOT IRON THAT IMPRISONS YOU NOR ROPE, NOR WOOD, BUT THE PLEASURE YOU TAKE 

IN GOLD AND JEWELS, IN SONS AND WIVES. 

IT IS NOT IRON THAT IMPRISONS YOU... your prison is not that gross, it is very subtle. It is not so 

visible, it is very invisible. It is transparent. It is not that you remain in the prison; on the contrary, the prison 

surrounds you, wherever you go it moves with you. It is something in your mind, not something around your 

body. It is something in your very approach towards life. 

He says: IT IS NOT IRON THAT IMPRISONS YOU NOR ROPE NOR WOOD, BUT THE PLEASURE 

YOU TAKE IN GOLD AND JEWELS.... 

Now one thing very significant has to be remembered: this sutra has been misinterpreted for centuries. Twentyfive 

centuries of misinterpretation are there. For the first time I am telling you that it does not mean what 

Buddhists have been saying that it means. They think it means that gold and jewels have to be renounced; it 

does not mean that it is so clear BUT THE PLEASURE YOU TAKE IN GOLD AND JEWELS.... It is not 

the gold that binds you but the PLEASURE that you take in it. If you don’t take pleasure in it you can live in a 

palace and you are as free as anybody who lives in a cave in the Himalayas. If you take pleasure in your cave in 

the Himalayas you are as unfree as anybody who lives in a palace. The question is psychological. 

And one thing more: why do you take pleasure in the palace, in gold, in jewels, in diamonds? They all decorate 

your ego. Your ego is empty in itself, it is nonexistential. You have to continuously go on pouring things into it so 

it goes on giving you the sense that it is something substantial. It is constantly demanding, ”Give me this, give 

me that.” It goes on demanding. It exists in the demand, it exists in the desire. 

It is just like when you are on a bicycle: you have to peddle it continuously. If you stop peddling, maybe for a 

few feet the bicycle may move out of the past momentum, but then it is bound to fall. Ego is just like a bicycle: 

you have to continuously peddle. If you stop peddling it falls then and there, flat on the ground. 

So if you have a palace it will demand a bigger palace and it will take great pleasure in the palace. It will 

brag about it, it will feel very puffed up. If you are a president of a country, it feels very puffed up. If you 

become famous, respectable, it becomes very puffed up. And the ways of the ego are very subtle. It moves in 

your unconsciousness, in the darkest layers of your being. It can take pleasure in gold, it can take pleasure in 

renouncing gold, but it is the same thing. 

I know many so-called saints who go on bragging still after thirty or forty years. Forty years before they had 

renounced the world and they still go on saying that ”We renounced so much money, so much gold.” Still they go 

on talking about it! Forty years have passed, but they are still taking the pleasure. 

You see the point? You can take pleasure when you have gold, you can take pleasure when you renounce gold. 

In fact, when you have gold you can’t take so much pleasure as when you renounce it. Why? because millions 

of other people have gold, it is nothing very special. But when you renounce you are a rare person: your ego 

becomes more extraordinary, holier-than-thou, superior. 

I know one person who was a homeopathic doctor. Now, you know about homeopathic doctors they somehow 

manage to live. Very rarely I had seen any patients visiting him. Yes, a few people used to come they used to 

come to read the newspapers! In fact, that’s how I started going to his dispensary to read the newspapers and 

to have a little chitchat, and then we became friends. He was always talking about his troubles and he was very 

much worried. 

And then one day I heard that he had renounced the world; he became a saint. After three years I met him 

in Calcutta. He was worshipped, and people were telling me that he had millions of rupees that he renounced. I 

said, ”Don’t be stupid I know this man! He had only three hundred and sixty rupees in the bank!” Now they 

have become millions! 

When you renounce you can go on increasing your amount; nobody can prevent you and nobody can check on 

it no auditing is possible. You can go on spreading the rumor how much you have renounced. 

When I saw him, I asked him, ”Doctor....” 

He said, ”I am no longer a doctor.”


I said, ”You are still the same. I know perfectly well that you had three hundred and sixty rupees in the post 

office! What millions are you talking about? You should say simply that you have renounced three hundred and 

sixty rupees!” 

He looked at me and he said, ”Don’t talk so loudly. You will destroy my whole reputation!” 

The reputation depends on how much he has left, so when he moves from one town to another, the amount 

that he has renounced increases. It has been going on that way. This is not something new; this has happened 

before, too. 

Even in Buddha’s life story, Buddhists have written that he renounced so many golden chariots and so many 

elephants and so many horses and so many palaces. That is all nonsense, because he was not the son of a very 

great emperor or anything. The kingdom that he belonged to, Kapilvastu, was such a small place that it has 

almost disappeared from the earth, not even a trace.... All those palaces have not left any ruins. There were no 

palaces, and it was such a small village that to keep so many golden chariots there and so many elephants and 

horses would have been impossible. But the people who were writing the story had to go on making it look bigger 

and bigger. 

There was great competition between the Jainas and the Buddhists because Mahavira and Buddha were contemporaries. 

So you can look in the scriptures.... Jainas write, ”So many horses, so many elephants, so many 

chariots,” and the next Buddhist scripture makes a bigger claim. Then comes another Jaina scripture which makes 

a bigger claim than the Buddhist scripture and this went on for hundreds of years, until now it appears as if 

Mahavira and Buddha were great emperors, as if they dominated the whole of India. 

The truth is that in Buddha’s time in India there were two thousand kingdoms. Two thousand kingdoms? 

that means each kingdom could not have been more than a district, at the most, and the father of Buddha was 

not more than a deputy collector or maybe a collector... or, if you insist, a commissioner, but nothing more than 

that. 

People take pleasure in gold, so much so that when they renounce it, still the pleasure lingers; one goes on 

thinking of it. Ego can fulfill itself either by having more money or by renouncing more money, but it always 

needs money and it always needs more. Remember it. 

Buddha says: BUT THE PLEASURE YOU TAKE IN GOLD AND JEWELS... that is the real imprisonment; 

that creates your bondage not the gold, not the jewels. What can they do? How can they bind you? 

I have lived in poor huts, they can’t bind you; I have lived in palaces, they can’t bind you. I have lived as a 

poor man poverty cannot bind you; I have lived as a rich man richness cannot bind you. Those things are on 

the outside. If you start taking pleasure in them, a certain gratification, then the bondage starts. If you take 

pleasure... IN SONS AND WIVES. That too has been misinterpreted: Renounce your wives and renounce your 

sons. 

There is no need to renounce anything; just understand. 

My interpretation of Buddha is that renunciation is not the point; understanding is the point. And if through 

understanding, something drops from your life, it is not renounced by you; it has simply fallen like a dead leaf 

from a tree. You cannot claim any credit for it. 

Just look into your relationships with your wife, with your son, with your husband, and see the fragility of it 

all. It has no substance in it. It is all poetry and fiction, it is not a fact. 

Just a few days ago a man came to me and he said, ”I would like to become a sannyasin, but my wife says she 

will kill herself!” 

I said, ”Let us try, for a change, because I have never seen anybody.... I have one hundred thousand sannyasins 

all over the world. No wife has yet killed herself, no husband has yet committed suicide, although many have said 

that.” 

People take these things very seriously. Your wife or your husband may say, ”I cannot live without you” and 

she was living without you perfectly well before! Just a few days before she was not even aware of you and she 

was living perfectly well in fact, she was better than she is now! But she says she cannot live without you, and 

you believe it because it nourishes your ego. 

Mrs. Goldfarb stood weeping at her husband’s grave when a courtly stranger approached her. 

”Madam, I regret the unfortunate circumstances under which I say this,” he began in a respectful manner, ”but 

I must tell you I have fallen in love with you at first sight.” 

”Loafer! Bum!” cried Mrs. Goldfarb indignantly, aghast at this monumental impertinence. ”Get out of my 

sight this instant or I will call a policeman! Is this a time to talk about love?” 

”I assure you, madam, that I did not intend to reveal my feelings at this sad time,” the gentle stranger explained, 

”but I was simply overwhelmed by your exquisite beauty!”


”Listen,” said Mrs. Goldfarb, ”you should see me when I haven’t been crying!” 

In a single moment things change. In this world, all your relationships are just made of the stuff poetry is made 

of; they are not even prose, they are fictions. People are living in fictions, and they go on painting, repainting 

their fictions; they go on keeping the fiction alive. 

Mrs. Saperstein had just sent the children off to school when the phone rang. 

”Is your husband’s name Philip Saperstein?” asked a sepulchral voice at the other end of the line. 

”What else?” replied the lady. 

”This is the coroner’s office. I am sorry to tell you this, but we have a traffic death here. We found your 

telephone number in his pocket. Would you please come down here to the morgue and identify the body?” 

Mrs. Saperstein arrived within half an hour and an attendant escorted her to a figure covered with a white 

sheet. The attendant then lifted a corner of the sheet and uncovered the victim’s face. ”Was this man your 

husband?” he asked. 

Mrs Saperstein eyes widened. ”Ai-ai-ai! How did you yes, that is my husband ever get your sheets so white?” 

Don’t believe in fictions. Your wife, your husband, your children, your parents, all are beautiful fictions. And 

I am not saying to renounce them; I am saying, simply, understand the fictitiousness of them all. Live wherever 

you are, but don’t get identified with these imagined roles. Act, but don’t get identified with your acting role. 

That’s exactly what Buddha means: 

SOFT FETTERS, YET THEY HOLD YOU DOWN. CAN YOU SNAP THEM? 

They are not very strong fetters, very soft, but CAN YOU SNAP THEM? You cannot snap them if you are 

not conscious; and if you are conscious you need not snap them they are no longer there. You simply see the 

point that in this world we come alone, we live alone and we go alone. Yes, we play many games games of being 

a husband or a wife, being a friend or an enemy. 

We play many games because we have to fill the time with something, or else we have to ”kill time,” as they 

say, by playing cards, by chess.... And these are all the same kinds of things, nothing more serious. You have seen 

playing cards kings and queens and when you are playing cards they become very real. You can fight, people 

have even killed each other; just in playing cards they became so serious! 

We become so much identified because we are not conscious at all. It is consciousness that helps you to become 

unidentified. 

Then you can go on playing all kinds of games I am not against games. Play them as artfully as you can. Let 

your life be fun! I don’t want you to be serious, I don’t want you to have long faces. Enough of that! Religious 

people have suffered much; there is no need. You can laugh and you can enjoy, but remember one thing: that all 

is just a game. Death will come and the curtain falls and the game disappears and the play is finished. 

THERE ARE THOSE WHO CAN, WHO SURRENDER THE WORLD, FORSAKE DESIRE, AND FOLLOW 

THE WAY. 

Who are those who can snap out of these identities? They are the courageous people, the meditators: the 

people who try to bring awareness to their life, to their acts, to their thoughts, to their feelings. 

Buddha’s persistent effort was one: to make you aware in everything that you are doing. If you are walking, 

walk with awareness. If you are eating, eat with awareness. Don’t simply go on stuffing yourself in a mechanical 

way. De-automatize yourself. Don’t be a machine, be a man. 

And then you will be surprised to know that desires start fleeing away from you and the way opens. 

Moe and Ike, aged ninety and ninety-two respectively, had been widowers for many, many years. Both were 

healthy and handsome-looking despite their years. The Florida climate agreed with them, and many lovely widows 

were still after them despite their age. 

One day Moe said to Ike, ”Ike, I’m really lonely. It’s been years since I lost my Becky and I’ve never remarried. 

But I think now is the time and I’m willing to take another chance at marriage even at my age.” 

”It sounds like a good idea,” said Moe. ”In fact, maybe I, too, should take a new wife.” 

Soon thereafter, Moe and Ike both married lovely ladies eighty-nine and ninety respectively and they both 

went on honeymoons. 

A few days later, Moe and Ike met on the boardwalk. 

”Well,” asked Moe, ”how was your honeymoon?” 

”To tell you the truth, Moe, I couldn’t consummate our marriage.” 

”Well,” said Moe, ”to tell you the truth, I didn’t even think of it!” 

But even at the age of ninety, people want to continue to play the old, childish games. Children can be 

forgiven. They need to play, they need to get identified, they need to go astray, they need to commit errors,


mistakes, because that is the only way to learn and to mature. But even in old age, people behave as if they have 

not grown up at all. 

Remember, you grow only in the proportion that you become aware. You grow only in the proportion that you 

become unidentified with all the games that life makes available for you. 

O SLAVE OF DESIRE, FLOAT UPON THE STREAM. LITTLE SPIDER, STICK TO YOUR WEB. OR 

ELSE ABANDON YOUR SORROWS FOR THE WAY. 

Buddha calls people who are just slaves of their desires... they are nothing but driftwood, victims of blind forces. 

They don’t know their destiny, they don’t know any meaning. They are just accidental; they don’t experience 

any intrinsic significance in life. From one game they move to another game. Their whole life is a series of 

keeping themselves occupied somehow so that they don’t become aware of the fact that they have wasted a great 

opportunity of growing up, of coming home, of becoming a conscious being, of becoming that which they were 

meant to be. They go on missing. 

LITTLE SPIDER, Buddha says, STICK TO YOUR WEB. 

It is your own creation. The world in which you live is your own creation, just like the spider creates its web 

out of itself and then is caught in the web and cannot leave it. You project your world out of your own mind, 

you project thousands of desires. That’s how you create the web and then you are caught in it. Somebody is 

caught in the desire for money, somebody is caught in the desire for power, somebody is caught in the desire for 

renunciation, somebody is caught in the desire for paradise all desires! 

A real man of understanding has no desire. He lives in the moment and whatsoever is available, he enjoys it to 

its totality. He squeezes each moment, he drinks each moment! He eats whatsoever is available. He sleeps, but 

he is total in whatsoever he is doing. 

A Zen monk, Rinzai, was asked, ”What is your meditation?” 

He said, ”When I feel hungry I eat and when I feel sleepy I sleep, that’s all. I have no other meditation.” 

He is a real follower of Buddha! But you will miss the point if you are not told that when he says, ”When I 

feel hungry I eat,” he eats with total awareness. 

In fact, a man who lives in awareness also sleeps in awareness. 

Krishna, in the Gita, says: The real seeker is awake even while others are fast asleep. When it is night for 

others it is still day for him. Something deep inside him remains constantly alert. 

That which is a night for everybody else is not a night for the one who is aware, who is alert, who is meditative, 

who is balanced, who lives in equilibrium, who lives in silence. Something deep inside him keeps awake. The body 

sleeps, the mind sleeps, but the soul is always alert. It is never tired so it need not sleep at all. It is awareness 

itself; it is made of awareness. 

LITTLE SPIDER, STICK TO YOUR WEB. 

Hilda and Herman were spending a quiet evening at home. That is to say, Herman was quietly engrossed in a 

book, but Hilda was in a talkative mood. 

”Honey,” she began, ”if I should die before you do, will you promise me something important?” 

”Yeah,” grunted Herman, without lifting his eyes from the page he was reading. 

”Promise me you’ll always keep my grave green.” 

”Aw, don’t be so morbid,” he replied. ”What’s the use of talking about dying? You look pretty healthy to 

me.” 

He buried his nose in the book, completely absorbed once more, hoping he would not again be distracted. 

”Well, yes, I feel healthy, dear,” Hilda interrupted again after a minute of blessed silence, ”but I want to be sure 

my final resting place won’t be neglected. You might want to remarry or something, and forget all about me.” 

”Look, Hilda, I’ll remember you forever. Stop shopping around for an undertaker and let me read!” 

This time he was rewarded with three whole minutes of peace and quiet, when his wife again took up the thread 

of conversation exactly where it had broken off. 

”I’d hate to be forgotten by my own husband. I suppose it is because I’m so sensitive because I have so much 

emotion. Darling, are you positive that you’ll keep my grave green?” 

”Yeah, I’m positive,” he growled, his eyes glued to the page. 

”Well, that’s a great consolation. Only, I’d like for you to say it with more feeling.... Precious, are you absolutely, 

positively sure you’ll keep my....” 

”Hilda,” shouted the pestered man, casting his book aside, ”I will keep that damn grave of yours green if I have 

to paint it myself!” 

First we create these relationships wife and husband... and then they start hankering for children, great desire 

for children arises... and it goes on and on. Then they want their children to get married; then they want their


children to have children. This is an unending process. They go on and on thinking that this is going to fulfill 

them; if this is not going to fulfill them, then something else.... Your whole life is wasted. 

And I am not saying don’t love or don’t have a wife or don’t have a husband or don’t have children. What I am 

saying is that the most essential thing should be looked at first. First be aware, be meditative, and then if you 

feel like having a little fun, enjoying a little misery, you are welcome! Get married, have children and children’s 

children, but don’t forget your awareness because only that is going with you. Only your awareness will pass 

through the fires of death; everything else will be left behind. 

And one thing very important, Buddha says: OR ELSE ABANDON YOUR SORROWS FOR THE WAY. 

People find it very difficult to abandon their sorrows. It looks, on the surface, somehow not right. Why should 

people hesitate to abandon their sorrows for the way? 

A real master never asks you anything except to sacrifice your sorrows. He wants you to give your sorrows to 

him, nothing else. But it is the most difficult thing to abandon your sorrows because you have lived with them 

for so long, you are so friendly with them, and to live with the familiar sorrows feels so cozy, so warm old friends, 

and to abandon them.... And suddenly all your walls will disappear and you will be under the open sky because 

your walls consist of nothing but your sorrows. Your prison will disappear! and you have lived in the prison for 

so long, for so many lives that it has become your home. 

I know many prisoners. Whenever they are released from the prison, within three or four months they are back; 

they will do something and they will be back in the prison. I used to visit prisons and I asked a few people who 

were coming again and again back to the prison, ”What is the matter?” 

They said, ”When we leave the prison it feels as if we are leaving our home! We have lived in here so long and 

all our friends are here.” One man said, ”Not only my friends but my whole family is here! Outside I am just a 

stranger and I start feeling homesick, so I have to do something and come back.” 

Once a person is imprisoned it is very rare that he will not come back again. He will come back again because 

the prison gives some security, some safety. You need not bother, you need not worry about tomorrow. At the 

right time the food will be provided, at the right time you will go to bed, at the right time you will be awakened 

in the morning. Life is so disciplined like a monastery! 

In fact, monasteries and prisons are not very different, just the names are different. Monasteries are a little 

harder, that’s all! Prisons are a little more human. And modern prisons, particularly in the developed countries, 

are far superior to the monasteries. It is better to be in a prison than to be in a monastery. 

I have heard about a Trappist monastery. A man entered and he was told by the abbot, ”Remember, our rule 

is that you can speak only once in six years.” So for six years he was silent, boiling within. 

After six years the abbot called him and asked him, ”Have you something to say?” 

He said, ”Yes. The bed is too hard. I need another bed.” 

The abbot said, ”Okay, that will be done. You can go.” 

For six years again he was boiling. Six years afterwards the abbot called him and said, ”Have you something 

to say?” 

He said, ”Yes” he was really angry. He said, ”The people who were bringing the new bed broke the glass of 

the window and it is too cold.” 

The abbot said, ”Well, it will be mended. You go back.” 

For six years again he was boiling within. He was called and the abbot said, ”Have you something to say?” 

He was just going to say it and the abbot said, ”Wait! For eighteen years you have done nothing but complain 

and complain. You get out of the monastery! You are not meant to be a monk. You want to live a soft and easy 

life.” 

Jails are far better, and modern jails are really worth living in, with color television and everything! 

Man has been improving continuously for centuries. He has improved his prisons very well. He has become very 

sophisticated, cultured, civilized. And this is nothing but just painting the prison walls, making them beautiful. 

And now suddenly a buddha comes and says to you, ”Come out in the open. Abandon your miseries, your 

sorrows.” You cannot abandon your miseries and sorrows so easily. 

That’s why people who leave the world, renounce the world, create new miseries of their own. If there is nobody 

else to create misery for them if you don’t have a wife to create it, if you don’t have a husband to create it, if 

there is nobody to support you in your misery you will create it yourself. People are sleeping on beds of thorns... 

now, no wife prepares it, they themselves work hard on it! People are fasting, almost killing themselves. Now, 

nobody is doing it to them, that is their own idea. 

The ascetics are self-destructive; they are suicidal people, masochistic, perverted, but they are worshipped. 

They are worshipped because they create their own misery! You worship people as saints, as mahatmas, if they


create their own misery. They should be entered into mental asylums, they should be treated! They need medical 

care. They are not mahatmas, they are simply masochists. They have renounced the world, but they cannot 

renounce misery so they start creating their own misery. And when a person creates misery for himself, you all 

respect him. You have been told that this is something great; he is sacrificing his life for God. 

God is not a sadist. He does not enjoy your miseries and your sorrows. Don’t be foolish, don’t be stupid! But 

the reason is that people cannot abandon their miseries. They can renounce the gold and the palaces and the 

money and the power, they can renounce everything, but when it comes to renouncing the miseries, this becomes 

the most difficult thing they encounter, because miseries have been with you so long that you don’t know any 

other style of living. The only style that you have become accustomed to is sorrow. 

That’s why your saints are so ugly, so sad, so serious. And the more serious and the more sad they are, the 

more they are worshipped, so their ego is again nourished. When their ego is nourished they torture themselves 

more; you worship them still more, then they torture themselves still more. This becomes a vicious circle. 

ABANDON YESTERDAY, AND TOMORROW, AND TODAY. CROSS OVER TO THE FARTHER SHORE, 

BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. 

If you really want to reach to the ultimate, to the deathless, to the timeless, you will have to abandon yesterday. 

That which is gone is gone forever. Don’t look back and don’t look ahead. That which is not yet is not yet. Don’t 

look for the tomorrow. 

And people are so foolish: they are not only looking for tomorrow, they are looking for life after death; they 

are even thinking of heavenly pleasures. They are rejoicing in the idea that there will be the eternal possibility 

of enjoying the same foolish things that they have renounced here. Strange logic! Here they say, ”Don’t drink 

alcohol, it is irreligious.” But in bahisht, in the Mohammedan paradise, there are rivers, streams, waterfalls of 

alcohol! There you can drink as much as you want, you can swim in alcohol, you can dive deep in alcohol and 

you don’t have to pay anything for it! 

Here they say, ”The woman is the door to hell”; particularly Hindu scriptures say, ”The woman is the door to 

hell.” And what is happening in heaven? Beautiful women, continuously dancing! How did these women enter 

there? And they are doors to hell.... Your gods must have all reached hell long ago! Here, renounce the woman 

and then you will be rewarded with beautiful women in heaven. And do you know? those women never grow old. 

In the Hindu paradise, nothing is told about the men, whether they grow old or not, but it is absolutely certain 

that women are stuck at the age of sixteen, they cannot grow beyond that. That is the Hindu idea: sixteen is the 

climax of beauty, according to the Hindu idea. And ideas differ.... 

In the Mohammedan paradise, even beautiful boys are available, not only girls, because homosexuality was very 

much prevalent in the days when the Koran was being written. And of course, saints will not be satisfied only 

with girls, they will need beautiful boys too. 

Louis Jourdan, the French movie star, was in the United States seeking a good literary script for his next film. 

He happened to run into Budd Schulberg, the American author and playwright. 

”There is a new book out called Precocious Paula,” Schulberg suggested tentatively. ”It would give you a great 

co-starring role.” 

”I nevair hear of zis book,” said Jourdan. 

”It is something like Nabokov’s novel, Lolita,” explained Schulberg. 

”And what ees zis Lolita about?” 

”Well, frankly, it is about a middle-aged man who falls in love with a twelve-year-old.” 

The Frenchman gave him a blank look. ”I do not undairstan,” he said. ”A twelve-year-old what?” 

Man, woman, animal what? The Frenchman has his own ideas. I don’t know what happens in the French 

paradise it must be worth visiting! Not worth living in, but worth visiting. You will see all kinds of sexual 

perversions. 

Two professors were talking, one French, another American, about how many positions there are for making 

love. 

The Frenchman said, ”One hundred and twelve,” and the American said, ”One hundred and thirteen.” 

The Frenchman said, ”You surprise me, because we French are the experts. You start telling me what those 

one hundred and thirteen positions are.” 

And the American said, ”First, the woman lying down on her back and the man on top of her.” 

The Frenchman said, ”Wait! Yes, there are one hundred and thirteen. I never thought of that!” 

It must be worth visiting, the French paradise! And what to say about the French hell? That may be even 

worth living in! You will find great company, and on each step a surprise.

112 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 

And these are the people... all over the world they have been thinking of the same joys in a far bigger way in 

paradise the same joys they are condemning here! This is not renunciation; this is just repression. 

Real renunciation comes out of understanding. It is not renunciation at all. The real renunciation is not 

renunciation at all, it is pure understanding. You see the point, and all that is stupid and all that is false 

disappears, and you start living your ordinary life with more awareness. 

ABANDON YESTERDAY, abandon TOMORROW, abandon TODAY. Buddha says: Abandon time past, 

future, present, abandon everything. Forget about time; that’s the way to enter into a timeless space within 

yourself. That is meditation. CROSS OVER TO THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. 

DO YOUR THOUGHTS TROUBLE YOU? 

If they trouble you, then something immediately is needed. If your thoughts trouble you that means you have 

not yet been able to disidentify yourself from your mind. 

DOES PASSION DISTURB YOU? 

If it disturbs you that means you are still identified with the body. You think, ”I am the body,” then passion 

disturbs you. If you think, ”I am the mind,” then thoughts disturb you. 

BEWARE OF THIRSTINESS.... 

This word ’thirstiness’ is a translation of a Buddhist word tanha. Tanha has many more dimensions than 

thirstiness; thirstiness is a literal translation. Tanha means desire, desire for more, unending desire, endless desire. 

The more you get, the more you want. It is like throwing fuel in a fire. That is called tanha, and tanha is the 

root cause of your misery. 

BEWARE OF THIRSTINESS LEST YOUR WISHES BECOME DESIRES.... Beware, because desires don’t 

arise suddenly. First they are just wishes, then slowly they condense and become desires. And once they become 

desires it is more difficult to become aware; you can become aware more easily when they are just wishes. Destroy 

the seed rather than wait for the whole tree to grow and then to cut it; it will be unnecessary work. 

... LEST YOUR WISHES BECOME DESIRES AND DESIRE BINDS YOU. 

Desire is our imprisonment. The man who wants nothing, who is absolutely contented as he is, is free of all 

bondage. He has attained to ultimate freedom, nirvana and that is the goal of life. And it is only by attaining 

that freedom that you will know the significance of being, the song of being, the celebration of being. Your life 

will become a continuous bliss, and not only that you will be blissful, you will be able to bless others too. The 

whole existence will be blessed by you, by your very presence. 



Chapter 4 Transcendence – the true therapy 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, YOU SPEAK ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BUDDHAS, THE PSYCHOLOGY 

OF TRANSCENDENCE, AS THE ESSENCE OF THE WORK HAPPENING HERE IN THE BUDDHAFIELD. 

WHAT IS THE UNIQUENESS OF THIS THIRD PSYCHOLOGY? IS THERE A PSYCHOTHERAPY OF 

TRANSCENDENCE? 

Amitabh, Sigmund Freud introduced psychoanalysis into the world. It is rooted in analyzing the mind. It is 

confined to the mind. It does not step out of the mind, not even an inch. On the contrary, it goes deeper into the 

mind, into the hidden layers of the mind, into the unconscious, to find out ways and means so that the mind of 

man can at least be normal. The goal of Freudian psychoanalysis is not very great. 

The goal is to keep people normal. But normality is not enough. Just to be normal is not of any significance. It 

means the normal routine of life and your capacity to cope with it. It does not give you meaning, it does not give 

you significance. It does not give you insight into the reality of things. It does not take you beyond time, beyond 

death. It is at the most a helpful device for those who have gone so abnormal that they have become incapable 

of coping with their daily life they cannot live with people, they cannot work, they have become shattered. 

Psychotherapy provides them a certain togetherness not integrity, mind you, but only a certain togetherness. It 

binds them into a bundle. They remain still fragmentary. Nothing becomes crystallized in them, no soul is born. 

They don’t become blissful, they are only less unhappy, less miserable. 

Psychology helps them to accept the misery. It helps them to accept that this is all that life can give to you, so 

don’t ask for more. In a way, it is dangerous to their inner growth, because the inner growth happens only when 

there is a divine discontent. When you are absolutely unsatisfied with things as they are, only then do you go in 

the search, only then do you start rising higher, only then do you make efforts to pull yourself out of the mud.


Jung went a little further into the unconscious. He went into the collective unconscious. This is getting more 

and more into muddy water, and this is not going to help. 

Assagioli moved to the other extreme. Seeing the failure of psychoanalysis he invented psychosynthesis. But it 

is rooted in the same idea. Instead of analysis he emphasizes synthesis. 

The psychology of the buddhas is neither analysis nor synthesis; it is transcendence, it is going beyond the 

mind. It is not work within the mind, it is work that takes you outside the mind. That’s exactly the meaning of 

the English word ’ecstasy’ to stand out. 

When you are capable of standing out of your own mind, when you are capable of creating a distance between 

your mind and your being, then you have taken the first step of the psychology of the buddhas. And a miracle 

happens: when you are standing out of the mind all the problems of the mind disappear, because mind itself 

disappears; it loses its grip over you. 

Psychoanalysis is like pruning leaves of the tree, but new leaves will be coming up. It is not cutting off the 

roots. And psychosynthesis is sticking the fallen leaves back onto the tree again gluing them back to the tree. 

That is not going to give them life either. They will look simply ugly; they will not be alive, they will not be 

green, they will not be part of the tree but glued, somehow. 

The psychology of the buddhas cuts the very roots of the tree which create all kinds of neuroses, psychoses, 

which create the fragmentary man, the mechanical man, the robotlike man. And the way is simple.... 

Psychoanalysis takes years, and still the man remains the same. It is renovating the old structure, patching up 

here and there, whitewashing the old house. But it is the same house, nothing has radically changed. It has not 

transformed the consciousness of the man. 

The psychology of the buddhas does not work within the mind. It has no interest in analyzing or synthesizing. 

It simply helps you to get out of the mind so that you can have a look from the outside. And that very look is a 

transformation. The moment you can look at your mind as an object you become detached from it, you become 

disidentified from it; a distance is created, and roots are cut. 

Why are roots cut in this way? because it is you who goes on feeding the mind. If you are identified you feed 

the mind; if you are not identified you stop feeding it. It drops dead on its own accord. 

There is a beautiful story. I love it very much.... 

One day Buddha is passing by a forest. It is a hot summer day and he is feeling very thirsty. He says to 

Ananda, his chief disciple, ”Ananda, you go back. Just three, four miles back we passed a small stream of water. 

You bring a little water take my begging bowl. I am feeling very thirsty and tired.” He had become old. 

Ananda goes back, but by the time he reaches the stream, a few bullock carts have just passed through the 

stream and they have made the whole stream muddy. Dead leaves which had settled into the bed have risen up; 

it is no longer possible to drink this water it is too dirty. He comes back empty-handed, and he says, ”You will 

have to wait a little. I will go ahead. I have heard that just two, three miles ahead there is a big river. I will 

bring water from there.” 

But Buddha insists. He says, ”You go back and bring water from the same stream.” 

Ananda could not understand the insistence, but if the master says so, the disciple has to follow. Seeing the 

absurdity of it that again he will have to walk three, four miles, and he knows that water is not worth drinking 

he goes. 

When he is going, Buddha says, ”And don’t come back if the water is still dirty. If it is dirty, you simply sit 

on the bank silently. Don’t do anything, don’t get into the stream. Sit on the bank silently and watch. Sooner or 

later the water will be clear again, and then you fill the bowl and come back.” 

Ananda goes there. Buddha is right: the water is almost clear, the leaves have moved, the dust has settled. 

But it is not absolutely clear yet, so he sits on the bank just watching the river flow by. Slowly, slowly it becomes 

crystal-clear. Then he comes dancing. Then he understands why Buddha was so insistent. There was a certain 

message in it for him, and he understood the message. He gave the water to Buddha, and he thanked Buddha, 

touched his feet. 

Buddha says, ”What are you doing? I should thank you that you have brought water for me.” 

Ananda says, ”Now I can understand. First I was angry; I didn’t show it, but I was angry because it was absurd 

to go back. But now I understand the message. This is what I actually needed in this moment. The same is the 

case with my mind sitting on the bank of that small stream, I became aware that the same is the case with my 

mind. If I jump into the stream I will make it dirty again. If I jump into the mind more noise is created, more 

problems start coming up, surfacing. Sitting by the side I learned the technique.


”Now I will be sitting by the side of my mind too, watching it with all its dirtiness and problems and old leaves 

and hurts and wounds, memories, desires. Unconcerned I will sit on the bank and wait for the moment when 

everything is clear.” 

And it happens on its own accord, because the moment you sit on the bank of your mind you are no longer 

giving energy to it. This is real meditation. Meditation is the art of transcendence. 

Freud talks about analysis, Assagioli about synthesis. Buddhas have always talked about meditation, awareness. 

You ask me, Amitabh, ”What is the uniqueness of this third psychology?” 

Meditation, awareness, watchfulness, witnessing that is the uniqueness. No psychoanalyst is needed. You can 

do it on your own; in fact, you have to do it on your own. No guidelines are needed, it is such a simple process 

simple if you do it; if you don’t do it, it looks very complicated. Even the word ’meditation’ scares many people. 

They think it something very difficult, arduous. Yes, if you don’t do it it is difficult and arduous. It is like 

swimming. It is very difficult if you don’t know how to swim, but if you know, you know it is so simple a process. 

Nothing can be more simple than swimming. It is not an art at all; it is so spontaneous and so natural. 

Be more aware of your mind. And in being aware of your mind you will become aware of the fact that you 

are not the mind, and that is the beginning of the revolution. You have started flowing higher and higher. You 

are no longer tethered to the mind. Mind functions like a rock and keeps you. It keeps you within the field of 

gravitation. The moment you are no longer attached to the mind, you enter the buddhafield. When gravitation 

loses its power over you, you enter into the buddhafield. Entering the buddhafield means entering into the world 

of levitation. You start floating upwards. Mind goes on dragging you downwards. 

So it is not a question of analyzing or synthesizing. It is simply a question of becoming aware. That’s why in 

the East we have not developed any psychotherapy like Freudian or Jungian or Adlerian and there are so many 

in the market now. We have not developed a single psychotherapy because we know psychotherapies can’t heal. 

They may help you to accept your wounds, but they can’t heal. Healing comes when you are no longer attached 

to the mind. When you are disconnected from the mind, unidentified, absolutely untethered, when the bondage 

is finished, then healing happens. 

Transcendence is true therapy, and it is not only psychotherapy. It is not only a phenomenon limited to 

your psychology, it is far more than that. It is spiritual. It heals you in your very being. Mind is only your 

circumference, not your center. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, I FEEL LIKE I HAVE JUMPED INTO AN OCEAN KNOWING NOTHING OF ITS 

WATERS. I SEE YOU AS THE LIFEGUARD. MY FEAR IS THAT I AM A TERRIBLE SWIMMER AND 

THERE ARE SO MANY OF US OUT HERE, YOU WON’T SEE OR KNOW WHEN I AM DROWNING. 

My whole effort here is to help you drown, because the moment you disappear, God appears. To be drowned 

is to reach the other shore. 

Yes, you are right, Mradula. If I was trying to take everybody to the other shore, it would be really difficult: 

one lifeguard and one hundred thousand people to be taken to the other shore. It will be really tiring and almost 

impossible, unmanageable. Then every possibility is that you will drown the lifeguard! 

But the beauty of my work is that it is not a question of going to the other shore. If you are drowned, in that 

very drowning you have reached the other shore. So I need not remember everybody, his name, face there is no 

need for me to be bothered with all that. My whole concern is to push you into the water, and then the water 

takes care. And really it is a deep ocean, and there is no possibility of anybody ever crossing it so whether you 

are a terrible swimmer or not does not matter. If you are a terrible swimmer that is better, you will drown sooner 

than others! Those who can swim a little longer will remain a little longer in misery because they will be saving 

themselves. 

There are people here who are good swimmers, but they are the unfortunate ones. The really fortunate ones 

are those who don’t know even the ABC of swimming, so the moment I push them in the water they are gone 

down! And that is the way to reach the other shore because only your ego drowns; you cannot. Only your ego 

dies; you cannot. You were never born and you will never die. No ocean can destroy you. No power can destroy 

you. No fire can consume you. That’s why I go on pushing you without any worry about you whether you know 

swimming or not, whether you will be able to reach the other shore or not. I talk about the other shore so that 

I can persuade you to jump into the ocean. Once you have jumped I forget all about you! I have to persuade 

others too! 

So, Mradula, don’t be worried. You are fortunate that you are not a good swimmer. Soon you will be drowned. 

And the moment you are gone, that is the greatest moment of your life, because in that very death is resurrection.



Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY UNDERSTANDING SOMETHING IN MEDITATION? 

HOW DOES ONE GO ABOUT IT, AND WHAT PART OF ONESELF IS INVOLVED IN THE UNDERSTAND- 

ING? 

Nigel, meditation and understanding are synonymous. So when I say ”understand in meditation,” I am simply 

saying to be silent, quiet, cool, and see. You are not to do anything else, you have to be just silent, cool and calm, 

and see. And understanding arises on its own accord. It is the fragrance of being silent. 

Misunderstanding arises because your mind is very cloudy, noisy. Your mind never allows you to see that which 

is, never allows you to hear that which is said to you. Buddhas come and go but you remain the same. Yes, you 

become Christians and you become Buddhists, and you become Hindus, but you don’t change. These are your 

strategies to escape change, to avoid the awakened ones. 

You ask me, ”What do you mean by understanding something in meditation?” 

It is not a great problem. Meditation is understanding. You are trying to figure it out intellectually, and that 

is not possible. You are trying to think about it, what it is all about. Whatsoever conclusion you arrive at will 

be wrong. 

It is not a question of thinking what is meant by it. Meditate, and experience. It is something to be experienced. 

You say, ”How does one go about it...?” 

One does not go at all about it, otherwise you will go about and about. The word ’about’ means around, and 

you will go around and around in circles. Don’t make it an intellectual question; it is an existential approach. 

But the very word ’understanding’ has misled you, because by ’understanding’ we always think ’intellectual 

understanding’. That is not so. There is nothing like intellectual understanding. Intellectual understanding is 

pseudo. It is misunderstanding pretending to be understanding. The word ’understand’ is beautiful. 

When you are in meditation everything stands under you, you are so above it. That’s the meaning of understanding. 

Everything is there far below you, so you can see... like a bird’s-eye view. You can see the whole from 

your altitude. Intellect cannot see it; it is on the same plane. Understanding happens only when the problem is 

on one plane and you are on a higher plane. If you are also on the same plane, understanding is not possible. You 

will misunderstand only. And that is one of the greatest problems to be encountered by every seeker. 

Jesus says again and again to his disciples, ”If you have ears, hear; if you have eyes, see.” He was not talking 

to blind people or deaf people, he was just talking to people like you. But why does he go on insisting? for the 

simple reason that hearing is not listening, and seeing is not true seeing. You see one thing and you understand 

something else. Your mind immediately distorts it. Your mind is upside down. It makes a mess of everything. It 

is in confusion, and you look through that confusion, so the whole world looks confused. 

Old Nugent loved his cat, Tommy, so dearly he tried to teach it to talk. 

”If I can get Tommy to converse with me,” he reasoned, ”I won’t have to bother with ordinary humans at all.” 

First he tried a diet of canned salmon, then one of canaries. Tommy liked both but he didn’t learn to talk. 

Then one day Nugent had two extremely talkative parrots cooked in butter and served to Tommy with asparagus 

and french fries. Tommy licked the plate clean, and then wonder of wonders suddenly turned to his master and 

shouted, ”Look out!” 

Nugent didn’t move. The ceiling caved in and buried the old man under a mass of debris. Tommy shook his 

head and said, ”Eight years he spends getting me to talk, and then the dummy doesn’t listen!” 

You go thousands of miles to listen to a master and then ”... the dummy doesn’t listen.” 

The mind cannot, it is impossible for the mind to listen; it is not in a state of receptivity. The mind is aggressive, 

it jumps to conclusions so fast, so quickly that it misses the whole point. In fact, it has already concluded, it is 

simply waiting for its conclusion to be proved right. 

Nigel, please don’t try to understand; rather try to meditate. You must be new here. Dance, sing, meditate, 

let the mind settle a little bit. Let this stream of the mind, which is full of dead leaves and dirt, settle down a 

little. Let it become clean and clear, transparently clear; only then will you be able to understand what I am 

saying. Then it is so simple. I am not talking very complicated philosophy it is not philosophy at all I am simply 

indicating towards certain truths which I have experienced, and you can experience any moment you decide to 

experience. But it has to be a journey. 

You say, ”How does one go about it, and what part of oneself is involved in the understanding?” 

It is not a question of any part being involved in it. Your totality is involved. 

Meditation is not of the body, not of the mind, not of the soul. Meditation simply means your body, your mind, 

your soul, all functioning in such a harmony, in such wholeness, humming beautifully; they are in a melody... one.


Your whole being body, mind, soul, are all involved in meditation. That’s why my effort here is to start every 

meditation with the body. That is something new. 

In the ancient days people tried to start meditation directly in your innermost core. That is a difficult process. 

You don’t know anything about your inner center; how can you start your journey from somewhere where you have 

never been? You can start your journey only from where you already are. You are in the body, hence my emphasis 

is on dancing, singing, breathing so you can start from the body. When the body starts becoming meditative.... 

And don’t be puzzled by my use of the word ’meditative’ for the body. Yes, the body becomes meditative. When 

it is in a deep dance, when it is functioning perfectly, undividedly, as a whole, it has a meditative quality about 

it, a certain grace, a beauty. 

Then move inwards, then start watching the mind. Then the mind starts settling down. And when the mind 

has also settled, has become one with the body, then turn towards the center a one-hundred-and-eighty degree 

turn and a great peace will descend on you. It will pulsate from your soul to the body, from the body to the soul. 

In that pulsation you will be one. 

So don’t ask what part of oneself is involved in the understanding. Your totality is involved. And only when 

your totality is involved, there is understanding. Your body knows about it, your mind knows about it, your soul 

knows about it. Then you start functioning in unison, in unity. Otherwise the body says one thing, the mind says 

another, and the soul goes on in its own way. And you are always moving into different directions simultaneously. 

Your body is hungry, your mind is full of lust, and you are trying to be meditative. That’s why I am not in favor 

of fasting unless it is done purely for health purposes, as a dieting for reducing weight, or maybe once in a while 

just for purifying, so the whole stomach is left for one day to rest, so the whole digestive system can sometimes 

get a holiday. Otherwise, it is continuously working and working and working it too gets tired. 

Now scientists say even machines get tired. They call it metal-fatigue, just like mental fatigue. Even metal 

needs rest, and your stomach is not made of metal, remember. It is not even made of plastic. It is made of fragile 

material, very fragile material. But it works your whole life. It is good sometimes to give it a holiday. Even God 

had to rest one day after six days work he rested for one day. Even God gets tired. 

So sometimes, just out of kindness for the poor stomach, who works for you continuously, fasting is okay. But 

I don’t suggest it that it is going to be helpful in meditation. When you are hungry your body wants you to go 

to the fridge. 

I am against repressing your sex, because if you repress sex, whenever you will sit silently your mind will start 

fantasizing about sex. When you are occupied with other things the mind goes on fantasizing like an undercurrent, 

but when you are not doing anything it comes into the light. It starts demanding, it creates beautiful fantasies: 

alluring beauties surround you. How can you meditate? 

In fact, the old traditions have created all kinds of barriers to meditation, and then they say, ”Meditation is 

very difficult.” Meditation is not difficult; meditation is a simple process, a natural process. But if you create 

unnecessary hindrances, then you make it something like a hurdle race. You create barriers: you put rocks on the 

way... you hang rocks around your neck, you keep yourself chained, imprisoned, locked from within and the key 

thrown out.... Then of course it becomes more and more difficult, more and more impossible. 

My effort here is to make meditation a natural phenomenon. Give to the body what is the body’s need, and 

give to the mind what is the mind’s need. And then you will be surprised, they become very friendly. And when 

you tell the body, ”Now for one hour allow me to sit silently,” the body says, ”Okay. You have been doing so 

much for me, you have been so respectful towards me, I can do at least this much for you.” 

And when you say to the mind, ”Please, keep yourself silent for a few minutes. Let me have a little rest,” the 

mind will understand you. If you have not been repressing, if you have honored the mind, respected the mind, if 

you have not condemned it, then the mind will also become silent. 

I am saying this from my own experience. Respect the body, respect the mind, so that they respect you. Create 

a friendliness. They are yours; don’t be antagonistic. All the old traditions teach you to be antagonistic to the 

body and the mind; they create enmity, and through enmity you cannot move into meditation. Then the mind 

will disturb you more when you are meditating than at any other time. Then the body will become restless more 

in meditation than at any other time. It will take revenge, it won’t allow you to sit silently. It will create so many 

problems for you. 

If you have tried to sit silently for a few minutes you will know. Imaginary things will start happening. You 

will think that some ant is creeping on your leg, and when you look there is no ant. Strange.... When you were 

sitting with closed eyes you felt absolutely that it was there, creeping, coming, coming, coming... and when you 

open your eyes there is no ant, nothing. It was just the body playing tricks with you. You have been playing tricks 

with the body. You have been deceiving the body in many ways, so now the body is deceiving you. When the


body wants to go to sleep you force it to sit in a cinema hall. The body says, ”Okay. When the right opportunity 

arises I will see to it.” So when you sit in meditation the body starts creating problems for you. Suddenly you 

start feeling your back needs scratching... and you are surprised because it never happens ordinarily. 

One woman brought for me a plastic hand with a battery attached to it, to scratch your back. I said, ”But 

why have you brought this to me?” 

She said, ”You must be sitting in meditation.... Whenever I sit in meditation the only problem is my back 

starts... I feel so much like I have to scratch it, and I cannot reach it. So I have purchased this hand. This is very 

handy! You put it on and it can scratch anywhere. So I was just thinking that you must be sitting in meditation... 

you will need this!” 

I said, ”I never sit in meditation. I am in meditation, so I don’t need to sit. Whatsoever I am doing I am 

in meditation. If my back needs scratching I will scratch it meditatively. What is wrong in scratching your own 

back? You are not scratching somebody else’s back.” 

Just take care of the body and the body will repay you tremendously. Take care of your mind and the mind 

will be helpful. Create friendship, and meditation comes easily. Rather than trying to understand... because 

understanding is not possible before meditation, only misunderstanding. 

A man walked into a pub one night and sat down at the bar to drink a beer. 

While he was engaged in conversation with the man on the stool beside him, a monkey clambered down one of 

the bar posts, stopped at his glass and pissed in his beer. 

The man noticed it too late. 

”Hey!” he exclaimed. ”Did you see that? That monkey just pissed in my beer!” 

”Well, no use tellin’ me about it,” said his neighbor. ”Tell the barkeeper he owns this place.” 

The man called the barkeeper over. 

”Hey!” he said. ”Do you know that while I was talking with this gentleman a monkey came over and pissed in 

my beer?” 

”Nothin’ to do with me,” said the landlord. ”Go and have a word with the pianist over there it is his monkey!” 

The man walked over with his pint mug, tapped the pianist on the shoulder and said, ”Hey, do you know your 

monkey has just pissed in my beer?” 

”No,” said the pianist, ”but if you sing the words, I will play it.” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, IS NOT EGO A PART OF DIVINE PLAY? WHO AM I TO DROP IT? 

Vedant Bharti... so please don’t drop it! 

The venerable old rabbi, known throughout the land for his wisdom, lay in a coma, very near death. On either 

side of his bed hovered his most worshipful disciples. 

”Rebbenyu,” pleaded the spokesman for the grieving congregants, ”please do not leave us without a final word 

of wisdom. Speak to us for the last time, dear Rabbi.” For a few moments there was no response, and the weeping 

visitors feared he had passed on to his well-earned reward. But suddenly the rabbi’s lips moved ever so slightly. 

They bent over him to hear his final words. 

”Life is a cup of tea,” he whispered in a faint voice. 

The disciples looked at each other in perplexity. What did he mean? What great secret of life was hidden in 

that mystic statement? For the better part of an hour they exchanged opinions, analyzing the sentence from every 

conceivable standpoint, but they could not decipher the deeper meaning. 

”We must ask him before it is too late,” said the leader. Once again, he leaned over the still figure of the 

revered sage. ”Rabbi, Rabbi,” he called out urgently, ”we implore you to explain. Why is life a cup of tea?” 

With his last spark of energy, the rabbi lifted his palms and croaked, ”All right, so life is not a cup of tea.” 

Vedant Bharti, you say, ”Is not ego a part of divine play? Who am I to drop it?” 

If you are enjoying the divine play, please don’t drop it. And there is one fear also: somebody may pick it up. 

It is better you keep yours. One to one is more than enough; somebody will have two if you drop it. 

And do you understand what is meant by divine play? If you understand it, then where is the ego? If you 

understand it is all divine play, the ego has disappeared. The ego exists only when you take life seriously. Ego is 

a very serious phenomenon false, but serious. If life is a divine play, if you have come to this great wisdom, then 

where is the ego? Then you are just playing a part, you need not be identified with it. You are acting only. You 

need not become your acting. Ego simply means you become identified with your part, so much so that you forget 

that you are separate, you forget that you are consciousness. You become lost in the acting itself, you become it 

that’s what ego is.


Ego is not something that you have to drop. Ego is only a misunderstanding. You don’t drop misunderstandings, 

you simply understand and the misunderstanding is no more there. You don’t drop darkness, you simply bring 

light in and it is not found at all. Not that first you bring light in, then you catch hold of darkness and throw 

it out of the house there is no need. If you are really aware that it is a divine play, that means light has been 

brought in. Then you cannot ask the second thing. 

If it is your understanding that life is a divine play, then you cannot ask, ”Who am I to drop it?” Then you are 

not, you disappear. There is no dropper and nothing to be dropped. 

But the first part of your question is not your understanding. So please, if you have dropped it, put it back, 

because there are so many foolish people, somebody may pick it up. 

An angry mother dragged her nine-year-old son to the doctor’s office and asked, ”Is a nine-year-old boy able 

to perform an appendix operation?” 

The doctor barked impatiently, ”Of course not!” 

The mother said to the kid, ”So, was I right? Put it back!” 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, LISTENING TO YOU, A DESIRE ARISES FOR AWARENESS; BUT IS NOT THIS 

VERY DESIRE ANTITHETICAL TO AWARENESS? 

Prem Sunderam, if listening to me a desire arises for awareness, then you have missed the point. Listening to 

me you will become aware. If you are rightly listening, then awareness will happen through listening. If you are 

not listening, then a desire will arise to be aware. Desire means tomorrow you will be aware you want to be aware 

tomorrow. And if you are really listening to me, who bothers about tomorrow? This moment is all that is you 

are aware. 

See right now.... 

This is awareness: the birds chirping, the silence, three thousand people lost into one organic, oceanic unity, as 

if there is nobody. This is awareness, and the taste of it will transform you. And then wherever you want to be 

aware you can be aware. It is something that is happening in you. Listening to me is only a device. 

I am not here preaching to you; this is only a meditative device. Just as you are doing other meditations, this 

is also a meditation in which I participate with you so that your minds can become engaged with me, and your 

hearts can slip deep into your very core. 

Sunderam, if a desire arises for meditation, for awareness, then you have missed the whole point, because desire 

is a barrier. Either be aware right now either now or never! You can’t say ”Tomorrow....” The moment you say 

tomorrow you have postponed it forever. 

Yes, a desire is antithetical to awareness. Listening to me, understand that a desire is antithetical to awareness. 

Desirelessness is awareness. Seeing that desirelessness is awareness, how can you desire awareness? When, sitting 

with me each morning, you become silent, what is happening? There is no desire to be silent that’s what 

is happening. Because there is no desire to be silent you are simply silent, and then that silence will go on 

surrounding you for the whole day. 

And if you see the point then there is no need for any special situation for you to be aware in. You can be 

aware anywhere. In the very marketplace you can suddenly become aware. It is not a question of desiring; it is 

becoming aware suddenly. Any moment shake yourself a little, wake yourself a little. 

Two drunks were riding a roller coaster when one turned to the other and said, ”We may be making good time, 

but I’ve a feeling that we’re on the wrong bus.” 

If you are postponing for tomorrow you are on the wrong bus; you are drunk; you are unconscious. 

A policeman appeared in court as a witness against Max Loeb, arrested for being drunk in public. 

”How do you know the defendant was intoxicated?” inquired the magistrate. 

”No doubt about it at all,” said the officer. ”When I saw him, he was dropping a penny in a parking meter. 

Then he looked up at the big clock on the City Hall building and moaned, ’My God, I have gained eleven pounds!’” 

Just a little consciousness.... And it can happen only now. God knows only one time, now, and only one place 

here. He knows no past, no future, he knows only the present. If you want to have any communion with reality 

you have to be aware right now. 

Wife: ”How did you happen to hit a telephone pole?” 

Drunk: ”I hit it in self-defense.” 

Just watch your life, what you are doing to yourself. 

The fireman was pulling the drunk out of the burning bed. ”You fool,” he shouted, ”that will teach you to 

smoke in bed!”


The drunk answered, ”I was not smoking in bed it was on fire when I lay down.” 

So shake yourself. Don’t say tomorrow. Whenever you remember, whenever you remember me, whenever you 

remember Buddha, whenever you remember Jesus, just shake yourself. Wake up! See all around the people, the 

trees, the birds. Be silent, available to existence, in a deep, deep let-go... and awareness, slowly, slowly will go on 

penetrating deeper and deeper into you. 

Mulla Nasruddin was saying to me: 

”I am the sensitive type a poet. When I see a beautiful woman I want to cry... or write a poem... or jump on 

her! 

”I was at a party in my hotel and I met this really great girl, and we drank champagne. I managed to get her 

up to my room. I locked the door and took off my glasses showed her no mercy! And I winked... and she winked. 

And I took off my shirt... and she took off her shirt. I took off my pants... and she took off her pants and I 

lunged at her. Then I realized I had been looking into a mirror. I was taking glass out of my legs for weeks. I 

must say I was the best I ever had!” 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, ARE YOU AN ANTI-SEMITE? 

Levin, me? An anti-Semite? You must be crazy! 

Louie Feldman a traveling salesman caught the last train out of Grand Central Station, but in his haste he 

forgot to pack his toiletry set. 

The following morning he arose bright and early and made his way to the lavatory at the end of the car. Inside 

he walked up to a washbasin that was not in use. 

”Excuse me,” said Louie to a man who was bent over the basin next to his, ”I forgot to pack all my stuff last 

night. Mind if I use your soap?” 

The stranger gave him a searching look, hesitated momentarily, and then shrugged. ”Okay, help yourself.” 

Louie murmured his thanks, washed, and again turned to the man. ”Mind if I borrow your towel?” 

”No, I guess not.” 

Louie dried himself, dropped the wet towel to the floor and inspected his face in the mirror. ”I could use a 

shave,” he commented. ”Would it be all right with you if I use your razor?” 

”Certainly,” agreed the man in a courteous voice. 

”How you fixed for shaving cream?” 

Wordlessly, the man handed Louie his tube of shaving cream. 

”You got a fresh blade? I hate to use one that somebody else already used. Can’t be too careful, you know.” 

Louie was given a fresh blade. His shave completed, he turned to the stranger once more. ”You wouldn’t 

happen to have a comb handy, would you?” 

The man’s patience had stretched dangerously near the breaking point, but he managed a wan smile and gave 

Louie his comb. 

Louie inspected it closely. ”You should really keep this comb a little cleaner,” he admonished as he proceeded 

to wash it. He then combed his hair and again addressed his benefactor whose mouth was now drawn in a thin, 

tight line. 

”Now, if you don’t mind, I will have a little talcum powder, some after-shave lotion, some toothpaste and a 

toothbrush.” 

”By God, I never heard of such damn nerve in my life!” snarled the outraged stranger. ”Hell, no! Nobody in 

the whole world can use my toothbrush.” 

He slammed his belongings into their leather case and stalked to the door, muttering, ”I gotta draw the line 

some place!” 

”Anti-Semite!” yelled Louie. 



Chapter 5 The Buddha is your birthright 


QUIETEN YOUR MIND. REFLECT. WATCH. 

NOTHING BINDS YOU. YOU ARE FREE. 

YOU ARE STRONG. YOU HAVE COME TO THE END. FREE FROM PASSION AND DESIRE, YOU 

HAVE STRIPPED THE THORNS FROM THE STEM. THIS IS YOUR LAST BODY.

120 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 

YOU ARE WISE. YOU ARE FREE FROM DESIRE AND YOU UNDERSTAND WORDS AND THE 

STITCHING TOGETHER OF WORDS. AND YOU WANT NOTHING. 

”VICTORY IS MINE, KNOWLEDGE IS MINE, AND ALL PURITY, ALL SURRENDER. 

”I WANT NOTHING. I AM FREE. I HAVE FOUND MY WAY. WHOM SHALL I CALL TEACHER?” 

THE GIFT OF TRUTH IS BEYOND GIVING. THE TASTE BEYOND SWEETNESS, THE JOY BEYOND 

JOY. 

THE END OF DESIRE IS THE END OF SORROW. 

The whole philosophy of Gautama the Buddha is contained in the first sutra. It is of uttermost importance. It 

is not only to be intellectually understood, it has to be lived; only then will you be able to understand it. 

QUIETEN YOUR MIND. 

Buddha does not preach any belief belief in God, heaven or hell. His whole emphasis is on creating a silent 

space within you. You are already full of knowledge; more knowledge you don’t need. You need more innocence. 

You need an innocence like a small child. You need more wonder, more awe, more clarity. 

And all these come to you when the mind is silent. When the mind is silent you are in communion with 

existence; when the mind is noisy you are disconnected. Your own noise functions like a wall around you. Silence 

is the bridge; knowledge, noise, is a barrier. And all knowledge creates noise in you. The more you know, the 

more you become indoctrinated, the more you are full of rubbish, junk. 

You need a spacious being within you, utterly empty, so empty that even you are not there, so silent that even 

the idea of ’I’ has disappeared. Then there is no barrier between you and existence. You fall in harmony. You 

become part of this tremendous celebration that goes on and on. You dance with the stars, you dance with the 

wind, you dance with the clouds. Your whole being becomes a dance, a song. You burst forth into thousands of 

flowers. But a silent being is a must; in a noisy being, nothing is possible. The noisy mind is impotent; it is not 

fertile, it is not creative. The silent mind is the right soil for your being to grow to grow to its ultimate heights 

and depths. 

Hence the first sutra: QUIETEN YOUR MIND. 

One sometimes feels surprised the way Buddha starts. The way Buddha approaches reality is so unique. It is 

utterly revolutionary, radical. One would have thought he would start with a prayer to God but there is no God. 

In Buddha’s vision God has no place. God is the invention of the ignorant people. 

For Buddha there is no God as a person; there is no creator because the creation is eternal. Yes, there is 

creativity, but no creator. There is godliness, but no God. The whole existence is overflowing with godliness, but 

God is not a person so you cannot pray to him. 

Remember, prayer is impossible with Buddha. Prayer presupposes a God, a personal God who can favor you 

if you praise him, who can be very disfavorable to you if you annoy him. This is childish the whole approach is 

childish; it is not religious at all. 

Buddha begins in a very scientific way. Rather than talking about God he talks about you and about your 

reality. As you are, you are nothing but noise. Look within and you will see the facticity of Buddha: you are 

just noise; not even a moment of silence happens to you. Hence your doors and windows remain closed. You are 

surrounded by your own garbage that you go on creating and accumulating, thinking that it is great treasure. 

QUIETEN YOUR MIND.... And the statement is very significant, because the moment the mind is quiet the 

mind disappears. A quiet mind means a no-mind. A quiet mind is not anymore a mind at all. Negatively you 

can call it a no-mind. That’s what Zen people have done, that’s what mystics like Kabir, Nanak, have done. 

They call it amani a state of no-mind. But you can use a positive term also. Mahayana Buddhists call this state 

bodhichitta the universal Mind. Mind with a capital M, mind you, not your mind, not my mind, but simply the 

Mind: the oceanic Mind, the Mind of the whole. 

Both are good. If you love positive ways of saying things you can call it bodhichitta the Mind of the Buddha, 

the universal Mind. Or, if you love to be more accurate, then the negative way of saying it is far more correct; 

then call it no-mind, because as noise disappears, mind disappears. Just as when your disease disappears, health 

is left behind not that now you have a healthy disease. Disease is never healthy and mind is never silent. Disease 

is disease and mind is noise. When there is no disease then there is health; when there is no noise then there is 

no-mind. 

But a new experience arises in your innermost core: the experience of a silent music, a soundless sound. The 

mystics have called it anahat nad, the soundless sound; or, as the Zen people say, the sound of one hand clapping. 

It is basically paradoxical; hence the expression, the sound of one hand clapping. 

Buddha says: QUIETEN YOUR MIND. Really he is saying: Go beyond mind, drop the mind, be finished with 

it. And what is the way? How has it to be done?

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 121 

REFLECT.... 

That is the first fundamental. Remember, by ”reflect” he does not mean contemplate, think. No, by reflect 

he actually means reflect like a mirror. The mirror reflects; whatsoever comes in front of the mirror, it reflects 

it. It does not think about it, it does not contemplate it; it simply reflects. When it has moved, the reflection 

disappears. 

This should be the fundamental: reflect things, and when they have disappeared, let them disappear. Don’t go 

on carrying the past. Don’t become a photo-plate; remember to remain a mirror. The photo-plate also reflects, 

but it becomes attached to the reflection, it becomes obsessed with the reflection. It clings to it, it becomes 

imprinted with it. The mirror remains clean; it is not imprinted by what it reflects. It does not become beautiful 

when a beautiful face is reflected; it does not become ugly. 

So should be the seeker. When success comes, reflect; don’t become attached to it. When failure comes, reflect; 

don’t be disturbed by it. When you are in a palace, reflect the palace, and when you are in a hut, reflect the hut. 

Don’t become attached either to the palace or to the hut. Let everything come and pass, and you simply be a 

mirror. 

If you are a mirror you cannot carry the past with you, and if you don’t carry the past you will remain fresh, 

you will remain young, you will remain in a continuous process of birth. Each moment you will be born anew. We 

become old... I am not talking about physiological age, I am talking about psychological age. We become very 

old for the simple reason that we collect the past. 

You are still carrying something that happened thirty years ago. Somebody had insulted you and that wound 

is still there; you still hanker to take revenge. You were rich fifty years ago, you cannot forget that yet; or you 

were poor and you are still carrying that with you. 

That’s how you find the world full of miserly people. From where do they come? These are poor people who 

have become rich, but they are still clinging to their poverty. Only on the surface they have possessions, but 

deep down they are poor, very poor. They can’t leave their poverty they can’t depart from their past. They are 

carrying it; it has become a habit, it has become second nature to them. Hence the clinging to the money. They 

cannot spend, they cannot use their money. 

I know a person who has at least ten buildings and earns a lot of money but lives in such a dirty house. All his 

buildings are beautiful, but those beautiful buildings have been rented and he lives in a dirty black hole. He has 

no wife, no children; he is alone. 

The reason I became acquainted with him, was that whenever he would pass through the street where I used 

to live, at least from one furlong I would know that he was coming, because he used a bicycle so old that it must 

have been used by Adam and Eve! It made so much noise that I became interested in the man. 

I inquired, ”Who is this man?” and they said, ”He is one of the richest men of the town. His bicycle has no 

brakes, but one thing is good about his bicycle: if you tell him to purchase a new one he says no, he can leave it 

anywhere nobody ever steals it! Who will steal it? Anybody stealing it... it will be known all over the city who 

has stolen it, it makes so much noise!” 

I told a common friend that I would like to meet the man, and I asked him, ”Why are you living in such misery 

when you can live beautifully, in a beautiful house? You have enough money, more than you need, and once you 

are dead there is nobody else for whom you are collecting all this.” 

He said, ”I know it, but somehow I cannot spend. That is impossible. Once I get some money, the hardest 

thing for me is to spend it.” Tears came into his eyes and he said, ”I also feel, What am I doing to myself? But 

I lived in poverty my parents died when I was very young. I have been a beggar; slowly, slowly I have earned 

money. I gambled, I did all kinds of things, and that poverty is still within me I am still an orphan. I am not a 

rich man I am the poorest in this town.” 

And I could see it in his eyes. This is what happens to people. 

You just watch your mind and you will see a queue of past events going back, far back, to the age when you 

were three or four. And all that has become collected; it is heavy on you. 

Buddha says: If you want to quieten the mind, the first thing is to learn the art of reflecting. Just reflect and 

move on. Yes, live in the moment, live totally. Reflect whatsoever is and then let it move. Don’t cling to it, so 

that you are again pure, again innocent, again available, again empty, ready to experience again. 

It is because of your past that you cannot experience the present; your past distorts everything. It is because 

of your past that you go on desiring the future, because you don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past and 

you would like to have all the pleasures that you enjoyed in the past again and again in the future. So your future 

is nothing but a modified past: all the pains have been deleted and all the pleasures have been multiplied. And 

between your past and future is the small present which is real. Between two unrealities you are destroying that


which is real. If you learn to reflect, then the past is irrelevant, the future is irrelevant; the only relevance is that 

of the present. 

Be present to the present that is the meaning of reflecting. 

And the second thing: to quieten the mind, Buddha says: 

WATCH. 

What will you do when you reflect? You are not a dead thing, you are not like a dead mirror. Be like a mirror, 

but you can’t be dead you are alive. So what will you do? WATCH. 

You think, you imagine, but you never watch. Watching is a totally different process. It means you don’t have 

any likes, any dislikes. You don’t condemn anything, you don’t appreciate either. You simply see and you are 

aware and you are alert not dead like a mirror. You are aware. You are watching what is happening. 

You see a roseflower; you reflect it and you watch it. You don’t say anything about the rose. You don’t bring 

words between you and the rose because all those words are useless. When you are confronting a real rose why 

bring words in? Why destroy the reality of the rose by bringing interpretations of the past? You may be quoting 

great poets Shelley and Yeats but by quoting them you are bringing between you and the rose a barrier. Leave 

your eyes utterly empty but don’t fall asleep. Watch, just look silently. Be a witness. 

Watching means looking at things without any evaluation, neither saying it is good nor saying it is bad because 

nothing is good and nothing is bad. Things are simply what they are. 

A rose is a rose and a thorn is a thorn; neither the thorn is bad nor the rose is good. If man disappears from 

the earth, roses will be there, thorns will be there, but there will be nobody to say that roses are good and thorns 

are bad. It is our mind that creates these values. And these go on changing. 

Just a hundred years ago nobody would have ever thought to put a cactus in one’s home. A cactus is all thorns. 

If you had brought a cactus into your home, people would have thought you were mad, something had gone wrong 

with you! But now to grow roses in your home is orthodox. The avant-garde people grow cactuses; they are the 

really cultured people. They keep cactus plants in their bedrooms too poisonous, dangerous, but the cactus is 

”in” and the rose is ”out.” Fashions change. 

In this century, ugly things have become beautiful and beautiful things have become ugly. Picasso is valuable 

one of the ugliest painters the world has ever known! Just two hundred or three hundred years ago he would have 

been forced to live in a mental asylum if he had painted things like this. He would have been thought insane, 

utterly insane, because the world of Michelangelo is a totally different world; a different valuation existed. The 

world of Leonardo da Vinci is a totally different world. 

Fashions go on changing. Every day man goes on changing. Nothing is, in fact, good or bad, beautiful or 

ugly. It all depends on you. Whatsoever you start thinking is good, beautiful, becomes good and beautiful. A 

Jaina monk moving naked is thought to be great by the Jainas, but others think it a little obscene. Many times 

problems arise. 

Just a few days ago in a village, there was a riot because one Jaina monk entered in the town and the non- 

Jainas objected that a naked man walking inside the town.... ”This is bad for our children and our wives and our 

daughters.” 

I am not against nudity, but I am also not in favor of Jaina monks moving naked. My reason is totally different; 

my reason is that they look so ugly. Unless you have a beautiful body you don’t have the right to be naked. I can 

accept Mahavira moving naked. It is said that he had one of the most beautiful bodies and it seems so because 

all his statues are so beautiful. He must have had a very beautiful body, very proportionate. If he moved naked, 

that can be understood. To cover his beautiful body with clothes will not be right. But Jaina monks deliberately 

destroy their bodies. They are masochistic people: they cripple their bodies in many ways. They make them as 

ugly as they can, because the uglier your body is, the more respected you are. So they become caricatures. They 

are cartoons, not real people. It is better to cover them in beautiful clothes. 

It depends what your criteria are, what your values are. But in reality, nothing is good and nothing is bad; 

things are simply what they are. If you witness then there is no question of choice. Then a choiceless awareness 

arises in you. 

That’s what J. Krishnamurti goes on saying; it is basically the message of Buddha. The followers of Krishnamurti 

think that he is teaching something very original. It has nothing original in it; it is essentially the message of 

Buddha. It is not J. Krishnamurti’s invention. In a different sense it is original; it is original in the sense that it 

is his experience. He also knows it as much as Buddha knew, but it is not new not original in the sense of being 

new. It is original in the sense that it has originated in him. He is not repeating Buddha, that is true. He is not 

imitating Buddha, that is true. He is simply saying what he has known. But whatsoever he has known is the 

same truth as Buddha’s truth.


In fact, there are not two truths in the world, so all the awakened ones know the same truth again and again. 

Their language is different, their expression is different; it is bound to be so. Twenty-five centuries have passed 

since Buddha. How can I speak the same language? And how could Buddha have spoken the language that I 

speak? That is impossible. But as the followers of Krishnamurti go on claiming that his teaching is absolutely 

original, new that is utter nonsense. It is basically the same teaching as Buddha’s: choiceless awareness. That is 

the meaning of ”reflect” and ”watch.” 

Be aware, but don’t choose. If you choose, you lose watching. If you start clinging because the moment you 

choose you will start clinging then reflection is lost. And once you have fulfilled these two simple things reflection 

and watchfulness.... 


These simple sutras are enough. If you can practice only these two things reflection and watchfulness nothing 

else is needed. You are free, nothing binds you. You are really freedom; nothing can ever bind you. All bondage 

is imaginary. You think you are in bondage; hence you are in bondage. It is your thought. 

Harvey Pincus, the passionate playboy of Prospect Park, oblivious of human limitations, speeded up when he 

should have slowed down. To his surprise and dismay, he awoke three days later in Bellevue Hospital where he 

was placed on a strict diet of raw eggs and oysters with wheat germ, garnished with ginseng and soybean sprouts. 

A week later, his physical desires returned and, after having been rebuffed by Bellevue nurses of various shapes, 

sizes, ages and national origins, he demanded to be released forthwith so that he might resume his ”al fresco” 

prowling in the Prospect Park perimeter. 

Pincus was soon confronted by Dr. Siegel, the hospital’s staff psychiatrist. ”Before we release you, you will 

have to take a Rohrschach test,” explained the medic. 

”What is that?” asked Pincus suspiciously. 

”A kind of personality gauge. I will just show you some inkblots and you tell me what each one suggests to 

you.” 

”So go ahead and test.” 

Dr. Siegel handed him the first blot. ”What does this bring to mind?” 

”That’s easy,” replied Pincus instantly, his eyes lighting with pleasure. ”It is a girl’s hips.” 

”And this?” asked the psychiatrist, handing him another inkblot. 

”A woman’s breast. Very nice, too.” 

”Hmm how about this one?” 

”Wow, Doctor, what a gorgeous pair of legs!” 

Siegel had already reached an obvious conclusion about his patient’s proclivities, but he continued with a halfdozen 

more inkblots just to make sure. When Pincus continued to respond as though all the ”pictures” were 

sexual symbols, right up to the last blot, the doctor leaned back in his chair and rendered his diagnosis. 

”My dear fellow,” he began, somewhat severely, ”in case nobody ever told you, you have an abnormal fixation 

on sex.” 

”What does that mean, if I may be so bold to inquire?” 

”It means, sir,” Siegel explained bluntly, ”that you have a filthy mind.” 

”Well, look who’s talking!” Pincus yelled, outraged. ”You are showing me all those dirty pictures and I’ve got 

a filthy mind!” 

What you are seeing in the world is not really there; it is your projection. What the world is like you will be 

able to see only when your mind has learned to be silent, to watch, to reflect. Then you will know that which is. 

Right now what you know is nothing but your own mind being projected on the screen of the world. Everything 

functions as a screen for you and you go on projecting your ideas; hence the insistence of Buddha on making the 

mind absolutely quiet. 

When the mind is silent the projector stops, the screen becomes blank, and then for the first time you see the 

glory of existence. Then for the first time you become aware of the splendor and the blissfulness and the peace 

that surrounds everything. You become aware of godliness overflowing everywhere. Everything is known then in 

its authentic reality, undistorted by you. 

The preacher was telling his congregation that there are over seven hundred different kinds of sin. 

The next day he was besieged with mail and phone calls from people who wanted the list to make sure they 

were not missing anything. 

If you talk about sin and you want people to stop, what they hear is totally different. They start feeling that 

they are missing something: ”Seven hundred sins just think about it!” And you will also start feeling, ”My God, 

how much I am missing! Seven hundred, and I have not even committed seven! I go on committing only a few,


two or three again and again and there are seven hundred sins! What a wastage of life!” You don’t even know 

the names of them. 

The night clerk at the Hotel Algonquin was surprised to see a battered-looking man, wearing nothing but his 

undershorts, enter the lobby from the street. The stranger staggered to the desk and paused there, weaving 

groggily. ”What can I do for you?” inquired the clerk. 

”I would like to be escorted to the third floor, room 302,” said the near-naked man. 

”Room 302,” repeated the clerk. He consulted the register. ”I am sorry, sir, but that room is occupied by Mr. 

Oscar J. Levine of Toledo. It is pretty late to be rousing a guest!” 

”I know what time it is, well as you do,” retorted the inebriated one. ”Just show me to room 302 without any 

further con-conver... any further talk.” 

”Well, what is your name?” 

”My name is Oscar J. Levine, and for your information I just fell outa the window!” 

People are almost asleep, drunk with a thousand and one desires. There is nothing more intoxicating than 

desire. And it is not only one desire that is intoxicating you, there are many, many desires seven hundred desires 

at least! And they are all intoxicating you, and they don’t allow you to see that which is. You can’t see that 

which is unless you stop desiring. 

Desiring disappears on its own accord if you become silent, because in a silent mind no desire can grow. Desire 

can grow only in a clouded mind, clumsy and confused. 

Buddha says: 

YOU ARE STRONG. YOU HAVE COME TO THE END. FREE FROM PASSION AND DESIRE, YOU 

HAVE STRIPPED THE THORNS FROM THE STEM. THIS IS YOUR LAST BODY. 

If you can fulfill the requirement of being silent, reflecting, witnessing, then you are strong, you are no longer 

weak. The man who lives in desires always feels weak because thousands of desires are pulling him in different 

directions. He is almost falling apart. Somehow he is keeping himself together, managing, dragging. He is tired, 

but he does not know what else to do. Everybody else is doing the same. People are running after desires. Nobody 

seems to be fulfilled, nobody seems to reach anywhere, but what else to do? When everybody is running, you 

start running. It is a crowd psychology. 

To be a sannyasin, to be a seeker of truth, means getting out of the world of crowd psychology, the mob 

mentality. Unless you become aware that the crowd is dragging you with itself and you step out of the power of 

the crowd, you will never be able to know what truth is, you will never become a buddha. And to be a buddha 

is your birthright. 

YOU ARE STRONG... but your desires go on making you weak. Once you have become silent you will be 

able to see it. A silent state of your being is so strong that you know you have come to the very end, you have 

come to fulfillment. One comes to fulfillment not by achieving something in the outside world but by reaching to 

one’s own innermost core: what Jesus calls the kingdom of God, what Buddha calls nirvana, what Mahavira calls 

moksha. 

When you have reached to your innermost core suddenly you become aware that all that you have been desiring 

was useless and what you really needed, what was your real nourishment, has been waiting for you inside you. 

Your search has to be inner, not outer. You can become Alexander the Great, you can conquer the whole world, 

and yet you will die with empty hands. Don’t be bothered with all that nonsense. Be a Buddha, not an Alexander! 

Buddha means one who has seen his truth and is contented, utterly contented with it. FREE FROM PASSION 

AND DESIRE, YOU HAVE STRIPPED THE THORNS FROM THE STEM. THIS IS YOUR LAST BODY. If 

you can be free from passion and desire.... 

Passion is a state of fever, it is a hot state. We know only two states: either we are very hot that is passion or 

we are very cold that is anti-passion. If you love, you become very hot; if you hate, you become very cold. And 

exactly in the middle is the point where you should stop. That point is neither hot nor cold. It is transcendental 

to both, it is cool. And when you are really cool, silent, peaceful, mysteries open their doors for you. A feverish 

man, in a passionate state, is almost blind. 

Feinberg came home from a business trip and his wife coolly informed him that she had been unfaithful during 

his absence. 

”Who was it?” shouted Feinberg, ”that rotten Goldberg?” 

”No,” his wife replied, ”it was not Goldberg.” 

”Was it that crooked partner of mine that goniff, Levy?” 

”No, not Levy.” 

”I know who it was it was that momzer, Shapiro!”


”No, it was not Shapiro, either.” 

Feinberg glowered at his wife. ”What is the matter?” he barked. ”None of my friends are good enough for 

you?” 

People are living... not really living, just mechanically moving, victims of blind forces. When sex takes possession 

of you, you are not your own master. Or when greed takes possession, or anger, or jealousy, you are not your 

own master. You are being dragged. And it is very strange that you allow it to happen you don’t feel insulted 

or humiliated! Each of your instincts makes you a slave. You not only tolerate this slavery; on the contrary, you 

enjoy it. On the contrary, you think this is what life is supposed to be. This is not life that you are living. It is 

biology, it is physiology, it is chemistry, but it is not life. To live under the influence of instincts is not to live at 

all. 

Life begins only when you rise above your instincts. And the way to rise is: REFLECT, WATCH, and you will 

immediately know: NOTHING BINDS YOU. YOU ARE FREE. You are a master. In your watchfulness, slowly, 

slowly passions disappear, because a watchful person cannot be hot. 

Desires are always leading you into the future. Desire means future; it can only happen tomorrow. So you go 

on looking at the tomorrow, and meanwhile the time is passing. And the tomorrow never comes; it can’t come, in 

the very nature of things. So your whole life is just a waiting for nothing waiting for Godot! And Godot never 

comes. In fact, nobody knows who this Godot is. 

But we go on waiting for something to happen some day, and we know that it has not happened to anybody. It 

didn’t happen to your father, to your father’s father. It has not happened to your neighbors. You can look around 

people’s faces: it has not happened. You don’t see the glow, you don’t see in their eyes contentment, you don’t 

see joy. You see only a desperate effort to achieve something which they are not really aware of, what exactly it 

is and whether it is possible or not. But they go on running in hot pursuit and they go on destroying their life. 

”Grandma, how long have you and grandpa been married?” asked the romantic young granddaughter. 

”Forty-nine years,” replied the old lady. 

”Ah, what a beautiful life you must have had,” sighed the girl. ”And I will bet you never even thought of a 

divorce.” 

”Well,” said grandma, ”divorce, no murder, yes!” 

Just ask the old people what they have attained, what they have been doing. And if they are true and authentic, 

if they are sincere, they will tell you nothing but that ”Life has been a tale told by an idiot, full of fury and noise, 

signifying nothing. And now comes death, and all is finished.” But to a meditator, death is not the end but the 

beginning of a new life. 

Buddha says: THIS IS YOUR LAST BODY. If you have quietened the mind, if you have become free from 

desire and passion: THIS IS YOUR LAST BODY. Now you will be born into a bodiless existence. Now you will 

be part of the invisible life, the eternal life which knows no birth, no death. 

The body is a limitation, the body confines you. You are unlimited consciousness, but your body forces you 

into a small, dark hole. You live in a dark hole, in a dark cave. Of course, it is going to be miserable. You are 

vast and somehow you have been forced to live in a small space. Nobody has done it to you; you yourself go on 

doing it. Each time you die, you die with desires. Those desires bring you back into new wombs. Those desires 

give you another body. 

If you can die without desires, then there is no longer any birth. When there is no birth there is no old age, no 

death. And when there is no birth there is no time. You go beyond time. You live in eternity, you become divine. 

That’s what Buddha means by godliness bhagavata. 

YOU ARE WISE. 

Through silence you become wise, not through learning, not by becoming more informed but by becoming 

absolutely silent. YOU ARE WISE... otherwise you will know only words hollow words, meaningless words. Yes, 

you can accumulate much knowledge. You can know the Vedas and the Koran and the Bible and the Gita and 

you can repeat them, but you will not understand anything. More is the possibility that you will misunderstand. 

From where will you get the right perspective to understand them? With all your passions and desires and all 

your confusion and clouded mind, how are you going to understand the Upanishads, the Koran? Impossible. They 

come from people who had gone beyond the body. Unless you go beyond the body you will not understand them. 

You can understand only that which you have experienced. 

But the knowledgeable people not only deceive others, they start deceiving themselves maybe not knowingly, 

not deliberately. If you go on deceiving others your whole life, pretending that you know, slowly, slowly you start 

believing in your own pretensions. You forget that you don’t know; you don’t want to remember it. Who wants 

to know that ”I am ignorant”? Everybody wants to feel that he knows.


Ask anybody about God and it is very rare to find a person who will say to you, ”I don’t know.” Very rare... 

almost impossible. Many will say, ”Yes, God is, God exists.” And they are ready to fight, to argue, to kill you or 

be killed, for something that they know not, not at all. And there are a few who will say, ”No, there is no God.” 

But it is very rare to find a person who will say, ”I don’t know” and that is the real religious person. 

The agnostic is the real religious person neither the theist nor the atheist. One believes without knowing, one 

disbelieves without knowing; both are deceiving. But I am not doubting their sincerity. They may be thinking... 

they may be absolutely convinced that they know. And then you ask other questions about God and then they 

have to invent answers, because basically they have accepted that they know. 

Ask them how many heads God has, and they will tell you three or four, and they will make much out of 

nonsense. They will say that God has four heads because there are four directions and he has to look in all 

directions, or three because there are three dimensions and he has to look into all dimensions. How many hands 

has he? And some say he has one thousand hands because he has to work so much and he is so alone, and he 

has to create the world and manage the whole show all alone. One thousand hands... two hands are not enough. 

Do you think one thousand hands will be enough to manage this vast universe? Do you think four heads will be 

enough to see everywhere? 

But people go on inventing answers. You ask the question and they invent they have to invent because they 

cannot accept one thing, that they don’t know. 

A blonde took her dog to the vet who advised her to buy some Nair to remove the excess hair around the 

Schnauzer’s eyes and ears. 

The blonde entered a pharmacy and asked for the hair remover. 

”Use it full strength for leg hair,” said the druggist, ”but dilute it one half for the underarms.” 

”Ah,” said the girl, ”but I want to use it on my Schnauzer.” 

”In that case,” said the pharmacist, ”you better use one quarter strength and I wouldn’t ride a Honda for a 

couple of weeks.” 

The knowledgeable person cannot ask, ”What is this Schnauzer?” That shows his ignorance and he cannot 

show that. Sometimes knowledgeable people commit such stupidities that no ignorant person can ever commit, 

because the ignorant person can always ask what it is ”I don’t know.” But the knowledgeable person finds it 

impossible. He cannot say these three words: ”I don’t know.” If you can say, ”I don’t know,” you have taken one 

of the greatest steps towards real knowing, towards wisdom. 

Buddha says: When mind is empty, silent, you are wise. By wisdom he does not mean knowledgeability; by 

wisdom he means innocence. Knowledge comes from the outside, wisdom arises within. Knowledge creates noise, 

wisdom brings more and more silence. The wise person slowly, slowly becomes utterly silent. Even if he speaks, 

his words carry the flavor of silence, the music of silence. 

By wisdom he means spontaneity, childlike spontaneity, eyes full of wonder. When your eyes are full of wonder 

you can see the beauty that surrounds you. When your eyes are full of knowledge you can’t see the beauty because 

you have explanations for everything and explanations help you only to explain things away, nothing else. 

But knowledgeable people have been doing good business. They have dominated humanity too long; that is 

their joy. 

”I’ve got a problem, Doc,” the new patient began. 

”We all have problems,” replied the doctor, smiling his assurance. 

”My problem is this, Doc: I get migraine headaches every time I think of my wife. I break out in a rash every 

time I think of my job. I get cold sweats every time I think of my bank account. Talk about problems! Boy, have 

I got them!” 

”Every problem has its answer, of course, and I understand this one perfectly,” said the psychiatrist, nodding. 

”You will need a hundred sessions on the couch, at twenty-five dollars per session.” 

The patient gulped. ”Well, Doc,” he said after a painful pause, ”that solves your problem. Now, how about 

mine?” 

The knowledgeable people are doing good business. The priests, the professors, the pundits, the scholars, the 

theologians, they have been doing good business. Without knowing a thing about God, without knowing a thing 

about themselves even, they go on talking about great problems and great solutions. They talk about metaphysics, 

about philosophy. They have ready-made answers for everything. 

Beware of these people! And they are all around, in the churches, in the mosques, in the temples, in the 

universities; you will find them everywhere. Beware of them. They are the people who will not allow humanity 

to ever become wise because once humanity becomes wise their profession is finished.


YOU ARE WISE. YOU ARE FREE FROM DESIRE AND YOU UNDERSTAND WORDS AND THE 

STITCHING TOGETHER OF WORDS. AND YOU WANT NOTHING. 

Buddha says: When you are wise... not knowledgeable, not well informed, but when meditation has released 

your inner fragrance, when your inner consciousness has become a fully open lotus, then you will be able to 

understand words the words of the buddhas not before that. Don’t waste your time with the Gita and the Koran 

and the Gurugrantha unless you become meditative. 

Once you know your own being, in deep silence you have encountered yourself, then, of course, scriptures are 

tremendously beautiful. Then you will be able to understand because you will be standing in the same position, 

you will be having the same vision. Now scriptures will become your witnesses, they will witness for you. When 

you have known something on your own, reading in the Gita or in the Koran suddenly you will come across a 

sentence that will say exactly the same that you have experienced, and suddenly now the meaning is revealed. 

Meaning has to come first to you through experience; only then can you understand words particularly the 

words of buddhas. In the ordinary world we don’t understand even the words of those who are not enlightened. 

You can see it happening everywhere. Talk to your wife and you will understand; you both speak the same 

language, but there is no conversation possible. You say one thing, she understands another. You try to explain it 

to her, she goes even farther away. She tried to explain something to you and you jump to some other conclusion. 

It seems conversation is impossible. Both are in a state of madness. Both are so full of their own ideas that before 

the other has said anything they have already concluded what he means. 

Nobody is listening to anybody else. Even when somebody is silent and pretending to listen to you, he is not 

listening. He is thinking a thousand and one things. While you are talking, he is preparing, so when you stop he 

starts saying something to you. 

Passing Beth Yisroel Synagogue in Staten Island, in the wee hours of the morning, a drunk noticed a sign that 

read: Ring the bell for the shammes. He did just that, and a sleepy-eyed old man came to the door. 

”What do you want at this hour?” the shammes demanded crossly. 

The drunk looked the old man over for a full twenty seconds and then retorted, ”I want to know why you can’t 

ring that silly bell yourself!” 

People are bound to understand according to their minds. 

Tannenbaum the tailor had saved up his money for years so that he could fulfill a longtime dream to take 

a Caribbean cruise. But he had not reckoned with seasickness. On the second day out from port, the captain 

noticed him, green-faced, hanging on the ship’s rail. 

”Sorry, sir,” said the captain politely, ”but you can’t be sick here.” 

”No?” said Tannenbaum. ”Watch!” 

Rabbi Longbleibt of Far Rockaway had a well-deserved reputation for being long-winded. On this Sabbath, he 

was in especially good form. His topic for the day was ”Prophets of the Bible.” 

”Now then,” he added, after speaking for half an hour, ”we have disposed of the major prophets. Next we come 

to the minor prophets. To what place, my dear friends, shall we assign them?” 

From a seat in the rear of the temple, a bored-looking stranger arose. He waved an explanatory hand at the 

seat he had just vacated and said, ”One of them can have my place!” 

It is impossible to understand even the people who are just like you. What to say about buddhas? They speak 

from sunlit peaks and you live in dark valleys. By the time their words reach you they are no longer the same. 

By the time you hear them, great interpretation has happened. Your mind has colored them in its own color. 

Buddha says: Now YOU ARE WISE. YOU ARE FREE FROM DESIRE. That is the sign of wisdom: freedom 

from desire. Only fools desire. Wise people live and live joyously, but without desire. Either you can desire or 

you can live, you can’t do both. If you desire, you postpone living; if you live, who bothers about desiring? Today 

is enough unto itself. 

... AND YOU UNDERSTAND WORDS AND THE STITCHING TOGETHER OF WORDS. 

This is a very beautiful sutra. Buddha says: The words of the awakened ones have to be understood in a special 

way because they are stitched in a special way. Between two words there is silence; that is the stitching. You 

have to read between the lines. If you can just understand the lines you will miss the whole point. You have to 

read between the lines. You have to read between the words. You have to read the silences, the pauses. Hence 

it is more easy to understand a living buddha than to understand a dead one, because with a living buddha you 

can experience his pauses, his periods, when between two words suddenly there is a gap, the interval, which is far 

more pregnant than the words themselves. 

... AND THE STITCHING TOGETHER OF WORDS. AND YOU WANT NOTHING.


Once you have become silent and you have understood the words of the awakened ones, what is there to want? 

You have already got it. You have got the inexhaustible treasure. You have become a king. 

”VICTORY IS MINE, KNOWLEDGE IS MINE, AND ALL PURITY, ALL SURRENDER.” 

In silence, everything is yours: victory victory for which you have been struggling your whole life, maybe many 

lives, is suddenly yours. And without any fight it is yours because it has been yours from the very beginning. You 

simply never looked within. You are not a beggar, nobody is; everybody is born an emperor. But look within. If 

you look without you are a beggar. In fact, to look without means to become a beggar, and to look within means 

to become an emperor. 

”VICTORY IS MINE, KNOWLEDGE IS MINE....” And now a totally different kind of knowledge happens to 

you. It is not coming from the outside; it is arising from your very depth, it is welling up within you. It is not 

borrowed; it is authentically yours. 

”... AND ALL PURITY....” 

Silence is virgin. The most innocent and the purest experience of life is to know a deep silence when everything 

stops. Time stops, space disappears, ego is nowhere to be found. Not a single thought on the mind, just silence 

from end to end. This is purity. 

By ”purity” Buddha does not mean any moral purity. Moral purity is never real purity. It is calculated, it is 

greed. It is greed for the other world, it is greed for heavenly pleasures. 

There are three persons in the world, three categories. First, the sinners: they have chosen to be immoral. 

Second, the saints: they have chosen to be moral. But both are half, nobody is whole. The sinner is half, the 

saint is half. The sinners are attracted towards the saints, the sinners go and bow down to the saints. And the 

saints are continuously thinking in their minds that maybe they are missing; maybe the sinners are enjoying life. 

I have heard that one great saint and a prostitute who lived just in front of him died on the same day, and the 

messengers from the beyond came and started dragging the saint towards hell and the prostitute towards heaven. 

The saint said, ”Wait! There must be something wrong. You must have misunderstood the orders. I am the 

great saint and that woman is the greatest sinner. What are you doing?” 

And the messengers said, ”We have asked God. We also thought that there is some misunderstanding.... But 

God said, ’No, there is no misunderstanding. The prostitute was continuously thinking how bad she was, how 

ugly she was, and she was continuously thinking how pure the saint was. And whenever the saint would do his 

prayers, would chant his sutras, she would sit silently by the door and listen. She never thought herself capable 

of entering into the temple. She would sit outside the door and listen from there, and tears would flow from her 

eyes. And she always thought that the saint was living the life of bliss. 

”’And the saint? He was continuously thinking of the prostitute, how beautiful she was. And whenever visitors 

would come to the prostitute he would suffer very much. ”They must be enjoying. She is enjoying her life, and 

what have I done to myself? I have become an ascetic. Who knows but maybe I have done something wrong.” 

The saint was continuously obsessed with the prostitute. In his dreams he was making love to the prostitute. And 

in the prostitute’s dreams there was a totally different flavor: she was always worshipping the saint, bowing down 

to the saint hence the decision.’” 

God said, ”Take the saint to hell; he has lived respectably long enough. And bring the prostitute to heaven; 

she has suffered enough in the world.” 

The sinner is half, the saint is half and they both are attached to each other, both are thinking of each other. 

I know many saints who have confessed to me in their privacy, ”Sometimes the question happens in our minds 

that maybe the whole world is right and we are wrong. But now it is too late. We may have missed real joys to 

attain something abstract which may not exist at all. Who knows about God and who knows about paradise? 

We may prove to be fools finally.” 

That doubt lingers in your so-called saints; it is bound to linger. The more they feel this doubt, the more they 

condemn the sinner. The more they condemn the sinner, so the sinner thinks they are great saints; he goes to 

worship them. The opposites attract each other. 

But there is a third category also: the sage. He is neither a sinner nor a saint; he is beyond both. And he is the 

person who is always misunderstood in the world. You understand the sinner very well: he lives in immorality. 

You understand the saint: he lives in morality. The sage is a mystery; you cannot understand him. He seems to 

be beyond comprehension; hence Jesus is misunderstood, Socrates is misunderstood, Buddha is misunderstood. 

That has been the fate of all the sages. They have been misunderstood for the simple reason that you cannot put 

them in the ordinary categories; they are beyond the categories. 

When Buddha says ”purity” he means the purity of the sage who knows nothing of morality or immorality, 

who has become again a child, who is reborn.


”VICTORY IS MINE, KNOWLEDGE IS MINE, AND ALL PURITY, ALL SURRENDER.” When you become 

absolutely silent, ego disappears; it is not found at all. 

Just the other day Vedant Bharti asked, ”Why should I drop the ego? That too is part of the divine play.” 

You don’t understand what divine play is, and you don’t understand that no buddha has ever said to you, ”Drop 

the ego.” I am not saying to you, ”Drop the ego,” either. What I am saying is: Try to find it... and you will not 

find it at all! That is how it disappears, that’s how it is dropped. When you can’t find it, what can you do with 

it? It has never been found. It exists only when you don’t search for it. It exists only like a shadow. If you look 

and search, then you come to understand that a shadow is a shadow; it has no substance in it. There is no need 

to drop it; in understanding it and not finding it there, it is dropped. 

This is surrender. In silence surrender happens because in silence you can’t find the ego at all. Surrender is 

not something that you have to do. If you do it, it is not surrender, because if you are the doer how can it be 

surrender? One day you do, another day you can undo it. One day you can say, ”I surrender”; another day 

you can come and you can say, ”I withdraw it.” Who can prevent you? It was your doing, you can withdraw 

it. But surrender cannot be withdrawn, you cannot undo it, because it is not your doing in the first place. It is 

a happening. When you are silent, suddenly you see there is no ego; ego disappears. This is surrender, this is 

purity, this is wisdom, this is freedom. 

”I WANT NOTHING. 

I AM FREE. 

I FOUND MY WAY. 

WHOM SHALL I CALL TEACHER?” 

Buddha says: Now, whom should I call my teacher? The whole life has been a learning, the whole life has been 

my teacher. I have learned through failure, through success, through poverty, through richness. I have learned 

through pain, through pleasure. I have learned through agony, through ecstasy. Whom should I call my teacher? 

It is impossible because the whole life, in fact, is a teaching device. Life exists so that you can grow up towards 

wisdom, so that you can grow up towards godliness. 

And a very beautiful sutra: 

THE GIFT OF TRUTH IS BEYOND GIVING. 

Truth is always a gift. You cannot snatch it away, you cannot conquer truth. It is always a gift. When you are 

silent it simply descends in you. It fills your silence, overfills it, starts overflowing. 

THE GIFT OF TRUTH IS BEYOND GIVING. But when you have it, the problem is you cannot give it to 

anybody else. You would like, you would love to share it, but how to share it? The other person has to be utterly 

silent, only then can it be shared. But when the other person is silent, he need not share YOUR truth; truth 

descends in him on its own accord. Hence it is beyond giving. 

THE TASTE BEYOND SWEETNESS.... 

It is far sweeter than sweetness itself, it is beyond sweetness. 

THE JOY BEYOND JOY. 

We can call it blissfulness, but it is a blissfulness that goes far beyond our idea of blissfulness. In fact, it is 

incomprehensible for the mind. It is impossible to express it in adequate words. If we call it joy, yes, only a bit of 

it is expressed. If we call it sweet, only just a fragment of it is expressed; the total remains unexpressed. It has 

to be experienced, there is no other way. 

THE END OF DESIRE IS THE END OF SORROW. 

You do only one thing: let desire be gone. And how will desire go? 

QUIETEN YOUR MIND. REFLECT. WATCH. 


Contemplate over these sutras. Try to experience them... because Buddha is not an ordinary religious person. 

He is not interested in miracles. He is not interested in anything occult, esoteric. He is interested in transforming 

you. He is very down to earth. 

Moses and Jesus were playing a round of golf at the Celestial Country Club. First, Jesus teed up and made a 

hole in one. Then Moses also drove a hole in one. 

”Well, Moe, we are even so far,” said Jesus. 

”Now look here, Jake,” Moses protested. ”We made our point. Now what do you say we cut out the miracles 

and play a little golf?”


Buddha never did any miracle that is the greatest miracle. He is not interested in mystifying you. His whole 

effort is to give you the key so you can open the doors of all the mysteries. He is very existential, nonphilosophical, 

nonintellectual in his approach. He is not heady but very practical, pragmatic. His whole approach is 

experimental, experiential. So you will not be able to understand him if you only go on reading. 

Try to experiment with what he is saying. Try to quieten your mind, reflect, watch, and see yourself what 

happens: freedom, bliss, truth, wisdom, innocence, purity... thousands of flowers start blooming in you. The 

spring suddenly bursts forth. 



Chapter 6 Life transcends logic 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, IN WANTING TO KNOW WHO I AM I OFTEN FEEL IN A SPACE OF NOTH- 

INGNESS. IN ONE WAY IT SCARES ME, IN THE OTHER IT FEELS FULFILLING. I FEEL BOTH ALL 

AND NOTHING. HOW TO FEEL ONE OR THE OTHER? AND WHERE DOES THE DISTINCTION LIE 

BETWEEN A VACUUM THAT SPACE OF NEITHER PAST, PRESENT OR FUTURE AND A DEAD 

SPACE? 

Prabhato, the first indication of a right, positive nothingness is that it will be paradoxical. It will be felt as 

all and nothing, both simultaneously. Then it is alive. All that is alive is paradoxical; only that which is dead is 

logical. Logic is applicable only to dead things; logic has nothing to say about life. Life transcends logic. Life is 

basically illogical. That’s what I mean by calling it paradoxical: it contains its own opposite. 

Hence it is a good indication that you feel both all and nothing. If you feel just nothing, then it is a dead space; 

if you just feel all, then it is all imagination. When you feel both, it is neither dead space nor pure projection; it 

is something authentically true. 

Whenever you will feel all and nothing together, naturally, on the one hand you will feel scared because of 

nothingness, because nothingness looks like death.... It is death; death of the ego, death of all that you have 

known up to now as yourself. It is a total discontinuity with the past; hence fear arises. You are losing your 

identity, and that is the greatest crisis in life. One wants to cling to one’s identity; at least one knows who one 

is. Even though that identity was nothing but hell, still you would like to cling to it. At least it was something 

tangible. Now all tangibles are disappearing and all that you have known about yourself is evaporating. A great 

fear grips you. It seems as if you are going to die. It is natural to feel scared. 

But you also feel, on the other hand, deeply fulfilled, because it is death and resurrection, crucifixion and 

resurrection. When you are ready to lose your old identity you are born anew. A new life starts pulsating, a new 

heart starts beating. As an ego you disappear, but you appear as part of the whole, of the immense vastness, of 

the totality. 

This is really the birth of the holy man, because one becomes part of the whole. This is the birth of a buddha, 

of a christ. So in spite of all your fears, go into it, don’t cling to your past. And remember, fear is very powerful 

because your whole past will support it, and you have a tremendously long past of millions of lives. Not only this 

life but many, many lives are contained in your collective unconscious. They will all pull you back. They will say, 

”Where are you going? Are you going mad? Come back to the old shelter, to the old security!” The past is long; 

it has immense weight, great gravitation. And the new that is being born is just like a new sprout, very fragile. 

It can be crushed very easily, it can be destroyed very easily. 

Remember that unless you go on in spite of all your fears you will never go into the unknown. And to go 

into the unknown is to go into God. God is never known. He is not only unknown, he is also unknowable. And 

whatsoever you know about God is just your ideas about God, not your experience. 

Those who have experienced God have kept mum, have kept completely silent. They have not uttered a single 

word about God. They have indicated the way. Buddha says: Buddhas point you the way, but they don’t say 

anything about the ultimate experience. They show how to reach it, but they never say what exactly it is. It is 

indefinable, inexpressible. God is a mystery. In fact, God is another name for the mysterious universe in which 

we are living, breathing. We are part of this great mystery and there is no way to demystify it. 

So you will have to go knowingly, deliberately. You will have to risk your past. You will have to listen to the call 

of the unknown. It is a faraway, distant call and there is no guarantee for it. Nobody can give you the guarantee, 

only hints.


I can say to you: You have heard the right call. But it is risky because you will be risking all that you know 

about yourself for something which is far away, invisible, mysterious. One can never be certain. You can’t be 

calculative about God, you can’t be cunning and clever about God. You have to go into simple innocence, just like 

a small child holding the hand of his father can go into the deep forest without any fear. Lions may be roaring, 

but the child has no fear because he knows his hand is in his father’s hand. The father himself may be trembling, 

but the child is enchanted with the whole journey, with the whole adventure. Such a simplicity is needed, such 

innocence is needed; only then can you take the risk. 

The child is the most courageous being. As he grows in age, in experience, he starts becoming cowardly, he 

becomes calculating. He thinks twice before he takes any step, and when you think too much you never take any 

step. Very calculative people remain stuck their whole lives. They never move because each movement creates 

fear in them and this is the greatest movement. 

Prabhato, go joyously into it. And don’t be worried what is the distinction between an empty space, a negative 

space, and a space that is positive, fulfilling. Don’t be bothered. This is how the mind starts calculating, this is 

how the mind starts functioning. There is no need you are on the right track. 

Wherever you feel a paradox happening, remember, that is the criterion that you are on the right track. If you 

don’t come across a paradox you must have missed somewhere, you are moving in a wrong direction. 

So don’t ask me, ”How to feel one or the other?” If you feel one or the other you will be wrong. When you feel 

both, then you feel the total. The total is bound to be both, the negative and the positive. It is bound to be both 

death and life, summer and winter. 

And that’s where mind feels baffled, puzzled. Mind would like clear-cut things, but nothing can be done about it. 

Mind’s requirements and expectations cannot be fulfilled. Existence has no obligation to fulfill mind’s requirements 

and demands. You have to accept existence as it is. It is paradoxical and mind is not paradoxical. Mind is linear, 

logical, not dialectical. As far as mind is concerned it is Aristotelian, and as far as life is concerned it is more 

Hegelian than Aristotelian. It is dialectics: it moves from thesis to antithesis, and so on, so forth. The whole 

movement depends on thesis and antithesis. The polar opposites are really not opposites but complementaries. 

Enjoy the polarity, the paradox. Rejoice that you are on the right track. And go on moving in spite of all the 

fears. They are natural. I cannot say that you should not feel those fears they are absolutely natural, but you 

can go on in spite of them. 

Remember, the difference between a coward and a courageous man is not that the coward feels fear and the 

courageous man does not feel fear. No, that is not the difference between the coward and the courageous. Both 

feel fear. The difference is that the coward listens to the fear and stops his movement, and the courageous takes 

no notice of it, pushes it aside, and moves in spite of it. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO YOU SAY THAT IT IS RIGHT TO MEDITATE BUT WRONG TO PRAY? 

IN MY OPINION, MEDITATION GIVES DEEP INNER CALM TO A PERSON FOR HIS OWN SAKE, BUT 

TO PRAY DEEPLY AND CALMLY GIVES YOU THE DIRECT AND INTENSE CONNECTION TO GOD, 

AND HIS HOLY SPIRIT COMES DOWN TO YOU. 

Rosemary, I have not said what you have heard. You must be hearing through a thick layer of Christianity, a 

thick layer of rubbish. 

In the first place, you say, ”Why do you say that it is right to meditate but wrong to pray?” ... Because 

meditation is the only prayer there is, and prayer is possible only in meditation; any other prayer is going to be 

false, pseudo. If you have not been in deep meditation, how are you going to know that there is God? Then the 

idea of God is just a conditioning given by others to you. 

Just think, Rosemary, if you were born in Soviet Russia, then you would not have talked about God at all. 

You would not be talking about the Bible; you would be talking about the Communist Manifesto or Das Kapital. 

You would not be talking about the Holy Trinity of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost; you would 

be talking of the unholy trinity of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and V.I. Lenin, because you would have been told 

and conditioned by communist education. 

If you had been born in a Jaina family you would have never thought of prayer, never because there is no God, 

so to whom to pray? If you were born in a Buddhist family, things would have been totally different because you 

would have been conditioned in a different way. It is not you, Rosemary, who is asking this question; it is your 

conditioning. And all conditionings are wrong.


Meditation means a state of unconditioned mind. Meditation is the process of undoing the harm that every 

society goes on doing to every individual communist or Catholic, Jaina or Jew, it does not matter. I am not 

talking about any particular conditioning that is wrong; I am saying conditioning as such is wrong. 

Conditioning is nothing but a process of hypnotizing people: go on repeating from the very childhood, in the 

church, in the Sunday school.... You have been told about God and prayer and you have been told by your parents 

and teachers and priests and all the authoritative people. And the small child has learned how to imitate those 

who are in power. Now you have completely forgotten the beginning of conditioning. 

No child is born as a Christian or a Hindu. No child is born with any idea of God’s existence whether God 

exists or does not exist, whether there is one hell or seven hells or seventy or seven hundred. No child is born with 

any theology. 

Meditation means a process of removing all that has been forced upon you so that you can become again a 

child. That’s what Jesus says. He says: Unless you are like a child you will not enter into my kingdom of God. 

He is talking about deconditioning, dehypnotizing. He is not using these words ’deconditioning’, ’dehypnotizing’, 

because these words did not exist in his days, but that’s what actually he is saying. He is saying: Unless you 

become a child again.... Again and again he says: Unless you are born again... because this birth has been 

contaminated by the people; they have poisoned your minds. You need a new spiritual birth. And it is possible 

only through meditation; there is no other way. 

Prayer will mean you will be continuing the conditioning. If you are Christian, your prayer will be Christian. 

Your very question says... it has the stink of Christianity! A Hindu will not say this, he will not use such words: 

”And his holy spirit comes down to you.” A Jaina will never use such terminology impossible, because for a Jaina, 

nothing comes down, everything goes up! He believes in growing up into a god. God is not someone there high 

above who comes down to you; there is no God. You have the seed of divineness in you; it grows upwards. The 

holy spirit descending on you is simply something that has been taught to you. 

You say, ”In my opinion....” 

Opinions mean nothing! If you have some experience, then it is important. Opinion is just opinion. Opinion 

means something of the mind. You have not experienced anything; it is just a thought. People have all kinds of 

opinions. 

I have heard: 

Two camels were passing through a desert. Both were looking very tired and both wanted to say something to 

the other, but somehow they were keeping control. 

Finally one exploded and he said, ”Whatsoever people say, whatsoever their opinion, I want to say that I am 

thirsty!” 

Thirst is not an opinion, it is your experience. Is it your experience? If it is your experience, the question 

cannot arise, because then you would have understood exactly what I was saying. 

Meditation is the process that cleanses you, and when you are utterly clean a fragrance arises in you. That is 

prayer. Prayer is a consequence of meditation. I am not against prayer; I am against your prayer, but not against 

prayer itself. Your prayer is false. Your prayer is only a part of your conditioning. The Hindu prays in the Hindu 

way and the Mohammedan prays in the Mohammedan way, but a real prayer is neither Hindu nor Mohammedan. 

It comes out of an unconditioned being. How can it be Hindu or Mohammedan? 

A real prayer is simply prayer. It has no words; it is pure silence. It is a surrender in deep silence. In fact, it 

is not addressed to any God; it is bowing down to the whole existence. It is not an address. God is everywhere, 

all is God, so you simply bow down in tremendous gratitude, in ecstasy, in joy, in love. But first your love, your 

ecstasy, your joy have to be released. You are just a seed, and talking about fragrance will be only an opinion 

heard from others, borrowed. And anything borrowed is ugly. Anything borrowed is going to be only verbal. 

And that’s what has happened: when you heard me you only understood the literal meaning of the words. You 

missed the significance. 

A gentile friend... a Christian friend cajoled Rabbi Berkowitz into attending Saint Joseph’s in the city that made 

Schlitz famous. The old rabbi, long since retired, finally agreed when it was explained that a visiting dignitary 

would speak about the Jewish influence on the formation of the church. 

In the front row, Rabbi Berkowitz’s eyes widened as the visiting lecturer announced his topic: ”My Name is 

Joseph, Father of Jesus.” 

At the conclusion of the talk, when they had been introduced, the rabbi said dryly, ”My friend, you have had 

a most unusual experience!” 

He misunderstood the whole thing. He took the title of the lecture literally: My Name Is Joseph, Father of 

Jesus. That was just going to be the subject. The man is not saying that he is Joseph, the father of Jesus. The


rabbi said, ”My friend, you have had a most unusual experience” being the father of Jesus, after two thousand 

years. And Jesus was the son of a virgin woman; it was certainly an unusual experience for the father! 

That’s what has happened to you, Rosemary. I have not said anything against prayer, but I have said that 

meditation prepares the way. It cleanses you it cleanses you of all thoughts given by others. It creates the space in 

which prayer can flower. Meditation brings the spring and there is no other way. If you pray without meditation, 

then your flowers will be plastic flowers. Real flowers of prayer grow only in meditation. And then prayer is not 

addressed to God; in fact, then there is no God. 

The whole idea of God the Father is childish, and Sigmund Freud is right that it is a projection of our deep 

desire to cling to the parents. It is a projection of your idea of the father, because your father cannot be with you 

forever. One day he dies and you miss the protection, the security, the safety. And you project a father in heaven 

who is forever and forever, who will never die and who will always take care of you. And you pray on your knees 

to the father in heaven. The idea is your creation, the prayer is your creation. And you go on doing this stupid 

thing for your whole life, thinking that you are doing something religious. 

And sometimes it can happen that certain of your prayers may be fulfilled. That is just coincidence. If you go 

on praying for thousands of things, once in a while it is bound to happen. 

One man came to me and he said, ”I never believed in God, but now I believe.” 

I said, ”What happened?” 

He said, ”I gave an ultimatum to God that if within fifteen days my son does not get employment, I will become 

a confirmed atheist forever. And the threatening worked: within fifteen days my son got the employment. Now I 

am a firm believer.” 

I said, ”It is perfectly good, but never give the ultimatum again because it may not work always. It was just 

coincidence.” 

But he did not listen to me. After two years he met me and he said, ”You were right. I again gave the 

ultimatum. My wife was very ill and I told him that he has to save her, otherwise I will become an atheist.” He 

thought that once the trick had worked; now he knows how to force God into his service. 

That’s what people who are praying are doing; they are trying to use God. They are trying to use God as a 

means for certain ends. 

And the wife died. Certainly he became an atheist. 

Prayers sometimes will be fulfilled not that there is somebody who is there listening to your prayers and 

fulfilling them and sometimes they will not be fulfilled. And priests are very clever. They will say, ”Whenever 

your prayer is fulfilled you prayed deeply, truly, sincerely.” And whenever your prayer is not fulfilled they say, 

”Your prayer was superficial.” And the argument has much appeal because, in fact, all your prayers are superficial 

so you know perfectly well that your prayers are superficial. The priest can always say that you prayed, but deep 

down there was doubt. 

There is always doubt because your belief in God cannot destroy doubt; it can only repress doubt. And the 

repressed doubt is always there boiling within you, ready to explode. 

So don’t be deceived if sometimes a coincidence happens. That’s how many things continue in the world, many 

things can continue in the world. All hocus-pocus! 

For example, there are so many ”pathies” in the world: homeopathy, naturopathy, ayurvedic, and so many 

others. They all claim to cure and their claims are not false; they cure many people. You try. Just go on giving 

sugar pills to people and you will be surprised; many are cured, so you have invented a new therapy. Seventy 

percent of people are only falsely ill, they are not truly ill. Seventy percent of illnesses are psychological, so all 

that is needed is somebody to convince them that ”This is going to help.” And people go to homeopathy and to 

other exotic medicines only when nothing else helps them. 

The trouble with allopathy is that it can help only if your illness is real. If your illness is not real, then a real 

medicine will do harm instead of helping you. So you have to search for some quack, somebody who can give you 

a false medicine to cure you of a false disease. 

Your prayers are false, your diseases are false. Sometimes they do help, and when they help, you become more 

and more convinced. And in despair, in deep helplessness, you don’t know where else to go. When all human 

efforts fail you start looking towards the sky. That has been always so; nothing much has changed. 

In the Vedas it is said: When there is lightning in the clouds, it is God who is angry; it is his anger. Pray to 

God. Now we know it is not God or his anger; now we know it is electricity, natural electricity. Now we are using 

God’s anger in running our fans and machines. Now nobody prays. In India, still, when you put the light on in 

the evening, orthodox Hindus will immediately bow down their head with folded hands to an electric bulb! Just 

an old conditioning.


God used to do many things; now science is doing all those things. God is being deprived every day! In fact, 

soon he will be out of employment; you will find him standing before some employment office in a queue! Your 

God is your invention. Friedrich Nietzsche is right about your God that that God is dead. So don’t be too much 

surprised or convinced when some coincidence happens. Coincidences are always happening. 

On board an El-Al jet flight to Israel, a young mother and her two children were just getting settled when the 

youngsters began to clamor that they had to go to the ”bafroom.” Two priests on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 

seated in front of the little family group, smiled in amusement while the embarrassed mother quickly took the 

children to the rest rooms on the plane. After a moment’s hesitation, she put the small boy in the compartment 

marked ”Gentlemen,” while she entered the ladies’ room with her little daughter. 

The boy left quickly and one of the two priests went in, forgetting to lock the door. A few seconds later, the 

mother emerged from the ladies’ lavatory and opened the other door a mere slit, thinking her boy was still there. 

”Don’t forget to slide up your zipper,” she whispered. 

When the priest returned to his seat he was full of praise for the airline. ”You have to hand it to these Jewish 

stewardesses,” he said to his fellow priest. ”They think of everything!” 

Beware of coincidences! 

You say, Rosemary, ”Why do you say that it is right to meditate but wrong to pray?” 

To pray is not right; to be in prayer is right. To pray means you will be saying something to God. Your God 

is your invention, your prayer is your invention. And what are you going to say? Just something trivial: Do this, 

do that, don’t do that. Or: You are great. He has been hearing that for so long, he must be fed up! He must be 

using ear plugs just to avoid these so-called religious people! Millions of people praying and saying all kinds of 

things to God. He must be getting tired, utterly tired. 

But to be in prayer is a totally different phenomenon. To pray is one thing; that is childish, out of a conditioned 

mind. But to be in prayer means to be in love with existence, to be in a dance with existence, to dance with the 

stars, to sing with the birds, to flow with the river. That is prayer. But that prayer arises only when meditation 

has created the right space for it. Hence my emphasis is on meditation and I don’t talk much about prayer, 

because when meditation is complete, prayer comes on its own accord. There is no need to talk about it because 

if I talk about prayer there is every danger you will misunderstand, because prayer is easy and meditation is 

difficult. 

Prayer is easy, very cheap. You can go to the church, kneel down on your knees, fold your hands, talk to God. 

It costs nothing. Or every night before you go to sleep you pray to God.... 

I have heard about a very, very intelligent man who had put his prayer on the wall just by the side of his bed. 

And before he used to go to bed he would say to God, ”Please read it.” 

What is the point of saying the same thing every day? And one hopes that God must be at least able to read 

it! That seems to be far more clear, intelligent. Why go on repeating it like a parrot every day? 

I don’t say to you to pray because I know that whatsoever you do right now will be wrong. I teach meditation 

and prayer comes inevitably; it can’t be avoided, but a totally different kind of prayer, with a different fragrance, 

a different texture to it. It is just a joyousness, a cheerfulness, a gratitude. You feel so fulfilled, so blessed, that 

your whole heart says thank you not in so many words your whole heart says yes. Your whole heart becomes 

the yes. You are surrendered. Your life is a prayer. Then you need not go to a church or a temple or a mosque. 

You live your prayer. You breathe, you drink, you move... and all that is prayer. 

You say, ”In my opinion, meditation gives deep inner calm to a person for his own sake....” Rosemary, have you 

ever meditated? A mere opinion has no value and it is a mere opinion. You may have read, you may have heard 

about it, but don’t give much importance to opinions. 

You say, ”Meditation gives deep inner calm to a person for his own sake....” You don’t have any experience, 

any taste of meditation. In meditation, the self disappears, the ego disappears. There is no question of ”for one’s 

own sake.” One is no more an island; one becomes part of the vast continent of existence. Meditation means you 

disappear, evaporate. You are no longer there, just a pure nothingness. How can it be for one’s own sake? There 

is no self left. In meditation, no self is ever found so how can it be selfish? 

People come to me and they ask me particularly Christian missionaries they write letters to me: ”You are 

teaching people meditation; that is a kind of selfishness.” They don’t know what they are talking about. 

Meditation is the only way to get rid of the self. Meditation is the only possibility to create unselfishness in 

the world. Everything else is selfish. The Christian missionary serving the poor people, the crippled this is all 

selfish. Mother Teresa of Calcutta and all her work is absolutely selfish.


Why do I call these works selfish? They are doing great service to humanity, but they are doing service to 

humanity as a means to reach to heaven. They are using the poor people and the blind people and the crippled 

and the lepers as ladders to reach to heaven. 

Just think of a world where there is nobody poor, nobody crippled, nobody is a leper, nobody is blind. Then 

what will Mother Teresa do? Will you still give her a Nobel Prize? For what? The basic requirement is that blind 

people should be there, poor people should be there, lepers should be there, widows should be there, orphans 

should be there. Thousands of orphans are needed for one woman to become a great servant of humanity. 

One of the Hindu priests, the head of the Hindu priests, Karpatri, has written a book, Against Socialism. He 

gives many reasons against socialism, but the most hilarious reason that he gives is that in Hindu scriptures it is 

said: Unless you donate to the poor people you will never enter into heaven. And socialism is trying to destroy 

classes so there will be no poor, no rich. Once there is nobody rich and nobody poor, who is going to donate unto 

whom? And what will happen to heaven? Very logical! And these people are great servants of humanity! These 

stupid people are thought to be saints! 

In meditation, you disappear; in prayer, you are very much there. You have to be there to pray; otherwise who 

is going to pray and to whom? 

Martin Buber has written one of the greatest books of this time, I And Thou. He says that prayer is a 

relationship between I and thou; both are needed. ”I” is needed the one who is going to pray and ”thou,” a 

concept of God. Then prayer is possible. Prayer is a dialogue between I and thou. Prayer is basically selfish, 

self-centered. 

But meditation is not a dialogue at all. Neither I is needed nor thou is needed. No I, no thou. The whole idea 

of I-and-thou disappears. A silence prevails, a virgin silence, undisturbed with any dialogue. It is not for one’s 

own sake. One disappears; only then meditation happens. 

Meditation is like a flower opening, and prayer is the fragrance of the flower that is released to the winds. I 

don’t talk about the fragrance, I only teach how to cultivate roses, Rosemary, remember! 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL THINGS TO KEEP ONE’S WIFE HAPPY? 

Satyam, I don’t know much about wives. I am an unmarried man. You are asking a question to a wrong person. 

But I have been observing many wives and many husbands. So this is not my experience just my opinion! 

There are two things necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First: let her think she is having her own way. And 

second: let her have it. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DOES TRUTH HURT? 

Prem Patipada, truth hurts because we live in lies. Our whole life consists of lies. 

Friedrich Nietzsche has said: Don’t take lies away from man; otherwise it will be impossible for him to live. 

Sigmund Freud also says exactly the same thing: that man cannot live without lies; he needs many lies religious, 

metaphysical, philosophical, political. 

Just watch yourself how many lies you need to support yourself, to go on nourishing your ego. 

Why does man need so many lies? because the basic lie is the ego, and the ego can exist only surrounded by 

many lies to support it. Any truth hurts because it takes away a few lies, a few props, a few supports, and your 

ego starts falling down. And that is all that you know about yourself. You don’t know that you are something 

transcendental to the ego. 

Somebody says to you, ”How beautiful you are!” and you believe it immediately. Nobody ever objects. I have 

told it to many people; nobody ever objects. I have never come across a person who will object, ”No, you are 

wrong because I know my face. I see it in the mirror every day.” You say it to anybody, even the ugliest. Say it to 

a camel, and he will nod his head. He will say, ”Right. I had always known it. You are the first intelligent person 

who has given it recognition.” Even the ugliest person deep down thinks he is beautiful. He believes, otherwise 

it will be difficult to exist, to live. The most stupid thinks that he is very intelligent. Hence you go on giving 

compliments to each other. All those compliments are lies and everybody is ready to believe. And it is not only 

in the ordinary life. When you enter into your inner journey, there also you expect recognition. 

Just the other day Somendra asked, ”Why don’t you give me recognition?” Everybody wants to be recognized, 

told that ”You are enlightened,” that ”You have attained,” that ”You have realized” and you will be so happy! 

But that happiness will be only momentary because it is not true.


I cannot give you any lie; hence I am, many times, offensive to you, outrageous. I hurt you not that I want to 

hurt you, but to take any lie away from you is like taking a teddy bear from a child who can’t sleep without the 

teddy bear. He goes on carrying the teddy bear dirty, but he will carry it everywhere. That is his life; you can’t 

take it away from him. And you are carrying many teddy bears, Patipada; that’s why it hurts. 

Now Somendra is very angry because I said that he can be a good candidate for Judas. Soon there is going to 

be a notice: ”Wanted: a Judas.” And there are many people eligible. Somendra can do the work. He is so angry 

because I had said that he sits behind keeping his back towards me, so the next day he came to his old place. 

Today he has disappeared, because today he has asked a very ugly question out of sheer anger. That’s why he 

has disappeared from here. Even though he has been sitting here for two or three days he does not look at me; he 

keeps his eyes down. He has not been coming to his group therapy darshan many times. Last night he appeared, 

but he did not look at me... boiling within. Today he has disappeared because of the question. He must have 

been afraid. He has put the question in somebody else’s name but you can’t deceive me! And the moment I saw 

that he is not there my suspicion became absolutely certain that it is his question. 

In his question he says, ”Are you not a lazy person? And still, what chutzpah you have to tell other people 

to work and be creative.” I am not a lazy person I am the laziest! And naturally, the laziest person can live 

only if others work; otherwise how am I going to live? So I go on teaching, ”Work, be creative! Clean the floor 

meditatively! Clean the toilets!” That is simple. It is not a question of chutzpah, it is simple logic! A man like 

me needs at least ten thousand people to work for him! 

And he asks, ”How can you tell others to work?” For a man who has never done anything, everything seems 

to be possible. Even the impossible seems to be possible. I have never worked, not for a single day. That’s why I 

can say to you to do anything, because I don’t know the trouble. I have no experience about it. 

Truth hurts. And then it comes in many ways, it expresses itself in many ways. 

Patipada, remember, if anything hurts then meditate over it. There must be something of truth in it, something 

true. If anything hurts, respect it, go deep into it. Find out why it hurts, and you will be rewarded. You will 

grow through that. 

Lies are sweet; they don’t hurt. So beware of sweet lies. When something does not hurt you it cannot become 

an impetus for growth; it is useless, not to be bothered about at all. But pay your total attention to anything 

that hurts, and don’t get angry. You are to understand here, to be aware, not to be angry. 

Just a few months ago I told Somendra that he had attained his first satori. He was just joy. You should have 

seen his face that time all laughter, all smiles, bubbling with ecstasy! That was easy for him to accept because 

although it was true, the ego jumped upon it, grabbed it, felt very good and that is how he missed it. 

When truth any truth becomes an ego trip, you miss it, you lose track of it. And remember: before samadhi 

happens, before enlightenment happens, you may attain thousands of satoris and you may miss them. If one 

remains very alert when a satori happens, only then he will not miss it. If you become very gratified about it and 

you start bragging about it in subtle ways, you are bound to miss it. And many people are doing the same. 

Sometimes it is very difficult for me; even if I see that something beautiful is happening to you I have to control 

myself not to say it, because there is every danger that just by saying it your ego may feel puffed up. And that 

will be the point when you will lose it. 

There are many people who are coming closer and closer to the ultimate, but it is better for me not to say it 

to them. I go on blessing them as much as I can, I go on loving them as much as I can, but I don’t say it. Saying 

can be a distraction; it can take them on a different route, it can distract them. 

So lies are dangerous; sometimes even truth can be dangerous. If it does not hurt, then it can be dangerous; if 

it hurts, there is no danger. If it hurts, it will wake you up; if it becomes a lullaby, then it is dangerous; it may 

take you in a deeper dream. You may start dreaming about satoris and enlightenment and becoming a buddha. 

And all that is possible it is within your capacity, it is within your reach but you can lose the thread many times. 

Hence, don’t ask for recognition. If I feel that the time is ripe and by recognizing something you will not slip 

back, I will give the recognition. But why hanker for the recognition? The real thing is happening to you. The 

recognition does not matter at all, it is irrelevant. If you are becoming a buddha, you are becoming a buddha 

whether I say so or not. Sometimes it may be needed that I will go on saying, ”No, you are not becoming,” just 

to help you go on in the right direction. 

Patipada, anything that hurts, meditate over it and you will be immensely enriched. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MANY ENEMIES?


Gayan, remember two fundamental laws. One is: No good deed goes unpunished. And second: Friends may 

come and go, but enemies accumulate. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, I VERY MUCH DOUBT MY WIFE. WHAT SHOULD I DO? 

Narayan, the wife is not your God. You need not doubt, you need not trust. It is a game don’t make it so 

serious! But you have been told to trust your wife, to trust your husband. And because of this very teaching, 

distrust arises. In fact, you have been told to trust. For centuries it has been known that it is very difficult to 

trust your own wife, very difficult to trust your own husband; it is next to impossible. 

If your wife is interested in you, how can you trust her? If she is still interested in men and you are only a 

man, and there are many, many men who are far more beautiful how can you trust your wife? If she is interested 

in you she must be interested in others too. She can be trusted only when she loses all interest in you too; then, 

of course, you can trust her. She has lost all interest in men she is almost dead. 

You can trust your husband only if he is no longer interested in your body. If he is interested in your face, your 

body, your proportion, your beauty, how can he avoid being interested in other women’s bodies, other women’s 

faces, other women’s beauty? It is impossible. You are asking something inhuman or something superhuman. 

And your poor husband is neither neither inhuman nor superhuman. He is just a poor husband, a poor human 

being... or a poor wife. 

Don’t demand such impossible things. It is natural; your wife is bound to fantasize about other men. It is 

impossible for her to dream about you, remember. I have never heard of a wife dreaming about her own husband. 

Who dreams about one’s own husband or one’s own wife? For what? Is the day not enough? Do you have to 

devote your night and your dreams also to the same woman, to the same man? 

In dreams you are free; that is the only freedom left. In dreams you have a private world of your own. Your 

wife cannot peep in your dreams and say, ”What are you doing? Stop!” In dreams you can have a few parties 

with the neighbors’ wives. And nothing is wrong in it, nobody is harmed. Just, you have a good sleep and in the 

morning you have a smile on your face. 

Don’t ask the impossible. 

Mulla Nasruddin was saying to me, ”For the whole ten years of our married life I always trusted my wife. And 

then we moved from Calcutta to Pune and I discovered we still had the same milkman!” 

There is no need, Narayan, to trust or not to trust. Why bring in the question of trust? It is just a game! 

Play it joyfully. You make it too serious. And when you start demanding, ”Be faithful to me!” you are creating 

a situation in which it will become impossible for the poor woman to be faithful to you. Give her total freedom; 

then she may be faithful to you. 

Life functions in a very strange way. If you give her total freedom you are worth trusting. A great faith may 

arise in her. If a wife gives total freedom to the husband, that shows she loves him so much that she would like 

him to be happy in every possible way. Even if sometimes he is happy with some other woman she will feel happy 

because he is happy. And then a totally different quality of trust may arise. I am not saying that it is bound to 

arise it is not an inevitability. I am saying perhaps, because about human beings nothing can be predicted. 

The relationship between wife and husband is a very strange relationship because these are two different 

worlds. The woman functions in a different way, from a different center. She is more intuitive and the man is 

more intellectual. That’s why they are attracted to each other. Not only physiologically they are polarities, but 

psychologically also they are polar opposites. They are intimate enemies. There is bound to be a little conflict, 

and that is not bad; it keeps the relationship alive. Whenever you see that the husband and wife have stopped 

fighting completely, that means the marriage is really finished; nothing is left now. Even fight is not left... all is 

finished. 

The butcher and the milkman were discussing the pros and cons of married life. ”Do you really believe it is 

better than being single?” demanded Weiss, the butcher. 

”In a way,” said the milkman, who was fond of philosophizing. ”After all, if it were not for marriage, we would 

have to do all our fighting with strangers.” 

Yes, that is true. It is good to fight with your own wife; at least the fight is with the friend. Otherwise you will 

have to do your fighting with strangers. 

There is no need to demand these things trust, faith. Live together joyously. Make as much out of your being 

together as possible. Rather than doing that, people create such problems, useless problems, and destroy all their 

joys. The wife has no obligation to be faithful to you, neither do you have any obligation to be faithful to her. 

You love her, she loves you; that’s enough. Don’t bring faith into it. If love cannot keep you together, nothing


else can keep you together. And if love cannot keep you together, then anything that can keep you together is 

dangerous. 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, ARE ALL WORDS REALLY USELESS? 

Dharmendra, not all words. The words of the buddhas are immensely significant. They are the same words 

as your words, but they come from a deeper experience. Let your words come from deep experience; then they 

will have significance, then they will have some perfume of the unknown, of the beyond. But leaving the buddhas 

aside, then too all words are not useless. Otherwise, how are you going to communicate? You cannot communicate 

through silence, you cannot communicate without words. 

To communicate without words you will have to become a total meditator. And then, too, you can communicate 

only with another total meditator, not with everybody else. The whole of humanity is not going to be in meditation, 

not at least in your life, and you will have to talk to people who are not meditators. 

I am using words, Buddha used words, Jesus used words. You have to use words. Just make one effort; don’t 

use unnecessary words. Be more telegraphic, be more condensed. Make your words more meaningful. When you 

use them, don’t just go on using them so that you remain occupied. 

Little Alma, a pupil in the first grade, arrived home from school all out of breath. 

”Daddy, Daddy,” she cried, her eyes sparkling with excitement, ”we had our very first drill today!” 

”That’s good, shayneh,” he said, smiling. ”I believe in fire drills. Why I once almost died in a fire.” 

”Ooh, tell me.” 

”Well, it was like this: I fell into a great big vat of chicken soup. So I climbed on top of the knaidlach to keep 

from drowning and I hollered ’Fire’ at the top of my lungs.” 

”Fire?” exclaimed Alma, ”Was there a fire, too?” 

”No,” grinned the father, patting her curls, ”but who would have helped me if I had yelled ’chicken soup’?” 

Words are significant. 

For their first date, the boy takes the girl to a carnival. After walking around for a while the girl says to her 

date, ”I want to get weighed.” 

So the boy finds a man who guesses people’s weight. The man accurately guesses the girl’s weight. 

After visiting some other attractions the boy again hears the girl say the same thing, ”I want to get weighed.” 

Again he finds another stall where she again has her weight judged correctly. 

After some ice cream and taffy, she again says, ”I want to get weighed.” 

The boy replies, ”No, this is too much. I am taking you home.” 

After being deposited on her doorstep, the girl goes inside and seeing her mother, starts to cry and blurts out, 

”Oh, mother, I had such a wousy time!” 



Chapter 7 The fool is his own enemy 


THE FOOL IS HIS OWN ENEMY. SEEKING WEALTH, HE DESTROYS HIMSELF. 

SEEK RATHER THE OTHER SHORE. 

WEEDS CHOKE THE FIELD. PASSION POISONS THE NATURE OF MAN, AND HATRED, ILLUSION 

AND DESIRE. 

HONOR THE MAN WHO IS WITHOUT PASSION, HATRED, ILLUSION AND DESIRE. 

WHAT YOU GIVE TO HIM WILL BE GIVEN BACK TO YOU, AND MORE. 

Man is born intelligent, but the society does not allow intelligence to flower; it destroys it. In a thousand and 

one ways it makes every effort to make every intelligent being unintelligent. The unintelligent person seems to 

be more obedient obedient to the state, to the church, to the society. He is less rebellious he cannot rebel. 

Rebellion needs intelligence. The greater the intelligence, the greater the rebellion. The unintelligent person seeks 

security and safety with the crowd. He cannot be an individual. He is always hankering to become part of a crowd 

Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan. These are all crowds. They depend on those people who have become victims 

of the social strategy of destroying intelligence. 

An intelligent person will not go to the church in search of God, or to the temple. An intelligent person will go 

within. He will not go to Kaaba or to Kashi, because if God is not here he cannot be anywhere else and if he is 

anywhere else, why not here? If God is not in me, he cannot be anywhere else; and if he is anywhere else, he is 

bound to be in me too.


The intelligent person is an individual; he is not part of a crowd, mob psychology. He is not a sheep, he is a 

man. And all the vested interests are against the individual against the man. They want machines. They don’t 

like people who are intelligent, who decide on their own. They want people who depend on others, on authoritative 

figures on the leaders, on the priests, on the saints, but always on others, never on themselves. 

The society has lived up to now in a very destructive way. It destroys the very possibility of your ever being 

a buddha or a christ. It has always been against the wise; it respects the fool. The fool fits with the society 

perfectly. The fool is cut out to fit with the society. 

No child is born foolish, and every child, sooner or later, turns out to be idiotic. The powers are so big, so 

great, that it is almost impossible for the child to resist. The child cannot survive if he resists too much. It is 

really a miracle that a few people have escaped from being machines. These few people are the salt of the earth; 

they are the only flowers. Because of them, humanity has a little perfume, a little fragrance; otherwise, all others 

are walking dead, corpses, somehow dragging towards the grave. 

The way of the fool has to be understood because only if you understand it you can go beyond it. The fool also 

has a way of life. His way of life is the way of the crowd. Whatsoever others say, he repeats. The way others live, 

he imitates. He is always looking around for clues how to be, how to behave, what is right, what is wrong. He has 

no insight into anything. He depends on commandments from others. For thousands of years he goes on following 

commandments that were given in different situations, to a different kind of people, for different purposes, but he 

goes on following. 

He is never spontaneous; that is the first thing to be remembered about the fool. He is repetitive: he repeats the 

past, but he is never spontaneous. He is never responsible he never responds to the situation. He has ready-made 

answers. He never listens to the question; he is not concerned with the question at all. The question simply 

triggers in him a process of memory, and a ready-made answer comes up. He is like a computer. 

To be responsible means to be aware. Unless you are aware you will not be able to see the situation that is 

confronting you. And the situation is changing every moment, it is never the same not even for two consecutive 

moments is it the same. Hence one has to be very aware, then only can one respond to reality. And to respond 

to reality is to commune with God. 

The fool knows nothing of God; he never comes across anything divine. He remains part of the stupid collectivity. 

Remember, the society, the collective has no soul; the soul belongs to the individual. Hence, those who belong to 

the collective are destroying every possibility of being souls. 

George Gurdjieff used to say that it is very rare to find a person who has a soul and he was right. To have 

a soul means to have awareness, to have individuality, to have freedom, to be able to respond and to be able to 

respond on your own accord, not following dictums from others, directions from others. 

The fool is never spontaneous; that is the first thing to be understood about the fool. If you become spontaneous 

you start becoming intelligent. The fool never learns; he is very stubborn about learning. He thinks he already 

knows. 

The fool is not necessarily the ignorant person, mind you. The fool may be a great scholar; the fool may be 

a famous pundit; the fool may be a well-known professor; the fool may have a PhD, a DLitt. In fact, who else 

bothers about PhDs? The fool can be very well-informed, but that makes no difference to his foolishness. 

Information does not transform you. Transformation is a totally different phenomenon than information. 

Transformation comes through awareness, through being open: open to life, open to people, open to everything 

possible. The fool lives in a closed world; he is dumb and deaf. 

That’s exactly the meaning of the English word ’idiot’: closed. He lives in his own private world. He knows 

nothing of the reality. He lives in his own dreams and he thinks that’s what reality is. He lives in beliefs. He 

lives what tradition, what convention has taught him whatsoever he has been conditioned for. 

In a Catholic country he will be a Catholic. In a communist country he will be a communist the same person; 

there is no difference at all. Whether he quotes from the Bible or from Das Kapital, it is all the same: he quotes 

mechanically. He cannot understand because he is not ready to learn. 

He remains utterly closed. He is afraid of opening his windows, his doors. He is afraid to be open to the wind, 

to the sun, to the rain, because who knows? if he opens to life, his ready-made answers may not be adequate. 

He is very much afraid to lose his ready-made answers; he depends on them. They may be right or wrong, that 

is not important for him. As long as he believes they are right, they are right for him. 

Hence the second characteristic of the foolish man: he is dumb and deaf. He is unlearning. He never listens. He 

may be able to hear, but he is not able to listen. Hearing is a physiological phenomenon; listening is something 

deeper. You hear through the ears; when your heart is also joined with your ears, listening happens. And the


fool’s heart is never joined with his ears. He is not able to see; he goes on seeing whatsoever HE wants to see. He 

never allows the reality to be reflected in him; he is incapable of reflection. He is not a mirror. 

After a day at the seaside, a bus full of deaf and dumb people stopped at a country pub. The bus driver went 

in to explain to the barman: ”You see those people over there? They are all deaf and dumb. They have a special 

sign language. Two fingers means a pint of bitter. Three fingers means a lager; four, a light ale; five, a Guinness; 

a shake of the head, a whisky; a nod to the left, a brandy; and a nod to the right, a vodka.” 

The barman, having taken in all this information, agreed he could handle the situation. 

Things went well for the first hour or so, and then the barman noticed three of the party standing at the bar, 

opening and shutting their mouths. He tried to figure out what they wanted, then gave up and forgot all about 

them. 

But ten minutes later, a dozen of the deaf and dumb people were at the bar, opening and shutting their mouths 

like goldfish in a bowl. He started to feel a bit uneasy and pretended not to notice. But soon the whole crowd 

from the bus was at the bar, all of them opening and shutting their mouths. 

Not knowing what to do, he rushed outside, ran over to where the bus was parked and hammered on the 

window. 

”Hey, what’s up?” asked the driver. 

”Well, you know all those people in there? Well, it was okay for the first hour or so three fingers, two fingers, 

shake of the head, nod to the left but now the whole crowd of them is up at the bar, all opening and shutting 

their mouths!” 

”Ah, no,” said the driver, ”they are not singing again! Now we will never get them home!” 

The fool lives in a totally closed world. Neither is he available to reality, nor is he capable of expressing anything. 

He is uncreative because he cannot express. 

Hence the third characteristic: the fool is uncreative. Imitative he is, but absolutely uncreative. He may be 

able to compose a few things, he may be able to put a few things together, but it is never creativity. Never is a 

new thing born through his being he himself is still unborn. He can become a great technician, but he is never a 

great artist. He can know how to paint and he can know perfectly well how to paint but he will not be able to 

paint anything genuinely new, authentically novel, original. He is absolutely unoriginal. He lives like a robot; he 

has been reduced to a machine. 

If man is reduced to his lowest, he becomes a machine; if he is raised to his highest, he becomes a god. Man is 

a ladder: at the lowest rung, he is a machine; at the highest rung, he is a god. Either you can be a machine or 

you can be a god. If you remain unintelligent, unaware, you will remain a machine. 

Conscience cannot change you. You have been told, ”This is right and that is wrong,” but that has not changed 

you. Nobody can change you from the outside. Any change from the outside is going to be only superficial; deep 

down you will remain the same and you will persist in your foolishness. 

I have seen sinners who are foolish, I have seen saints who are foolish in the same way. There is a great difference 

between the sinner and the saint from the outside, but both may be fools. The sinner may have fallen in a wrong 

company, that’s all, and the saint has fallen in a right company; that is the only difference. The sinner is following 

the wrong crowd; it is accidental. And the saint is following the right crowd, but that too is accidental. Deep 

down, both are the same. 

Foolishness has a quality of persisting. It persists because for lives together you have lived through it, you have 

remained identified with it. It has been safe to be a fool. It has been safe to pretend that you know without 

knowing, because you know perfectly well that the world has not behaved well with the knowers. It has not 

poisoned any fool, but it has poisoned Socrates one of the most wise men ever born. It has not crucified any fool, 

but it has crucified Jesus. 

Two hippies, short of cash, hit on a way of making money. With their long hair and beards, a couple of 

nightshirts and a makeshift cross, they headed one Sunday morning for the local Baptist church, arriving in the 

middle of the service. The first hippie entered, proclaiming aloud, ”Make way for the Lord!” 

The second staggered behind, wielding the cross. 

The worshippers cried out aloud. Some fell flat on their faces. Coins and bills were showered on them as they 

paraded up the aisle and back out again into the street. That Sunday they made over forty dollars. 

The following week they hit the local Catholic church. ”Make way for the Lord!” The parishioners tore out 

their hair and shrieked up to heaven in paroxysms of divine ecstasy. That morning they made over a hundred 

dollars. 

The following week, just for a laugh, they tried the synagogue. The first hippie entered crying, ”Make way for 

the Lord!” and the second lumbered in with his load.


The old rabbi turned to his neighbor and whispered, ”Moishe, get the hammer and nails out. He is back!” 

To be a fool is safer. To be a Jesus is dangerous. To be a buddha is to live in insecurity. It is going against the 

crowd, and the crowd is vast; it is going against the current. Hence your experience of centuries tells you, ”Remain 

a fool. Pretend that you are not foolish.” That is part of foolishness. The moment a person stops pretending, he 

starts becoming wise. 

The beginning of wisdom is to know that you are a fool and then you are not a fool at all; you have stopped 

being a fool. It is very rare to accept the fact that ”I am a fool.” 

They say that if a madman knows that he is mad, he is no longer mad; sanity has come back. But no madman 

ever agrees that he is mad; he thinks he is the sanest man in the world. Everybody else may be mad, he is not. 

That is also part of remaining foolish. The foolish person pretends in every possible way. He will pretend that he 

knows what he knows not. He will pretend he is somebody he is not. His life becomes an acting. His life becomes 

a superficial show. He is always in a kind of exhibition; he becomes a showcase. He has many faces. He wears 

masks and he forgets his original face completely. 

Hence, the Zen Buddhists say: Unless you discover your original face you will not know who you are and you 

will not know what this reality is all about, and you will not know the blessing and the benediction of being alive. 

Discover the original face. Your original face is lost in so many masks. You have been pretending to others 

and, slowly, slowly you have become convinced of your own pretensions. 

Now that Jack and Irma were rich they decided to add a little culture to their hitherto shallow lives. At their 

first opportunity they went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and took a guided tour of the exhibits. 

”Say, this is a fine bust of Michelangelo,” said Jack admiringly. 

”That is not Michelangelo,” explained the guide. ”That is Leonardo da Vinci.” 

”Jack,” she hissed, ”why do you have to open your big mouth when you don’t know a single thing about the 

New Testament?” 

You will find these pretenders everywhere. You will find these pretenders inside you, outside you. You are 

living with them you are one of them. Recognize that ”I am a pretender,” and that is a great beginning. 

The fool may try to be good, but he cannot be good because there is nothing like mechanical goodness. Goodness 

can only be out of consciousness. All that is mechanical is bad. In my definition and in the definition of Gautama 

the Buddha, to do anything unconsciously is bad, is evil, and to do anything consciously is good, is virtuous. It 

is not a question of what you are doing, it is not a question about your actions in particular; everything depends 

on what source it is coming from. If it is coming from your deep awareness, then whatsoever it is.... 

For example, Mohammed fought in many wars with a sword in his hand, but I will not call his wars evil. 

No, his wars are not evil because they are coming out of a deep awareness, a deep meditativeness. He is simply 

responding to the situation. Of course, what he is doing is violence but violence, too, in the hands of a conscious, 

alert person, transforms its quality. 

Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, but his vegetarianism was not good. His vegetarianism was evil, because it was 

coming out of a totally unconscious mind. He never smoked, he never drank alcohol, he lived the life of a celibate. 

He was almost a monk a Jaina monk. If you look at his life, he lived it in a very disciplined way. He was not in 

any way an evil person never gambled, never even played cards. But he was not good, he was not virtuous. All 

that was coming out of an unconscious mind. 

If you find Jesus drinking... yes, he used to drink, he enjoyed drinking. And I don’t think there is anything 

wrong in drinking if you can drink the way Jesus drank, with absolute awareness; then there is nothing wrong in 

drinking. Then drinking, too, is good. But you may be a nondrinker like Adolf Hitler, and it is not good. So the 

question is not what you do, but how you do it, from where comes the action. 

Molly O’Brien went to visit the parish priest. ”Father,” she said, ”I feel so bad! Last night I called a man a 

bastard.” 

”Now, why,” said the priest, ”would you want to do a thing like that?” 

”Well, Father, you see... he put his arm around me.” 

”What like this?” 

”Yes, just like that.” 

”Well, that is no reason to call him a bastard.” 

”Yes, but then, Father, he kissed me!” 

”What like this?” 

”Yes.” 

”Well, that’s no reason to call him a bastard.” 

”I know, but then you see, he put me down on the sofa and lifted my dress up.”


”You mean... like this?” 

”Yes, Father.” 

”Well, still that is no reason to call him a bastard.” 

”Yes, but then he pulled his trousers down.” 

”Like this?” 

”Yes.” 

”Well, that is still no reason to call him a bastard.” 

”But Father... then he made love to me.” 

”Like this?” 

”Yes.” 

”And you called him a bastard just for that?” 

”But Father you see then he told me he had the clap.” 

”Why, the dirty bastard!” 

The fool can be found in the sinners, in the priests, in the saints. The fool is a very subtle phenomenon; it is 

not so gross as you think. You cannot judge from the outside whether a man is wise or foolish because sometimes 

their acts may be the same. 

Krishna says in the Gita to Arjuna, ”Fight, but fight with absolute surrender to God. Become a vehicle.” Now, 

to surrender means absolute awareness, otherwise you cannot surrender. Surrender means dropping the ego, and 

ego IS your unconsciousness. Krishna says, ”Drop the ego and then leave it to God. Then let his will be done. 

Then whatsoever happens is good.” 

Arjuna argues. Again and again he brings new arguments and he says, ”But to kill these people innocent 

people, they have not done anything wrong just for the kingdom to kill so many people, so much violence, so 

much murder, so much bloodshed... how can it be right? Rather than killing these people for the kingdom I would 

like to renounce and go to the forest and become a monk.” 

Now, if you just look from the outside, Arjuna seems to be more religious than Krishna. Arjuna seems to be 

more a Gandhian than Krishna. Krishna seems to be very dangerous. He is saying, ”Drop all this nonsense of 

being a monk and escaping to the Himalayan caves. That is not for you. You leave everything to God. You don’t 

decide, you drop this deciding. You simply relax, be in a let-go, and let him descend in you and let him flow 

through you. Then, whatsoever happens.... If he wants to become a monk through you, he will become a monk. 

If he wants to become a warrior through you, he will become a warrior.” 

Arjuna seems to be more moralistic, puritanistic. Krishna seems to be totally different. Krishna is a buddha, 

an awakened being. He is saying, ”Don’t you decide. Out of your unconsciousness, whatsoever you decide is going 

to be wrong, because unconsciousness is wrong.” 

And the foolish person lives in unconsciousness. Even if he tries to do good, in fact he succeeds only in doing 

bad. 

Paddy NcNaughty went to confession: ”Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.” 

”And what is it that you have done, my son?” 

”I made love to one of the girls in the village.” 

”My God!” said the priest, ”and which of the village girls did you commit sin with?” 

”Ah, Father, that I cannot tell.” 

”And if you will not tell me, then I shall not give you absolution.” 

”Ah dear!” said Paddy. 

”Was it Molly O’Flaherty?” asked the priest. 

”No, it was not Molly O’Flaherty.” 

”Then was it Flora Fitzgibbons?” 

”Ah no,” said Paddy, ”it was not Flora Fitzgibbons.” 

”Was it Maggie Muldoon, then?” persisted the priest. 

”Ah, sure no, it was not Maggie Muldoon.” 

”Then who in heaven’s name was it?” 

”Ah, sure, Father that I cannot tell.” 

”And if you don’t tell me I shall not give ya absolution.” 

”Ah, Father, that’s too bad!” said Paddy and walked out of the confessional. 

His friend, Michael, was waiting outside. ”Well, Paddy, did ya get yar sins forgiven?” 

”No,” said Paddy, ”but I got the names of a few good broads!”


If you are unconscious you may go to get forgiven, you may go to confession, but it is not going to help you will 

remain the same. Foolishness tends to persist. Beware of these characteristics of foolishness. Foolishness is very 

egoistic. In fact, the more intelligent you are, the less egoistic you are. When intelligence blooms in perfection, 

ego disappears. Hence, foolishness is very argumentative; it always tries to defend itself. In a thousand and one 

ways it will convince you that this is the right course, this is what is to be done. 

One has to be very aware of all these deep tendencies; they go on forcing you to go astray, they go on forcing 

you to go off center. They make you eccentric. Consciousness centers you; unconsciousness takes you off your 

center. 

A man walked into a cafeteria and ordered coffee and a cream bun. ”Sorry,” said the attendant, ”but we’re out 

of buns. Why not have a doughnut instead?” 

”In that case,” said the man, ”I’ll have a cup of tea and a cream bun.” 

”I just told you, sir, we’re out of buns. Why don’t you have a doughnut?” 

”Hmm... so in that case, I’ll have a toasted bun with butter and a cup of tea.” 

”Look! How many times do I have to tell you? We don’t have any buns cream buns or toasted buns, or any 

other kind of buns!” 

”Okay then,” said the man. ”Then give me a currant bun and a hot chocolate.” 

”Look here, you!” said the attendant, seizing the man by the collar and shaking him violently, ”We don’t have 

no buns! We don’t have no cream buns, we don’t have no currant buns, nor hot cross buns, or toasted buns with 

butter or any other kind of buns. Get it?” 

”Okay, okay!” said the man. ”No need to shout I’ll just have a bun!” 

Buddha says: 

THE FOOL IS HIS OWN ENEMY. SEEKING WEALTH, HE DESTROYS HIMSELF. 

THE FOOL IS HIS OWN ENEMY... for many reasons. First: he will die without being born. He will die as 

a seed. He will never bloom, he will never come to flowers and to fruits. He will never know what fulfillment is. 

His life will be a sheer wastage. His life will be a desert without any oasis. He will not know any blessing, any 

benediction, any ecstasy which was his birthright. He will be self-destructive. Not to grow into consciousness is 

the most suicidal act one can commit; hence Buddha says: THE FOOL IS HIS OWN ENEMY. He misses a great 

opportunity. 

Life is such a precious opportunity to know, to be, but the fool misses. He will not even be aware what he has 

missed. He will pass through life like a zombie. His whole life is mechanical. He gets up early in the morning, 

takes his breakfast, goes to the office, does his work, drives back home... and he is doing everything, but still he 

is a robot. He is not yet inwardly full of light; deep inside him there is only darkness. He is doing all these things 

because he has practiced doing them. He has become skillful. 

Scientists have been working for centuries to create robots. I don’t see why they should be so much concerned 

about creating robots there are so many, millions of them! And there is no need to make robots at all; all these 

millions of robots go on producing more robots! In fact, the question is how to stop them from producing more! 

Each fool leaves at least a dozen fools particularly in India behind him. When he dies he makes the world 

twelve times more foolish; he leaves a dozen fools as a proof that he has been here. What is the need of creating 

robots? 

I was reading a story that robots have been created it is a twenty-first century story and they are so exactly 

like human beings that it is very difficult to distinguish. If you meet a robot on the way driving his car you will 

not be able to distinguish whether he is a robot or not. He will look exactly like a man. Only one difference will 

be there: he will be more efficient. Less accidents will be there on the road. He will finish his work in time. He 

will not go on piling up files on his table; his table will be clean. 

So a few indications so you can judge whether the man is really a robot or a man. Once in a while only 

you will know who is a robot when his battery runs down. Then only... if he was talking to you and he was 

giving you great argument, philosophical arguments for God’s existence, and then he suddenly says, ”Grrr, grrrr, 

grrr-rr-rrr...!” and immediately runs towards the electric plug and connects himself to the electricity to recharge 

himself then you will know that this is not a real man; otherwise there will not be any difference. 

And that, too, is possible to overcome sooner or later: we can fix two batteries. Why one battery? I was 

worried: why fix one battery in the poor man? you can fix two batteries so that while one is being used, the other 

is being charged automatically. If you can create a robot, can’t you create an automatic battery? Why make him 

look foolish: ”Grrr, grrr, grrr”? And this can happen any time. He is making love to his woman, and ”Grrr, grrr, 

grrr!” And he has to say, ”Excuse me, I have run out of gas!” Either electricity... or he will need petrol. 

THE FOOL IS HIS OWN ENEMY. His first inimical act towards himself is his mechanicalness.


”Look what I got today! A brand-new car, and it only cost eight hundred pounds.” 

”Eight hundred pounds? But that’s impossible a brand-new car?” 

”Ah well, you see, it’s got no engine.” 

”Got no engine?” 

”That’s right. You talk to it, see... you just talk to it and it goes.” 

”Is that so?” 

”Yep, that’s right. Wanna come for a ride? Only one thing, though, before we start. This car only understands 

a few words. Like, to make it go forward you say, ’Bloody hell’; to make it stop you say, ’Bastard.’” 

”Oh... is that so?” 

”Yep. Sure is. Come on, I will show ya. ’Bloody hell’ she goes, see, and all you have to do is turn the steering 

wheel, blow the horn, flash the indicators.... ’Bastard’ see, she stops when you want, too.” 

”Wow! I’ve never seen a car like that before!” 

”Let’s take her out into the country. Maybe we can go out towards the cliffs by the sea. See, on a straight road 

she’ll go up to ninety, no problem ninety-four, ninety-five....” 

”Uh... ahem... I say, aren’t we getting a bit close to the edge of the cliffs?” 

”Come on now, don’t worry. Just watch how she brakes.” 

”Hey! Hey, careful! That sign says, ’Road ends in fifty yards,’ and you’re going ninety-five!” 

”Right! Watch this: Bastard.... Hey, come on now she doesn’t want to stop! Bastard! Bastard! Bastard! We 

made it! See, she stopped.” 

”Phew, bloody hell, that was close...!” 

THE FOOL IS HIS OWN ENEMY. SEEKING WEALTH, HE DESTROYS HIMSELF. By ”wealth” Buddha 

means everything that is outside you: power, prestige, money, sex anything that is outside you. The fool is 

extrovert; he never looks in. He accumulates everything on the outside. His whole life is devoted to money, power, 

prestige, and then one day death comes, but then it is too late. When death comes, he realizes that all that he 

has been doing has been simply stupid because all is slipping out of his fingers. All that he has been doing was 

making sandcastles. Just a blow of death, and everything disappears like a dream. 

Buddha says: SEEKING WEALTH, HE DESTROYS HIMSELF. He remains constantly extrovert; hence he 

never becomes aware who he is, why he is, from where he comes, to where he is going, what is his destiny, what 

is his significance, why this existence needs him, what purpose he is supposed to fulfill, what fragrance has to be 

released by him. He never looks in. He goes on rushing faster and faster. As death comes closer he runs faster 

so that he can accumulate a little more wealth, a little more respect, respectability, so that he can become a 

president or a prime minister. 

But death destroys everything your presidents, your prime ministers. You may be rich; death is not going to 

favor you. Before death, everybody is the same rich or poor, knowledgeable or not knowledgeable, famous or not 

famous. 

Buddha says: If you are putting your energies into such projects which can be destroyed by death, then you are 

destroying yourself. Attain something that is imperishable. Attain to something that death cannot snatch away 

from you. Realize something that will go beyond death with you. Realize something that even fire cannot burn, 

swords cannot cut, atom bombs, hydrogen bombs cannot destroy. Then only you have been a friend to yourself; 

otherwise you are an enemy. 

Three couples were killed in a car crash. Saint Peter was waiting for them at the Pearly Gates, his big book 

under his arm. The first couple was summoned forth. 

”Name?” shouted Saint Peter. 

”Jones,” replied the husband. 

Saint Peter opened his big book and started thumbing through the pages. 

”Hmmm... Jackson... Johnson... ah yes, Jones! Hmm... Jones, hey? Well now, Jones, this is not a very good 

record, is it? Drink, drink, drink that’s all you’ve ever been after even married a woman called Sherry. Well, 

Jones, this isn’t good enough, you know. I’m afraid it is downstairs to hell for you.” 

The Joneses broke into sobs and hugged each other, but two guardian angels pulled them apart and dragged 

the man towards the gates of hell. The wife followed shortly. 

”Next!” called Saint Peter and the second couple shuffled forward. ”Name!” 

”Smith,” they both replied shakily. 

”Hmm... Sutherland... Spencer... ah yes, Smith! Hmm... well, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, this one doesn’t look too 

good either. Money, money, money that’s all you two have ever been after even called your sons Buck, Frank


and Mark, and your daughter, Penny. Now what kind of a life is that! Well, there’s only one place for people like 

you. You’ll have to go downstairs down to hell!” 

The Smiths wept and fell at his feet, but the verdict was final. 

”Next!” shouted Saint Peter, as the guardian angels were hauling the Smiths away. 

The next husband turned to his wife and said, ”Come on, Fanny... I’m not gonna stand here and be insulted!” 


Buddha says: Don’t be too much concerned with this shore; it is momentary. Tomorrow you have to go. Even 

seventy years is not a long time; compared to eternity it is just a moment. Your life lasts only as long as a 

soap bubble. You think it is long enough seventy years because you compare your life with the life of flies or 

mosquitoes; then it looks long enough. But ask the mosquitoes and they think they are doing perfectly well: they 

are doing everything that you are doing and in a short span. They are born, they fall in love, they get married, 

they have children and many more than you can ever have and they sing and they dance. Maybe they have their 

own religion and priests and politicians. And then they become old and then they die. Maybe it lasts only for a 

few weeks, but in those few weeks they have done everything! 

There are insects that will live only for a few hours, but in those few hours is condensed your whole life: 

boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, and all the fights.... I have heard they go even to marriage 

counselors, they consult sexologists! 

One woman had a cat and the cat was creating much trouble in the neighborhood. He was a playboy and the 

whole night he was going from this house to that, and they were making so much noise because cats don’t believe 

in making love silently. They are not Hindus, not Indians! They are all hippies! 

So the whole neighborhood told the woman, ”Do something. It’s too much we can’t sleep! This lovemaking of 

your cat he’s driving us mad!” 

Finally the woman took her cat to the vet and he was operated on. But the neighborhood was in as much 

trouble as before. 

People asked the woman, ”What is the matter? What kind of operation is this? Your cat has been operated 

on, you say, but we still see him coming.” 

The woman said, ”Yes, he still goes now as a consultant.” 

Time does not matter. In a few hours you can live seventy years or seven hundred years in a condensed way. 

Into seven minutes seventy years can be condensed. And seven minutes look very small compared to seventy years, 

but what are seventy years compared to the age of the sun or the moon or the earth or the stars? And what are 

seventy years compared to eternity? 

This shore consists of momentary phenomena. Don’t waste your total energy in that which is momentary. Go 

on remembering the other shore. By ”the other shore” Buddha means that which is beyond time and beyond 

space. This shore is outside you and the other shore is within you. This shore consists of money, sex, power, 

prestige, and that shore consists only of awareness, silence, peace, prayer. 


WEEDS CHOKE THE FIELD. PASSION POISONS THE NATURE OF MAN, AND HATRED, ILLUSION 

AND DESIRE. 

But you are full of weeds, hence you cannot grow roses. Before you can grow roses you will have to remove all 

the weeds, you will have to prepare the ground, you will have to prepare the soil. You will have to remove the 

weeds, the stones, and all that can be a hindrance for the roses. WEEDS CHOKE THE FIELD. 

And about weeds, one thing has to be understood: you need not grow them, they grow on their own accord. 

Even if you pull them out they will grow again. 

Mulla Nasruddin has a very beautiful lawn. A new neighbor moved recently next door to Mulla’s house and he 

became very interested in Mulla’s garden, particularly his lawn. He also wanted to make a beautiful lawn and a 

garden. He planted seeds, he planted plants, but so many weeds started growing. 

He asked Mulla, ”How to distinguish which is grass and which are weeds?” 

Mulla said, ”Simple. You pull them both out. The grass will not grow again and the weeds will grow again. 

That’s how one knows, that’s how one can distinguish.” 

Weeds have a quality the same quality as the fools: they persist, they insist, they don’t want to be removed. 

Everything great in this life is fragile and everything ugly is rocklike, very strong. Weeds grow on their own accord. 

You have not cultivated anger and you have not cultivated lust. There are no schools where you are taught how 

to be jealous and how to be greedy. No teachers, no masters are needed to teach you how to be unconscious. 

These things grow on their own accord. 

Falling downwards is easy; rising upwards is difficult it goes against gravitation.


You have to remove the weeds, otherwise they choke the field. You are so full of anger, greed, lust, that they 

are choking your energies. It will be impossible for you to grow they won’t allow you to grow. They will suck all 

your energy; they are suckers, they are parasites. 

Buddha says: WEEDS CHOKE THE FIELD. PASSION POISONS THE NATURE OF MAN, AND HATRED, 

ILLUSION AND DESIRE. 

Passion creates many things in you. It creates fever, it makes you more unconscious more unconscious than 

you already are. It drags you deeper into the mud. And with passion come hatred, illusion and desire and then 

you are distracted from your nature. Your nature is poisoned, your innocence is poisoned. You lose all simplicity, 

all humbleness. 

Beware of the poisoning by passion. Be warm, be loving that is a totally different phenomenon but don’t be 

full of lust. Warmth is possible with your consciousness. A Buddha is very warm, a Jesus is very warm, very 

loving. Passion has disappeared. Passion has become transformed into compassion. Their compassion showers on 

you like flowers. Just as passion poisons you, compassion purifies you. Compassion is nectar if passion is poison. 

The energy that is involved in passion can be released into compassion. 

And the way to release the energy, the way to rechannel it towards compassion, is what Buddha calls sammasati 

right awareness, right remembering; what Gurdjieff calls self-remembering, what Krishnamurti calls simply awareness, 

what I call meditation. They are all the same, different names indicating the same energy. You have to 

become alert, conscious of what you are doing. 

Try, when you are angry, to be conscious, and you will be surprised you are in for a great surprise. If you 

become conscious, anger disappears. And suddenly you have found a key, you have stumbled upon a secret. 

When sex dominates you and you are full of lust, close your eyes, sit silently and meditate on this energy that is 

surrounding you, this lust that is surrounding you like a cloud. Just watch it, see it. I am not saying be against 

it, because if you are against it you have already taken a standpoint. Now you cannot watch. 

For watching, the necessary step, the most necessary, is not to take any prejudice, not to conclude beforehand. 

Just remain silently watchful, neither for nor against. And within minutes you will be surprised that that great 

storm of lust is over. And when the storm is over, the silence that is left behind is so profound, is so great, such a 

blessing that you may not have felt it ever. No sexual experience can give you that beauty that will come if you 

watch your lust and through watchfulness the lust disappears. Then a silence comes to you which is virgin, which 

belongs to the beyond, which belongs to the other shore. 

HONOR THE MAN WHO IS WITHOUT PASSION.... Hence Buddha says: If you can find a man who is 

without passion if you can find a christ or a buddha honor the man... for the simple reason that he has done 

almost the impossible: he has escaped from the ordinary bondage of humanity. He is no longer a prisoner, no 

longer a slave. He has asserted his individuality, his intelligence. He is no longer a fool. Wisdom has happened in 

his being. He is full of light; darkness has disappeared. 

HONOR THE MAN WHO IS WITHOUT PASSION, HATRED, ILLUSION AND DESIRE. 

And the moment passion disappears, hatred disappears, illusion disappears, desire disappears, because one feels 

so contented, one feels so utterly fulfilled. One feels one has come home. There is nowhere to go, nothing else to 

ask for or desire. 

Just think of those moments when there is no desire, when there is no tension, when your mind is absolutely 

quiet. Only then will you know God exists or it will be more right to say, godliness exists. 

WHAT YOU GIVE TO HIM.... If you give anything to Buddha... what can you give to him? You can give 

him your respect, you can give him your trust, you can give him your self, your surrender. 

WHAT YOU GIVE TO HIM WILL BE GIVEN BACK TO YOU, AND MORE. 

Whenever a disciple surrenders himself to an awakened master he becomes the richest person in the world. In 

his very surrender is victory. In his dropping of the ego he attains to beinghood. For the first time he is and in 

a very strange way, because he has dropped himself. But the one he has dropped was a false self, and when the 

false disappears, the real appears. When the false ceases to be, the real starts shining in all its glory, in all its 

splendor. 

Whatsoever you give to a buddha comes back to you a thousandfold. 

The disciple surrenders, the disciple opens his heart, and the buddha starts flowing into the heart of the disciple. 

The buddha is like a raincloud, so full of love, so full of truth, so full of ecstasy, that if you open your heart, if you 

are ready to drink out of him, you will, for the first time, feel a deep satisfaction. Your thirst will be quenched. 

That’s why Jesus says: Eat me, drink me. He is not telling you to become cannibals! He is saying to you, ”I 

am available. Just open your heart and let me in.”


When the awakened one knocks on your door, please open the door, because you may miss the opportunity and 

you may miss it for many many, lives. It is very rare to come across a Buddha, a Christ, a Krishna, a Mahavira, 

a Mohammed. If you are fortunate enough to come across an awakened person, then don’t be miserly. Then drop 

yourself totally, then be committed totally. 

Just the other day somebody has asked, ”You say: I am the gate. I have come here, I love you. I have come 

from far away, but I am not a sannyasin and I am not being allowed to see you. Then why do you say: I am the 

gate if I am not allowed to come through you?” 

You are allowed to come through me, but a few things you will have to leave at the gate: your shoes, your heads. 

That’s what sannyas is. These are your two extremes, the two polarities: the shoes and the head. Leave both the 

extremes outside, then you are balanced. The very word ’sannyas’ means a state of equilibrium, of balance, of 

absolute balance. 

I am the gate, but I am the gate only for those who are ready to pass through me. You have to pay the price 

and sannyas is the price. And if you love me, then love is always ready to sacrifice. And I am not asking for your 

money, I am not asking for your house; I am not asking anything of this shore from you. I am asking only for 

that which you don’t have but you believe that you have. I am asking only for the false things: your beliefs, your 

ego, your hatred, your passion, your desires, your lust, your greed. I am asking for all your diseases! Give all your 

diseases to me; that’s what sannyas is all about. Then I am the gate and I am ready. Come through me and you 

will find that which you have been seeking for lives together. 

But you can miss the gate if you are so miserly or so cowardly that you cannot take the jump into sannyas. 

Then what kind of love are you talking about? Love knows how to be committed, how to be involved. Love knows 

how to die and how to be reborn. Love is ready to pass through any fire because love knows, ”Nothing can destroy 

me, not even fire can burn me.” Love knows its eternity. Hence love is always courageous. 

Sannyas is courage, it is adventure. 

Buddha says: WHAT YOU GIVE TO HIM WILL BE GIVEN BACK TO YOU, AND MORE. 

Don’t be worried and don’t be miserly. Be open with me, be vulnerable, be receptive, so that I can pour myself 

totally in you. I am ready to be a guest in your heart, but you will have to be ready to be a host and you will have 

to cleanse your heart of all the weeds. You will have to empty your heart of all the junk that you have collected: 

of all the past, of all the memories, of all the belief systems, of all the philosophies, ideologies political, religious, 

social. 

When you are absolutely empty you can come in me, I can come in you. The meeting can happen. And that 

meeting is the greatest orgasmic experience of life. 



Chapter 8 Not gospels but gossips 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, I FEEL LIKE SUCH A NO-SAYER. IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR NO-SAYERS? 

Prem Jinesh, no-saying is a good beginning, but not a good end. No-saying is the seed; yes-saying is the 

flowering of it. The yes has to come through the no the no is the womb of the yes. If you cannot say no, your 

yes will be impotent. It won’t have any meaning at all, it won’t transform your life. It will be just on your lips, 

not in your heart. 

That’s what has happened to the whole of humanity. People have been forced to become yea-sayers, theists, 

God-believers, without ever knowing the taste of no. The yes has been forced upon them. They have not arrived 

at the yes, the yes has been handed over to them, it is borrowed. 

It is a mere belief, and all beliefs are blind. They keep you blind, they keep you in darkness. They keep you 

stuck and stagnant. 

There is nothing wrong in saying no. No has as much beauty as yes. No is the way to arrive at yes. Use the 

no as a stepping-stone. Don’t let it become a habit; be conscious about it, that’s all. I cannot say to you to start 

saying yes, because that will be not yet ripe for you. Go on saying no as long as the no remains significant to you. 

The no will destroy all that is false, borrowed. It will negate all beliefs. It will create an empty space in you. 

In the East we call the whole process neti, neti neither this nor that. We have never condemned it. 

It cleans you of all rubbish, it purifies you. It is a fire. Passing through it is a necessary step you cannot avoid. 

Those who avoid passing through it, their yes is just parrotlike. You can teach the parrot anything and he will go


on repeating it. He does not mean it. He has no heart within it, he simply says the words empty words, hollow 

words. 

A man was purchasing a parrot. He went to the pet shop. He liked one parrot very beautiful. He asked the 

price. The price appeared to be a little too much: the man was asking one thousand dollars. 

The purchaser asked, ”Is that parrot worth that much?” 

The shopkeeper said, ”You can ask the parrot himself.” 

He asked the parrot, and the parrot said, ”There is no doubt about it.” 

He said it so convincingly. It appeared so natural. The man purchased the parrot, and he was very excited to 

show it to his wife, to his children. He brought the parrot home. 

He asked the parrot, ”What is your name?” 

He said, ”There is no doubt about it.” 

The man said, ”What?” 

He said, ”There is no doubt about it!” 

The man asked, ”Do you know anything else or not?” 

He said, ”There is no doubt about it.” 

The man said, ”My God, I must have been a fool to purchase you!” 

The parrot said, ”There is no doubt about it!” 

That was all that the parrot knew. You ask any question, the answer is the same. It has nothing to do with 

the questions, it has nothing to do with the reality, it is not a response. It is just like a gramophone record. It 

goes on repeating meaninglessly. 

The people who have been conditioned to say yes yes to God, yes to the religion, yes to the society, yes to the 

parents their yes is bogus, it has no substance. It is not even a shadow. Even shadows have something in them, 

but this yes is absolutely a nonentity. Parents teach you to respect the parents, say yes to them, be obedient. Of 

course, that is their vested interest. And the priest says: Respect the priest, respect the Bible, the Koran, the 

Gita, respect the tradition, respect convention. That is his vested interest. And so on, so forth. 

Somebody asked George Gurdjieff, ”Why has respect for parents been emphasized, in every religion, in every 

country, in every society? Is there something divine in it?” Gurdjieff laughed and said, ”Yes. God knows perfectly 

well that if people are trained to say yes to the parents only then will they say yes to God. He has a vested 

interest in it” because God is the father figure, the ultimate father. And Gurdjieff also said, ”Parents are sooner 

or later going to die, and then there will be a vacuum. You respected your parents, you were obedient to your 

parents, you were always following, imitating whatsoever they said. You were just a carbon copy. You will feel 

very empty so much so that you would like to fill your emptiness with something. And that is the place which 

God will start filling in you.” 

He was joking. It is not God’s vested interest. Of course it is the vested interest of the priests. God has no 

vested interest in anything. In fact there is no God as a person; God is only godliness. 

One need not believe in God, one need not be a yea-sayer. One should learn the process of saying no. 

So Jinesh, don’t be worried. Say no boldly, courageously. Risk everything for the no. Slowly, slowly you will 

become aware that the no has limits. There are points when you cannot say no. When you explore the possibilities 

of saying no, you will come across certain spaces where no-saying is impossible and yes arises within your heart on 

its own accord, not as a conditioning, not because somebody has told you. Now it is your own flowering. And then 

that yes has beauty, then that yes has truth, that yes makes you a religious person. Otherwise you remain just 

imitators. You can imitate Christianity or Hinduism or Mohammedanism it does not matter whom you imitate. 

I have seen Christians becoming Hindus, Hindus becoming Christians they are the same people. Not only that, 

I have seen Catholics become communists they still remain the same people. I have seen communists become 

religious but still they are the same people. Just the object of worship changes. Gods go on changing. One 

God fails, another God is replaced but the worshipper is the same. Whether you worship Mohammed or Marx, 

Mahavira or Moses, it is not going to make any difference. 

If your yes has not come as a growth to you, then it is absolutely useless. Pass through this fire of no-saying, 

but remember only one thing: don’t let it become a habit. It can become a habit, that is the danger. The danger 

is not in no-saying. The danger is that your no-saying may become mechanical. So say it consciously, that’s all I 

can advise you say it consciously! Just don’t go on saying it because you have become accustomed. That is as 

foolish as saying yes meaninglessly. If you say it as a habit, it is meaningless. 

There are theists and there are atheists, and they are all in the same boat. Somebody has been told from the 

very beginning that God is say yes and you will be saved. And somebody has been told there is no God say no 

and you are saved. And they both are repeating. Whom you are imitating is irrelevant.


A man entered into a restaurant and ordered a cup of tea. He said, ”P-p-please b-bring a cup of tea.” 

Another man who was sitting across the table also repeated the same, ”P-p-please b-bring a cup of tea.” 

The first man looked at the second man in anger but didn’t say anything. Then a third man entered and he 

asked that he should be brought a cup of tea. 

And the second man said, ”Yes, bring another cup of tea for me too.” 

Now the first man was really angry. He said, ”Y-y-y-you have been imitating me!” 

And the second man said, ”N-n-no. I am imitating HIM.” 

But whom are you imitating? Does it matter? Imitation is imitation. 

People are imitators. The whole world is full of those imitators. You think those imitators are yea-sayers? You 

think those imitators are no-sayers? They are not saying anything, they are simply repeating whatsoever they 

have been told to repeat. 

So Jinesh, just remember one thing: don’t let it become a habit. Be conscious of it and you will be immensely 

benefited. 

I have heard: 

One ex-Nazi was trying to hide the fact that he had been a stormtrooper. He decided to become an opera 

singer. 

When the night for his big debut came he walked on stage, looked at his audience and announced, ”I am going 

to sing and you are going to listen!” 

Things become unconscious. You cannot hide them. Everybody else will be able to see them except you. If 

you can also see your habits, you start becoming a little detached, unidentified from them, a little aloof. And that 

very aloofness is a transcendence. Then you will be able to say when no is needed you will say no. And you will 

be able to say yes when yes is needed. You will not be fixated. 

To be fixated is insane. I don’t want you to become yea-sayers; I want you to be conscious, alert, watchful, 

responsive. There are moments when your total being would like to say no. Then say no. If everything has to be 

risked, risk, but don’t be false to your own being. And there will be moments when your whole being says, ”Say 

yes.” And then too, maybe there is great danger in saying yes, but say it. That’s the way of the sannyasin, the 

really religious person. 

Don’t become fixated. You can move from no-saying to yes-saying, and you can still remain unconscious and 

fixated. Then nothing has happened. Your disbelief has become belief, but you are the same person. 

Ira Schwartzbaum thought he was God. His worried parents, unable to convince him otherwise, finally took 

him to see a world-famous psychiatrist. Ira lay on the couch and closed his eyes. 

”Tell me,” the psychiatrist asked him in an encouraging, sympathetic voice, ”how did it all start?” 

”Well,” Ira said, ”on the first day I created the earth, then....” 

You can be fixated. And once you are fixated on a certain thing, when you cannot have a detached view of it, 

when you cannot create a distance between it and you you are insane. What your fixation is is not important. 

You may be a communist or a Catholic, Hindu or a Mohammedan, believer/disbeliever, no-sayer/yes-sayer it is 

all the same. 

Hence, Jinesh, don’t be worried about your no-saying. Be conscious of it. Next time you say no, don’t just say 

it out of habit, out of a past pattern. Reflect, watch, wait... and let a response arise in you. And you may be 

surprised a yes is born. And it will be born in you, it will not be imposed from the outside. 

Your freedom is a supreme value. Nothing is higher than that. But your freedom is possible only if you are not 

encaged in your habits, unconscious patterns of living. Change your gestalt from unconsciousness to consciousness. 

And I know that as you become conscious you will be able to say more yes than no. 

Ultimately a moment comes when life becomes just yes. But it is not fixation. You are still capable of saying 

no, not that you have become incapable of saying no. In fact, the greater is your yes, in the same proportion is 

your capacity to say no. You may not say... it may not be needed. Your understanding of life, your love affair 

with life may have brought you such tremendous joy that you may not like to say no. You may see the childishness 

of it, the stupidity of it, the stubbornness of it. You may see its poison and you may not say no, but that does 

not mean that you have become incapable of saying it. The more capable you are of saying yes, in the same 

proportion you will be capable of saying no too. But now everything will be decided by your conscious response. 

Ultimately the awakened person stops saying no. Not that he deliberately decides not to say no... it simply 

withers away just as dead leaves fall from the trees. 


Question 2


BELOVED MASTER, WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT AND SCARY TO SHOW YOUR FEELINGS AND JUST 

TO BE YOURSELF? 

Prem Deven, it is difficult to show your feelings and just to be yourself because for thousands of years you have 

been told to repress your feelings. It has become part of your collective unconscious. For thousands of years you 

have been told not to be yourself. Be Jesus, be Buddha, be Krishna, but never be yourself. Be somebody else. 

Down the ages you have been taught so continuously, so persistently that it has gone into your blood, into your 

bones, into your very marrow. 

A deep self-rejection has become part of you. All the priests have been condemning you. They have been telling 

you you are sinners, you are born in sin. Your only hope is that Jesus can save you, or Krishna can save you, 

but there is no hope as far as you are concerned you cannot save yourself, somebody else will save you. You are 

doomed, you can only pray to Jesus, to Krishna, to save you. As far as you are concerned you are just worthless, 

you are just dust and nothing more. You have no value, you have been reduced to ugly things, to disgusting 

beings. It is because of this, Deven, that one finds it very difficult and scary to show one’s true feelings. You have 

been taught to be hypocrites. 

Hypocrisy pays, and whatsoever pays seems to be valuable. They say honesty is the best policy but remember, 

the best policy. Even honesty has become only a policy because it pays. If it does not pay, then? then dishonesty 

is the best policy. The whole thing depends on what works, what pays, what makes you richer, more respectable, 

what makes you more comfortable, more safe, more secure, what gives you more nourishment for the ego that’s 

the best policy. It may be honesty, it may be dishonesty... whatsoever it is, use it as a means; it is not an end. 

Religion also has become a good policy. It is a kind of insurance for the other world. You are preparing by 

being virtuous, by going to the church, by donating to the poor, for the other world. You are opening a bank 

account in paradise, so when you go there you will be received with great joy, angels shouting ”Alleluia!”, dancing, 

playing on their harps. How big a bank account you have there will depend on how many virtuous deeds you have 

done. 

Religion too has become business, and your reality is repressed. And the repressed people have been respected 

so much. You call them saints; they are really schizophrenic. They should be treated, they need therapy and 

you worship them. Out of your hundred saints, even if one turns out to be a real saint that will be a miracle. 

Ninety-nine are just hocus-pocus, pretenders, deceivers. And I am not saying they are deceiving you... they are 

deceiving themselves too. They are repressed people. 

I have known many mahatmas in this country, respected by the masses like anything. I have been very intimate 

with these people, and in their privacy they have opened their hearts to me. They are more ugly than you will 

find the ordinary people. 

I used to visit prisoners, to teach them how to meditate, and my observation was.... I was surprised in the 

beginning that prisoners even those who have been sentenced for their whole lives are far more innocent than 

your saints, are far better people than your saints, far simpler, far more innocent. Your saints are cunning, clever, 

and your saints have only one quality: that they are able to repress themselves. They go on repressing. Then 

naturally, they become split. Then they have two kinds of lives: one that they live at the front door, and the 

other that they live at the back door; one that they live as a showpiece, and the other the real one that they 

don’t show to anybody. They are afraid even to see it themselves. 

And that’s the case with you too, on a smaller scale, of course, because, Deven, you are not a saint. Your 

illness is not yet incurable, it can be cured. It is not yet so acute, it is not yet chronic. Your illness is just like the 

common cold: it can disappear easily. 

But everybody is influenced by these so-called saints, who are really insane people. They are repressed so much 

they have repressed their sex, they have repressed their greed, they have repressed their anger and they are 

boiling within themselves. Their inner life is very nightmarish. There is no peace, no silence. All their smiles are 

painted. 

I have heard of a beautiful woman who came from the West in search of peace. She went to the Himalayas. 

She had heard about a great saint who used to live in the caves. It was hard to reach to those caves, but you 

know Americans: the harder a thing is, the more they become interested; it becomes a challenge. 

So the American lady reached to that peak where the saint lived. He had lived there for thirty years absolutely 

alone. Not a single human being had visited him all this time, because Indians are very lazy; they don’t bother 

to go that far. They have managed in a different way: every twelve years they gather in Allahabad and all the 

saints from all the caves come down so they can have all the saints together. They don’t bother much to go to 

the Himalayas. Those who want to be worshipped come on their own.


But the American lady reached with arduous effort, and she told the saint he was very old, ancient she told 

the saint, ”I have come here in search of peace. I want peace of mind and peace of heart.” 

The saint said, ”Yes, you have come to the right place. You will be given both. Don’t be worried, my daughter. 

It is not difficult. You will have peace of mind and peace of heart.” 

She was very happy. At last somebody is so certain. She has seen many psychiatrists and therapists; they all 

said that it will take seven years, ten years of analysis, and then too there is no guarantee. This man is so certain, 

and he looks so silent, so happy... a man from a totally different world, so unearthly. 

But in the middle of the night the saint jumped into the bed of the woman. She was so shocked, for a few 

seconds she could not utter a single word. And the saint started making love, wild love, to the woman. 

And the woman said, ”What are you doing? You had promised me peace of the mind and peace of the heart! 

And what are you doing?” 

He said, ”First things first: piece of ass! We will take care of other things later on. One has to begin from the 

beginning.” 

If you repress.... That was his problem. Peace of mind and peace of heart was not his problem; he must have 

been repressing for thirty years, and he had not seen even a single woman. And I don’t know whether the woman 

was really beautiful or not, because if you don’t see a woman for thirty years, any woman looks beautiful! Any 

woman looks like she is coming from the gods. 

Hindu scriptures are full of the stories that whenever a great saint reaches very close to attaining enlightenment, 

beautiful women come from the gods to disturb him. I have not been yet able to find out why the gods should 

be interested in disturbing these poor fellows. Some ascetic, fasting for years, repressing, standing on his head, 

torturing himself... he has not done any harm to anybody else except himself. Why should the gods be so 

interested in distracting him? They should really help him! And they send beautiful women... naked... and 

those women dance around and make obscene gestures to the poor fellow. Naturally he becomes a victim, he is 

seduced, falls from grace as if the gods are against anyone who is reaching closer to enlightenment. This seems 

so ridiculous. They should help. Rather than helping they come to destroy. 

But those stories should not be understood literally; they are symbolical, they are metaphors. They are very 

meaningful. Had Sigmund Freud come across those stories, he would have utterly enjoyed them. It would have 

been a treasure for him. It would have supported his psychoanalysis as nothing else. Nobody was coming; those 

repressed people were projecting. These were their desires, repressed desires so long repressed that now they have 

become so powerful that even with open eyes they were dreaming. 

So I don’t know whether this woman was really beautiful, but she must have appeared beautiful to the so-called 

saint. 

In India, if a woman is sitting in one place, the saints are taught not to sit in the same place after the woman 

has left for a certain length of time, because that space vibrates with danger. Do you see the foolishness of it all? 

And these have been the teachers of humanity. And these are the people who have made you, Deven, scared of 

your own feelings because you cannot accept your own feelings. You reject them, hence the fear. 

Accept them, nothing is wrong, nothing is wrong with you! All that is needed is not repression or destruction. 

You have to learn the art of creating harmony in your energies. You have to become an orchestra. Yes, if you 

don’t know how to play on musical instruments, you will create noise, you will drive your neighbors mad. But 

if you know the art of playing on the instruments you can create beautiful music, you can create celestial music. 

You can bring something of the beyond on the earth. 

Life is also a great instrument. You have to learn how to play upon it. Nothing has to be cut, destroyed, 

repressed, rejected. All that God has given to you is beautiful. If you have not been able to use it beautifully, it 

simply shows that you are not yet artful enough. We have all taken our lives for granted, and that is wrong. We 

are given only a raw possibility. We have been given only a potential for life; we have to learn how to actualize it. 

That’s what sannyas is all about, Deven. That’s what all the devices are: meditation, therapies all possible 

sources have to be used so that you can know how to use your anger in such a way that it becomes compassion, 

how to use your sex in such a way that it becomes love, how to use your greed in such a way that it becomes 

sharing. Every energy that you have can become its polar opposite, because the polar opposite is always contained 

in it. 

Your body contains the soul, matter contains mind. The world contains God. Dust contains divineness. You 

have to discover it, and the first step towards discovery is to accept yourself, rejoice in being yourself. You are 

not to be a Jesus, no, you are not to be a Buddha. You are not to be me or anybody else. You have to be just 

yourself. God does not want carbon copies; he loves your uniqueness. And you can offer yourself to God only as a


unique phenomenon. You can be accepted as an offering but only as a unique phenomenon. An imitation Jesus, 

Krishna, Christ, Buddha, Mohammed these won’t do. Imitators are bound to be rejected. 

Be yourself, authentically yourself. Respect yourself. If God has given you life he respects you. And do you 

have higher standards than God himself? Love yourself. God loves you. And then start watching all kinds of 

energies in you you are a vast universe! 

And slowly, slowly as you become more conscious, you will be able to put things right, into right places. You 

are topsy-turvy, that is true, but nothing is wrong with you. You are not a sinner just a little rearrangement and 

you will become a beautiful phenomenon. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, AM I WASTING ENERGY BY LOOKING TO OCCULTISM AS A WAY TO EX- 

PLORE INNER SPACE? 

Mark, occultism is for stupid people. God is not hidden; God is very much manifested. He is all over the place: 

singing in the birds, flowering in the flowers. He is green in the trees, red in the roses. He is breathing in you. He 

is talking through me and listening through you right this very moment. But you don’t want to see the obvious. 

Man has a very pathological interest in the occult. Occult means that which is hidden. Man wants to be 

interested in the hidden and there is nothing hidden! As far as God is concerned nothing is hidden. Just open 

your eyes and he is standing before you. Be silent and you will hear the still, small voice within yourself. Why go 

into occultism to explore inner space? Why not go directly into inner space? Occultism is so much nonsense, and 

there is no end to it because it is all invention. It is religious fiction. Just as there is science fiction, occultism is 

religious fiction. If you love fictions, it is perfectly okay. But then don’t think that by reading science fiction you 

are studying science. And don’t believe in science fiction, and don’t act out of that belief; otherwise you will end 

up in a madhouse. 

Occultism is exactly like science fiction. People love fiction; there is nothing wrong in it, but you should know 

that it is fiction. Enjoy, but don’t take it seriously. 

In Buddha’s time there were eight great masters. Mahavira is well-known he was the last enlightened master 

of the tradition of the Jainas. He used to say there are three hells. One of his disciples became a renegade, 

betrayed him, declared himself to be a master, and he started talking about seven hells. He used to say to people, 

”Mahavira does not know much; he knows only about three hells and I know about seven.” And naturally people 

were impressed. Mahavira talks only of three hells and he talks about seven! 

One great master was Sanjay Belattiputta, another contemporary of Buddha. He must have been a man 

something like me nonserious. He started talking about seven hundred hells. He said, ”What is this Gosalak 

talking about? only seven? There are seven hundred, and there are seven hundred heavens too.” 

He was joking, but people were very interested. This seems to be the right man, who has gone so deep into 

occultism. 

Once a follower of Radhaswami, a small sect which is confined to an area near Agra, came to see me. I was in 

Agra. He was some kind of a priest, and he said, ”Do you know? our master has said there are fourteen planes 

of existence.” 

I said, ”Just fourteen?” 

He said, ”What do you mean, ’Just fourteen’? Are there more?” 

I said, ”Certainly.” 

He said, ”But our master has said there are only fourteen. Mohammed has reached only up to the third,” he 

said he had brought a map ”Kabir and Nanak have reached up to the fifth. And Mahavira and Buddha up to 

the seventh,” and so on, so forth. But there has never been another who has reached up to the fourteenth except 

his so-called master. 

I said, ”I know your master. I have seen him struggling in the fourteenth. He is trying hard, but he cannot get 

out of it. I know it because I exist at the fifteenth. There are fifteen planes of existence.” 

He said, ”But you are the first man....” And he was much impressed. When he was leaving he touched my feet 

and he said, ”You have revealed a new secret.” 

I said, ”Don’t be foolish. I was just joking! There are only two categories of people: the people who are not 

aware and the people who are aware. The people who are aware have no hierarchy that one is more aware than 

the other, that somebody is at the fifth, somebody at the seventh, somebody at the ninth, somebody at the 

fourteenth. There is no higher and lower in awareness. Awareness is simply awareness.” 

But he was not much interested in that. He was more interested in my being on the fifteenth plane. 

People are interested in religious fictions.


Mark, don’t waste your time in occultism, unless you are interested in novels, fictions. Then it is okay, then 

there is no problem.... 

The lecturer on the occult was warming to his subject of supernatural manifestations. ”Ah, my friends,” he 

exclaimed, a look of dedicated zeal animating his face. ”If you could but be made to believe! If only the world 

would cease its scoffing and come to realize that visitations from the Mystic Shore happen all the time.” 

The lecturer searched the faces in his audience to find those sympathetic souls who agreed with his philosophy. 

”I have told you about my own experiences,” he continued, ”but surely one of you has also had direct communication 

with a departed spirit. If there is any such person here in this audience who has been in touch with a 

ghost, I would appreciate it if he or she would stand up.” 

From her seat in the front row, Mrs. Faigel Frume got to her feet. ”Me,” she said loudly. ”Such a experience I 

had you would not believe.” 

”This is very gratifying,” said the delighted speaker when the applause died down. ”Behold, a volunteer witness; 

one who is a total stranger to me, arises to give her testimony. My dear lady, do I understand you to say that 

you have been in touch with a ghost?” 

”In touch with him?” echoed Mrs. Frume. ”Better even than that. When I was a little girl in Russia one of 

them butted me till I was black and blue.” 

”A ghost butted you?” 

”A ghost, you said? Gosh! I thought you said a goat!” 

Don’t waste your time in ghosts and goats. If you want to explore inner space, explore inner space. How does 

occultism come in? That’s a way of escaping from inner space, not exploring it. That’s a way of keeping yourself 

engaged in sheer nonsense! And theosophy, particularly in this age, has released so much nonsense: hundreds of 

books and all kinds of foolish things. People are so gullible that they are ready to believe anything. 

Man today exists in a kind of vacuum. Old religions have died or are almost dying. Either they have died or 

they are on the deathbed; hence new creeds are cropping up everywhere, and all the new creeds need new fictions 

to allure you. 

I cannot give you any occult fiction. I am not interested in anything esoteric. I am a very down-to-earth man. 

I am simply stating the facts. I don’t want to decorate them. I don’t want to create illusions in your mind; I 

don’t want to create projections in your mind. My effort here is to help you to go beyond the mind and all your 

occultism and esotericism, theology, anthroposophy and there are so many schools. You can create your own; 

there is no need to believe in anybody else’s, you can create your own. All that you need is a pencil and paper; 

you can just go on writing your own fiction. That will be far more enlightening. At least it will be something 

creative. Then give your copy to somebody, and you will find a few believers. Then you will know how people go 

on believing in any kind of thing. 

J. Krishnamurti was brought up by theosophists. He was fed, spoon-fed with all kinds of occultism. He became 

so fed up that when the theosophists were going to declare him to be the world teacher.... The day they had 

gathered from all over the world six thousand leading theosophists when they asked Krishnamurti to declare, 

he stood up and said, ”I dissolve this organization. I am nobody’s teacher. I am finished with it all, and I don’t 

want to say anything more!” 

They were shocked, but as far as I see it, it is a logical conclusion. For years he was taught all kinds of nonsense 

by all kinds of stupid people. He was getting fed up with the whole thing. But old ladies, and particularly retired 

old people, were very interested. They were the majority of the theosophists retired people and old ladies who 

now had nothing else to do and they would gather and talk nonsense about ghosts and about Tibetan masters 

who come flying in the air, and about letters that Master K.H.... Now nobody knows who this K.H. is. His full 

name is Koot Humi. That too, nobody knows what it means. The less you understand, the better. 

Koot Humi in short K.H. used to write letters, until finally it was found that those letters were written by 

Blavatsky herself. A servant used to hide on the roof just think, just on the roof of Buddha Hall! and there 

was a small hole from where, when the theosophists would be sitting with closed eyes waiting for Koot Humi, he 

would drop a letter. 

Now, people are so foolish.... Just ordinary paper they could have seen what brand it was, in what factory it 

had been made ordinary ink, and the handwriting was Blavatsky’s. Then the letter would be read, and those 

letters were collected, and they were great treasures. But in the High Court there was a case against one of the 

great theosophists, Leadbeater. He was a colleague of Annie Besant, and he was suspected of homosexuality. Just 

a dirty old man, that’s all!


So there was a case in the High Court against him, and in that case his servant confessed that he was the man 

who used to hide on the roof. He went and showed the hole and the place where he used to hide, and everything 

was discovered. Still, people go on reading those letters believing that Koot Humi wrote them. 

When people want to believe, when they are feeling empty, some belief is needed. They cling to anything, 

they don’t listen... they don’t listen to their own heart. They just need belief; so anybody is ready to supply it. 

Wherever there is demand there is supply. People need fictions, so there are other people clever, cunning people 

who go on supplying fictions. 

In a Catholic school, little Hans was asked to give an example of a dependent clause. 

”Our cat has a litter of ten kittens,” he replied, ”all of which are good Catholics.” 

”That’s excellent,” said the teacher. ”You have a good grasp on grammar as well as on our religion.” 

The following week the bishop visited the school and the teacher called on Hans. 

”Our cat has a litter of ten kittens,” said Hans, ”all of which are good sannyasins.” 

”That is not what you said a week ago!” snapped the teacher. 

”Yes,” replied Hans, ”but my kittens’ eyes are open now.” 

Be a little alert, be a little watchful. There are deceiving people all around; you can be easily deceived. 

Morrissey, the ventriloquist, was on his way down to a bar for a drink when a big shaggy dog fell in at his side. 

They went in, the ventriloquist ordered a scotch, and for a laugh he looked at the dog and said, ”Well, are you 

having the usual?” 

”No, thanks, I have had enough this morning,” said the dog. 

The barman was flabbergasted. He offered fifty dollars for the animal. 

”No, sir!” said Morrissey. ”I have had him since he was a pup.” 

”I’ll make it a hundred dollars!” said the bartender. 

Morrissey shook his head. When the offer went to five hundred dollars the ventriloquist grabbed the money 

and headed for the door. 

”all right,” he added, ”take good care of him.” And with a last look at the dog, ”Farewell, old pal!” he exclaimed. 

”Old pal, my foot!” said the dog. ”After what you have just done I will never speak to another human being 

as long as I live!” 

Be aware of the cunning people, they are all around. Don’t be exploited. Long enough humanity has been 

exploited by the cunning and the clever; it is time to put a full stop to it. Be a little more mature. 

If you want to explore inner space, meditate. Listen to what Buddha says: Quieten the mind, reflect, watch, 

and all darkness will disappear on its own accord, and you will be full of light. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, YOUR JOKES ARE FAR OUT! EASE UP A LITTLE ON THE PRIESTS. BELOVED 

MASTER, I REJOICE WITH EXISTENCE BECAUSE OF YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT! I FEEL GOOD TO 

BE HERE, TO BE HOME AFTER YEARS OF SEARCHING. 

Deva Chintana, I am sorry if it hurts you. I know.... Deva Chintana has been a nun. She has been courageous. 

She dropped out of the monastery and became a sannyasin. And my jokes about the priests must be looking a 

little hard to her, naturally. I should have thought of her. I will be more careful in the future, Chintana. 

A joke for you: 

The pope died... and naturally assumed that he would go to heaven. So, dressed in all his papal finery, he went 

striding up towards the Pearly Gates, brushed past Saint Peter, and made straight for the entrance. 

”Hey, you! Where are you going?” shouted Saint Peter, and two guardian angels stepped forward to bar the 

way. 

”Look-a here,” said the pope. ”I am-a da popa and I....” 

”Who?” 

”Da Popa!!! I am-a da popa of da Catholic-a Church-a and I wanna go to heaven.” 

”The pope?” said Saint Peter. ”Never heard of you. We don’t have anyone of that name in our books, do we, 

Gabriel? No, sorry sir, you cannot come in.” 

”Hey, come on! I am-a da popa! You gotta let me in. Ask-a God da Father he knows me!” 

Saint Peter calls God the Father: ”Hey, God, this is Saint Peter gate duty. Sorry to disturb you but there is 

a guy here who calls himself the popa and wants to come inside says you know him.” 

”Who?” asks God the Father. 

”The popa.” 

”Who?”


”I think that’s what he said.” 

”No, never heard of him.” 

”Sorry, Pope God the Father says he doesn’t know you.” 

”What? But leesten, I am-a da popa. He must know me! Look-a here, you ask God da Son. For sure he knows 

me I am-a his representative on da earth-a he must-a know me!” 

Saint Peter calls God the Son, but the answer is the same: ”The pope? No, I’ve never heard of him!” 

The pope is in despair: ”Look-a, you gotta help me. Ring-a the Holy Ghost for sure he knows me! I am da 

popa da popa of the Catholic-a Church-a, the spiritual representative of Jesus Christ-a on da earth-a!! He has 

just gotta know me!” 

Saint Peter calls the Holy Ghost. ”Hmmm, the pope, you say!” answers the Holy Ghost. ”Hmm, yes, I’ve heard 

that name before somewhere.... Wait a minute! He’s that bastard who goes on spreading rumors about me and 

Virgin Mary. Tell him to go to hell!” 

Chintana, I will try my best. But the priests are the priests; they are the most ugly people on the earth, the 

most cunning and the most mean, although their appearance is totally different. 

And I am not saying that there are not some good people. Some good people are also caught in the net, but 

those good people are childish. Those good people are gullible, those good people are easily exploitable. 

Humanity has to get rid of priesthood, only then can there be religion. They have been very destructive. It is 

because of them that the world is not religious yet. They have divided humanity instead of making humanity one 

whole. Much more blood has been shed in the name of religion than in the name of anything else. In fact, I am 

not really hard on them, I am very soft with them. They need to be hit harder. And when I am hitting them, I 

am not really hitting them, but simply hitting your conditioning. 

What do I have to do with the pope or the shankaracharya or the imam or Ayatollah Khomeiniac? I have 

nothing to do with these people. But when I hit them I am simply hitting the chains inside you that keep you 

in a bondage. My jokes about the priests are just to help you to come out of the prison, laughing. I don’t want 

it to become a serious affair for you to come out of the prison, because if it becomes a serious affair you will be 

affected by your seriousness and you will carry that load with you. And there is every danger that you will start 

projecting your seriousness on me. 

I can free you from the priest very easily, but the danger is that you may start projecting all that you have 

been projecting on the priest, on me. That is not freedom at all; only your chains are changed. 

Someone else has asked me: 

Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM A COWARD AND I CANNOT TAKE SANNYAS. WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO 

ME? 

Jesus was on the cross, a thief on either side of him. Suddenly the guards disappeared and they were alone. 

Seeing that there was no one around, Jesus addressed the two thieves. 

”Repent, my brethren!” he said. ”Repent, and the Kingdom of God will be opened unto you. I will take you 

with me to the House of my Father. repent!” 

One of the thieves bowed down to Jesus, saying, ”I repent, my Lord! Take me with you into the Kingdom of 

God!” 

The other thief turned his head away in disdain. ”Stop all this crap!” he exclaimed. 

Jesus insisted, ”Repent! Come to my feet!” 

”Fuck you!” replied the thief. 

Jesus looked at him compassionately, and said, ”Tough luck, old bean! You won’t be in the souvenir picture, 

that’s all!” 

So don’t be worried if you are not a sannyasin. If you cannot gather courage to be a sannyasin, you won’t be 

in the souvenir picture, that’s all. Don’t take it seriously. 

My whole effort here is to make sannyas as nonserious as possible. I don’t want to become a pope or a 

shankaracharya. I don’t want to become a replacement for you, a substitute for you. I don’t want to become a 

father figure to you. I want simply to be a friend. 

Hence my discourses are not ordinarily religious sermons. I am just chitchatting. They are not gospels, but 

gossips! 


The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vole 10 

Chapter 9 Delight in meditation 

Audio:Yes Video:No Length:0 mins


MASTER YOUR SENSES, WHAT YOU TASTE AND SMELL, WHAT YOU SEE, WHAT YOU HEAR. 

IN ALL THINGS BE A MASTER OF WHAT YOU DO AND WHAT YOU SAY AND THINK. BE FREE. 

YOU ARE A SEEKER. DELIGHT IN THE MASTERY OF YOUR HANDS AND YOUR FEET, OF YOUR 

WORDS AND YOUR THOUGHTS. 

DELIGHT IN MEDITATION AND IN SOLITUDE. COMPOSE YOURSELF, BE HAPPY. YOU ARE A 

SEEKER. 

Freedom is the ultimate goal of true religion not God, not paradise, not even truth, but freedom. This has 

to be understood because this is Gautam Buddha’s essential message to the world. Freedom is the highest value 

according to him, the summum bonum; there is nothing higher than that. But by freedom he does not mean 

political freedom, social freedom, economic freedom. By freedom he means the freedom of consciousness. 

Our consciousness is in a deep bondage; we are chained. Inside is our prison, not outside. The walls of the 

prison are not outside us; it exists deep in our unconscious. It exists in our instincts, it exists in our desires, it 

exists in our unawareness. 

Freedom is the goal. 

Awareness is the method to reach that goal. 

And when you are really free you are a master; the slavery disappears. Ordinarily we may appear free, but we 

are not free. It may appear that we are the choosers, but we are not the choosers. We are being pulled, pushed 

by unconscious forces. 

When you fall in love with a woman or a man, do you think you have decided it, it is your choice? You know 

perfectly well you cannot choose to love, you cannot force yourself to love somebody. You are not the master, you 

are just a slave of a biological force. That’s why in all the languages the expression is ’falling in love’ you fall in 

love: you fall from your freedom, you fall from your selfhood. If love were your choice you would rise in love, not 

fall in love. Then love would be out of your consciousness, and it would have a totally different quality, a different 

beauty, a different fragrance. 

The ordinary love stinks stinks of jealousy, anger, hatred, possessiveness. It is not love at all. Nature is forcing 

you towards something which is not of your choice; you are just a victim. This is our slavery. Even in love we 

are slaves, what to say about other things? Love seems to be our greatest experience; even that consists only of 

slavery, even in that we only suffer. 

People suffer more in love than in anything else. The greatest suffering is that it deludes you it creates the 

illusion that you are the chooser, and soon you know that you are not the chooser; nature has played a trick upon 

you. Unconscious forces have taken possession of you, you are possessed. You are acting not on your own; you 

are just a vehicle. That is the first misery that one starts feeling in love, and one misery triggers a whole chain of 

misery. 

Soon you become aware that you have become dependent on the other, that without the other you cannot exist, 

that without the other you start losing all sense of meaning, significance. The other has become your life, you 

are utterly dependent; hence lovers continuously fight, because nobody likes to be dependent, everybody hates 

dependence. Nobody likes to be possessed by somebody else because to be possessed means to be reduced to a 

thing. The whole humanity suffers for the simple reason that every relationship goes on reducing you, goes on 

making your prison smaller and smaller. 

Buddha says: This life is not true life. You are being lived, you are not really living. You are being lived 

by unconscious forces. Unless you become conscious, unless you take possession of your own life, unless you 

become independent of your instincts, you will not be a master. And without being a master there is no bliss, no 

benediction; life remains a hell. 

The first sutra: 


This sutra has been very misunderstood, misinterpreted, so much so that the Buddhists have taken exactly 

the opposite meaning of it. MASTER YOUR SENSES does not mean destroy your senses. If you destroy them, 

whom are you going to master? And that’s what has been done for twenty-five centuries: Buddhists have been 

destroying the senses. That is easier, hence the mistake. It is difficult, arduous to master your senses. It needs 

great consciousness to master your senses; to destroy them needs nothing. 

If you want to make a beautiful house you will have to learn many things, but if you want to demolish it you 

need not learn anything. Anybody can demolish it, any madman can do that. In fact, a madman can do it faster 

than anybody else, quicker. You need not know architecture to demolish a building. Destruction needs no art, no 

intelligence.


And that’s how this sutra has been interpreted down the ages, for the simple reason that destruction is easier; 

any stupid person can do it. And your so-called saints are almost always stupid. It is very rare to come across a 

real saint who is a creative person. They are worshipped as saints because they have been successfully committing 

suicide slow suicide, of course destroying themselves slowly, poisoning themselves slowly. We have worshipped 

death, destruction. We should learn it is time now we should learn to love life and to love creativity, creation. 

my understanding of this sutra is totally different. ”Master your senses” means become more conscious of your 

senses, become more sensitive. Don’t destroy them; otherwise you will be left without the doors and windows into 

creation, into God, into truth. 

There is a story of a Hindu mystic. I don’t believe that it is true because I have been deeply impressed by that 

mystic’s great sayings; they are so beautiful that it is impossible for me to conceive that he could have done such 

a thing. 

Surdas is his name. He was a blind man, not born blind; that’s how the story goes. He destroyed his eyes 

himself because he saw a beautiful woman and became fascinated by her. She took his fancy, he started thinking 

of her and he was a monk. He destroyed his eyes because he thought it was these two eyes that had made him 

aware of her beauty. If these eyes were not there, he would not have been infatuated. 

I don’t believe the story, but it is true of thousands of other people. My own experience is that Surdas must 

have been blind from the very beginning because his insight in his poetry is such that it is inconceivable that such 

a man will do such a stupid act. 

By destroying your eyes you cannot get freedom from women or from men. You can close your eyes, that will 

not make much difference. In fact with closed eyes women appear more beautiful than they are! 

That’s why whenever you make love to a woman she closes her eyes; you appear more beautiful. Otherwise, 

looking at you she will become afraid, because on your face the expression of passion and lust can’t be described 

as beautiful; it is ugly, it is animal. A man full of lust is nothing but an animal. Women must have learned the 

art of closing their eyes seeing again and again that the man turns into an animal. 

I love a famous Zen anecdote: 

Two monks were coming back to the monastery; they had gone into the village to preach. It was evening, the 

sun was setting; soon it would be night. They came across a river. A young woman, a beautiful woman, was 

standing there on the bank hesitating whether to enter the river or not: it may be too deep, it appears very deep. 

The first monk the older one followed the Buddhist rule not to look at a woman. But that is a very strange 

rule: first you have to look, then only will you be able to see whether she is a woman or not. You can follow the 

rule only by breaking it! So he must have looked of course a stolen look and then he must have looked down. 

The Buddhist rule is: Don’t look more than four feet ahead. Such fear... and he must have been trembling inside. 

And he crossed the river. 

When he was crossing the river and was reaching the other shore, suddenly he remembered his younger fellow 

monk, who was also coming behind. What has happened to him? He looked back. The younger monk was 

carrying the woman on his shoulders! The older one was really enraged; in his rage there must have been jealousy 

also; otherwise why be angry? 

The younger one brought the girl to the other shore, left her there, and both the monks moved towards the 

monastery. For one mile the old man didn’t say a single word. Then, when they reached to the gate of the 

monastery, the old man turned to the younger monk and said, ”Listen, I will have to report it to the abbot. This 

is against the rules. Buddha has said: Don’t touch a woman, don’t look at a woman. You have not only seen her, 

you have not only touched her, you have carried her on your shoulders. This is too much! This is going against 

the law.” 

I don’t think that Buddha has said that. A man like Buddha cannot say such nonsense things. But twenty-five 

centuries of stupid interpreters have done as much harm as they can do. 

The young monk said, ”But I have left the woman on the bank, far behind. Are you still carrying her on your 

shoulders?” 

It has a great truth in it: the old man was really still carrying her. You can see without seeing, you can carry 

without carrying, you can touch without touching. Man has great imagination. 

Hence I cannot believe that Surdas destroyed his eyes; otherwise it would be impossible for him to give such 

beautiful insights. He must have been a man of inner vision, of inner eyes, of great understanding. So I don’t 

believe in the story, but the story is significant. It is true about so many so-called saints. It may not be true 

about Surdas but it is true about almost all so-called saints Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian. 

In Christianity there has been a sect which used to cut off their genital organs just in order to transcend sex. 

If just by cutting off your genital organs you can transcend sex, things will be very easy. You can just go to the


Sassoon Hospital and they will really do a butchery on you! They are official butchers, government butchers, 

recognized, authorized. But by removing your sexual organs you will not transcend sex; you may become more 

obsessed with sex than ever before. 

That’s what happens to old people hence the expression, ’the dirty old man’. You don’t say ’the dirty young 

man’ why? The old man is called dirty for the simple reason that now all his sexuality has entered into his mind. 

His sex center has moved into his mind; it has become cerebral. Now he thinks about it only, he continually thinks 

about it. Physiologically he has become incapable; that does not mean that psychologically he has transcended 

it, that he has mastery of his sexuality no. 

By destroying your senses you don’t, you can’t become masters. Then what is the way to become the master? 

Buddha says: MASTER YOUR SENSES.... He could have simply said: Destroy your senses. But mastery is 

a totally different phenomenon; it needs great art, skill, awareness, meditativeness, watchfulness, alertness. Only 

then the senses will remain there. In fact, the master is more sensitive than the slave. 

My own understanding is that Buddha smells more deeply; his sense of smell is far deeper than yours. Your 

sense of smell is repressed, very much repressed. For centuries you have been repressing sex, and the sense of 

smell is very much connected with your sexuality. You have been repressing your sense of smell. You use so many 

perfumes just to hide the smell of your sexuality. Otherwise, when a woman has her period she smells differently; 

you can smell that she has her period. When a woman is sexually aroused she starts smelling differently; you 

can know just by her smell that she is sexually aroused. And the same is true about man: sexually aroused, his 

body starts smelling because there are great chemical changes happening inside him. They affect his body, his 

perspiration, his breathing, his blood. 

Man has been so much afraid of his sexuality: somebody may become aware, somebody may note what is 

happening to him. He has used clothes to hide his body, he has used perfumes to hide his natural smells. He has 

tried in every possible way to appear as nonsexual as possible. And we have had to repress our noses very much.... 

You know the animals. They know through their noses whether the female is willing or not. Just the nose is 

enough to know whether the female is saying yes. Unless the nose says the female is saying yes, the male won’t 

approach the female. That is aggression, that is rape. No animal ever rapes, remember, except man. Man is the 

only rapist animal in the world. I am not including the animals who live in the zoos because they have become 

more like human beings. Living in the company of human beings they have been distorted; otherwise no animal 

rapes. Love happens only when both the parties are absolutely willing. But man has lost his sensitivity of smell. 

It is because of the so-called religious teaching down the centuries. 

My understanding is that Buddha’s sense of smell is far more clear than yours because there is no repression 

in him. His eyes see better than you can see because his eyes are not clouded by any prejudice, by any a priori 

conceptions. He hears perfectly well because his ears are not full of noise, his mind is silent. 

When the mind is utterly silent you are capable of listening. Then you are capable of listening to the song of 

the birds, a distant call of the cuckoo. Then you are able to listen even to the silence. Just now, listen to the 

silence... not only sound but soundlessness can be listened to. But you have to be noiseless. 

And you can start smelling people not only in their sexuality, you can start smelling their anger because anger 

also changes their body chemistry. You can start smelling their greed, their jealousy, their hatred. You can start 

smelling all kinds of emotions. The moment a person comes to you, if your mind is silent and your senses are 

clear, unclouded, without any fog, you can smell everything that the man is carrying. He may be smiling on the 

surface, but deep down you can see that he is angry, a hypocrite. Try smelling people their greed, their anger, 

their cruelty. 

And if you can learn to smell cruelty, anger, greed, slowly,slowly you will be able to smell more subtle things: 

their compassion, their love, their prayer. Yes, even their meditativeness, their silence has its own fragrance. 

When a person is full of greed, he stinks of greed; when a person is full of silence, he exudes something of the 

beyond, something of the unknown. 

Buddha is not saying destroy your senses. He is saying master your senses, become more aware of your senses. 

Bring awareness to your senses so that they become more sensitive. They are doors, windows, bridges with 

existence. Without them you will be just a closed phenomenon, a Leibnizian monad, windowless. You will not 

see the light of the sun, moon, stars. You will not feel anything. 

Destroying your senses will simply mean you are killing yourself. You have five senses. Destroy your eyes and 

eighty percent of your life is destroyed eighty percent, because your eyes contain eighty percent of your life; eighty 

percent of your sensibility depends on your eyes. Hence we feel so much sympathy for the blind man. You don’t 

feel that much sympathy for the dumb or for the deaf. Why, all over the world, do we feel so much sympathy for 

the blind man? because he is really suffering much. He can’t see colors, he can’t see the light and life consists of


light and life consists of colors. It is a rainbow. He will remain utterly in the dark. He will not know what colorful 

existence was available. He will not know the butterflies and the roses and the marigolds. He will not know the 

green and the red and the gold of the trees. He will not know the faces of the people, he will not be able to look 

into the eyes of the people. His main bridge is broken. 

Destroy your ears, and something more dies in you. Destroy your tongue, and something more dies in you. 

When you have destroyed all your senses you are just a corpse, you are no longer alive. Life means sensitivity: 

more sensitivity and you have more life. So I cannot say destroy your senses you have already destroyed them. 

Revive them, rejuvenate them, pour energy into them. And the method to pour energy into them is by becoming 

aware. 

Sometimes just become aware of your ears, as if you are just the ears and nothing else, as if your whole body 

has become the ears. Just be ears, and you will be surprised that you become aware of such subtle noises, such 

subtle happenings around you that you have never been aware of. You may start hearing your own breathing, 

your own heartbeat. You may start hearing many things and you have lived always amongst these things, but 

you were never aware; you were so occupied into yourself. 

Buddha says: WHAT YOU TASTE AND SMELL, WHAT YOU SEE, WHAT YOU HEAR MASTER YOUR 

SENSES. Bring your awareness to taste. When you are eating, forget everything else; just become your tongue, 

just your taste buds. Exist there in your totality. Taste your food as deeply as possible, and you will be in for a 

great surprise not one but many surprises. 

First you will become aware that you cannot eat more than is needed. You need not diet only foolish people 

diet. And you can diet for a few days, and then you jump upon the food with a vengeance, and you gain more 

weight than you have lost! If you are intelligent, bring your awareness to your taste. Why do you eat more? The 

simple reason is that you don’t taste, and your hunger for taste remains, so you go on stuffing more. If you really 

taste, soon you will be satisfied, contented. Soon the body will say, ”Stop!” And if you are alert you will be able 

to listen when the body says stop. 

Right now you are not there at all. You are eating, but you are not there, present. You may be in your office 

or you may have gone somewhere else, doing a thousand and one things. One thing is certain: that you are not at 

the table where you are sitting, you are always somewhere else. You are never where you are; you can’t be found 

where you are. If you are really there, totally absorbed in eating, you will be surprised. The first thing will be 

that for the first time, food becomes something divine. 

The Upanishads say: annam brahma food is God. Such a beautiful statement: Food is God. These people 

must have tasted. Without tasting you cannot see God in food. These people can’t be against food, they can’t 

be for fasting, they can’t teach you to starve your body. The people who have said: Annam Brahma food is God 

cannot be in favor of starving. Starvation cannot be anything spiritual. 

Eat, but eat meditatively, silently. When you are eating you are talking. Don’t talk, because if you are talking 

you will miss the joy of absorbing God into yourself. You will miss the joy of eating, and when you miss the joy 

of eating, your hunger for taste goes on asking for more, so you go on stuffing. And that seems to be nonending. 

People are stuffing the whole day and still it seems they are not satisfied. Eating twice may be enough or at 

the most thrice, but people are eating the whole day particularly Americans! If they are not eating they won’t 

know what else to do. Just doing something with the mouth keeps them occupied. If they are not eating they are 

talking, if they are not talking they are smoking, if they are not smoking they are chewing gum as if the mouth 

has to remain continuously occupied. 

Stan and Sid, both on the road with noncompeting merchandise, usually traveled together, sharing the same 

car and hotel rooms to save money. 

One evening the two friends registered at a small hotel in Schenectady, and Stan immediately sat down to write 

his wife a letter. 

Sid happened to notice his buddy’s unusual salutation. ”Tell me something, Stan,” he said curiously. ”How 

come you always address your wife as ’Dear AT&T’? Is she a big investor?” 

”No, nothing like that,” answered Stan. ”AT&T does not stand for American Telephone and Telegraph. It 

means ’Always Talking and Talking’.” 

People are continuously talking, particularly women more so for the simple reason that man has taken every 

other avenue from them. They are left only with one thing talking; they are not allowed anything else. Every 

other door has been closed, so their whole energy is turned into talking. They are talking because their minds are 

too noisy and they have to pour them out: it is a kind of catharsis. Even when you are eating you are talking. 

How can you taste food and how can you be sensitive to taste?


When you go into the garden you are talking. If you are not talking with somebody else you are in a constant 

dialogue within yourself. You divide yourself into many persons, you make a crowd inside yourself. You are 

questioning and answering within yourself. You don’t look at the flowers. You don’t feel the fragrance, the joy 

of the birds, the celebration of the trees. You don’t allow yourself any sensitivity, any opportunity to be more 

sensitive, to be more available to existence, to be more vulnerable. 

Sensitivity means openness, vulnerability, availability. 

Buddha says: MASTER YOUR SENSES, WHAT YOU TASTE AND SMELL, WHAT YOU SEE, WHAT 

YOU HEAR. 

People are either talking or reading newspapers or listening to the radio or watching the television even five 

hours, six hours per day, watching television, destroying your eyes! And there is so much to see, and you are 

sitting before a box, glued to your chair! 

In his heavenly abode, the patriarch Abraham lit the shabbes candles and then, over a glass of tea and lemon, 

he settled back to read the ’Forvetz’. 

Suddenly, from down below on Earth, he heard a raucous tumult. 

”Now, who could be desecrating the Sabbath like that?” he wondered. 

With his new laser telescope, he looked down and there he saw a crowd of at least eighty thousand people in the 

Houston Astrodome watching a baseball game. A quick count showed him that over thirty thousand Jews were 

among the spectators. Outraged, he picked up the phone and dialed G-O-D. After a few rings, the boss picked up 

the receiver. 

”Hello,” said Father Abraham, ”that you, Joe?” 

”Now look here, Abe the name is Jehovah! Show a little respect!” 

”All right, Jehovah, then. I have a complaint.” 

”What is it this time? Those people from the New Testament picking on you again?” 

”Nothing like that. But you really must do something about all that goyishe conduct back on Earth. Did you 

know that at this very minute thirty thousand Jews are watching a baseball game at the Astrodome?” 

”You got something against baseball?” 

”No, of course not. But that is not the point. This is Friday evening and it seems to me our people ought to 

be a little more observant of the holy day.” 

”What is the big attraction they are all watching the game?” 

”Hank Aaron is coming to bat and he is about to break Babe Ruth’s record.” 

”You are absolutely right, Abe. That is no excuse for them to act like a bunch of wild Republicans. Call me 

back after the game and I will do something about it.... And by the way, what channel is it on?” 

Not only man but even God is glued to his chair, looking at the television! 

Buddha says: Whatsoever you are doing... small things eating, walking, drinking water, taking a bath, 

swimming in a river whatsoever you are doing lying down in the sun be utterly there, be totally there. Become 

your senses. Come down from the mind to the senses, come back to the senses. 

And what the Buddhists have done for twenty-five centuries is just the opposite: they have gone more and 

more into the head, they have destroyed their senses completely. They have become dead as far as their bodies 

are concerned. Only their heads are continuously working, occupied day and night in great interpretations. And 

they have created so many absurd laws in the name of Buddha that you will not believe it. Thirty-three thousand 

laws and rules to be followed; even to remember them is impossible. Thirty-three thousand laws and rules to be 

followed! 

Buddha knows only one law and that is awareness and that’s enough; it takes care of everything. He gives you 

the master key; you need not carry thirty-three thousand keys with you. Otherwise, whenever the time arises to 

open a lock you will be at a loss, searching into those thirty-three thousand keys! I don’t think you will be able 

to find the right key. It is impossible to find the right key, because that’s how things work. If you are supposed to 

take two pills, open the bottle and they will always come in threes, never twos! If you are supposed to take three 

pills, they will come in twos, they will never come in threes. Life is very mysterious! 

Thirty-three thousand keys... and you think you will be able to find the right key when you come across a 

lock? Impossible... or it will take thirty-three thousand lives for you to find it; by that time the lock will be gone. 

Either you will have the key or you will have the lock, but never both at the same time. In your unconsciousness 

how can you carry thirty-three thousand laws? 

Mulla Nasruddin came home one night late, utterly drunk. He was trying... and he had only one key, but it 

wouldn’t go in the lock because he was trembling and shaking.


The policeman came to see because for half an hour Mulla was trying and trying. And he said, ”Wait! Give 

me the key, I will open it.” 

He said, ”No need to bother with the key. You just hold the house in place and I can open it!” 

In your unconsciousness, thirty-three thousand keys! You will be burdened. That’s what has happened to 

Buddhism. That’s what has happened to all the religions. So many laws and so many rules that people have 

become burdened so much with them, they have forgotten all about them. 

Religion is very simple. It consists of a single law awareness and that is the master key. Make each act of 

your life full of awareness. Focus your awareness on each act, and that very focusing transforms it, because when 

you give your awareness to anything it becomes alive; you are pouring your life into it. Your senses will become 

totally sensitive, and because you are aware you will remain the master. Slavery means unawareness. 

Karl the Knaidel, king of Kansas City, had everything in life that a man could ask for, except for one thing: he 

wanted a grandson to carry on the family name, to say nothing of the family business. So he was understandably 

happy when his bachelor son told him one evening that he had fallen in love and was planning to marry. 

”It is a smart thing you are doing,” advised Karl. ”Until a man marries he is incomplete.” 

He pondered the wisdom of his own statement for a moment or two and then added solemnly, ”He is not only 

complete he is finished!” 

And you are not falling in one thing in love you are falling in a thousand things in anger, in greed. You are 

continuously falling, falling victims of some unconscious forces within you that you have carried from your animal 

heritage. 

We have to make our unconscious full of light. No nook or corner should be left without light inside you. Only 

one tenth of our mind is conscious; nine tenths is in darkness, deep darkness. We are like an iceberg: one tenth 

shows up, nine tenths is hidden underneath and that nine tenths is nine times more powerful. 

So you may decide something, but you will not be able to follow it; that nine tenths will destroy it any moment. 

You may decide to get up tomorrow early at five o’clock, but this decision is only by the one tenth of your mind; 

nine tenths is completely unaware of your decision, absolutely unaware of your decision. So when in the morning 

the alarm goes, nine tenths of the mind says, ”What is the hurry? And it is so beautiful and so cozy and so warm. 

And that Dynamic Meditation can wait! Tomorrow we can meditate.” And of course, the tomorrow never comes. 

And when you wake up you will feel guilty but this is again not the mind that stopped you from waking up which 

is feeling guilty; that is another one tenth which is feeling guilty. 

And this goes on your whole life, this hide-and-seek. One part decides, another part cancels. And the part that 

cancels is nine times more powerful. You have decided many times not to be angry again, but all your decisions 

are impotent because that nine times more powerful unconscious is always there and it won’t allow the one tenth 

to take possession, to be powerful. 

Hence the transformation is not through decisions, through taking vows; the transformation needs a totally 

different approach. You have to change your unconscious slowly, slowly into consciousness. That’s what meditation 

is all about: it is making your light grow bigger, spreading it deeper, slowly, slowly diving deeper into your own 

being. 

As more and more of your unconscious is reclaimed by the consciousness your decisions will start becoming 

great fulfillments. Then you can promise yourself something. Right now all your promises are false; you know 

they are not going to work. You know you have failed so many times and you know you will fail again; but you 

go on hoping hoping against hope. 

The ordinary religion taught in the temples and the churches by the priests teaches you character. The real 

religion the religion of the buddhas, the awakened ones teaches you consciousness, not character. Character 

is a by-product; when you are conscious, character comes on its own accord. The ordinary religion teaches you 

conscience; it is cheap. The buddhas teach you consciousness, not conscience. 

Buddha says: 


Man can be divided into four parts. The outermost circumference consists of action, what you do. The second 

layer, a little deeper than your action, consists of your saying, what you say. A little deeper, the third layer 

consists of your thinking, what you constantly think. And the fourth is not a layer; the fourth is your reality, your 

being. That is your center, the center of the cyclone. Your center, your being is surrounded by three concentric 

circles: thinking, saying, doing. 

Buddha says: IN ALL THINGS BE A MASTER OF WHAT YOU DO.... Are you aware of what you are 

doing? Are you doing it consciously or just because others are doing it? Are you an imitator, just following the 

crowd like a sheep? Be a man, don’t be a sheep! Don’t follow the crowd, be individual. Only then can you be a


master; only individuals can be masters. In the crowd you have to be a slave; the crowd consists of slaves. The 

crowd wants you to remain a slave; only then the crowd remains powerful. All the politicians and all the priests 

of the world want you to remain slaves; only then can they be priests and can they be great leaders. Otherwise 

who will follow your stupid leaders? Who is going to follow your so-called religious priests? 

If you are a little alert, aware, you will be able to see perfectly well that your leaders are hocus-pocus, that your 

priests are pseudo, that you need not follow them, that following them you have been falling in ditches. Who is 

going to follow Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin or Ayatollah Khomeini? Who is going to follow these people? Only 

slaves, only people who don’t know what they are doing. 

A young sports car enthusiast saved up enough money to buy the latest model of sports car. 

After trying out the car, he went to his favorite pub to brag to all his friends about it. ”Shit, man my new car 

is so fantastic! I just went from London to Liverpool in one hour!” 

The next day he was back at the pub again, bragging to his friends. ”Today,” he said, ”I made it from London 

to Liverpool in forty minutes!” 

The day after, the young sports car enthusiast was again at the pub. ”Today,” he said, ”would you believe it? 

London to Liverpool in twenty-eight minutes!” 

After an absence of two days, to the astonishment of his friends, the young man arrived at the pub on foot. 

”Where is your car?” asked his friends. 

”I’ve sold it,” he replied sadly. 

”But why?” they asked incredulously. 

”I could not help it,” he told them. ”What the fuck was I supposed to do in Liverpool every day?!” 

But people go on doing it! This man must have been a little intelligent. They go on going to Liverpool, never 

thinking why. Why do you go to the church? Why do you go to the synagogue or to the mosque, or to the 

temple? Why do you go on following stupid ideologies, ridiculous politicians? Why? You have never asked. 

I have heard about a man who went to the court and wanted his name changed. The magistrate was a little 

puzzled, but he could not object. He was puzzled because the new name that he had chosen was very strange. 

His new name was ’None of the above’. 

The magistrate said, ”What kind of name is this?” 

He said, ”But this is what I want.” So he was allowed. He changed his name; he became ’None of the above’. 

Then he stood for president. Then the secret was known. All other candidates who had stood for president 

objected because this man is dangerous: his name is ’None of the above’. Anybody marking his name on the vote 

list, on the vote, means canceling everybody! They objected. The man was called back to the court. 

The court said, ”Your name is a little deceptive.” 

He said, ”Whatsoever it is, it is my name and I want to change the president. I want to give people a chance 

to cancel everybody else. I am not interested in being the president myself; my whole interest is to cancel all 

the others, because everybody knows they are all fools, but you have to choose somebody. So I simply want to 

give them a chance: if they want to reject all, they can reject. They can simply mark on my name: ’None of the 

above’.” 

If you look at the situation of the world you will be able to see what these politicians and the priests have done 

to humanity: they have made it a hell. There is no need to ask for any proof. Now there is no need to ask whether 

hell exists or not. Politicians and priests, in a deep conspiracy, have made it a reality on the earth. Who is going 

to follow them? That’s why they don’t want you to be intelligent, they don’t want you to think, they don’t want 

you to be alert. They want you to live in a kind of deep sleep. They want you to be machines, not men. 

Buddha says: IN ALL THINGS BE A MASTER so that you are not reduced to a machine OF WHAT YOU 

DO.... 

Watch what you are doing and why. Is it worth doing? Is it worth wasting your life and your breath? Are you 

just doing it because you don’t know what else to do? It is better to do nothing than to do something without 

knowing why, without knowing what. ... OF WHAT YOU DO AND SAY AND THINK. 

You go on saying things and you suffer much because of your sayings. And many times you have decided not 

to say such things because unnecessarily you get into trouble; you say something and you are in trouble. But still 

you will go on saying the same things and getting into the same troubles, as if you never watch yourself, what you 

are doing. You are moving like a somnambulist in your sleep. 

And have you ever looked at what you think? Have you ever looked inside? You will be surprised: you are 

carrying many, many mad people inside you. But nobody looks inside; people are continuously occupied on the 

outside. Nobody thinks what he is doing, what he is saying, what he is thinking.


Rabbi Isaacs was quite fond of the Shapiro family whose members were long-time congregants of his temple. 

So it was understandable that he would react sympathetically when they asked him to have a serious talk with 

their daughter, Rachel, who was unmarried but pregnant again for the third time. 

He confronted the young lady on the following evening. ”I can’t understand how a nice Jewish girl could allow 

such a disgraceful thing to happen,” he began severely. ”Three times yet! I suppose the babies all have different 

fathers!” 

”Ah no!” said Rachel. ”It is the same fellow.” 

”He is single, this man?” 

”Certainly. You think I would go with a married man?” 

”Then why don’t you marry him?” demanded the rabbi. 

”Well, frankly,” Rachel answered with complete candor, ”he does not appeal to me.” 

Just look at yourself and you will not laugh at Rachel. People are living with each other not knowing why. 

So many people come to me, they write letters to me. They say, ”I am living with a man for fifteen years. I 

don’t know why because all that he gives me is misery, suffering!” Maybe that’s why because you are a masochist. 

You love being miserable, you want to suffer. That man is giving you good service! And people write to me, ”I 

am living with a woman and my life is hell.” But why are you living with that woman? Nobody is forcing you. 

People say to me, ”I am working in a job that I hate” but why? Get out of it immediately! Walk out of it! 

I was a professor in the university. One day I was talking to the vice-chancellor and I told him, ”This whole 

thing is nonsense. Just give me a piece of paper so I can write my resignation.” 

He said, ”What are you doing? Are you mad? Such a good job, so little work!” He said, ”I know perfectly well 

that you don’t do even that!” And that was true! ”Why are you leaving?” 

I said, ”It is just nonsense. Enough is enough!” 

He said, ”But wait! I have been in this business for thirty years I also know it is all nonsense. But how can you 

leave like this? I have not been able to leave this. Many times I have decided, but now look I have succeeded. I 

have become the vice-chancellor. One day you may become the vice-chancellor.” 

I said, ”Forget all about it!” 

He rushed... when he saw me leaving his office, he rushed out. He pulled me back inside. He said, ”What are 

you doing? Think it over!” 

I said, ”Finished is finished! I don’t think twice!” 

He thought I was ill or something, or I had taken some drug. He said, ”Wait! I don’t think you are in a state 

to drive back home. I will come with you.” 

I said, ”You don’t be worried. In fact, this is the first time I am perfectly sane! I was insane when I joined this 

university!” 

But he came with me just to see whether I could drive back home. For two or three days he continued to come. 

He said, ”You think. I am still keeping your resignation, I have not sent it. I have not told anybody.” 

I said, ”That’s up to you. I am not coming back.” 

The fourth day he said, ”You are really a man! I have also thought many times to divorce my wife I could 

not. And now I have seven children!” Seven children from a wife you always wanted to divorce.... So what were 

you doing with her? 

I asked him, ”Are those children really yours? If you wanted to divorce the woman, why were you making love 

to her?” 

He said, ”You are right, but what else to do?” 

And for thirty years he had been thinking to drop out of the job, because he always wanted to be a musician. 

And now the poor fellow is dead just two years ago he died. He could never become a musician; he died a 

vice-chancellor. What a failure! What frustration! But that’s how things are. 

Watch your life. Buddha is all for watchfulness. IN ALL THINGS BE A MASTER OF WHAT YOU DO AND 

SAY AND THINK. BE FREE. If you can be a master, if you can be watchful, freedom comes on its own accord. 

Freedom is the shadow of being a master of your life. 

YOU ARE A SEEKER. 

Remember, always remember. Buddha insisted again and again: Remember you are a seeker. You are seeking 

your true home; you have not yet found it. Many lives you have been seeking, this life also you are seeking. Have 

you found it? Don’t waste your time, don’t go astray. Pour your whole energy into seeking, because nobody 

knows about tomorrow. This may be your last day. Find it so that you can live joyously and you can die joyously. 

YOU ARE A SEEKER. 

DELIGHT IN THE MASTERY....


The only delight in life is when you master something. And when a man has mastered all his being his action, 

his saying, his thinking his delight is infinite. DELIGHT IN THE MASTERY.... 

OF YOUR HANDS AND YOUR FEET, OF YOUR WORDS AND YOUR THOUGHTS. 

Buddha never divides your bodymind. He says: Be a master of both because you are psychosomatic, you are 

bodymind. So be a master of your body and be a master of your mind. Then you will know who you are. Then 

you will know the master is you beyond bodymind. Then you will know you are pure consciousness. 

DELIGHT IN MEDITATION.... 

Delight in silence, stillness; that is meditation. 

AND IN SOLITUDE. 

Delight in being alone. Enjoy being alone as much as feasible, as much as practical. Delight in solitude. 

Sitting silently, doing nothing, 

The spring comes and the grass grows by itself. 

If you can sit silently doing nothing, the spring is not far away, the spring is bound to come. It always comes in 

silence. It always comes when you know how to delight in your aloneness because only then are you independent. 

If you delight in others’ company you are dependent. If you feel lonely when you are alone you don’t know 

aloneness yet. 

Loneliness and aloneness are two different things, notwithstanding what the dictionaries say. In dictionaries they 

are synonymous, but in existence they are totally different. Loneliness is negative. It means you are dependent, 

you are hankering for the other, you are suffering. Your being alone is not a joy, it is a misery. You want to be 

occupied. 

The zookeeper guided the visitors to the next cage. ”Now here, ladies and gentlemen, we have the laughing 

hyena. Now, the laughing hyena has sex on only one night in the year.” 

”Well, what has he got to laugh about then?” asked a young lad in the group. 

”Aha! Well, tonight’s the night!” 

People are happy with others, but that happiness is dependent; it can be taken away. It will be taken away, it 

is bound to disappear. It can’t be permanent, it is momentary. 

Raleigh Rosenblum, the romantic young bachelor of Palm Beach who was also a big spender, telephoned the 

girl he had just met the night before. She was not only gorgeous but had also proved to be a real swinger. He 

wanted another date. To his surprise, however, she turned him down. 

”How come you are refusing to go out with me tonight?” he demanded. ”Only yesterday you said there was 

something about me you adored.” 

”There was, baby,” she crooned in a husky voice, ”but you spent it.” 

All happiness that is dependent on others is bound to disappear sooner or later. It is temporary, it is momentary, 

it is illusory. Only that joy is yours which wells up within your own being. Hence Buddha says: DELIGHT IN 

MEDITATION, delight IN SOLITUDE. 

Aloneness is the joy of being just yourself. It is being joyous with yourself, it is enjoying your own company. 

There are very few people who enjoy their own company. And it is a very strange world: nobody enjoys his 

company and everybody wants others to enjoy his company! If they don’t enjoy he feels insulted and alone he 

feels disgusted with himself. In fact, if you cannot enjoy your own company, who else is going to enjoy it? 

Aloneness, solitude is positive. It is overflowing joy for no reason. It is our very nature to be joyous; hence 

there is no need to depend on anybody else. There is no other motive in it, it is simply there. Just as the water 

flows downwards, your being rises upwards. Just give it a chance give it solitude. And remember again, solitude 

is not solitariness, just as aloneness is not loneliness. 

COMPOSE YOURSELF, BE HAPPY. YOU ARE A SEEKER. 

Buddha reminds you again: YOU ARE A SEEKER. COMPOSE YOURSELF.... Be harmonious, be graceful. 

Learn the art of being alone and yet utterly happy. Then one day, in that solitude, something starts happening 

which you had never expected. Something immense, something vast descends in you. Something of the beyond 

penetrates you. A great uplift, a great feeling of levitation arises in you. You are being uplifted, you start rising 

towards the ultimate. Call that ultimate God, truth, whatsoever you prefer to call it. Buddha calls it freedom, 

nirvana: cessation of the ego, freedom from the ego, freedom from all bondage, freedom from all dependence on 

others. And you become unbounded, you become as vast as the sky: even the sky is not your limit. 



YOU ARE A SEEKER. DELIGHT IN THE MASTERY OF YOUR HANDS AND YOUR FEET, OF YOUR 

WORDS AND YOUR THOUGHTS.


DELIGHT IN MEDITATION AND IN SOLITUDE. COMPOSE YOURSELF, BE HAPPY. YOU ARE A 

SEEKER. 



Chapter 10 Love is its own reward 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO I TAKE MYSELF AND EVERYTHING SO SERIOUSLY? 

Prembodhi, the ego can exist only if you take yourself and everything seriously. Nothing kills the ego like 

playfulness, like laughter. When you start taking life as fun, the ego has to die, it cannot exist anymore. Ego is 

illness; it needs an atmosphere of sadness to exist. Seriousness creates the sadness in you. Sadness is a necessary 

soil for the ego. Hence your saints are so serious, for the simple reason that they are the most egoistic people 

on the earth. They may be trying to be humble, but they are very proud of their humbleness. They take their 

humbleness very seriously. 

The real saint cannot be serious. The really religious person has to be a celebrant. Just look around... look 

at the trees are they serious? Look at the birds, listen to them are they serious? Look at the stars, the moon, 

the sun are they serious? Existence is utterly nonserious; it goes on dancing. It is an eternal celebration, it is a 

festivity. 

Only man is serious, because only man has been trying to create a separation between himself and existence. 

He doesn’t want to be part of the whole, because then he disappears. He wants his own identity, his own name, 

his own form, his definition. Even if it creates misery it is okay, even if he has to live in hell he is ready for it. 

Once George Bernard Shaw was asked where he would like to go after he dies to hell or to heaven. He said, 

”Wherever I can be the first, I don’t want to be the second” and in heaven there is no chance to be the first, 

because so many saints have already reached there: Jesus and Zarathustra and Mahavira and Buddha. Who will 

take note of poor George Bernard Shaw? He is willing to go to hell if he can be the first there. 

Ego wants to be the first, ego wants to put everybody below itself; hence it takes itself seriously. Hence it is 

perfectionist: it demands perfection, which is impossible. Nobody is perfect; nobody can exist for a single moment 

if he is perfect. Imperfection is the way of life, because it is possible to grow only if you are imperfect. If you 

are perfect there is no more growth, no more evolution. If you are perfect you are stuck. Perfection means death; 

imperfection means flow, growth, movement, dynamism. 

The ego demands perfection of oneself and of others too. It asks for the impossible, and because the impossible 

cannot be achieved it can go on living. It is not happy with the ordinary; it wants the extraordinary, and life 

consists only of the ordinary. But the ordinary is beautiful, the ordinary is exquisite. There is no need of anything 

extraordinary. The ordinary life is sacred, but the ego condemns it as mundane. It demands extraordinary life. 

Hence all the religions go on inventing stories about their founders which are all untrue: Moses separating the 

sea, Jesus walking on the water... all these stories are inventions, lies, created by the followers just to prove that 

their master is extraordinary; he is not an ordinary human being. 

In fact, the truth is that you cannot find a more ordinary human being than Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus, Moses, 

Zarathustra, Lao Tzu. They are so simple! They have accepted themselves as they are. They live in suchness, 

in tathata. They don’t hanker for any perfection. They are perfectly at ease with the imperfect world, utterly 

contented with it. And they don’t take themselves so seriously that they have to attain to great heights, great 

peaks, that they have to surpass everybody. They are not insane! They are beautiful people, and their beauty 

consists in having accepted the ordinary as the extraordinary, the mundane as sacred. 

Prembodhi, you ask, ”Why do I take myself and everything so seriously?” 

Everybody takes himself and others seriously. That’s the way of the ego to exist. Start being a little more 

playful and you will see ego evaporating. Take life nonseriously, as a joke yes, as a cosmic joke. Laugh a little 

more. 

Laughter is far more significant than prayer. Prayer may not destroy your ego; on the contrary, it may make 

it holy, pious, but laughter certainly destroys your ego. When you are really in a state of laughter, have you 

observed? the ego disappears for a moment. You are again a child, giggling. Again you have forgotten that you 

are special. You are no longer serious; for a moment you have removed your fixation. 

That’s why I love jokes they are poison to your ego! You would like me to talk about serious things: astral 

planes and how many bodies men have, seven or nine, and how many chakras. And every day there are questions 

esoteric, occult. These are the serious people. They have fallen in a wrong company!


I am not serious at all. I don’t laugh with you because that is part of telling a joke: the person who tells it has 

to be very serious, he cannot laugh with you. All my laughter I have to do alone. But my approach towards life 

is utterly nonserious, playful, because in my experience this is how the ego disappears. 

Watch when you laugh: where is the ego? Suddenly you have melted, suddenly you are liquid, no more solid, 

but flowing. You are not old, experienced, knowledgeable. 

Listen to this joke and try to find out whether the ego remains or not. 

Shortly after arriving at their honeymoon suite, the still nervous groom became worried about the state of his 

bride’s innocence. Deciding on the direct approach, he quickly undressed, pointed at his exposed manhood, and 

asked his mate, ”Do you know what that is?” 

Without hesitating, she blushed and answered, ”That’s a wee-wee.” 

Delighted at the idea of instructing his naive wife, the husband whispered, ”From now on, dearest, this will be 

called a prick.” 

”Ah, come now,” the girl chided, ”I’ve seen lots of pricks, and I assure you, that’s a wee-wee.” 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS HAPPINESS? 

Jayananda, it depends. It depends on you, on your state of consciousness or unconsciousness, whether you are 

asleep or awake. 

There is one famous maxim of Murphy. He says there are two types of people: One, who always divide humanity 

in two types, and the other, who don’t divide humanity at all. 

I belong to the first type.... Humanity can be divided in two types: the sleeping ones and the awakened ones 

and, of course, a small part in between. 

Happiness will depend on where you are in your consciousness. If you are asleep, then pleasure is happiness. 

Pleasure means sensation, trying to achieve something through the body which is not possible to achieve through 

the body, forcing the body to achieve something it is not capable of. People are trying, in every possible way, 

to achieve happiness through the body. The body can give you only momentary pleasures, and each pleasure is 

balanced by pain in the same amount, in the same degree. Each pleasure is followed by its opposite because body 

exists in the world of duality, just as the day is followed by night and death is followed by life and life is followed 

by death. It is a vicious circle. Your pleasure will be followed by pain, your pain will be followed by pleasure. 

But you will never be at ease. When you will be in a state of pleasure you will be afraid that you are going to 

lose it, and that fear will poison it. And when you will be lost in pain, of course, you will be in suffering, and you 

will try every possible effort to get out of it just to fall again back into it. 

Buddha calls this the wheel of birth and death. We go on moving in this wheel, clinging to the wheel... and 

the wheel moves on. Sometimes pleasure comes up and sometimes pain comes up, but we are crushed between 

these two rocks. 

But the sleepy person knows nothing else. He knows only a few sensations of the body food, sex. This is his 

world; he goes on moving between these two. These are the two ends of his body: food and sex. If he represses 

sex he becomes addicted to food: if he represses food he becomes addicted to sex. Energy goes on moving like a 

pendulum. And whatsoever you call pleasure is, at the most, just a relief of a tense state. Sexual energy gathers, 

accumulates; you become tense and heavy and you want to release it. 

The man who is asleep, his sexuality is nothing but a relief, like a good sneeze. It gives you nothing but a 

certain relief. A tension was there, now it is no more there; but it will accumulate again. Food gives you only a 

little taste on the tongue; it is not much to live for. But many people are living only to eat; there are very few 

people who eat to live. 

The story of Columbus is well-known. It was a long trip. For three months they saw nothing but water. Then 

one day Columbus looked out at the horizon and saw trees. And if you think Columbus was happy to see trees, 

you should have seen his dog! 

That’s why the Siberian dogs are the fastest in the world: because the trees are so far apart. 

But this is the world of pleasure. The dog can be forgiven, but you cannot be forgiven. 

During their first date, the young man, looking for ways to have a good time, asked the young lady if she 

would like to go bowling. She replied that she did not care to go bowling. He then suggested a movie, but she 

answered that she did not care for them. While trying to think of something else he offered her a cigarette which 

she declined. He then asked if she would like to dance and drink at the new disco. She again declined by saying 

she did not care for those things.


In desperation he asked her to come to his apartment for a night of lovemaking. To his surprise she happily 

agreed, kissed him passionately and said, ”You see, you don’t need any of those things to have a good time!” 

It depends on people what can be called happiness. To the sleeping, pleasurable sensations are happiness. He 

lives from one pleasure to another pleasure. He is just rushing from one sensation to another sensation. He lives 

for small thrills. His life is very superficial; it has no depth, it has no quality. He lives in the world of quantity. 

Then the people who are in between, who are neither asleep nor awake, who are just in a limbo, a little bit 

asleep, a little bit awake. You sometimes have that experience in the early morning: still sleepy, but you can’t 

say you are asleep because you can hear the noise in the house, your wife preparing tea, the noise of the samovar 

or the milkman at the door or children getting ready to go to school. You can hear these things, but still you are 

not awake. Vaguely, dimly these noises reach to you, as if there is a great distance between you and all that is 

happening around you. It feels as if it is still a part of the dream. It is not a part of the dream, but you are in a 

state of in-between. 

The same happens when you start meditating. The non-meditator sleeps, dreams; the meditator starts moving 

away from his sleep towards awakening. He is in a transitory state. Then happiness has a totally different meaning: 

it becomes more of a quality, less of a quantity; it is more psychological, less physiological. He enjoys music more, 

he enjoys poetry more, he enjoys creating something. He enjoys nature, its beauty. He enjoys silence. He enjoys 

what he had never enjoyed before, and this is far more lasting. Even if the music stops, something goes on lingering 

in you. And it is not a relief. 

The difference between pleasure and this happiness is: it is not a relief, it is an enrichment. You become more 

full, you become a little overflowing. Listening to good music, something is triggered in your being, a harmony 

arises in you you become musical. Or dancing, suddenly you forget your body; your body becomes weightless. 

The grip of gravitation over you is lost. Suddenly you are in a different space: the ego is not so solid, the dancer 

melts and merges into the dance. This is far higher, far deeper than the joy that you gain from food or sex. This 

has a depth. But this is also not the ultimate. 

The ultimate happens only when you are fully awake, when you are a buddha, when all sleep is gone and all 

dreaming is gone, when your whole being is full of light, when there is no darkness within you. All darkness has 

disappeared and with that darkness, the ego is gone. All tensions have disappeared, all anguish, all anxiety. You 

are in a state of total contentment. You live in the present; no past, no future anymore. You are utterly herenow. 

This moment is all. Now is the only time and here is the only space. And then suddenly the whole sky drops 

into you. This is bliss. This is real happiness. 

Seek bliss, Jayananda; it is your birthright. Don’t remain lost in the jungle of pleasures; rise a little higher. 

Reach to happiness and then to bliss. 

Pleasure is animal, happiness is human, bliss is divine. Pleasure binds you, it is a bondage, it chains you. 

Happiness gives you a little more rope, a little bit of freedom, but only a little bit. Bliss is absolute freedom. You 

start moving upwards; it gives you wings. You are no more part of the gross earth; you become part of the sky. 

You become light, you become joy. 

Pleasure is dependent on others. Happiness is not so dependent on others, but still it is separate from you. 

Bliss is not dependent, is not separate either; it is your very being, it is your very nature. To attain it is to attain 

to God, to nirvana. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS SELFISHNESS? 

Yoga Chetana, selfishness is the shadow of the idea of a separate self. It is a shadow of a shadow, a reflection 

of a reflection. It is as if you see the moon in the lake and then you see the moon reflected in the lake in a mirror. 

It is far, far removed from reality. Even the reflection in the lake is not real, but the reflection of the lake in the 

mirror is even more unreal. 

The ego is a reflection in the lake of your true being. Your true being is the moon; the ego is only a reflection 

in the lake. The reflection in the lake can be disturbed even by a small pebble. Throw a small pebble and you 

will see: the moon is disturbed, distorted. Ripples arise and the moon is broken into thousands of pieces. 

Selfishness is the shadow of the ego, even more unreal. You are not a self. In Buddha’s words, you are not an 

atta a self; you are anatta a no-self. Hence, Buddha does not teach you altruism, neither do I teach you altruism. 

This point has to be understood well: I don’t teach you to be altruistic. That’s what the priests of almost all the 

religions go on doing. They say, ”Selfishness is bad.” They don’t say, ”Selfishness is false.” They say, ”Selfishness 

is bad, selfishness is sin.” But they accept its reality, they don’t reject its reality. If it is unreal, then they cannot 

condemn it as a sin. How can you call anything unreal a sin? If it does not exist in the first place, how can it


be sin and how can it be bad? So they go on saying, ”Selfishness is bad, selfishness is sin.” And to avoid it they 

teach you to be altruistic: ”Serve others, be servants of humanity, public servants.” 

Many times people who have been conditioned by these priests and missionaries come to me and, of course, 

they are shocked because I never talk about altruism. And they ask me why I don’t teach my sannyasins to be 

altruistic. 

I cannot, because in the first place the self is false, so to tell them to be unselfish is absolutely wrong. To tell 

them to serve others, to be altruistic, is taking them deeper and deeper into unreality. 

My effort here is to help them to see that the self is false. Hence I am not against the self it does not exist. 

How can I be against something which does not exist? And I don’t teach you altruism. If the disease is false, 

what is the point of giving you some medicine? 

I simply tell you to look within yourself, watch silently... and you will not find the ego at all. The self disappears. 

In fact, to say ”disappears” is not right; it has never been there, but you had never looked in. When you look you 

don’t find it. 

It is like you say, ”In my room there is darkness,” and I give you a lamp and I tell you, ”Go and search with 

the lamp where the darkness is.” You go with the lamp and you search and you can’t find it! You come back 

and you say, ”I can’t find it!” So I say, ”It is finished! Don’t be worried about it. Whenever this itching arises in 

you, this urge, this doubt, take the lamp and go again and search.” Slowly, slowly the truth will settle in you that 

there is no darkness; it is only absence of light. 

Ego is absence of your attention, absence of your awareness, nothing else. If you move in, if you look in, it is 

not found at all. And with self gone, where is selfishness? 

And then your life is a life of love, of compassion. Then your life is truly altruistic. I will not call it ”unselfish,” 

I will call it ”non-selfish,” because in the word ’unselfish’ the reality of the self is recognized. I would like to use 

the Buddhist word, ’non-selfish’ anatta, no-self. 

Buddha’s insight is tremendous, very significant. There is no need to teach people to be unselfish. Just let 

them know that there is no ego, and then their whole life, without any effort, becomes a life of love. They will 

not become missionaries because they will not be doing anything in particular. They will not brag that they have 

done so much for humanity; they have done it because they enjoyed it. They are already well rewarded. The 

reward is not somewhere in a future life, after death, in paradise; the reward is in love itself. Love is its own 

reward. 

When you live out of love, your life is tremendously joyous, ecstatic; that is the reward. And when you live out 

of a false ego, your life is a misery, it is a suffering, it is hell; that is the punishment. There is no need to wait 

that after death you will be thrown into hell. Forget all these stories! They are good to tell to children because 

they can’t understand anything else; they can understand only stories. But to mature people those stories are 

irrelevant. 

Each act is either its own punishment or its own reward. If it is arising out of your reality it brings great joy, 

beauty, bliss, benediction. If it is arising out of some false idea it brings misery, pain, suffering. That’s what hell 

is. 

Yoga Chetana, selfishness is the shadow of a self which does not exist at all. But don’t accept what I say just 

because I am saying it. You will have to look in, let it become your experience. You will have to become a little 

more awake to look in. You will have to come out of your slumber. 

It was down South in a dry state. The railroad station was packed with a party on their way to a football 

game. Over at one side of the waiting room stood Baxter, a quiet little man, fidgeting about and attempting to 

hide himself from the crowd. 

A federal agent, assigned to this moonshine-making area, noticed Baxter had something under his jacket from 

which drops were falling in slow trickles. The fed, with a gleam in his eye, walked over to him, put a finger out 

under one of the drops, caught one, and tasted it. 

”Scotch?” he asked. 

”Nope,” said Baxter. ”Airedale pup.” 

You missed it! Taste it again... it is not Scotch, it is an Airedale pup. 

There was a big alcoholic party on at this flat in San Francisco. Everything was at its drunkest and wildest 

when it happened an earthquake. Chimneys toppled in the street, water mains were broken. All the guests rushed 

outside from the wild party. But one man was missing. The heroic host dashed back and there in the bathroom 

he found the missing man, knee-deep in water. The inebriated guest could only mumble, ”Honest, Paul, I swear 

all I did was pull the handle.”


Yoga Chetana, you will have to become a little more conscious, that’s all. Come out of your drunkenness; it is 

very ancient. For many, many lives we have lived in a drunk state. You will have to make a little effort to pull 

yourself out of the mud of unconsciousness. And then the ego disappears and a pure space is left behind. 

Out of that pure space, lotuses bloom lotuses of compassion, of love, of joy. Not only are you blessed, but you 

become a blessing to the whole existence. 

Don’t fight with selfishness, remember. Fighting with it is what you have been told again and again. Don’t 

fight with it. Fighting with it means you have already accepted its reality; hence I don’t teach you to fight with 

your ego. If you fight with your ego you will become humble, but then in your humbleness the ego will hide. Then 

the ego will go on bragging about its humbleness. The ego can even say, ”I am the most humble person in the 

world, the greatest humble person in the world.” 

Three Christian priests were talking; they met on a crossroad. One belonged to a Trappist monastery. He said, 

”As far as asceticism is concerned, nobody can compete with us. We are the most ascetic people in the whole 

Christian kingdom.” 

The second belonged to another monastery. He said, ”That may be so, but as far as scholarship is concerned 

you are nowhere. Our people sacrifice their whole life for the scriptures to find out the truth and the gems.” 

The third one smiled and said, ”You both may be right, but as far as humbleness is concerned, we are the tops!” 

”As far as humbleness is concerned we are the tops....” 

Hence, Yoga Chetana, I will not say fight with your selfishness. Fighting has not been of any help; it has only 

created pious egoists all over the world. My suggestion is watch it, look at it, observe it. Observe how it functions, 

how you go on creating it because it IS your creation. 

It is very arbitrary. It is a fiction that you maintain and manage. And the maintenance is very costly because 

it keeps you in hell; it destroys your whole life just to maintain something false. Watch it. The moment you will 

see its falseness it is gone. You need not drop it, it simply drops on its own accord. It is not found at all. 

And then a totally new life begins. You are reborn. That’s what I call sannyas. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, IS IT REALLY TRUE THAT YOU NEVER WORKED IN YOUR WHOLE LIFE? 

Sandesh, it is really true. I am the original hippie! You may not know it, but I am the founder of the whole 

movement! 

The shop foreman, irritation showing plainly in his face, strode over to Sheldon, a hippie. 

”Listen,” he grated, ”do me and everyone else in the shop a big favor and quit whistling while you work.” 

”Hey, man,” retorted Sheldon defensively, ”who’s working?” 

I have lived, I have not worked! Whatsoever I have done I have enjoyed it; it was not work, it was my joy, it 

was play. I loved it, that’s why I did it. I was not doing any service to anybody, I was not working for any other 

motive; hence it was not work at all, it was my joy. 

I am talking to you. It is not work, it is my joy. I enjoy yakkety, yakkety, yakkety... this is not work! I simply 

love it. To call it work will not be right it is fun! 

Whatsoever I have done in my life, it has never been work. I have been simply whistling! 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, YOU ARE EXACTLY WHAT I HAVE BEEN SEEKING FOR THE LAST TWENTY 

YEARS IN STUDIES, POLITICS, YOGA, FAMILY AND COMMUNITIES. NOW FINALLY I AM HERE. AND 

IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL! AND TOMORROW I LEAVE. AND I AM HAPPY, TOO. WHY? 

Hans Peter Finger, there is no tomorrow. Today you are here, and that’s more than enough; that’s more than 

one can ask for. Who knows about tomorrow? I myself may be leaving, even before you leave! 

And it is not a question of being here. If you have found me, you have found me; wherever you are you will be 

with me, I will be with you. The whole thing is once you have found the right person with whom you fit together, 

with whom you find absolute harmony, communion, then no space can divide you. That’s why you are feeling 

happy. I can understand your problem. 

You say, ”And I am happy, too. Why?” 

Ordinarily, if you have fallen in love with me and are going tomorrow you should have thought, expected to be 

miserable, because ”Now here is the man I have been looking for, for twenty years and now I have found him, and 

I have to leave tomorrow.” But you are not miserable. That is a clear-cut indication that you have really found 

me. To find me and be miserable is impossible!


There are a few people who are here and miserable, because they have not found me. And there are people 

who are not here but are immensely joyous because they have found me, wherever they are. 

You will belong to me from now onwards. 

A single moment of deep harmony is enough, a single moment of love is eternity. 

Then time does not matter, space does not matter. 

Your heart knows it, but your mind is questioning because it seems illogical. Your mind says, ”If you are really 

so much in love, then why are you leaving? If you are really enjoying, then why should you go at all? For twenty 

years you have been searching! You wasted twenty years and now you have found and you are going! And still 

you are happy! What is happening to you?” This is your mind which is creating a question mark, but your heart 

knows you have found me. Now wherever you are, this communion will continue. 

Whatsoever has transpired between me and you is something beyond time, beyond space. So you can go happily, 

you can go joyously. And whenever you will close your eyes and remember me, you will be now and here. 

My buddhafield has not to become confined to the commune; it has to spread all over the earth. So wherever 

a person exists who loves me deeply, he creates a small buddhafield around himself. 

Hans-Peter, not only will you remain related to me, but you will become a bridge to many people towards me. 

You will become a messenger not a missionary but a messenger. A missionary is bogus. A missionary is one who 

himself has not understood at all, who has not experienced anything at all. A missionary is a professional: he has 

chosen religion as a profession, he earns his livelihood out of it. You will be a messenger. You will be spreading 

the word to many more people to your friends, to people you know, you love. 

Yes, it is perfectly good go and share me with others. And whenever it is needed you will be called forth, you 

will be back here again. And if it is needed to be here forever you will be here forever. Whatsoever is needful will 

happen. 

Trust! 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DOES NOBODY TAKE ANY NOTICE OF ME? 

Narendra, meditate over Murphy’s maxim: Nobody notices when things go right. 

You must be going right. People notice only when something goes wrong. If everything goes absolutely right, 

people are not going to notice you at all. 

It is said of Mahavira that he wanted to renounce his kingdom. He asked the permission of his mother. The 

mother said, ”Stop this nonsense never ask me again! Till I die I won’t allow you. If you leave the house 

without permission you will be doing something very violent to me and you go on talking about nonviolence. So 

remember!” 

Mahavira never asked her again. After two years she died. When they were coming back from the funeral he 

asked his elder brother on the way home, ”Can I leave now? I was just living here because our mother said, 

’Never ask again.’ Now, fortunately, she is dead so can I go?” 

The brother said, ”Stop all this nonsense! Such a calamity has fallen over us our mother has died and you 

want to leave me? Till I die you are not allowed.” 

And Mahavira was so obedient he said okay. He started living in the palace as if he had renounced. He would 

meditate, he would be silent, he would move so quietly and so gracefully that, slowly, slowly he became almost 

absent. It is a beautiful story, that the family stopped taking any notice of him. 

Then one day suddenly the brother realized, ”For months we have not taken any notice of him.” He remembered, 

”Where is he?” He went in search of him. He called the whole family and asked them, ”What to do now? He has 

almost left! He has become so silent, so peaceful. He makes no noise, he never interferes, he never says anything 

to anybody. He is as if he is not in the house at all! So what is the point of preventing him anymore?” 

They all gathered together and requested Mahavira, ”Now you can go. In fact, you have already gone because 

we have stopped taking any notice of you.” 

Mahavira said, ”It makes no difference now. But if you say go, I will go.” 

Narendra, don’t be worried. People take notice only when you are doing something wrong. When a dog bites 

a man it is not news, but when a man bites a dog it is news! So if you want to become news, bite a dog! Do 

something stupid, become some kind of nuisance. Only people who are a nuisance are taken notice of. 

That’s why you see in the newspapers all the politicians are covered every day, for the simple reason that they 

have nuisance value. You can ask any prime minister or any president of the world on what grounds he chooses 

his cabinet. It is nuisance value! Whoever is going to create nuisance, if he is not chosen has to be chosen. The


more you are a nuisance, the more you will be taken notice of, obviously. If you are a silent person living in deep 

harmony with yourself and existence, who is going to take any notice of you? Do something wrong, anything! 

That’s why your saints go on doing such stupid things just to be taken notice of. Stand on your head in the 

M.G. Road market and a crowd will gather. People will stop wherever they were going. They may have been 

going on some urgent work, but now a greater thing is happening: a foolish man is standing on his head! They 

have to stop, they have to watch. Do something stupid. 

Robert Ripley says that one man wanted to become famous. He asked Ripley what to do. Ripley is a famous 

man; he has written many books Believe It Or Not.... He used to accumulate all kinds of unbelievable things; he 

was an expert in unbelievable things true but unbelievable. People used to ask him also... somebody asked him 

how to become famous. 

He said, ”You do one thing. Shave half the hair of your head and just walk silently all over New York. For 

three days go on walking and don’t say anything, just let people watch.” 

And within three days he was in every newspaper! That a strange man is there, half his head shaved, walking 

all over New York, never saying anything. You ask him and he keeps quiet. Very strange! 

That’s why I have chosen orange for you, so that wherever you are New York, Berlin, Paris, Rome, wherever 

you are, everybody has to take notice of you. It helps my work! People start asking, ”What has happened to 

you?” My sannyasins all look like Jesus is back! 

Narendra, you must be doing everything right. Be happy that nobody is taking notice of you. 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO YOU GIVE THE PRIESTS SUCH A BAD TIME? THEY DON’T STOP 

YOU DRINKING AND YOU ONLY HAVE TO LISTEN TO THEM ONCE A WEEK. 

Niranjan, it is enough to poison people if they have to listen once a week to all kinds of nonsense. For centuries 

it has been propagated... it has come into the air, it has become part of the atmosphere. It is not a question of 

listening to them once a week only; their vibe is everywhere. They go on reminding you in every possible way. 

Whenever you pass, there is a church or a temple or a mosque. Do you think it does not remind you of something? 

And they go on tolling bells in the churches just to remind you, ”Don’t forget we are still here!” And the towering 

churches, you can see them from anywhere; they are reminding you. These are subtle processes of reminding you. 

In India you cannot pass a street without coming across a temple everywhere temples. And it is so simple in 

India to make a temple: you can just paint any stone. You can try! Just bring a rock from anywhere, put it under 

a tree, paint it red and just sit by the side with closed eyes. Within a few minutes you will see people are arriving. 

Somebody will put flowers, somebody will bow down to the rock; they will think this is the statue of Hanumanji! 

India does not believe in very costly things; it has made everything cheap. It is a poor country, you know, so 

things have to be cheap, within everybody’s capacity. You can have as many gods as you want. Any stone will do; 

just, if it is round it becomes Shankara, Shiva. If it is not round, ugly in shape, paint it red; it becomes Hanuman! 

Just sit by the side and wait, and you will find worshippers have started coming. 

I am not giving a bad time to the priests. In fact, the intelligent priests are immensely pleased with me. 

Just the other day I received a card from a priest who is very happy because he has been listening to my 

tapes, reading my books. He is happy because I am here a congratulation card from a priest! I am not giving 

a hard time to intelligent priests. No, I am simply showing them the exit! And a few have escaped. There are 

many priests, monks and nuns who have become sannyasins. And there is great fear now because if this goes on 

happening there is danger. 

The Protestant authorities in Germany have ordered all the Protestant churches of Germany that my name 

has not to be mentioned in any sermon. There was an eighteen-page report published by a special commission 

appointed by the Protestant church to investigate what I am saying. They have read all the books... and my 

feeling is half of them will be converted because the report seems to be very confused! Sometimes they seem to 

be favorable to me, sometimes they seem to be against me. They are not in a situation to say whether this man 

is right or wrong. Their report is very revealing. 

They say, ”This man talks like Jesus yet beware of him.” Now I think more priests, particularly Protestant 

priests in Germany, will read the books. They have quoted all the books. They have given the names of the 

books. Even the priests who would not have known about me will be knowing about me now! This is how things 

happen in the world. This is a very strange world! 

And I am not giving anybody a hard time. At the most, I told a few jokes about the priests. And my feeling 

is that reading them when they are alone they must be enjoying! 

The pope stood before a hushed crowd of attentive villagers and spoke to them, ”You must not use the Pill!”


A lovely signora stepped forward, shaking her finger. ”Look,” she chided the pontiff, ”you no play da game-a, 

you no make-a da rules!” 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, MY HUSBAND IS MAD, BUT SOMETIMES WHAT HE SAYS IS TRUE. IS IT 

POSSIBLE FOR A MADMAN TO DO THAT? 8 

Neelam, madmen can do anything, obviously they are mad! They can even say the truth. It is the so-called 

sane people who are unbelievable, who are expert in lying. Mad people are simple; they can say the truth. They 

don’t worry, they don’t care. 

Listen to your husband. He is far saner than the other so-called sane people. If sometimes you find that he is 

telling you the truth, maybe at other times also he is telling you the truth, you are just not aware of it. 

Mad people are beautiful people. They are mad only because they are so sensitive that they cannot live in this 

mad world. This mad world drives them mad! They are so sensitive and vulnerable that they become victims. 

They are not cunning; they are innocent, sincere and honest people. I know many mad people in fact, I know 

only mad people and I respect them. 

You ask me, Neelam, ”Can a madman do that? Is it possible for a madman to say the truth?” 

Only madmen can say the truth. 

Jesus must have been mad; otherwise he would not have said the truth. He would have played the game of the 

crowd and he would have become a famous rabbi, not crucified but crowned. But he was mad and he said the 

truth. 

Socrates must have been mad, utterly mad; otherwise why bother about truth? Live as other people live, 

imitate them; lie as they lie, deceive as they deceive, be hypocrites as they are. Why try to be true? Why insist 

on truth? But he must have been mad. 

The judges had asked him in the last moment... because they also felt sorry for the man, they knew his sincerity. 

They told him that if he was ready to leave Athens he could be forgiven but he could not enter Athens again. 

Socrates said, ”That I cannot do. I have lived in Athens, I have taught in Athens, my disciples are here, my 

people are here. Now in this old age, where am I going to start my business again?” 

Yes, he actually used the word ’business’. 

The judges asked, ”What do you mean by your business?” 

He said, ”The business of telling the truth that is my business.” 

The judges were really sympathetic. They said, ”Then you do one thing. You can live in Athens, but stop 

talking, be silent.” 

He said, ”That is not possible. It is better to die because then my death will speak. And let me remind you,” 

he said to the judges, ”even after centuries, when I am dead, my death will go on speaking to people about the 

truth. And you will be remembered only because of me; otherwise nobody will remember you. I cannot stop my 

business of speaking the truth. I am ready to die.” 

He must have been mad! Even his disciples thought that he was mad. Life is so valuable! But to a man of 

truth, truth is more valuable. 

And mad people can do anything. Help your husband, don’t hinder him. Help him to be authentic and true 

and don’t call him mad. Who knows who is mad? In fact, no definition exists. Psychoanalysts call Jesus neurotic. 

Friedrich Nietzsche says Buddha is mad. Freud says Nietzsche is mad. Jung thinks Freud is mad. Who is to be 

believed? 

The noted doctor opened the patient’s stomach and a bunch of butterflies flew out. 

”Say,” the doctor said, ”this guy was really telling the truth!” 

And maybe he is just playing a role, just acting, because sometimes it is really beautiful. 

I know one madman. When he was alone with me he was absolutely sane, and when he would go home he 

would become mad. I asked him, ”What is the matter?” 

He said, ”This is very comfortable. I don’t have to go to work, I don’t have to bother about the family business, 

I don’t have to worry about anything. I enjoy! I swim in the river, I lie down in the sun, and everybody thinks, 

’He is mad!’ My wife, my children, they have all taken all the responsibility. My wife runs the shop, my children 

about whom I was always worried now they are worried about me! And I am enjoying, I am having the time of 

my life!” He said, ”I have done enough. Now this is the only way.” 

There are many mad people who are simply pretending to be mad. 

Just help your husband. Maybe it is just because of you that he is pretending to be mad! Neelam, women are 

dangerous! You should see Aseema....


Aseema is a beautiful sannyasin. I have seen her two ex-husbands both have gone crazy! Then I started 

thinking, what is the matter? And both are beautiful people you know both. One is Sarvesh, the ventriloquist. 

He was perfectly okay before he met Aseema. Now this beautiful sannyasin has driven him mad! Another is 

Nikunj; Nikunj is mad. The whole credit goes to Aseema! Now, if anybody else is thinking to fall in love with 

Aseema, think twice! And then stop yourself! 

A woman goes to a palm reader. 

”Your husband will die a violent death,” she is told. 

”One more question,” she asks. ”Will I be acquitted?” 

A group of hikers passing a hillbilly’s cabin smiled as they saw the owner reclining in a rocking chair on the 

porch. They noticed his wife going into the house via the front, and only door. A few seconds later they saw a 

wildcat leap through the open window. 

They rushed up to the mountaineer. ”Do something quick!” someone shouted. ”A wildcat just leaped into your 

house and your wife is in there.” ”That’s his tough luck,” said the hillbilly. ”I never did like wildcats, anyway.” 

So, Neelam, meditate a little about yourself. Why is this poor man behaving as if he is mad? 

At the height of the unfortunate American involvement in East Asia, an owlish-looking young fellow approached 

the recruiting officer’s desk. 

”What must I do to get to Vietnam as soon as possible?” asked the prospective soldier. 

”Well, first you have to sign up,” exclaimed the officer with a grin. 

”Do volunteers have to take a physical?” 

”Certainly.” 

”Darn, that’ll slow me up. I wanna get to the front lines right away.” 

”In any case, you’d have to go to boot camp for training,” explained the officer. ”Nobody goes where the 

fighting is until he’s properly trained.” ”Then at least will the army fly me to Vietnam? I’d hate to go there by 

slow boat.” 

”What are you so all-fired anxious about?” growled the army man. ”Don’t you realize you could get killed or 

wounded over there?” 

”So I get killed or wounded. What’s the difference, as long as I’m getting all the glory?” 

”Listen, buddy,” snapped the recruiter, ”why don’t you go home and forget the whole thing? You’re crazy!” 

The young fellow abruptly reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a paper and thrust it into the army officer’s 

hands. 

”Here,” he said quickly. ”Just sign!” 



Chapter 11 All is not lost, but time is running short 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE YOU BEING CONTINUOUSLY MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISINTER- 

PRETED BY PEOPLE? 

Rajesh, it is absolutely inevitable, it is unavoidable. It has to be so. It is part of the destiny of those who 

speak the truth. They are bound to be misunderstood, misinterpreted. If they were not misunderstood, not 

misinterpreted, that would be a miracle. It has not happened up to now and there is no hope that it is ever going 

to happen. 

Buddhas have always been misunderstood for the simple reason that they speak from a totally different vision 

which is not available to the masses. They speak from a totally different experience. Their experience is such that 

it cannot be expressed through words, yet they try to express it through words they try to do the impossible. 

Saying it through words creates trouble. They use words in their own way, they give the words their own color, 

but when those words reach you they have lost all the meaning that was given by the awakened ones. Immediately 

you interpret them, you translate them into your experience. 

Buddhas speak from sunlit peaks and you live in dark valleys. They talk about light and you have never seen 

light. They talk about eyes and you have not even dreamed about eyes. They talk about eternity and all that 

you know is time; all that you know is temporary and they talk of that which never changes, which is always the 

same, which abides. It is unbridgeable, the gap. Unless you become also conscious it remains unbridgeable. 

Hence only a few disciples, slowly, slowly attain to the meaning of the masters. Very slowly a few people become 

awakened, they come out of their sleep. It is arduous, too, because all that you know about your life is your sleep


and your dreams. Leaving your dreams and your life behind is hard. It is demolishing your whole past. It is 

entering into such an unknown territory and without maps one feels scared. 

Only disciples can understand; the masses cannot understand. The masses have every investment in not 

understanding. Even if there is some possibility of understanding they will avoid that possibility. They will not 

come close to the buddhas. They will try in every possible way to create more and more barriers. They will create 

rumors, all kinds of rumors. They will surround the buddhas with so much smoke of their own creation that the 

buddhas become almost invisible to them. They don’t want to listen it hurts. Their whole life is rooted in lies 

and the truth hurts, it shatters. 

And the masses are vast, the blind people are millions. The people with eyes are rare, few and far between. 

Only once in a while comes a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu, a Jesus, a Moses, a Buddha. They are doing something 

unimaginable. They are trying to explain light to the millions who are blind. The blind people can hear the 

word ’light’, but they cannot understand it or they will understand it in their own way, whatsoever is their idea, 

opinion about light. And they are not only blind; they have thousands of opinions. They have much knowledge 

without knowing anything at all. They are full of scriptures. They hide their blindness behind scriptures. They 

can quote scriptures, they can argue. They are clever and skillful in argument. 

In fact, truth cannot be argued about. Either you know it or you don’t. Truth cannot be proved either; either 

you know it or you don’t. Knowing is all that is possible, or not-knowing; there is no way to prove it. 

Once it happened: 

A blind man was brought to Gautama the Buddha. He was a logician, a philosopher, very argumentative. He 

had been arguing with the village that there is no light, ”and you are all blind, just as I am blind. I know it and 

you don’t know it, that’s the only difference.” He was saying this to people who had eyes! And he was so clever 

in argument that the villagers were at a loss what to do with this man. 

He was asking them, ”Bring your light. Let me taste it or smell it or touch it. Only then will I believe.” 

Now, light cannot be touched, cannot be tasted, cannot be smelled. You cannot hear it. And these were the 

four senses available to the blind man. Then he would laugh in victory. He would say, ”Look! There is no light. 

Otherwise, give me the proofs!” 

When Buddha came to the village, the villagers thought it would be good: ”Let us take this man to Buddha.” 

They brought the man to Buddha. Buddha listened to the whole story and then he said, ”He does not need 

me. I also work with blind people, but of a different kind spiritually blind people. I heal them, I cure them. But 

this is physical blindness. You take him to a physician. You take him to my personal physician.” 

He had a personal physician a king had given him. The greatest physician of those days, Jivaka, was given 

to Buddha as a gift to take care of his body. ”You take him to Jivaka, and I am certain that he will be able to 

do something. He needs a physician; he does not need great philosophy about light. Talking about light is just 

stupid. And if you argue with him, he is going to win. He can prove that there is no light.” 

Remember, to prove that there is no God is very easy; to prove that there is God is impossible. To prove the 

negative is easy because all logic tends to be negative. To prove the positive is not possible; logic has no opening 

towards the positive. Hence the atheist is more argumentative and the theist feels almost defeated. He cannot 

prove the existence of God or the soul. 

Buddha said, ”You take him to Jivaka.” Jivaka cured his eyes. Within six months the man was able to see. He 

came dancing with many flowers and fruits as a present to Buddha. He fell at his feet and he said, ”If you had 

not been there I would have argued my whole life against light and light is! Now I know!” 

Buddha said, ”Can you prove it? Where is light? I would like to taste it and touch it and smell it!” 

And the blind man the ex-blind man said, ”That is impossible. Now I know it can only be seen; there is no 

other way to approach it. Excuse me, I am sorry. I was blind, utterly blind, and in my blindness I was saying 

things. I was arguing against something which exists and is the most beautiful experience of life. If you were not 

there I would have argued my whole life against something which is, and I would have remained a blind man. 

And you did well that you did not say a single word about light; otherwise, I had come prepared, fully prepared 

to argue with you, and I know now, even you would not have been able to prove it. But your insight is deep: you 

could see that I didn’t need any proofs; I needed some medicine. I didn’t need philosophy, I needed a physician. 

You directed me to the right person. I am immensely grateful.” 

And the man never left Buddha. He said, ”What you have done to my physical eyes, now do to my spiritual 

eyes too.” 

He became a disciple, he became a sannyasin. 

To be a disciple means to be ready to be operated on. It is a surgery, a very internal surgery: surgery in the 

very deepest core of your being. Only then can you understand me, what I am saying to you.


But the masses are not ready. And don’t be worried about them, Rajesh. That is none of our business. If they 

misunderstand, for us it does not matter. If they misunderstand, they miss something. If they misinterpret, it is 

their loss. Try to help them to come closer to me, but don’t argue with them. 

I am a physician, I am not a philosopher. My work here is that of a surgeon, not that of a teacher. The master 

is always a surgeon. He cuts away all that is false in you, chunk by chunk. Slowly, slowly he demolishes the whole 

edifice of your falsehood. And then what is left behind is your truth, is your being. When you have experienced it, 

only then will you be able to understand what is being conveyed to you through words, through silence, through 

communion. 

I am trying every possible way to reach to you, but I can reach you only if you are open to me. I cannot reach 

to the masses; that is not possible in the very nature of things. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, HOW CAN I BECOME THE NEW MAN THAT YOU SPEAK ABOUT? 

Bhagwato, Jesus says: Unless you are born again you will not enter into my kingdom of God. Exactly that’s 

what I say to you: Unless you are born again.... 

There are two births. One is given to you by your parents; that is a physical birth. That is only an opportunity 

for the second birth. If you think that the first birth is all, you have missed the whole point. The first birth is 

only a seed. It is of immense value if the second happens; it is of no value at all if you miss the second birth. You 

have to be twice-born. That’s how we have defined the buddhas in the East. 

The second birth has to happen within you; it is of consciousness. It is not of your body, it is not even of your 

mind; it is of awareness. 

Ordinarily, the first birth makes you only a machine. You start living in a very superficial way; you don’t have 

any depth, you don’t have any soul yet. You eat, you drink, you work, you sleep, but all like a robot. You don’t 

see the beauty of existence you can’t see it. You don’t see the godliness of every moment; it is impossible for you 

to experience it. It needs a transformation of your whole interiority. It needs a new subjectivity, a new vision, a 

new perspective. 

You see in a certain sense, you hear only in a certain sense. Yes, you hear the words, but the meaning is missed. 

You read the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, but just like a parrot. Even parrots are far more intelligent than your 

so-called pundits, than your so-called knowledgeable people. You go on repeating like a gramophone record. And 

you are so egoistic that you can’t accept, you can’t say, ”I don’t know.” 

Jascha Heifetz, the distinguished violinist, was in London where he was scheduled to give a concert. A few 

hours before curtain time, he noticed that a violin string had broken, so he hurried to a music supply shop for a 

replacement. He was waited on by a girl who was new to the business. ”I would like to have an ’E’ string for my 

violin,” said Heifetz. 

”A what?” asked the uncomprehending girl. 

”An ’E’ string.” 

”Sorry, luv,” she replied apologetically, ”but ye will have to pick it out yourself. I can’t tell the he’s from the 

she’s!” 

People are very reluctant to accept the fact that they don’t know. They try in every possible way to manage a 

facade that they know. This is the greatest mistake in life. You are not yet born, but if you think you are already 

born, if you think you have already attained to life, then this whole opportunity is going to be lost. It will go 

down the drain. 

And you can learn great words; they are available. You can learn them so much so that if you meet Jesus you 

may repeat his words better than he can do it himself because you have been repeating them for so long. You may 

defeat him; in a competition he may not be able to survive at all. Some stupid priest may win the competition 

because he will be just repeating exactly, word for word. Jesus cannot do that; that is impossible. He has to 

be spontaneous. He will respond to the situation. He may say some new things because twenty centuries have 

passed. How can he go on saying the same old things? Impossible. 

That’s why the people who believe that they know are the most ignorant in the world. To be ignorant is not 

that bad, but to believe that you know, without knowing, is very dangerous. 

It seems that talking parrots had become quite fashionable. Understandably, Mulla Nasruddin’s wife decided 

she must have one for herself. However, every store she went to had sold out of parrots. Finally she found a shop 

that had one left. 

”But,” the owner cautioned, ”this bird was previously owned by a madam in a whorehouse and its language 

may be quite salty. Perhaps if you keep him covered for a week, he will forget what he has seen and heard.”


Mrs. Nasruddin purchased the bird and did as the shopkeeper bid. At long last the week was over and the 

bird was finally uncovered. He first blinked his eyes and then after adjusting to the light looked around and said, 

”Hmm... pretty new house. Hmm... pretty new madam. Hmm... pretty new girls too.” 

Just then Mulla Nasruddin walked in. The bird took one look at him and said, ”Ah, shit! Same old customers. 

Hi, Mulla!” 

Yes, even parrots are more spontaneous than your pundits. You go on repeating. Your parents believed that 

they lived and their parents believed that they lived, and they have given you the idea that you are alive. You 

are not alive, you are only vegetating. To be alive means to be awakened. 

Bhagwato, when I say the new man, I mean the conscious man. Humanity cannot be saved if the conscious 

man does not arrive. In the past it was not so necessary, but now it is absolutely necessary, it is a must. If the 

new man does not arrive on the earth, if more and more people are not going to become conscious, alert, awake, 

then this earth is doomed. Its fate is in the hand of the stupid politicians, and now they have immense power of 

destruction, such as they never had before. That is something new. 

Just five years ago they had so much power that they could have killed every single human being seven times 

although you don’t need to kill any human being seven times, once is enough. We had five years ago so much 

atomic energy atom bombs, hydrogen bombs that we could have destroyed this earth seven times. And within 

five years we have really progressed now it is seven hundred times! We can destroy seven hundred earths like this 

earth, and we go on piling up.... And any moment, any mad politician can trigger the process of self-destruction. 

The coming twenty years are going to be the most dangerous in the whole history of humanity; it has never 

been so dangerous we are sitting on a volcano. Only more consciousness, more alertness can save it; there is no 

other way. We have to de-automatize man. The society automatizes you. It creates efficient machines, not human 

beings. 

My effort here is to de-automatize you. I am doing something absolutely antisocial. The society makes you a 

machine and my effort is to undo it. I would like this fire to spread and reach to all the nooks and corners of the 

earth, to help as many people as possible to be conscious. If in a great quantity consciousness grows on the earth, 

there is a possibility, a hope, we can save humanity yet. All is not lost, but time is running short. Everything is 

being controlled by politicians and by computers, and both are dangerous. Politicians are mad. It is impossible 

to be a politician if you are not mad enough. You have to be absolutely insane, because only insane people are 

power-obsessed. 

A sane person lives life joyously; he is not power-obsessed. He may be interested in music, in singing, in dancing, 

but he is not interested in dominating anybody. He may be interested in becoming a master of himself, but he is 

not interested in becoming a master of others. 

Politicians are insane people. History is enough proof. And now computers are dominating. 

You know the saying: To err is human.... That is true, but if you really want to create a great mess, human 

beings are not enough you need computers. Now machines and mad people are dominating the whole world. We 

have to change the very foundation. That’s what I mean by a new man. 

A new man means more conscious, more loving, more creative. This whole process is possible through being 

more meditative. Become more meditative, silent, still. Experience yourself deeply. In that experience, a fragrance 

will be released through you. And if many, many people become meditators, the earth can be full of a new perfume. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, I NEVER KNOW WHAT IS COMING NEXT. IT IS NO USE BEING PREPARED. 

YOU ARE KILLING ME. I AM SO GLAD, BUT IT IS SO PAINFUL AND SO SCARY. P.S. THIS IS FOR A 

FEW STROKES. PLEASE DON’T CAUSE ANY MORE TROUBLE. 

Prem Samarpan, a few strokes are enough to cause trouble. And when you ask it, you get it! Sometimes people 

get it even without asking. Whatever you need and whenever you need, it is given to you. 

Pain is not always bad; sometimes it is absolutely necessary. It is a blessing in disguise. You grow through it; 

you cannot grow if you try to bypass it. One becomes integrated, crystallized through pain. The only condition 

to be fulfilled is that you should go into it consciously. Then pain, too, is a gift of God, just as death is. Then 

everything is a gift, if you can go consciously into it. Then everything prepares you for the new birth, for the new 

man. 

You say, ”I never know what is coming next.” 

Nobody knows and nobody needs to know. Samarpan, it is good not to be bothered about the future. The 

present is enough. And to live in the present, totally absorbed in the present, is the way of the sannyasin.


Jesus says to his disciples, ”Look at the lilies in the field, how beautiful they are!” And what is their secret? 

The secret is, they never think of the morrow, they live in the present. The whole existence lives in the present, 

except man. Hence, except man, there is no anxiety, no anguish. All anxiety, all anguish is man-created; it is 

our own doing. It simply exists in our own minds. Either we are worried about the past which is so stupid 

because you can’t do anything about it; whatsoever has happened has happened, you cannot go back. But we 

go on thinking, ”Had I done this, had I said this....” You are simply wasting more time. People go on repenting 

about the past that which is not is not worth repenting about. People feel guilty about their past. That which 

is gone is gone forever. Feel disconnected, become discontinuous. 

Each moment, Samarpan, one has to become discontinuous with the past. And if you become discontinuous 

with the past, only then do you stop worrying about the future, because the future is nothing but a projection 

of the past. The people who live in the past also live in the future. The future is a reflection of the past. What 

exactly is your idea of future? It means you are not going to commit the mistakes that you committed in the past 

delete those mistakes. And you are going to enjoy all that was pleasant in the past more deeply. That’s what 

your future is: intensifying your pleasures of the past and deleting your pains of the past. 

But you don’t understand life. Pains and pleasures are joined together. If you want the same pleasures that 

you enjoyed in the past and you want them to be more intense, you are asking for the pain that you also suffered 

in the past. And, of course, the pain will be as intense as the pleasure. They are always balanced, they move 

together, they are inseparable. They are two sides of the same coin. 

So you are simply wasting time, whether you are thinking of the past or of the future. And the future is not 

going to be according to you. Who are you to decide about the future? This vast universe can’t be decided by 

your private will, by your ego. You have to stop pushing the river. You have to learn how to go with the river, 

how to go with the wind. 

Lao Tzu says: Be like a dead leaf, so wherever the wind blows the leaf goes with it. It has no destiny of its own, 

it has no private goals of its own, it has no will of its own. It is utterly surrendered. That is the meaning of your 

name, Samarpan. Samarpan means ”totally surrendered”: one who has lost his will into the will of the whole. 

Jesus says on the cross, ”Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” That is samarpan, that is surrender. ”Thy 

will, not mine.” That is his last prayer and the very essence of prayer, the very soul of a religious man. 

There is no need to prepare for the future. Live in the present so totally, that’s all. That is preparation for 

the future without preparing at all. Why? because when you live totally in the present, the future is going to 

be born out of the present. From where is it going to come? It is going to grow out of this moment. If you have 

lived this moment in its total beauty, joy, celebration, the next moment will come out of it and you will be able to 

live it even more totally, even more joyously. But you don’t think about it and you don’t prepare for it because 

thinking and preparing means missing this moment. And if you miss this moment you will miss the next too, 

because it will be coming out of this empty moment which you absolutely missed. 

So a strange phenomenon happens, a very strange law of life: those who prepare for the future are the ones 

who go on missing, and those who don’t prepare but live in the present, utterly surrendered to the whole, they 

never miss anything. Their future comes out of the present, flows out of the present. Then the whole takes care. 

When you are surrendered, the whole takes care; when you are not surrendered, you have to take care of yourself. 

And that is like trying to pull yourself up by pulling your shoestrings. 

Mulla Nasruddin went for his first airplane flight. When he came back he was looking very tired and just a 

fifteen-minute flight from Bombay to Pune he was trembling, his face was looking so pale. 

I asked, ”What is the matter?” 

He said, ”What is the matter! Those two plane flights!” 

I said, ”What two plane flights? You have been only on one plane flight.” 

He said, ”Two my first and my last! I am finished with this nonsense! I was so afraid, I had to sit just on the 

edge of the chair.” 

”But why on the edge?” I asked him. 

He said, ”So that my whole weight was not on the plane, that’s why.” 

And this is the way millions of people are living in the world: so their whole weight is not on the whole; 

otherwise something may go wrong. 

The whole is capable of carrying you. You are almost nothing; it is not a problem for the whole. 

A man who had finished his life went before God. God reviewed his life and showed him the many lessons he 

had learned. When he had finished God said, ”My child, is there anything you wish to ask?”


The man said, ”While you were showing me my life, I noticed that when the times were pleasant there were 

two sets of footprints, and I knew you walked beside me. But when times were difficult there was only one set of 

footprints. Why, Father, did you desert me during the difficult times?” 

And God said, ”You misinterpret me, my son. It is true that when times were pleasant I walked beside you 

and pointed out the way. But when times were difficult, I carried you.” 

You say, Samarpan, ”I never know what is coming next. It is no use being prepared.” 

Certainly, it is no use being prepared or, there is a totally different way of being prepared. That is what I am 

trying to show you. Live in the moment totally, fully aware. That is the real way of preparing without preparing. 

That is preparation without preparation. You will be ready for the next moment naturally, without any worry. 

You say, ”You are killing me.” 

Yes, in a sense. And in another sense.... 

Meditate over this story: 

A man is taking a walk in a park late at night. Suddenly, behind some bushes he hears strange gasps and 

muffled screams. Alarmed, he shouts, ”Is anybody being killed in there?” 

”No, no,” shouts back a voice. ”Just the opposite!” 

Yes, in one sense I am killing you; in another sense, I am giving you a new birth. I am doing just the opposite. 

The master is a womb. He takes the disciple inside his womb. We call that womb the buddhafield. And then 

the disciple grows in his love, is nourished through his love, in his light. He is showered continuously with his 

compassion, with his understanding. And one day he comes out of the womb of the master, a totally new man. 

The old dies and the new is born. This is how you become twice-born. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, YOU TALK ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ’KNOWING’ AND ’KNOWL- 

EDGE’. BUT TO BECOME A MASTER, DO YOU NOT HAVE TO HAVE ’KNOWLEDGE’ AS WELL AS 

’KNOWING’? IT SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU, IN YOUR TALKS, SHOW MUCH KNOWLEDGE. CAN THIS 

NOT BE A PART OF THE WAY FOR SOME? 

Nicholas Mosley, there is a great difference between knowledge and knowing. And to you, knowing may appear 

as knowledge because you are not acquainted with knowing at all; you know only knowledge. Hence you may find 

much knowledge in what I am saying, but it is not knowledge to me, it is knowing to me. Knowing means my 

own experience; knowledge means something borrowed. 

And it is not necessary that my knowing should go against the knowing of Buddha or Jesus or Krishna. In fact, 

it cannot go against anybody’s knowing. Knowing is the same, the process is the same, whether Buddha knows 

or Zarathustra. It is the same. 

Knowing means you enter into your interiority, you move inwards, you reach to the very center of your being. 

You experience who you are... and in that very experience you know you are God, because only God exists. To 

say, ”God is,” is a tautology because God means ”is”; ”isness” is God. 

Whatever I am saying here may appear to you as knowledge because it can be found in the Bible, in the Koran, 

in the Gita, in The Dhammapada. And you will think, ”Of course, it is knowledge.” It is not. The difference is 

subtle and delicate. 

One can know about love libraries are full; thousands of books about love have been written. You can gather as 

much knowledge about love as possible. You can make an encyclopedia of love. You can become an encyclopedia of 

love. Still, if you have not experienced love, all that you know is rubbish, all that you know is verbal, intellectual; 

it has no existential value. 

Buddha used to say: It is like a man who goes on counting other people’s cows and buffaloes every day and 

he himself has no cow, no buffalo. Counting other people’s cows and buffaloes you may become very expert in 

counting, you may become very reliable, but unless you have your own cow you will not be nourished by that 

counting. 

To know means to be silent, utterly silent, so you can hear the still, small voice within. To know means to drop 

the mind. When you are absolutely still, unmoving, nothing wavers in you, the doors open. You are part of this 

mysterious existence. You know it by becoming part of it, by becoming a participant in it. That is knowing. 

And once knowing has happened, then to read the Bible and the Koran and the Gita is beautiful, because then 

they all become witnesses. Otherwise you can read, you can repeat, but they are only words with no meaning, 

with no content. 

Knowledge is without content, empty shells with nothing inside. But if you have seen only knowledge, from 

the outside both will look almost the same. Knowledge comes through studying and knowing happens through


meditation. The processes are different. In knowledge you have to go into words, into language, into scriptures. 

In knowing you have to go within yourself. The processes are not only different but polar opposites. In knowing, 

first you have to drop knowledge because that becomes a hindrance. First you have to know that ”I don’t know.” 

You have to become innocent. 

Jesus says: Unless you are as innocent as small children you will not enter into my kingdom of God. 

The clergyman was telling his guests a story when his little girl interrupted. 

”Daddy,” she asked, ”is it true or is it mere preaching?” 

There is a great difference whether something is true or is just preaching ”mere preaching.” 

An old priest had to leave his village one Saturday the day everyone goes to confession. He taught the new 

young priest who was taking over his job the necessary basics: ”If a woman steals money from her husband three 

’Ave Maria’ and two ’Pater Noster’; if someone commits adultery five ’Ave Maria’ and three ’Pater Noster’; for 

those who have been telling lies one ’Ave Maria’ and two ’Pater Noster’, and so on.” 

The young priest heard first the confession of a pretty village girl. 

”Father, I have committed a sin,” the girl said. 

”What have you done-a, my child-a?” asked the priest. 

”I have given the boy next door a blow job,” she replied timidly. 

The young priest was puzzled because he had not been instructed about such a situation. At that moment, 

he saw the old priest passing by, his suitcase in hand, preparing to leave. Quickly he called out to the old man, 

”Father, Father, one moment please. There is a young-a girl-a here. What do I give her-a for a blow-a job?” 

”Fifty dollars,” replied the old priest. 

Knowledge is borrowed; knowing is yours, your own. It is authentic. Knowledge is information, knowing is 

transformation. 

You ask me, Nicholas, ”You talk about the difference between knowing and knowledge. But to become a master, 

do you not have to have knowledge as well as knowing?” 

Knowing is enough. To be a master, knowing is enough. 

”It seems to me,” you say, ”that you, in your talks, show much knowledge.” 

I am not a master because of my knowledge, but in spite of it! I was a professor in the university. I had to 

struggle a great deal to get out of my knowledge. Still, something of it goes on lingering around me. Forgive me 

for that! But it has nothing to do with being a master. 

Jesus had no knowledge; he was more fortunate. He was not a professor in a university, he was just a poor 

carpenter’s son. Mohammed was fortunate; he was absolutely illiterate. I was unfortunate. I have suffered a lot 

from knowledge. My whole problem was how to get rid of it. That’s why I am so much concerned about you and 

I continuously insist on being aware of knowledge don’t become knowledgeable. I am saying it because of my 

own experience. 

It is easy to renounce wealth, it is easy to renounce power, prestige, because they are outside things. The 

greatest problem is to renounce your knowledge because it goes so deep. It becomes almost a part of your being, 

it becomes so ingrained. You can escape to the Himalayas the wife, the shop, the power, everything will be left 

behind, but not knowledge. It will be there with you wherever you go. It is not a shadow, it is something inside 

your skin. It is easy to get out of your skin; it is more difficult to get out of your knowledge. Hence I go on 

saying to you: Beware, beware of becoming knowledgeable. And there is a great tendency in the mind to become 

knowledgeable because it is very ego-fulfilling. 

But one need not be knowledgeable to become a master. If you are already knowledgeable, then put it aside. 

Become innocent again so that you can know on your own, and when you have known you can use your knowledge. 

It can be used, but only later on. Knowing comes first, then you can use your knowledge, but your use of knowledge 

will be totally different from the use of the scholars. 

That’s why my interpretation of Jesus, Buddha, Mahavira, is totally different from the interpretations of 

scholars. It is bound to be so. Their interpretations are verbal, they are only logical interpretations. They are 

great argumentators, clever in hairsplitting. 

My interpretations are not argumentative, are not intellectual. My interpretations are paradoxical. If you are 

against me you can call them anti-intellectual; if you love me you can call them supra-intellectual. It depends 

on you. If you are against me, they are irrational; if you are in love with me, they are suprarational. If you are 

against me, they are self-contradictory; if you love me they are mysterious, paradoxical. 

And when I say anything I am not concerned whether I am being true to Buddha or not. My concern is 

whether I am being true to myself or not. If I am true to myself I know that I must be true to Buddha; it can’t


be otherwise. So I don’t take much care whether I am literally true to Buddha, to Jesus, or not. I take every 

freedom. 

Sometimes I change the stories because when I see that this story is not possible, it can’t happen to a buddha... 

sometimes I invent stories too. 

Once a great Buddhist scholar, Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan, came to see me. He said, ”Everything you say is 

beautiful, but a few stories I have come across which I have not found in any scriptures.” 

I asked him, ”For example?” 

He said, ”For example, just the other day I was reading a beautiful story you have told: Buddha is passing 

down a street talking to his disciple, Ananda, and a fly sits on his head. He goes on talking and just moves his 

hand to scare away the fly, and then he stops suddenly in the middle of the road. The fly is gone, but he moves 

his hand again slowly as if the fly is there. 

”Ananda is very much puzzled. He says, ’What are you doing? The fly is no longer there!’ 

”Buddha says, ’Yes, I know, but this is how I should have done it before. I continued to talk with you and 

automatically I allowed my hand to move. That is not right for me. I should move my hand with more awareness. 

So now I am doing it as I should have done.’” 

Anand Kausalyayan said, ”I have never come across this story. I have read all the scriptures.” 

I asked him, ”But do you think the story is beautiful?” 

He said, ”The story is beautiful.” 

Then I said, ”It is perfectly right. Then why bother about the scriptures? Don’t you see a Buddhist flavor in 

it?” 

He said, ”I can see.” 

”So that is the whole point!” 

I am not functioning here as a man of knowledge, but only as a man of knowing. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM LOSING MY MEMORY AND IT IS WORRYING ME TO DEATH. WHAT 

SHOULD I DO? 

Mamta, nonsense! Just forget all about it! 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS WRONG WITH THE INDIANS? 

Madhuri, almost everything! 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, YES! I WAS NOT SURE UNTIL NOW! I SAID THE SAME WORDS TO ASEEMA 

A MONTH AGO: ”YOU HAVE DRIVEN TWO OTHER MEN MAD. DON’T LET IT BE ME.” WOW! WE 

HAVE BEEN IN LOVE FOR MAYBE ONE YEAR NOW, AND TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH I AM RE- 

ALLY ALLOWING HER TO AFFECT ME IN ALL POSSIBLE WAYS. BOTH NIKUNJ AND SARVESH ARE 

AFFECTED BY HER, AND FOR MYSELF I SEE WHAT IT IS: LOVE WITH A WITCH! RELEASE ME, 

BELOVED MASTER. AH... WHAT SHALL I DO? 

Narayana, it is too late! And I am not a witch doctor! Now, nothing can be done. In fact, you are already 

mad. 

Mulla Nasruddin plays on the sitar, but he goes on playing the same note continuously for hours. His wife has 

gone mad, his children have gone mad, his parents have gone mad. 

One day he continued to play the same note, and a neighbor asked him, ”Mulla, we have seen many people 

playing sitar, but they change notes.” 

Nasruddin said, ”I know they go on changing because they have not yet found the right note. And I have 

found it, so why should I change?” 

The neighbor said, ”But now it is two o’clock in the night. Please! Just one hour more and I will go mad. Stop 

it!” 

Nasruddin said, ”It is too late because I have stopped already. It is almost two hours since I stopped! What 

are you talking about?” 

Narayana, one year with Aseema... you are finished! She is dangerous all beautiful women are. All women 

are witches! In fact, the word ’witch’ means wise. It is exactly the equivalent of ’buddha’. If a woman becomes 

enlightened she becomes a witch.


Aseema is just on the verge of becoming enlightened, and on the way she is giving whatsoever help she can. 

Whosoever meets her, she helps him. You have been helped by her, and there is no way now for you to be released. 

All is finished! You had better settle in it. 

Nikunj and Sarvesh got mad because they tried to escape. Only then they became aware that they were mad. 

If they had remained with Aseema, there would have been no problem. 

So don’t try to escape from Aseema, that’s my only advice. Remain with her. She is beautiful and I love her. 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE ANY GOOD QUALITY IN THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE OR 

NOT AT ALL? 

Jagdeesh, an ancient scripture says... this is knowledge: Marriage is an institution that teaches a man regularity, 

frugality, temperance, forbearance and many other splendid virtues he would not need had he stayed single. 

The venerable old man was celebrating his one-hundredth birthday and was asked by a reporter, ”To what do 

you attribute your advanced age and remarkable physical condition?” 

”I will tell you,” replied the centenarian. ”When my wife and I were first married, the rabbi who performed the 

ceremony suggested that whenever I saw an argument coming I should take a walk around the block. I took the 

rabbi’s advice and I want you to know that for seventy years the constant exercise did wonders for my health.” 


Question 9 

BELOVED MASTER, ABOUT THIS TALK YOU GAVE IN FAVOR OF MIXED MARRIAGES. I COME 

FROM GOOD OLD TRADITIONAL DUTCH STOCK AND HAVE RECENTLY GOTTEN TOGETHER WITH 

A SIMPLE-MINDED, BEER-BOOZING COCKNEY. SINCE THEN I HAVE TAKEN UP DISCO DANCING, 

ROCK ’N’ ROLL SINGING, PARTIES AND BEER. I AM HAVING A BALL BUT ARE YOU SURE THIS IS 

THE WAY TO RAISE THE CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE WORLD? 

Arup, I am absolutely sure! 



Chapter 12 A new man with a new vision 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM AN UNEDUCATED MAN. CAN I STILL BECOME ENLIGHTENED? 

John, there is more possibility for you than for an educated man. The education that exists in the world is not 

true education. True education will be a help towards enlightenment because it will make you more meditative, 

more silent, more aware, more inward-looking. 

The education that exists in the world makes you more ambitious, outward-looking, more egoistic, more superficial. 

It gives you all kinds of wrong values. It is a kind of poisoning. It does not help you, in any way, to be 

yourself. It is destructive. It helps you to be somebody else, and that’s its very destructive foundation. It is a 

poisoning, but so slow that you never become aware. It begins the day you are born and it goes on slowly, slowly 

destroying you, distracting you from your nature. 

By the time you come out of the university you are no longer a natural being. You are artificial, arbitrary. 

Universities are like factories, assembly lines, where man is destroyed and machines are created, where man is 

reduced to a machine. 

Enlightenment means discovering your being. It has nothing to do with education. In fact, those who are 

educated will have to become, in a certain sense, uneducated again. Those who are knowledgeable will have to 

cease to be knowledgeable. They will have to become again childlike, innocent, so their eyes can be full of wonder, 

surprise, so they can again see the tremendous beauty of existence, the eternal joy, the celebration that surrounds 

you. But the knowledgeable person is absolutely unaware because he thinks he knows; that is his barrier. 

The more you know, the less you are surprised by anything. The more you know, the less you wonder. And 

God is only for those whose wonder is total, who know the experience of being in awe; those who can dance with 

the wind and the sun and the rain; those who, seeing a roseflower, are so struck by its beauty that they become 

speechless, that for a moment their minds stop functioning. Only those few can know God. Only those few can 

become enlightened. 

John, you are fortunate. Of course, if you are educated you will be able to earn more money but not more 

meditation. You will be able to have more political power because you will be more cunning, more clever but 

not insight into your own being. You may be able to possess many things, but that will be only a deception. In


fact, things will possess you because you will not be your own master. It is better to possess one’s own being 

than to possess the whole world. It is better to be a buddha a beggar than to be Alexander the Great, because 

the buddha lives a full life and dies a full death, and Alexander the Great lives an empty life, hollow, somehow 

stuffing it in an effort to convince himself that he is not empty, and then dies utterly empty. 

When he died he said to his generals, ”Let my hands hang out of my coffin.” 

”Why?” they asked, because that was not the way to carry a dead body. 

He said, ”That may not be conventional, but I would like my hands to hang out of my coffin so people can see 

that I am dying empty-handed.” 

That’s how his body was carried. Millions of people had gathered to see, and everybody was wondering, ”Why 

are his hands hanging out?” And, slowly, slowly the rumor went around that Alexander wanted it to be known 

by everybody that he was going empty-handed. His life had been utterly futile. 

John, no need to be worried about education, knowledge. In the inner world, the ordinary education is not 

needed something else, a true education. 

The word ’education’ is beautiful. It means ”drawing something out”: drawing out that which is within you. In 

fact, we should not use it for the ordinary education. It is wrong to use a beautiful word like ’education’ for this 

rotten system of schools, colleges and universities. It is not education in the literal sense even, because instead of 

drawing out what is within you it forces things from the outside upon you. It is an imposition. 

Real education is like drawing water from a well, not pouring something into the well. Real education is drawing 

out your being so that your inner luminosity starts filtering through your body, through your behavior. 

I am reminded of a beautiful story. It really happened, it is not just a story. 

Stosh, a new immigrant, got off a boat at Ellis Island and set about finding himself a job. Door-to-door inquiries 

brought no luck until he rang the bell of a whorehouse. The madam was sympathetic and employed him to clean 

up the basement. After completing the task in record time, Stosh asked for further work, whereupon the madam 

suggested that he become their permanent bookkeeper. 

When Stosh explained that he could neither read nor write, the madam paid him ten cents and sent him off on 

his way with her best wishes. 

With the ten cents Stosh bought two apples in the market. He ate one and sold the other in the town center 

for ten cents. He returned to the market and bought two more apples which he sold again for ten cents each. 

Increasing his business this way he eventually became the owner of a small fruit wagon, then several fruit wagons, 

then a small fruit store, then a supermarket, and finally a chain of supermarkets. 

When several of the giant national food chains offered to buy him out, he accepted the highest bid seven and 

a half million dollars. The contracts were drawn up and the corporate executive and Stosh, surrounded by a large 

number of attorneys, met in the plush corporate offices atop one of Manhattan’s most prestigious skyscrapers. 

The contracts were looked over, heads were nodded and finally the executive signed on the relevant dotted line. 

Then Stosh picked up the solid gold pen and laboriously scrawled his ’X’ at the bottom of the page. 

The corporate executive leaped up from his chair and shouted, ”My God, man! You mean to say you have 

amassed this business worth seven and a half million dollars without being able to read or write?” 

”Hell!” snorted Stosh emphatically. ”If Stosh could read or write, Stosh would still be a bookkeeper in a 

whorehouse!” 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS MECHANICAL GOODNESS? 

Gina Goyt, there is nothing like mechanical goodness. Goodness cannot be mechanical and anything mechanical 

cannot be good. It is a contradiction in terms. Goodness can only be conscious, nonmechanical; and evil can only 

be unconscious, mechanical. 

But I understand your question. It is relevant, because for centuries something like mechanical goodness has 

been taught to people because it is easy. People are mechanical. To bring real goodness in their lives, real virtue, 

you will have to transform their unconsciousness into consciousness, you will have to change their darkness into 

light. That is an arduous effort, and the society, moreover, is not interested in it at all. In fact, it is afraid of it 

because whenever a really good person has happened in the world he has created trouble for the society. 

A Jesus, a Lao Tzu, a Buddha, a Kabir, these are the greatest rebels for the simple reason that they were so 

conscious that they could see through the whole stupid game that we go on playing. They could see through our 

lies, they could see through our deceptions. It was impossible to deceive them and it was impossible to exploit 

them and it was impossible to enslave them. Not only was it impossible to enslave them, but they created great


movements of consciousness in the world. They created chains, they triggered chains. Many, many people became 

enlightened through their efforts. Their efforts were thought to be antisocial. That’s why Jesus was crucified. 

Where can you find a man who is more good than Jesus? What was his crime? His crime was that he was 

really good. If he had been only mechanically good there would have been no trouble. There were many rabbis 

who were mechanically good. The society is not afraid of mechanical people; they are manageable. They are 

dependent on the society. They always live with the collective, they are always following the crowd. The crowd 

is very happy with these people. And it is easy to create mechanical goodness because, in the first place, people 

are mechanical. You have just to replace their evil ideas with good ideas, not changing at all their beings. 

For example, hell was created the idea of hell to create mechanical goodness. People are afraid, people live 

in fear; priests became aware of it in the very beginning of humanity, that it can be exploited: make them more 

afraid. They depicted hell in such detail, they created so much fear in people, that people became conditioned 

out of fear. 

It is the same type of conditioning that can be done now in easier ways because we have more developed 

technology. There is no need to teach for twenty-five years the idea of hell; then a person becomes mechanically 

good. Now you can ask Pavlov, Skinner and other behaviorists: they will teach you some methods. Just electric 

shocks will do. 

Somebody smokes and you don’t want him to smoke just give him electric shocks. Whenever he smokes let 

him have an electric shock. Within three days he will drop smoking because the moment he takes a cigarette in 

his hand he will start trembling. He will become so much afraid that now the shock is coming. That’s how they 

teach rats, they teach monkeys and chimpanzees. And that’s how they are trying to teach human beings. 

Religious people created hell, politicians created prisons just to torture people. If you torture them enough, 

people become accustomed. Pavlov calls it ”conditioned reflex.” He worked his whole life with dogs; he conditioned 

his dogs. 

If you bring food before a dog, of course, it affects his saliva. He starts salivating, his tongue starts hanging 

out, saliva starts dripping. Seeing delicious food, it is natural. But if you ring a bell it won’t happen. There is 

no connection between a bell and saliva glands, but Pavlov did one thing: whenever he would give food to his 

dogs he would ring a bell. Whenever he would ring a bell he would give food to the dogs. The bell and the food 

became associated, linked, hooked with each other. After fifteen days he just rang the bell and the dogs started 

salivating and their tongues hanging out. Now, there is no natural connection between the bell and the tongue, 

but a new, unnatural connection has been created. 

Pavlov became the founder of communist psychology. That’s how in Soviet Russia, in China and other communist 

countries, people are being conditioned. They don’t think that man is any different from dogs; maybe a 

little more developed, a little more complicated, but still a dog. 

Skinner goes on working on rats and goes on finding how to condition rats, and he says the same is applicable 

to human beings. You just create fear and then they will not do certain things; and you create greed.... And 

that’s why paradise, heaven were created. These are simple strategies for dominating people. Create fear for that 

which you want people not to do and create the idea of reward for that which you want them to do and you have 

created a mechanical behavior. They will not do the bad and they will do the good. 

But what kind of good is this? It is exploitation by the society, by the church, by the state by the vested 

interests. It has not changed the being of the man. It has not made him more aware, alert, more joyous, more 

celebrating. It has not given him any taste of bliss. It has not opened any window for him from where he can 

have a little glimpse of God. I don’t call it goodness, virtue. My idea of virtue is that it should be a by-product 

of consciousness. You should become so conscious that you can’t do wrong not because you are conditioned but 

because you can see it is wrong. 

For example, I was born in a Jaina family. Now, Jainas are the most fanatic vegetarians in the world. In my 

house even tomatoes were not allowed because their redness reminds you of meat and blood. Even poor tomatoes, 

so innocent! In my childhood, the very idea of somebody eating meat was enough to make me sick. In my family 

there was no possibility to eat in the night. Jainas don’t eat in the night. Who wants to suffer in hell just for 

eating in the night? 

When I was eighteen years old, for the first time I ate in the night. It was so much against my whole background, 

but I had to because we had gone for a picnic and all the other boys were Hindus. They were not interested the 

whole day in preparing food, and I don’t even know how to prepare tea! So I had to depend on them. I told them 

many times, but they were not interested. They were interested in exploring the mountains we had gone to, the 

fort, a very ancient fort, and the statues and there were many other things.


The day was tiring and by the evening we were utterly tired. Then they started cooking food. The food was 

ready in the night. Tired, hungry... and the delicious food that they were preparing... and the aroma! And I was 

the only one who was in such suffering! I could not eat because just one night’s wavering and you suffer in hell 

for eternity. But I was wavering naturally. On the surface I was keeping calm and cool as I was supposed to, but 

they were persuading me and deep down I was ready to be persuaded. In fact, I was hoping that they would be 

able to persuade me! Finally they persuaded me and I ate. But I have never suffered so much. The whole night I 

was sick and vomiting. Nobody else was vomiting, nobody else was sick. It was just my conditioning. 

Now, this kind of vegetarianism is not good. It does not come out of your consciousness it is mechanical. 

Mechanical goodness is not real goodness; it is just a facade. Intelligence is needed to be good, awareness is 

needed to be good. 

The unshaven and booze-smelling Polack was arrested for public drunkenness, and now he stood in front of the 

judge. 

”Your honor,” he pleaded, ”I honestly didn’t mean to drink a whole quart of vodka at one time.” 

”Then why did you do it?” demanded the judge. 

”I lost the cork.” 

A contractor working for the U.S. government in Vietnam submitted a bill for the tiling of a roof. The 

government office was astonished at the total of over twenty thousand dollars, most of it for medical expenses 

incurred on the job. A lieutenant was dispatched to the hospital to investigate. 

Gina Goyt, there is nothing like mechanical goodness. Goodness cannot be mechanical and anything mechanical 

cannot be good. It is a contradiction in terms. Goodness can only be conscious, nonmechanical; and evil can only 

be unconscious, mechanical. 

But I understand your question. It is relevant, because for centuries something like mechanical goodness has 

been taught to people because it is easy. People are mechanical. To bring real goodness in their lives, real virtue, 

you will have to transform their unconsciousness into consciousness, you will have to change their darkness into 

light. That is an arduous effort, and the society, moreover, is not interested in it at all. In fact, it is afraid of it 

because whenever a really good person has happened in the world he has created trouble for the society. 

A Jesus, a Lao Tzu, a Buddha, a Kabir, these are the greatest rebels for the simple reason that they were so 

conscious that they could see through the whole stupid game that we go on playing. They could see through our 

lies, they could see through our deceptions. It was impossible to deceive them and it was impossible to exploit 

them and it was impossible to enslave them. Not only was it impossible to enslave them, but they created great 

movements of consciousness in the world. They created chains, they triggered chains. Many, many people became 

enlightened through their efforts. Their efforts were thought to be antisocial. That’s why Jesus was crucified. 

Where can you find a man who is more good than Jesus? What was his crime? His crime was that he was 

really good. If he had been only mechanically good there would have been no trouble. There were many rabbis 

who were mechanically good. The society is not afraid of mechanical people; they are manageable. They are 

dependent on the society. They always live with the collective, they are always following the crowd. The crowd 

is very happy with these people. And it is easy to create mechanical goodness because, in the first place, people 

are mechanical. You have just to replace their evil ideas with good ideas, not changing at all their beings. 

For example, hell was created the idea of hell to create mechanical goodness. People are afraid, people live 

in fear; priests became aware of it in the very beginning of humanity, that it can be exploited: make them more 

afraid. They depicted hell in such detail, they created so much fear in people, that people became conditioned 

out of fear. 

It is the same type of conditioning that can be done now in easier ways because we have more developed 

technology. There is no need to teach for twenty-five years the idea of hell; then a person becomes mechanically 

good. Now you can ask Pavlov, Skinner and other behaviorists: they will teach you some methods. Just electric 

shocks will do. 

Somebody smokes and you don’t want him to smoke just give him electric shocks. Whenever he smokes let 

him have an electric shock. Within three days he will drop smoking because the moment he takes a cigarette in 

his hand he will start trembling. He will become so much afraid that now the shock is coming. That’s how they 

teach rats, they teach monkeys and chimpanzees. And that’s how they are trying to teach human beings. 

Religious people created hell, politicians created prisons just to torture people. If you torture them enough, 

people become accustomed. Pavlov calls it ”conditioned reflex.” He worked his whole life with dogs; he conditioned 

his dogs. 

If you bring food before a dog, of course, it affects his saliva. He starts salivating, his tongue starts hanging 

out, saliva starts dripping. Seeing delicious food, it is natural. But if you ring a bell it won’t happen. There is


no connection between a bell and saliva glands, but Pavlov did one thing: whenever he would give food to his 

dogs he would ring a bell. Whenever he would ring a bell he would give food to the dogs. The bell and the food 

became associated, linked, hooked with each other. After fifteen days he just rang the bell and the dogs started 

salivating and their tongues hanging out. Now, there is no natural connection between the bell and the tongue, 

but a new, unnatural connection has been created. 

Pavlov became the founder of communist psychology. That’s how in Soviet Russia, in China and other communist 

countries, people are being conditioned. They don’t think that man is any different from dogs; maybe a 

little more developed, a little more complicated, but still a dog. 

Skinner goes on working on rats and goes on finding how to condition rats, and he says the same is applicable 

to human beings. You just create fear and then they will not do certain things; and you create greed.... And 

that’s why paradise, heaven were created. These are simple strategies for dominating people. Create fear for that 

which you want people not to do and create the idea of reward for that which you want them to do and you have 

created a mechanical behavior. They will not do the bad and they will do the good. 

But what kind of good is this? It is exploitation by the society, by the church, by the state by the vested 

interests. It has not changed the being of the man. It has not made him more aware, alert, more joyous, more 

celebrating. It has not given him any taste of bliss. It has not opened any window for him from where he can 

have a little glimpse of God. I don’t call it goodness, virtue. My idea of virtue is that it should be a by-product 

of consciousness. You should become so conscious that you can’t do wrong not because you are conditioned but 

because you can see it is wrong. 

For example, I was born in a Jaina family. Now, Jainas are the most fanatic vegetarians in the world. In my 

house even tomatoes were not allowed because their redness reminds you of meat and blood. Even poor tomatoes, 

so innocent! In my childhood, the very idea of somebody eating meat was enough to make me sick. In my family 

there was no possibility to eat in the night. Jainas don’t eat in the night. Who wants to suffer in hell just for 

eating in the night? 

When I was eighteen years old, for the first time I ate in the night. It was so much against my whole background, 

but I had to because we had gone for a picnic and all the other boys were Hindus. They were not interested the 

whole day in preparing food, and I don’t even know how to prepare tea! So I had to depend on them. I told them 

many times, but they were not interested. They were interested in exploring the mountains we had gone to, the 

fort, a very ancient fort, and the statues and there were many other things. 

The day was tiring and by the evening we were utterly tired. Then they started cooking food. The food was 

ready in the night. Tired, hungry... and the delicious food that they were preparing... and the aroma! And I was 

the only one who was in such suffering! I could not eat because just one night’s wavering and you suffer in hell 

for eternity. But I was wavering naturally. On the surface I was keeping calm and cool as I was supposed to, but 

they were persuading me and deep down I was ready to be persuaded. In fact, I was hoping that they would be 

able to persuade me! Finally they persuaded me and I ate. But I have never suffered so much. The whole night I 

was sick and vomiting. Nobody else was vomiting, nobody else was sick. It was just my conditioning. 

Now, this kind of vegetarianism is not good. It does not come out of your consciousness it is mechanical. 

Mechanical goodness is not real goodness; it is just a facade. Intelligence is needed to be good, awareness is 

needed to be good. 

The unshaven and booze-smelling Polack was arrested for public drunkenness, and now he stood in front of the 

judge. 

”Your honor,” he pleaded, ”I honestly didn’t mean to drink a whole quart of vodka at one time.” 

”Then why did you do it?” demanded the judge. 

”I lost the cork.” 

A contractor working for the U.S. government in Vietnam submitted a bill for the tiling of a roof. The 

government office was astonished at the total of over twenty thousand dollars, most of it for medical expenses 

incurred on the job. A lieutenant was dispatched to the hospital to investigate. 

This was the contractor’s explanation: ”At the outset of the job I attached a pulley to the edge of the roof and 

ran a rope through it. To one end I attached a large barrel; the other end I tied to a stake in the ground. I then 

filled the barrel half full with tiles, untied the rope, hoisted the barrel up to the roof, retied the rope to the stake, 

climbed up the ladder, unloaded the tiles on the roof, lowered the barrel, climbed down the ladder, and repeated 

this process several times until all the tiles were on the roof. 

”Early in the evening the job was completed and I began loading the unused tiles into the barrel. I had 

overestimated the number of tiles needed and so had a full barrel of extras. I climbed down the ladder and 

unhooked the rope.


”It was then that I realized my error. The barrel, now full of tiles, was heavier than I and began descending. In 

my shock, I forgot to let go up I went! Halfway up, the barrel and I met, breaking my right hip. I continued up, 

breaking several fingers and one hand as I hit the edge of the roof. Meanwhile the barrel hit the ground, tipped 

over and spilled out most of the tiles. The barrel, now lighter than I, came back up. I descended. Halfway down 

we met again this time my ribs were crushed. When I hit the ground my left leg was broken. 

”It was at this time that I had the presence of mind to let go of the rope. A few seconds later the barrel landed 

on my head giving me concussion!” 

More intelligence is needed, more awareness is needed, and then life becomes naturally good, spontaneously 

good. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM HOMOSEXUAL. I FEEL TERRIBLY OPPRESSED AND STRICKEN BY THE 

STIGMA OF HOMOSEXUALITY. IT SEEMS FALSE TO ME TO COME HERE TO FIND A WAY TO COME 

CLOSER TO MYSELF AND AT THE SAME TIME NOT TO HAVE THE COURAGE TO SHOW MYSELF 

THE WAY I AM. THEN I WANT TO RESIGN AND RETURN HOME SO THAT I DON’T HAVE TO THINK 

ABOUT IT ANY LONGER. WHAT CAN I DO? 

Hein Steff, there is nothing wrong in being homosexual. You need not feel guilty about it. One certainly 

has to go beyond sex, but that is as much applicable to heterosexuality as it is applicable to homosexuality. 

Heterosexuality or homosexuality are just styles of the same stupidity! You need not feel guilty. 

In fact, looking at the population of the world, homosexuality should be supported. At least you will not be 

increasing the population of the world, you will not be loading the earth more. It is already loaded too much. 

Homosexuality should be valued, respected it is pure fun! Heterosexuality is dangerous. And what is wrong? If 

two persons are enjoying each other’s bodies, nothing is wrong. It should be their concern; nobody else’s business 

to interfere. 

But the society is continuously interfering in everything; it does not leave anybody any privacy. It enters in 

your bedroom too. Your society is not a free society. It talks of freedom and democracy and all that rot, but it 

is pure slavery. It is a big prison. And your priests and your so-called God are all Peeping Toms. They are all 

looking into your private lives, what you are doing. It should be nobody’s business. 

What is wrong in loving a man or a woman? Two men can love each other, two women can love each other. 

Love is a value in itself. And fun should not be condemned. Life is already such a burden, such a drag, such a 

boredom. Leave at least something in life so people can feel a little less bored. 

Here you need not feel afraid to show yourself the way you are. My whole approach is to help you to be the 

way you are because that is the only way to help you transcend it. Feel guilty and you will remain the same. 

Guilt never transforms anybody. 

And homosexuality is such an innocent phenomenon. Why is it so much condemned? The reason is that if it 

is not condemned, the fear is that almost everybody will turn homosexual because every child has the tendency. 

Every child passes through the stage when he is homosexual. Every boy, every girl, passes through a time when 

boys like boys and girls like girls. The fear is that if many people turn homosexual and particularly in the past 

when the population was not big and every society wanted more numbers because numbers meant power.... To 

allow homosexuality was dangerous; it had to be condemned, absolutely condemned, so much so that in a few 

countries it is the greatest crime. 

For example, in Ayatollah Khomeiniac’s country, Iran, it is one of the greatest crimes. You can be imprisoned 

for your whole life or you can even be sentenced to death, just for being homosexual. It seems absolutely absurd, 

ridiculous, but in the past there was some reason in it. Every society wanted to be more powerful. It was a 

constant struggle a struggle between groups, struggle between tribes, struggle between clans the deciding factor 

was your number, how many you are. If people become homosexual, then the population will decrease; hence it 

has to be condemned as the greatest sin. 

It may have some meaning if you think of the past, but in the present it is absolutely meaningless. In fact, 

the whole situation has become just the opposite: now heterosexuality is the danger; less numbers are needed. If 

humanity goes on growing this way, then we cannot support humanity, we cannot live any longer. By the end 

of this century the population will be so much, the poverty will be so much, that there seems to be no way out 

except a third world war which will kill almost everybody so that a few people can start the whole story again. 

I have heard a story, a twenty-first century story:


The third world war has happened, and a monkey is sitting on a rock taking a sunbath. A female monkey 

comes with an apple and gives the apple to the monkey. And the monkey says, ”My God, are we going to start 

it all over again?” 

Homosexuality is condemned because there is every possibility that if it is not condemned many more people 

will turn towards it. The inner tendency is there in every person. In fact, the person who is against it... the more 

he is against it, the more he has the tendency. Deep down, unconsciously, he knows it is there. To repress it he 

has to be very much against it; he feels disgusted by the very idea. 

But nobody is telling him to become homosexual. If others feel attracted, then it is not your business to 

interfere or to condemn them. It is their freedom, and they are not doing any harm to anybody. It is a harmless 

game stupid, certainly, but not a sin. But as far as stupidity is concerned all sex is stupid, for the simple reason 

that it is a biological urge and you are not the master of it, you are just a victim. 

And you need not be so much worried about it, Hein, because homosexuality has a very beautiful origin: it 

originated in the monasteries. It is something religious! The first homosexuals were monks and nuns Christians, 

Buddhists, Jainas; all great religions have contributed their share to it. It was bound to be so because there are 

monasteries even now in existence where no woman has ever entered. 

In a Catholic monastery in Europe, Mount Athos, for one thousand years no woman has entered; not even a 

six-month-old girl has been allowed to enter in. What kind of people are living there? A six-month-old girl and 

they are afraid even of that! What can they do? But repressing sex creates fear, so the whole monastery is full of 

men; and homosexuality is a natural by-product if only boys are together or only girls are together. 

Religious people have contributed greatly. Educationists have contributed greatly, because boys have to be 

educated separately. They have to reside in different hostels specially for them and girls have to stay aloof in 

separate hostels, in separate schools. If you put too many girls together they are bound to become lesbians, 

because when the sexual urge takes possession of them and they cannot find a boy, then anything is better than 

nothing. 

In zoos even animals turn homosexual only in zoos, remember. In their wild state they don’t become homosexual. 

There is no need females are available. But in a zoo, if females are not available, they become homosexual. 

A zoo is worth studying. I used to study zoos because the zoo gives you many indications about human society. 

The human society is a big zoo because everything has become so unnatural. 

Go to a zoo and watch the animals and you will be able to see many things. They become homosexuals; they 

never become homosexuals in their wild stage. They are forced to become homosexuals. They go crazy, they 

become insane, mad. In wild states they never become insane. No animal ever becomes mad in his wild state; he 

remains sane. But his sanity needs a little freedom. 

A lion has a big territory in his wild state, miles of territory, and he is the king of the whole territory. In a zoo 

he is in a small cage. If you go to the zoo you will see the lion walking up and down the cage, up and down, up 

and down, the whole day. It can drive anybody mad. He needs freedom, he needs a certain territory. In such a 

small space he is overcrowded. He becomes angry, enraged, violent. 

Many diseases never happen in the wild. For example, no animal suffers from tuberculosis or cancer, but in 

a zoo animals suffer from tuberculosis and cancer. Strange! In the wild there are no medical facilities for them 

and in the zoo every kind of medical facility is available. Doctors are there to look after them, great doctors, 

doing something great! What they cannot take care of on their own cancer, tuberculosis doctors help them with. 

Animals become victims of illnesses which they have never known before. 

Human society has been so much forced to live in unnatural circumstances and the monastery is one of the 

most unnatural circumstances. It is a zoo, a religious zoo! Homosexuality was born there, so you need not feel 

very bad about it. You are a religious person! And you have a great lineage of homosexuals.... 

If you look for homosexuals you will be surprised. Many poets, many authors, many painters, many musicians, 

many dancers, many great people, many creative people, were homosexuals. Many Nobel Prize winners have been 

homosexuals. 

And don’t be worried about enlightenment either, because at least one homosexual I know has become enlightened 

Socrates; he was a homosexual. And there are suspicions about Jesus. I cannot prove it, they are only 

suspicions because he always moved with the boys. Those twelve apostles... who knows? But if he was, nothing 

is wrong in it. Socrates was certainly a homosexual. Plato was, Aristotle was. Greeks are great people! 

One American girl was going to marry a Greek. The mother was very much worried. She said, ”Wait! If you 

can avoid this marriage....” 

The girl was mad. She said, ”No. He looks so beautiful, just like a Greek god!”


The mother said, ”I know, but after only a few days you will know he is nothing but a goddamned Greek! And 

one thing more,” the mother said, ”if you marry this man then remember one thing: never turn your back towards 

him, never! Whatsoever happens sleep on your back the whole night!” 

The girl got married. She insisted, and soon she found the mother was right: the Greek god was nothing but 

a goddamned Greek! And she was also puzzled because he was always trying to tell her, ”Why don’t you turn 

over?” but she wouldn’t turn over; she was also stubborn! 

After six months all efforts failed. The Greek said, ”Listen. If you don’t turn over you are not going to have 

children ever.” 

Then the girl had to turn because she wanted children. The Greek played a logical trick. 

Greeks have been homosexuals for centuries. All their great people have been homosexuals. So you need not 

worry you have a great history behind you! Walt Whitman was a homosexual one of the greatest poets of all 

the ages. 

There seems to be something in homosexuality that makes people creative, or creative people homosexuals. 

There is something in it and I can see the point. When you stop creating children, your creativity takes new 

turns, new dimensions. You create poetry, you create painting. 

And the people who have been condemning homosexuality for ages are also condemning it for one more reason. 

As far as the man/woman relationship is concerned it is always on the rocks, because man cannot understand the 

mind of the woman, the woman cannot understand the mind of the man. They are poles apart. That is their 

attraction, but that is also their conflict, constant conflict. If homosexuality is allowed, accepted, the fear is that 

many people will settle into it because a man can understand another man more easily they have the same mind. 

And women can understand each other more easily they have the same mind. 

That’s why homosexuals are called ”gay” people. They are really gay! The heterosexuals look so sad. Whenever 

you see a couple you can immediately know whether they are married or not: if they are sad they are married, if 

they are looking dull and dead they are married. Marriage kills all joy for the simple reason that it creates so many 

conflicts. Hence all societies have condemned homosexuality, for the simple reason that if it is not condemned, 

what will happen to reproduction? In the past it had some meaning, but now it has no meaning. 

Now the day has come when homosexuality can be accepted, should be accepted as a natural outlet of your 

sexual energies. I am not against it, I am not for it either. I am simply saying that if you have to live your sex 

you can choose your style, you are free to choose your style. If you decide to be stupid, at least you should be 

given the freedom to choose what kind of stupid you want to be! I give you total freedom. 

My effort here is to help you to go beyond it, so if you are homosexual you have to go beyond homosexuality, if 

you are heterosexual you have to go beyond heterosexuality. And there are other people also who are neither, who 

are autoerotic, autosexual. They have to go beyond their autoeroticism. Man has to transcend sex, whatsoever 

kind of sex it is, because unless you go beyond your biology you will never know your soul. But meanwhile before 

you go beyond it is your freedom to be whatsoever you want to be. 

You say, ”I am homosexual. I feel terribly oppressed and stricken by the stigma of homosexuality.” 

There is no need to be ”terribly oppressed.” You must be accepting people’s condemnation. Deep down 

somewhere you are also against it; otherwise, why feel oppressed? If people are against, let them be against! 

You need not declare to everybody that you are a homosexual. You need not move with a flag that you are a 

homosexual! You can remain a homosexual. Of course, you cannot hide it because your sex style changes your 

body language. The way the homosexual walks is totally different from the heterosexual; the way he talks is 

totally different. And he looks so gay, so happy! 

So you will have to remain a little less happy, that’s all. Don’t look so happy, and walk a little more consciously, 

that’s all. Don’t feel oppressed and don’t feel stricken by the stigma of homosexuality. That is all nonsense! 

And you say, ”It seems false to me to come here to find a way to come closer to myself and at the same time 

not to have the courage to show myself the way I am.” 

What courage are you talking about? Here there is no question of courage. If you are homosexual you are 

homosexual! Here it does not need courage to declare it. Here you can write on your shirt, ”I am homosexual.” 

Nobody will take any notice of it. People will say, ”So what?” 

This is a totally different world. Here we accept all kinds of people: sane, insane, crazy we have no objection. 

Unless you start harming others we have no objection. And homosexuality is a harmless game, absolutely harmless. 

But you think that this is courageous that you are declaring that you are a homosexual. Here it is not; anywhere 

else it will be. And I will not suggest that you declare it anywhere else; there is no need. Why brag about it? 

Accept it silently, relax into it.


But you wanted to say it because it is boiling within you. Don’t be worried what others say. Just look within 

yourself, what you are saying to your own homosexuality. You are not at ease with it. The society has corrupted 

you, contaminated you. The society has given you ideas. It has created a certain conscience in you and that 

conscience is pricking, continuously feeling hurt. 

Now you say, ”Then I want to resign and return home so that I don’t have to think about it any longer.” 

Just by going back home you will not be getting rid of it. Neither you will get rid of homosexuality nor will 

you get rid of the stigma or the feeling of being oppressed. You will have to drop your conscience that has been 

created by the society in you. You will have to understand yourself and clean yourself of all ideas imposed by 

others; only then will you be able to relax. 

You ask me, ”What can I do?” 

Hein, don’t make a problem out of it. Nothing has to be done about it. I don’t tackle individual problems. My 

whole approach is that there are millions of diseases, but there is only one cure, and that cure is meditation. 

You meditate homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual.... You meditate. You become more still and more silent. 

You create inner emptiness. You become more transparent, and then things will start changing. You will be able 

to see what you are doing to yourself. If it is right you will go on doing it with more joy, with more totality, with 

more intensity, with more passion. If it is wrong it will simply drop, just like dead leaves falling from a tree. 

So I cannot suggest any specific method because to me all the problems are arising because we have become 

minds and we have forgotten that deep down there is a space within us which can be called no-mind. Entering 

that space, no-mind, will give you perspective, vision, clarity. 

Meditate. Sit silently watching your thoughts homosexual, heterosexual, whatsoever they are, it doesn’t matter. 

You watch, you become the witness. Slowly, slowly a distance will be created between you and your thoughts. 

And one day suddenly, the realization that you are not your mind. And that day a revolution has happened within 

you. After that day you will never be the same again. A transcendence has happened. After that, whatsoever 

you do is right; you can’t do wrong then. And before that, whatsoever you do is wrong. 

So when I say I have nothing against homosexuality I am not supporting it, remember. I am not saying, ”Be 

homosexual.” I don’t have anything against heterosexuality either, but I am not supporting heterosexuality. I am 

not supporting anything. These are all mind games and you have to go beyond all the games. 

Your mind is created by the society. 

Fifteen-year-old Bobby was running out of a theater where he had just seen a porno movie. 

The manager stopped him. ”Why are you in such a hurry?” 

”My mother told me,” said Bobby, ”that if I ever looked at anything bad I would turn to stone and I have 

started!” 

Two members of London’s exclusive Explorers Club were discussing a mutual friend over large brandies and 

soda. 

”Well, I’ll be damned,” said the first old boy. ”You say Parkhurst has gone to Africa and married an ape?” 

”Quite so, old man.” 

There was a pause and the first clubman asked in a discreet tone, ”A female ape, naturally?” 

”Of course,” came the reply. ”There is nothing queer about old Parkhurst.” 

The mind functions as an agent of the society within you. 

To go beyond mind is to go beyond society. 

To go beyond mind is to go beyond the whole history. 

To go beyond mind is to go beyond past. 

To go beyond mind is to enter into God. 

And then whatsoever happens is good, is virtue. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, THE WEST SEEMS TO BE OBSESSED WITH SEX. PEOPLE ARE STUFFED 

WITH ENDLESS TECHNIQUES AND PORNO IMAGES. WHY, IN ALL THIS TIME, ARE PEOPLE STILL 

STUCK AND UNABLE TO MOVE INTO THE TANTRIC EXPERIENCE OF SEX, OF LOVE AND OF LIFE? 

Prem Karin, it is not a question of West or East. Both are obsessed with sex of course, in different ways. The 

West is indulgent, the East is repressive, but the obsession is the same. And the significant question is: Why is 

the West so indulgent? It is two thousand years of Christianity and its repressive methods that have brought this 

indulgence. 

The East is repressive; sooner or later, it is going to become indulgent. The mind of man moves like a pendulum, 

from the right to the left, from the left to the right. And remember, while the pendulum is moving to the right


it is gaining momentum to move to the left, and vice versa. It appears it is going to the left, but it is gaining 

momentum, energy, to go to the right. When a society is repressive it is gaining momentum to become indulgent, 

and when a society is indulgent it is gaining momentum again to become repressive. 

So a strange thing is bound to happen, and in fact, it is happening: the West has been indulgent for a few 

decades and the repressive trend is arising again. There are many cults which preach celibacy now. The Hare 

Krishna movement preaches celibacy, brahmacharya, and thousands of people have become interested in it. And 

there are many cults arising which are all agreed on one point: that sex has to be repressed. In the name of yoga, 

in the name of Zen, in the name of Christianity, many cults are arising which are again repressive. The West will 

become repressive soon. 

And in the East, the number of porno magazines is growing every day; porno movies are coming more and 

more. The East is a little slow in everything, a little lazy in everything, so it takes a little longer. The West 

moves with speed. But the East is becoming West and the West is becoming East, and that is one of the greatest 

problems. If this happens, then the misery remains the same. Again the pendulum has moved and again you will 

go on doing the same things. 

This has happened many times in the past. A repressive society becomes indulgent sooner or later. When the 

repression comes to a point where you cannot repress it anymore it explodes: people go berserk. Or when a society 

has been very indulgent it starts seeing the futility of it, the sheer wastage of energy. And it gives no contentment; 

rather it makes one feel more and more frustrated. Then one starts thinking of brahmacharya celibacy. Maybe 

the ancient rishis were right! 

In the East also it has happened many times. The Hindu religion, in the beginning, was very indulgent; it was 

not a repressive religion. The Hindu seers were married people. Not only were they married, they were allowed to 

have a few other women also as their concubines. They were allowed even to purchase women because in those 

days in India, men and women were sold in the marketplaces just like any commodity. 

Beware of all those people who go on talking about the Golden Age of India. There has never been any golden 

age. Even in the days of Rama... Hindus talk very much about Ramarajya the kingdom of Rama is thought 

to be the highest pinnacle. People were sold like commodities in the marketplaces, and particularly women were 

thought to be just property; anybody can sell, anybody can purchase. People used to give them as gifts. A guest 

would come to your house and he would like one of your women, and you would present the woman to him. Even 

the so-called saints used to have many women; they were all indulgent. All the stories of those days, even about 

the gods, are very indulgent. 

You must have seen Shiva temples temples devoted to the god Shiva. The statue is nothing but a phallic 

symbol. If you look, if you observe minutely, you will be surprised: it has both man and woman’s sexual organs 

in it. It depicts the meeting of man and woman. The story is this: 

One day Vishnu and Brahma went to see Shiva... this is the Hindu trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. Brahma 

is the creator god, Vishnu is the maintainer god and Shiva is the destroyer god. All the three are needed to keep 

the world running. One creates, one maintains, one destroys; then again one creates, the other maintains and the 

third one destroys. So it remains in a flow. 

Brahma and Vishnu went to see Shiva. As it happened, the guard was fast asleep, so they entered in without 

asking any permission, and Shiva was making love to his wife, Parvati. He was so passionately into it, so drunk! 

he may have taken some drug, because he is perfectly well known to have used drugs. Marijuana and hash and 

opium were all known to him. 

He continued to make love and these two gods stood there watching. Great gods! They could not even say, 

”Excuse us,” and get out. They must have enjoyed the scene living pornography! Six hours it continued, the 

love-making, and these two gods stood there for six hours watching. A long blue film! and nothing else, just 

making love! No other incidents, nothing else... just Shiva making love to his wife. But they were very angry. 

When Shiva was finished they told him, ”We have been waiting for six hours and you have not even taken any 

notice of us. We are very angry and we curse you that you will be remembered forever and forever by your sexual 

organs.” 

That’s why in the Shiva temple you see the phallic symbol: Shiva is remembered by his sexual organ. 

Now, these Hindus must have been very indulgent. Their gods, too, were very indulgent. But then came a 

reaction, the pendulum moved. Buddhism and Jainism rebelled against this indulgence and they created a very 

repressive world, a repressive morality. 

India still lives under that influence, but it is moving slowly, slowly again towards the indulgent. The West is 

influencing it Western films, Western novels are influencing it. The West is being influenced by Buddha, by Zen,


by Patanjali, by yoga, by meditation, and the East is influenced by Playboy! People are reading Playboy, hiding 

it inside their Gitas! 

Prem Karin, you ask, ”The West seems to be obsessed with sex.” 

It is not true only about the West. The whole of humanity, up to now, has remained obsessed with sex, and it 

is going to remain so unless we change the whole gestalt. Up to now the gestalt has been repression/indulgence, 

indulgence/repression, going on moving between these two. We have to stop exactly in the middle. Have you ever 

tried to stop the pendulum of a clock in the middle? What happens? The clock stops. The time stops. 

That’s my effort here. I don’t want you to be indulgent and I don’t want you to be repressive. I would like 

you to be balanced, just in the middle. It is in the middle that transcendence is possible, and it is in the middle 

that we can create a humanity which will be neither Eastern nor Western. And it is immensely needed, urgently 

needed, that a man comes on the earth which is neither Eastern nor Western: a new kind of man with a new 

vision, freed of all the bondage of the past. 

You ask, ”Why, in all this time, are people still stuck and unable to move into the Tantric experience of sex, of 

love and of life?” 

Tantric experience means neither to be repressive nor to be indulgent. Tantric experience is possible only if you 

move deep into meditation, otherwise not. When you become very, very still, silent, aware, alert, then only is it 

possible that you will know something of Tantra. Otherwise, Tantra can also become an excuse for indulgence a 

new name, a religious name. And you can move into indulgence behind the name of Tantra. Names won’t make 

much change; your being needs change. 

Zelda, the Hebrew zebra, was walking down a country lane, some place in the boondocks of Pennsylvania. Soon 

she came upon a flock of sheep. 

”Yoo-hoo, may I speak to you, please?” she called out. 

One of the sheep came to the fence. 

”What do you want to speak about?” 

”I represent the Hadassah Zebra Association of South Africa. You are Jewish?” 

”Oh yes, we are all Jewish here.” 

”Well, I am on a fact-finding tour. Our zebras are interested in learning how Jewish animals in America earn 

a living. Would you mind telling me what kind of work you do?” 

”What do I do?” exclaimed the sheep. ”What kind of a question is that? I give wool, what else? Every year 

they shear it off and next season they do the same thing. Is it any different there in South Africa?” 

”Oh no, it is just the same. Well, I must be running along. Ta-ta, and thank you most kindly.” 

Zelda continued on her fact-finding mission until she met a cow. 

”Excuse me, madam, I am from the Hadassah Zebra Association of South Africa. I am interviewing Jewish- 

American domestic animals. Would you be so kind as to describe your work?” 

”Glad to,” murmured the cow. ”I am employed by a strictly kosher dairy, being orthodox myself, of course. 

My work, you ask? Well, I am a purebred Guernsey, and I give Grade A milk. I live up there in that pretty white 

barn. Sorry I can’t ask you in, but we were not expecting company and the place is a mess.” 

”That’s perfectly all right. Thank you for your information. You have been most helpful. Toodle-oo.” 

A short time later, Zelda saw a stallion in a pasture, and there was no mistaking his Jewishness. He happened 

to see her at just about the same moment. He charged toward the fence, skidded to a four-footed stop and loomed 

over the zebra with nostrils flaring. 

”And just what is it that you do, sir?” asked the zebra demurely. 

”Honey, you just slip out of those fancy pajamas,” he said, ”and I will show you what I do!” 

The whole humanity is suffering from obsession, either through indulgence or through repression. The whole 

humanity is concerned with sex twenty-four hours a day. 

Psychologists have discovered that every man thinks of women at least once in three minutes, and every woman 

thinks of man at least once in six minutes. That may cause enough problems the difference; that may be the 

whole trouble between man and woman. 

Tantric sex is not sex at all; it is meditation. Meditation has to spread all over your life. Whatsoever you do, 

do meditatively. Walk meditatively, eat meditatively. If you are making love, make love meditatively. Meditation 

has to become your life twenty-four hours a day; then only the transformation. Then you go beyond sex, you go 

beyond body, you go beyond mind. And for the first time you become aware of godliness, of ecstasy, of bliss, of 

truth, of liberation. 


Question 5


BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE THE INDIANS SUCH A PROUD PEOPLE? 

Paul, God knows! They have no reason to be. I am also surprised. There is nothing but the ego clings to 

anything or it invents something. India goes on inventing a beautiful past. It is invention, pure invention. It has 

never been there, it has never existed. 

Yes, there have been people like Krishna and Mahavira and Buddha, but they are not Indians at all. Jesus is 

not Jewish and Lao Tzu is not Chinese. These people are universal; nobody can claim them. The whole earth 

belongs to them; they are our common heritage, so you cannot brag about them. 

But every country has to invent something to feel good. Just as individuals need egos, countries need egos, 

races need egos, religions need egos. And Indians have a tremendously big ego. They think they are the most 

spiritual people on the earth, and that is just bullshit! The very idea is unspiritual. 

To be spiritual means to be humble. To be spiritual means to be nobodies. To be spiritual means not to 

belong to any country, to any nation. To be spiritual means not to be Hindu, not to be Mohammedan, not to be 

Christian. But even spirituality is being used as a prop. 

It happens every day: some new Indians come, once in a while, those who don’t understand me... because it is 

not possible to understand me just if you come once as a visitor just to look around. You can’t understand me if 

you come as a tourist. Indians come, but they come only as visitors. 

And the few Indians who have become absorbed into my commune, who have become sannyasins, I don’t count 

them as Indians anymore. They have become universal. It is a universal brotherhood. 

But when new Indians come they are Indians, very much Indians. And what egos they carry! When I pass 

around the Buddha Hall with my hands joined together, with my head bowed down to them in love, in prayer, in 

salutation, they can’t even respond. They sit like stones. Not even a formal gesture they can show. They look so 

silly, so stupid, and I feel so sorry! How to help them? These people seem to be beyond help, beyond approach. 

And they see the whole ocean of sannyasins with their hands joined together joyously bowing, responding in love, 

communing, but they can’t do it. They just sit there like dead rocks. Strange... but not so strange because deep 

down they think they already know. Deep down they think they are great inheritors of a spiritual tradition. They 

know the Vedas and the Gita and the Upanishads. 

I watch them, I watch their spirituality. They don’t look at me they look at my Rolls Royce! That’s why I 

have asked my secretary to bring a Rolls Royce: at least for Indians there must be something to see! They are 

more interested in the car and they are spiritual people, not materialists! When they come to the ashram, the 

first question they ask the guides here is, ”Where is the Rolls?” They are not interested in seeing meditations, 

they are not interested in seeing Sufi dancers, they are not interested in seeing Vipassana, they are not interested 

in anything. ”Where is the Rolls?” Their whole mind is materialistic, but they go on pretending to be spiritual. 

And you can always invent something or other. 

The country is poor so they cannot brag about richness. The country is uneducated, they cannot brag about 

education. The country is technologically backward, they cannot brag about technology. So they have fallen upon 

something invisible: spirituality. You can always brag about spirituality. Nobody can disprove it. Of course, you 

cannot prove it either, but one thing good about spirituality is that it cannot be disproved. So you can go on 

talking about your spirituality which exists nowhere, which has never existed. 

Individuals have been spiritual beings, societies have never been. We have still to wait for that great day when 

there will be so many individuals awakened that the society will start having the color of spirituality. Up to now, 

it has not happened. Hitherto it has not been happening; it has only been a hope. But every religion believes 

that they are religious. Just believing in certain ideas gives you a false feeling of being religious. And whenever 

you come across a real religious person you shrink back, you become afraid. 

Hence they are against me they are bound to be against me. I am shattering all their structures. I am 

shattering their whole egoistic patterns. I am trying to bring them down to the earth, to the reality and it hurts. 

India has never been against anybody as India is against me, for the simple reason that nobody has ever 

shattered their egos. I am making every possible effort to shatter their egos because that is the only hope. If 

India loses its ego, there is a possibility of a rebirth. The country can be reborn. It has great potential. It has 

the same potential as when you don’t use a field for many, many years, you don’t grow any crop, and the field 

becomes more and more potential every year. 

For centuries India has not grown any creativity. It has become the most potential country in the world. If 

it explodes into creativity it is really going to be something great, something of great consequence to the whole 

earth. But before it can ever happen the shell of the seed has to be shattered, has to be broken.


I am going to be condemned, criticized, rejected; that is bound to be my destiny. But I am the only hope. If I 

succeed in helping a few intelligent Indians to come out of their closed egos into the open, that will help not only 

India but the whole world. It will be a great contribution to the growth of consciousness. 

It is possible, and you are all here to help it happen. 


The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 10 

Chapter 13 Religion is a song, poetry, a dance of your heart 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, ARE YOU CONVERTING PEOPLE TO YOUR OWN RELIGION? 

Christina, I don’t have any religion at all: a certain kind of religiousness, but no religion in particular. That’s 

why it is so easy for me to absorb Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra, Moses, Mohammed, Mahavira. If I had 

a religion, then it would not be possible for me to be so universal. 

To have a religion means to become limited. To have a religion means you have defined life, you have made a 

dogma out of life, you have demystified it. It is no longer infinite; it is no longer unknown, unknowable. You have 

reduced it to a system of thought. 

My whole effort here is to melt all systems of thought, to melt your minds which have become ice-cold, frozen 

into prejudices, so that a new kind of warmth surrounds the earth. It will be a kind of religiousness just a vague 

feeling, not a definite thought. You can experience it, but you cannot explain it. It will not be like a flower, it will 

be more like a fragrance. If you are not suffering from cold you will be able to feel it, the fragrance. And people’s 

heads are too full of coldness; they are suffering from cold, they have become frozen. One is a Hindu, another is 

a Christian. 

That is the meaning of your name, Christina: a Christian. 

Be a christ and never be a Christian! Be a buddha, never be a Buddhist! That is settling for rubbish. When you 

can experience the truth yourself, why settle for secondhand knowledge? All religions are secondhand knowledge. 

When a master is alive he has a certain climate, there is no doubt about it, a certain atmosphere around him, 

where people start growing growing into themselves. That is true conversion. Conversion does not mean a Hindu 

becoming a Christian or a Christian becoming a Hindu; that is not conversion. That is simply changing one prison 

for another, moving from one dead system of thought to another dead system of thought but you remain the 

same. 

Conversion means a radical change in your being. It is not a question of changing your ideology, it is a question 

of changing your consciousness. In that sense, people are certainly being converted. And I am not converting 

them, they are allowing themselves to be converted. Remember that difference. I am not interested in converting 

anybody; I am simply making a space available for those who want to go through this revolution. They can go 

through this revolution. Neither directly nor indirectly am I trying to make you part of any religion. 

Just the other day I was reading... somebody has written a Hindu that I am converting people into Jainism 

because I was born in a Jaina religion. And Jainas think that I am converting Jainas into the Hindu religion 

because orange is a Hindu color as if colors can also be Hindu or Mohammedan! And Christians have been writing 

letters to me, writing articles against me, that I am converting Christians to Hinduism. It is a very strange world! 

Christians think I am converting you to Hinduism, Hindus think I am converting you to Jainism, Jainas think I 

am converting you to Hinduism, Mohammedans think I am converting you to Buddhism and Buddhists thinks I 

am converting you to something else. 

I am not converting you to any organized system of thought, directly or indirectly. I am not interested in that 

at all. But certainly I am making a dimension available to you. If you are interested in going through a revolution 

you can go. If you have guts and courage you can have a new consciousness. 

But I can understand the question, particularly from a Christian, because Christians have been doing this 

business of conversion all over the earth for centuries, in every possible way, right or wrong. If people cannot be 

converted by convincing them, then convert them by swords. If swords have become out-of-date and look ugly, 

then convert them by money, by bread and butter. People are poor and starving. 

In India I have never come across a single rich family who has become Christian. Only very poor people who 

are always on the verge of dying because of starvation have become Christians. The reason is not that they are 

interested in Christ; they are simply interested in surviving and Christian missionaries have the money. They can 

give them the money, employment, clothes, medicine, schools, hospitals. And when it is a question of survival, 

who cares about religion? To what religion you belong does not matter the first requirement is to survive. So in


India all the poor people, very poor people have been converted. This is converting them by bribery. Now instead 

of swords, a very subtle methodology is being used to convert them. 

But I am not interested in converting anybody. I love Jesus as much as I love Buddha because I don’t see any 

difference. Both are religious because both are awakened. There is no difference at all between the awakened 

people. But the churches are not concerned with awakening or the awakened people; their concern is with numbers, 

and they use every possible way, direct, indirect, gross and subtle to convert people. 

Hence, Christina, the question has arisen in your mind: maybe I am doing something like the Christian 

missionaries. I am not a missionary. 

Mr. and Mrs. Chotnik had hoped that their son, Stanley, would follow in the path of their own orthodox 

ways and pursue his higher education at Yeshiva University. Instead, despite their voluble concern, he entered a 

Christian college. But when he returned home for summer vacation, they were vastly relieved to see that their 

fears had been groundless. Stanley had not forsaken his ancestral faith, he had not been converted, he had not, 

it was clear, been affected in the slightest way by his non-Jewish environment. In fact, on the very next Friday, 

he readily agreed to accompany them to synagogue. 

That evening, at the close of shabbes services, the rabbi, an old friend of the Chotnik family, greeted the young 

student with a wide smile. ”It is good to see you here in the temple again, Stanley,” said the rabbi, shaking the 

youth’s hand. ”Frankly, your parents and I were afraid you might be Catholicized there at South Bend.” 

Stanley’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. ”Impossible!” he declared. ”No one will ever convert me, Father.” 

There are subtle ways to convert. The person who is being converted does not become aware at all what is 

happening. You go on conditioning him, slowly, slowly. You go on repeating the gospels and slowly, slowly without 

his awareness, his mind becomes full of all that has been repeated. He is being conditioned. It is a process of 

hypnosis. 

My effort here is just the opposite: it is a process of dehypnosis, deconditioning. I decondition you, whosoever 

you are, Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan. I simply decondition you and then I leave it to you so that you can be 

yourself. I don’t recondition you again. I stop with deconditioning so that you are free from the old pattern, from 

the old gestalt that has been imposed upon you. Once you are free then my work is finished. Then you can grow 

on your own according to your own light, according to your own inner needs. Each individual has a birthright to 

be himself. 

The world does not need Christians, Hindus and Mohammedans; it needs certainly religious people. And what 

do I mean when I use the words ’religious people’? I mean people who are aware that the world is not only matter, 

that the world is something more, something plus. It is not finished with matter; matter is only the circumference: 

consciousness is at the center. And this is possible only when you experience consciousness at your own center; 

then you can experience consciousness everywhere. When you start feeling consciousness everywhere you have 

come across godliness. This experience is religion. 

I am certainly interested in introducing you into this vast experience, but you have to come to it on your own. 

You have to come to it without any beliefs, prejudices open, vulnerable, ready to see that which is, rather than 

to project what should be. I don’t give you any shoulds and should-nots, I don’t give you any commandments. I 

simply help you like a gardener helps a seed. It is not an effort to make a lotus out of a rosebush or vice versa. 

The gardener helps the rose to be a rose and the lotus to be a lotus. Whatsoever is your potential, you have to 

be that. 

I am not here to decide what you have to be; I can only give you hints how to grow into your own being. And 

that’s how a person becomes a Jesus, a Buddha, a Zarathustra. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, THE WEST IS OVERPOPULATED WITH PSYCHOTHERAPISTS AND THEIR 

PATIENTS, BUT WHY DOES NO ONE SEEM TO BE HELPED? 

Patrick, the help is possible only through a buddha. The help is possible only through the awakened one. 

The psychotherapists are as asleep as you are; they are in the same boat. There is no qualitative difference 

between you and them in fact they may be crazier than you are. They may be more in a mess than you are 

because they constantly deal with mad people; day in, day out, they are surrounded by mad people. Rather than 

helping the mad people to become sane, just the opposite happens: being constantly in contact with mad people, 

slowly, slowly they become mad themselves. 

This is natural. They don’t have yet that awareness which can remain aloof, unaffected. They don’t have that 

distance, that coolness, that detachment. They are not living on sunlit peaks; they are groping in the same dark


valley where you are groping. They are as blind as you are, but they have to pretend that they are not blind and 

that is more dangerous. 

If a person is blind and knows that he is blind and never pretends otherwise, there is every possibility he will 

walk more cautiously. If he pretends that he is not blind, if he projects that he is not blind, if he convinces 

others that he is not blind, slowly, slowly he will be hypnotized by his own sayings, auto-hypnotized. He will start 

believing that he is not blind and he will start walking less cautiously. And that is more dangerous. 

I have heard: 

Once a blind man came to visit a Zen master. When he was leaving it was night, a dark night, no moon, and 

so many clouds the master said to the blind man, ”Please take this lamp with you.” 

The blind man laughed loudly. He said, ”Are you joking? What can a lamp do for me? I cannot see! It is all 

the same to me whether I have a lamp or not.” 

But the master said, ”That I know, that you cannot see, but at least others will be able to see in the darkness 

that you are coming so they will not stumble into you.” 

The argument appeared right. The blind man took the lamp, went away. He had just walked only a hundred 

yards and a man just walked into him. He said, ”What is the matter? Are you too blind? Can’t you see this 

lamp?” 

And the man said, ”I am not blind. Excuse me, but your lamp is no longer lit; its flame has gone out.” 

The blind man went back to the Zen master and said, ”Look, never give a lamp to another blind man again. If 

there was no lamp I would have walked more cautiously. I always walk cautiously. Because of the lamp I walked 

as if I were no longer blind and the lamp went out. But how was I to know that the lamp went out? Because of 

this lamp, for the first time I have been hurt by a man. Otherwise, I have walked my whole life in every possible 

situation, but because I was so cautious, always making noise with my stick on the road so people can feel that 

some blind man is there, always groping with my stick in the darkness so I know where I am, whether I am facing 

a wall or a door.... It was the first time that I walked without any fear.” 

And that’s what is happening to your psychotherapists, Patrick. They think they know they know nothing. 

They are more informed, but information is not knowing. They are well educated, but they have not a higher 

being than you. And help is possible only when somebody higher than you gives you a hand. 

More psychotherapists go mad than any other profession and more psychotherapists commit suicide than any 

other profession. And it is natural. Living with mad people, one can understand they become affected. 

A few scenes will be helpful to you.... 

The first scene: 

A man walks into a psychiatrist’s office. 

”You must help me!” he exclaims. 

”What do you do for a living?” asks the shrink. 

”I am an automobile mechanic.” 

”Get under the couch!” 

The second scene: 

First psychiatrist: ”Hello!” 

Second psychiatrist: ”I wonder what you mean by that?” 

The third scene: 

The patient: ”Of course I am upset, doctor. I have eleven children and I find out my husband does not love 

me.” 

The doctor: ”You are very lucky. Imagine if he did!” 

The fourth scene: 

”Doctor, my wife accuses me of being a compulsive card-player.” 

”That’s ridiculous. Now shut up and deal!” 

And the fifth scene: 

”Doctor, now that you have cured me of my homosexual tendencies and since this is our last session, may I kiss 

you good-bye?” 

”Don’t be ridiculous men don’t kiss. I shouldn’t even be lying on the couch with you!” 

You ask me, Patrick, ”The West is overpopulated with psychotherapists and their patients, but why does no 

one seem to be helped?” 

Help is possible only from higher sources. A person who is on the same ground as you cannot be of any help 

to you. Help is possible only when a fully conscious man tries to help the unconscious. It is as if you are asleep; 

do you think somebody else asleep can help you in any way? Only somebody who is awake can wake you. If you


want to be awakened at a particular hour, you don’t say to somebody else who is asleep, ”Please wake me up at 

five o’clock in the morning. I have to go for that goddamned Dynamic Meditation!” You have to ask somebody 

who is awake. Only somebody awake can wake you up. In fact, the person who is asleep may help you to fall into 

a deeper sleep. 

You may have watched it happen. If a few people are sitting just by your side yawning, you start feeling sleepy. 

They create a certain vibe; they create a certain atmosphere in which anybody vulnerable will start feeling it is 

better to go to sleep. 

The same happens with awakened people: a buddha creates a totally different vibe. He shakes you up, he wakes 

you up. He goes on shocking you in many ways; he finds devices to shock you. 

Kavita has asked, ”Beloved Master, sometimes you use such words that I feel shocked and I used to think that 

no word can ever shock me. Don’t you have any couth?” 

Kavita, I will go on using these words unless you wake up. You would like to listen to lullabies but lullabies 

are not going to help. What appeals to you, what you like is not going to help. Something that shocks you.... I 

am going to use rough words till you stop yawning. 

Whenever I see somebody yawning somewhere, immediately I have to say something which shocks you and I 

can see his yawning disappears. The moment I say ”bullshit” immediately I say it he stops yawning! His spine 

is erect, his kundalini is rising upwards! 

Unless you all become awakened I am not going to leave you at ease; I will go on hitting you in every possible 

way. 

Help is possible, Patrick, only from the awakened ones. You don’t need psychotherapists, you need buddhas. 

Secondly: you go to the psychotherapist, but you don’t really want to be helped. You have great investment in 

your pathology. 

A few scenes again. 

First: 

”Doctor, my wife thinks she is a refrigerator.” 

”Why don’t you divorce her?” 

”I would but I need the ice.” 

Second scene: 

”Doctor, my girlfriend thinks she is a rabbit.” 

”Bring her in. I will see what can I do.” 

”Okay, but whatever happens, I hope you don’t cure her.” 

Nobody wants really to be helped. People are only playing games. They go to the psychiatrist in the hope that 

he can’t do anything, that he is not going really to change them. Nobody wants to be changed; everybody wants 

to remain the same as he is. You have become so accustomed to your misery, to your pathology... it is your life, 

it is your way of life. 

If you want to be changed you will seek a master, not a psychotherapist. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE ANY TRUTH IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF PHYSICAL IMMORTALITY 

WHICH SAYS THAT IT IS ONLY OUR BELIEF IN THE INEVITABILITY OF DEATH WHICH PRODUCES 

OLD AGE, DISEASE AND DEATH? TO WHAT EXTENT DO OUR THOUGHTS MANIFEST RESULTS? 

John Fisant, man is afraid of death; hence he goes on creating all kinds of stupid ideas. Physical immortality 

is sheer nonsense because anything that begins is bound to end. Physical immortality is possible only if you are 

not born through parents but manufactured in a factory. If you are made out of plastic, if you are not a real man, 

then there is a possibility. Plastic seems to be the only immortal thing. 

So if you don’t have skin but plastic instead, if you don’t have real blood but synthetic blood which you can 

change any time you can go to the petrol pump and all that you have in your body your bones, your joints, 

everything is replaceable so whenever there is some problem, things can be replaced; you just have to change a 

few parts and parts will be available.... You may have to go to the garage for a time; a few things may have to be 

unscrewed and screwed again. Then you can be physically immortal but then you will not be a man, you will be 

a machine. 

If you are born you are bound to die. Yes, it is possible your life can be prolonged life has been prolonged. As 

medicine has evolved, as scientific technology has come to help human beings, as we have become more and more 

aware of the secrets of life, life has been prolonged. It may be prolonged from seventy years to seven hundred 

years, but then too you will not be physically immortal.


And I don’t think many people would like to live seven hundred years; even seventy years is too much! People 

start thinking after a time, ”Now it will be better to die.” Death is a relief, a relaxation. Everything wants rest; 

death is going into rest. Your body also gets tired, matter also gets tired. It wants to go back to its original 

source: water into water and air into air and earth into earth and fire into fire. Everything wants to go back to 

its source to rest, to rejuvenate itself, and come back again. But man has always cherished these ideas physical 

immortality. And not ordinary people, even people who are thought to be extraordinary, they also go on having 

such stupid ideas. 

Sri Aurobindo and the mother of Sri Aurobindo both believed in physical immortality and both died! When 

Sri Aurobindo died nobody believed it, because all the disciples who had gathered there had gathered for the 

simple reason that he knows the secret of physical immortality and by being his disciples they are going to become 

physically immortal. How can they believe that he had died? 

For three days it was kept a secret that he had died. They waited: he may be in deep samadhi, he may come 

back. But after three days when they saw no sign of his coming back and his body started stinking, then they 

had to bury it. Then they hoped that the mother would be immortal. She lived a long life, but a long life does 

not mean physical immortality. When she died, again they were shocked. Their whole philosophy was confused 

by these two persons’ deaths. 

But one thing is good about death: now you cannot ask Sri Aurobindo, ”Why have you been telling your whole 

life that physical immortality is possible, that you know the secret, that you have been able to bring God into the 

physical world?” 

But fools gathered. Fools become attracted always to strange things. Just deep down the fear is there nobody 

wants to die. Why? Why in the first place are you afraid of death? Death is not the enemy. To a man who has 

really lived, death is the friend. It is like sleep. Nobody wants to remain wakeful twenty-four hours a day. 

There are a few people who think that sleep is also just an old habit and they try to reduce it. For centuries 

they have tried. Yes, it can be reduced, it can be reduced to two hours because two hours is the essential sleep; 

you also sleep only two hours in a deep way. Somewhere between two and four or three and five you sleep for two 

hours very deeply; those are the refreshing moments. All dreaming disappears, you are almost dead. Hence the 

ancients used to say sleep is a small death. But people have been trying to avoid sleep also. 

The logic is: if you can avoid sleep then you can one day avoid death too. If sleep is a small death and you 

have conquered sleep, you will be able to conquer the big sleep, death, too. But why? What is wrong in dying? 

The people who are afraid of death are the people who have not really lived their lives. They are not afraid of 

death, they are simply afraid that they have not lived yet and death has come. 

Rather than thinking of physical immortality, think of living your life totally. While you are here, live your 

life in a multidimensional richness. And then when death comes you will feel it as a crescendo, as a peak, as an 

ultimate life reaching to the highest and you will enjoy death as much as you have enjoyed life. You will be 

utterly satisfied with death because it will give you rest, relaxation; it will renew you. It will take away the old 

garments and it will give you new garments. 

But people go on philosophizing. They have created things like Christian Science, mind over matter. They 

think that if you believe that you are not going to die then you will not die. 

I heard about a man who was a Christian Scientist. One day he met a young man. He asked the young man, 

”Any news about your father?” 

The young man said, ”He is very ill.” 

The Christian Scientist said, ”All nonsense! Tell him, ’Mind over matter.’ He believes he is ill, that’s all; it is 

his belief that is creating illness. Don’t believe in illness and you will be healthy.” 

After a few days again the young man came across this Christian Scientist, and the Christian Scientist asked, 

”How are things now with your old man? How is he?” 

And the young man said, ”Now he believes that he is dead.” 

It is not a question of belief: illness has a reality, and death too has a reality. Yes, by believing also you can 

create a few illnesses which are false, bogus and by disbelieving in them you can destroy them. But you cannot 

destroy a real illness; the illness has to be false in the first place. If you believe in it and create it, then by 

disbelieving in it, it can be dropped. 

But death is not your belief; otherwise why do animals die? They don’t believe, they don’t believe that they 

are going to die. Why do trees die? They don’t believe that they are going to die, they don’t have any belief 

system. Why do stars and suns and moons die? Why do earths die? They don’t believe; death is a universal 

phenomenon, it happens everywhere. It is part of life; it is the other side of the coin. 

I am not in any support of Christian Science. It is neither science nor Christian it is simply nonsense.


Two middle-aged men were walking off the tennis court after only a few minutes of play. The older, somewhat 

corpulent fellow was puffing heavily. 

”I guess I am in pretty poor shape,” he confessed ruefully. 

”How long have you been playing, Herbie?” asked the young man. 

”About two weeks.” 

”Then let me give you a little practical advice. Try the Christian Science way mind over matter.” 

”I already have,” admitted the fat one. ”When my opponent serves the ball to me, my Christian Science mind 

says, ’Now, Herbie, you just race right up to the net, slam a blistering drive to the far corner of the court and 

then jump back into position.’ That’s exactly what my Christian Science mind tells me.... 

”But my Jewish body says, ’Herbie, to make a schlemiel out of yourself you don’t need!’” 

In fact, body and mind are not two things: the body is the outer side of the mind, the mind is the inner side 

of the body. To use the phrase ’body and mind’ is not right; you are bodymind, not even a hyphen in between. 

We should use it as a single word ’bodymind’, ’psychosomatic’. So of course, your inner affects your outer, your 

outer affects your inner you are bodymind but you are not finished with the bodymind. There is a witness also. 

John Fisant, rather than bothering about physical immortality, get in touch with your witnessing soul which 

watches the body and mind both. It watches life, it watches death; hence it transcends life and death both. Only 

this witness is immortal because it is never born and it never dies. 

The Zen people call it the original face. This witnessing is your original face. And meditation is nothing 

but an art to discover your original face. You are immortal, but not physically; just in your awareness, in your 

consciousness you are immortal, you are universal. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, WAS BUDDHA NOT A POET? DID HE NOT HAVE A LOGICAL MIND? HOW ARE 

WE AS NEW MEN AND WOMEN TO GO BEYOND WHAT YOU HAVE CALLED HIS ONE-DIMENSIONALITY, 

WHEN IT SEEMS THAT YOUR BASIC TEACHING, AS WELL AS THAT OF BUDDHA, IS SIMPLY AWARE- 

NESS? 

Roderick, Gautama the Buddha was not a poet if you understand him directly, but if you understand him via 

me, he IS a poet. When I am speaking on Buddha it is very natural that my color is reflected in him. 

I love poetry and I go on finding poetry even where it is not. 

Buddha is like a desertland but I love oases and I go on discovering them. If you had seen Buddha you would 

have seen immediately that he couldn’t have anything to do with poetry. Poetry was fiction for him, as much 

fiction as it was for Plato. In his Republic, Plato says, poets will not be allowed, for the simple reason that they 

are liars, they live in lies. What is poetry? Beautiful lying! Buddha was also of the same mind; he would have 

agreed with Plato. He was very insistent on truth. 

My approach is different. I don’t see religion as a dry, dead thing. To me religion is a song, a dance. If I 

am going to create a republic, a utopia, then poets will be the only citizens there; they will be the only ones 

allowed because beauty is far more valuable than truth itself. And the poet discovers beauty not only discovers, 

he creates. The poet is creative. 

It is because of me that in Buddha you will find poetry. Excuse me, I cannot do otherwise. That’s why 

Buddhists are not happy with me; particularly Buddhist scholars are not happy at all. They say I go on finding 

in Buddha things which are not there. I am not much concerned whether they are there or not. I use Buddha 

only as an excuse, just as I use Jesus and I use Mahavira and I use Patanjali. I am not a commentator I have 

my own vision. I use them as pegs to hang myself on. 

When you are hearing Buddha through me, it is a totally different phenomenon. You are looking through 

my eyes; hence Buddha will look like a poet but he was not. He was a very logical man; hence I say he was 

one-dimensional. He was utterly logical, as logical as Ludwig Wittgenstein. 

Wittgenstein says you should not speak about something which cannot be spoken of. That’s exactly Buddha’s 

standpoint; Buddha would have immediately agreed with Wittgenstein. That’s exactly what he said twenty-five 

centuries before Wittgenstein. He never spoke about God because nothing can be spoken about God; hence don’t 

say anything. Even to say that nothing can be spoken about God is to say something about God; better not to 

say even that. 

The Upanishads say: Nothing can be said about God; he is indefinable. Buddha will not say even that because 

that is self-contradictory. To say that nothing can be said about God is self-contradictory because you have 

said something already. Even to say that nothing can be said is saying something. Buddha was utterly logical, 

absolutely logical. He kept absolutely silent.


Whenever he would enter a town, a city, a village, his disciples would go ahead of him to declare, ”Don’t ask 

these eleven questions to the Buddha, because he is not going to answer, so don’t waste your time and his time.” 

Those eleven questions consisted of everything that philosophy, theology, metaphysics is made of. If you don’t 

ask those eleven questions, nothing is left to ask nothing metaphysical. Then you can ask only actual problems. 

You can ask about your anger, your greed, your sex. You can ask about your misery, suffering, how to get rid of 

it, but you cannot ask whether God is. You cannot ask what will happen after death. You cannot ask what is 

truth, what is beauty, what is good; he forbade it. He was a very logical man and one-dimensional. 

Life is three-dimensional. And up to now there have been people, great people, but they were all onedimensional. 

For example, Buddha is logical, so is Socrates. There have been great poets Kalidas, Rabindranath, 

Shelley, Shakespeare. They are one-dimensional: beauty is their god. And there have been moral people, absolutely 

moral people, virtuous people whose whole life was devoted to being just as virtuous as possible: Mahavira, 

Lao Tzu. But all are one-dimensional. 

Humanity has come now to a crossroads. We have lived the one-dimensional man, we have exhausted it. We 

need now a more enriched human being, three-dimensional. I call them three C’s, just like three R’s. 

The first C is consciousness, the second C is compassion, the third C is creativity. 

Consciousness is being, compassion is feeling, creativity is action. My sannyasin has to be all the three simultaneously. 

I am giving you the greatest challenge ever given, the hardest task to be fulfilled. You have to be as 

meditative as a Buddha, as loving as a Krishna, as creative as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci. You have to be 

all together simultaneously. Only then your totality will be fulfilled; otherwise something will remain missing in 

you. And that which is missing in you will keep you lopsided, unfulfilled. You can attain to a very high peak if you 

are one-dimensional, but you will be only a peak. I would like you to become the whole range of the Himalayas, 

not just a peak but peaks upon peaks! 

The one-dimensional man has failed. It has not been able to create a beautiful earth, it has not been able 

to create paradise on the earth. It has failed, utterly failed! It created a few beautiful people, but it could not 

transform the whole humanity, it could not raise the consciousness of the whole humanity. Only a few individuals 

here and there became enlightened. That is not going to help anymore. We need more enlightened people, and 

enlightened in a three-dimensional way. 

That is my definition of the new man. 

Roderick, you ask me, ”Was Buddha not a poet?” 

He was not! But the people who will become awakened here with me are going to be poets. When I say ”poets” 

I don’t mean that you have to write poetry you have to be poetic. Your life has to be poetic, your approach has 

to be poetic. Logic is dry, poetry is alive. Logic cannot dance; it is impossible for logic to dance. To see logic 

dancing will be like Mahatma Gandhi dancing! It will look very ridiculous. Poetry can dance; poetry is a dance 

of your heart. Logic cannot love; it can talk about love, but it cannot love. Love seems to be illogical. Only 

poetry can love; only poetry can take the jump into the paradox of love. Logic is cold, very cold; it is good as far 

as mathematics is concerned, but it is not good as far as humanity is concerned. If humanity becomes too logical 

then humanity disappears; then there are only numbers, not human beings replaceable numbers. 

Poetry, love, feeling give you a depth, a warmth. You become more melted, you lose your ice-coldness. You 

become more human. 

Buddha is superhuman, about that there is no doubt, but he loses the human dimension. He is unearthly. He 

has a beauty of being unearthly, but he does not have the beauty that Zorba the Greek has. Zorba is so earthly. 

I would like you to be both together: Zorba the Buddha! One has to be meditative, but not against feeling. 

One has to be meditative but full of feeling, overflowing with love. And one has to be creative. If your love is only 

a feeling and it is not translated into action, it won’t affect the larger humanity. You have to make it a reality, 

you have to materialize it. 

These are your three dimensions: being, feeling, action. Action contains all creativity, all kinds of creativity: 

music, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, technology. Feeling contains all that is aesthetic: love, 

beauty. And being contains meditation, awareness, consciousness. 

You ask me, ”It seems awareness is your basic teaching, as well as that of Buddha....” 

I have no basic teaching, I cannot have a basic teaching. I am not a teacher at all. I don’t teach you, I am 

simply a presence. You can learn, but I don’t teach. You can imbibe my spirit, and my spirit and its implication 

will depend on you. 

There are people to whom awareness will help as a basic teaching; they will learn awareness from me. And 

there are people to whom love will help; then they will learn love as a basic teaching from me. It will depend on 

you. I am multidimensional, hence I can absorb all kinds of people.


Buddha would not have accepted you all, remember, neither would Jesus or Mahavira; they would have chosen. 

A few people would have been chosen by Buddha and a few would have been chosen by Jesus and a few would 

have been chosen by somebody else. But I don’t choose at all, I am absolutely choiceless. Whosoever comes to 

me is accepted, absolutely accepted, totally accepted, because I don’t have a basic pattern. I have only hints and 

hints for all, for all kinds of people. 

It is not a teaching; teaching becomes rigid, becomes defined. It is only a presence. I am only a window; 

through me you can look into God. And once you have looked into God, then you can look into God on your own 

I am not needed anymore. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE ALL THE AWAKENED ONES AGAINST DESIRING? WHAT IS WRONG 

WITH DESIRE? 

Sujata, meditate over Murphy’s maxim: Be careful about what you want, because you are liable to get it. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO I ALWAYS FIND IT DIFFICULT TO RELATE TO MY WIFE? 

Richard, because you are British, and you know British wives! 

Sent to Australia for an extended business trip, the Englishman was asked if he missed his wife, who was still 

back in London. 

”Ah, I don’t miss her all that much,” he explained. ”One day a week I hire a local woman to come in and nag.” 

After they had been discussing their problems for more than an hour, the prissy English lady said to the 

marriage counselor, ”I think it is unfair to suggest that I don’t enjoy sex. But what can you say about a man who 

wants it five or six times a year?” 

And the last: 

”I am taking Kung Fu lessons just in case some sex fiend tries to rape me on some dark night,” the prune-faced 

Englishwoman told her long-suffering husband. 

”Why bother?” remarked the husband. ”It will never get that dark.” 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, ALL THE BUDDHAS SAY THAT ONE SHOULD LEARN TO BE SILENT, BUT IN 

DAY-TO-DAY LIFE ONE HAS TO SPEAK. THEN WHAT SHOULD ONE DO? 

Shakti, first meditate over Murphy’s maxim: Think twice before you speak and then don’t say anything. 

But if you have to say something, then meditate over this: 

Walker, a newspaperman, was on vacation up in Maine. He came across a lonely hut and began interviewing 

the owner with the idea of doing a story on the locale. 

”Whose house is this?” asked the reporter. 

”Moggs’,” replied the Mainer. 

”What in the world is it built of?” 

”Logs.” 

”Any animals natural to the locality?” 

”Frogs.” 

”What sort of soil have you?” 

”Bogs.” 

”How about the climate?” 

”Fogs.” 

”What do you live on chiefly?” 

”Hogs.” 

”Have you any friends?” 

”Dogs.” 

Be telegraphic! 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, AHA! I THOUGHT THERE WAS SOMETHING FAMILIAR ABOUT HIM MURPHY 

IS A JEW! USED TO BE CALLED MOSHE KAPOYER?


Tao, this is a remarkable discovery! I wonder how you managed to find it out. It is true. Moshe Kapoyer was 

the only Jew in a small town and since business was bad he decided to change his name. There were other reasons 

also to change his name: because he was a Jew and the only Jew, people were avoiding him and his business was 

suffering. And secondly because his name, Moshe Kapoyer, means Mr. Topsy-turvy or Mr. Upside-down, so he 

was not very happy with his name either. 

He went to a judge and became Mr. Jones. One week later he was back before the same judge asking that his 

name be changed to Murphy. 

”Why do you want your name changed? I just changed it last week.” 

”So that when people ask me what my name was before it was Murphy, I can say it was Jones.” 

The ninth question: 

Question 9 

BELOVED MASTER, CAN I ALSO BE A GOD? 

Krishna, Deva, I have given you the name Krishna Deva. It means God Krishna. Yes, there is no trouble about 

it. In fact you are a god; even if you want to be somebody else you cannot. Everybody is trying to be somebody 

else, but nobody has ever succeeded in being somebody else. God is our nature. You can forget all about it, but 

you cannot change it. 

Flaherty and Gluckstein were discussing the merits of their religion. 

”Answer me this,” said the Irishman, ”could one of your boys be pope?” 

”No,” answered Gluckstein. ”Could one of your boys be God?” 

”Why, of course not!” replied Flaherty. 

”Well,” said Gluckstein, ”one of our boys made it!” 

If Jesus can make it, if Buddha can make it, why not you? In fact, they could make it because it is not 

something to be achieved, it is something to be only discovered. We have forgotten it; it is already there like an 

undercurrent. Our godliness is always there; wherever you go it goes with you. It is you. It is in the sinner, it is 

even in the saint! 

The tenth question: 

Question 10 

BELOVED MASTER, I LOVED YOUR ANSWER THE OTHER DAY TO ARUP’S QUESTION. THE ONLY 

TROUBLE IS THAT I HAVE STARTED COMING HOME EARLY AND NOT DRINKING SO MUCH, WHILE 

ARUP IS GETTING DISCO PARTIES TOGETHER, GOING OUT AND GENERALLY HAVING A GOOD 

TIME. AM I BECOMING MEDITATIVE, WHILE ARUP IS BECOMING AS LOOSE AS A GOOSE? 

Niranjan, now you know why I said to Arup that this is absolutely the sure way to raise the consciousness of 

humanity. She has started she has begun with you. You are her first victim! 


Question 11 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS MISUNDERSTANDING? 

Dhyanesh, three stories for you: 

Anna: ”Is it true what I hear about your husband cutting down on his smoking?” 

Hannah: ”Yes, now he is smoking only after meals his meal, my meal, the children’s meals, everybody’s meal!” 

The second: 

The defendant was accused of sullying the honor of a pure young maiden, according to the lady’s testimony, 

and he was having a difficult time explaining the circumstances. 

”I am innocent, Your Honor,” he declared. ”All I did was offer her a scotch and soda, and she reclined!” 

And the third and the last: 

Young Moishe was getting married. On the day of his wedding, his father took him aside and said, ”Look here, 

Moishe, if you want to have a successful marriage you’ve got to make three things clear right from the start: you’ve 

got to show your wife that you’re the master of the house, that you’re a man, and that you’re independent.” 

Moishe thanked his father and went off to his wedding and honeymoon. 

Kavita, if you are asleep, be awake! 

After the couple had returned and father and son were alone together in a quiet moment, the father asked how 

his advice had worked. 

”Ah, beautiful!” beamed Moishe. ”I put it into practice on the first night of our honeymoon. When we were 

alone in the hotel room, I first ripped off her clothes to show her who’s the master; then I ripped off my clothes 

to show her that I’m a man; and then I jerked off in front of her to show her that I’m independent!” 

Enough for today.



Chapter 1 Hold your tongue 


HOLD YOUR TONGUE. DO NOT EXALT YOURSELF BUT LIGHTEN THE WAY FOR YOUR WORDS 

ARE SWEET. 

FOLLOW THE TRUTH OF THE WAY. REFLECT UPON IT. MAKE IT YOUR OWN. LIVE IT. IT WILL 

ALWAYS SUSTAIN YOU. 

DO NOT TURN AWAY WHAT IS GIVEN YOU, NOR REACH OUT FOR WHAT IS GIVEN TO OTHERS, 

LEST YOU DISTURB YOUR QUIETNESS. 

GIVE THANKS FOR WHAT HAS BEEN GIVEN YOU, HOWEVER LITTLE. BE PURE, NEVER FALTER. 

Life is full of complications. Even when we are born there is a string attached. The greatest complication, the 

source of all complications is unawareness, unconsciousness. We are focused on the objective world and we are 

totally unaware who we are. 

The whole message of Gautama the Buddha is to turn in. The message is simple, but the implementation is 

arduous. It is arduous because for many, many lives we have lived outwardly, we have lived the life of an extrovert. 

We have completely forgotten how to relate with our own beings, how to be with ourselves. We have forgotten the 

path, the language, the method. Not only that, we have become completely oblivious that there is an interiority 

to us. We think as if we have only an outside. Now that is stupid. The outside can exist only with an inside; 

without the inside the outside is impossible. If we can see out, we can also see in. In fact, to see in is easier 

because it is there that we are rooted. 

But never seeing in, we go on rushing in all directions, doing all kinds of things, not knowing why, just because 

others are doing them. We are imitating, following. We become carbon copies. That’s the most ugly thing in life: 

to be a carbon copy. Man can never be blissful unless he is original, unless he knows his original face. 

I have heard a very beautiful story. It may be true, it may not be true. Its truth is not historical but, far more 

significant, it is metaphorical. 

The story is: Alexander the Great was on his way to India. He met a fakir sitting by the roadside with a round, 

small, crystal-like object in his hand. 

”What’s that?” inquired Alexander. 

”I will not tell you,” said the fakir, ”but I will bet you that it is heavier than all your gold, silver and jewels.” 

Alexander ordered an enormous balance to be brought along with all of his treasures. On one side of the balance 

he piled all the treasures; the fakir put his small round crystal on the other side and, lo! it was heavier. Down it 

went and the vast treasures were lifted into the air. Alexander was amazed. 

Then the fakir said, ”I will show you one more thing.” He took a little dust and spread it over the crystal. It 

immediately became light, went up into the air, and the treasures came down. 

Alexander could not contain his amazement anymore and asked the fakir, ”Please, you must tell me. What is 

this object?” 

Said the fakir, ”It is nothing special. It is only a human eye.” 

Man has the capacity to see himself too, but that capacity is full of dust. We have an inner eye too the third 

eye but that eye is not functioning, and we have not used it for so long that it has gone out of function completely; 

it has become a paralyzed part in our being. 

Now even physiologists have discovered a certain part in the human brain which seems to be absolutely superfluous. 

They are puzzled because nature never creates anything superfluous. It must have a purpose, but it seems 

to have no purpose. It can be removed and that will not affect you at all. 

But all the mystics down the ages have been saying the same thing of course, not in scientific terminology; they 

have their own way of saying it. They call it the third eye. A certain part of your mind is capable of functioning 

in an introvert way only. Meditation creates the right atmosphere, the right climate for it to function. 

Meditation simply means removing the dust that the fakir threw on the eye. And the dust is nothing but the 

whole mind process of thoughts, desires, imagination, memory. If you become capable of a few intervals, gaps, 

when all thought processes cease... suddenly you are and there is nothing to see inside. Then the turning happens; 

then immediately there is a radical change in your vision, your gestalt changes. The outside world disappears and 

the inside world appears. 

It is because of this that the mystics say that the outside world is illusory. Not that it does not exist; it exists, 

but it is illusory because the mystic knows a certain state of consciousness when it simply evaporates, it is found no 

more. You enter into a totally different dimension: the dimension of bliss, the dimension of peace, the dimension 

of Buddha, Christ, Krishna.


These sutras today are very special. This whole series... this is the last series of Buddha’s sutras. Up to now he 

was talking to the disciples who were getting ready. Now this last part of his sutras is meant for the bodhisattvas, 

for those who have become ready, for those who have experienced something of the inner. It is not for the initiates, 

it is not for the adepts. Hence this last part is the most important part. 

Buddha says there are two kinds of enlightened people in the world; he is very scientific about his approach. His 

categories are very significant; nobody has done that before or since. He says the first category of the enlightened 

ones is called arhatas. The arhata is a mystic; he has known, he has realized, but he is utterly unconcerned about 

others. He has found the way. He has reached his home and he does not care about others who are seeking 

and searching, because his understanding is that if they seek and search authentically they will find the way 

themselves. And if they are not true seekers, nobody can make them true seekers; hence no help is needed. The 

arhata does not help anyone. He has traveled alone and he knows everybody has to travel alone. 

When Buddha became enlightened himself, his first idea was to become an arhata. For seven days he remained 

absolutely silent, not saying a single word. 

The story is: Gods from heaven came. They were very much worried because only once in a while does a 

person become awakened, and if he remains absolutely silent the world will miss his message. And his message 

is a medicine for those who are dying; his message is a nourishment for those who are starving for truth. His 

message can be a boat to the other shore. His message has to be delivered, he has to be persuaded. They came, 

and they argued. 

But Buddha said, ”You must agree with me that nobody was able to help me of course, I knocked on many 

doors because it is something which is not transferable. Even if they had it they could not give it to me; I had 

to find it by my own effort. Hence I think that is the only way: people have to seek and search; it cannot be 

borrowed.” 

He was right and the gods had to agree. And he said, ”Even if I say it, only one out of ten thousand people will 

understand. The remaining ones will not understand; on the contrary, they will misunderstand. So why create 

so much misunderstanding in the world? The world is already in confusion why create more confusion? Out of 

compassion I am keeping quiet. And the one who will understand will find it himself anyway. The man who can 

understand what I say is so intelligent that really he needs no help. So what is the point? Why should I bother?” 

The gods were silenced. They moved into the woods to ponder over the matter. ”How to convince the Buddha? 

He appears to be right, he is logical, but some way has to be found.” It is good that they were able to find some 

way, otherwise we would have missed The Dhammapada; these beautiful sutras would have been missed. The 

world would have been far poorer. The whole credit goes to those anonymous gods who persuaded Buddha! 

They pondered over the matter for hours; they found a way. They came back and they said, ”We agree with 

you, but only on one point we cannot agree. And that point is that we understand that only one person will 

understand out of ten thousand, so you need not bother about that one person; he will find himself sooner or 

later. It is only a question of time, and time does not matter because existence is eternal. So what does it matter, 

how does it matter, whether one achieves today and somebody else achieves tomorrow or the day after tomorrow? 

All those who have become awakened are contemporaries; it does not make much difference at all.” 

That’s why I say I am a contemporary to Buddha, a contemporary to Jesus, a contemporary to Zarathustra, 

a contemporary to Lao Tzu. Once you know, you become contemporary to all the knowers. All small time gaps 

simply disappear, they are so tiny. Twenty-five hundred years make no difference at all. 

That’s why in the East we have not bothered much about time. Nobody knows when Krishna was born. We 

could have also created a calendar in the name of Krishna before Krishna, after Krishna we could have made 

a history. And Krishna certainly preceded Jesus by at least three thousand years, so his calendar would have 

been five thousand years old by now. But we have never bothered about it. Nobody knows when the founder of 

Jainism, Adinatha, was born or when he died. He must have preceded even Krishna by at least five thousand 

years. If we had a calendar then, his calendar would by now have been at least ten thousand years old. I am 

saying ”at least,” because Jainas say that he is far older. According to them he is almost ninety thousand years 

ancient; it is possible. 

But we have not created history, we have not written history, for the simple reason that the people who are 

worth writing about go beyond time; for them time becomes irrelevant. And the people who are not worth writing 

about, only they make much noise in the world of time. Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, 

Ayatollah Khomeiniac, these people make much noise in the world of time. A Buddha, a Krishna, a Jesus, a 

Zarathustra simply make no trace in time; they disappear without leaving a trace, as if they are not part of 

history, or they are part of a totally different kind of history which is nontemporal.


The gods argued with Buddha. They said, ”We agree about that one person: he will find it whether you tell 

him or not, he is so intelligent; if he can understand you immediately, then he will find it by himself. And we also 

agree about the others, that thousands will not understand you at all; they will, on the contrary, misunderstand 

you. But they are already misunderstanding, what more misunderstanding can there be? So you need not be 

worried about that point. They are already in confusion, you cannot confuse them any more.” 

And this is my experience too: howsoever I try I cannot confuse you any more! You have already touched the 

rock bottom; there is nothing below it, you can’t go deeper than that. You are utterly secure. 

So the gods said, ”You cannot confuse them more. They are so skillful in confusing themselves, they have done 

it already to the maximum. So about that we don’t agree. 

”And one thing more: there may be one or two people among ten thousand who are just between these two 

sorts of people the one who can understand you and the millions who cannot understand you and are bound to 

misunderstand you. Between these two do you think,” they said to Buddha, ”there is not a possibility of a few 

people, one or two or three yes, they will be very few, they can be counted on the fingers who may be just in the 

middle, neither so confused that they cannot be helped at all nor so clear that they can find their path on their 

own? Speak for them; they will be helped by you.” 

And Buddha had to agree; it was not an argument for argument’s sake. People like Buddha don’t argue for 

argument’s sake; he saw the truth of it. He said, ”I have to agree with you. Yes, there are a few people who are 

exactly in the middle, on the boundary line. If I don’t say anything to them they may be lost in the crowd; if 

some help is given to them, a little hand, they may be pulled out of their mud. I will speak for them.” 

He was going to be an arhata. Arhata means one who has arrived but is unconcerned about others, almost 

cold, does not care a bit. He became a Bodhisattva; that is the second category. 

Bodhisattva means one who is not only a mystic but also a master, who has not only known himself, but tries 

to make it known to others. Of course, the work of the Bodhisattva is far more difficult; the arhata is in a better 

position. The Bodhisattva has to struggle with all kinds of insanities insane people, split people, schizophrenic 

people, neurotics, psychotics. Humanity is full of these people. The Bodhisattva has to go into the crowd, into the 

mud where you are, because that is the only way to help you out. Unless he comes amongst you, unless he lives 

with you, unless he relates with you, communicates with you, in a thousand and one ways seduces you, creates 

the longing for truth in you, he cannot help you. And these are not easy things. 

People are not concerned about truth at all. They are concerned about money, they are concerned about power, 

about prestige. They are not interested in being liberated, they don’t want to be sane. They protect their insanity 

in every possible way because they have invested so much in their insanity. It is their insanity and they are very 

proud of it. 

Are you not proud of being a Christian, of being a Hindu, of being a Mohammedan? Are you not proud of being 

a German or British or an Indian? You are proud of all these insanities. These divisions have been destructive. 

These divisions have proved curses to humanity. They have been calamities, but you are very proud. Everybody 

seems to be proud. 

I have heard: 

An Englishman was talking to an Italian. And the Englishman asked the Italian, ”If you had been given a 

choice before you were born, what nationality would you have chosen?” 

He said, ”Of course I would have been British!” 

And the Englishman asked, ”How would you have felt?” 

He said, ”I would have felt very proud!” 

These were the days of the second world war and the Italians and the Germans were being defeated. They were 

losing their prestige and their power, they were condemned all over the world. 

The Italian asked the Englishman, ”If you had not been born British, how would you have felt?” 

And the Englishman said, ”I would have felt ashamed.” 

That’s why the British seem to be the most neurotic of all very much obsessed with being British, as if it is 

something very great. 

The same is the case with the Indians; they also suffer from the same chronic disease. They feel very proud of 

being Indian. They don’t think that anybody else in the world is really human; all are a little below. But that’s 

how everybody thinks deep down. 

When the first Westerners reached China, they wrote in their diaries that they could not believe the Chinese 

were human. Encountering such a different race for the first time it must have been difficult for them to accept 

them as human. And what about the Chinese? Their records say that looking at the Western people they were 

very much puzzled they had never thought that monkeys could talk like human beings!


Everybody tries to protect his insanity; hence it is difficult work. 

”Psychiatry is a lot of junk,” said one man to another. 

”Oh?” said his companion. ”Why do you say that?” 

”Well, today my psychiatrist told me that I am in love with my umbrella. Have you ever heard of anything so 

silly?” 

”It does sound rather daft.” 

”I mean, me and my umbrella certainly have a sincere affection for each other. But love? That is just ridiculous!” 

Affection is okay: ”... A certain affection between me and my umbrella, that’s okay, but love? That’s ridiculous!” 

Just watch yourself, the functioning of your mind, how you go on protecting, how you go on defending yourself. 

And what are you? Nothing but a bundle of insanities! 

These sutras are for the Bodhisattvas, for those who are going to work with the crowds, with the insane people. 

These are suggestions for them. Try to understand each single sutra as deeply as possible. 

HOLD YOUR TONGUE. 

Buddha says: Speak, but speak only when it is absolutely necessary. Speak, but speak only to those who are 

ready to listen. Don’t go on speaking to each and everybody; that is a sheer wastage. Speak only to the disciples 

because only a disciple is ready to risk. It is really a risk to transform yourself. It is a risk to encounter yourself. 

It is a risk to find yourself, to know yourself. It is a risk because by knowing yourself all your old projects will fall 

down to the dust, and your whole life that you have spent working for them will be gone down the drain. You 

will have to start from ABC, afresh. 

Unless you are very courageous you cannot make an effort to know yourself. Yes, you would like to know about 

yourself; that is cheap. Knowing about is cheap because it is only information, it is not transformation. But 

knowing oneself is transformation; it hurts, it cuts you. It has to cut many chunks out of your being which are 

unnecessary, which are only a drag on you, which are only an unnecessary weight and a barrier to your growth. 

And it hurts because it goes against your idea of yourself, your image of yourself. 

Hence Buddha says: Speak, but be alert speak only to those who are ready to listen. Speak only to those who 

are surrendered to listening. Otherwise: HOLD YOUR TONGUE. 

Buddha is asked thousand of questions by all kinds of people; he rarely answers. He answers only when a 

disciple asks. 

This happens here too every day. Many people ask questions who have come just for one day visitors, tourists, 

and immediately they ask great questions. I never answer their questions; they feel offended. They write angry 

letters: ”Why don’t you answer my questions?” I cannot answer your questions unless you are ready to listen, 

unless you are a disciple. 

A disciple means one who is ready to learn. If your question comes out of your knowledge I am not going to 

answer it; if it comes out of your innocence, certainly I am here to answer it. If you are asking only to be confirmed 

that whatsoever you think is right, I am not going to answer because I am not here to confirm all kinds of stupid 

ideologies. 

Somebody believes in UFO’s and goes on asking, ”What do you think about UFO’s?” Why should I think? I 

don’t think at all! 

Just a few days ago somebody was here who was asking about the theory of the hollow earth. I laughed at 

his question, I joked about his question. But people are so encapsulated in their knowledge. Back in America he 

wrote a letter thanking me, saying, ”Whatsoever you say, I know you believe in the theory of the hollow earth.” 

How does he know that I believe in the theory of the hollow earth? He gives the reason that it is impossible for 

an enlightened person not to believe. Now if I am to be an enlightened person I have to believe in the theory of 

the hollow earth. Buddha never heard about it and he was enlightened; Jesus never knew about it and he was 

enlightened. But this man writes a letter saying, ”You may joke, you may laugh at it, because you don’t want 

to say anything about it. There may be some reasons why you don’t want to talk about it, but I am absolutely 

certain that you know that it is so.” 

Even if you deny it, even if you laugh and joke, the people who are convinced of a certain idea, whatsoever it 

is, howsoever insane, absurd, will find ways and means to get support for it. If you don’t answer they will think 

you are not answering because other people, the common people, won’t understand it; it is such a subtle matter 

that only very few people can understand it. 

Now one woman has inquired, ”Beloved Master, what do you say? I feel I have become enlightened.” I never 

asked anybody. Why should you ask me? If you are enlightened, very good! Get lost! What are you doing here? 

Now become a Bodhisattva and help others to become enlightened. Go to California because there you will find 

so many enlightened people, and all confirming each other!


Buddha says: The first thing to remember when you move into the masses is to hold your tongue. 

Once he was convinced of the fact that people are in need of great help he insisted his whole life that, unless 

you find it absolutely contrary to your innermost nature, become a Bodhisattva. But there are a few people for 

whom it may be against their inner nature; then they have to remain arhatas. Don’t force them. Remember: 

people need help. If you can be of any help, do whatsoever you can, but if you cannot, if it feels simply something 

totally against your intrinsic nature, your inner voice, then forget all about it. 

An arhata also helps in his own way; without helping he helps by his presence. He remains in his silence, he 

lives his ordinary life without telling anybody anything, without manifesting his experience, without expressing 

his joy. He lives joyously, but he makes no deliberate effort to communicate. Still, a few sensitive souls will be 

attracted to him. They will start following him silently, they will sit by his side. He will not say anything; they 

will listen to his silence. If he has arrived then there is an aura around him; they will be nourished by this aura. 

If he has found his home there will be such peace radiating that you will be bathed in it, you will be blessed to 

be with him. He will be able to help you only indirectly. 

A hot and flustered city gent in his big car was hopelessly lost in a maze of country lanes. Spotting a local 

sitting on a gate, chewing a piece of straw, he drew up opposite and shouted, ”I say, my good man, can you tell 

me where this road goes to?” 

”No,” was the reply. 

”Can you tell me where that road goes to, that turns off to the left?” 

”No.” 

Getting quite a bit irritated the city gent yelled, ”Well, where does that road that goes off to the right go to?” 

”Don’t know,” was the reply. 

”You must be some sort of idiot!” yelled the frustrated gent. 

”Maybe,” said the cool man, ”but at least I know where I am.” 

This is the way of the arhata: he knows where he is. He will not say anything about any road, anything about 

any way, but he knows where he is and he is utterly contented with that. You can sit by his side, you can be 

nourished by his presence, but he is not going to make any direct effort. Indirectly... if you can drink out of his 

presence you are welcome, but he will not call you forth, he will not seek and search for you. 

Buddha says: Mostly it happens that fifty percent of the enlightened ones are arhatas and fifty percent are 

Bodhisattvas. That’s how nature keeps its balance on every plane. So don’t be worried if you feel one day that 

you have arrived, but there is no desire to help anybody; then don’t force it. Forcing it will be ugly, will be violent, 

will be destructive. If it is not there it is not there. Then God is happy with you as you are. 

But if you feel that there is a desire arising in you to help, to be compassionate, to hold somebody’s hand, to 

make a boat and take people to the further shore, then don’t be worried about the troubles. The troubles are 

there, but the world needs some people who can show the way, and only those who know can show the way. Even 

for them it is difficult. And the world is in immense need because it is being led by stupid people. It is being 

guided by politicians and priests, all kinds of people who don’t know what they are doing. That’s why it is always 

in such chaos. 

Mulla Nasruddin’s son came home late from school. The Mulla grabbed him and gave him a beating, saying, 

”Let this be a lesson to you not to come home late!” 

The next day the boy came home with his clothes dirty from playing. The Mulla gave him a good smacking, 

saying, ”Let this be a lesson to you not to dirty your clothes!” 

The following day the boy came home with bad grades. The Mulla beat him again, saying, ”Let this be a lesson 

to you not to get bad grades!” 

The fourth day, as soon as the son came home, the Mulla just grabbed him and beat him. 

”What is the matter, father?” asked the boy, crying. ”Today I came on time, with clean clothes, and with good 

grades!” 

”Let this be a lesson to you,” said Mulla Nasruddin. ”There is no justice in the world!” 

Now these are the people who have created the world and who are guiding it and who are teaching and who 

are bringing up new children to create more chaos in the world. 

Yes, Bodhisattvas are needed, but their path is far more arduous than the path of the arhatas. The mystic 

enjoys his bliss. He is like a beautiful roseflower, fragrant, dancing in the wind, in the sun, in the rain, but 

unconcerned about anything else. The Bodhisattva takes the burden of others on his shoulders. He tries to help 

people who are mostly incapable of taking any help, who are not only incapable of taking any help but who are 

also very stubborn in their refusal of it, who feel offended if you try to help them. 

That’s why Buddha says: HOLD YOUR TONGUE.


Be very conscious of what you are saying, to whom you are saying it, for a few reasons. The first: the truth that 

you have found cannot be said; language is inadequate. You can only indicate, you can only make a few gestures 

fingers pointing to the moon. You cannot argue for it. You can persuade, but you cannot convince anybody. It 

is not their experience, so don’t be angry if they don’t listen to you. If they go against you, don’t feel that they 

are ungrateful. They are simply behaving the way they can behave. You have to be very, very patient with them. 

You have to accept all kinds of abuse that they will throw on you. You have to accept their stones as flowers. 

Even if they kill you, you have to die loving them. 

That’s how Jesus died: with a prayer on his lips to God, ”Forgive them, for they know not what they are 

doing.” 

Secondly: to say the truth is to falsify it so try to say it indirectly; never make direct statements about it. 

Don’t say ”God is” or ”God is not.” These direct statements have created much confusion in the world; rather 

than helping people they have created conflict, wars, murders. Don’t make any direct statement about God or 

truth or nirvana. You have to be very, very subtle. You have to live in such a way that people become aware 

that you have attained something which is missing in their lives, that there is something more in life which is not 

available to them. That’s all that you can do. 

Speak not in prose but in poetry. Sing a song no syllogism is needed. Let your laughter and your joy trigger 

some process in them so that they can also start searching and seeking. Let you be the proof rather than making 

great arguments. A Bodhisattva is not a theologian, he does not argue for anything. He is the proof; he gives no 

other proof. 

Truth is something which is beyond words and beyond even meaning. It is closer to music. So let there be 

a music around you: HOLD YOUR TONGUE... otherwise your words may destroy the music. Silence is more 

musical, more eloquent. Words give to truth a certain meaning, naturally, because words have meanings. Meaning 

gives a frame to the truth which is infinite. 

It is like when you are looking from the window towards the starry sky and your window gives a frame to the 

sky. The sky has no frame; it begins nowhere, ends nowhere, but now your window is making a frame on the sky. 

That frame belongs to the window, but the person who has always lived inside the window and has never gone 

out of it will think that the sky is square like the window, that it has the same shape and form. 

People live in words, they have never known anything wordless, so give them an experience of wordlessness. 

Help them to meditate. Rather than giving them a doctrine give them an experience. 

Third: remember always, whatsoever you say is bound to be misunderstood by millions. So don’t feel offended, 

don’t feel angry, don’t feel judged. When they are misunderstanding you they are simply saying something about 

themselves, not about you. Unless you can remain cool with all kinds of misunderstandings being heaped upon 

you, you cannot be of any help to them; then you yourself will need help. 

Two very hippie hippies were walking down a country lane. 

One hippie turned to the other and asked, ”Did you shit in your pants?” 

”No,” replied the other. 

A little further down the lane the first hippie again asked the other, ”Are you sure you haven’t shit in your 

pants?” 

”Quite sure,” said the other. 

Further on down the lane the first hippie said, ”Come on, take down your pants and let me see.” 

When the other hippie had obliged, the first hippie exclaimed, ”There, I told you so!” 

”Oh,” said the other, ”I thought you meant today!” 

People understand according to themselves. 

Mulla Nasruddin was going to Italy, so I told him, ”Nasruddin, learn a little bit of Italian.” 

He said, ”I have done it. I have been taking lessons from Radha.” 

When he came back from Italy he was very angry. I said, ”What is the matter?” 

He said, ”One day I went-a to a big town to a big-a hotel. In-a the morning, I go down to breakfast. I tell-a 

the waitress, ’I wanna two piss toast.’ 

”She bring-a me only one piss. I tell-a her, ’I wanna two piss.’ 

”She say, ’Go to the toilet.’ 

”I say, ’No, you no understand I wanna two piss on-a my plate.’ 

”She say, ’You better no piss on-a the plate, you sonavabitch!’ 

”Later I go out to eat at a big-a restaurant. The waitress bring-a me a spoon and knife, but no fock. I tell-a 

her, ’I wanna fock.’ 

”She say, ’Everyone wanna fock.’


”I tell-a her, ’You no understand I wanna fock on-a the table.’ 

”She say, ’You better no fock on-a the table, you sonavabitch!’ 

”So I go to my room in-a hotel and there is no shits on-a my bed. I call-a the manager and tell-a him, ’I wanna 

shit.’ 

”He tell me, ’Go to the toilet.’ 

”I say, ’You no understand I wanna shit on-a the bed.’ 

”He say, ’You better no shit on-a the bed, you sonavabitch!’ 

”I go to check out and the man at the desk say, ’Peace to you.’ 

”I say, ’Piss on-a you too, you sonavabitch. I gonna go back home!’” 

When you are learning Italian, avoid Radha! I have also been learning from her, but since Mulla Nasruddin 

told me I have stopped it is dangerous! 

People have their own language, their own minds, their own prejudices, their own concepts, their own systems 

of philosophy, religion. When you talk to them you are talking to a mind which is full of garbage; you are not 

talking to somebody who is silent. And unless one is silent one is bound to misunderstand. Hence Buddha says: 

HOLD YOUR TONGUE. 

And the fourth reason is: truth is something existential, it is not philosophical. Philosophy can be talked about; 

in fact, you can’t do anything with philosophy except talk about it. About and about it goes, round and round 

it goes. The word ’about’ means round and round. But truth is existential. You have to help people to taste it. 

So talk only if you see that through talk you can persuade a person to meditate, to be silent. 

It is a very paradoxical effort, hence the difficulty. You have to talk to people to help them become silent. 

You have to talk about silence because people can’t understand silence directly. It is very absurd talking about 

silence, teaching people to be silent but that has to be done, particularly in the beginning. 

Second: DO NOT EXALT YOURSELF.... 

It is very natural when you become enlightened. It is not egoistic, it happens very naturally. It has nothing to 

do with the ego because if the ego is still there you cannot become enlightened. 

Buddha says: HOLD YOUR TONGUE. DO NOT EXALT YOURSELF... because when you become enlightened 

the ego HAS disappeared you can become enlightened only when you have fulfilled that condition but now 

the experience is so vast, so overflowing, so ecstatic that it starts expressing itself. You have to learn.... 

It is said of al-Hillaj Mansoor who was crucified like Jesus, in a far more inhuman and cruel way than Jesus 

himself it is said about him that the day he became enlightened, he shouted, ”Ana’l haq I am the truth! I am 

God!” 

His master, Junnaid, was present. He came close to him, whispered in his ear, ”Mansoor, keep it inside you. 

Please keep it inside you! Contain it! I know it is very difficult to contain it it is so vast, almost uncontainable. 

It expresses itself. I know you are not uttering it, it is being uttered by some unknown force, by God himself, but 

still I say to you, hold your tongue!” 

And Mansoor promised, ”I will hold my tongue.” He understood the point, but again and again he would forget. 

Again and again he would come into that same state of inner light, joy, bliss, and again the shout the lion’s roar, 

as Buddha used to call it would come out of him in spite of himself. 

He would come and apologize to Junnaid, his master, but the master would say, ”Mansoor, something has to 

be done; otherwise you are going to get into trouble unnecessarily. You could be of great help to humanity, but 

this way you will be unnecessarily in trouble. And not only you, you will stop my work too. It happened to me 

too, but I had to contain it and you have to contain it too.” 

But Mansoor was not capable of it. Junnaid sent him to Kaaba for a three-year pilgrimage. ”Maybe on this 

three-year-long journey, being with many mystics, he may cool down. The experience is so new; by and by he will 

become accustomed to it.” But he could not become accustomed to it; when he came back he was again in the 

same state. He was caught by the king, by the people... because it was a Mohammedan country and it was one 

of the greatest crimes, the greatest sins, to call oneself God, to declare oneself God. He was killed. 

For centuries it has been discussed among Sufis who was greater, Junnaid or Mansoor. Ordinarily one would 

say Mansoor: he was really a great martyr: he suffered and suffered laughingly. He died with laughter. Even 

Jesus had gone a little forsaken. When the last nail was put in his hands he looked at the sky and said, ”God, 

have you forsaken me? Have you forgotten me? Why is all this happening to me?” There must have been a little 

doubt, just a shadow of doubt. He understood immediately, he apologized. He said, ”No, forgive me. Let thy will 

be done.” But for a moment he had wavered. Mansoor never wavered.


And he was killed so mercilessly that Jesus’ crucifixion seems to be very humane compared to Mansoor’s. First 

his legs were cut off, then his hands were cut off, then his eyes were destroyed, then his tongue was cut off, then 

his head was cut off. But even though all this suffering was there he was all laughter. 

Before his tongue was cut off, somebody asked, ”Why are you laughing?” 

He said, ”I am laughing because you cannot destroy my experience; whatsoever you do is irrelevant. And I 

am laughing because you are killing one person and I am somebody else. You are such fools, that’s why I am 

laughing! And I am also laughing at God. I am laughing at him, ’You cannot deceive me. In whatsoever form 

you come I will recognize you. I recognize you in the butcher who has cut off my feet, who has cut off my hands. 

It is you who are in him, and nobody else.’” 

In fact, Junnaid seems to be a little cowardly; many people think that he was a little cowardly. Why should 

he tell Mansoor to keep it inside? But that is not true he was not a coward. In fact, he sacrificed far more than 

Mansoor. Mansoor’s sacrifice is apparent; Junnaid’s sacrifice is not apparent, it is very subtle. 

To contain the truth when it happens is a superhuman feat, it is a miracle. And he tries to contain it so that 

he can help people. He is a Bodhisattva and Mansoor is an arhata. He cares nothing for the work, he cares 

nothing for anybody else. He has attained, now there is no problem. Death is not a problem at all, he knows he 

is immortal. 

Junnaid is working silently, in the dark, to help people who are blind. And you don’t know his suffering. His 

suffering is that he has to contain something which is uncontainable. 

Buddha says: DO NOT EXALT YOURSELF.... Avoid any exaltation, avoid any declaration unless you find 

it is going to help, unless you find it is going to prepare the way; then it is okay. 

Buddha himself declared, ”I am the most perfect enlightened one.” He knew that this was going to help. But 

if Jesus had asked him he would have said, ”No, contain it,” because Jesus was in a wrong country with wrong 

people. To declare there that, ”I am God” was just asking for your death, nothing else. 

Jesus could only work for three years. Hence Christianity is so poor, because the master lived only three years. 

Up to his thirtieth year he was working for his own enlightenment. When he was ready he came out of the 

monasteries, started working, and then lived only three years. By the age of thirty-three he was crucified. Now, 

three years’ time is not enough at all. Buddha worked for forty-two years; even that is not enough. 

If Jesus had asked Buddha, Buddha would have told him, ”Keep quiet, work silently. Just be an ordinary rabbi. 

There is no need to declare that you are the Son of God. You know it, that’s enough; and God knows it, that’s 

enough.” 

But in India, Buddha himself declared it. It is a totally different milieu, it is a totally different climate. For 

centuries buddhas have happened in this country, they have prepared the way; hence it is very simple to declare, 

no problem. 

Still Buddha says: Be very cautious, because your function is to LIGHTEN THE WAY. Don’t create more 

trouble for people who follow you. They are already in trouble, they are living in hell. You have to make their 

burden light. 

FOR YOUR WORDS ARE SWEET. 

If your words come out of silence, compassion, understanding, out of absolute emptiness if your words don’t 

come from somebody who is extraordinary but from somebody who is just ordinary then they will be sweet and 

they will help people far more deeply than anything else. 

FOLLOW THE TRUTH OF THE WAY. 

What is the truth of the way? Buddha is always for experience and never for believing. He says: Whatsoever 

you have experienced, now follow it. Don’t believe it because it has been told by other buddhas; follow it only 

when you have experienced and follow it only to the extent that you have experienced. If you follow it to that 

extent, your light will fall a little further ahead and you will be able to follow in that light a little more and a 

little more. And just by a small lamp one can travel thousands of miles; one can pass the dark night of the soul 

very easily, howsoever long it is. 

And remember never to find a shortcut. Belief is a shortcut; experience is not a shortcut. 

Just a few days ago my samurai-in-chief, Shiva, had a fall from a wall. Now, a samurai is not supposed to be a 

Humpty-Dumpty! So I inquired, ”What happened?” I came to know that he was trying to find a shortcut from 

one house to another house by crossing the wall. And the shortcut turned out to be a long cut he had twelve 

stitches! 

Avoid shortcuts; shortcuts don’t help. There are no shortcuts in life. Life has to be lived in all its totality. A 

shortcut means you are avoiding a few things. You are jumping to the conclusion, avoiding the process, avoiding 

a few steps. You may reach the conclusion, but it will not be your conclusion. And if it is not your conclusion it


is of no value, it is borrowed. You are like a parrot. Even a parrot can be very knowledgeable, but that does not 

make him a buddha. 

Rastus, the hot, black Harlem stud, decided that he needed an exotic parrot for his classy apartment. 

After searching for some time, he finally found a pet shop that sold talking parrots. The shopkeeper showed 

him one for twenty-five dollars. 

”Polly wanna cracker?” inquired Rastus, to which the parrot did not respond. ”This parrot doesn’t talk,” said 

Rastus, ”I wants me a talking parrot. Do you have any others?” 

The owner said there was one for seventy-five dollars. He brought out a cage from behind the counter and 

uncovered a most attractive bird. 

”Polly wanna cracker?” asked Rastus again, and again there was no response. ”This parrot don’t talk!” shouted 

Rastus with annoyance. ”Don’t you have any birds that talk?” 

The shopkeeper told him that he did keep another one in the back room, but that it was quite expensive two 

hundred and fifty dollars. 

He brought out the most beautiful bird Rastus had ever seen, and he excitedly asked, ”Polly wanna cracker?” 

There was no response. Rastus was outraged. ”Do you or don’t you have any talking birds?” he asked. 

The shopkeeper hesitated and then replied that he did have one bird that was quite exceptional, and although 

he had not planned to sell it, for two thousand dollars he would consider it. He led Rastus to a room at the very 

back of the shop. There, surrounded by one of the most complete libraries Rastus had ever seen, was the parrot. 

He was sitting in an overstuffed chair under a reading lamp, book in his lap, wearing glasses, a smoking jacket 

and slippers. He was smoking a pipe, deeply involved in his reading. 

”Polly wanna cracker?” inquired Rastus breathlessly from the doorway. 

Slowly, slowly the parrot looked up from his reading and wryly responded, ”Nigger want a watermelon?” 

Even then a parrot is a parrot! 

Unless you have experienced, whatsoever beliefs you have are absolutely worthless. Hence Buddha says: FOL- 

LOW THE TRUTH OF THE WAY. He means that which you have experienced by moving on the way of 

meditation, REFLECT UPON IT. Before you start helping others, reflect upon the experience that has happened 

to you through meditation because it is one thing to experience, it is totally another to express. Meditation is 

not so difficult as expressing the experience of meditation and persuading people to meditate. Mystics have been 

many, masters are very few. 

A master has a golden touch. The moment he touches you, something in you starts growing. He is like a 

gardener who has green fingers. 

REFLECT UPON IT. MAKE IT YOUR OWN. 

Absorb it totally. Meditation in the beginning is just an experience and you are the experiencer. Slowly, slowly 

the distance between the experiencer and the experience disappears; it takes time. Unless the experience and the 

experiencer become one you cannot help others. Unless meditation becomes your very heartbeat you will not be 

able to persuade anybody. It is almost a seduction! MAKE IT YOUR OWN. 

LIVE IT. 

Before you start helping others, live it in all possible ways. Walk meditatively, eat meditatively, sit meditatively, 

even sleep meditatively. Let meditation be spread all over your life. It should become a twenty-four-hour 

phenomenon, like breathing so much so that you need not remember to meditate. It becomes so much your own 

that it is always there like an undercurrent. Only then can you help. 

LIVE IT. 

IT WILL ALWAYS SUSTAIN YOU. 

DO NOT TURN AWAY WHAT IS GIVEN YOU.... 

Remember, meditation will give you many joys, many blessings, many gifts will descend on you. 

DO NOT TURN AWAY WHAT IS GIVEN YOU. Don’t be a miser in receiving. People are miserly in giving, 

they are miserly in receiving too. When great gifts descend on you, you shrink away, you back away; you become 

afraid because those great gifts are so great that you feel you may be drowned. When bliss comes to you it is like 

a flood. 

Hence Buddha says: DO NOT TURN AWAY WHAT IS GIVEN YOU... because if you turn it away you will 

miss the opportunity, and it may not knock on your door again for a long time. One never knows when the 

moment will come again. So whenever something happens to you in meditation, open your heart. Even if you 

are afraid of the unknown, still go into the unknown. And go dancing, go joyously, because in meditation nothing 

wrong can ever happen to you. In meditation, only blessings are possible. 

NOR REACH OUT FOR WHAT IS GIVEN TO OTHERS....


But that’s how our minds function. Even when the minds are gone, even when the snake is no more, it leaves 

its trace on the sand. People become more interested in what is happening to others. Rather than receiving that 

which is happening to them they start becoming interested in what is happening to others; they start striving for 

those things. 

Remember, that which is happening to you is yours and that which is not happening to you, you are not yet 

ripe for; and it cannot happen before its time, so don’t hanker for it. Wait. Keep yourself as patient as possible. 

Receive whatsoever comes and don’t hanker for that which does not come on your way; it will come. 

... LEST YOU DISTURB YOUR QUIETNESS. 

You can disturb your quietness in two ways. One: by refusing that which comes to you, out of fear. And two: 

by asking for that which has not come to you, out of ambition. 

GIVE THANKS.... 

For all that comes to you, be grateful. 

... FOR WHAT HAS BEEN GIVEN YOU, HOWEVER LITTLE. BE PURE, NEVER FALTER. 

Whenever Buddha uses the word ’pure’ he always means innocent. Don’t become knowledgeable. Even if you 

have come to know yourself, don’t become knowledgeable. Even if you have encountered God, don’t become 

knowledgeable. Whatsoever you have known, forget all about it. Become again innocent. Remain always in the 

state of not-knowing, then much more will go on happening to you. 

What ordinarily happens when you move into meditation is that something happens, but you don’t feel grateful; 

on the contrary, you feel this is your due in fact it should have happened long ago. You are such a worthy person, 

so virtuous, so holy, and you have done so much; why should you be grateful? 

That is a wrong approach; that means you are stopping the process. In gratefulness much more will come to 

you. So even if a little glimpse comes to you, feel grateful. Just a ray of light and feel grateful, as if the whole sun 

has come to you. And the whole sun will be coming, following the ray. But if you are not grateful you become 

closed; even the ray will disappear and you will again be in your darkness, back in your darkness. 

And remember to remain always in the state of not-knowing. Don’t start becoming knowledgeable, don’t 

start philosophizing, don’t start creating systems of thought. This happens; that’s why Buddha is making his 

Bodhisattvas alert. 

I would like you to remember these sutras because many of you at least fifty percent of you are going to 

become Bodhisattvas sooner or later. So remember these sutras they are for you. I am not interested in The 

Dhammapada, I am interested in you! I am speaking for you! The Dhammapada is just an excuse. I would like 

to say the same things to you, but Buddha has said them so beautifully, so poetically that I don’t see any need 

to say them on my own; I can just comment on him because the truth is eternal and it remains the same forever. 

Avoid philosophizing when you enter into the world of meditation. It arises, it arises inevitably the itch to 

philosophize because so many beautiful things are happening and you would like to create systems of thought 

around them. All these philosophies in the world have arisen in this way. Something, just a little, had happened, 

and they started creating a big palace out of that. Just a brick was there and they made a big house, a palace, 

just an imaginary palace, out of it. Even the brick is lost in that imaginary palace. 

Three small mice were sitting in front of their holes in a field. They were in a sad mood, as they silently watched 

the birds flying from one tree to another. After a while one mouse said, ”It must be wonderful to be a bird and 

to fly in the sky.” 

All three mice pondered about it for a long time and became more sad. 

Eventually the second mouse said, ”It would be very nice to be one bird, but it would be even nicer to be two 

birds. If you were two birds you could fly behind yourself.” 

The mice thought about this even longer and they became even sadder than before. 

After a long time the third mouse said, ”The most beautiful feeling must be to be three birds, because then 

you could watch yourself fly behind yourself!” 

This is what philosophy is. People just go on thinking things which are nowhere. But you can enjoy it. 

Philosophy is enjoyed by many people for the simple reason that everybody can afford it. If these three mice can 

afford it, what about man? Every man is a philosopher. 

Buddha is very much against philosophy. He says philosophy corrupts, it makes you knowledgeable without 

making you a knower it makes you knowledgeable. It brings impurity; it pollutes your inner being. Be pure and 

never falter from your purity. 

If you want to help people, these sutras have to be remembered constantly. Meditate over them, make them 

your own, live them. They will always sustain you; they are a great nourishment. 

Enough for today.



Chapter 2 In a right moment 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY CAN’T I TAKE SANNYAS? I GO ON THINKING AND THINKING AND 

THINKING. 

Richard, sannyas has nothing to do with thinking at all. It is the crazy man’s way to enlightenment! By 

thinking you can never come to a decision as far as sannyas is concerned. Thinking, at the most, can only help 

you to postpone it, and you can go on postponing it ad infinitum. Thinking, in fact, is a process of postponement. 

Sannyas is not something that you can think about. You don’t know it, you have not experienced it. Thinking 

moves within the world of the known; it has no approach towards the unknown, no bridge with the unknown. And 

sannyas is unknown for you. You may have seen sannyasins; that does not mean that you know what sannyas is. 

By seeing lovers you cannot know what love is. By seeing meditators you cannot know what meditation is. There 

are things which are known only existentially. 

Sannyas is not a philosophical phenomenon, it is something existential. You have to take the jump... then think 

later on, then think as much as you want, to your heart’s content. But once you have tasted it, then there is no 

way of going back. 

Thinking is part of the head and sannyas happens in the heart; it is a love affair. It is utterly mad, as mad as 

love or even madder, because love happens biologically and sannyas happens spiritually. 

Sannyas happens only to a very few, rare human beings. Love is ordinary; it happens to animals, to birds, even 

to trees. It is nothing special. Religion is absolutely supernatural: it surpasses your instinctive world. But our 

hearts are not functioning, and the head cannot work in the place of the heart. 

That’s what you are doing, Richard. You can go on doing it, but you will never arrive in the world of sannyas. 

The head is impotent; it cannot act because it is never spontaneous. It is only the heart that acts. The head only 

reacts; the head only goes on repeating the past. You have not been a sannyasin before, so how can you think 

about it? What can you think about it? There is no base to begin with. 

Only the heart is courageous enough to take a jump into the unknown, into the unfamiliar. But with the 

unfamiliar open up millions of possibilities. With the unknown you start growing. With the known you go on 

moving in circles. Be a little heartful, not so thoughtful. 

Richard, your name means hard. Transcend hardness, become a little soft, a little more feminine, a little more 

round. Losing a few corners will be of tremendous help. Logic is hard, love is soft. Logic is square, love is hip! 

Logic is always a coward; it thinks and thinks before it acts. And, in fact, by the time it comes to act it is already 

too late; the moment has passed. 

Life is not static. It won’t stand still for you, it won’t wait for you. Who knows? Tomorrow I may stop giving 

sannyas then what? Then you will have missed the train! And remember, the sannyas I am giving to you nobody 

else can give to you. Gather a little courage. Today is the day! 

The two skeletons in the corner closet were grumbling about the heat, the dust, the boredom. 

”What are we staying here for anyhow?” one asked. 

”Damned if I know,” the second skeleton answered. ”I would leave in a minute if I had any guts.” 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM MORE AFRAID OF LIVING THAN OF DYING. IS IT POSSIBLE? 

Yogananda, it must be possible if it is happening to you! Do you think you are managing the impossible? In 

fact, it is a very common phenomenon, nothing extraordinary about it very normal. Nobody is more afraid of 

dying than of living. The fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of life. 

That’s why thousands of people around the earth commit suicide, and many more think many times in their 

lives of committing suicide. Many try but are prevented; many try but try halfheartedly. But very few people try 

to live. The number of people who try to live life is much less than those who try to commit suicide or actually 

commit suicide. 

The man who lives life becomes a buddha. How many buddhas do you have? They can be counted on your 

fingers. Only once in a while is there a man like Jesus, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu. Centuries pass; millions of people 

come and go, then only is there a man who really lives, authentically lives, lives to the utmost, lives fearlessly. 

Then what are the others doing? Their life is not life; on the contrary, it is a constant avoidance of life. They 

are simply protecting themselves from life. They are hiding in their black holes in the name of security, safety, 

comfort. They are simply trying to evade life.


You can watch yourself have you lived? You can watch others around you are they really living? People only 

become aware that they were alive when they die. When death knocks on your door, suddenly you become aware: 

”My God, I was alive! And now death has come.” But when death comes, millions of people feel relieved relieved 

of the burden, of the anxiety, of the constant fear of life. 

Death has no fear in it. When you are no more, what fear can there be? Death cannot hurt you life can hurt 

you. Life hurts because one needs to be very intelligent, alert, to live. If you live unconsciously, life is bound to be 

a painful experience, an agony. Life can be ecstatic too, but only when you are alert, aware. Life is an opportunity, 

but it demands; it is a challenge, it is an adventure, a moment-to-moment adventure into the uncharted. 

You cannot be imitators if you really want to live. You cannot be Christians and Hindus and Mohammedans. 

If you really want to live you have to be yourself simply yourself. You cannot be anybody else; that is a way of 

avoiding true life. 

God never repeats. He creates each and every individual unique, absolutely unique. You are not manufactured 

like cars on an assembly line. Hence Jesus will never be again, Krishna will never be again, howsoever beautiful 

they were. God does not believe in carbon copies; he always creates individuals. He is a creator and no creator 

would like to repeat. 

But that’s what you have been told to do, and you are doing it. Somebody is trying to be like Krishna or like 

Confucius or like Mohammed; these have become your ideals. Then you go on missing that which you are and 

that is the only way you can be. You become pseudo. Yes, to be pseudo seems to be a little more comfortable 

than to be original, because you can adjust to a pseudo society more easily, more comfortably. When everybody 

is false like you, you can easily become part of the crowd. When you are true and authentic, living your life on 

your own, in your own light, with no blueprints given by others to you by the parents, by the priests, by the 

politicians when you are moving every day into the unknown with no idea of what is going to happen, with great 

creativity, sensitivity, awareness, but with no fixed ideology; when you are exploring newer pastures, new peaks 

of being, then certainly you are no more a part of the crowd. 

And the crowd hates individuals for the simple reason that they are so different. It hates them because they 

are rebels. It hates them because they cannot be enslaved easily; in fact, it is impossible to enslave them. It hates 

them for their intelligence, it hates them for their joy, it hates them for their creativity. It wants to destroy them. 

Yogananda, that’s why people are afraid of life: life has many dangers. The path of life is full of hazards. One 

never knows what is going to happen the next moment; everything is possible. You cannot live with expectations 

because life has no obligation to fulfill your desires. You can live with an open heart, but you cannot live with 

expectations. The more expectations you have, the more frustrated you will be. 

And then you can go astray. In death, nobody can go astray; in life you can go astray. In life you can commit 

errors, mistakes. In fact, if you really want to live you will have to commit many errors and many mistakes. 

Remember it: never be afraid of committing errors and mistakes; otherwise you will be paralyzed because of the 

fear. Go on committing mistakes and errors. Remember only one thing: don’t commit the same mistake again. 

Once is enough. Invent new mistakes, discover new errors! Don’t go on falling in the same ditch find new ditches! 

By committing mistakes, by going astray, you grow. That’s the only way to grow. 

Life is dangerous; death is very cozy, very comfortable. Lying down in your grave, what danger is there? There 

is no problem, no anxiety. You can’t go bankrupt, your wife cannot leave you, you cannot die anymore. You are 

so safe in death! Life is not safe anything is possible. Life is full of accidents. Some madman may cut off your 

head...! 

I have heard: 

A great psychoanalyst was reading, sitting in his garden underneath a tree, and his only daughter, just eight, 

nine years old was playing with one of her friends on the lawn. Suddenly she hit her friend on the head with a 

stick so hard that blood started coming out of her head. The psychoanalyst rushed over, but before he could say 

anything his daughter turned towards him and asked, ”Daddy, now tell me why I did this!” 

She must have been hearing again and again that her father goes on finding reasons for every act, unconscious 

reasons and this and that, so now she asks, ”Now tell me why I have done this.” 

Life can do anything and you cannot even ask why: you have to accept it. There is nobody to answer. Hence 

the fear, Yogananda. You say, ”I am more afraid of living than of dying.” 

Everybody is more afraid of living; that’s why people are dead. People die nearabout the age of thirty. Of 

course, they are not put into their graves at that time; they go to their graves nearabout seventy, eighty. The 

fifty years between their death and their entry into the grave are just a drag. It is a miracle to see dead people 

walking, talking, doing all kinds of things. It certainly is a miracle!


Love life. That’s why to me life is the only religion, the only god. Live life in its totality. And the beauty is 

that if you live life in its totality there is no death. The body is bound to die one day, but you are not the body. 

If you have lived your life totally, if you have loved your life totally, you will have come across the eternal in you. 

That is the meeting with God. That is the encounter with truth that transcends time. And to know it is to know 

bliss; to know it is to know all that is worth knowing. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, DO YOU CALL THIS PLACE A PUB? A PUB! I HAVE BEEN HANGING AROUND 

THIS PUB FOR TWO YEARS AND I STILL CAN’T GET THE RIGHT BEER! 

Niranjan, Perce walked in to where the Last Supper was being held, sat down at the table and said to the 

waiter, ”Give me a scotch and soda!” 

”I am sorry, sir,” said the waiter, ”all we are serving is wine.” 

”Okay, give me a nice steak with a baked potato and salad.” 

”Sorry, but all we are serving is bread.” 

”Holy mackerel! Only bread and wine! The guy who is giving this party ought to be crucified!” 

Niranjan, please don’t crucify me! This is not the Last Supper! And if you cannot find the right beer, the 

reason is because you are not the right person. You are so full of beer already, how can you find the right beer? 

How can you manage to know what is right and what is wrong? I don’t think that in Niranjan’s veins there is 

blood just beer! Go to the Medical Center and be examined. You can’t have blood in your veins: you are really 

full of beer! 

If some cannibals ever find you they will dance with joy. They will have found the right beer! And they are 

not going to kill you or cook you they will sip you! 

Michael picked up a blonde at a bar and after quite a few drinks they went to a hotel room and made love. 

In the middle of the night Michael woke up to go to the bathroom and noticed that the woman had taken off a 

wooden leg and laid it by the bed. 

As the girl slept Michael began fiddling with its springs and braces and finally found he had taken the wooden 

leg apart and could not put it back together again. 

He went out into the hall and stopped a man perfumed with booze, saying, ”Can you help me? I’ve got a 

woman in my room with one leg apart and I can’t seem to get it back together.” 

”Hell!” said the drunk, ”I got a woman in my room with both legs apart and I can’t even find the goddamn 

room!” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, DOES THE SEEKER HAVE TO SUFFER INEVITABLY ON THE WAY? 

Deva Louis, it all depends. Growth in itself has no suffering in it; suffering comes from your resistance towards 

growth. Suffering is created by you because you resist continuously, you don’t allow it to happen. You are afraid 

to go totally with it; you go only halfheartedly. Hence the suffering because you become divided, you become 

split. A part of you cooperates and a part of you is against it, resists it. This conflict inside you creates suffering. 

So drop the idea many people have that idea that you have to suffer if you are to grow. It is sheer nonsense. If 

you cooperate totally there is no suffering at all. If you are in a let-go, instead of suffering you will rejoice. Every 

moment of it will be a moment of bliss and benediction. 

So don’t throw the responsibility on growth. Our mind is very tricky and cunning: it always throws the 

responsibility on somebody, on something; it never takes the responsibility on itself. You are the cause of suffering. 

If you can remember three things.... The first is: drop the past if you want to grow, because it is from the past 

that resistance arises. You are always judging from the past. The past is no more, it is absolutely irrelevant, but 

it goes on interfering. You go on judging according to it; you go on saying, ”This is right and that is wrong,” and 

all those ideas of right and wrong, all those judgments are coming from something which is dead. Your dead past 

remains so heavy on you that it does not allow you to move. 

Drop the past completely and you will be surprised: much of the suffering has disappeared. 

The second thing to remember is: don’t create expectations for the future. If you are expecting, then again 

you will create suffering, because things are not going to happen according to you; things are going to happen 

according to the whole. The wave, the small wave in the ocean, cannot be the deciding factor. The ocean decides; 

the wave has to be in a state of let-go. If the wave wants to go to the east, then there is going to be trouble, then 

there is going to be pain. If the winds are not going to the east, if the ocean is not willing, then what is the wave 

going to do? It will suffer. It will call it fate, it will call it circumstances, social conditions, the economic structure,


the capitalist society, the bourgeois culture, the Freudian unconscious... and now you will call it growing pains. 

But you are simply shifting the responsibility. 

The real thing is that you are suffering from your expectations. When they are not fulfilled and they are never 

going to be fulfilled frustration arises, failure arises, and you feel neglected, as if existence does not care for you. 

Drop expectations for the future. Remain open, remain available to whatsoever happens, but don’t plan ahead. 

Don’t make any psychological, fixed ideas about the future that things should be like this and much more 

suffering will disappear. These two are the root causes of suffering. 

And the third is: the Human Potential movement lacks something essential. It tries to help you to grow, but 

it has not yet been able to create a meditative space in you. So there is constant struggle, effort, will, but no 

relaxation, no rest. Hence the third thing to be remembered and all suffering will disappear: create meditative 

energy, create a meditative space within you. Western methods lack that something which is very essential. 

That’s why here in my commune the effort is to use all the Western methods side by side with all the Eastern 

methods. This may be the only place in the whole world today where East and West are really meeting, and 

not meeting in a diplomatic way as they meet in the UN. Here they are really merging not politically, not 

diplomatically, because a diplomatic meeting is not a meeting, it is only a facade, it is pseudo. It is a love meeting 

that is happening here. For the first time East and West are in a love affair. 

The West has grown a few very important methods: gestalt, encounter, primal, bio-energetics and many more. 

The East has also grown many methods: zazen, Vipassana, Sufi whirling, yoga, Tantra. Their approaches are 

different, so different that both are only halves of one whole; hence both lack something. The Eastern methods 

can create a meditative space, but they make you so introverted that you start escaping from life; all Eastern 

methods have proved escapist in the past. You want to go to a monastery, you want to go to the Himalayas, you 

want to go to a cave somewhere and to live alone. They teach you how to be alone, joyously alone but then 

something is missed. 

Life is also relationship, life is also togetherness, life is also communion. It is beautiful to be blissful when you 

are alone, but that is only half the story; you should be blissful also when you are together with someone. And 

when you are blissful with someone, the bliss reaches a higher peak. When you are alone you are like a solo flute 

player; when you are blissful together in relationship, the music is more like an orchestra. 

The West has created methods which give you more impetus to be extroverts. They allow you methods, skills 

to relate, and to enjoy relationship. They are love methods, but something is missing. You enjoy relationship, 

but whenever you are alone... and essentially you are alone. You are born alone and you will die alone, and at 

the deepest core of your being you are always alone. So on the surface you remain happy, but deep down a subtle 

current of misery continues. You cannot encounter yourself, you cannot face yourself, you cannot meet yourself. 

The West has failed because all that it has developed is extroversion; the East has failed because all that it has 

developed is introversion. And man is neither extrovert nor introvert. 

I would like it to be on record that Carl Gustav Jung’s typology is absolutely wrong. Man cannot be divided 

so easily into categories that somebody is an extrovert and somebody is an introvert because man is a totality, a 

wholeness. He has an inside and he has an outside, and both have to be nourished and both have to be fulfilled. 

So if you are only following Western methods you will be going through much pain because you will not be able 

to create a meditative space through them. If you are following only Eastern methods you will be able to create 

a meditative space, but you will become absolutely useless in the world, and you will miss the enrichment that 

comes with communion with other human beings. 

My effort here is to create the first synthesis between extroversion and introversion and help man to become 

so capable of both, together, simultaneously, so easily able to move from extroversion to introversion and from 

introversion to extroversion, that there is no need to divide man into such categories. Man can become so fluid. 

It is as simple as when you come out of your house: you don’t think that you are becoming extrovert coming 

out of your house. When you feel it is cold inside and outside there are no clouds and it is so sunny, you come 

out, but you don’t think at all. You don’t decide, ”Now I want to be an extrovert.” Or when the sun becomes too 

hot and you start feeling the heat, you don’t make a deliberate decision, ”I should go in. Now I want to be an 

introvert.” No, when the sun is too hot you simply move in! And when inside it is cold you come out. Coming out 

of your house or going into the house is not a problem at all, because you are free from the inner and the outer. 

My effort here is to help you to be free from the inner and the outer, because you are neither the inner nor the 

outer, you are something transcendental to both. The inner and the outer are just parts of your personality; it is 

the house in which you live which has an outside and an inside. But your awareness has no inside and no outside. 

So these three things are to be remembered: drop the past, drop future expectations, and third, create a 

synthesis between extroversion and introversion... and all misery disappears.


Deva Louis, it is not inevitable for a spiritual seeker to suffer. You suffer because you are not aware of your 

own responsibility. It is not because of growth that you suffer. You suffer because you are unconscious of your 

resistance, of your past-orientation, of your future expectations, and you are unaware that you don’t have any 

meditative space within you. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, IS IT POSSIBLE TO MISS THE PERFECT JEWEL? IS IT POSSIBLE? 

Prem Maitri, it depends how conscious you are. If you are conscious it is impossible to miss. If you really 

know the perfect jewel, if you recognize it, if it is your own vision, your own understanding, it is impossible to 

miss it. But it may not be so. You may have heard others say, ”This is a perfect jewel”; it may be a borrowed 

understanding. Then it is not only possible to miss it, it is absolutely inevitable that you will miss it it is 

impossible not to miss it. 

If you come across a buddha and you pay your respects just because others are paying their respects, because 

others are saying, ”He is a buddha, he is enlightened, he is awakened,” you will miss. But if you have even a 

glimpse of your own into the being of the buddha, just a little taste of his milieu, just a small experience of his 

perfume, that’s enough; it is impossible to miss. Then no force in the world can distract you. But it has to be 

your own experience. And we are so unconscious that nothing seems to be our own experience. 

People say that Jesus is Christ, so you believe it. But the people who crucified him, they could not see anything 

in him; otherwise, do you think it would have been possible for them to crucify a man like Jesus? They crucified 

him so easily. No problem was felt; their conscience was not disturbed. They did it just as they used to kill 

criminals every year. The day they crucified Jesus they also crucified two thieves. They treated all three persons 

in the same way; in fact, they treated the thieves in a far more human way because the thieves were more like 

them. 

Thousands of people had gathered to see. Nobody was crying, nobody was weeping, nobody had any pain in 

the heart. Even Jesus’ own disciples had escaped, fearing that they may be caught. 

When the people had gone when the show was over and Jesus was almost dead on the cross, three soldiers 

were there just playing cards. They were on duty so nobody could steal the dead body of Jesus. So just sitting 

underneath the cross they were playing cards! 

And Maitri, you ask, ”Is it possible to miss the perfect jewel?” 

Those three soldiers were just people like you. Of course, now you will think, ”Those soldiers must have been 

utterly stupid, great sinners, unconscious, not knowing what they were doing we could not have done it,” because 

now you have heard for two thousand years continuous propaganda that Jesus was Christ. But Jews still don’t 

think that he was Christ; they still think that he was a charlatan, that he was a deceiver, that he was a false 

messiah. Two thousand years’ continuous propaganda has not helped at all; they have kept on clinging to their 

idea. 

Do you think you would have recognized Buddha? Now, of course because now twenty-five centuries have 

passed and Buddha has become bigger and bigger, so huge; he looms large on the horizon like a beautiful sunrise 

you cannot believe that people could have missed him. But they were missing him! Even his own father could 

not recognize that he was enlightened; even his own wife could not recognize that he was enlightened. There were 

only a few people who had the courage to recognize him because to recognize him means you have to change 

your life-style, to recognize him means you can’t remain the same anymore. To recognize a buddha as a buddha 

means you are waking up. 

The big cafeteria was crowded. A long line of people carrying trays was slowly moving along the counter when 

someone shouted, ”Fire! McGinty’s house is on fire!” 

Came the crash of a tray of dishes as an Italian near the front of the line made a mad dash out of the restaurant, 

around the corner, and up the side street, bumping into people and knocking several of them down as he worked 

his way homeward. 

Then, just as suddenly, after he had narrowly escaped death several times, the man stopped short, clapped his 

hand to his head and moaned, ”Hey, what am I doing? My name ain’t McGinty!” 

People are living in such unconsciousness. What to say about recognizing a buddha? you don’t even know 

who you are! 

Maitri, it is possible to miss the perfect jewel if you are not aware. But if you are aware then it is impossible. 

It all depends on your awareness. 


Question 6


BELOVED MASTER, DID GOD REALLY MAKE THE WORLD, AND JUST IN SIX DAYS? 

Sujata, looking at the world, one thing is certain: it has been made in a hurry. Whoever made it, it is in such 

a mess that it must have been made in six days. Whether God made it or not I cannot say, because if you look 

at the world it seems more like a creation of the devil than of God! 

Man is so destructive, so violent, so mad, that it is very improbable that God made this kind of mind. Either 

the devil made it or it was only the first time that God was making it so he made many mistakes. And he became 

so afraid of his own creation that he has not tried again. It seems he has escaped! Seeing what he has done he 

must have become frightened. 

The story is that he made trees and mountains and rivers and animals. On the sixth day he made man and 

since then he has not made anything. It seems man brought him to his senses: ”What are you doing?” He simply 

stopped absolutely. 

But, Sujata, why do such questions bother you? It is none of your business! One thing is certain: you have not 

made it, so why should you be worried? You are not responsible, I am not responsible either I have not made it. 

So why should we waste our time with it? There are many crazy people who have nothing else to do leave it for 

them to think about. These are great subjects; one can go on thinking about them for ever and ever; they are 

unending. That’s why philosophy begins but never ends, theology begins but never ends. It goes in circles. Each 

answer brings more questions than it answers. 

If I say, ”Yes, God made it,” then immediately many questions will arise: ”Why did he make it in the first 

place? Why did he not ask us whether we wanted to be made or not? This seems to be such a dictatorial act, not 

democratic at all people are being made without even asking them! And why did he make this kind of world when 

he is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient? He must have seen what was going to happen, he must have seen 

the future. He must have seen that there would be Genghis Khan and Tamerlane and Adolf Hitler and Mussolini 

and Tojo; he must have seen all these people. He must have seen that man would fight thousands of wars. He 

must have seen that sooner or later man would discover atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs and deathrays and 

whatnot. Then why did he create this world? Is he a sadist? Is he enjoying all this misery? And millions of 

people live in such misery and what does he go on doing? Can’t he come and help?” 

In scriptures it is said... in the Shrimad Bhagavadgita Krishna declares: I will come whenever there is too much 

misery. Is it not enough, the misery that man is living in now? When is he going to come? And what did he do 

when he really came? He didn’t help anybody. In fact, in his days the greatest war in India was fought. If we 

believe the scriptures, so many people died in that war... the whole of India could not have contained so many 

people. Even now the whole world contains only three times as many. It must have been some war! Today it 

would have been one person out of three; in those days, five thousand years ago, the population was not so large. 

It could have been the end of the whole of humanity. What kind of help was that? 

And God comes in Jesus: he sends his only begotten Son to save humanity. Nobody seems to have been saved. 

Jesus could not even save himself he was crucified! The savior was crucified by those for whom he had come; he 

had come to save them. 

Thousands of questions will arise. Leave these questions to mad people. 

Two inmates of a Michigan mental institution were chatting in the recreation room. The first loony said, ”Don’t 

talk to me, I am Napoleon!” 

”What do you mean, you are Napoleon?” asked the second nut. 

”I told you not to speak to me. I am Napoleon.” 

”How do you know you are Napoleon?” 

”God told me I am Napoleon.” 

A little voice from the corner piped, ”I did not!” 

Leave such theological problems to nuts! 

Some visitors to an insane asylum were being shown around by a guard. 

”You see that man over there?” said the guard. ”He thinks he is the Lord.” 

One of the visitors approached the lunatic and asked, ”Did you really make the earth in seven days?” 

The nut sneered at him, ”I’m not in the mood to talk shop!” 

Sujata, these are not really religious questions, although religious people have been talking about these questions 

for centuries because religion has been dominated by lunatics for centuries. 

The really religious questions are concerned with you, with your unconsciousness and how to transform your 

unconsciousness into consciousness. Real religion is not metaphysical; it is rooted in psychology, it is psychological, 

because real religion means a way to transcend the mind. Unless you understand the mind you cannot transcend 

it.



Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, ”HOLD YOUR MOUTH,” YOU SAID. DIFFICULT! ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR 

AN ITALIAN. MY APPROACH TO THE BODHISATTVAHOOD IN THESE DAYS IS CONTAINED IN THIS 

LITTLE STORY THAT HAS BEEN HAUNTING ME FOR MONTHS: THERE IS THIS LITTLE MAN (ANY- 

ONE) THAT I MEET IN A STREET (ANYWHERE) AND HE LOOKS VERY MISERABLE, LIKE ALL THE 

LITTLE MEN EVERYWHERE... AND SEEING ME AFTER A LONG TIME, HE SAYS, ”HEY, YOU LOOK 

GREAT!” ”HMM,” I REPLY, ”I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THE SAME THING ABOUT YOU, BUT YOU LOOK 

SO SAD!” ”WELL, YOU KNOW MY LIFE... I FEEL SO MISERABLE. BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU? HOW 

COME YOU LOOK SO RADIANT?” ”WELL,” I SAY TO HIM WITH A SMILE, ”I HAVE FOUND A MAS- 

TER.” ”AH!” HE LOOKS AT ME SADLY. ”AND WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?” SO PLEASE, YOU AND 

THE OTHER GUY, BUDDHA, DON’T TELL ME TO HOLD MY MOUTH. I CAN’T BEAR THIS LITTLE 

MAN KNOCKING EVEN WHEN I AM DANCING, AND ASKING, ”WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?” 

Sarjano, now you have told him, what happened? The little man has not come to me yet. Just your telling 

him is not going to make any difference; he will simply think that you are crazy. 

The miserable people think that if you are looking blissful you are mad. They can’t believe that anybody can be 

blissful; that is beyond their grasp. Their whole life is such a misery, how can they believe there is any possibility 

of being blissful? unless you are mad. If you tell them that you have found a master they may not say anything to 

your face, but behind your back they will laugh at you; they will think something has gone wrong. They are not 

going to believe you. How can one become blissful by finding a master? They can’t see any relatedness between 

their problems and finding a master. If their wives are nagging them to death, how is finding a master going to 

change it? Now the master will nag you more! If they are suffering from nightmares and everybody is suffering 

from nightmares, day in, day out how is finding a master going to help? They can’t make any sense out of the 

statement. 

I can understand your difficulty, Sarjano. It is very difficult to keep silent when you know the answer, but part 

of being a Bodhisattva is to learn the art of being silent. Let them ask again and again. Let them feel that your 

bliss is not just something crazy, that your bliss is something real, authentic. Let them feel it of their own accord. 

Let them come and knock at your doors again and again. 

Only in a right moment, when you see that they can understand, when you feel that their hearts are open, 

when you see a real thirst, a longing in them, when a search has arisen in them, only then tell them; otherwise 

you will simply be wasting your breath. And if you go on telling everybody and nobody listens, sooner or later 

you will feel very tired of the whole thing. 

Buddha is right that guy is almost always right. Of course, he was not talking to Italians! That was not his 

problem, that is my problem! But I know how to manage it. 

Truth insists that it should be spoken, although it cannot be spoken that is the paradox but it insists that it 

should be spoken. 

When you know and you see that others can be helped, it is impossible to resist the temptation to tell them 

but that is part of being a Bodhisattva. 

Somebody else has asked: ”Beloved Master, you say fifty percent of enlightened people become arhatas and fifty 

percent become Bodhisattvas. Still you say again and again that there are many mystics but very few masters 

there seems to be a contradiction in it...?” 

There is no contradiction in it. Yes, apparently there is, but only apparently. Not all Bodhisattvas are masters. 

The Bodhisattva is one who tries to help others; the master is one who succeeds in helping others. Just trying 

does not mean that you will succeed. Many try, very few succeed. Whosoever attains truth is bound to have the 

temptation to tell it. If he is not by nature an arhata then he will try to say it to each and everybody, and he 

will be thought just crazy. Communication is a difficult art, and communicating the ultimate truth is the most 

difficult phenomenon in the world. A master is one who waits for the right time. 

Many people have asked me why I kept silent although I became enlightened in 1953. For almost twenty years 

I never said anything about it to anybody, unless somebody suspected it himself, unless somebody said to me on 

his own, ”We feel that something has happened to you. We don’t know what it is, but one thing is certain: that 

something has happened and you are no more the same as we are and you are hiding it.” 

In those twenty years not more than ten people asked me, and even then I avoided them as much as I could 

unless I felt that their desire was genuine. And I told them only when they had promised to keep it a secret. And 

they all fulfilled it. Now they are all sannyasins, but they all fulfilled it, they kept it a secret. I said, ”You wait. 

Wait for the right moment. Only then will I declare it.”


I have learned much from the past buddhas. If Jesus had kept a little quieter about being the Son of God 

it would have been far more beneficial to humanity. I had made it a point that until I stopped traveling in the 

country I was not going to declare it; otherwise I would have been killed you would not be here. 

Once I had finished with traveling, mixing with the masses, moving from one town to another.... For twenty 

years continuously I was moving, and there was not a single bodyguard. Shiva and his samurai had not yet arrived! 

And I was in constant danger. Stones were being thrown at me, shoes were being thrown at me. 

I would reach a town after traveling for twenty-four hours in a train and the crowd wouldn’t allow me to get 

down at the station; they would force me to go back. A fight would ensue between those who wanted me to get 

down from the train and those who did not want me to get down, in their town at least. 

If I had declared it I would have been killed very easily. There would have been no problem in it; it would 

have been so simple. But for twenty years I kept absolutely silent about it. I declared it only when I saw that 

now I had gathered enough people who could understand it. I had gathered enough people who were mine, who 

belonged to me. I declared it only when I knew that now I could create my own small world and I was no more 

concerned with the crowds and the masses and the stupid mob. 

Sarjano, there is a difficulty. I can understand your difficulty. But please keep your big mouth shut Italian or 

not Italian! Otherwise you will simply be thought crazy. And if you cannot keep your mouth shut, then I will 

declare, ”He is crazy!” Then nobody will listen to you. Then you can go on saying to these little men, ”I have 

found the master,” but they will say, ”The master says you are crazy!” 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY IS EVERYTHING TOPSY-TURVY HERE? 

Anurati, it must be because of the Italians! One has to find some reason.... 

The Italian died and went to the Pearly Gates where he was greeted by Saint Peter and his impressive Golden 

Book. After staring intently at the new applicant’s sallow face, weak chin and shifty eyes, Saint Peter declared in 

thunderous tones, ”I trust you are not Italian?” 

Saint Peter’s voice became stentorian, ”Are you Italian?” 

The Italian’s reply was meek, ”No, sir, I am Puerto Rican.” 

Saint Peter smiled. ”Pass, friend,” he said, ”Come in.” 

Even Saint Peter is afraid! 

And then there was one Italian chick so ugly that when she came into a room all the mice jumped up on the 

chairs. 

Can anyone doubt that New York is a great city? 

The Jews own it, the Irish run it and the Italians after fifty years are still wondering what happened! 

How did Columbus happen to discover America? 

He was trying to get away from Italy. 

What did God say when he made the first Italian? 

”Shit! I fucked up again!” 



Chapter 3 The quiet way to the happy country 


YOU HAVE NO NAME AND NO FORM. WHY MISS WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE? THE SEEKER IS 

NOT SORRY. 

LOVE AND JOYFULLY FOLLOW THE WAY, THE QUIET WAY TO THE HAPPY COUNTRY. 

SEEKER! EMPTY THE BOAT, LIGHTEN THE LOAD, PASSION AND DESIRE AND HATRED. 

AND SAIL SWIFTLY. 

THERE ARE FIVE AT THE DOOR TO TURN AWAY, AND FIVE MORE, AND THERE ARE FIVE TO 

WELCOME IN. 

AND WHEN FIVE HAVE BEEN LEFT STRANDED ON THE SHORE, THE SEEKER IS CALLED OGHATIN- 

NOTI ”HE WHO HAS CROSSED OVER.” 

A new inmate checked into a California asylum. He seemed quite happy in fact, he was laughing uproariously. 

”Nearest kin?” asked the examining physician. 

”Twin brother,” responded the fellow. ”We were identical twins. Couldn’t tell us apart. In school he would 

throw a spitball and the teacher would blame me. Once he was arrested for speeding and the judge fined me. I 

had a girl, he ran off with her.”


”Then why are you laughing?” 

”Because I got even with him last week.” 

”What happened?” 

”I died and they buried him.” 

Man is mad. Madness is not a disease, it is the normal condition of mankind. Yes, people differ in degrees, but 

that is not much of a difference. Man as he exists on the earth is insane. 

The effort of all the buddhas is to bring sanity to you, to dispel your madness. But because everybody is mad, 

just like you, you remain oblivious of the fact your whole life. Unless you come across a buddha you will never 

be aware of the fact that you are mad. The buddha becomes a mirror: he reflects your reality, he shows you your 

face as it is and it is utterly distorted. It is not the way you are meant to be. Something has gone fundamentally 

wrong, something very basic is missing. 

Man is born in such a state of unconsciousness that whatsoever he does brings more and more misery to him 

and to others. He goes on blaming fate, he goes on blaming nature, he goes on blaming the society but he always 

goes on blaming others, he never blames himself. The moment you gather courage enough to blame yourself, the 

moment you accept the responsibility of whatsoever you are, a ray of light enters into your being. You are on the 

path of inner transformation. 

These sutras are for the Bodhisattvas. Now Buddha is saying to his Bodhisattvas to those disciples who are 

going to become helpers to mankind, who are ready to go into the world and to help people who are drowning 

in their own insanity Buddha is saying to his Bodhisattvas, ”These are the basic things you have to start your 

teaching with.” 

The first thing he says: Tell the people that... YOU HAVE NO NAME AND NO FORM because that is where 

millions are stuck. People live and die for name and fame. It seems their life purpose is to have a name known 

to the whole world, a name which is going to be written in golden letters in history, a name which will go on 

resounding down the corridors of time for ever and ever. 

And the whole thing is so stupid, so ridiculous, because you don’t have any name in the first place. You are 

born nameless, you are nameless. All names are arbitrary. Don’t sacrifice your life for a name. Don’t sacrifice the 

real for something unreal. We are sacrificing something true for something which is untrue and cannot be made 

true. 

When a child is born, you know he does not bring a name with him; he is born as namelessness. But of course 

a name is needed; it has a certain utility but no reality. It is arbitrary. You can call him anything, any name 

will do X, Y, Z will do. In a more scientific age there is every possibility that we will drop these old names. 

Somebody will be O-11, somebody will be X-13. Names are going to be more mathematical one day because they 

will be more precise. And there is no need to have the same name for two persons; computers can decide. The 

computer can say that this is a new name, nobody has it all over the world. Right now so many people have the 

same name; it is bound to happen. It is not very scientific, but it works. 

Buddha wants his Bodhisattvas to tell the people the first thing: You are nameless. So don’t be worried about 

your name or your fame. You are also formless: your innermost being has no form. Your body has a form, but 

your body goes on changing; every day it changes. Within seven years your body is completely new, entirely new. 

Not even a single cell of the old exists in it, everything goes on changing. 

If you come across the first sperm of your father that started your life, will you be able to recognize it as 

yourself? Impossible. Will you be able to recognize your mother’s egg as yourself? Impossible. That was your 

form one day, but you were not it. And then in nine months’ time in the mother’s womb you passed through 

many forms. 

The scientists say that each child passes quickly, very speedily, through the whole evolution of humanity. From 

the fish to the monkey to the man, he passes through all the phases of course in very quick succession because 

he has to fulfill the whole evolution in nine months. That’s why a premature child is a little retarded, because he 

has not evolved yet completely; he has not been able to complete the whole cycle of evolution. Every child begins 

as a fish in the mother’s womb. Will you be able to recognize that fish as you? But one day that was your form. 

Will you be able to recognize your face the day you were born? If a picture is shown to you it will be impossible 

for anybody to recognize that, ”This is me.” Right now you have a certain form; that form will also go down the 

drain in the same way. Every moment it is changing. 

But there is something eternal in you: your consciousness, your being, your awareness. You can call it your 

soul, whatsoever you want to call it; names don’t matter. But one thing is certain: that you don’t have any 

particular form; you pass through many forms. You can pass through many forms only because you don’t have


any form, so don’t become attached to any form. Don’t become attached to any name and don’t become attached 

to any form. 

This is the beginning of sannyas. This is the beginning of initiation into the path. 

In fact, you don’t have any father, you don’t have any mother; you can’t have. The father fathered your body 

and the mother mothered your body; they both contributed to your body, to your form, but not to your essential 

core. Your body is accidental. You have been in many bodies before, thousands of bodies. You have passed 

through, you have lived in many, many houses, and when you were living in a certain house you became identified 

with it. 

Hence the pain of death. It is not because of death, remember; it is just because of your identification with the 

body, with the form. If you understand the message of Buddha, there is no pain in death. If you are not identified 

with any name or form there is nobody who is born and there is nobody who is dying. 

In fact, that should be the real meaning of Jesus’ virgin birth. Everybody is born in the same way. It is not 

only that you don’t have a father, you don’t have a mother either. The day you discover your original being you 

will know that you pass through the mother and the father, you come through them, but you are not created by 

them. 

A snoopy social worker investigating conditions in an old tenement stopped a ragged, neglected-looking youngster 

and asked him where his mother lived. 

”Ain’t got no mother,” replied the child. 

”What about your father, then?” 

”Ain’t got none, lady.” 

”What, both your father and your mother dead!” exclaimed the social worker. 

”Nope, never had any.” 

”Good grief, but that’s impossible, my boy!” 

”If you’ve gotta know, lady,” said the urchin contemptuously, ”some damned racketeer played a dirty trick on 

my aunt.” 

In fact, nobody has a father or a mother and no dirty racketeer has played any trick on your aunt either. You 

are eternal beings: you are never born and you never die. Death and birth are episodes in the long journey, in 

the eternal journey of your life. Life does not begin with birth and does not end with death. 

But this is possible to know only if you become a little detached from the form with which you have become so 

much attached. You are not man and you are not woman either; your body is male or your body is female. You 

are not man, you are not animal, you are not vegetable. These are all forms, accidental forms, just circumferences, 

not the centers of your being. The centers of your being are totally different from the circumferences. And we 

have become so attached to the circumferences that we have completely forgotten the centers. 

This is the basic and fundamental cause of our insanity. A man who does not know his center is insane. 

Buddha says, tell the people: 

YOU HAVE NO NAME AND NO FORM. WHY MISS WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE? 

How much people suffer if they are not famous, if they are not well-known! To be anonymous feels so humiliating. 

If nobody knows you, you feel as if you are no longer alive. The more people know you, the more alive you feel. 

If the whole world knows you, your ego is puffed up to the extreme, it is bursting. 

That’s why politics has so much interest for people, because that is the easiest way to become world-famous. 

You don’t need to be very intelligent to be a politician; in fact, if you are very intelligent you cannot be a politician. 

You need a certain stupidity, in good quantity, to be a politician. You need to be stubborn, you need to be violent, 

you need to be utterly mediocre so that you can’t see what you are doing, so that you can’t see how you are 

wasting your life, and you go on and on.... You have to be utterly blind, you have to be very gross. Politics has 

great appeal because it can give you both a great name and great fame; it can make you a world figure. 

I have heard: 

A pope and a politician both showed up in heaven one day. Saint Peter greeted them and led the pope to his 

quarters where he would be spending eternity. Upon opening the door, the pope found a small, plainly furnished 

room with but one window. When he looked out he noticed the politician being shown to the luxury apartments 

across the way, which were equipped with hot tubs, saunas, swimming pools, tennis courts and the like. 

Filled with righteous indignation, he turned to Saint Peter and protested vehemently, ”I am a pope! Why is 

this politician being treated like this while I get almost nothing?” 

”Well,” replied Saint Peter, ”we have over two hundred popes up here, but this is the first time we’ve seen a 

politician!”


But here on the earth the politicians make much fuss. Politics has become the center of life; your newspapers 

are full of it, your radio programs are full of it. Everything seems to be colored by politics for the simple reason 

that these people have got something which you are all hankering for they have got name and fame. 

But Buddha says: WHY MISS WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE? And, in fact, why miss that which you do not 

have and can never have? To believe that you are famous is to live in a fool’s paradise. And even if your name is 

going to be written in history... you can make so much nuisance that they will have to write it down in history. 

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, of course their names will remain in history, but not in golden 

letters. History is not written in golden letters at all, and their names will be only in some footnotes. And even if 

they are there, what does it matter? Your whole history is bunk! It is less history and more hysteria! Of course, 

if you are very hysterical you will become historical. But what is the point of it all? You would have missed a 

great opportunity. 

The real man does not care about name and fame. The authentic man lives his life irrespective of name and 

fame; he does not care a bit whether anybody knows him or not. 

THE SEEKER IS NOT SORRY. 

Buddha says: Teach people that the search for truth should not be a sad search. This is one of the things which 

has been very much misunderstood. Somehow the sad people have dominated the whole religious scene down the 

ages. Only once in a while do you find a Buddha or a Jesus or a Zarathustra who talks about joy, who talks about 

living in bliss. Only once in a while do you find a Krishna who not only teaches dance but dances himself, who 

not only teaches singing but sings himself. Otherwise the scene is dominated by pathological people, either by 

masochists or by sadists. 

Ninety-nine percent of so-called religious people are ill, seriously ill people. They have gone into religion because 

they have failed in life, they have gone into religion because they could not cope with life. It is an escape and 

the escapist can never be happy. 

Christians say that Jesus never laughed. Now, there cannot be a greater lie than that. Jesus, and never 

laughed? Then who will be able to laugh? Then nobody will be able to laugh at all! And the whole life of Jesus 

proves that he must have been a man of very joyous nature. He must have been really spiritual in the sense 

the French use the word spirituel. In French this word ’spirituel’ means both ”spiritual” and ”humorous.” There 

seems to be a great insight in it the same word meaning both. He must have laughed with his companions. It is 

well known that he used to enjoy eating and drinking, and when a man enjoys eating and drinking it is difficult to 

think of him never laughing. People who enjoy eating and drinking, people who enjoy parties, also enjoy dancing 

and singing and joking. He must have laughed, he must have joked. One cannot believe that twenty-four hours a 

day he was delivering only gospels he must have gossiped! 

But the people who are sad, they would like him also to be sad. All the figures, statues, paintings of Jesus seem 

to be false. And they have been changing down the ages. In the earliest pictures he was shown without beard 

and mustache. After two centuries, suddenly the beard and the mustache appeared because without a beard and 

a mustache he did not look like a prophet; he looked too young, not mature enough. A face without a beard and 

without a mustache looks a little boyish... suddenly the beard appeared. 

In the East just the opposite has been the case. Buddha is never painted with a beard, neither is Krishna or 

Mahavira, neither is Rama or Patanjali... nobody. Why? because the Eastern idea is that these people were 

so young, spiritually young, that it is better to let them appear young from the outside too. The outside should 

represent the inside. 

Buddha became very old, he died when he was eighty-two, but still he is never depicted as having a beard. Jesus 

died when he was only thirty-three, but the beard appeared after two centuries. Still his face was not sad. After 

two centuries even that face changed. He became more and more sad as if he were carrying the whole burden 

of the earth. Now they have changed him into the savior; he is carrying the cross. He has come to deliver you 

from your sufferings, he is taking your sufferings on himself. And they have falsified this beautiful man who used 

to enjoy the company of very ordinary people carpenters, laborers, gardeners, fishermen, gamblers, prostitutes, 

drunkards, tax collectors, every kind of people even tax collectors! They are making him more and more abstract; 

he is losing his earthliness. He is becoming more and more a concept rather than a real human being; he is losing 

his humanity. He is no more the Son of Man, he is becoming only the Son of God. 

These are the sad people who are projecting their sadness on him. They say he never laughed I can’t believe 

it. I can believe a far more impossible thing.... 

The followers of Zarathustra say that he laughed the very moment he was born I can believe that, that he 

was born laughing. It looks absolutely impossible no child is ever born laughing but it has something beautiful 

about it. Zarathustra getting out of the womb, laughing, appeals to me more. Such a joyous spirit! That’s why


Zarathustra could not become a world religion. The followers of Zarathustra are confined to Bombay only. And 

they are good people not religious in the ordinary sense, not at all. 

Nobody thinks that Parsis are religious; in India nobody thinks them religious. They enjoy eating, they enjoy 

beautiful clothes, they enjoy the beautiful things of life, they enjoy beautiful houses... they enjoy everything! And 

we have the idea of religion as renunciation. 

I can believe Zarathustra coming into the world laughing, but I cannot believe Jesus never laughing, because 

to me sadness can never become the source for the search although millions of people go in search of God just 

because they are sad. You remember God only when you are unhappy, miserable; when you are in deep anguish 

then you remember God, otherwise who cares? 

But let me tell you: if you remember God only when you are miserable, your remembrance is not worth anything. 

It is almost a complaint; it is not a prayer, it cannot be. You cannot be grateful for being miserable, and prayer 

needs to be essentially gratitude. 

Buddha says: THE SEEKER IS NOT SORRY. He is telling his Bodhisattvas: Go to the people and tell them 

that if you don’t drop your being sorry you can never become a real seeker. Seek God out of happiness, seek God 

out of joy, seek God because this call of the cuckoo is so beautiful, because the songs of the birds are so joyous, 

because the flowers are so ecstatic, because life is such a blessing. Look at the blessing that life is and then go for 

the source of it. From where are all these songs and all these flowers and all these stars born? What is the cause 

of it all, of this mysterious existence? 

Don’t go in search because you are sad, miserable, a failure. If you go with failure in your heart you will be 

simply repressing your sadness. You may start smiling, but that smile will be only a painted smile. You can see 

the priests smiling, but that smile is not true, it can’t be true. They have never loved life enough for their smile 

to be true, they have never lived life enough for their smile to be true. They are escapists, they are afraid of life. 

And the people who are afraid of life, their search is wrong from the very beginning. But this misunderstanding 

has happened and this misunderstanding has to be dispelled. 

A policeman patrolling lovers’ lane late at night shines his flashlight in the window of a car and sees a couple 

making love. He taps on the window and says, ”I am next!” In ten minutes he comes by again and the couple is 

still making love, so he taps on the window again and says, ”I am next!” 

In twenty minutes he comes by again and the couple is still making love. Again he taps on the window and 

says, ”I am next. What’s taking you so long anyway?” 

The man looks up and says, ”Man, I’m really nervous. I’ve never screwed a cop before!” 

Misunderstandings and misunderstandings.... 

Buddhas have been misunderstood so much that whatsoever you think about Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Lao 

Tzu, be very cautious ninety-nine percent of it is going to be a misunderstanding. If you ask me, ”Who are 

Christians?” I say ”The people who have misunderstood Christ.” If you ask me, ”Who are Buddhists?” I will say, 

”The people who have misunderstood Buddha.” 

Misunderstanding is so easy because if you want to understand a buddha you will have to rise a little higher 

to see what he is showing. But if you want to misunderstand you need not move anywhere; wherever you are, 

remain there and you can misunderstand. To misunderstand is so comfortable, so cozy. You can misunderstand 

without any effort; it requires no change on your part. But it will show in your life. 

People go to the temples, but there is no dance in their eyes. Going to the temple and no dance in your feet 

and no dance in your eyes then why are you going? What is the point? Why are you wasting your time? People 

are praying, but there is no joy, there is no light on their faces. Then why are you wasting your time and God’s 

time? But one thing is good: that God is utterly deaf deaf to all languages. He listens only to silence, he is 

available only to silence. So you can go on praying nobody is listening. It is a monologue. 

Martin Buber says that prayer is a dialogue. I say no, unless a prayer is absolutely silent it is not a dialogue. 

Martin Buber says a prayer means an I/Thou dialogue. If there is I, then there can be no Thou; these two things 

can’t exist together. If there is I and Thou, then the Thou is only a projection and there is no dialogue at all; 

it is a monologue. You can believe that somebody is listening nobody is listening. You are simply wasting your 

time, your breath. Do something else, anything will be better. Even playing cards will be far better, drinking 

Coca-Cola will be far better! 

Your prayers are meaningless. You cannot hide the fact. If you move towards God or truth in sadness, in 

misery, in some way or other, your life will show it. Truth cannot be repressed. 

The Gladwells had a baby born without ears. They brought it home and their neighbors, the Petersons, were 

preparing to visit it. ”Now, please be careful,” said Mrs. Peterson to her husband. ”Don’t say anything about 

the baby not having any ears.”


”Don’t worry,” said Peterson. ”I won’t do anything to hurt their feelings.” 

So they went next door, up into the nursery and stood over the new baby’s crib with the Gladwells. ”He’s so 

cute,” said Mrs. Peterson to the baby’s mother. 

”Yeah,” agreed Mr. Peterson. ”What strong arms and legs the kid has he’s gonna grow up to be a bruiser.” 

”Thanks,” said the baby’s father. 

”How’s the kid’s eyes?” 

”They’re perfect!” said Gladwell. 

”They’d better be he won’t ever be able to wear glasses!” 

Somehow or other it is going to come up. How can you avoid it? The more you avoid, the greater is the 

possibility you will stumble upon it. In fact, the very effort to avoid it makes you focused on it; then you can’t 

see anything else. 

A very holy man went into an optician’s one day to order a new pair of spectacles. Behind the counter was an 

extremely pretty girl, which reduced the customer to total confusion. 

”Can I help you, sir?” she asked with a ravishing smile. 

”Er yes er... I want a pair of rim-speckt hornicles... I mean I want a pair of heck-rimmed spornicles... er... I 

mean....” 

At which point the optician himself came to the rescue. 

”It’s all right, Miss Jones. What the holy man wants is a pair of rim-sporned hectacles.” 

Hence Buddha says the seeker has to start his journey not out of misery but out of joy. Rejoice in life. He says: 

LOVE AND JOYFULLY FOLLOW THE WAY, THE QUIET WAY TO THE HAPPY COUNTRY. 

When one first comes across these words one feels a little surprised. Buddha, and saying: LOVE AND JOY- 

FULLY FOLLOW THE WAY, THE QUIET WAY TO THE HAPPY COUNTRY...? Yes, one is a little shocked 

because the Buddhist priests have been avoiding these beautiful sayings, they have been bypassing them. They 

have been emphasizing those words of Buddha which emphasize pessimism. And he was not a pessimist at all, he 

could not be. One who knows, how can he be a pessimist? It is impossible. He is not even an optimist, remember, 

because the optimist is connected with the pessimist; he is the other extreme. 

Buddha is beyond both; he is neither a pessimist nor an optimist. He simply wants you to see that which is 

and that is enough to make you love life. It is enough, more than enough, to make you dance with joy, with 

gratitude. 

And the way is silent, very quiet. Hence Buddha has not taught any prayer, he only teaches meditation. When 

prayer is silent it is meditation; when meditation becomes eloquent it is prayer. But first you have to learn 

meditation; otherwise you will move in a wrong direction. Without knowing meditation all your prayers are going 

to be false. You will be pouring your rubbish on God holy rubbish, but it is all holy cow dung! 

First learn to be silent. And yes, out of silence some songs are born, out of silence some flowers bloom. Then 

offer those songs, those flowers to God. But they will be of joy, of tremendous joy. 

SEEKER! EMPTY THE BOAT, LIGHTEN THE LOAD, PASSION AND DESIRE AND HATRED. 

Let me remind you again and again: Buddha is talking to his Bodhisattvas, to his messengers, to his apostles, 

who are going to the masses. He is helping them with what to say, from where to begin. He is saying the first 

thing a seeker has to fulfill is, the first requirement of a true seeker is, that he should not have any belief system, 

that he should not have any philosophy, any ideology. If you already believe then there is no question of seeking, 

inquiring. Inquiry means you start with a state of not-knowing. Hence: SEEKER! EMPTY THE BOAT.... 

Empty your mind of all the baggage that you have been carrying all along. Become utterly empty. Then the 

same mind that has been causing you so much insanity, so much turmoil, so much anguish... the same mind 

when empty becomes the boat for the other shore, for the further shore. Empty, it becomes a vehicle; burdened 

with all kinds of thoughts, with all kinds of beliefs, scriptures, which each generation goes on handing over to the 

next generation.... We are so much burdened that we are carrying almost Himalayas of weight on our heads; it 

is not possible to move with such a load. You need unlearning. You already have too much knowledge; all this 

knowledge has to be dropped. 

EMPTY THE BOAT, LIGHTEN THE LOAD.... When you are utterly empty, when you say, ”I know nothing,” 

then the inquiry starts. It is fresh, it is young, it is authentic, because there is a fundamental law of life that if 

you are in a state of not-knowing, a great urge will arise in you to know. Just as nature abhors a vacuum and it 

rushes to fill it, exactly in the same way if your mind is totally empty, truth rushes in and fills it. 

But right now there is no space. Your mind is so full, even you cannot go in. You have to live somewhere on 

the outside. People are living in their porches; their houses are so full of junk that they are afraid to go in. They 

may get lost, and there is no space either.


And three things Buddha mentions particularly which are making you loaded, much too loaded. The first he 

calls passion, the second, desire and the third, hatred. 

Passion means animal lust, biological, unconscious lust. Every animal has it, there is nothing special about it. 

If man has it he simply remains part of the animal kingdom; it is an animal heritage. You don’t really become 

human unless you go beyond lust. You think that it is your love and you have great, romantic words to describe it 

and you use great poetry, but that is all rubbish. If you look deep down it is biology, it is chemistry, it is hormones 

and nothing else. If your hormones are changed you will not be interested in any woman anymore, or if you are 

a woman and your hormones are changed you will not be interested in any man anymore, and all poetry and all 

romance will disappear. The Don Juan simply needs a small operation... and he will disappear. 

Buddha says the first thing that keeps your mind full of junk is lust. And it is, in a way, natural because for 

millions of years we have been in animal bodies; we are still carrying those imprints, we are full of animal heritage. 

We are ninety-nine percent animals; only one percent perhaps that too is a perhaps are we human beings. Just 

a little part of us has risen a little above. 

A fiery-tongued Italian priest was laying down some heavy stuff about sex and morality. Stabbing his bony 

finger at his Little Italy congregation, the guinea padre bellowed, ”Sex is-a dirty! I want-a see only good-a girls 

tonight. I want-a every virgin in-a church to-a stand up.” 

Furious at the lack of his parishioners’ response, he repeated the exhortation. 

After a long pause, a sexy-looking chick with an infant in her arms got to her feet. 

”Virgins is what I want-a!” the outraged preacher said. 

”Hey, Father,” the lady asked, ”you expect a two-month-old baby to stand by herself?” 

It is said that’s why Jesus chose to be born two thousand years before us, because now where can you find a 

virgin? And, moreover, where will you find three wise men? Even if you find a virgin a two-month-old baby, okay 

but three wise men? The conditions cannot be fulfilled now. 

People tell me again and again, ”Jesus has promised he will come again.” I say to you, forget all about it! he 

cannot come. The conditions cannot be fulfilled. If he drops his conditions, then it is okay. But then he won’t be 

a Jesus, remember he will be just another hippie, maybe a Jesus freak but not Jesus! 

Remember, Buddha does not want you to repress your lust, he wants you to understand, he wants you to 

meditate over it. He wants you not to repress it, because repression has never helped. It is repression that has 

made this sad situation in which humanity is living. It is repression that has driven humanity mad. 

Buddha wants you to transform sex energy, not to repress it, because it is the only energy you have got. It 

can be refined, it can be uplifted, it can be channeled in new directions; it can be moved towards higher planes of 

being. And it all happens through a simple process of meditation. 

The process of meditation is not complicated at all. If your mind can drop its load and if it can become 

absolutely empty, immediately your sex energy starts rising upwards to fill the gap, as if the emptiness pulls it 

upwards. A new law starts functioning: the law of levitation. Ordinarily we live under the law of gravitation: 

everything goes downwards. And you are so top-heavy that nothing can go towards the top; the top is already 

full, everything goes downwards. Make the top light. 

In Japan they make a daruma doll. Daruma is the Japanese name of Bodhidharma, one of Buddha’s greatest 

disciples, who founded Zen in China; he is the first patriarch of Zen. Bodhidharma was his Indian name, Daruma 

is his Japanese name. They have made a doll in his name, in his memory; for centuries the doll has been made. 

It is one of the most beautiful dolls; it has a great message. You throw the doll any way, it always sits back in a 

Buddha posture; you cannot put it upside-down. You can throw it, you can tilt it, you can do anything with it, 

but you cannot shake or make Daruma fall. He always sits back again in the lotus posture, as Buddha used to sit. 

The secret is: his top is not heavy, his bottom is heavy. He has a hollow head, an empty head; there is nothing 

inside. The head is so empty and the bottom is so heavy that naturally he settles back again into the Buddha 

posture. It is a beautiful doll. It was invented by the Zen monks for children to play with, and the children are 

bound to ask, ”What is the secret?” And the secret is that the head is totally empty the secret is meditation. 

The second thing is desire. Desire is psychological; just as lust is biological, desire is psychological. Desire 

means more and more, always for more. Nothing satisfies, nothing fulfills; you go on running for more and more. 

And you know it, because many times you have achieved your target but your discontent remains the same. Again 

the desire arises for more, and you start running without giving it a second thought. 

Buddha says: Wait, contemplate. Where is it going to end? You are chasing an illusion. The desire for more 

can never be fulfilled. You can have ten thousand rupees and your mind asks for one hundred thousand; you can 

have one hundred thousand, the mind starts asking for more and so on and so forth. Whatsoever you have, the 

distance between what you have and what the mind asks for remains the same. It is unfulfillable. It is driving


people crazy. Seeing it, seeing the point of it, one drops it. Or it would be better to say: the moment you see the 

futility of it, it drops of its own accord. 

And the third thing is hatred. Hatred arises because of these first two, passion and desire. Whosoever comes 

in the way of your passion or in the way of your desire, whosoever becomes a hindrance, whosoever becomes a 

competitor, becomes your enemy. Whosoever tries to grab something that you wanted creates hatred in you. If 

the first two disappear, the third disappears on its own. 

The first two are like fire and the third is just smoke. If you are still feeling hatred for something, for somebody, 

then remember somewhere there is fire still. Wherever there is smoke there is fire. Hatred and anger simply show 

that you are still living through lust and desire, consciously or unconsciously. But your smoke shows that the fire 

has not been put out. Go back deep into your being and put out the fire. And it can be put out not by repressing 

but by understanding. 

Understanding is the most fundamental message of Gautama the Buddha. If it happens, you can SAIL 

SWIFTLY. 

THERE ARE FIVE AT THE DOOR TO TURN AWAY, AND FIVE MORE, AND THERE ARE FIVE TO 

WELCOME IN. 

AND WHEN FIVE HAVE BEEN LEFT STRANDED ON THE SHORE, THE SEEKER IS CALLED OGHATIN- 

NOTI ”HE WHO HAS CROSSED OVER.” 

These fives have to be understood. THERE ARE FIVE AT THE DOOR.... 

The first five: Buddha says the first is selfishness, the second is doubt, the third is pseudo spirituality, the 

fourth is passion and the fifth is hatred. They are always standing at the door. You have to be very conscious; 

otherwise they will jump upon you. 

Even the people who think they are doing selfless service their service is selfish. They are hoping to gain some 

reward in the other world, in paradise; hence they are serving. Their service is not just out of love, their service 

is a bargain. It is a search for some great reward heaven, paradise and the heavenly joys. Beware of selfishness. 

Second is doubt. Even people who believe are full of doubt; in fact, if you are not full of doubt there is no need 

to believe. Belief simply means you have covered up a doubt. You have a wound, you cover it up with a beautiful 

flower, but the wound remains. 

Third is pseudo spirituality. When people want to be spiritual it is easier to be pseudo-spiritual because it costs 

nothing. You can be a Christian, you can be a Hindu, you can be a Mohammedan; it is so easy, it is so formal. 

You go and do certain rituals in a temple and you are a Hindu, or you go to the church every Sunday and you are 

a Christian and it is so easy! 

But real spirituality is going through fire. Real spirituality is rebellion against all that is rotten, against all 

that is past, against all that is being forced on you by others, against all conditionings. Real spirituality is the 

greatest rebellion there is. It is risky, it is adventurous, it is dangerous. 

So beware of pseudo spirituality which is always there, available, easily available at the door. 

And passion.... You can drop passion here, you can repress it here, but then you are asking for it somewhere 

else. In heaven, all the religions have provided for your passion beautiful women are available there. Of course, 

because these stories have been written by men they talk only about beautiful women. Now I think some liberated 

woman is going to write a few scriptures; then they will manage some beautiful men, very beautiful men who 

always remain young, never become old, are always nice.... 

Your so-called mahatmas and saints, all have been hoping that beautiful women are waiting; it is only a question 

of a few days. Just torture yourself a little more and you will get an even better one. Just go into the scriptures 

of your religions and look and you will be able it is so clearly there to see the projections. 

In the Hindu heaven the girls never grow older than sixteen, because in India that is thought to be the best age. 

So thousands of years have passed, but in heaven the same beautiful women are still hanging around at sixteen. 

They don’t perspire; in heaven you don’t need deodorants, you need not use perfumes, etcetera! Their bodies are 

made of gold. I think if right now you write the scriptures again you will not make the bodies of gold because 

they will be too heavy. Carrying a golden woman will give you a heart attack! A plastic one will be far better 

with washable, exchangeable parts! And just a few buttons... so you push one button and the woman smiles and 

you push another button and the woman goes into an orgasm and you push another button... and it will just be 

far more scientific now. In the old days those old fools could not think of anything better gold bodies! And if it 

is solid gold it is going to be really difficult. 

But you can see the desire.... So Buddha says: Beware! You can repress here, but you will be desiring somewhere 

else. Passion is not going to leave you so easily.


And hatred: all your saints are full of hatred hatred for the sinners. That’s why they have created hell: heaven 

for themselves and hell for the sinners; heaven for themselves and hell for people who don’t follow their religion. 

If you are a Catholic you will go to heaven according to Catholic priests. The Hindu has no hope. First he has to 

become a Catholic, then he can hope; otherwise he is bound to go to hell. And ask the Hindus: they laugh at the 

whole idea! Their scriptures are far more ancient and they have a longer tradition and a longer propaganda. They 

think that except Hindus nobody is going to heaven; and not even all the Hindus the sudras, the untouchables, 

have no place there. 

This is hatred! This is still the same mind, the same ugly mind playing new games, but nothing has changed. 

THERE ARE FIVE AT THE DOOR TO TURN AWAY.... These are the five. Buddha says: Turn them away. 

Be watchful so they don’t catch hold of you. 

AND FIVE MORE.... These five are very visible, and there are five more which are not so visible, but they are 

also there hiding behind these five. Those five are: first, lust for life.... It is easy to drop the lust for a woman or 

the lust for a man, but it is very difficult to drop the lust for life itself. Everybody wants to live and to live as 

long as possible. 

You can ask in India yogis are trying hard to live as long as possible. Now what is that? Why should they be 

so much concerned about living long? And what is going to happen even if you live long? 

Before Bernard Shaw died he left a message to be engraved as an epitaph on his grave. The message was, ”I 

knew all along that if I lived long enough, something like this was going to happen.” 

So whether you live ninety years or a hundred years or two hundred years, what is the point of it? Death is 

going to happen. But lust for life.... Buddha says that ordinary people lust for money, power, prestige, and your 

so-called saints lust for life, long life. And the yogis go on pretending that they are more aged than they are. 

I have heard: 

One yogi was telling people that his age was seven hundred years, and all the Indians were nodding their heads. 

One Westerner was also there, a tourist, who could not believe this. The man looked not more than seventy and 

he was saying he was seven hundred years? Impossible! He wanted to find out so he remained there. 

He saw one man who used to serve the old man; he bribed the young man. And it is so easy in India to bribe 

anybody! In fact, nobody feels offended by it; it is absolutely accepted. It is a way of life in India, no problem in 

it. 

And the young man was happy. He said, ”What do you want?” 

The Westerner said, ”I want to know only one thing. Is your master really seven hundred years old? because 

only you can tell me; you have been with him.” 

He said, ”Yes, I can tell you only one thing, more than that I don’t know. I have been with him for only three 

hundred years.” 

And the man was not more than thirty years old! 

And there are books now they are being translated into all the languages of the world saying that if you 

practice yoga you will prolong your life. And if you eat this and if you eat that, and if you do this asana, this 

posture, your life will be prolonged. If you breathe in this way or that way.... 

Buddha is saying this is the same lust. So the first subtle thing is lust for life. 

And second: longing for birth in higher realms. Even if you drop it from here ”Okay, I don’t want to live long 

here” then you have a deep desire to be born on some subtle planes, some higher planes, bodiless planes. You 

would like to be angels. Beware of all these games! 

The third is vanity. The people who are virtuous are very vain, they are not humble. In fact they may have 

practiced humbleness for years, but their practicing of humbleness has given them only a new kind of vanity, a 

new kind of ego. 

Fourth: restlessness. These people are restless, they are not at ease herenow, they can’t be. All their hopes are 

somewhere else, beyond death, in heaven, in paradise. How can they be at ease herenow? 

A really spiritual man is absolutely at ease herenow. He has no other time; his only time is now, and his only 

place is here. And he is utterly at ease, at home. He does not hanker for anything. 

And the fifth is self-ignorance. These people go on practicing yoga... a thousand and one methods are available. 

You can distort your body this way and that you can become a good performer in a circus but that will not help 

you to know who you are. And unless you know ”Who am I?” all your knowledge and all your cultivated virtues 

and practices are simply futile exercises in utter futility. 

AND THERE ARE FIVE TO WELCOME IN. And what are those five? Faith.... Remember, by faith Buddha 

does not mean belief; by faith he means trust, a loving trust, a trust in existence not in theories, not in scriptures, 

not in dogmas and creeds, but in existence itself, a trust because this is our home, we are part of it. If we live in


doubt, we live disconnected from the whole; if we live in trust, a bridge is slowly, slowly made between the part 

and the whole. Only with trust can one know what one is and what the whole is; and they are not different. The 

dewdrop contains the whole ocean; in exactly the same way, every man contains the whole of God. 

Second: vigilance. One has to be very alert. Alertness is Buddha’s method; his only yoga that he has taught 

is that of being alert. We are living almost mechanically, robotlike. Bring alertness to your actions, to your 

thoughts, to your feelings. 

And the third is energy. We go on dissipating energy in stupid things quarreling, arguing, for no reason at all. 

Preserve your energy because unless you have an overflowing energy you will not be able to take the ultimate jump. 

The ultimate jump means the river entering into the ocean, the river disappearing into the ocean and becoming 

the ocean. If you are not full of energy you will not be able to reach the ocean; you will be lost somewhere in a 

desert. 

And the fourth is meditation. By ”meditation” he means remaining more and more silent so slowly, slowly a 

shift happens from mind to no-mind, so slowly, slowly the gestalt changes from noise to silence. 

And fifth: wisdom. Wisdom is not knowledge. Knowledge is borrowed, wisdom is yours. Knowledge can be 

gathered from a library; you can contain the whole library in your mind. Still you will remain as ignorant as 

before; in fact, you will be far more ignorant than before because now the load is bigger. Wisdom comes from 

your own heart; it is the voice of our own inner being. It happens in meditation: when you are silent you start 

hearing the still, small voice within. That is wisdom. 

AND WHEN FIVE HAVE BEEN LEFT STRANDED ON THE SHORE.... What are those five? Greed, anger, 

delusion, ego, false teachings. ... THE SEEKER IS CALLED OGHATINNOTI ”HE WHO HAS CROSSED 

OVER.” 

This is Buddha’s message for the seekers. He is telling his Bodhisattvas to go and give it to the people who are 

ready, to the people who are prepared, to the people who are willing to listen, to understand, to follow the path. 

Meditate over these sutras they are for you. Everything that Buddha says is very significant. It is no ordinary 

religion, it is pure religiousness. 



Chapter 4 I goofed again! 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, THERE IS SOMETHING THAT EVEN YOU CANNOT DO. YOU CAN’T PUT AN 

ITALIAN IN AN IRISH JOKE. IT IS AGAINST THE DHARMA. 

Dharma Chetana, it is true, I goofed again! Go on reminding me. These goddamned jokes are dangerous! And 

I love the Italians so much that wherever I can find a place for them I try to manage. Sometimes I succeed, 

sometimes I fail, but you caught me. 

To put the record right, the joke is: 

Two gentlemen are sitting in a garden, one British, one Irish. 

The British gentleman asked the Irish, ”If you were not Irish, what would you be?” 

The Irish says, ”Of course I would be British.” 

And then he asks the British, ”If you were not British, what would you be?” 

And the British said, ”I would be ashamed.” 

But I got mixed up. That’s why I have all my jokes typed with me. That one was not typed with me. About 

God and about truth and about religion there is no trouble I know them from my personal experience. But these 

jokes! 

Yes, Chetana, it is against the Dharma. And I hope it is not going to happen again. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY CAN’T I SEE MY OWN FAULTS WHILE I AM IMMENSELY CAPABLE OF 

SEEING OTHERS’, EVEN THEIR SMALLEST ONES? 

Prageeta, it is very normal. It is not something exceptional. Our eyes are focused on others; we are otheroriented. 

We only see the others it is not only a question of faults we never see ourselves. Even if we want 

to see ourselves we have to look in a mirror, we have to create the image. When the image is there the other 

has appeared. The mirror helps us to see ourselves because it creates the other. Otherwise we are absolutely 

extroverts; we have forgotten the language of how to look in. Hence, as a consequence, you cannot see your own 

faults; nobody can.


The moment you start seeing your faults they start dropping like dry leaves. Then nothing else has to be 

done; to see them is enough. Just to be aware of your faults is all that is needed. In that awareness they start 

disappearing, they evaporate. One can go on committing a certain error only if one remains unconscious of it. 

Unconsciousness is a must to go on committing the same errors. Even if you try to change you will commit the 

same error in some other form, in some other shape. And they come in all sizes and all shapes. You will exchange, 

you will substitute, but you cannot drop it because deep down you don’t see that it is a fault. Others may be 

telling you because they can see. 

That’s why everybody thinks himself so beautiful, so intelligent, so virtuous, so saintly and nobody agrees 

with him! The reason is simple: you look at others, you see their reality, and about yourself you carry fictions 

beautiful fictions. About yourself you are very fictitious. All that you know about yourself is more or less a myth; 

it has nothing to do with reality. 

The moment one sees one’s faults, a radical change sets in. Hence all the buddhas down the ages have been 

telling only one thing: awareness. They don’t teach you character. Character is taught by priests, politicians, 

but not by the buddhas. Buddhas teach you consciousness not conscience. Conscience is a trick played upon you 

by others. Others are telling you what is right and what is wrong; they are forcing their ideas upon you. And 

they go on forcing them from your very childhood, when you were so innocent, so vulnerable, so delicate, that 

there was a possibility to make any impression on you, any imprint on you. They have conditioned you from the 

very beginning. That conditioning is called conscience and that conscience goes on dominating your whole life. 

Conscience is a strategy of society to enslave you. 

Buddhas teach consciousness. Consciousness means you are not to learn from others what is right and what is 

wrong; there is no need to learn from anybody. You have simply to go in; just the inward journey is enough. The 

deeper you go, the more consciousness is released. When you reach the center you are so full of light that darkness 

disappears. When you bring light into your room you don’t have to push the darkness out of the room. The 

presence of the light is enough because darkness is only an absence of light. So are all your insanities, madnesses. 

But everybody can see others’ faults, so don’t be worried about it, Prageeta. This is the situation in which 

everybody is living. 

A man dressed as Adolf Hitler visited a psychiatrist. 

”You can see I have no problems,” he said. ”I have the greatest army in the world, all the money I will ever 

need and every conceivable luxury you can imagine.” 

”Then what seems to be your problem?” asked the doctor. 

”It’s my wife,” said the man. ”She thinks she’s Mrs. Weaver.” 

Don’t laugh at the poor man. It is nobody else but you. 

A man went into a tailor’s shop and saw a man hanging by one arm from the center of the ceiling. 

”What is he doing there?” he asked the tailor. 

”Oh, pay no attention,” said the tailor, ”he thinks he’s a light bulb.” 

”Well, why don’t you tell him he’s not?” asked the startled customer. 

”What?” replied the tailor. ”And work in the dark?” 

The moment you know you are mad you are no longer mad. That’s the only criterion of sanity. The moment 

you know you are ignorant you have become wise. 

The Oracle at Delphi declared Socrates the most wise man on the earth. A few people rushed to Socrates and 

they told him, ”Be pleased, rejoice: the Oracle at Delphi has declared you the wisest man in the world.” 

Socrates said, ”That is all nonsense. I know only one thing: that I know nothing.” 

The people were puzzled and confused. They went back to the temple, they told the Oracle, ”You say that 

Socrates is the wisest man in the world, but he himself denies it. On the contrary, he says he is utterly ignorant. 

He says he knows only one thing: that he knows nothing.” 

The Oracle laughed and said, ”That’s why I have declared him the wisest man in the world, the greatest wise 

man in the world. That’s why precisely because he knows that he is ignorant.” 

Ignorant people believe they are wise. Insane people believe they are the sanest. 

Yes, Prageeta, it happens; it is part of human nature that we go on looking to the outside. We watch everybody 

except ourselves. Hence we know more about others than about ourselves; we know nothing about ourselves. We 

are not witnesses to our own functioning of the mind, we are not watchful inside. 

You need a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn that’s what meditation is all about. You have to close your eyes 

and start watching. In the beginning you will find only darkness and nothing else. And many people become 

frightened and rush out because outside there is light. Yes, there is light outside but that light is not going to 

enlighten you, that light is not going to help you at all. You need inner light, a light which has its source in your


very being, a light which cannot be extinguished even by death, a light which is eternal. And you have it, the 

potential is there! You are born with it, but you are keeping it behind you; you never look at it. 

And because for centuries, for many lives, you have looked outside, it has become a mechanical habit. Even 

when you are asleep you are looking at dreams. Dreams mean reflections of the outside. When you close your eyes 

you again start daydreaming or thinking; that means again you become interested in others. This has become 

such a chronic habit that there are not even small intervals, small windows into your own being from where you 

can have a glimpse of who you are. 

In the beginning it is a hard struggle, it is arduous, it is difficult but not impossible. If you are decisive, if you 

are committed to inner exploration, then sooner or later it happens. You just have to go on digging, you have to 

go on struggling with the darkness. Soon you will pass the darkness and you will enter into the realm of light. 

And that light is true light, far truer than the light of the sun or the moon, because all the lights that are outside 

are temporal; they are only for the time being. 

Even the sun is going to die one day. Not only do small lamps exhaust their resources and die in the morning, 

even the sun with such an immense resource is dying every day. Sooner or later it will become a black hole; it will 

die and no light will come from it. Howsoever long it lives it is not eternal. The inner light is eternal; it has no 

beginning, no end. It is synonymous with God. 

And I am not interested in telling you to drop your faults, to make yourself good, to improve your character 

no, not at all. I am not interested in your character at all; I am interested only in your consciousness. 

Become more alert, more conscious. Just go deeper and deeper into yourself till you find the center of your 

being. You are living on the periphery, and on the periphery there is always turmoil. The deeper you go, the 

deeper the silence that prevails. And in those experiences of silence, light, joy, your life starts moving into a 

different dimension. The errors, the mistakes start disappearing. 

So don’t be worried about the errors and the mistakes and the faults. Be concerned about one single thing, one 

single phenomenon; put your total energy into one goal, and that is how to be more conscious, how to be more 

awakened. If you put your total energy into it, it is going to happen, it is inevitable. It is your birthright. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY CALLING SARJANO A BIGMOUTH? 

Nirmal, exactly that: a big mouth! 

I will tell you a fictitious story: 

I was going to the Himalayas; Radha was accompanying me. The train was stopped in the middle of the night 

in the jungle and the whole train was robbed. The robbers came to our compartment also. 

I told them, ”Don’t disturb us. Take whatsoever you want.” 

So they carried away the two suitcases. I was worried about Radha, that she might get very much frightened, 

might become very much concerned about her things, but I was surprised. When they left she started laughing, 

”Ha, ha! Ha, ha!” 

I said, ”What is the matter, Radha? What’s-a matta?” 

She said, ”I befooled them! I have saved your fifty-thousand-dollar diamond watch, I have saved my Rolex, I 

have saved my earrings, I have saved my gold and diamond ring, and all the valuables.” 

I said, ”How did you manage?” 

She said, ”I kept all of them in my mouth.” 

I said, ”That makes me feel very sad.” 

She said, ”Why?” 

I said, ”If we had brought Sarjano with us, he would have saved the two suitcases! Next time we come to the 

Himalayas never forget: Sarjano has to accompany us!” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, DOES IT MEAN THE SAME TO WEAR A MALA OR A CROSS? 

Jan, it does not mean the same they are polar opposites. The people who have become interested in the cross 

are pathological. They are not interested in Christ, they are interested in the cross. If they were really interested 

in Christ they would have also been interested in Buddha, in Lao Tzu, in Krishna, in Kabir. But they are not 

interested in Christ, they are interested in the cross. 

Hence I don’t call Christianity ”Christianity,” I call it ”Crossianity.” If Jesus had not been crucified there 

would have been no such thing as you find all over the world in the name of Christianity. These people became 

interested in death; this interest is morbid. They became interested in worshipping death. Jesus is secondary, the


cross became primary. Because he was crucified, because he suffered, he caught their attention. There are people 

who are always interested in suffering, in misery, in death. 

My interest is not death, my interest is life. I love life unconditionally. I celebrate death too, just because it 

is part of life not as death but as part of life, as the finishing touch, as the crescendo, as the ultimate flowering 

of life. If you have lived rightly, your death is a beautiful phenomenon. But my interest basically, intrinsically, is 

life. 

The mala represents life, the cross represents death. The mala represents a certain art of making life a garland. 

The beads are the moments. Each bead has to be perfect; each moment has to be lived in its perfection. And 

there is a thread running through them which is invisible, passing through each bead; that thread is of eternity. 

Each moment is threaded with eternity. 

Unless your life knows what eternity is your life will be just a heap of beads or a heap of flowers, but it will not 

be a garland, it will not be a mala. It will not have any inner harmony the beads will remain unrelated. It will 

be a chaos, it will not be a cosmos; there will be no order, no discipline. But the discipline should be invisible like 

the thread. 

And how does one come to know eternity? The only way to know the thread is to go inside the bead. There, 

at the very center of the bead, you will find the thread passing. Going deep into each moment, going totally into 

it, you will find eternity. Each moment is part of an eternal procession, of an eternal celebration. 

The mala represents time as beads, visible, and the thread as eternity, the invisible. There are one hundred and 

eight beads in the mala. One hundred and eight beads represent one hundred and eight methods of meditation; 

all the methods of meditation can be reduced to one hundred and eight one hundred and eight methods are the 

fundamental methods of meditation. Then they can have thousands with little differences, little changes joining 

two methods or three methods or a few parts of one method and a few parts of another method. One can make 

as many methods as possible, but the fundamental methods are one hundred and eight. 

The mala has one hundred and eight beads and a locket with a picture of somebody... nobody knows who he 

is. Somebody anonymous, somebody who is more a nobody than a somebody; a man who has died long ago as a 

separate entity, who does not exist anymore as an ’I’ but is only an open space. That is where you have to reach, 

that is where you have to arrive. That is your ultimate home. 

The mala is not a cross. Christianity worships death and that is where it has gone wrong. It has lost the joy 

of life, the laughter, the humor. It has lost contact with Jesus. It goes on worshipping the crucified Jesus, but it 

is not capable of worshipping the alive Jesus. 

And my effort here is to help you to worship life, to live so joyously, with such humor, that your life becomes 

a dance. I don’t want you to become sad and serious sincere of course, but serious, never. I would like you to 

go deeper into existence. Dance with the flowers! Have dialogues with the stars! Look into people’s eyes and love 

and don’t hold back. The only unspiritual people are those who are holding back, who are living in a miserly way, 

who are living only partially, fragmentarily, who are not integrated. 

And don’t live an accidental life; let there be a thread running through it. The Sanskrit word for thread is sutra. 

That’s why these great sayings of Buddha, Patanjali, Krishna, Mahavira are called sutras: these are threads. If 

you understand them your life will not remain just a heap, an accidental heap. You will not be just driftwood 

at the mercy of unconscious forces. Your life will become a conscious movement, your life will become an art. It 

will have a sense of direction, and each act will be connected with every other act of your life. You will not be 

accidental. If you are accidental you will be only a noise; if you are not accidental you can become music. 

The mala represents music, it represents harmony. It shows that you have found the sutra, the thread that 

makes your life one whole, one piece. Life is beautiful when it is one piece; life is ugly when it is fragmentary 

when you are just a crowd and when the crowd is always fighting within you, when there is always a civil war. 

Of course, the cross has influenced humanity very much, because millions of people find meaning in the cross 

because it fits with their lives. Their lives are almost on the cross: they are living in agony, they have never tasted 

what ecstasy is. 

It is not an accident that Krishna’s message has not reached millions. Just the other day I was telling you 

that Zarathustra has not reached millions for the simple reason that he loved life. Jesus has reached millions 

not because of himself but because of an accident in his life. It is because of the Jews and the Romans: if they 

had not crucified him, if they had tolerated him, he would have died by himself and then nobody would have 

heard anything about him. All these churches and thousands of monks and nuns would not have been seen at all 

they gathered around the cross. The cross became significant because it synchronizes with something in their life. 

Their life is of suffering and the cross represents it. They are also on the cross. Their whole life is agony, their 

whole life is hell.


What I am saying is not going to appeal to many people. It is going to appeal to only a few intelligent ones, 

courageous ones, to only a few who are really healthy and whole. This is unfortunate, but this has been so up to 

now. 

Whenever somebody comes here to teach life to you he seems far away; there seems to be no dialogue happening 

between him and you. He talks about dance and you don’t even know how to walk! He talks about ecstasy and 

you don’t know what that word means. 

One of my sannyasins has just come from Greece. She has informed me that in Greece ’ecstasy’ ekstasis means 

bus stop! That seems to be more meaningful. And in a sense it is a bus stop, in fact the terminus, the last stop. 

Beyond that there is no way to go the last bus stop. You hear the word ’ecstasy’, the sound comes to you, but 

the meaning is missed. But when you hear the word ’suffering’ it is not only the sound that comes to you, you 

know the meaning too. When you know what the cross is, you perfectly agree; your life agrees with it. 

But your life is wrong. Your life is not yet life, you are not yet born. That’s why Jesus goes on saying again 

and again: Unless you are born again.... 

My whole effort here is to give you a rebirth. The mala is not a cross. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE THE JOURNALISTS ALWAYS WRITING AGAINST YOU? 

Sudarshan, feel happy that they are always writing; don’t be worried about what they write. It they are writing 

that means something is happening here. And they can only write against because when you write something in 

favor you have to experience what is happening here; without experiencing it you cannot write a favorable report 

about it. You have to be here for a few months. 

They come only for one day, they look around, they see the meditators but by seeing the meditators you can’t 

see meditation. They see that something is happening and something so new for them that it does not fit with 

their idea of an ashram, of a monastery. Hence, naturally they turn against me, they become antagonistic. 

If they are Hindus they are bound to be absolutely against me for the simple reason that this is not a Hindu 

ashram; it does not fit with their idea of an ashram. The Hindu ashram has to be very dull and dead. And here 

there is so much dance and so much song and so much joy and so much love, they are shocked. And things are so 

intense here. 

For centuries they have created a certain ideal of the Hindu ashram. People should not be active there; inaction 

is worshipped. People should renounce life and here we rejoice life. How can they write in favor? To them it 

appears that I am destroying their whole ideal. To them it seems for centuries they have worshipped a certain 

ideal and I am sabotaging it. And in a way they are right. 

I want to sabotage that stupid idea of an ashram: that it should be dead, people should be inactive, people 

should be dull, uncreative, against life, against love, against everything that smells of joy they should be walking 

corpses! 

And the Hindu idea of sannyas is that one should become a sannyasin only after seventy-five years. That means 

in India, nobody can become a sannyasin! The average age is thirty-six, so as far as the average man is concerned 

there seems to be no possibility of anybody ever becoming a sannyasin. Seventy-five years, then sannyas: the 

fourth stage of life, when death starts knocking on your doors, when one foot is already in the grave then you 

should become a sannyasin. 

And here they see young people, so young they cannot believe their eyes. Why have these people become 

sannyasins? This is not the time for sannyas! 

I am trying to create a totally new concept of sannyas. Because they are against life... of course, if you are 

against life seventy-five years seems to be the right time. Because life has already left you now you can renounce, 

at least you can enjoy the idea that you are renouncing life. Life has already left you what is the point of 

renunciation now? What are you renouncing? The whole idea is stupid. Then why not take sannyas when you 

are dead? Just wait a few days more, maybe one week. Why be in such a hurry? Just a little more! 

In India when a man dies, they cover him with orange clothes. I don’t know whom they are deceiving; the dead 

body is covered with the clothes of a sannyasin. And they chant the name of God when they are taking the dead 

body to cremate it. Now I don’t know who is hearing their chanting that poor fellow is no more there. They are 

simply deceiving themselves. 

Hindus are bound to be against me. Jainas come here, they are bound to be against me this is not a Jaina 

ashram. In fact, Jainas have always been against ashrams; there is no such thing as a Jaina ashram. They want 

their sannyasins to be wanderers. They are very much afraid that if a person stays in one place he may become 

attached to the place; to the house, to the people surrounding him. And they are so much afraid of life that it


is better to keep moving. The Jaina monk has to stay not more than three days in one place; the fourth day he 

has to leave. So no attachments, no friendships, no love affairs are possible; at the most he becomes acquainted. 

In three days you cannot have intimacies with people. One day you come, in fact only one day you remain in the 

village, the third day you are preparing to leave. This is fear of life! And to me, a sannyasin should be fearless. 

So when a Jaina comes here, seeing so many people living together with so much joy, with such love, in deep 

involvements with each other, in great intimacies, friendships, love affairs.... Much more love is happening in these 

six acres than may be happening all over the world. In fact, sometimes I wonder how much love six acres can 

contain! It seems the capacity to contain love is infinite. 

And anybody who comes... if a Christian comes he can’t find the idea of his monastery. There are Christian 

monasteries where women are not allowed; for one thousand years no woman has ever entered. Not even a small 

female baby, a two-month-old baby is allowed. What kind of people are living inside monks or monsters? They 

are afraid of a two-month-old baby. What can a poor, two-month-old baby do to them? They are afraid of 

themselves they may do something. They are boiling! And they are committing all kinds of perversions, they 

become perverted. If people are not allowed to be natural their energies become perverted. 

All sexual perversions came out of the monasteries, remember it. They all have religious origins, they are very, 

very spiritual and holy. All sexual perversions have their sources somewhere in religion. Now only monks are 

living in a monastery... how long do you think they can avoid homosexuality? Only nuns are living in a nunnery; 

how long can they avoid lesbianism? impossible to avoid. It is natural, something is bound to happen. 

So when these people come here they are somebody. It is very difficult to find a journalist who has no prejudices 

of his own; he comes with his prejudices. And this place is totally new, so naturally they are offended, outraged. 

And my statements are outrageous they are meant to be. They are electric shocks to these people. They get 

very much disturbed and they take revenge. 

Remember one thing: if you report something good it never becomes news. Nobody is interested in good things; 

people are interested in something bad, something sensational. So they are in search of sensation. And you can 

find enough sensational things here, more than you can find anywhere else. You need not invent them we provide 

them! 

Father Murphy was a priest in a very poor parish. He asked for suggestions how he could raise money for his 

church, and was told that horse-owners always had money. 

He went to a horse auction, but he made a very poor buy as the horse turned out to be a donkey. 

However, he thought he might enter the donkey in a race. The donkey came in third, and the next morning 

the headlines in the paper read, ”Father Murphy’s Ass Shows.” 

The archbishop saw the paper and was very angry. 

The next day the donkey came in first and the headlines read, ”Father Murphy’s Ass Out Front.” 

The archbishop was up in arms and figured something had to be done. 

Father Murphy entered the donkey for a third time and it came in second. Now the newspaper read, ”Father 

Murphy’s Ass Back In Place.” The archbishop thought this was too much so he forbade the priest to enter the 

donkey the next day, which inspired the editor to write the headline, ”Archbishop Scratches Father Murphy’s 

Ass.” 

Finally, the archbishop heard this and ordered Father Murphy to get rid of the donkey. But he was unable 

to sell it, so he gave it to Sister Agatha for a pet. When the archbishop heard this he ordered Sister Agatha to 

dispose of the animal at once. She sold it for ten dollars. 

Next day the headlines read, ”Sister Agatha Peddles Her Ass For Ten Dollars.” 

Don’t be worried about the journalists. Enjoy whatsoever they write and help them to find things so they can 

go on writing. I am much more concerned right now that they should go on writing, because whether they write 

for or against they bring more and more people to me. And once a person comes here it is very difficult to escape! 

So I am just absolutely grateful to the journalists, whatsoever they are doing. They are doing such humanitarian 

work, such a great service to me! 

So when they come here, don’t feel antagonistic. Help them in every possible way. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM SITTING SILENTLY DOING NOTHING, AND THE WEEDS ARE GROWING 

ALL AROUND ME. 

Roderick, weeds are divine. Don’t call them weeds. They are as spiritual as the buddhas. They partake of God 

as much as roses. Remove men from the earth will there be any difference between weeds and roses? All these 

distinctions are made up by the mind.


You are not really sitting silently; otherwise, who is telling you weeds are growing? Your mind is still functioning, 

whispering things to you. It is your mind! If you are really silent there is no mind then whether weeds grow or 

roses grow it is all the same to you. What difference is there? Can’t you enjoy weeds? They are beautiful people! 

See the weeds swaying, dancing in the wind, in the sun.... What do you think is lacking in them which roses have? 

Nothing is lacking. This is just an idea, and ideas change. It is possible one day that roses may go out of fashion, 

weeds may become an ”in” thing. 

A hundred years ago nobody had ever thought that cactuses would be loved by people, but now the cactus 

is ”in” and the rose is ”out.” To talk about the rose looks old-fashioned, looks orthodox, conventional; to talk 

about cactuses is avant-garde, it shows that you are modern, contemporary. People are keeping cactuses in their 

bedrooms dangerous cactuses, poisonous cactuses, which can kill you! But they have come into fashion, and once 

something comes into fashion there are so many fools who start appreciating it. 

People simply go on following whatsoever is made fashionable by a few clever and cunning people. Just a 

hundred years ago nobody would have liked Picasso’s paintings, and now Picasso is the greatest artist not only 

of this century but of the whole history. What has happened? Just the fashion has changed. People get tired of 

one thing; they go on moving to the opposite extreme. 

Roderick, there is nothing wrong in weeds! There is nothing wrong in anything. The idea of right and wrong 

means the mind is there. You are not sitting silently and you are not sitting doing nothing. You are discriminating, 

and that is action. You are labeling, and that is thinking. And you are judging. 

Drop all judgment, all labeling, all discrimination... and just watch weeds growing. So what let them grow! 

When you don’t have a mind at all, you are also a weed; so weeds growing around you, it is not something strange 

weeds surrounding a weed! Enjoy! 

Once a Zen master was asked by a king because the master was a great painter to paint a picture of a bamboo. 

The master said, ”It will take time.” 

”How long?” asked the king. 

The master said, ”That is difficult to say, but at least two or three years.” 

The king said, ”Are you mad or something? You are one of the greatest painters. I was thinking you could just 

draw it right now!” 

He said, ”That is not the problem, drawing a bamboo is not the problem but first I have to be a bamboo; 

otherwise how do I know what a bamboo is? I want to know the bamboo from the inside! So I will have to go and 

live in a bamboo grove. Now, one never knows how long it will take. Unless I know the bamboo from within I 

cannot paint it. That has been my practice my whole life: I paint only that which I have known from its deepest 

core.” 

The king said, ”Okay, I will wait.” 

One year passed. He sent a few people to see what was happening, whether the man was alive or dead. They 

came back and said, ”The man is alive, but we don’t think that he is a man anymore he is a bamboo! He was 

swaying with the bamboos in the wind. We passed by his side; he didn’t take any notice. We said, ’Hello!’ He 

didn’t hear. We wanted to talk to him. We looked at his eyes they were so empty that we became frightened; 

either he has gone mad or something has happened. And he can do anything, so we escaped. He may kill or, who 

knows? he may jump upon us! He is no more the same man.” 

The king himself went to see, and the master was swaying in the wind, in the sun. And the king asked, ”Sir, 

what about my painting?” He didn’t answer. 

After three years he appeared at the court and he said, ”Now bring the canvas and the paints. I am ready. 

And why were you people disturbing me again and again? If you had not disturbed me I would have come a little 

earlier. These fools from your court, they were saying things to me. They were saying, ’Hello!’ Do you say hello 

to a bamboo? They disturbed the whole thing. It took months for me to again settle into being a bamboo and to 

forget that I am a man. And then you came and you said, ’Sir.’ Is that the way to address a bamboo? ’When are 

you going to paint?’ Has anybody ever heard that bamboos paint? You are a fool, you are surrounded by fools! 

I had told you that I would come whenever I was ready.” 

The canvas was brought, the brushes and the color, and within seconds he drew the bamboo. And it is said 

that the king wept for joy. He had never seen such a painting: it was so alive! It was no ordinary painting. It was 

not from the outside, it was from the bamboo as if a bamboo had sprouted on the canvas, not been painted. 

Roderick, sit silently doing nothing, and let things happen whatsoever is happening. If weeds are growing, let 

them grow. They have the right to grow as much as you have the right to grow. And if you allow everything 

without any judgment, if you are nonjudgmental, you will grow to such pinnacles of joy and benediction that you 

cannot imagine right now.



Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, IT IS TERRIBLE WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT ITALIANS. TRUE, OF COURSE, BUT 

TERRIBLE. 

Adi, I know it is terrible, but what can I do? I love the Italians and I want to talk about them as much as 

I can. They are beautiful people. I hit only when I love. You should be worried about those whom I am not 

hitting. For example, I have not yet hit the Dutch. I am waiting when I have gathered enough love for them I 

am going to hit them too! It is my way of showing love and showering love. 

Why don’t Italians believe in reincarnation? 

Well, look at it this way: who would want to come back to life as an Italian? 

A woman with a baby in her arms was sitting in the waiting room at a railway station in Italy, sobbing bitterly. 

Up came a porter and asked her what the trouble was. 

”Oh, dear me,” she cried, ”some people were in here and they were so rude to me about my son. I’m all upset 

they said he was so ugly!” 

”There, there now, luv,” said the porter soothingly. ”Don’t worry about it. I tell you what how about a nice 

cup of tea?” 

”You are very kind,” she said, wiping her eyes. ”That would be very nice.” 

”And while I’m at it,” he said, ”how about a banana for your monkey?” 

An Italian with a one foot high man sitting on his shoulder walked into a bar and ordered a scotch and soda. 

The barman was stunned but delivered the drink as ordered. Just as the fellow was about to drink it, the little 

man knocked it out of his hand. He ordered another one, and again the little man knocked the drink onto the 

floor. This scene was repeated three times. 

Finally, the bartender could stand it no longer. ”What’s going on here?” he asked. 

”It is a long story,” the Italian said, ”but many years ago I was in Egypt and found a magic lamp. I rubbed it 

and a genie offered me three wishes. First I wished for ten million dollars. Then I wished for everlasting life.” 

”Sounds great,” said the bartender. ”What was your third wish?” 

”I wished for a prick twelve inches long.” 

Get it? Remember if you come across a genie some time, never ask for the third wish. Look in the dictionary 

to find out the real meaning of ”prick.” 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, I FEEL SHOCKED WHEN YOU USE THE WORD ’FUCK’. WHAT TO DO? 

Sargamo, it is one of the most beautiful words. The English language should be proud of it. I don’t think any 

other language has such a beautiful word. 

One Tom from California has done some great research on it. I think he must be the famous Tom of Tom, Dick 

and Harry fame. 

He says: 

One of the most interesting words in the English language today is the word ’fuck’. It is one magical word: just 

by its sound it can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love. In language it falls into many grammatical categories. 

It can be used as a verb, both transitive (John fucked Mary) and intransitive (Mary was fucked by John), and as 

a noun (Mary is a fine fuck). It can be used as an adjective (Mary is fucking beautiful). As you can see there are 

not many words with the versatility of ’fuck’. 

Besides the sexual meaning, there are also the following uses: 

Fraud: I got fucked at the used car lot. 

Ignorance: Fucked if I know. 

Trouble: I guess I am fucked now! 

Aggression: Fuck you! 

Displeasure: What the fuck is going on here? 

Difficulty: I can’t understand this fucking job. 

Incompetence: He is a fuck-off. 

Suspicion: What the fuck are you doing? 

Enjoyment: I had a fucking good time. 

Request: Get the fuck out of here! 

Hostility: I am going to knock your fucking head off! 

Greeting: How the fuck are you?


Apathy: Who gives a fuck? 

Innovation: Get a bigger fucking hammer. 

Surprise: Fuck! You scared the shit out of me! 

Anxiety: Today is really fucked. 

And it is very healthy too. If every morning you do it as a Transcendental Meditation just when you get up, 

the first thing, repeat the mantra ”Fuck you!” five times it clears the throat. That’s how I keep my throat clear! 



Chapter 5 How sweet to be free 


SEEKER! DO NOT BE RECKLESS. MEDITATE CONSTANTLY OR YOU WILL SWALLOW FIRE AND 

CRY OUT: ”NO MORE!” 

IF YOU ARE NOT WISE, HOW CAN YOU STEADY THE MIND? IF YOU CANNOT QUIETEN YOUR- 

SELF, WHAT WILL YOU EVER LEARN? 

HOW WILL YOU BECOME FREE? 

WITH A QUIET MIND COME INTO THAT EMPTY HOUSE, YOUR HEART, AND FEEL THE JOY OF 

THE WAY BEYOND THE WORLD. 

LOOK WITHIN THE RISING AND THE FALLING. WHAT HAPPINESS! HOW SWEET TO BE FREE! 

IT IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE, OF MASTERY AND PATIENCE, OF GOOD FRIENDS ALONG THE 

WAY, OF A PURE AND ACTIVE LIFE. 

SO LIVE IN LOVE. DO YOUR WORK. MAKE AN END OF YOUR SORROWS. 

FOR SEE HOW THE JASMINE RELEASES AND LETS FALL ITS WITHERED FLOWERS. 

LET FALL WILLFULNESS AND HATRED. 

ARE YOU QUIET? QUIETEN YOUR BODY. QUIETEN YOUR MIND. 

YOU WANT NOTHING. YOUR WORDS ARE STILL. YOU ARE STILL. 

BY YOUR OWN EFFORTS WAKEN YOURSELF, WATCH YOURSELF. AND LIVE JOYFULLY. 

YOU ARE THE MASTER, YOU ARE THE REFUGE. AS A MERCHANT BREAKS IN A FINE HORSE, 

MASTER YOURSELF. HOW GLADLY YOU FOLLOW THE WORDS OF THE AWAKENED. 

HOW QUIETLY, HOW SURELY YOU APPROACH THE HAPPY COUNTRY, THE HEART OF STILL- 

NESS. 

HOWEVER YOUNG, THE SEEKER WHO SETS OUT UPON THE WAY SHINES BRIGHT OVER THE 

WORLD. 

LIKE THE MOON, COME OUT FROM BEHIND THE CLOUDS! SHINE. 

The Scots angler died, made his way to heaven, and was stopped at the gate by Saint Peter who said, ”You 

have told too many lies to get in here!” 

”Have a heart,” replied the angler. ”Remember you were a fisherman once yourself!” 

Gautama the Buddha is reminding his Bodhisattvas that the path that they have followed themselves, the very 

beginning of the path, they may have completely forgotten about by now. Who remembers the dreams in the 

morning when he is awake? Within seconds those dreams are forgotten. 

The same happens when you become enlightened: all the misery, all the nightmares, all the sorrows that you 

had suffered so much simply become so insignificant, so irrelevant that they disappear from your consciousness. 

They are no more part of your life story as if they had happened to somebody else and not to you. Hence Buddha 

is reminding his Bodhisattvas how the journey starts from the very beginning; only then can these people be of 

help to others. 

The first thing he says: Remember only to talk to seekers. There are many who are inquirers but who are not 

seekers, many who are curious but not seekers. The curious person is a little childish. Every child is curious curious 

about each and everything, curious about one thousand and one things, but not really interested in knowing. He 

asks one question; by the time you answer him he has started asking about something else. He is not listening 

to your answer at all, he is not interested in it anymore; it was a momentary phenomenon. He had just become 

attracted to something: he saw a flower and he asked about it, and then he heard the noise of an airplane and he 

started asking about airplanes, and then something else caught his eye.... 

A seeker means one for whom the inquiry is not only curiosity, not a childish phenomenon, but a mature inquiry, 

for whom it has become a question of life and death. Unless truth becomes a question of life and death you are 

not a seeker.


Buddha is saying to his Bodhisattvas, his apostles: Talk only to seekers, address yourself only to seekers. Don’t 

waste your time with childish people who are curious about each and everything. Their questions may look very 

great, but their hearts are not in their questions. They have asked just to ask; they are not interested in finding 

the answer and they are not ready to risk anything. If they can get the answer free, maybe they are ready to 

listen; but they are not ready to pay. And life’s real questions are not to be solved in such a cheap way. You have 

to pay and you have to pay with your whole being. You have to get involved; it needs commitment. 

Anybody can ask about God, but very few people are ready to risk anything, to go into the unknown, to go 

into the adventure and the adventure for God is the greatest adventure there is. And it demands; it is very 

demanding it demands your total commitment. It won’t allow you any other involvement. It can’t be just one 

involvement among many other involvements; it has to be the one and only involvement. Only then is there a 

hope that some day you may find the answer which liberates you. Hence he says: 

SEEKER! DO NOT BE RECKLESS. 

And the first thing to be taught to these people who are seekers is not to be reckless. People are living very 

recklessly, people are living very accidentally. Their lives have no sense of direction. They don’t know where they 

are going, from where they are coming, why they are doing a certain thing. Maybe others are doing it so they are 

imitating, but imitators are not seekers. Maybe others are going to the church or to the temple so they are also 

going. They are not really men but sheep. 

A seeker has to be a lion. He has to learn to be free from the crowd psychology, from the mob mind. He 

has to learn ways of individuality, of independence. He has to think of what he is doing and why. He should 

not be just a victim of natural life forces; he should have a certain sense of direction. Only then is there 

a possibility of achieving, of coming back home, of reaching somewhere, of attaining contentment, fulfillment, 

flowering, fruitfulness. Otherwise life remains meaningless; it is just a jumble of unrelated events. 

DO NOT BE RECKLESS. First thing: Do not be just curious. Second thing: Do not be reckless. 

New York City was jammed for the convention. Every hotel and rooming house was full. Phillips was tired he 

simply had to find a place to sleep that night. 

”Anything will do,” he said to the hotel clerk. 

”I can let you have a cot in the ballroom,” replied the clerk, ”But there’s a woman in the opposite corner. If 

you don’t make any noise she’ll be none the wiser.” 

”Fine,” said Phillips. He went to the ballroom but five minutes later came running out to the clerk. 

”Say,” he cried, ”that woman there is dead!” 

”I know,” was the answer, ”but how did you find out?” 

Everybody is curious for no reason at all it was none of his business. Even he cannot answer why some 

unconscious instinct, maybe biology, maybe chemistry, but not his consciousness. 

Who or what is deciding your life? your biology, your chemistry, your psychology, your hormones? Who is 

deciding your life? Are you? you as a conscious being? 

A drunk walked into a bar in Glasgow and asked, ”Was I in here last night?” 

”Yes, you were,” replied the barmaid. 

”Did I spend much money?” 

”About thirty pounds.” 

”Thank God I thought I’d lost it!” 

Angus was staggering home after a night with his fishing pals when he came upon a scarecrow, arms outstretched. 

”Hey, Jimmy,” he said, ”I refuse to believe you. There never was a trout that size.” 

A number of Scottish soldiers were court-martialed for wrecking a public house, and one of them was asked to 

explain to the court how the trouble had started. 

”Well, sir,” he said, ”Private McSporran called Private McDougall a liar, and Private Paterson hit him over 

the head with a chair. Private Fraser pulled out his dirk and cut a slice out of Private McDougall’s leg. Two or 

three of Private McDougall’s mates piled onto Private Fraser, and a couple of others started throwing glasses and 

tables around. One thing led to another and then the fighting started.” 

Buddha says: 

SEEKER! DO NOT BE RECKLESS. 

MEDITATE CONSTANTLY. OR YOU WILL SWALLOW FIRE AND CRY OUT: ”NO MORE!” 

MEDITATE CONSTANTLY. The person who is a seeker will not really be interested in getting only philosophical 

answers from others; he will be interested in knowing on his own. He will not be interested in philosophy, 

he will be interested in religion. That is the difference between philosophy and religion. Philosophy is juggling 

with words, the art of hairsplitting, arguing endlessly about abstract ideas, arriving nowhere. Religion is more


like science: it experiments, it emphasizes experience. Science is the religion of the objective world, and religion 

is the science of the subjective world. 

Philosophy is going to die one day; it is already on its deathbed. You can go to the universities and see: every 

year less and less people are turning to the departments of philosophy. Many philosophy departments are empty, 

deserted. People are going to science or to religion. Those who are interested in knowing the truth about the world 

are going to scientific inquiries, to physics, to chemistry, to mathematics, to biology. Or, people who are interested 

in their own interiority, in their own subjectivity, in their own consciousness, are moving towards religion, more 

and more towards religion. 

Religion is the science of the inner. Philosophy is neither: it is neither the science of the outer nor the science 

of the inner; it is just in between. It only thinks; it thinks about everything about science, about religion but 

it only thinks. And just by thinking, nothing ever happens. You can make very clever answers, but they are not 

going to solve your real problems; the problems are real and the answers are just abstract. Real problems can be 

solved only by real answers. 

Hence Buddha says: The seeker can be persuaded to meditate only the seeker can be persuaded to meditate. 

Meditation means you start changing your inner world. You start removing dust from the inner world, you start 

removing all that is unnecessary in the inner world. You remove all that clutter, all the rubbish you are full of. 

Meditation means emptying yourself of all that the society has put inside you so that you can have a clean, clear 

vision, so that you can have a mirrorlike quality. When a mirror is without any dust it reflects reality; so is the 

case with meditation. 

Meditation means making your consciousness a mirror. Thoughts are like dust, they have to be removed. 

And thoughts contain everything belonging to the mind: desires, ambitions, memories, fantasies, dreams... all 

mindstuff is different forms of thoughts, different kinds, different layers of dust. And the dust is so thick that the 

mirror is not functioning at all hence you have to ask others. Once the dust is removed you need not ask anyone, 

you yourself can see. Existence has given you the magic mirror it is within you. 

I have heard a beautiful parable; it must be a parable, it cannot be an historical phenomenon: 

When Alexander the Great came to India he collected many valuable treasures. And when he was leaving he 

came across a fakir, a naked fakir. He asked him, ”Do you see my treasures? Have you ever seen anybody with 

so many treasures?” 

The fakir said, ”All your treasures are nothing, but I can give you one thing that will really make you rich!” 

Alexander could not imagine what this naked fakir could give him. In his begging bowl he had a small mirror. 

He gave the mirror to Alexander. 

Alexander said, ”This mirror will make me the richest man in the world? You must be mad!” 

The fakir said, ”First look in the mirror.” 

And Alexander looked into the mirror: it did not show his face it showed his inner being, it showed his 

interiority, it showed his subjectivity. His being was reflected in the mirror. 

He touched the feet of the fakir and said, ”You are right all my treasures are nothing before this mirror.” 

And it is said he kept that mirror continuously with him. 

The parable is beautiful. That mirror represents meditation. The fakir must have given him some meditation 

because only meditation can make you aware of who you are. 

But Buddha says meditation has to become something constant. Buddha brings a totally new vision of meditation 

to the world. Before Buddha, meditation was something that you had to do once or twice a day, one hour 

in the morning, one hour in the evening, and that was all. Buddha gave a totally new interpretation to the whole 

process of meditation. He said: This kind of meditation that you do one hour in the morning, one hour in the 

evening, you may do five times or four times a day, is not of much value. Meditation cannot be something that 

you can do apart from life just for one hour or fifteen minutes. Meditation has to become something synonymous 

with your life; it has to be like breathing. You cannot breathe one hour in the morning and one hour in the 

evening, otherwise the evening will never come. It has to be something like breathing: even while you are asleep 

the breathing continues. You may fall into a coma, but the breathing continues. 

Buddha says meditation should become such a constant phenomenon; only then can it transform you. And he 

evolved a new technique of meditation. 

His greatest contribution to the world is Vipassana; no other teacher has given such a great gift to the world. 

Jesus is beautiful, Mahavira is beautiful, Lao Tzu is beautiful, Zarathustra is beautiful, but their contribution, 

compared to Buddha, is nothing. Even if they are all put together, then too Buddha’s contribution is greater 

because he gave such a scientific method simple, yet so penetrating that once you are in tune with it, it becomes 

a constant factor in your life.


Then you need not do it; you have to do it only in the beginning. Once you have learned the knack of it, it 

remains with you; you need not do it. Then whatsoever you are doing, it is there. It becomes a backdrop to 

your life, a background to your life. You are walking, but you walk meditatively. You are eating, but you eat 

meditatively. You are sleeping, but you sleep meditatively. Remember, even the quality of sleep of a meditator 

is totally different from the quality of the sleep of a non-meditator. Everything becomes different because a new 

factor has entered which changes the whole gestalt. 

Vipassana simply means watching your breath, looking at your breath. It is not like yoga pranayam: it is not 

changing your breath to a certain rhythm deep breathing, fast breathing. No, it does not change your breathing 

at all; it has nothing to do with the breathing. Breathing has only to be used as a device to watch because it is a 

constant phenomenon in you. You can simply watch it, and it is the most subtle phenomenon. If you can watch 

your breath then it will be easy for you to watch your thoughts. 

One thing immensely great that Buddha contributed was the discovery of the relationship between breath and 

thought. He was the first man in the whole history of humanity who made it absolutely clear that breathing 

and thinking are deeply related. Breathing is the bodily part of thinking and thinking is the psychological part 

of breathing. They are not separate, they are two aspects of the same coin. He is the first man who talks of 

bodymind as one unity. He talks for the first time about man as a psychosomatic phenomenon. He does not talk 

about body and mind, he talks about bodymind. They are not two, hence no ’and’ is needed to join them. They 

are already one bodymind not even a hyphen is needed; bodymind is one phenomenon. And each body process 

has its counterpart in your psychology and vice versa. 

You can watch it, you can try an experiment. Just stop your breathing for a moment and you will be surprised: 

the moment you stop your breathing, your thinking stops. Or you can watch another thing: whenever your 

thinking is going too fast your breathing changes. For example, if you are full of sexual lust and your thinking is 

getting too hot, your breathing will be different: it will not be rhythmic, it will lose its rhythm. It will be more 

chaotic, it will be unrhythmic. 

When you are angry your breathing changes because your thinking has changed. When you are loving your 

breathing changes because your thinking has changed. When you are peaceful, at ease, at home, relaxed, your 

breathing is different. When you are restless, worried, in turmoil, in anguish, your breathing is different. Just by 

watching your breath you can know what kind of state is happening in your mind. 

Meditators come across a point: when the mind really completely ceases, breathing also ceases. And then 

great fear arises don’t be afraid. Many meditators have reported to me, ”We became very much afraid, very 

much frightened, because suddenly we became aware that the breathing has stopped.” Naturally, one thinks that 

when breathing stops death is close by. It is only a question of moments you are dying. Breathing stops in 

death; breathing also stops in deep meditation. Hence deep meditation and death have one thing similar: in both 

the breathing stops. Therefore, if a man knows meditation he has also known death. That’s why the meditator 

becomes free of the fear of death: he knows breathing can stop and still he is. 

Breathing is not life; life is a far bigger phenomenon. Breathing is only a connection with the body. The 

connection can be cut; that does not mean that life has ended. Life is still there; life does not end just by the 

disappearance of breathing. 

Buddha says: Watch your breathing; let it be normal, as it is. Sitting silently, watch your breath. The sitting 

posture will also be helpful; the Buddha posture, the lotus posture, is very helpful. When your spine is erect and 

you are sitting in a lotus posture, your legs crossed, your spine is aligned with the gravitational forces, and the 

body is at its best relaxed state. Let the spine be erect and the body be loose, hanging on the spine not tense. 

The body should be loose, relaxed, the spine erect, so gravitation has the least pull on you. 

Have you watched it? If you want to go to sleep you have to lie down, for the simple reason that when you are 

lying down flat on the ground you are in touch with the gravitational forces at the maximum, because all over the 

body the gravitational pull works, it pulls you. You immediately start falling asleep. It is difficult to fall asleep 

standing. The most difficult posture to fall asleep in is the lotus posture. The body is so relaxed there is no need 

to fall asleep, and the gravitational forces are at the minimum; hence they cannot pull you downwards; they can’t 

make you heavy and dull and lethargic. You are bright, you are full of life. You are more intelligent in the lotus 

posture than you can ever be in any other posture. The body affects your mind. 

Scientists now agree with this: that it is only because a few of the monkeys somehow... they have not been 

able to find the reason why and how it happened, and monkeys are monkeys it may have just happened out of 

curiosity, a few monkeys tried to stand on two legs and these are the monkeys who became the original men; they 

were the originators. That was the greatest innovation; nothing else has been greater than that. A few monkeys 

standing erect on their two legs created a great revolution; the revolution happened in the growth of the mind.


The erect posture helped the mind to come out of sleep. It became more intelligent, it became more alert, it 

became more conscious. 

Other animals who move on their four legs have not been able to develop intelligence, although many of them 

have a mind of almost the same capacity as man. For example, the elephant has a mind of almost the same 

capacity as man, but has not been able to develop it and I don’t think it is ever going to happen. In circuses they 

try hard to teach the elephant to sit in a chair or to stand even for a few seconds on two feet, but the body is 

so heavy the elephant cannot manage to be on two feet. Hence the brain remains clouded; the gravitational pull 

keeps it unconscious. 

Hence this lotus posture is something valuable. It is not just a body phenomenon; it affects the mind, it 

changes the mind. Sit in a lotus posture the whole point is that your spine should be erect and should make a 

ninety-degree angle with the earth. That is the point where you are capable of being the most intelligent, the 

most alert, the least sleepy. 

And then watch your breath, the natural breath. You need not breathe deeply, you don’t change your breathing; 

you simply watch it as it is. But you will be surprised by one thing: the moment you start watching, it changes 

because even the fact of watching is a change and the breathing is no more the same. 

Slight changes in your consciousness immediately affect your breathing. You will be able to see it; whenever 

you watch you will see your breathing has become a little deeper. If it becomes so of its own accord it is okay, but 

you are not to do it by your will. Watching your breath, slowly, slowly you will be surprised that as your breath 

becomes calm and quiet your mind also becomes calm and quiet. And watching the breath will make you capable 

of watching the mind. 

That is just the beginning, the first part of meditation, the physical part. And the second part is the psychological 

part. Then you can watch more subtle things in your mind thoughts, desires, memories. 

And as you go deeper into watchfulness, a miracle starts happening: as you become watchful less and less 

traffic happens in the mind, more and more quiet, silence; more and more silent spaces, more and more gaps and 

intervals. Moments pass and you don’t come across a single thought. Slowly, slowly minutes pass, hours pass.... 

And there is a certain arithmetic in it: if you can remain absolutely empty for forty-eight minutes, that very 

day you will become enlightened, that very moment you will become enlightened. But it is not a question of your 

effort; don’t go on looking at the watch because each time you look, a thought has come. You have to again count 

from the very beginning; you are back to zero. There is no need for you to watch the time. 

But this has been the experience in the East of all great meditators: that forty-eight minutes seems to be the 

ultimate point. If this much of a gap is possible, if for this much of a gap thinking stops and you remain alert, 

with no thought crossing your mind, you are capable of receiving God inside. You have become the host and the 

guest immediately comes. 

IF YOU ARE NOT WISE, HOW CAN YOU STEADY THE MIND? 

You have to be very intelligent; only then can you steady the mind. And what does he mean by intelligence? 

Ordinarily we behave in a very unintelligent way: we behave according to beliefs; beliefs keep us unintelligent. 

We behave according to borrowed knowledge; that keeps us unintelligent. 

Try to accept the challenges of life directly; don’t act out of belief or knowledge. Don’t follow the scriptures 

and the traditions. They are the root cause of making you stupid, because unless you face life directly, unless 

those challenges are encountered, your intelligence will not arise because there will be no opportunity for it to 

arise. Give it the opportunity. Life gives many opportunities but you go on missing the opportunities because 

you live on borrowed answers. 

Face life and its questions and its realities on your own, even if your own responses are not so great they cannot 

be. Of course you cannot respond like a buddha, but by borrowing some answer from Buddha you will never be 

intelligent enough to become a buddha yourself. Yes, you will commit many errors, many mistakes. Yes, you will 

go astray many times go, don’t be worried! Life is meant for that, so that you can try. It is through trials, many 

errors, many mistakes, that one learns. When you learn by your own efforts you become intelligent. And only an 

intelligent person can see the beauty of meditation, can understand the significance of meditation. 

IF YOU CANNOT QUIETEN YOURSELF, WHAT WILL YOU EVER LEARN? 

And all learning happens through meditation; it does not happen through study. That is accumulation of 

information, it is not learning. Always be alert about borrowed knowledge: howsoever precious it appears it is all 

false, pseudo for you. It is not pseudo for the man who has lived it. It is true for Buddha, true for Jesus, true 

for Krishna, but not for you. You will have to live.... 

Buddha also had the scriptures available. He could have read Krishna; the Gita was available. And he was 

well-educated he was the son of a king. All the scriptures must have been available to him and great scholars


and great teachers were available to him. He could have recited the Gita every day; he could have learned the 

Gita so absolutely that he would have been able to repeat it just from memory, but then he would have missed 

buddhahood. 

And in Krishna’s time also the Vedas were available, but Krishna did not borrow knowledge from the Vedas. In 

Jesus’ time the Old Testament was available, but Jesus tried to find out the truth for himself. This is something 

very essential to understand: truth has to be found by oneself. Only then is it liberating; otherwise it becomes a 

bondage a beautiful bondage, but a bondage all the same. 

And if you cannot learn.... 

HOW WILL YOU BECOME FREE? 

It is only by experiencing truth on your own that freedom happens. Freedom is the fragrance of the experience 

of truth. 

WITH A QUIET MIND COME INTO THAT EMPTY HOUSE, YOUR HEART, AND FEEL THE JOY OF 

THE WAY BEYOND THE WORLD. 

Buddha says: With the silent mind, the quiet mind... COME INTO THAT EMPTY HOUSE, YOUR HEART. 

Your heart is your real home; it is utterly empty. Your head is full of rubbish, your heart is totally empty. 

Move from the head to the heart! The whole process of meditation is a movement from the head to the heart, 

from the mind to no-mind. 

COME INTO THAT EMPTY HOUSE, YOUR HEART, AND FEEL THE JOY OF THE WAY and you will 

be full of joy BEYOND THE WORLD. A joy that is not of this world, a fragrance that comes from the beyond. 

LOOK WITHIN THE RISING AND THE FALLING. 

The rising and falling of your breath: that is the way of looking within. Many have said: Look within. Socrates 

has said: Look within, know thyself, but nobody has given the exact method. Buddha gives you the exact method: 

the rising and the falling of the breath. It is through the breath that you are bridged. Breath is the bridge between 

your soul and your body. If you can watch your breath rising and falling, slowly, slowly you will be able to see the 

body as separate from yourself and also the breath as separate from yourself, because the watcher cannot be the 

watched, the observer cannot be the observed. Suddenly one day you will realize that you are the witness of it all. 

And the witness is certainly transcendental to all that it witnesses. In that very moment freedom has happened 

to you. Then: 

WHAT HAPPINESS! HOW SWEET TO BE FREE! 

IT IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE.... 

Birth is not the beginning of life. This is the beginning of life, when you experience your witnessing soul. IT 

IS THE BEGINNING.... 

OF MASTERY AND PATIENCE, OF GOOD FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY, OF A PURE AND ACTIVE 

LIFE. 

Meditate over these words. Buddhists have not understood these words at all. How can this man, Gautama the 

Buddha, be an escapist? He says: IT IS THE BEGINNING OF a new LIFE, OF MASTERY AND PATIENCE, 

OF GOOD FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY.... 

He is giving you a new world, a new way to love, a new way to be friendly; he is giving you new friends. In 

fact, only meditators can be friendly towards each other because they are not competitors. Nobody else can be 

friendly, they only pretend. How can competitors be friendly? Deep down they are enemies because everybody 

is coveting the same things. You are greedy for money, your friend is also greedy for money. How can you be 

friendly? Impossible. All friendship is bogus, phony. 

You want to be the prime minister and your friend also wants to be the prime minister. Who does not want to 

be the prime minister? How can you be friendly? Hence they say in politics there is no friendship at all. A few are 

enemies openly, a few are enemies in a hidden way. That’s why in politics every day changes happen: somebody 

who was a friend yesterday, today is an enemy; somebody who was an enemy yesterday, today is a friend. It is a 

strange world, the world of politics. 

Machiavelli, in The Prince, suggests to the politicians, ”Never say anything to your friends that you would not 

like to be known by your enemies, because any friend can become your enemy any day.” He also says, ”Never 

say anything against your enemies that you would not like to say against your friends because any enemy can 

become a friend any day” then there will be difficulty. Then you will have to swallow something and it will be 

humiliating. 

Politicians go on doing that: they go on spitting and swallowing it back again and again. They say one thing 

today, another thing tomorrow; they have to. In politics no friends are possible.


Friends are possible only on the way, on the way towards God, because it is not a competition. You can have 

God, I can have God; there is no question that by your having God I will not be able to have God anymore. 

Millions of people can have God and there is no problem because God is infinite, truth is infinite. My having the 

truth does not mean that now you cannot have it. In fact, on the contrary, my having the truth means that you 

can also have it! If I can have it, why not you? Hence, on the way, there is a totally new kind of friendship. 

... OF A PURE AND ACTIVE LIFE. How can Buddha be called an escapist? He says: ... OF A PURE 

AND ACTIVE LIFE. He means creativity, a creativity that comes out of meditative innocence, of meditative 

purity. And a real creator is possible only through meditation. Your so-called painters, ninety-nine percent of 

them, are not real painters. Your so-called poets are not poets, your so-called musicians are not musicians maybe 

technicians. They know how to play, they know how to compose, they know how to paint, but just knowing how 

to paint does not make you a creator. 

A creator is a totally different phenomenon. The creator brings something of God into the world, something of 

the creator into the world. But how can you bring something of God into the world if you have not known God 

yourself? 

A Buddha is a creator, a Jesus is a creator. Their words, their acts are the only proof that God exists. Their 

very presence is proof that God exists. Their presence is creative: in their very presence thousands of people are 

transformed. Buddha is not an escapist; he cannot be. No awakened person can be an escapist. Cowards escape, 

courageous people are creative. 

SO LIVE IN LOVE these are Buddha’s words, mind you: 

SO LIVE IN LOVE. DO YOUR WORK. MAKE AN END OF YOUR SORROWS. 

He is not against love, he is not against creativity, he is not against work either. DO YOUR WORK because 

unless you do the work that is close to your heart you will remain unfulfilled. And the meditator finds immediately 

what his work is. The meditator finds intrinsically that this is his work; he does not have to think about it. It is 

so clear and so loud that he knows that he has to be a musician or he has to be a poet or he has to be this or that. 

It comes so clear that there is no question of doubt. And then he starts working; that work is his meditation. 

There are many people here who are afraid of work. They don’t know that the work that is happening here is 

totally different from the work that you have come across in your life. That was something totally different. When 

I give you some work it is to help your growth. Until you become capable of finding your own work I will go on 

giving it to you only up to the moment when you are capable of finding it yourself. And any work that is being 

given here is nothing but a meditation for you. If it is not a meditation for you then you have not understood my 

message at all. 

FOR SEE HOW THE JASMINE RELEASES AND LETS FALL ITS WITHERED FLOWERS. 

LET FALL WILLFULNESS AND HATRED. 

Buddha says: As the jasmine flowers fall when they have withered away or leaves fall from the trees when they 

die, dead leaves. Just like that, LET FALL WILLFULNESS AND HATRED. The first thing he says that has to 

be dropped easily, without effort, just like a withered jasmine flower falling of its own accord is willfulness, your 

will, your ego. 

So sometimes I have to put you in a certain work where you have to drop your ego and you think it is a kind 

of punishment. It is not a kind of punishment; it is a challenge, it is a situation where you will have to drop the 

ego sooner or later because it will be creating misery again and again for you. It will make you clearly aware that 

your ego is causing your misery. 

Just the other day, Anshumali wrote saying, ”Beloved Master, working in Vrindavan under Deeksha seems to 

be a punishment.” It is not, Anshumali. It is a reward, not a punishment! It is a punishment if you want to cling 

to your ego; if you let the ego fall, it is a reward. And then you will be able to see the beauty of the work, and 

you will be able to see the beauty of Deeksha too. She is a beautiful Italian mama! She loves her workers, she 

loves her people; she is utterly devoted. Of course, she loves so much that she shouts also, she screams also. Her 

love is such that she trusts that you will understand her screaming too. But she is a good device; she has been of 

immense help to many people. 

There are one hundred therapy groups here, but Deeksha’s is the best! Although it is not known as a therapy 

group it is a secret therapy group. 

If you drop your willfulness, your ego, then hatred also drops because hatred is nothing but the shadow of your 

ego. If there is no ego there is no hatred; if there is ego, there is always hatred following it. Whosoever comes 

in the way... and everybody will come in the way because egos cannot adjust to each other. Egos are always in 

conflict, egos are always quarreling, they are quarrelsome, hence the hatred.


Drop the ego and see the beauty of egolessness. Then there is no hatred, no anger. You become so silent, your 

energy becomes so calm and quiet, that suddenly you start seeing the world in a different light, in a different 

perspective. Then this ordinary world is no longer ordinary it becomes sacred. 

ARE YOU QUIET? QUIETEN YOUR BODY. QUIETEN YOUR MIND. 

Buddha says: First start with the body and then move to the mind. Quieten your body by watching your 

breath, quieten your mind by watching your thoughts. 

YOU WANT NOTHING. YOUR WORDS ARE STILL. YOU ARE STILL. 

Then you will come to see that there is no desire. How can desire exist in a silent mind? Desire is a state of 

turmoil, desire is a state of unconsciousness, desire is mad. When you are silent, madness disappears. 

Three times Jessie brought Sandy to the vicarage, hoping to be made man and wife, but each time the minister 

refused because of the groom-to-be’s intoxication. 

”Why do you persist in bringing him to me in such a state?” asked the minister. 

”Please, Reverend,” explained Jessie, ”he won’t come when he’s sober!” 

The moment you are sober, silent, you will not do many things that you are doing and you will start doing 

things that you have never thought of before. Your life will no more be a wastage; it will become creativity, 

tremendous creativity. Your life will not grow thorns, it will grow flowers. It is the same energy! 

But the mind keeps you occupied in such stupid things, in such stupid details about stupid things. Just see 

what your mind goes on doing... and you will not need anyone to tell you that you are mad. 

A little man walks into ”The Perfect Stationers” an exclusive New York shop specializing in paper products. 

He is approached by an elegant salesman in a Brooks Brothers suit. ”Can I help you, sir?” the salesman intones 

in a cultured voice. 

”Yes, I would like some writing paper, please.” 

”Would you prefer lined or unlined paper, sir?” 

”Oh, anything is fine. It doesn’t matter.” 

”Then will you be writing with a fountain pen or a ballpoint?” 

”I really don’t know. Whatever comes to hand....” 

”Would you like to have a thick paper or onion-skin paper, sir?” 

”Look, anything is fine. Just give me any old packet!” 

”Perhaps you would prefer one of the perfumed varieties?” 

”If you like. But I have a bus to catch just give me some paper, please!” 

”It will just take a moment now, sir. Would you like a hand-made paper in a special presentation box or a 

simple commercial brand?” 

The little man’s voice rises an octave. ”Look, for the tenth time... any paper will do! Make it fast, would you?” 

”Then perhaps you have a favorite color red, blue, yellow...?” 

Just at that moment another man bursts into the shop. His eyes have dark circles underneath and his cheeks 

are wet with tears. 

”Look,” he sobs, ”this tile is the color of my bathroom and this is the size of my toilet. I showed you my asshole 

yesterday. Now, could I please have some toilet paper?” 

Just look at your mind... stupid things and stupid details ad infinitum! You go on and on when are you going 

to stop?... please! That’s what Buddha is saying. 

Feinberg, the funeral director, was lunching with his friend, Weinstein. 

”I got a good bargain for you in a coffin,” he said. 

”I don’t like to think about things like that. How much?” 

”It’s made of mahogany with silver handles and a lock. For you, only two thousand dollars.” 

”I’ll think about it.” 

On his way home from work, Weinstein stopped at the Minkis Mortuary to compare prices. 

”I can give you something nice,” said the director. ”I’ve got a mahogany coffin with silver handles and I’ll even 

throw in a lock. The price is one thousand dollars.” 

Weinstein rushed over to Feinberg’s and began screaming. ”Some friend you are! I just saw the same coffin you 

wanted to sell me and it was a thousand dollars cheaper.” 

”Was it mahogany with silver handles and a lock?” 

”Yes!” replied Weinstein. 

”Did it have a silk lining?” 

”I didn’t look. I don’t think so.” 

”You see!” said Feinberg. ”In six months you’ll need a new lining.”


Not only about life but even about afterlife, the mind goes on preparing even for that. People decide about their 

wills, they decide about their epitaphs, they decide how their tombs have to be made, in what kind of marble. 

Man seems to be so utterly unintelligent and he goes on wasting his life on such things which don’t make any 

sense at all. But you have to look into your own mind. 

YOU WANT NOTHING. YOUR WORDS ARE STILL. YOU ARE STILL. Buddha says this is how one should 

be no desire, because all desires are futile. They are about the future; life is in the present. All desires distract you 

from the present, all desires distract you from life, all desires are destructive of life, all desires are postponements 

of life. Life is now and the desire takes you away, farther and farther away from now. And when we see that our 

life is misery we go on throwing the responsibility on others, and nobody is responsible except us. 

”My good man,” said the visitor to the prisoner, ”how did you happen to come to this sad place?” 

”Well, sir,” replied the convicted man, ”you see in me the unhappy victim of the unlucky number thirteen.” 

”Indeed!” said the visitor. ”How was that?” 

”Twelve jurymen and one judge, sir.” 

Nobody wants to take the blame on himself. Anything will do unlucky number, palmistry, fate, astrology... 

stars, poor stars are creating misery for Anshumali! Even if they search for Anshumali it will be difficult for them 

to find him; they cannot even find the earth the earth is so tiny. Our sun is twelve thousand times bigger than 

the earth and our sun is a very mediocre star. There are stars millions of times bigger than the sun; compared to 

those stars this earth is just a particle of dust, unnoticeable, negligible. It can be neglected, ignored. And there 

are millions of stars that science has counted and millions more must be beyond because our reach is limited, our 

instruments are limited. And these stars are deciding the fates of a clerk in the collector’s office, of a peon in the 

railway station! 

Man is so stupid, unbelievably stupid. He goes on throwing the responsibility on somebody else. Unless you 

stop this you will never become religious. A religious person is one who takes the responsibility upon himself. 

The first thing that is making you miserable is your desiring, constant desiring for this and that. Stop that. 

And when there is no desire there are no thoughts either. The function of the thoughts is to help you desire; they 

are instrumental. If you don’t have desires, thoughts are bound to disappear of their own accord. And when there 

are no desires, no thoughts... YOU ARE STILL. You are calm, collected, centered, rooted. 

It was an early morning fire, and the young Italian reporter was lucky enough on arriving at the scene to get 

an account of it from one of the residents of the apartment house who had escaped. 

”It was terrible,” narrated the man. ”Imagine walls crumbling about you, the flames of the fire practically 

licking your cheek in whatever direction you turned and the very iron of the banisters smoking under your hands. 

But in the midst of it all, I want you to know, I kept quite cool and balanced.” 

”It’s a shame, since you were so calm and cool,” replied the reporter, ”that you didn’t think of putting your 

pants on.” 

The people who think they are quiet and calm are not quiet and calm, they are just believing that; they are 

just hoping that they are quiet and calm. Only very rarely is a person quiet and calm. It happens only at the 

ultimate peak of meditation, not before it. So don’t deceive yourself. 

BY YOUR OWN EFFORTS WAKEN YOURSELF, WATCH YOURSELF. AND LIVE JOYFULLY. 

Accept the responsibility and that gives you great insight. If you are responsible for all your misery, if you are 

responsible for all your nightmares, then the other thing is also possible: you can wake up. If you are responsible 

for your sleep, you can wake up; if you are not responsible, some stars are responsible, then what can you do? 

You are just a victim and you have to suffer. Unless the stars change their mind, if they have any mind.... 

BY YOUR OWN EFFORTS WAKEN YOURSELF, WATCH YOURSELF. AND LIVE JOYFULLY. And 

people say Buddha is a pessimist? and he says: LIVE JOYFULLY. 

Buddha says: Don’t believe in a savior because that is the old mind, the same mind that wants to throw the 

responsibility on somebody else. Now Christians think Jesus saves. Hindus think that whenever the need arises, 

Krishna will come back; he will take another incarnation to save humanity. When are you going to feel your 

responsibility? And people don’t think that this is just ugly, insulting, humiliating; it is falling below human 

dignity. 

A Christian and a Jew were out walking. They came across a church and in front of it there was a big board 

with the words, ”Jesus saves!” 

The Jew said, ”That’s nothing Moses invests!” 

Nobody can save you; don’t wait for any savior. You can save yourself, that is true. 

This is also one of Buddha’s great insights into human misery, into human reality, that he says: Don’t believe 

that somebody will save you. You are the cause of your misery, you can be the cause of your bliss.


YOU ARE THE MASTER, YOU ARE THE REFUGE. AS A MERCHANT BREAKS IN A FINE HORSE, 


HOW GLADLY YOU FOLLOW THE WORDS OF THE AWAKENED. 

And if you meditate, if you become a little silent, a little alert, you will love these words because they have the 

taste of truth but only for those who are meditating. 

HOW GLADLY YOU FOLLOW THE WORDS OF THE AWAKENED. Then all the awakened ones suddenly 

become your contemporaries. Then only can you understand Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira, Lao Tzu. Then 

only, when you meditate, suddenly mysteries open up, closed doors open and things which were never clear to 

you suddenly become clear. But it happens through meditation and there is no other way. Not by studying, not 

by gathering more and more knowledge, not by arguing, not by philosophizing, but only by becoming more and 

more silent. In utter silence, God speaks to you through all the awakened ones. 


NESS. 

And then your steps have a confidence because all the buddhas are witnesses to you. As you start tasting the 

joys of meditation, as you start becoming alert to the beauties of meditation, as flowers start blossoming inside 

you, all the buddhas become witnesses to you. You know you are on the right track; great confidence arises in 

you. 


NESS. 


WORLD. 

And it is not a question of age. Buddha was the first to initiate young people into sannyas. Otherwise, in India 

the tradition was that only very, very old people, older than seventy-five, were allowed to take sannyas. Sannyas 

was for the old people. Buddha created a revolution: he initiated young people. 

And my own experience is: the younger you are, the better, because as you become older you gather more and 

more rust, more and more dust. As you become older you become more and more burdened with experience, 

knowledge and all kinds of stupid things. As you become older you start losing the vigor, the energy, the courage 

to experiment with the unknown, to explore the unknown. As you become older you become so afraid of death 

that out of fear you go to God, and those who go out of fear to God never reach God. Fear is not a bridge, it 

is a wall. Those who go towards God inquiring for truth out of love for truth, only they are bridged. It needs 

a certain youth, a certain courage, a certain capacity to take risks. It needs energy, freshness; because religion 

basically is rebellion. 

Buddha says: HOWEVER YOUNG.... Don’t be worried about that. Maturity has nothing to do with age; 

growing old is not necessarily growing up. One can be young and grown-up and one can be very old and very 

childish. Age and maturity have no necessary link. Maturity comes through meditation. Aging is an ordinary 

process; everybody ages. Animals age, trees age, people age; that has nothing to do with transformation. 


WORLD. 

LIKE THE MOON, COME OUT FROM BEHIND THE CLOUDS! SHINE. 

Buddha says to his Bodhisattvas, go and tell the seekers: LIKE THE MOON, COME OUT FROM BEHIND 

THE CLOUDS! SHINE. 

The same I say to you: LIKE THE MOON, COME OUT FROM BEHIND THE CLOUDS! SHINE. 



Chapter 6 Rising in love 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH A WOMAN I HAD DIVORCED TWO YEARS 

AGO. IS IT POSSIBLE? 

Shraddhan, man is almost a machine. Man is not yet man; he functions unconsciously, he lives in sleep. Hence 

everything is possible. In fact, you always fall in love with the same woman, even though apparently you fall in 

love with somebody else. The type is the same because your liking is the same, your mind is the same, your choice 

is the same.


Just watch people, watch their love affairs, and you will be surprised. It is always the same man or the same 

woman yes, with a different face or with a different mask, different clothes, different shape and size. But these 

differences are not real differences. 

Unless you are new how can you fall in love with somebody new? Who is going to choose? How is one going to 

choose? The same mind will like the same type of face, the same eyes, the same color, the same shape, the form, 

the way the woman walks, the way she talks. Again within a few days you will be tired, just as you were tired 

before. Again you will find you are trapped, imprisoned, and the woman will also find the same thing. But man 

lives in such an unconscious state that you cannot expect more than that. 

If man is conscious, then many things become impossible. In the first place, falling in love itself becomes 

impossible. You start rising in love, not falling in love; the very quality of your love becomes totally different. It 

is no more a relationship, it is more a state of your being. You are full of love, you share your love, but there 

is no demand on your part. It is no longer a business, it is no longer conditional, it asks nothing. It is simply 

thankful that somebody accepted, that somebody did not reject your love. You feel grateful. It is not a bondage 

for the other, it does not enslave the other. It is not possessive; it is absolutely nonpossessive, unconditional, 

undemanding. It gives freedom. And when love gives freedom, lovers start soaring high, they start moving 

towards God. Love becomes a door to the divine. 

Right now love simply drags you downwards. ’Falling in love’ is a meaningful phrase you certainly fall, you 

gravitate downwards. In the beginning you feel great, but only in the beginning. That is just infatuation, because 

you are hoping something new is going to happen. In the beginning you are excited, it seems a great adventure, 

but soon you find it is the same old, rotten thing nothing special, nothing new. Just the partners have changed, 

but the game is the same and played with the same violence, with the same ugliness. 

Shraddhan, it is not only you who have fallen in love with the same woman; everybody is doing that. In the 

ordinary, unconscious state of humanity more than that cannot be hoped for. You were fortunate that you got 

divorced, but it is difficult to live alone unless you know the beauties of being alone. 

The moment you are alone you start suffering from loneliness, you start hankering for the company of the other. 

And then anybody will do, even the same woman that you had divorced; it is better than being lonely. Even if it 

is miserable, people prefer misery for company rather than loneliness. 

Unless you know the joys of meditation you cannot avoid falling in love. Once you start enjoying your own 

being, the joy, the space, the absolute freedom, the unhindered consciousness, nobody occupying your attention, 

nobody trying to catch your attention, nobody impinging on your freedom, interfering with your freedom.... When 

you start enjoying your aloneness you have become a meditator. Yes, love will also be possible after that, but a 

totally different kind of love. 

You must have been suffering from loneliness and, finding the same woman again, you may have thought it is 

better to be with her than to be lonely. And you must have forgotten all the miseries people’s memories are very 

short. 

And this has to be understood: the mind tends to forget the miserable part, it tends to remember the pleasurable 

part. That is one of the strategies of the mind to remain in control, to remain your master. It always tends to 

forget the misery; it goes on magnifying, enhancing, decorating the pleasurable part. Reality is totally different, 

but the mind lives in imagination. 

And your memories are not reliable at all because your memories are fictitious. You just think how beautiful it 

was, you have forgotten all the misery; you have chosen only a few moments that may have been beautiful. There 

must have been a few moments which were beautiful, but only a few moments, few and far between. And they 

cannot be as beautiful as you were thinking; otherwise what was the need to divorce the woman? The misery 

must have been much more, the pain must have been too much, unbearable. You must have suffered too much, 

the woman must have suffered too much. It is not a question of the woman being at fault or you being at fault; 

it is simply that two unconscious people being together are bound to create misery for each other. 

If you cannot be happy alone, how can you create happiness for anybody else? You yourself are not happy, how 

can you give happiness to the other? You can give only that which you have. You are miserable you can pretend 

that you are not miserable, but for how long? The honeymoon cannot last forever. Within a week or at the most 

two weeks it is finished, and then you know that both are miserable people. And when two miserable people live 

together, misery is not only doubled, remember, it is multiplied. 

But you forget all that. Later on you efface those parts which were miserable, you preserve the beautiful 

moments. And not only do you preserve them, you go on decorating them, painting them, again and again. 

Slowly, slowly they have no relationship with the reality. Your past is fictitious, your future is fictitious; only your 

present is real. But you don’t live in the present at all; either you live in the past or you live in the future.


And why has this question arisen, Shraddhan? Misery must have started again! That’s why you are asking, 

”Is it possible?” You have done it, and you are asking me, ”Is it possible?” You yourself cannot believe what you 

have done. 

When people are together they want to be alone; when they are alone they want to be together. People are 

impossible! 

Middle-aged Rizzoli sat on the front steps weeping bitterly. 

”What’s-a matta for you?” asked his neighbor, Pasquale. 

”Bonnaocchi’s wife-a just-a die,” said Rizzoli, wiping his tears. 

”So what?” said his neighbor, ”She was-a no blood-a relative of yours.” 

”I know that,” said Rizzoli. ”It is-a just-a that everybody seems-a to have-a good luck but-a me!” 

When you are with someone, immediately a thousand and one problems arise which were not there before. 

When you are alone those problems disappear, but a new problem arises: the loneliness seems to be so empty. 

You feel at a loss, you don’t know what to do. Soon you start forgetting all the misery that was coming out of your 

relationship; you start hankering for another relationship. You think, ”Maybe this time it is going to be different.” 

Maybe she has changed, maybe you have changed. Maybe both of you have learned from the experience. 

Harry and his girl, Francesca, were on the couch watching an old Roy Rogers movie on TV. As Roy rode 

through a pass, Harry said, ”I will bet you a screw his horse steps in a gopher hole and falls.” 

”Okay,” said Francesca, ”you’re on!” 

Sure enough, the horse stumbled. 

After the bet was paid in full Harry said, ”I oughta tell you I saw the movie before. That’s how I knew.” 

”So did I,” said the Italian girl, ”but I didn’t think-a a horse-a be dumb-a enough to fall-a in the same hole 

twice-a!” 

But man is more dumb. 

Now make the best out of it. When you have fallen in the hole, try to make a home there! You are an American, 

and the only religion the American believes in is: Try and try and try again. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND YOU; I HAVE TRIED HARD BUT FAILED. WHAT 

SHOULD I DO NOW? 

Govindo, is there a need to understand me? What is understanding? It is an intellectual effort. What I am 

trying to communicate to you has nothing to do with the intellect. You can feel it, but you cannot understand it. 

You can live it, and only by living it will you be able to understand it. 

But people try just the opposite first they want to understand. The idea is: Unless we understand a thing, 

how can we try it, how can we live it? It is logical that first one should understand and only then should one try 

to live. 

But life is not logical; life is far deeper than logic, and many times life is absolutely illogical. If you try to cling 

to logic you will miss many things, and those many things are the most precious. You will miss love, you will 

miss meditation, you will miss joy, you will miss God, you will miss freedom. You will miss all that makes life 

significant, that gives life beauty, splendor. You will miss the presence of godliness that surrounds you. Logic is 

a barrier, not a bridge. 

And Govindo, you say, ”I cannot understand you.” You must be trying from the head. It is a heart-toheart 

communion. If you want to misunderstand me then the head is the right instrument; then you can go on 

misunderstanding me forever and forever. But if you want to understand me, then you have to forget all about 

your old patterns of understanding things. It is not mathematics that I am teaching here, it is not philosophy 

that I am teaching here. 

I am teaching something absolutely existential. You have to live it, you have to take the quantum leap. You 

have been told again and again that before you take the jump, think twice. And what I am saying to you is: Take 

the jump first and then think as many times as you want, because then thinking cannot do anything, it cannot 

do any harm. But let the jump happen first. 

Meditation has to be experienced. If you try to figure it out, what it is, you will miss the point because it is not 

a question of mind at all. Meditation means a state of no-mind. I am constantly pulling you towards the state of 

no-mind, in every possible way. 

What I am doing here is absurd, it is not logical. You will have to put logic aside; otherwise I will say one thing 

and you will understand something else.


The judge asked the philosopher who was produced in court, ”Now tell me, sir, why did you park your car 

where you did?” 

The professor said, ”There was a sign saying, fine for parking.” 

Put your intellect aside. And remember, I am not telling you to put your intelligence aside. On the contrary, 

if you can put the intellect aside you will be far more intelligent because intelligence and intellectuality are 

not synonymous, they are antagonistic. Intelligence is a clarity; intellectuality is nothing but a clouded state. 

Intellectuality means you are too knowledgeable; your knowledge goes on interfering. Your mind is continuously 

interpreting, your mind is judging. 

Listen to me without any judgment. I am not saying agree with me there is no question of agreement or 

disagreement just listen. 

When you go to the mountains and you listen to the sound of a waterfall, do you agree with it or disagree with 

it? You simply listen! When you listen to beautiful music, do you agree or do you disagree? There is no question 

of agreement or disagreement; listening is nonjudgmental. 

Hence the critics go on missing many things. If a critic goes to listen to music, his listening is not total; 

he is constantly comparing, judging, interpreting. You have to be very noncritical. You have to be just open, 

vulnerable, receptive, silent; so that whatsoever is happening can penetrate to the deepest core of your being. 

If you are full of your own mind, Govindo, you are going to misunderstand me; that is bound to happen. 

Miss Zockwoski, an attractive redhead, got on a crowded bus and stood near a young fellow. 

The lad, thinking of giving his seat to her, looked up and said, ”How far?” 

”You got your nerve!” snapped the Polish girl. ”Would I ask you how long?” 

If you are carrying something in your mind, if you are preoccupied, then whatsoever you hear is not what is 

being said, it is what you are capable of hearing. 

Quizmaster: ”Lady, for fifty dollars, tell me who was the first man on earth?” 

Lady: ”Adam.” 

Quizmaster: ”Right. Now for two hundred dollars tell me Eve’s first words when she met Adam.” 

Lady (stuck for an answer, turns to the quizmaster and says): ”Gee, that’s a hard one, isn’t it?” 

Quizmaster: ”Give this lady two hundred dollars!” 

Govindo, don’t remain preoccupied with your own thoughts. You must have come with great knowledge, you 

must have come with conceptions of your own and you are listening through a jungle of your own ideas. 

What I am saying is very simple, utterly simple. My statements are absolutely ordinary. I am not a holy man, 

I am not a saint. I am far more ordinary than you are! I have nothing special about me. I don’t exist at all, how 

can I be special? So my statements are very simple a child can understand them. But you can go on missing. 

On a Third Avenue bus in Manhattan, a very prim spinster was shocked overhearing Scarpetti, the immigrant, 

saying to his friend, ”Emma come-a first, I come-a next, two assa come-a together, I come-a again, two assa 

come-a together again, I come-a once-a more, pee-pee twice, then I come-a for the last-a time.” 

When Scarpetti was finished, the crimson-faced old maid turned to a policeman sitting nearby. ”Aren’t you 

going to arrest that terrible old man?” she whispered. 

”Why?” asked the policeman. ”For spelling ’Mississippi’?” 

Let me repeat: ”Emma come-a first, I come-a next, two assa come-a together, I come-a again, two assa come-a 

together again, I come-a once-a more, pee-pee twice, then I come-a for the last-a time.” 

You ask me, ”What should I do? I have tried hard but failed.” Now please don’t try hard. In fact, stop trying, 

drop trying. Just listen for the sheer joy of listening. The wind passing through the pine trees... listen. The 

sound of running water... listen. The birds singing in the morning... listen. Don’t try to understand. And just 

by listening something will start reaching your heart. A song, a dance will start happening. Your heart will start 

opening up like a flower and great fragrance will be released and that will be real understanding. 

Govindo, you have been unnecessarily trying hard. Relax with me, don’t try hard. If you try hard you will 

be tense and there is no possibility of understanding me through tension. Relax, rest. I am here to teach you 

relaxation and total rest. 

Understanding is going to happen but not through the head, it is going to happen through the heart not 

through logic but through love. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY IS CREATIVITY SO PAINFUL? 

Prem Sarva, creativity is the highest peak of your consciousness; hence it is painful, it is arduous. You are 

going uphill. To be uncreative is very comfortable; it is a downward journey. You need not do anything, nothing


is needed on your part; just the gravitational pull is enough. When you are coming down from the hill towards 

the plains you can just turn your car engine off, no gas is needed; the car will go on rolling down. But if you are 

going uphill then effort is needed, great effort is needed. 

Creativity needs the greatest effort because many things have to be dropped when you are moving upwards; 

unnecessary weights have to be dropped. And you are carrying so much luggage; it is all unnecessary, it is useless. 

But people go on collecting, people are great collectors. They will collect any kind of rubbish, hoping that maybe 

some day it will prove of some use. They are greedy and they feel empty so they go on stuffing themselves with 

every kind of thing. You are so full of ego and ego is a great weight. You cannot move upwards. You will have to 

put the ego aside and that is the greatest pain. 

To be a creator means you drop the very idea that ”I am separate from existence.” Creation happens only when 

you are one with the existence. Creation happens only when you are so in tune with the creator that there is no 

disturbance from your side. And the greatest disturbance comes from the ego. It nourishes itself on disturbance, 

it lives on disturbance. Ego means the idea that ”I am separate.” And if you think you are separate, you are 

living in a lie and creativity flows out of the experience of truth. 

You have to know the truth, that you are not separate. No man is an island, we are all part of one vast 

continent. The whole existence is one, it is one organic unity; hence all that is great has come out only in those 

moments when the creator was dissolved into the whole. Great paintings, great poems, great music, great dance, 

all happen only when you are dissolved, when you are no more. If you are, suddenly you become the block, you 

stop the flow. Then God cannot use you as a flute, he cannot sing through you. The flute has to be just a 

hollow bamboo, just an open space, just a vehicle. The great poets, the great musicians, the great dancers, are all 

vehicles. They don’t dance, they are being danced. They don’t sing, some unknown energy sings through them. 

That’s why creativity is painful, because nobody wants to melt and merge and dissolve. We cling to our 

identities. In fact, we want to be creative so that we can hang a few more awards around our egos so the ego can 

become more famous, so that you can say, ”I am somebody special. I am a great poet or a great composer or a 

great author” or something. And that’s the greatest problem to be faced by any creator: that he has to drop his 

ego. 

And in the beginning it is for the ego that you want to be creative. It is a very paradoxical process: you have 

to drop the very ego that was the impetus in the beginning, that wanted to be famous, that wanted to leave its 

name resounding down the corridors of time, that wanted to make history. That very same ego becomes the cause 

of stopping the flow of unknown energies in you. Otherwise God is always pouring; you have just to be open, 

available. You are not to be separate. 

It hurts in the beginning; it hurts more if you are resisting. If you are not resisting much it hurts less; if you 

are not resisting at all it doesn’t hurt at all. Then dropping the ego can be one of the most joyous acts. 

That’s what sannyas is all about. The whole message is based on this single phenomenon: dropping the ego 

joyously. It is not a question of surrendering your ego to me. Ego is not something that you can surrender; it is 

just a fiction, it is not a reality. So when the master says, ”Surrender your ego to me,” he is simply giving you a 

device, because you live with the idea that ego is very substantial. He knows it is nothing, so he says, ”Surrender 

it to me, give it to me, and you be free of it.” Not that you are giving anything there is nothing to give; not 

that he is receiving anything there is nothing to receive. But to help you to get rid of a false notion, a device is 

created. Once you have dropped the idea, suddenly you see the whole thing: nothing has been given, nothing has 

been taken. You are the same, only the old wrong notion has disappeared. People are very reluctant to surrender. 

Just the other day one sannyasin wrote to me saying, ”I can do everything you are saying, but I cannot 

surrender.” Then how can you do everything that I am saying? That is the first thing that I am saying! And he 

says, ”I can do everything you are saying, but I cannot surrender.” And he is thinking he is making a very clear 

statement. That is the only thing that I am saying: Surrender the ego. And it is not a question of surrendering 

it to me surrender it to a tree, but surrender. Surrender it to the river, go and drown it in the river. Burn it, 

bury it, cremate it! Do whatsoever you want to do, but be finished with it. 

I am not interested in collecting your egos. What will I do with so many egos? If you are suffering so much 

with one, I will be in the seventh hell with so many egos! I am not an ego collector. It is just a device, a simple 

device. You say, ”Where can I put my ego?” I say, ”Okay, give it to me,” because I know that there is nothing to 

give, but you will be happy in giving it. At least you will feel great that you have surrendered; at least you have 

given your ego into the right hands. 

But this sannyasin says, ”I cannot surrender.” And people coming from the West, particularly, find it very 

difficult.


This is something which has to be understood: the Western education, the Western psychology, all emphasize 

ego; they all emphasize, ”Enhance the ego, strengthen the ego.” In different names the ego is strengthened. 

Willpower it is nothing but another name for ego. The whole idea is that man has to have an ego of steel, 

unbendable, strong, rocklike, hard, because life is a constant struggle for survival. You have to fight, you have to 

conquer. 

Even a man like Bertrand Russell writes a book on science and calls it Conquest Of Nature. The whole idea, 

the Western idea, is how to conquer; even nature has to be conquered. And who are you? a part of nature. A 

part is trying to conquer the whole. It is like your left hand trying to conquer your whole body. Is it possible? It 

is ridiculous. Science has not conquered nature, but in the very effort to conquer it, it has destroyed much. 

In the East we have a totally different idea: nature has to be understood. The law what Buddha calls 

dhamma, the fundamental law of life has to be understood so that you can be in tune with it. It is not a question 

of conquering but of being in step with it, being in harmony with it. To be harmonious with nature is to be 

blissful. 

If the West has lost all bliss, all peace, nothing is responsible except this stupid idea of conquering nature. 

Nature has not to be conquered. But the same idea persists in many ways in science, and even so-called religious 

people go on talking about willpower. Hundreds of books have been written on willpower. It is a sheer wastage, 

and not only a wastage but it is poisoning people’s minds. People like Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill go on 

poisoning: How To Win Friends And Influence People. Deep down the idea is the same: how to win, how to 

influence. Napoleon Hill has written a book: Think And Grow Rich. And what is the secret of growing rich? 

When you look, you will find it is willpower; the whole secret, the magic secret is willpower. But willpower is only 

another name for ego power and ego is impotent, there is no power in it. So people go on struggling unnecessarily, 

fighting with each other, competing with each other, and the end result is that everybody is miserable. Hence for 

the Western mind it seems very difficult to surrender. 

The situation is not better in the East either. In the East for thousands of years it has been taught that 

surrender is the key, so people are very easily ready to surrender, so easily ready that it has become a simple 

formality; it has no significance. The Eastern man can touch the feet of the master with no intention of surrender. 

He touches the feet of each and everybody; that is just formal. It is like shaking hands, it does not mean anything; 

it is like saying hello. It has no meaning in it, it is formal. It is a kind of greeting to elderly people, to anybody 

who is respected by others, to anybody who is known as religious, holy, saintly. People touch the feet of their 

fathers, their mothers, their elderly relatives; it is just a conditioning. 

So the Eastern person is in a different difficulty. His difficulty is that he does not know what surrender is; he 

has not enough ego to surrender. And the Western man has too much ego; hence he feels resistant. But on the 

whole the Western man is in a better position, because if he understands the point and he consciously surrenders 

the ego, his surrender goes far deeper than the Eastern man’s surrender. 

That is my experience of thousands of sannyasins from the East and from the West. The Western sannyasin’s 

surrender is far more total. Of course it is difficult for him, it takes longer for him, but whenever it happens, it 

really happens. The Eastern man’s surrender takes no time; he is always willing, he is ready, even before you have 

asked, but it does not change him. He has been touching so many people’s feet; in fact, he has started feeling a 

new, subtle kind of ego, ”I am so humble that I am ready to surrender. I am so surrendered.” But that ’I’ persists 

now in a far more subtle way. 

You ask me, Sarva, ”Why is creativity so painful?” 

It is because of the ego. And then there are other problems also. If you are too knowledgeable it will be difficult 

for you to be creative. 

In Zen they have an ancient tradition. They say if you want to become a painter, for twelve years learn as 

perfectly as possible the technique of how to paint, and then for twelve years forget all about the technique and 

painting; do something else. Turn your back on painting completely; forget all about it, as if you have nothing to 

do with it. And then one day start painting again. 

This is something significant. For twelve years you have to learn the technique, because without the technique 

your painting will be childish; but if it is just the technique, then technically it will be perfect but it will not have 

any life, it will not be creative. So you have to learn the technique, let it soak in and then forget all about it so it 

becomes part of your blood, of your bones, of your marrow. And then after twelve years, one day suddenly start 

painting again. Now you don’t know the technique. In a way you know, existentially it has become part of you; 

it is no longer knowledge. So your painting will not be just technical and it will not be childish either. 

First learn the technique and then unlearn the technique. Only then one day does creativity explode. First 

learn the technique of how to dance, then forget all about technique and become spontaneous. Then only....


And there are two types of people one who will think that there is no need to learn the technique: ”I want to 

be a creative person, not a technician.” Then their painting, their music, their dance, will remain just a childish 

effort, amateurish; cannot be of much value. And then there are the opposite people who will learn the technique 

as much as they can and then they are caught in the technique. They paint perfectly but something is missing: 

the soul is missing, the spirit is missing; it is a dead corpse. So you have to drop all knowledgeability. You have 

to unlearn so again you can become fresh, innocent. 

And third: if you are trying to be creative with a certain hidden motive you will never find the right direction 

for your energies, because if painters are famous then there will be many painters. For example, in France there 

are many painters. In India you will not find so many painters, but many saints just whatsoever is the fashion. 

In France painting is fashionable; the people who are thought to be intelligent should be painters. In India they 

should be saints the same fools! If they were born in France they would be painting; in India the same fools have 

become saints. 

In each country the fashion is different, and at different times. For example, in India no saint will ever think of 

painting, but in Japan all the saints try to paint. They learn calligraphy and painting just the fashion. 

When you are living according to a certain prevalent fashion, that simply means you want to be famous, you 

want to be accepted by the tradition and by the people. You are not inquiring about your real potential; you are 

far more interested in other people’s opinions. You have to drop that too. Don’t be worried about other people’s 

opinions; simply find out what feels good for you. Nobody may ever appreciate it so what? You may not become 

famous so what? Don’t be worried about it. The reward is not in being famous; the reward is in being involved, 

totally involved in creativity. The reward is in the act itself; it is not beyond the act, it is not after the act. It 

is not when you have painted the painting and people have appreciated it and it is being exhibited all over the 

world. No, the reward is when you are painting it, when you are utterly absorbed in it. That silence, that joy, 

that energy, that moment when you are not and God is: that is the reward. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT HAPPENS? I AM AN ITALIAN AND YET NOT ENLIGHTENED. 

Anand Shravan, it is enough to be an Italian; enlightenment is no longer needed. Enlightenment is for others 

who are not Italians. You have the first prize enlightenment is the second prize! You should not be greedy for 

that. To be an Italian is such a great phenomenon; that’s why no Italian has ever become enlightened. And I 

don’t think it is ever going to happen, for the simple reason that Italians are born enlightened. Drop this greed. 

What will you do with enlightenment? Spaghetti is enough! Enjoy it to your heart’s content. Leave enlightenment 

to poor Indians; they don’t have anything else. That’s why in India so many enlightened people have happened: 

when you don’t have anything else at least you can have enlightenment. 

And enlightenment needs a few things which are basically missing in Italians. It needs intelligence. Where are 

you going to get it? It is not a commodity; you cannot find it in the marketplace, you cannot purchase it. It 

is not available in the outside world. And Italians are utterly extrovert, and enlightenment happens somewhere 

inside. It needs great understanding and Italians are very skillful in misunderstanding. 

One summer in New York a gorilla escaped from a traveling circus. As Bronzini was walking down Broadway 

the ape suddenly appeared and sidled up beside the Italian. 

An astonished police officer directing traffic rushed over to the unusual sight of Bronzini and the gorilla. 

”Hey,” said the cop, ”what are you doing with that ape?” 

”I don’t know,” said Bronzini, ”He just-a come up and-a take-a walk-a with me!” 

”You better take that ape to the zoo!” 

”Okay, boss,” said the Italian. 

The next day the same policeman spotted Bronzini and the gorilla walking hand in hand along Park Avenue. 

The cop was livid. ”Just a minute,” he shouted to Bronzini, ”I told you yesterday to take that ape to the zoo!” 

”I did,” said the Italian, ”and he like-a it so much, today I’m-a take-a him to the moving picture show!” 

Italians are so earthy, they are pure zorbas! Except for me, nobody is going to accept them as sannyasins. But 

I love to do absurd things. I want to do this miracle: to make a few Italians enlightened. There is not much hope 

I am hoping against hope but there is nothing to lose. They need a good try. 

They are very bodily people, utterly body-oriented. The Romans have always been the most physical people 

on the earth. That has a beauty of its own, because the people who think they are spiritual become in many 

ways eccentric, crazy, insane, very egoistic of course, in a very pious way. They are always thinking they are 

”holier-than-thou.” And they are wishy-washy. They talk about great things, but their life becomes ugly.


That has happened to the East: they talk about God and the bread and butter is missing. And without bread 

and butter there is no God, no possibility of God. 

So nothing is wrong in being body-oriented; one should be rooted in the body. One should be a zorba, but one 

should not remain stuck there. One should go a little higher. Zorba should also become a Buddha. Then there is 

fulfillment; both are fulfilled, the body and the soul. 

Italians are too body-oriented and they are stuck there. 

Granaldi’s wife had just died and he was making an awful scene at the graveside. Over and over he kept tearing 

at his hair and yelling, ”What-a am I gonna do? What I am-a gonna do? What-a am I gonna do?” 

The parish priest gently took Granaldi’s arm and tried to console him. ”My son, I know you have suffered a 

terrible loss, but you will get over it in time,” he said, leading Granaldi away from the cemetery. 

”Oh, what-a am I gonna do?” wailed Granaldi. ”What I am-a gonna do?” 

”Try to control yourself,” said the priest. ”Months will pass, you will get over your grief, and then in a year or 

two you will meet some fine young woman and marry her and everything will be fine.” 

”Yeah, Father, I know all that!” said the Italian. ”But what-a am I gonna do tonight?” 

The Italians have to be freed from their excessive body-orientation. Enlightenment is the ultimate flowering of 

consciousness. It can happen only when you are rooted in the body, but it cannot happen only with the body. 

You have to move inwards, you have to transcend the body too. Your roots should be in the body and your wings 

should be in the soul. 

Shravan, don’t be worried. It has not happened yet, but it can happen. There are so many Italians here; their 

surrender is deeper than anybody else’s. Their commitment is also deeper than anybody else’s. For the first time 

so many Italians are trying to move deeper into meditation; something is bound to happen out of it. But they 

find something in me that they cannot find anywhere else. They can find a connection with me because I am not 

against the body. I am not against anything. I don’t think there is any problem if you love spaghetti you can 

still be spiritual! There is no antagonism. 

For me even sex and samadhi are related, together. For me gossiping and gospels are not different somewhere 

deep down they are aspects of the same coin. Hence Italians find a deep affinity with me. They cannot be 

interested in any other spiritual man, but I am not a spiritual man in the ordinary sense. I am a whole man, I 

am not holy. 

Locatelli, Swenson and O’Hara were sitting in the corner saloon. ”There’s no doubt about it,” said Swenson, 

”Italian broads are the greatest!” 

”Yeah,” agreed O’Hara, ”I would like to spend a nice long weekend with Gina Lollobrigida.” 

”Me,” said Swenson, ”I will take Sophia Loren.” 

”That’s-a very nice,” said Locatelli, ”but I wanna Virginia Pipe-a Line-a!” 

”Never heard of her!” said Swenson. 

”Who is she?” asked O’Hara. 

”Why, she is-a just-a the greatest Italian girl of them all. She even make-a the headlines in-a newspaper,” said 

Locatelli. ”See, here it is on-a page-a one.” And there was a headline: ”Five Die Laying Virginia Pipeline.” 

Don’t be worried, Shravan, I am here to help you. This time maybe you cannot escape. So many Italians are 

caught in the net, a few of them are bound to become buddhas. Don’t be worried, enlightenment is going to 

happen to many people Italians included! 

And the last question: 

Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, AND WHAT ABOUT THE POLACKS? 

Purnananda, my God, are you a Polack? I was aware that one of my sannyasins, Anando, was a Polack, but I 

was not talking about Polacks because one Polack cannot do much. But two Polacks are too much; then there is 

danger! Polacks are great people, even greater than the Italians. Italians are nothing compared to the Polacks! 

You see, they were searching for a pope, they could not find one in Italy they had to choose a Polack. If you are 

searching for a fool you have to go to Poland. 

Swami Anando has contributed this authentic letter from his Polish mother: 

Dear Son, 

Just a few lines to let you know that I be still alive. I writing this letter slowly because I know you not able to 

read fast. 

You won’t know the house when you get home. We moved. 

There be a washing machine in the house when we move in, but it not working too good. Last week I put 

fourteen shirts into it, pull the chain, and I not see the shirts since.


Your sister Hanna had baby this morning. I not find out yet whether it be boy or girl, so I not know whether 

you be an aunt or an uncle. 

Your uncle Leopold drown last week in a vat of whisky. Some of the men dived in to save him, but he fight 

them off hard. We cremated his body, but it took three days to put out the fire. 

Your father not have much to drink at Christmas. I put a bottle of Castor oil in his pint of beer. It keep him 

going until New Year’s Day. 

It only rain twice last week. First for three day and then for four day. 

Try to learn write me soon. 

Your loving mother, 

XXX P.S. I be going to send you ten dollars, but I already seal the envelope. 

Polacks are great people more Polacks are needed here! But it is difficult for poor Polacks to come because 

their country is dominated by the communists. 

Just a few days ago I received a letter saying they would like to start a center somewhere in Poland. They 

would like the center to remain hidden; I don’t think they will be able to manage it! They even want to become 

sannyasins but they will be caught. 

In Russia there are a few sannyasins. They cannot wear orange, they cannot wear the mala, but they have 

been managing well. They have their malas, they have made arrangements for the malas to reach them. Now, 

this letter from Poland: they want malas and they want books but they have not given their address! 

Johnson went to the zoo to see Samson and Lionel, billed as the two most vicious lions in the world. There was 

no doubt about Samson, the smaller one, for if even a feather came within his reach he would pounce on it and 

rip it to shreds. But Lionel, the other, larger lion, did nothing but lie against some rocks licking between his hind 

legs. 

Johnson asked the zookeeper how come Lionel was advertised as being so savage. 

”Even though he is just lying there licking his sensitive areas,” explained the zookeeper, ”Lionel is more ferocious 

than the other one. In fact, not twenty minutes ago he ate a Polack that fell into the cage.” 

”Then why is he licking himself like that?” 

”Oh,” said the zookeeper, ”he is trying to get the taste out of his mouth!” 

Purnananda, meet Anando. Try to find out there may be a few other Polacks also trying to hide themselves, 

because they know once they are known I will be after them. Now you can declare whosoever is a Polack because 

I will be after them anyhow! So you can declare whoever is a Polack. You can make a small society of the Polacks. 

In the new commune it will be good to have small communities, separate communities, of Italians, Polacks, of 

Germans.... There will be a few difficulties. 

Gayan wrote to me this morning saying, ”Beloved Master, you may not be aware, but now I have to tell you 

that I am half Italian the fault was my father’s, he was Italian and half German; that fault is my mother’s, she 

was German.” 

There will be some difficulty for people like Gayan, but we can make arrangements: they can live on the 

boundary line, half in the Italian commune and half in the German commune. And I don’t think there will be 

people who are German and Italian and Polack, all three; that will be difficult, very difficult. 

Miss Zabriski walked into a physician’s office and said, ”I would like to get a vassilation.” 

”Miss,” said the MD, ”I think what you are talking about is a vaccination.” 

”Yeah,” said the Polish girl, ”and I don’t want you to give it to me on my arm because I wear a sleepless 

nightgown.” 

”You mean sleeveless nightgown?” 

”And I don’t want it on my thigh because I have a zucchini bathing suit.” 

”You mean bikini?” 

”And I don’t want you to vaccinate me on my Virginia.” 

”You mean vagina?” 

”Alright,” shouted the girl. ”Virginia, vagina, just as long as I don’t get small cox!” 



Chapter 7 Beyond the beyond 

WANTING NOTHING WITH ALL YOUR HEART STOP THE STREAM. 

WHEN THE WORLD DISSOLVES EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR. 

GO BEYOND THIS WAY OR THAT WAY, TO THE FARTHER SHORE WHERE THE WORLD DISSOLVES 

AND EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR.


BEYOND THIS SHORE AND THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND THE BEYOND, WHERE THERE IS NO 

BEGINNING, NO END. 

WITHOUT FEAR, GO. 

MEDITATE. LIVE PURELY. BE QUIET. DO YOUR WORK, WITH MASTERY. 

BY DAY THE SUN SHINES, AND THE WARRIOR IN HIS ARMOR SHINES. BY NIGHT THE MOON 

SHINES, AND THE MASTER SHINES IN MEDITATION. 

BUT DAY AND NIGHT THE MAN WHO IS AWAKE SHINES IN THE RADIANCE OF THE SPIRIT. 

”Look, Captain Columbus, land! We’ve discovered land!” 

”Wonderful! Cable Queen Isabella immediately!” 

”But, Captain, the cable hasn’t been invented yet!” 

”Mamma mia! Do I have-a to do everything myself-a!” 

Science is a tradition, it does not depend on one man’s discovery. It is a continuity; many people have 

contributed, still many will go on contributing. Then too it is never going to be complete; something will always 

remain to be discovered. It is a social phenomenon. Without Newton there is no possibility of Albert Einstein; 

without Albert Einstein there will be no possibility of anybody else to find something beyond the concept of 

relativity. Science is interdependent; it is not one man’s work. Much has to be accepted from others, much has 

to be borrowed; it is inheritance. Hence science depends on the past, it is rooted in the past. 

Religion is totally different: every individual has to discover on his own. Religion is not a tradition and can 

never be a tradition. You cannot borrow insights from somebody else; the insight has to be authentically yours. 

Only then is it significant. You can see only through your own eyes, you can understand only through your own 

meditation, you can experience only through the flowering of your own heart. 

And there is no question of dependence. If there had been no Buddha you could still be awakened, if there had 

been no Christ you could still be enlightened. Your enlightenment is absolutely your own, it is individual. That’s 

the beauty of religion; that’s why religion cannot be taught. Science can be taught; religion has to be discovered 

again and again by each and every individual, by each and every seeker. The path of science is like walking on 

the earth; you leave your footprints. Buddha has said: The path of religion is like birds flying into the sky they 

don’t leave any footprints... so nobody can follow a buddha. 

You can love a Buddha, but you cannot follow him. You can love a Christ, but you cannot follow him. Yes, 

your love will help you, will help you to understand, will give you courage to inquire, will strengthen your spirit 

to go into the unknown. It will be a tremendous help because the journey is without any maps and you are going 

into the ocean. The other shore, the farther shore is not visible; there is no guarantee that you will ever reach it. 

By loving a Buddha, a Christ, a Zarathustra, a Krishna, a Lao Tzu, a deep trust arises in you about the farther 

shore that it exists: ”If I search with my total being there is a possibility I may discover it.” But the risk is 

great and everything has to be done by you. You have to go alone. You have to be totally alone; nobody can 

accompany you on the way. 

The master can show you the path, but he cannot go with you. He can push you, he can encourage you, he 

can help in many ways, but still you have to go alone. You have to discover everything, each detail of the truth, 

again. 

In science it is totally different: once a truth is discovered it is discovered for the whole of humanity. Once 

electricity is discovered there is no need for everybody to discover it again and again. That will be stupid, utterly 

stupid. Once discovered it becomes part of the whole humanity’s heritage. 

But it is not true about the inner, subjective truth. Thousands of times it has been discovered, but when it 

comes as a question, as an inquiry for you to discover it, you have to go again from ABC, as if you are the first, 

as if nobody has preceded you. You have to break the ice, you have to move in the virgin land. 

This is a great challenge. Cowards shrink from it, but courageous people feel tremendously attracted. Courageous 

people find it almost like a magnetic force pulling them. Hence Buddha always talks about fearlessness. He 

says: WITHOUT FEAR, GO. 

Other religions, particularly the organized religions, are rooted in fear. If Buddha had written the ancient 

parable of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from heaven he would have written it in a totally different way. He 

would have appreciated Adam and Eve. He would not have called it the original sin, he would have called it the 

original virtue that they rebelled, that they were not afraid of God and the punishment, that they were fearless 

people. 

He would not have condemned them, that much is certain; he would have praised them immensely. It was a 

challenge to their spirit, to their very soul, to have been told, ”Don’t eat from this tree, the tree of knowledge,


because if you eat from this tree you will be punished, tremendously punished not only you but your progeny 

also will be punished for ever and ever.” 

And the punishment was going to be great. God had said to Adam and Eve, ”If you eat from the tree of 

knowledge, if you eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, you will become mortal. Right now you are immortal.” 

Death was going to be the punishment. What more punishment can there be? Death is the ultimate in punishment. 

Buddha would have appreciated them. If Adam and Eve had not rebelled, had not eaten from the tree of 

knowledge, there would have been no humanity and there would have been no Christ, no Buddha, no Zarathustra, 

no Lao Tzu. Adam and Eve would be still roaming naked like animals in the Garden of Eden. There would have 

been nothing like humanity. This consciousness, this awareness, this inquiry nothing would have been there. The 

whole credit goes to Adam and Eve. 

And the serpent would not have been the devil. In Buddha’s story, the serpent must have been an ancient 

buddha provoking Adam and Eve, ”Go without fear and eat the fruit and don’t be afraid, don’t be cowards!” 

In the East the serpent has always represented wisdom. Jesus also says: Be ye as wise as serpents. The serpent 

in the East represents the inherent power, the seed power of your ultimate flowering; it is your potential. Hence 

kundalini is called serpent power. 

Kundalini means the serpent lying there fast asleep; it has to be awakened. Once it wakes up it starts rising 

upwards. When it reaches to the ultimate center of your being sahasrar the last center, the last rung of the 

ladder, you have arrived home. The serpent is not a representative, a disguised form, of the devil. Buddha would 

have written the whole story in a totally different way. 

But Christianity, Judaism, both are fear-oriented; so is Islam, so is Hinduism. Only two religions in the world, 

Buddhism and Jainism, are not; otherwise all other religions are fear-oriented. Only these two religions are rooted 

in fearlessness, and I cannot see how a religion can be fear-oriented. In all the languages of the world we have 

words like ’God-fearing’ for religious people; that is utter nonsense. A religious person is not God-fearing, he is 

God-loving and love and fear don’t exist together. If you love somebody you are not afraid; if you are afraid you 

cannot love. 

Love does not exist in the world for the simple reason that we have been trying to create love through fear. The 

father, the mother, the priest, the politician, they all are trying to create fear in you. The mother says, ”Listen 

to me, otherwise you will suffer!” The father says, ”I am powerful.” In a thousand and one ways he proves his 

power over the helpless child and then says to the child, ”Love me I am your father!” Of course the child has to 

pretend, because he is dependent, he is helpless. He loves the mother out of fear; his love is pseudo. He loves the 

father out of fear; it is only a pretension, it is hypocrisy. He loves God out of fear the fear of hell, the fear of 

being punished, the fear of being tortured. 

And do you know? Christianity believes that if you commit sins you will suffer in hell forever. That seems 

such an absurd concept. How many sins can a man commit in one small life? And Christianity believes in only 

one life. If Hindus were thinking that you will suffer for a long time in hell one could understand the arithmetic 

because they believe in millions of lives, so you can commit as many sins as you like. Of course, the suffering will 

be in the same proportion, the punishment will be in the same proportion. But Christianity proposes an eternal 

hell. And what sins can you commit? You can smoke cigarettes and then in hell you will be thrown in fire and 

you will smoke forever and forever! Or you can be an alcoholic, but how much can you drink in one small life? 

Out of seventy years one third goes into sleep; you can’t commit any sin in your sleep unless your dreams are also 

counted. Another one third goes into the offices, into the factories, into the fields, into the shops.... How much 

time have you got to commit sins? Just count all the days you will not find much time. And your sins will be just 

trivia. Yes, you can fall in love with your neighbor’s wife, but for that you will be suffering for ever and ever? It 

is utterly unjust, unfair! Maybe three or four years’ imprisonment in hell will do, but eternity? Can you conceive 

of eternity? It will never end, the suffering will be unending! 

This is just to create fear. And people love God out of this fear, they pray out of this fear. 

Buddha is against fear; fear is the original sin according to him. He believes in fearlessness he believes, and 

he believes rightly; it is his experience. It is my experience too, that true love happens only when fear disappears 

completely. 

A true religion has not happened in the world because we have been trying to create a cheap religion based on 

fear. True love has not happened in the world. The wife is afraid of the husband, hence she pretends to love; the 

husband is afraid of the wife, hence he goes on saying, ”Darling, I love you!” as many times as possible. 

That’s what Dale Carnegie suggests to all the husbands: ”Whether you love her or not, that is not the point. 

Repeat it as many times in the day as possible, as many opportunities as there are. Once or twice from the office 

phone your wife just to say ’I love you.’” And this is all out of fear.


Because of fear the world is missing the roses of love. Love can happen every man is born with infinite capacity 

for love but fear cripples everybody, paralyzes everybody. 

Buddha says to his Bodhisattvas: Go and teach people these few fundamental things. The first thing he says: 


These sayings are his code words; you will have to understand his code words. In those old days things had to 

be remembered, so only very small sutras, very condensed sutras were given. Each sutra is expressed in a code 

language; you have to decode it. You have to translate it into contemporary language; otherwise you will miss 

the significance of it. 

WANTING NOTHING.... How is it possible wanting nothing? That is the most fundamental truth in 

Buddha’s teachings. He is not saying don’t want anything, remember; that will be a misunderstanding. He is 

saying: WANTING NOTHING WITH ALL YOUR HEART STOP THE STREAM. 

By ”the stream” he means the mind. He always calls the mind the stream because it goes on flowing; whether 

you are awake or asleep it goes on flowing. It is the stream of thoughts. 

In the modern world, William James, one of the great psychologists, used for the first time a Buddhist expression 

for the mind; he called it ”stream of consciousness.” Buddha says it is like a river constantly flowing. How can 

you stop it? The old methods are to repress, to control, but they have failed, utterly failed; they had failed even 

in Buddha’s time. 

In a sense Buddha is the first psychologist of the world, not Sigmund Freud. And Buddha’s insight into the 

mind is far deeper than all your psychologists put together. There is no way to get rid of the constant overpowering 

flood of mind energy, of mindstuff, just by controlling it or by repressing it. Repression is absolutely destructive. 

If you repress something it will come up again and again and you will have to repress it again and again. Your 

whole life will become a kind of civil war; you will be constantly fighting with yourself. And the fight is going to 

be unending because you cannot destroy the mind in this way; this is not the way to get rid of the mind. In fact, 

you are giving mind great energy by fighting with it. 

Mind can be given energy in two ways: either by fighting with it or by indulging in it. One leads to repression, 

the other leads to identification, and both go on nourishing the mind. The stream becomes bigger and bigger. 

You can repress repression is easy and the whole of humanity has learned to repress because you always fall 

for the easy. Repression is not a difficult thing. Anger arises: you can sit upon it, you can go on smiling a false 

smile, and sooner or later you will forget about it. But it is there boiling within you and you are accumulating 

every day more and more anger. Anger has a beauty of its own if it is spontaneous, but you are accumulating 

anger which will become irrelevant, it will not be spontaneous. 

Something may have happened ten years ago; now it has no reference to reality, no context and suddenly you 

explode. You look insane. That’s how people go insane. If they had been angry ten years before when the right 

context was there, nobody would have called them insane, but for ten years they were sitting on it; then it became 

too much. And then for ten years continuously they were accumulating more and more anger. Every day they 

were repressing, they were sitting on a volcano; sooner or later it was going to erupt. Either that, or you have to 

become so dead and dull, so unalive that nothing can erupt. You have to withdraw yourself so totally from life, 

into a monastery, you have to become so insensitive to life that people can go on insulting you and you gather 

such a thick skin that nothing penetrates you.... 

Giovanni was sentenced to jail for having made love with his wife’s body a few hours after her death. ”Do you 

have anything to say in your own defense?” asked the judge. 

”Honest, Mista Your Honor,” replied the Italian, ”I didn’t know she was-a dead. She has-a been like-a that for 

the last-a twenty years!” 

There are millions of people who are not really alive afraid of being alive because if they are alive then their 

anger, their lust, their greed, all become alive. To keep them repressed they have to remain at the minimum; they 

never live at the maximum. And not to live at the maximum is to miss God, is to miss all all the beauties and 

the benedictions of life. 

You should live at the maximum; only then do you come to know the tremendous beauty of existence. Only 

from that height do you become aware of the immense splendor, of the constant celebration that goes on and on. 

But you cannot live to the maximum; you are afraid because if you live so totally then all that you have repressed 

will come up. 

Millions of people have decided for a dead life; before they really die they are dead. They live only for the 

minimum, to earn a livelihood; not to live but just to vegetate. They are so afraid the priests have made them 

so afraid.


Buddha is against repression. And if you repress something it will start finding some other way to come up, 

some perverted way. That’s why I say that all sexual perversions have religious origins, for the simple reason that 

all religions have been against sexuality. 

Sex has to be transformed, not repressed. It is pure energy, it is fire! But you need not burn your house with 

the fire. You can heat your house when it is too cold, you can make your house full of light when it is dark. It 

is the same fire which becomes light, which becomes heat, but it can also burn your house. You have to be very 

alert, careful, cautious. 

Your life energies are neutral: they can harm you, they can help you; it all depends on you. Don’t condemn 

them. You are responsible and only you! 

But people go on condemning sex as if sex has something to do with you. Sex has nothing to do with you; sex 

is pure energy. But if you repress it it will become a perversion; then it will find ways. If you close the natural 

way, then it comes through some unnatural way. And you are the same stupid person, you have not changed at 

all; your understanding has not grown up. 

Mulla Nasruddin came from his village to the big city, and a rich friend invited him to his box at the opera. 

Said the friend, ”We will be sitting close to other people, so be sure to change your socks before you come!” 

A short time after they entered their opera seats, the neighbors started turning their noses up at the bad smell. 

”I told you to change your socks,” said the friend to Mulla. 

”I most certainly did,” said Nasruddin. ”And furthermore I knew you wouldn’t believe me, so I brought the 

old socks right here in my pocket to prove it!” 

If you are the same old stupid guy it does not matter what you do with your sex, with your greed, with your 

jealousy. They will be coming back in some other form, by some other route; they will become even more subtle. 

Buddha says what is needed is more awareness, more understanding neither repression nor control. If you can 

become aware of your desires, if you can watch your desires, then a miracle happens, the greatest miracle of all. 

The moment you become aware of your desires you can easily see that no desire can ever be fulfilled; its very 

nature is unfulfillable. Every desire is just a hankering for something which cannot be, every desire means more 

and more and more. Now, how can you fulfill this constant hankering for more? You can have all the wealth of 

the world, still the desire will be there. 

I have heard that when Diogenes said to Alexander the Great, ”Have you ever thought about one thing? 

although it is a very remote possibility, have you thought about it? You may really conquer the whole world then 

what? There is no other world to conquer, there is only one world. If you really succeed have you ever pondered 

over the matter? then what will you do?” 

And it is said that Alexander became very sad. Diogenes laughed and he said, ”Look! You have not yet 

conquered it, but the very idea that if you conquer the whole world... what are you going to do next? because 

there is no other world. You will be quite at a loss, because the mind will ask for more. It is not going to be 

satisfied with this world only it is not going to be satisfied.” 

Mind means discontent; it is its very nature. Desires are only manifestations of this discontent. When you watch 

your desires you slowly, slowly become aware of the futility of desiring, you become aware of the absurd nature 

of desiring. You become aware that by their very nature desires are unfulfillable. Seeing this, a transformation 

happens, a miracle happens, a radical change sets in; but by seeing this not by repression, not by control but by 

understanding. 

A violinist was convinced he could use his art in music to tame wild animals. So, violin in hand, he traveled to 

the heart of the African jungle to prove it. 

He had no sooner begun to play than the jungle clearing was filled with animals of all kinds gathering to hear 

him play. Birds, lions, hippos, elephants all stood round entranced by his beautiful music. 

Just then a crocodile crept out of the nearby river and into the clearing and snap! gobbled up the violinist. 

The other animals were extremely irate. ”What on earth did you do that for?” they demanded. ”We were 

enjoying that.” 

”Eh?” said the crocodile, cupping its hand to its ear. 

The mind is absolutely deaf; it goes on and on doing the same stupid things, never seeing, never listening to 

the message. Every desire brings you to a point where a radical change can happen, but the mind can neither see 

nor can it hear. It is blind, it is deaf. As one desire fails it simply jumps on another desire. If one desire fails, 

the mind thinks, ”If this desire has failed that does not mean that all other desires are going to fail.” It goes on 

hoping that there must be some desires which can be fulfilled, maybe not this time but next time; if not today 

then tomorrow; if not in this life then in the life after death, in heaven. But the mind goes on and on thinking in 

the same old rut.


At the scene of a bank raid the police sergeant came running up to his inspector and said, ”He got away, sir!” 

The inspector was furious. ”But I told you to put a man on all the exits!” he roared. ”How could he have got 

away?” 

”He left by one of the entrances, sir!” 

The mind always finds a way to convince you again of the same stupid game. Buddha says watch it. It is only 

through watchfulness that wanting nothing happens. 

And your watchfulness has to be with all your heart; it should not be partial, otherwise it is not going to work 

because if you only watch partially then the part that has not been involved will go on doing the old tricks, the 

old strategies. Your whole heart has to be watchful so no dark spot is left in you, so your whole being becomes 

aware of the absurdity of desiring. 

Jimmy Carter was visiting one of the largest institutions for the mentally unbalanced. He finished inspecting 

the main building and wanted to see the Farm Section. His chauffeur was not around so the president boarded 

the regular bus. 

In a few minutes the keeper brought on some inmates. When they were seated he began counting, ”1, 2, 3, 4, 

5....” He got to the president and said, ”Who are you?” 

Mr. Carter said, ”Why, I’m the president of the United States!” 

The keeper said, ”6, 7, 8....” 

It does not matter who you are, where you are. If you are still desiring you are mad: ”6, 7, 8....” You are insane. 

In fact, unless you are insane enough, how can you try so hard to be the president of a country? For years people 

try to become the president of a country; almost their whole life is devoted to a single goal, to be the president of 

a country. And what is attained? With the same energy they could have become buddhas, with the same effort 

they could have become awakened. But we put our energies to such wrong goals money, power, prestige and 

they all lead to insanity. 

Desiring is insane. Enjoy life! but don’t be too much bothered about tomorrows. Don’t sacrifice your today 

for tomorrows; otherwise you will always go on missing all the opportunities which open up for your inner growth. 


Watch. Try to understand the very nature of desiring, and in that very understanding there comes a stop of its 

own accord. The stream simply disappears, evaporates, as if it has never been there. And the moment you are 

free of the mind you are free of all misery, of all discontent. 

WHEN THE WORLD DISSOLVES EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR. 

With the dissolution of the mind, the whole world that the mind has created around itself also dissolves, 

obviously it depended on the mind, it was mind’s projection. Not that the trees will disappear and the roses will 

disappear... roses will be far rosier and trees will be far greener. People will be far more beautiful; even pebbles 

on the seashore will be like diamonds. Everything will become precious. 

This world, the real world, is not going to disappear with your mind, but you are living in a totally different 

private world: the world of your desires. You don’t see the real world, you only see your own private world 

projected on the real world. The real world is simply being used as a screen on which you go on projecting your 

desires. You never see that which is; you only go on seeing that which you desire. 

It is said that the shoemaker never looks at people’s faces, he always looks at their shoes. Of course he is not 

concerned with their faces, he has nothing to do with their faces; he is concerned with their shoes. And by seeing 

the shoes he knows about the person; the shoe contains all the messages for him: whether the person is rich or 

poor, successful or unsuccessful. The shoe will say everything: the shape of the shoe, the newness, the oldness, 

the tiredness of the shoe; everything will say what kind of man this is. The shoe, analyzed by a shoemaker, will 

give you a perfect analysis of the man. There is no need to go to a psychoanalyst, you can go to the shoemaker, 

leave the shoe with him. And he can make a chart about you: what kind of man you are, what is happening in 

your life. 

The tailors never see you, they only see your clothes. They decide from your clothes. People see only that which 

they desire and they project their desire. If somebody is full of lust even an ugly woman may look beautiful. 

Mulla Nasruddin goes to a hill station once in a while; he has a bungalow there. Sometimes he says, ”I am 

going for three weeks,” and comes back after only ten days. It happened many times so I asked him, ”You never 

follow your decision. You say, ’I am going for three weeks,’ then you are back within a week. Sometimes you say, 

’I am going for five weeks,’ and you are back in ten days. What is the matter?” 

He laughed; he said, ”I have a criterion and I cannot decide from here. You know that I have got a bungalow 

in the hill station well, I have kept one woman there to look after the bungalow. She is the ugliest woman you 

can conceive of and how long I am going to stay is determined by that woman.”


I said, ”I don’t understand.” 

He said, ”Let me explain. She is so repulsive, so disgusting, but when I go there, after two or three days she 

is not so repulsive, so disgusting. After four or five days I even start seeing something beautiful in her. By the 

seventh or eighth day she starts looking really beautiful. The moment I see that a desire for her is arising in me, 

I escape that’s how I decide. That means now it is time for me to leave. I know that she is ugly, but my eyes are 

deceiving me now, now they are projecting. Now my unfulfilled sexual lust is being projected on her; she is not 

what she is appearing to me. Then I start escaping I am going insane. Then I immediately rush back home; it 

is time to go home, otherwise there is danger. And I don’t want to make love to that disgusting woman. I know 

perfectly well she is disgusting, but there comes a time, somewhere between seven and ten days, when she starts 

looking so beautiful, as if she is a Sophia Loren.” 

You experience this again and again, but you don’t understand. When for the first time you fall in love with 

a woman or a man, the other looks almost like a god or a goddess; that is your projection. Soon you will be 

disillusioned. The fault lies with you, not with the other. It is not that the other has cheated you; the other 

has not done anything. You were starving, you were hankering, you were living with a repressed desire and that 

desire created an illusion for you. You fell in love, you saw something which was not there. Lovers go on seeing 

things which are not there, nobody else sees them; that’s why lovers are thought mad by everybody else. They 

themselves will think they were mad after two or three weeks, but when they are in love for the first time they 

think they have discovered the woman they are made for that they are made for each other. 

Here, I go on receiving letters. One woman sannyasin finds somebody almost every month and she writes to 

me and she forgets all about the fact that she has been writing it for at least three years: ”Beloved Master, it 

seems we are made for each other.” She has no idea that she has written this at least fifty times! But when she 

is infatuated with somebody she forgets everything else. 

I reminded her. She said, ”The other times I may have been wrong, but this time, believe me, we are made for 

each other!” And within two or three weeks these people who are made for each other are finished. 

In fact, nobody is made for anybody else; everybody is made for himself or herself. Nobody is made for anybody 

God never makes you in pairs! Drop that whole nonsense. He simply makes individuals. 

In the East we have stories they must be stories, they cannot be history. In Jaina scriptures it is said that in 

the beginning when the world started, God used to make men and women together. Each mother used to give 

birth to twins, one girl, one boy; they were going to be husband and wife. They were not sister and brother 

they were made for each other! That must be a wish fulfillment. Man has always been thinking, ”There must be 

someone with whom I am going to fit absolutely. Somewhere someone must exist who is just for me and I am for 

her.” There is nobody just for you or you for anybody. God creates only individuals, God believes in individuality 

he is an individualist. 

In fact, marriage is a human invention, God does not believe in marriage. He himself is alone without a wife; 

you can see the point is so clear. Otherwise he would at least have married the Holy Ghost! The Holy Ghost can 

be turned into a woman or a man a ghost is a ghost! He does not have any body; he could have given it a body. 

If he can create the whole world, can’t he create a woman for himself? He was so generous with man he gave 

man first a woman, Lilith. And Lilith was really a beautiful woman, but the first night there was a pillow fight 

the first liberated woman! The Women’s Liberation movement started with Lilith. And the fight was because 

God had given them only a single bed and both wanted to sleep on it and it was not big enough for two persons. 

Lilith simply rejected the idea that she should sleep on the floor. She said, ”If you want to sleep on the floor you 

can!” 

Adam felt very insulted a man, and sleeping on the floor, and the woman sleeping in the bed? In the middle 

of the night they knocked on God’s door and said, ”You have to settle it.” 

God also seems to be very strange it was such a simple thing. He could have called Asheesh: ”Make a double 

bed!” That’s what I would have done. Why make so much fuss about it? Or if Asheesh was going to take a long 

time as he usually does he could have removed the bed: ”Both of you can sleep on the floor, be equal!” He could 

have sent Deeksha to remove it; she would have removed everything, even the floor! But God’s ways are strange. 

He dissolved Lilith. He said, ”You disappear. You will not be able to work it out.” Then he made Eve, taking 

a rib out of Adam so that she would be a part of Adam. That is an ugly act, that is very antifeminist. And since 

then God has been a male chauvinist pig! 

Nobody is made for anybody else, hence no two persons can fit absolutely. All your ideas about fitting with 

the other are illusions, and they are shattered sooner or later. Either you have to compromise or you have to 

separate. But nobody is made for the other.


Those who understand, they start accepting the uniqueness of the other, they start respecting the uniqueness 

of the other. They know they are different, yet they have decided to be together. And it is beautiful that they 

are different because that variety gives richness to life. 

But you go on creating a world around yourself, an illusory world. Buddha is talking about that world when he 

says: WHEN THE WORLD DISSOLVES he means when the mind dissolves with all its projections EVERY- 

THING BECOMES CLEAR. 

When all your projections are gone you have a clarity, an immense clarity, no clouds in your consciousness. You 

can see through and through. That seeing is freedom, that seeing is salvation, that seeing is nirvana, that seeing 

is coming home. 

GO BEYOND.... 

Go to that seeing. Go beyond the mind, go beyond the known, because the mind consists of the known. And 

go beyond the knowable because whatsoever is knowable will sooner or later become known and will again create 

the mind. So go beyond the known known means that which has already become your mind and the knowable 

that which is potentially going to become your mind sooner or later. Go beyond the known and the knowable so 

that you can enter into the unknowable, into the mysterious. The beyond represents the mysterious. 

THIS WAY OR THAT WAY.... 

Buddha is not a fanatic; he says it doesn’t matter which way you follow. Remember: you have to go beyond 

the mind. Follow any way! This is his beauty it is very rare. You will not find this quality in religious fanatics; 

he is not a fanatic at all. He says it is immaterial what way you follow, whether you swim to the other shore or 

you go by a boat or a steamship or how you manage... that is up to you. Go to the other shore; that is the point. 

Every path is valid if it leads to the other shore, every path is valid if it leads you beyond the mind. 

And there are only two paths. One is awareness, meditation Buddha’s path. And the other is love, devotion, 

the path of the Sufis. There are basically only two paths, but Buddha is very clear. He says: THIS WAY OR 

THAT WAY.... 

By ”this way” he means his path; by ”that way” he means the path of love, of devotion. That is not his path, 

but he does not prohibit you. He does not say that you cannot reach by the other path. He does not say, ”My 

path is the only path.” He does not say, he does not claim, ”Only those who come with me will reach and everyone 

else will fall into hell.” No! He says, ”You can follow other paths too. Just keep one thing in your consciousness 

that you have to go beyond.” 

TO THE FARTHER SHORE WHERE THE WORLD DISSOLVES AND EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR. 

BEYOND THIS SHORE AND THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND THE BEYOND, WHERE THERE IS NO 

BEGINNING, NO END. 

”Beyond the beyond” is Buddha’s expression for God; he never uses the word ’God’. But ”beyond the beyond” 

is exactly what the word ’God’ represents. Why does he say ”beyond the beyond”? Is it not enough to call it ”the 

beyond”? It is not, because when you say ”the beyond” it seems you have comprehended it; it means your mind 

has comprehended. When you say ”the other shore” it means that it is the other shore, but it is something like 

this shore; at least it is also a shore so it must be something like this maybe a little bit different, more beautiful, 

with more trees, with more greenery, with more beautiful flowers and fragrance but a shore is a shore. 

”This shore” and ”that shore” your mind can comprehend. Hence he says: Anything that is comprehensible to 

the mind has to be left behind. The beyond is comprehensible. 

BEYOND THIS SHORE AND THE FARTHER SHORE you have to go beyond both the shores BEYOND 

THE BEYOND, WHERE THERE IS NO BEGINNING, NO END. 

When a man came to Buddha he had been practicing meditation for years he said, ”You have told me, ’Attain 

to nothing,’ and I have attained it. Now what else do I have to do?” 

Buddha said, ”Now throw it away! Go out and throw it away!” 

He was puzzled. He said, ”I have spent years in attaining it!” 

Buddha said, ”The only purpose in attaining it is to throw it then only will you be really in a state of nothing; 

otherwise, this nothing has become something you have attained it. It is not real nothing. How can you attain 

real nothing? Real nothing is not attainable, it is not graspable. It is beyond grasp, it is beyond comprehension. 

So go out and throw it!” 

A king came to Buddha with many diamonds in one hand, very precious, very rare, and with a lotus flower 

in the other hand, out of season. He wanted to offer the diamonds. Buddha said, ”Drop it!” So he dropped the 

diamonds reluctantly, because it was such a great treasure thinking, ”This man does not understand what he is 

saying.” But ten thousand monks are there and now not to drop them will look miserly and people will laugh and


they will say, ”If you have come to offer him something and he orders, ’Drop it!’ then drop it! You have offered 

them to him, now it is his business what to do with them.” So he dropped them, but very reluctantly. 

Then he offered the lotus flower. Buddha said, ”Drop it!” He dropped that flower too. Now he was standing 

with empty hands and Buddha said, ”Drop it!” Now the king was at a loss. He said, ”Sir, I don’t have anything 

to drop; my hands are utterly empty.” Buddha said, ”Then drop it!” Now the king thought, ”This man is crazy! 

I am saying my hands are empty, still he says ’Drop it!’” 

One of Buddha’s Bodhisattvas, Manjushree, laughed and he said, ”Sir, you don’t understand my master. He is 

saying, ’Don’t carry this idea of emptiness, drop that too because the idea of emptiness is enough to fill yourself; 

the idea of emptiness is enough to create a mind.’ Buddha is saying, ’Drop all unconditionally. And when you 

have dropped all, don’t carry this idea that now nothing is left. Drop that too so you have nothing to claim.’” 

That is the meaning of going beyond the beyond. That is the ultimate state of nirvana when the ego, the mind, 

the personality, all cease to exist and you disappear into the mysterious, into the miraculous, into the universal. 

WITHOUT FEAR, GO. 

MEDITATE. 

This is what meditation is all about: watching your desires, understanding their nature... and letting them fall 

like dry leaves from the trees in the autumn. 

LIVE PURELY. 

And when meditation has happened and desire has disappeared, then live out of that innocence. Right now 

you are living out of desires. You desire this, you desire that, and sometimes you desire even God, sometimes you 

desire nirvana, sometimes you desire even meditation, but you live out of desires. 

There is another kind of life the real life which is lived through innocence, without desiring. So whatsoever 

comes on the way you enjoy, you rejoice, but you don’t desire. 

LIVE PURELY that’s what Buddha calls a pure life: a life which is not lived out of desires. 

BE QUIET. 

Naturally you will be quiet when there is no desire left there is no turmoil left. 

DO YOUR WORK, WITH MASTERY. 

Then whatsoever you are doing, whatsoever you enjoy doing, do it with mastery and skill. He loved skill very 

much, he loved excellence, he loved perfection. He was not a perfectionist, remember, because he was not a 

neurotic person, but he loved perfection. Do everything with your totality. Whatsoever you are doing, do it with 

such love, with such commitment and involvement that for the moment that is your whole life. 

Once Vincent van Gogh was asked by somebody, ”Which is your best painting?” 

He was doing a painting. He said, ”This one this is the best.” 

After a few months the man asked again he was painting something else he asked, ”Which is your best 

painting?” 

He said, ”This one.” 

The man said, ”But this is not right. Just a few months ago you said about some other painting that that was 

your best.” 

Vincent van Gogh said, ”Whatsoever I am doing at the moment is the best. It is always this, it is never that. 

It is always now, it is never then.” 

This is the way of perfection, the way of excellence, the way of skill, mastery. Whatsoever you are doing, do it 

as if it is a question of life and death. Put your total energy into it, and it will give you tremendous bliss. Don’t 

be halfhearted. Only then does creativity bloom, only then do you become a participant in God the creator. 

BY DAY THE SUN SHINES, AND THE WARRIOR IN HIS ARMOR SHINES. BY NIGHT THE MOON 

SHINES, AND THE MASTER SHINES IN MEDITATION. 

These are code words. The sun represents the warrior. The sun is hot energy; the sun is violent energy. The 

moon represents the meditator, the mystic; it is cool energy. It is the same energy, remember it is the same 

energy, it is not a different energy. But passing through the moon the sunrays become cool; that is the miracle 

of the moon, the alchemical change that happens through the moon. The moon simply reflects sunrays; it is a 

mirror. But just by passing through the moon a radical change happens: the rays which are hot, violent, become 

silent, cool, peaceful. 

The sun represents the warrior, the fighter, the soldier. The moon represents the sannyasin, the meditator, the 

mystic. 

Buddha says: BY DAY THE SUN SHINES, AND THE WARRIOR IN HIS ARMOR SHINES. 

The day belongs to the warrior, the sun belongs to the warrior. The warrior means one who is trying to conquer 

others, who is trying to become a master of others. That is a stupid effort, but it is cheaper. It is easy to enslave


somebody else, it is always easy to find somebody who is weaker than you, it is easy to impose yourself upon 

somebody. 

But the mystic, the meditator is moving in a totally different direction he is moving in his interiority. He is 

trying to be a master of himself, not of others but of himself and that is true mastery. The first effort is stupid. 

And the world has been dominated by the soldiers for centuries, that’s why the world is in such a mess. The 

world needs more and more sannyasins because each sannyasin becomes a moon: he transforms the violent energy 

of the world into a cool pool of energy. The world needs to be full of sannyasins, only then can we have a world 

which forgets the ways of war and learns the language of peace and love. The world needs many sannyasins as 

transformers of energy. 

That’s exactly what is meant by a buddhafield: where many sannyasins are together and create such a great 

transforming force that all kinds of energies passing through the buddhafield become cool, become feminine, 

become more like flowers and less like rocks. They lose their hardness, they become delicate delicate like rose 

petals. 

BY NIGHT THE MOON SHINES.... The night is the time of the mystic, the day is the time of the warrior. 

The night represents a change in the whole atmosphere. It is easier to meditate in the night than in the day. 

Meditation is far closer to sleep than to any other activity, with only one difference: in sleep you fall unconscious, 

in meditation you remain conscious, but with the same relaxation. In the day it is difficult to sleep; if you want 

to sleep in the day you have to close the doors and the windows and pull all the curtains so it becomes dark. If 

sunrays are coming they won’t allow you to sleep; sunrays activate your energies. Night helps you to rest and 

relax. It is the time of the mystic. 

Sannyasins should use the time of night more and more for meditation. You can go deeper, and easily, because 

the winds are blowing that way; you can move with the winds with less effort. In the day you are moving against 

the winds. In the day active meditations are good; dynamic meditation is good in the day, dancing meditation 

is good in the day. But in the night Vipassana, silent meditations, just sitting and doing nothing, just relaxing 

because the whole atmosphere is relaxing.... The sun has gone down, the trees have fallen asleep; it is a totally 

different quality of energy that surrounds you in the night. It is easy to meditate. 

Buddha says: THE MASTER SHINES IN MEDITATION in the night. 

By ”the master” he means one who is trying to be a master of himself; by ”warrior” he means one who is 

trying to be a master of others. But once you have attained, once you have become enlightened, then there is no 

question of day and night, no question of sun and moon. 


The buddha, the awakened, the enlightened one shines both in the night and in the day; there is no difference 

for him. Once you have become awakened, then nothing makes any difference. But till that happens use the night 

atmosphere more and more for meditation. 

And when the moon is there in the night it is far easier to meditate. The full-moon night is the best for 

meditation. Many people who have become buddhas have attained their enlightenment on the full-moon night, 

even Buddha himself. It may have been a coincidence, but it is significant to remember: he was born on the 

full-moon night, he became enlightened on the full-moon night and he died on the full-moon night. Something in 

the full moon seemed to be synchronizing with his energy. 

Use it. Be alert and use every possibility to help you go in. Once you are awakened, then there is no problem. 

Then you can be at ease, at rest, at peace, anywhere. 

Somebody asked Buddha, ”When you die will you go to heaven?” 

Buddha said, ”Don’t ask nonsense questions. Wherever a buddha is there is heaven. Buddhas don’t go to 

heaven; wherever a buddha goes, heaven goes there.” 

This is much closer to the truth, far more beautiful; the very statement is significant. There is no question of 

enlightened ones going to paradise enlightened ones live in paradise wherever they are. You can send them to 

hell if there is a hell and the hell will be transformed. By their very presence the hell will become a buddhafield. 

By their very presence the energies of hell will go through a transformation. 


A Christian priest was delivering a sermon one Sunday and he said, ”Those who don’t believe in God and live 

immoral lives will go to hell; those who believe in God and live moral lives will go to heaven.” 

A man stood up and asked, ”A question has arisen in me. The question is: Those who don’t believe in God 

and live a moral life, where will they go? Those who believe in God and live immoral lives, where will they go?” 

The priest was at a loss; he had not thought about it. The question was tricky. He said, ”Please give me time 

to ponder over it. After seven days I will answer, next Sunday.”


Those seven days were real hell for him. He tried to figure it out, but it was impossible to figure it out. If he 

says, ”Those who don’t believe in God and are moral still go to heaven,” then the man will say, ”Why believe 

in God? Why bother about God at all? Just being moral is enough.” He thought, ”And if I say the people who 

don’t believe in God and are moral have to go to hell, then morality loses all relevance. Then why be moral? Just 

believing in God is enough. Believe in God and live as immorally as possible. Why miss that opportunity?” He 

was driving himself crazy, he could not sleep. Continuously he was thinking and consulting books, but there was 

no answer coming. 

Sunday came; he came a little early to the church to pray to Jesus. ”Help me!” he prayed to Jesus. The whole 

night he had not slept so while he was praying he fell asleep, and he dreamed a beautiful dream, a very significant 

dream. He saw that he was in a train. He asked where the train was going and the other passengers said, ”The 

train is going to heaven.” 

He said, ”This is very good! That’s what I wanted to see see with my own eyes. Socrates never believed in 

God, but he lived a moral life. Buddha never believed in God, but he lived one of the purest lives. Mahavira 

never believed in God, but who can surpass Mahavira in his moral life? If I can find these three people there, 

then the question is solved; if I don’t find them there, then too the question is solved.” 

The train reached heaven; he was very much surprised. Seeing heaven, he could not believe it it looked more 

like hell! Of course the board said it was heaven, but it had not been painted, it seems, for centuries. So much 

dust had collected, everything was dirty. It looked like a desert: no greenery, no trees, no roses, no lotuses. He 

came across a few saints who looked almost dead, somehow dragging themselves. Dust had also gathered on them 

as if they had forgotten how to take a bath, as if nobody took baths in heaven. 

He asked, ”Is Socrates here? Is Buddha here? Is Mahavira here?” 

Those saints said, ”Never heard of these people.” 

He rushed to the inquiry office. He inquired, ”Is there a train that goes to hell?” 

They said, ”Yes, it is leaving immediately. You can catch it right now.” 

And he rushed in the train towards hell, and as hell came closer he was again in for a great surprise: so much 

fragrance, so much greenery, so many flowers, so many beautiful birds, and singing and dancing. He said, ”What 

is the matter?” And everybody looked so joyous, so radiant. He asked people on the station, ”Is this really hell? 

Is this hell?” 

They said, ”Yes, this is hell, and nobody can believe this is hell. Since these three people Socrates, Buddha 

and Mahavira arrived, everything changed. They have transformed the whole scene. Just the name is hell now 

it is really heaven. And the other place is only heaven in name; it has become hell.” 

I agree absolutely with the dream. I can visualize that your so-called saints, wherever they are, will create hell. 

But if a man like Buddha or Socrates or Mahavira or Jesus or Lao Tzu or Zarathustra is in hell, then hell has to 

change. It is not a question of the place; the question is of who is there. 


You can say hell or heaven... THE MAN WHO IS AWAKE SHINES IN THE RADIANCE OF THE SPIRIT. 

Wherever he is he creates a new world, he creates a totally new energy. He is an alchemical transformer. 

First, don’t be soldiers, be sannyasins, because that is how one day you can become buddhas. Move towards 

self-mastery. Use all devices, methods, to become a master of your own self. And then one day, when the mind 

has disappeared with all its illusions and you have attained to clarity, when you can see that which is as it is, you 

are a buddha. Then wherever you are there is paradise. 



Chapter 8 Laughter: love, joy, gratitude 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, IS IT ALL A JOKE? BUT I DON’T GET IT. 

Vimalkirti, it certainly is a joke, but you cannot get it. You are German, and not only an ordinary German 

you are the great-grandchild of the German emperor! Just think of the old man in his grave: he must be tossing 

and turning, seeing you in orange, cleaning floors in Pune! What do you think? is it not a joke? Could your 

great-grandfather ever have imagined or dreamed that this was going to happen to his own children one day? 

Impossible that he would have ever dreamed about it but it has happened. 

You have been told for centuries that life is a serious affair; it has become a deep conditioning. Otherwise life 

is really a joke. It is playfulness, it is leela. It all depends on how you take it. If you take it seriously it becomes 

serious, but then you suffer you suffer from your own idea. Life becomes heavy, it becomes a weight, a mountain


on your chest; you are crushed underneath it. Life loses all joy, all laughter. You simply drag, you don’t live. How 

can one live without laughter? 

It is man who is the only animal on earth who knows how to laugh. Laughter is the only thing that is special 

to human beings, not reason but laughter. Animals can also reason they reason in their own way but they 

cannot joke, they cannot laugh, they cannot see the humorous side; that is impossible for them. All animals are 

serious people and all serious people are animals! The moment you get rid of your seriousness you get rid of your 

animality. 

Hence I have no respect for your saints. They are very serious, far more serious than the donkeys, far more 

serious than the buffaloes. They have fallen, they have not risen. Your saints are serious, your politicians are 

serious, your revolutionaries are serious, your scientists are serious. They are all taking life as if somehow one has 

to pass through it not dance. The very concept of dance is far away from them. They cannot even walk, they 

drag. They don’t live, they only slowly die. They are all waiting for death to relieve them of the pain and the 

suffering of life. 

It is very rare to find a human being who has not contemplated committing suicide once or twice. On average, 

four times in his life every human being thinks of committing suicide. He does not do it, that is another matter. 

Maybe he has no guts to do it, maybe he is afraid of what is going to happen after death. Who knows? It may 

be far worse than life itself. At least life is known, familiar; it is risky to move into the unknown. 

Indians don’t commit suicide much because they believe that they will be sent back again, so what is the point? 

millions of times you have to be born. All Indian religions seek and search not for God, remember, but for freedom 

from life, freedom from the circle of birth and death. How can these people rejoice and how can these people be 

thankful to God? They are complaining and their complaining is very loud. They are saying, ”We don’t want to 

be born. We never wanted to be born. Why didn’t you ask us first? It is unfair! It is not a gift, it is unfair to 

send us into a life which we had never asked for. And it is unfair to go on sending us into a life which is nothing 

but misery.” 

But life is not misery. It is our approach, it is our way of looking at it that has made it ugly. Our vision 

is distorted, not life itself. Our mirror is distorted, not life itself. Because our mirror is distorted, life appears 

distorted. 

Vimalkirti, to me it is all a joke. And I am not joking I am really serious about it! 

You say, ”But I don’t get it.” 

I have heard that in Germany people are not allowed to tell jokes on Saturday evenings. Why? because they 

might burst out laughing in church on Sunday morning. It takes time for them to understand! And you are the 

great-grandchild of the German emperor, it may take a little longer for you! But if you are here you are bound 

to get it. Don’t be worried. Life is so full of hilarious moments that it is almost impossible to miss them. It is a 

miracle how people go on missing them; otherwise you will come across jokes everywhere. 

When Winston Churchill was appointed prime minister for the first time he was tired from the election campaign 

and all the politics that had gone before and all the struggle to reach the top his wife thought it would be good 

to call a friend who knew many beautiful jokes so he could tell a few jokes to Winston Churchill. ”That will relax 

him, help him to laugh a little. He has been so serious for so many days and he looks so tired.” 

The friend was called; he came with all the latest jokes. He asked Winston Churchill, ”Would you like to know 

the latest jokes?” 

Churchill looked at him and said, ”Please, no more I have appointed them all in my cabinet!” 

If you look around, if you are watchful enough, then you are bound to stumble again into something so beautiful 

and so ridiculous. The very idea of creating the world and creating you all is such a cosmic joke! God must have 

a sense of humor. 

An old rabbi was dying and somebody asked him... because they were afraid for the old rabbi. He was not 

very religious, not very virtuous; in fact, he was just the opposite. They were worried. They asked him, ”Are you 

ready to meet God?” 

He opened his eyes and said, ”Yes, that’s what I am doing I am just trying to remember a few beautiful jokes 

to tell him. He must be getting tired of all those long faces, sad saints. He will really enjoy a few jokes, a few 

gossips about the earth.” 

And I absolutely agree with this old rabbi. If you meet God, don’t fall on your knees and start praying he is 

tired of all that! Tell him a beautiful joke. That will be a deeper communion with him. Let him have a good 

laugh. In that laughter there will be a revelation. 

Vimalkirti, a few jokes for you:


Karpuik was rushed to the emergency room of the city hospital. The doctor on duty was amazed to discover 

that Karpuik had scalded his scrotum. ”How did it happen?” he asked. 

”I was making tea,” replied the Polack, ”and the directions said, ’Soak bag in hot water.’” 

Pilzudski took his wife to the doctor and complained that he could not have intercourse with her because she 

was too tight. 

”Alright,” said the doctor, ”let’s test it!” 

The sawbones put the wife on the table, applied some vaseline to his instrument and entered Pilzudski’s wife 

easily. 

”Hey,” said the Polack, as he watched the doctor pumping away, ”if it not be for the medicine I think you be 

screwing my wife!” 

There once was a pious young priest, 

who lived almost fully on yeast; 

”For,” he said, ”it is plain 

that we’ll all rise again, 

and I want to get started at least!” 

My approach towards life is that of laughter. And laughter contains love, laughter contains joy and laughter 

contains gratitude. Laughter contains a tremendous thankfulness towards God. 

When you are really in deep belly laughter, your ego disappears. It happens very rarely in any other activity, 

but in laughter it is bound to happen. If the laughter is total the ego cannot exist; nothing kills the ego like 

laughter. That’s why all egoists are serious. Ego can exist only in seriousness; ego lives, feeds on seriousness. And 

serious people are dangerous people. 

We have to destroy all kinds of seriousness in the world. Temples should be full of laughter and song and dance 

and celebration. That’s how trees are, stars are, rivers are, oceans are. The whole existence, except man, is in 

a nonserious state; only man seems to be very serious. No child is born serious, remember, but we destroy the 

innocence of the child. We destroy his qualities of wonder and awe, we destroy his laughter, we destroy everything 

that is beautiful and valuable, and instead we give him a load to carry on his head of knowledge, of theology, of 

philosophy. The more and more he becomes educated by us, the more and more he loses all sense of humor. He 

can’t see any humor in existence because he starts living through his knowledge; he knows everything. Because of 

his knowledgeability all wonder is destroyed. Because of his knowledgeability, the greatest religious quality awe 

is killed. 

A young man at college, named Breeze, 

weighed down by BAs and MDs, 

collapsed from the strain; 

said his doctor, ”It’s plain 

you are killing yourself by degrees!” 

By the time you come back from the university you are almost dead. Your state is pathological. You are ill ill 

with knowledge, suffocated by knowledge. And you cannot laugh; that is only for children and madmen. 

And my whole effort here, Vimalkirti, is to make you both simultaneously: to make you childlike and to make 

you utterly mad. If these two things happen, then only are you a sannyasin. My only commandment is laughter!... 

and everything else will follow. If you can love and if you can laugh, totally, wholeheartedly, your life will become 

such a bliss and a benediction, not only to yourself but to everyone else. You will be a blessing to the world. 

You have to drop all seriousness. You have to drop this seriousness because it has been forced upon you; this 

is not your nature. You did not come serious into the world, you came laughing. Each child is bubbling with joy 

and by the time he is four he starts dying. The age of four for the boys and the age of three for the girls is the 

time when death starts occurring. Girls are always ahead of boys in every way; even in this matter they are one 

year ahead. 

And once death settles in you, it kills you slowly, slowly. It is not that you die suddenly when you are seventy 

or eighty; that is only the completion of a process that started at the age of three or four. Have you ever noticed 

the fact that if you try to remember backwards you cannot pass the barrier of the age of three? At the most you 

can remember when you were three years old; beyond that all is blank. Why? You were here, certainly, and those 

three years were not blank at all; in fact they were more full of experience than any other year of your life is ever 

going to be. Each moment was full of experiences. You were constantly exploring life, people, everything; you 

were constantly in inquiry. 

In one university they were doing an experiment. The experiment was... that children seem to be so active 

from where do they get so much energy? Their bodies are so small and their bodies are so delicate they are just


like flowers, fragile but they seem to be so energetic, so vital, so overflowing with energy. From where do they 

get so much energy? 

So they tried an experiment. They arranged that a very strong man would follow a child, and he would do 

exactly whatsoever the child was doing. And they were going to pay him; whatsoever he wanted they were going 

to pay him. He was a really big man, a wrestler, a famous wrestler, so he was not worried about following a 

child. What can a child do? But within four hours he was flat on the ground, because once the child knew that 

he was imitating him, the child jumped and the child ran and the child rolled on the floor and the child laughed 

uproariously.... And the child did so many things that the wrestler, within four hours, was finished! 

He said, ”Never in my life have I been so tired. I have been fighting my whole life, I have fought great fights, I 

have been always a winner. This is my first defeat!” 

And that small child was not tired at all; he was still ready, he was still challenging the man. He said, ”Come 

on! Let us have a little more fun! Are you finished? Why are you lying down on the ground?” 

Every child is born with such great energy, but we destroy it. We paralyze every child, we cripple every child. 

And our churches and our temples and our priests have done the greatest wrong to humanity. They are the greatest 

criminals in the world, they are the real sinners. They have sinned against humanity they have paralyzed every 

human being. You don’t know who you would have been if you had been allowed total freedom from the very 

beginning if your laughter had been free, your love had been free, your joy had been free, and you had not been 

hindered, interfered with, distorted, manipulated, forced, channeled in certain directions.... 

No child is interested in money, because no child is foolish. No child is interested in being the president of a 

country or the prime minister, because no child is so stupid. His interests are far more natural. He is interested 

in the flowers, he is interested in the butterflies, he is interested in the pebbles on the seashore. He is interested 

in dancing under the stars, in dancing in the sun, in dancing in the wind. He is interested in climbing the tree or 

in climbing the mountain. He is interested in swimming the river or in going into the ocean. 

His interests are totally different, but we divert all his energies. We say, ”No need to climb the tree, no need to 

climb the mountain. Climb the ladder of success!” which is an absolutely mediocre process, which is an absolutely 

unintelligent process. ”Climb the ladder of success. Be more rich than others. Be competitive. Be jealous. Be 

possessive. Fight!” a fight for things which are meaningless. Then you lose your joy, then you lose your laughter. 

Then life seems more like a nightmare than like a beautiful joke. 

Vimalkirti, it is a cosmic joke. 

And my vision is that the future religiousness is bound to be rooted more in life than in death, more in laughter 

than in sadness, more in dance than in dragging your life. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY, DESPITE APPEARANCES, IS THE VOID MORE TANGIBLE THAN THE 

FORM, CONSCIOUSNESS MORE THAN THOUGHT, SILENCE MORE THAN THE WORD? 

Deva Bruce, the void is the source of all forms. The void is eternal, forms are temporary. Forms are like ripples 

in the lake, the void is the lake itself. Forms come and go, the void remains. Forms are only appearances, the 

void is the reality. 

Hence Buddha calls reality shunya. Shunya means the ultimate void. Yes, it is far more tangible than your 

so-called real things, because these real things come from the void and will go back down to the void. The void 

is the source and the goal. Everything comes out of nothingness and disappears back into nothingness. 

Hence, remember, nothingness does not mean that it is nothing; nothingness simply means that it is all. 

Nothingness means ”no-thingness.” Things are forms; nothingness is a formless energy. It can manifest in millions 

of forms, and it can only manifest in millions of forms because it has no form of its own. It is fluid, it is available 

for any form, it has no resistance to any form. It can express itself in millions of ways because it has no obsession, 

it has no fixation. It can bloom as a rose, it can bloom as a lotus. It can be a song, it can be a dance, it can 

be silence. All is possible because nothingness simply means that no form has yet been taken. Once a form is 

taken, things become limited, alternatives become limited. Once a form is taken you are not totally free; your 

form becomes your bondage. Hence, meditation is an entry into nothingness. 

The Western religions have missed the point completely. Even their God has a form; God cannot have a form. 

To give God a form is anthropocentric, it is projecting our own form onto God. 

If horses were philosophers and who knows, a few horses may be then God would be a horse, a beautiful horse, 

with all the great qualities of a horse. Horses cannot think of God as a man, impossible. Man has not been good 

to the horses at all. They can think of the devil as man, but not of God as man. Man thinks of God as man.


The Bible says God created man in his own image. The truth is just the contrary: man creates God in his own 

image. Hence the Negro God will have a Negro form, the Hindu God will have a Hindu form, the Chinese God 

will have a Chinese form. The Chinese God cannot have a Hindu form; it is impossible. The Chinese cannot think 

that God can have another form than the Chinese of course, the most beautiful Chinese form, but it is going to 

be Chinese. These are our ideas projected onto God. 

God is not a form, God is formlessness. God is absolute nothingness, God is total void. Out of that voidness 

everything arises trees, people, mountains, earths, stars, creations. They come, for the time being they are there, 

and then they again disappear into the ultimate void. That is the beginning and the end; it is before the beginning 

and after the end. Buddha calls it the beyond, the ultimate beyond, beyond the beyond. 

You ask me, Bruce, ”Why, despite appearances, is the void more tangible than the form, consciousness more 

than thought, silence more than the word?” 

Consciousness is God because consciousness is nothingness. Thought is a world; hence Buddha calls mind ”the 

world.” The moment a thought arises, a wave has arisen in the lake of consciousness, a form has arisen, and the 

form is only temporal, momentary. Soon it will disappear; it is not going to abide, it is not eternal. Don’t cling 

to it. Watch it come in and watch it go out. Watch it arising and watch it disappearing, but don’t cling to it. 

Remember consciousness, in which it arises and in which it dissolves again. That is your reality, that is your 

truth. The thought can be good, the thought can be bad, but good or bad it makes no difference. A thought is a 

thought; it is not eternal and that is the only criterion of reality. 

That’s how the mystics have always been judging reality: whatsoever is eternal is real and whatsoever is 

momentary is only a dream phenomenon. There is no difference between the dream that you see in the night 

and the dream that you see in the day, the dream that you see with closed eyes and the dream that you see with 

open eyes. Yes, there is a little difference: one dream is absolutely private. In the night with closed eyes you 

see a private dream; in the day with open eyes you see a collective dream, an objective dream. There are many 

participants in it, hence it gives you the feeling as if it is real. It is not so. What happens when you fall asleep? 

You forget all about the day. 

It is said about Chuang Tzu that one morning he woke up and started laughing. His disciples gathered together 

and they asked, ”What is the matter?” 

Chuang Tzu said, ”I have come across a problem that I cannot solve. Help me to solve it.” 

That was the first time that he was asking the help of the disciples to solve a problem. Otherwise he was always 

solving their problems. 

The disciples said, ”It must be a really great, complicated problem you tell us.” 

He said, ”The problem is simple, but in a way very complicated and I don’t think it can be solved, it seems 

insoluble. That’s why I am laughing. I have looked at it from every side; it seems absolutely insoluble. The 

problem is, in the night I dreamed that I had become a butterfly.” 

The disciples said, ”That’s nothing. We all dream all kinds of things dreams are dreams. Now you are awake 

the dream is finished. Why make so much fuss about a dream?” 

He said, ”I am not making much fuss about a dream. The problem is: if Chuang Tzu can dream that he is a 

butterfly now the problem arises the butterfly may have fallen asleep and is dreaming that she is Chuang Tzu! 

Now what is what? Am I Chuang Tzu who dreamed about the butterfly or am I the butterfly who is dreaming 

of being Chuang Tzu?” 

In fact there is no difference. The butterfly is also a form and Chuang Tzu is also a form. One form arose 

when you were asleep, another form arose when you were awake, but both are forms. Chuang Tzu is neither he is 

neither the butterfly nor Chuang Tzu. He is the consciousness, he is the awareness; the awareness of the dream, 

the awareness of the butterfly and Chuang Tzu. That awareness he is. And that awareness is far more real, the 

only reality in fact. No thought is real. 

And the same is true about silence. Words arise in the lake of silence, beautiful words, but they are just forms. 

Hence the insistence of all the mystics: move from words to wordlessness, move from sound to silence, move from 

form to formlessness, move from thought to consciousness. Don’t get entangled with the forms, thoughts, words. 

That’s what meditation is all about. 

Don’t get identified with all that arises in you and disappears. Remain centered in that which never appears 

and never disappears, which is always there. Remain centered in the abiding reality of your being, and you will 

know the greatest bliss possible and you will know the truth that liberates. You will know freedom from all forms 

because all forms create bondage. You will know you are neither a man nor a woman, neither white nor black, 

neither this nor that neti, neti. You will know that you are only the pure awareness which has no name, no form.


That’s what Buddha says: You don’t have any form and you don’t have any name. Don’t hanker for that which 

you are not, because hankering for that which you are not is creating misery for yourself, is creating unnecessary 

pain for yourself. Just be that which you are and have always been and will always be. Don’t try to become be! 

And that you already are. It is not a question of becoming, it is not a question of desiring, it is not a question 

of reaching somewhere. You are already there, you have always been there. Just wake up! Wake up from the 

dreams, all the dreams night dreams, daydreams. Wake up from all the forms and abide in the formless. 

And all the awakened ones say the same thing: Knowing that formlessness, knowing that eternity, your life is 

fulfilled. You will attain to tremendous contentment and bliss and benediction. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM GREEK AND I LOVE GARLIC. MY GIRLFRIEND CAN’T STAND IT, SHE 

IS BRITISH. SHE CALLS ME PRIMITIVE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? 

Devo, nothing is wrong with you, nothing is wrong with garlic either, but garlic is going to create a few problems 

for you. And the problem that you have come across is not really a great problem; soon you will have to face 

greater problems. The British lady at the most may leave you; that is not a problem that will be getting out of 

the problem! 

Find some woman be free of ladies! A woman is beautiful, a lady is a problem. And it is very difficult to find 

a British woman I have not come across one yet. They are all ladies. The men may not all be lords, but the 

women are all ladies. 

An Englishman and his wife were strolling around their West Indian estate when they came across a black girl 

and boy making love in the bushes. 

”My gracious!” exclaimed the British lady to her husband. ”They do it just like human beings!” 

If she thinks you are primitive that is nothing at least she thinks you are a human being! Or maybe she does 

not think that you are a human being, but she cannot say it. It is so unmannerly to say to you that you are not a 

human being so she says you are primitive. That is not a great danger at the most the lady will leave you. You 

continue eating garlic. If there is going to be a choice between a British lady and garlic, prefer garlic; it is far 

healthier. But the real problem will come later on once the British lady has left you, then you will be in trouble. 

Did you hear about the Gypsy girl who had to give up wearing garlic around her neck? 

It kept the vampires away alright, but it attracted too many Italians. 

So if you want to drop garlic, drop it when the British lady has left you; meanwhile she will protect you from 

the Italians. Every man needs a woman as a protection; otherwise he is so helpless. Once the other women see 

that one woman is protecting you they don’t bother you. The moment they see you are unprotected they all jump 

upon you! 

So first use garlic to get rid of the British lady, then immediately stop garlic; otherwise Italians will start 

coming. And it is easy to get rid of a British lady; it is next to impossible to get rid of Italian women because 

they are not ladies. They are true women and they will create so much trouble for you. They help only in one 

thing: they make you so much aware of the trouble that love brings, or that comes in the wake of love, that you 

start thinking of religion, God, meditation. All these great things would not have been possible without women. 

The people who started thinking about all these great things were people who were tortured by women. These 

were their escapes, escape routes, so they could tolerate whatsoever was happening around. They could hope for 

a paradise somewhere after death. They lost all hope in life because they knew wherever they went some woman 

was going to create trouble for them. 

It seems God sent man alone first. He made Adam, but if man had been alone here he would never have thought 

of God. He made woman the woman is a constant reminder. She never leaves you at ease, she forces you to 

believe in hell. And once you believe in hell you have to believe in heaven too. 

Devo, nothing is wrong with you, but if you want to live with garlic you have to renounce life. The British 

lady may be right in a sense: you have to be primitive, you have to go to the caves, as far away from humanity 

as possible. Garlic is simply dangerous for any communion, for any communication. It is very medicinal; it will 

keep you healthy and it will keep you alive longer than you would have lived without it. Or maybe because you 

will have to live alone your life will look longer! 

If you want more advice about garlic you can ask Maitreya he is the expert about garlic and all its great 

qualities. I have never tasted it, so whatsoever I am saying is not very reliable. And I have never allowed any 

primitive to be close to me. You know my sniffers! No people who eat garlic will ever be able to come close to 

me! Garlic is good but a little inhuman: it is good for you, but bad for everybody else. 

The fourth question:


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, CAN INNOCENCE IN AN ADULT HAPPEN WITHOUT AWARENESS? 

Anand Manuel, it is impossible for innocence to happen to an adult without awareness. Awareness is the only 

method that can help you to destroy all the conditionings that the society has imposed on you. Society has 

hypnotized you, but the hypnosis is done in such a subtle way, for such a long time, and it starts when you are 

so small, that you never become aware of it. You are hypnotized with the milk of your mother, you are given all 

kinds of conditionings, and those conditionings destroy your innocence. 

Unless you become aware, you will not be able to see that you are a conditioned human being, that you are 

living with borrowed ideas ideas which have been imposed by others on you against your will that you are almost 

a prisoner. Not that you live in a prison, but you live in an ideology which is a subtle prison. You are a Hindu 

how can you be innocent? You are a Christian how can you be innocent? The ideology keeps you away from 

innocence; it makes you knowledgeable, and knowledgeability is the only thing that destroys innocence. It takes 

all wonder away from you. 

There are millions of people who don’t feel any wonder in life. They will see a roseflower and yet they will not 

see anything no beauty, no awe. They will not even stop for a single moment. The rose seems to have no message 

for them, as if they have not seen it at all. 

Every day you pass by beautiful trees, birds singing in the early morning sun, flowers releasing their fragrance, 

but you are a robot. You go on chattering inside your mind, yakkety-yakkety-yak... you go on and on. And what 

you are chattering inside has been put inside you. Your mind has been used like a computer: just as they feed a 

computer they have fed you. 

In communist Russia they will feed you with communism. They will also teach you the holy trinity, their 

own holy trinity. They will teach you their own Bible, they will teach you their own religion. Communism is a 

religion, a substitute for other religions. Marx, Engels, Lenin, that is their trinity; Das Kapital is their Bible. And 

they believe in all these things as fanatically as any Catholic, any Hindu, any Mohammedan. The Mohammedan 

believes in Kaaba and the communist believes in the Kremlin. The objects differ, but the belief is there. Both 

are knowledgeable, both have lost their purity, their innocence, their childlike quality. 

Once you are full of knowledge you think you know all the answers. You don’t know anything because unless 

you know yourself, nothing is known. And the beauty of self-knowledge is that it deepens the mystery of life, it 

does not demystify it; it makes it more mysterious, more miraculous. The person of wisdom, one who has dug deep 

into his own consciousness, becomes more and more full of wonder and awe. But the ordinarily knowledgeable 

person goes on living in absolute unawareness; nothing makes him wonder. He knows all the answers. 

A dog walked into a restaurant and ordered a steak. 

”How would you like it cooked?” asked the waiter. 

”I like it well done, with crushed cherries on top. Then put some marinated tomatoes on it and soak it in 

pepper.” 

The waiter brought the food. 

”Did you enjoy your dinner?” the waiter asked when he was finished. 

”Very much,” answered the dog. ”By the way, don’t you think this is all very odd?” 

”No,” answered the waiter, ”I like my steak the same way.” 

The waiter knows too much about the steak he is not looking at the dog at all. 

It was two o’clock in the morning and Gedalia the goniff was trying to break into a house. He tried all the 

doors and windows but he could not pry any of them open. Cautiously he climbed up to the second-floor balcony. 

Peering through a locked window, he saw a baby in its crib. By this time he was quite desperate so he decided to 

enlist the aid of the infant. 

”Hoo-hoo, bay-bee,” he called softly. ”Itsy-bitsy boo-boo, is oo gonna open window for nice mansi-wansie, 

hmm?” 

”Open the window?” yelled the baby. ”Why, ya dumb schnook, I can’t even walk yet!” 

The baby cannot walk, but he has become knowledgeable, he can talk. 

You have all become knowledgeable. You know nothing and yet you are full of knowledge. Your knowledge 

simply covers your ignorance, it does not make you wise. It simply makes your foolishness a little decorated, a 

little polished. 

A troubled young man went to see a doctor. The doctor told him to take off his clothes for an examination, 

then said, ”Ah, you have orange candle wax in your navel? I know about this problem. Just the other day a 

girl came to see me; she also had wax in her navel because her boyfriend likes to eat by candle-light. Does your 

girlfriend like to eat by candlelight too?”


”No,” said the man, ”she needs the candle to find it.” 

Just look at things, don’t bring your knowledge in, and you may be always in for a surprise. 

You ask me, ”Can innocence in an adult happen without awareness?” 

It is impossible. The beginning of innocence in an adult is to be aware that you are conditioned. Millions of 

people are not aware that they are conditioned. If you don’t know that you are in a prison, why should you try 

to get out of it in the first place? 

Just the other day I came across a newspaper. The editor must have been here, he must have listened to one 

of my discourses. He comments that whatsoever I said was against Indian culture as if that is enough to criticize 

me, that it was against Indian culture! He takes it for granted that anything that is against Indian culture is 

bound to be wrong. But who has said that I am not against Indian culture? I am against all rotten things Indian, 

non-Indian, it makes no difference! I am against the very idea of Indian culture and Chinese culture and Japanese 

culture. I am against the very idea of dividing humanity and I am against the past. I am not here supporting 

Indian culture. So that is not a criticism of me in fact, that is a compliment! 

I am against all that is dead. One should not carry dead bodies for ever and ever, they should be buried or 

burned. I don’t believe in any culture and I don’t believe in any country and I don’t believe in any race and I 

don’t believe in any religion. 

I believe in religiousness, I believe in culturedness, I believe in humanity. But humanity is not Indian, religiousness 

is not Christian or Hindu or Mohammedan, culturedness has nothing to do with any country. It is a 

grace that comes through meditation, through awareness. It is a beauty that happens to you when you become 

rooted in your consciousness, when you are settled in your consciousness, when nothing can distract you from 

your consciousness. 

Yes, every person has to become a child again, but how is he going to become a child again? Except through 

becoming aware there is no other way. First, become aware of your conditionings and there are a thousand 

and one layers of conditionings and when you are aware, then slowly, slowly disentangle yourself from all the 

conditioning. Drop those conditionings, become dehypnotized, so no layer of dust remains on the mirror of your 

being. When there is no layer of dust on the mirror of your being, you will be able to reflect that which is and 

that is God and that is truth and that is nirvana. 

But you are asking the question so that you can avoid awareness. You would like to find some shortcut to 

innocence. There is no shortcut; awareness cannot be avoided. Awareness is the only method let me repeat, the 

only method which can cut from the very roots all the conditionings and can make you free from the prison in 

which you are living. And it is only a question of becoming more and more aware; nothing else can help you. I 

cannot do it for you, nobody else can do it for you. If somebody else does it for you, you will be reconditioned 

again. Remember it, you have to be unconditioned, not reconditioned. That’s what happens: a Christian becomes 

a Hindu; of course he becomes unconditioned as a Christian, but he becomes reconditioned as a Hindu. 

My effort here is to uncondition you, to help you to be unconditioned, and not to recondition you again. My 

effort is to leave you in total freedom; then you have to decide what to do with your life. You are the master of 

your life; I can simply give you a few indications of how to get rid of all the nonsense that has been forced upon 

you. Once you are free from all that nonsense, I am not going to give you any positive instructions about what 

to do or what not to do, because that will be a reconditioning again. 

So awareness will help you in two ways: first it will help you to become unconditioned and then it will help you 

to find ways and means to live your life. It will be the only way to uncondition and the only way to find a new 

style of life, a new vision of life. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM LEAVING SOON ON A TRIP WITH RADHA. BEFORE HEARING ABOUT 

YOUR EXPERIENCE OF TRAVELING WITH HER I FELT CONFIDENT AND SAFE ABOUT OUR LUG- 

GAGE, BUT NOW DO YOU THINK I NEED SARJANO ALSO TO COME ALONG WITH US? 

Anand Amito, no, categorically no! Sarjano may help to save your boxes and bags, but what about Radha? 

Radha will be in danger. It is better to risk the suitcases you will not be able to save Radha from Sarjano. Avoid 

Sarjano, even if he wants to come. Certainly he will help you to save the suitcases, but Radha will be gone. 

So it is up to you. If you are too much attached to your suitcases, then you can take Sarjano with you; otherwise, 

that incident is not going to happen every time. And it was a fictitious journey that I talked about you are going 

on a real journey. On a real journey things like that don’t happen.... 


Question 6


BELOVED MASTER, DO YOU REALLY KNOW ITALIAN? THEN PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE ITAL- 

IAN WORD IS FOR REFRIGERATOR AND ALSO THE ITALIAN WORD FOR A PRETTY GIRL. 

Satyam, I don’t know that much Italian, but I will try my best. The Italian word for refrigerator is ’ice-a box’, 

and the Italian word for a pretty girl is ’nice-a box’! 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR SOMEONE FROM AMERICA? WHAT ABOUT ONE 

WHO COMES FROM CALIFORNIA, BUT IS ENGLISH AND GERMAN; HAS A SCOTTISH STEPFATHER 

AND A JEWISH MOTHER; LOOKS SWEDISH AND FEELS ITALIAN? P.S.: AND LIVES WITH A NEW 

YORK JEWISH-RUSSIAN POLACK! 

Anupama, you are in quite a mess! Enlightenment is absolutely sure! 



Chapter 9 What mischief! 


A MASTER GIVES UP MISCHIEF. HE IS SERENE. HE LEAVES EVERYTHING BEHIND HIM. 

HE DOES NOT TAKE OFFENSE AND HE DOES NOT GIVE IT. HE NEVER RETURNS EVIL FOR EVIL. 

ALAS FOR THE MAN WHO RAISES HIS HAND AGAINST ANOTHER, AND EVEN MORE FOR HIM 

WHO RETURNS THE BLOW. 

RESIST THE PLEASURES OF LIFE AND THE DESIRE TO HURT TILL SORROWS VANISH. 

NEVER OFFEND BY WHAT YOU THINK OR SAY OR DO. 

HONOR THE MAN WHO IS AWAKE AND SHOWS YOU THE WAY. HONOR THE FIRE OF HIS SAC- 

RIFICE. 

MATTED HAIR OR FAMILY OR CASTE DO NOT MAKE A MASTER BUT THE TRUTH AND GOOD- 

NESS WITH WHICH HE IS BLESSED. 

YOUR HAIR IS TANGLED AND YOU SIT ON A DEERSKIN. WHAT FOLLY! WHEN INSIDE YOU ARE 

RAGGED WITH LUST. 

THE MASTER’S CLOTHES ARE IN TATTERS. HIS VEINS STAND OUT, HE IS WASTING AWAY. 

ALONE IN THE FOREST HE SITS AND MEDITATES. 

Hank was riding the range, a-singing and a-humming. Suddenly his horse reared and stopped. In front of them 

was a huge snake. Hank drew his gun and was about to fire when the snake cried, ”Don’t shoot! If you spare my 

life I have the power to grant you any three wishes you make!” 

”Okay,” said Hank, figuring he had nothing to lose. ”My first wish is a handsome face like Paul Newman. 

Second I want a muscular body like Muhammad Ali. And my last wish is to be equipped like my horse here!” 

”Granted!” said the snake. ”When you wake up tomorrow you will have all these things.” 

Next morning Hank awoke and rushed to the mirror. Sure enough, he had a face like Paul Newman and to his 

delight he saw a pair of massive shoulders and arms like Muhammad Ali. Then glancing down in great excitement 

he let out a blood-curdling howl, ”My God, I clean forgot!” he babbled. ”Yesterday I was riding Nellie!” 

Man lives almost in a kind of deep sleep. He is not aware who he is, what he is doing, what he is thinking, 

where he is going, why he is going. His whole life is the life of a somnambulist, a sleepwalker. He is utterly 

unconscious. Out of this unconsciousness arise a thousand and one mischiefs; not that he knowingly wants to do 

them, he cannot avoid them. It is not a question of his decision to stop being mischievous; it is a question of his 

awareness. If he is aware, mischiefs disappear as darkness disappears when you bring light in. If he is not aware 

he may think he is doing something good, he may believe with his whole heart that he is doing something good, 

but he will be doing something mischievous. The total outcome of his life is going to be more chaos in the world. 

You can watch the do-gooders: they all try to help, they all try to serve; they make it a point that their whole 

life should be one of service. So many public servants in the world, so many missionaries, so many social reformers, 

so many great revolutionaries and look at the shape the world is in. Can it be more in a mess? This is the 

outcome of all your great efforts, of all your great saints. The tree is known by the fruit, and all your religions 

and all your saints and holy men can only be known by the world that they have helped to create. It is the most 

ugly world possible. 

Not that God is responsible God has made a beautiful world. His world is immensely beautiful: the trees, the 

flowers, the rivers, the mountains, the stars. But the world that man has made, the social structures that man 

has created are all ugly, violent, utterly mischievous. But everything bad can be done in the name of good.


Adolf Hitler was not consciously trying to do evil, remember it. He was not knowingly destructive; he was 

thinking he was trying to help humanity. He was thinking he was trying to bring a better human being into the 

world the superman. He believed deeply in Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy of the superman and he also believed 

that the Germans were the really superhuman beings, that they were entitled to rule the world. 

And it was not that he was deceiving anybody; he was utterly convinced of the fact. It was not a fiction for 

him, it was a fact that the German race is the real Aryan race, that the Nordics are the purest people in the 

world. He could influence millions of very intelligent people for the simple reason that he was convinced of what 

he was saying and doing. His conviction was hypnotizing. He was not a man of great intelligence, he was utterly 

mediocre, but one thing was there: he was convinced that only through him could the world be made a better 

place to live in. By murdering millions of Jews, he was not thinking that he was doing any violence he was serving 

humanity, he was getting rid of the enemies of humanity. And it was not a question of his befooling anybody he 

was so unconscious that he himself was befooled by his own convictions. 

Adolf Hitler did great mischief all the politicians do. And they always do it behind beautiful slogans: socialism, 

democracy, freedom, equality and whatnot. They are all trying to improve upon the world, but the total result 

is more and more confusion and chaos. The world would be a far better place if we could be alert enough not to 

listen to these lunatics. But we are also asleep. What they say appeals to us; it has a great magnetic quality in it. 

In fact, a Buddha is bound to be misunderstood, not Adolf Hitler; a Jesus is bound to be misunderstood, but 

not Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, they speak the language that you understand. 

They are just people like you; they live in the same kind of sleep. Hence there is a communication between you 

and them which is missing between you and a Buddha, between you and a Lao Tzu. 

Buddha stands on the Everest and you live in the dark valleys far below. You don’t look up, you have forgotten 

how to look up. You crawl in the mud. Those who are crawling by your side can be understood more easily by 

you. They speak your language, they speak your idiom; they are perfectly in tune with you. They are not different 

people. But a Buddha, a Krishna, a Mohammed, these are different people. They speak a different language, from 

a different height, from a different vision although they use the same words. But they give different meanings to 

your words, and you are going to miss those meanings. 

Meditate over this: 

”Why won’t you, honey?” 

”I’m too tired.” 

”Ah, come on....” 

”Leave me alone!” 

”I won’t be able to sleep!” 

”Well, I can’t sleep now.” 

”Please.” 

”Why in the middle of the night?” 

”Because I’m hot.” 

”You get hot at the damnedest times!” 

”You don’t love me!” 

”Yes, I do....” 

”If you loved me you would do it.” 

”Well, damn it alright.” 

”What’s the matter?” 

”I can’t find it.” 

”That feels better.” 

”It should be it’s all the way up.” 

”That’s enough; thanks, dear.” 

”Next time, open the damned window yourself!” 

And all the time, what were you thinking? 

Buddha says: 

A MASTER GIVES UP MISCHIEF. 

... Because a master gives up mind. Mind is mischief; there is no other mischief. Mind is the source of all 

mischief. A master is a master only because he has ceased to be dominated by the mind. A master is a master of 

himself; he is no longer unconscious. Whatsoever he does, he does it knowingly. Whatsoever he is, he is perfectly 

aware about it. His life is not accidental. His every act is rooted in consciousness, it is intentional.


We live in the mind. The mind can even become a saint, can pretend to be holy, but it will not be. It is 

impossible; it is not in the very nature of the mind to be holy. Just look at the history of religions they are full of 

bloodshed. In fact more crimes have been committed in the name of religions than in the name of anything else. 

More people have been killed, butchered in the name of religion, God, truth, Christianity, Islam, than in the name 

of political ideologies even. Religion tops the list. Religion has been far more mischievous; it has even defeated 

the politicians. It could defeat them for the simple reason that the politician cannot hide himself for very long; 

sooner or later he is exposed. But the religious person can hide himself for centuries and you will never know. 

The people who crucified Jesus have not even yet understood that they committed a sin. I have not come 

across a single Jew who accepts it consciously, that it was a crime to crucify Jesus. And it is not that there are 

not good Jews, not that there are not saintly Jews, not that there are not learned rabbis... there are very pious 

people. Even a man like Martin Buber could not gather the courage to say, ”We have committed a crime in the 

past.” No, that seems impossible. The crime was on Jesus’ part because he tried to declare himself the Son of 

God. That is the crime: that he tried to project his image as the messiah, as the messenger of God. That was 

the crime and he was rightly punished Jews are absolutely convinced of that. 

Two thousand years have passed; I have not come across a single book written by a Jew who can accept that 

”We committed a mistake.” It seems impossible. They can’t see it because the crime was committed in the name 

of religion. 

Thousands of Christians have been killed by Mohammedans, and vice versa. And these wars have been called 

jihads holy wars. Now, no war is ever holy, no war is a jihad; all wars are unholy. What excuse you find, that is 

another matter; that is just an excuse to fight. You want to fight, you want to kill and destroy. You find good 

excuses, beautiful excuses holy wars... and millions of people destroyed. 

In these holy wars millions of women were raped; now, that rape is holy. If murder is holy, why not rape? That 

too is holy it is done in the name of religion. Everything that is done in the name of religion is good. 

Your saints, who look so holy and pious, are the causes of all this nonsense, of all this nuisance in the world. 

When are we going to get rid of all this stupidity? Is man not yet mature enough? Has not the time come yet 

that we should get rid of all this foolishness that has remained overwhelmingly powerful down the ages? Is not 

the time ripe to disconnect ourselves from the past? 

But the only way to disconnect yourself from the past is to disconnect yourself from your mind because your 

mind is the past. Mind means the known, the past. Mind is history, mind is time. Mind is Christian, Hindu, 

Mohammedan, mind is Indian, German, Chinese. And unless you get out of the hold of the mind, whatsoever 

you do is going to be mischievous. It may or may not appear mischievous to you that is another matter but it 

is going to be mischievous. Out of mind nothing good can ever happen. 

Good is a by-product of meditation, and bad, a by-product of mind. 

A man said to Mulla Nasruddin, ”How is your great friend, the lawyer?” 

Mulla said, ”I’m afraid he is lying at death’s door.” 

”These lawyers! At death’s door and still lying?” 

That’s the state of the mind: it goes on lying even at death’s door. In fact, as death comes closer to you you 

start lying more and more, you start deceiving yourself with many more fictions, you start creating myths around 

you of God, of heaven, of hell. You start creating dreams and you start living in dreams because your whole life 

is shattered. You have wasted the opportunity. You have not been creative, you have been destructive. 

And remember, nobody can be neutral. Either you create something in life or you destroy; either you live in 

the mind or you live beyond the mind. If you live beyond the mind you become creative. To be in meditation is 

to be creative. Then whatsoever you do is beautiful; it brings more glory, more blessings to the world. Otherwise 

whatsoever you do is going to make the world more ugly. 

The table and the chair were profoundly in love. They decided to get married and in due course they had a 

new arrival. 

”What shall we christen him?” asked the chair. 

”Chable,” was the other’s logical reply. 

Of course the child of a table and a chair should be called a chable. And that’s what people are doing: they go 

on producing chables. That seems to be their only productivity: all that they can do is produce more children. 

A woman was telling me, ”I hate my husband! From my very guts,” she was saying, ”I hate my husband! I am 

afraid some day I may kill him, may poison him!” 

I said, ”If you hate him so much, then how come you have eighteen children?” 

She said, ”I was trying to create such a crowd that he would get lost in it.” 

People hate and still they go on reproducing because their productivity knows no other way.


Rena went into the city clerk’s office to report the birth of her sixth child. 

”But, miss, this is your sixth child by the same father,” said the clerk. ”Why don’t you marry him?” 

”Are you jivin’?” replied Rena. ”I don’t even like the sonofabitch!” 

But people have to do something; they can’t just sit. They have to find something to remain occupied with. 

That’s how all the mischiefs arise in the world. 

Buddha says: A MASTER GIVES UP MISCHIEF. 

HE IS SERENE. 

Serenity is the flavor of meditation, serenity is the fragrance of meditation. He is so serene, so silent that he 

can be absolutely empty, with no desire to do anything. When all desire to remain occupied disappears, then only 

can something good happen through you, then God can happen through you and good only happens through 

you when God happens through you. Good is nothing but God flowing through you. 

HE IS SERENE. 

HE LEAVES EVERYTHING BEHIND HIM. 

He leaves the past, he leaves his mind, he leaves his memories, he leaves his tradition. He is not a conformist, 

he cannot be a conformist. No master has ever been a conformist; that would be a contradiction in terms. He 

is always a rebel. He is pure rebellion. He dies every moment to the past; he never collects the past. Hence he 

remains always fresh, as fresh as the dewdrops in the early morning sun, as fresh as the lotus leaf, as fresh as the 

petals of a rose. He is always fresh, he is always young; he never grows old. He grows up, but he never grows old. 

The body of course grows old, but his consciousness remains absolutely fresh; it never gathers any dust or rust. 

And he is so serene that he can sit alone for eternity with nothing to do still he will be absolutely blissful. He 

will enjoy his serenity. 

This serenity cannot be cultivated from the outside; this serenity comes only when you have become a watcher 

of the mind, when you have become a witness of the mind and through witnessing you have transcended the mind. 

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a serenity explodes from all directions. It showers on you like flowers and it goes 

on showering. Your life then is a life of virtue. It is not a question of cultivating it, it is not a question of creating 

it it is a consequence of meditation. 

This point should be remembered again and again; never forget it, because it has been forgotten millions of 

times. Again and again a buddha comes to remind you but you go on forgetting it, for the simple reason that a 

cultivated serenity is cheap. You can look serene, you can make a serene face; you can act it, you can be a good 

actor, you can be very efficient, but that will be nothing but hypocrisy. Deep down you will be boiling; deep down 

inside you there will be hell. And from the outside you have perfumed yourself and inside you are stinking. Inside 

you are clinging to all your misery, to your past, to all that is dead, to all that is rotten, to all that should be 

burned; you are clinging to it. And those who cling to dead corpses slowly, slowly become dead themselves; those 

who live with corpses become corpses themselves. On the surface you may smile, you may laugh; deep down there 

are only tears tears of pain. 

But this strange fact about man has to be understood: that he clings to the past. Even if the past is ugly he 

clings to the past, even though he has only suffered. Why does he cling to the past? because the past gives him 

a definition, the past gives him an identity, the past gives him an idea of who he is. 

After six weeks away on business the married executive entered a West Side brothel in Chicago. He walked up 

to the madam, handed her a hundred-dollar bill and said, ”I want the worst screw in the house!” 

”But sir,” answered the madam, ”one hundred dollars will buy you our best.” 

”No,” demanded the businessman, ”I want the worst available.” 

”I can’t let you do this,” the woman pleaded. ”You’re entitled to the top of the line.” 

”Listen, lady,” said the man, ”I’m not horny, just homesick!” 

Watch your mind, how you cling to the past. There is nothing to cling to just dry bones, skeletons, but you 

are holding onto them as if they are your very life. And because you are holding them, your hands are not empty 

to hold anything else; because you are looking towards the past you cannot see the present and you cannot enjoy 

the beauty of it, the joy of it. You cannot enter into the present and the present is the door to God. The past is 

no more. 

And God is never past, God is always present. God is never future either, God is always present. You cannot 

say ”God was,” you cannot say ”God will be,” you can only say ”God is.” In fact to say ”God is” is a repetition 

because God means isness; isness and God are synonymous. 

Buddha says: HE LEAVES EVERYTHING BEHIND HIM. 

The master cannot be a Hindu, cannot be a Buddhist, cannot be a Christian. The master is simply a master; 

these names are of the slaves. Somebody is a slave in the name of Christianity and somebody is a slave in the name


of Hinduism. These are all slaves; they don’t know what freedom is. They are clinging to such utter nonsense, 

but they are clinging so hard that they can’t see anything else. Their eyes are full of the dust of the past. They 

are blind because of the past; they are blind for no other reason. 

You are not missing God because you are sinners; you are missing God because you are past-oriented. And God 

is available only now... here. God knows only one time, now, and only one place, here. And you are never now 

and you are never here; you are always somewhere else. ’Then’ and ’there’ are significant words for you; ’now’ 

and ’here’ are almost meaningless to you. 

The master lives now and lives here. HE LEAVES EVERYTHING BEHIND HIM. He goes on destroying the 

bridges he has crossed. 


Obviously, if somebody insults him he does not take it. You cannot insult a master, that is impossible. How 

can you insult a man who does not take it? To insult a man two things are needed: somebody to insult him and 

his readiness to take it. 

Once Buddha was insulted very much by a few people. They abused him badly. He listened silently and then 

he said, ”Have you anything more to say? because I have to reach the other village in time. People must be 

waiting there. If you still have something else to say, when I come back I will be coming by the same route and I 

will inform you and I will keep a special time for you, so you can come and say whatsoever you like.” 

Those people were very much puzzled. They said, ”We are not saying something, we are insulting you!” 

Buddha laughed. He said, ”For that you have come a little late. You should have come at least ten years ago. 

Now I am not so foolish. You can insult, that is your freedom, but whether to take it or not that is my freedom. 

I am not taking it.” 

And he said to them, ”In the other village which I just passed before yours, people came with sweets to offer 

me. I thanked them. I said, ’I don’t need sweets and I don’t eat sweets.’ What do you think they must have done 

with the sweets?” 

Somebody from the crowd said, ”They must have taken them back home.” 

Buddha said, ”Now what will you do? You will have to take your insults back home. I don’t take your insults 

there is no other way, you have to take them back.” 

When you feel insulted you have participated with the person. But you are not conscious, so anybody can 

push your buttons. You function like a machine: push the button and you are on; push the button and you are 

off. Anybody can enrage you, anybody can make you smile and laugh, anybody can make you cry and weep. 

Anybody, any stupid fellow can do that! One just needs to know where the buttons are and almost always they 

are in the same places. It is very rare to find a person whose buttons are in different places. 

A Polack was driving his Volkswagen, when suddenly it stopped for some reason. He went to look maybe there 

was some trouble in the engine but he could not find the engine. So he thought, ”My God, my engine has been 

stolen!” 

Just then another Polack stopped by his side. He said, ”Is there some trouble?” 

The first man said, ”Yes, it seems my engine has been stolen.” 

The man said, ”Don’t be worried. This morning I was looking at the back of my car there is a spare engine. 

You can take it!” 

Now in a Volkswagen the engine is not in the usual place; it is at the back, not in the front. But God has 

not yet learned anything from the Volkswagen he still makes the same engine with the same buttons, maybe a 

little bit different here and there, just a little change. Anybody can find... just a little groping and you can find 

anybody else’s button. If you know your buttons you know everybody else’s buttons. 

You will be in a difficulty only with a buddha, because you can go on pushing his buttons and nothing will 

happen because he is no more identified with his mechanism. He will watch you pushing his buttons and he will 

enjoy the exercise that you are giving him, but that’s all. 


He understands humanity so deeply. By understanding himself he has understood the miserable state of all human 

beings. He feels sorry for people; he is compassionate. He does not return evil for evil for the simple reason that 

he does not feel offended in the first place. Secondly, he feels sorry for you; he does not feel antagonistic towards 

you. 

Once it happened in Baroda: 

I was talking to a big crowd. Somebody sitting just in the front row became so disturbed by what I was saying, 

he became so disturbed by it he went out of control, he lost his senses. He threw one of his shoes at me. At that


moment I remembered that I used to play volleyball when I was a student, so I caught hold of his shoe in the 

middle and asked him for the other one. He was at a loss. 

I said, ”You throw the other one too! What am I going to do with one? If you want to present something....” 

He waited. I said, ”Why are you waiting? Throw the other one too, because this way neither will I be able to use 

the shoe nor will you be able to use it. And I am not going to return it, because evil should not be returned for 

evil! So you please give the other one too.” 

He was so shocked because he could not believe it... first, what he had done he could not believe he was a very 

good man, a scholar, a well-known Sanskrit scholar, a pundit. He was not expected to behave like that, but it 

had happened people are so unconscious. If I had acted the way he was unconsciously expecting, then everything 

would have been okay. But I asked for the other shoe, and that shocked him very much. He was dazed. 

I told somebody who was sitting by his side, ”You pull off his other shoe. I am not letting him off, I want both 

the shoes. In fact, I was thinking of purchasing some shoes, and this man seems to be so generous!” And the shoe 

was really new. 

The man came in the night, fell at my feet, and asked to be forgiven. I said, ”You forget all about it, there is 

no question... I was not angry, so why should I forgive you? To forgive, one first has to be angry. I was not angry, 

I enjoyed the scene. In fact, it was something so beautiful that many people who had fallen asleep were suddenly 

awakened! I was thinking on the way that it is a good idea, that I should plant a few of my followers, so once 

in a while they can throw a shoe so all the sleepers wake up. At least for a few moments they will remain alert 

because something is happening! I am thankful to you.” 

For years he went on writing to me, ”Please forgive me! Unless you forgive me I will go on writing.” 

But I told him, ”First I have to be angry. Forgiving you simply means that I accept that I was angry. How can 

I forgive you? You forgive me, because I am unable to be angry with you, unable to forgive you you forgive me!” 

I don’t know whether he has forgiven me or not, but he has forgotten me. Now he writes no more. 

ALAS FOR THE MAN, Buddha says, 

WHO RAISES HIS HAND AGAINST ANOTHER, AND EVEN MORE FOR HIM WHO RETURNS THE 

BLOW. 

Why ALAS FOR THE MAN WHO RAISES HIS HAND AGAINST ANOTHER...? Because he is raising his 

hand against himself, because there is no one who is other. All existence is one. When you hit somebody you are 

hitting yourself. You are simply being childish. It is the same reality: I am one of its waves, you are another of 

its waves. One wave hitting another wave in the ocean they are both hitting themselves. 

ALAS FOR THE MAN WHO RAISES HIS HAND AGAINST ANOTHER, AND EVEN MORE FOR HIM 

WHO RETURNS THE BLOW. Why more for him? because then he creates a vicious circle. And that’s how we 

are living, in many, many vicious circles. People go on fighting; once something starts then it seems there is no 

end to it. You do something in revenge and the other has to wait for his opportunity to do something against you, 

then you do something against him, and so on and so forth. It goes on from one life to another life, it continues. 

The wise person is one, the master is one, who stops all these vicious circles. 

Once a man came and spat on Buddha’s face, he was so angry. Buddha asked him, ”Is that all or do you want 

to do something more? Please do it and finish it.” 

The man asked, ”What do you mean ’Please do it and finish it’?” 

Buddha said, ”In a past life I had insulted you and now the time has come when the vicious circle can be closed. 

Now you insult me and I will not return anything; I will simply accept it and close the circle it is just to close 

the accounts with you. I was waiting for you; in fact, the day I came into this town I was hoping that you would 

come and you would do something and the accounts could be closed. This is my last vicious circle; I have closed 

all others. Now I am out of all vicious circles. I am thankful to you; otherwise something was hanging in the air 

only one thread, but something was hanging in the air, something incomplete. ”Now the circle is complete and I 

don’t want to continue it anymore. Now it is up to me to continue or not to continue. Now I am the master; up 

to now you were the master. By spitting on my face your mastery is gone; now I am the master and I don’t want 

to continue this vicious circle anymore. This is my last life and I want to close all accounts with everyone good 

accounts, bad accounts, all kinds of accounts have to be closed so that I can disappear into the ultimate with no 

strings attached to the world. I am immensely happy,” Buddha said to him. 

RESIST THE PLEASURES OF LIFE AND THE DESIRE TO HURT TILL SORROWS VANISH. 

Pleasure is dependent on others, and whatsoever is dependent on others will make you a slave, will create a 

bondage. And Buddha’s ultimate goal is freedom, nirvana freedom from all bondage. 

Hence all the awakened ones have been saying: Search for bliss. Don’t waste your time in ordinary pleasures. 

In the first place they are momentary; in the second place every pleasure brings pain. Pain is the other side of


the same coin. It brings pain in the same proportion; the greater the pleasure, the greater the pain. So when you 

are enjoying something, be aware: soon the pain will follow; it is inevitable. Just as the day follows the night and 

the night follows the day, pain and pleasure follow each other. They are not separate, they are inseparable. 

First, pleasures are momentary, they are just soap-bubbles. To waste your precious life for them is simply 

stupid, unintelligent. Second, every pleasure brings pain. But people are so foolish that they never look at the 

association. They think pain has come from some other source, they think pleasures can be forever. Again and 

again they are ditched by their pleasures into pain; again and again they go on thinking that there were some 

reasons why this pleasure was destroyed. 

Whether reasons were there or not is irrelevant; every pleasure is momentary, it is going to disappear, and in 

its wake the pain.... You can rationalize it; that rationalization will only help you to continue in the same old rut. 

But see the fact. Seeing the truth is a great liberation; seeing that every pleasure is inevitably a bringer of pain, 

you will be freed from both. 

And third: it is the same energy that is involved in pleasure which has to move towards bliss. Pleasure is 

dependent on others; bliss is totally independent, it is your own. It arises within your being, it is your self-nature; 

hence you are not dependent on anybody. And because it is your self-nature it is forever. There is no contrary, 

there is no opposite to bliss. 

Happiness is just in between pleasure and bliss. In happiness something is independent and something is 

dependent; it is a mixture of both. Hence the man who lives in sheer pleasure is in a better condition in a way; he 

is healthy, as healthy as animals are. Animals live in sheer pleasure: when the pain comes they suffer, when the 

pleasure comes they enjoy. They go on rotating between pleasure and pain. The man who lives only in pleasures 

a Don Juan he is in a way healthy, normal, because he is part of the animal world; he is not yet human. In a 

way his life is clear, it has no complexity. 

But the man who lives in happiness or tries to find happiness, lives for happiness, is far more confused because 

he is nowhere. He is neither the animal nor yet the divine; he is in a limbo. He is riding on two horses; he will be 

in very great difficulty. And that’s where almost all human beings are. It is very rare to find a human being who 

lives purely in pleasure it is rare to find a Zorba the Greek who lives purely in pleasure. He is clear, there is no 

confusion in him. He simply walks on the earth; he has no idea of flying in the sky. He has accepted the law of 

gravitation and he knows no other law. 

The man who lives for happiness, who knows the beauty of music, who knows the beauty of paintings, art, who 

knows something higher than the animals can know, is far more confused; he is in far more of a mess... because 

while you are listening to great music something is contributed by the music which is outside and something is 

contributed by the music which is inside; it is a meeting of two polarities. You are hanging in the middle and 

both are pulling you in separate directions. You will find more anxiety in your life. 

That’s why poor people are less in anguish than rich people. Rich countries live in anguish because they have 

enough pleasure; they are fed up with it. Now they want something higher, and with the higher the problems 

arise. 

The animal part is well settled because it is your heritage of millions of years. It is in your chemistry, in your 

biology, in your physiology. Everything is settled, instinctive. You need not be aware, you need not do anything. 

But if you seek and search for happiness then you are going into a more shadowy world which is less substantial 

higher but more shadowy. 

And the third goal is bliss, which again is very clear, as clear as the first, in fact far more clear than the first 

because the first has a clarity, but the clarity is of a much lower kind. The third has a clarity of the highest 

quality. Only the awakened one knows the clarity of the third. 

Buddha says: RESIST THE PLEASURES OF LIFE.... Become a little more mature. Don’t be childish, don’t 

remain animals. Put your energies towards the highest goal in life let bliss be your goal. 

And people who live in pleasures also have one thing more in their life, and that is the desire to hurt others, 

because pleasures create competition. If you want more money, of course you have to snatch it from somebody 

else. If you want power, then somebody else will lose power. If you want to be the president, then somebody else 

will not be the president. Hence it is a constant struggle. You have to hurt many to succeed. You have to be very 

destructive, inhumanly destructive. 

It is only the goal of bliss which can be nonviolent; otherwise pleasures are going to be violent. 

Buddha says: RESIST THE PLEASURES OF LIFE AND THE DESIRE TO HURT TILL SORROWS 

VANISH. Be alert. He is not saying repress, he cannot say that. Be aware so that pleasures don’t pull you 

downwards, so that slowly, slowly you are freed from your animal heritage, so that slowly, slowly you can transcend 

your biology.


And avoid the desire to hurt others. There is a certain joy in hurting others. We go on hurting people; it gives 

you the feeling of power. It helps you to feel that you are powerful when you can hurt somebody. It is a very ugly 

desire, egoistic, but everybody does that. Watch yourself, in how many ways you hurt people. You may not be 

doing anything in particular to hurt them, but your gesture may be enough. People walk in such a way, talk in 

such a way, that others are hurt. And nobody can blame them because what they are doing is so subtle. They 

use words which can hurt, and they use them with such skill that you cannot blame them. They can always find 

a way to rationalize. 

A black gentleman was arrested for shooting a man. The next morning he was brought into court. 

”Why did you shoot that man?” asked the judge. 

”Because he called me a black sonofabitch!” 

”You didn’t have any business shooting a man for that!” 

”Well, Your Honor, what would you have done if he called you that?” 

”Oh, he wouldn’t have called me that!” 

”I know, Judge, but suppose he had called you the kind of a sonofabitch you are, then? Of course he cannot 

call you ’a black sonofabitch’ you are not black but the kind of a sonofabitch you are, if he had called you that, 

what then?” 

People can go on finding ways skillfully.... One has to remain aware until all sorrows vanish. 

NEVER OFFEND BY WHAT YOU THINK OR SAY OR DO. 

That does not mean, remember, that people will not be offended. They may still be offended, but it should 

not be an intention on your part. Buddha is not saying that nobody will be offended by the master, because 

thousands were offended by Buddha himself. Certainly many were offended by Jesus; otherwise why should he 

have been crucified? 

Buddha is saying: NEVER OFFEND BY WHAT YOU THINK OR SAY OR DO. It should not be your 

intention. Still, it is going to happen: whenever the master speaks it is almost inevitable that many will be 

offended because they will understand in their own way what he is saying. They will not hear what he is saying; 

they will hear only what they can hear. They are going to misunderstand him. That is absolutely inevitable, it 

cannot be avoided. 

It was late afternoon in a small town. Joe, the owner of the local beer parlor, was lazily polishing glassware 

when his friend, Mickey, came running in. 

”Joe,” he shouted, ”get over to your house real quick. I just stopped off to see if you were home and I heard a 

stranger’s voice in your bedroom. So I looked in the window and, gosh, I hate to tell you this, but your wife is in 

bed with another man!” 

”Is that so?” said Joe, matter-of-factly. ”What does this guy look like?” 

”Oh, he is tall and completely bald.” 

”And did he have a thick red mustache?” asked Joe. 

”Right! Right!” yelled Mickey. 

”Did you notice if he had a gold front tooth?” 

”Damn it, man, you’re right!” 

”Must be that jackass, Dick Roberts,” said Joe. ”He’ll screw anything!” 

Now, when you are talking to a husband about his wife it is a totally different matter. He does not care, he 

is no longer interested, he is fed up, he is finished. You may be excited that something has to be done, but the 

husband will hear through his experience of being a husband to the woman; he cannot put that experience aside. 

I am saying something to you; you will hear it through your experiences, through your memories, through your 

ways of interpreting things. Nobody knows what you are going to gather out of it; that will be more your own 

than mine. I may have triggered the process, that’s all, but you will be the creator of the whole phenomenon. 

Hence, remember, the master never offends, still people are offended. 

Buddha says: 

HONOR THE MAN WHO IS AWAKE. 

That has been one of the most beautiful things in the East that flower has bloomed in the East the East can 

be proud of it: we have always honored the man who is awake. In other parts of the world, particularly in the 

West, the expert is honored, the technician is honored, the scientist is honored, the man who can do many things 

is honored. But the man who is conscious is not considered at all just for his consciousness. 

Gurdjieff was not honored at all. In the East he would have been a buddha; in the West he was not honored 

at all insulted in every possible way, for the simple reason that the West has no idea how to honor the awakened 

man, because the awakened man fulfills no utilitarian purpose. If your machine is broken he cannot be of any


help; he cannot mend your car... he cannot help you in any way in the world. In fact, all that he can do is help 

you to get rid of the world. And nobody wants to get rid of the world; everybody wants to be in possession of the 

world. Hence the expert is honored in the West; in the East the expert has not been honored, never. The expert 

is okay he is a servant, he serves, he is paid for it. But we have honored the buddha. 

To honor a buddha is to honor a roseflower, which has no utilitarian purpose. You cannot eat it. If it is a 

question of starvation, roses won’t help; wheat will be far better. If it is a question of choice between wheat and 

roses you are going to choose wheat. What are you going to do with roses? A buddha is like a rose: you can 

appreciate the beauty, you can dance around the rose, you can sing songs to it, you can look at the rose and praise 

the Lord, but what else? It cannot fill your hungry stomach, it cannot help you to succeed in the world, it cannot 

make you a great warrior. If you carry a roseflower you will not become Alexander the Great; a sword is needed, 

not a rose. 

But the expert is as much asleep as you are; there is no difference, no qualitative difference. Hence in the East 

the expert is paid but he commands no honor. 

A motion picture actor told his psychiatrist, ”I’m attracted to men instead of women.” 

The shrink replied, ”You’ve come to the right place, handsome!” 

Now the shrink cannot be honored in the East; in the West he has become one of the most honored people. 

He has even defeated the priests. Now priests are learning how to be shrinks; priests are going to the universities 

to learn psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, psychosynthesis and all kinds of nonsense, because now they know the 

profession of the priest is finished; they have to add something more to its glamor. And they see the shrink is 

getting higher and higher; he is the most highly paid person in the West. In the East nobody will think anything 

special about a shrink. Yes, he cannot be more than a motor mechanic, maybe he is a mind mechanic he is also 

a plumber. You pay him, but honor is totally different. 

Honor is due only where payment won’t do. Where you cannot pay, where there is no possibility of paying 

back, then honor. Honor is the acceptance of the fact that it is impossible to pay back; the debt cannot be paid. 

HONOR THE MAN WHO IS AWAKE AND SHOWS YOU THE WAY. HONOR THE FIRE OF HIS SAC- 

RIFICE. 

The buddhas show you the way. You have to walk, you have to go; buddhas only point. They don’t give you 

detailed directions because each individual is so unique and different that no detailed directions can be given. 

Only vague instructions, only indicators, pointers, hints at the most not orders, not commandments.... 

I have heard the story about the Ten Commandments. Of course God had asked the Indians first, ”Would you 

like to have a few commandments?” They said, ”No, not at all.” 

Then he asked the French and they said, ”We want to live in freedom, we don’t want any hindrances.” 

And he went on asking and nobody was ready. Finally he asked Moses, ”Would you like a few commandments?” 

He said, ”How much?” 

And God said, ”Free, absolutely free!” 

He said, ”Then I will have ten!” 

HONOR THE MAN WHO IS AWAKE AND SHOWS YOU THE WAY. He does not command you; he does 

not tell you, ”Do this and don’t do that.” He simply gives you a few hints here and there and keeps you free, 

allows you total freedom. He is not to be imitated or followed; he is only to be understood. You have to learn 

from the awakened person the beauty, the bliss of being awakened, that’s all, and then you have to search on 

your own. It is always an individual search, a private exploration. Truth cannot be transferred from one hand to 

another; it is nontransferable. 

HONOR THE FIRE OF HIS SACRIFICE.... And why should a buddha be honored? because of the fire of 

his sacrifice. It is impossible for you to understand the sacrifice of a buddha because it is absolutely invisible to 

you. You will know it only when you become a buddha. What he has known cannot be put into words, still he 

tries; it is a constant sacrifice. 

What he has known is beyond the mind, yet he tries in every possible way to make you understand it, to help 

you understand it. He puts all his energy into making the incomprehensible comprehensible. His sacrifice is great. 

He takes so much trouble for no reason at all, because he is not going to gain anything out of it. His work is 

finished! His ship has arrived. He can leave the body any moment, any moment he decides, still he goes on living 

in the body which is a confinement, which is a bondage. Still he goes on suffering in the body for the simple 

reason that he would like to convey the unconveyable. His compassion is infinite. 

Ramakrishna suffered from cancer. Many times his disciples said to him, ”Paramahansadeva, if it is too much 

of a pain, we will be very sad, miserable, but you please leave your body.”


He said, ”It is all the same whether the body has cancer or does not have cancer. To be in the body now is a 

suffering; even if it is healthy it is a suffering because now I can be as vast as the sky. But for you I will cling to 

the body a little longer.” 

And the master has to find ways and means to cling to the body because all the old associations are broken, all 

the old connections are broken. He has to forge new connections, which is really one of the most difficult things 

in existence. 

Ramakrishna was very much interested in food, so much so that his wife was always feeling embarrassed. He 

would be talking to his disciples and suddenly in the middle of it he would rush to the kitchen and ask Sharda, 

”What are you cooking?” 

It is just like if suddenly, in the middle of the lecture, I rush to the kitchen and ask Vivek, ”What are you 

cooking?” and then come back again, and you have to wait! 

Sharda said many times, ”This is not right. What will the people think?” 

Ramakrishna always laughed and never answered. One day Sharda persisted: ”You answer me! There is 

something strange about it.” Whenever she brought his food he would stand up; he was so eager to know. He 

would remove the cloth and look into the thali. People were always sitting there and they would start laughing 

and giggling: ”What kind of God-realized man is this?” 

One day Sharda persisted, then Ramakrishna said, ”If you want to know the truth I will tell you: this is the 

only way I am clinging to the body. I have created a false desire for food. And remember, the day I show no 

interest in food then that is the end. Only three days more will I live after that.” 

Sharda did not pay much attention to it who pays much attention to such people? They go on talking about 

things, so many things; you listen and you don’t pay much attention. 

But one day Sharda came in with the thali... Ramakrishna did not stand up. Not only that: he was looking at 

the door, he turned his back towards Sharda and started looking out of the window in the other direction. Sharda 

suddenly remembered the thali fell from her hands. 

Ramakrishna said, ”So now you understand; that day you missed. Now only three days more....” And exactly 

on the third day he died. 

Only when you become enlightened, awakened, will you know how a man who has come home still goes on 

living in the caravanserai dirty, ugly and still goes on helping people who are insane. HONOR THE FIRE OF 

HIS SACRIFICE.... Hence, Buddha says, honor him. 

MATTED HAIR OR FAMILY OR CASTE DO NOT MAKE A MASTER BUT THE TRUTH AND GOOD- 

NESS WITH WHICH HE IS BLESSED. 

YOUR HAIR IS TANGLED AND YOU SIT ON A DEERSKIN. WHAT FOLLY! WHEN INSIDE YOU ARE 

RAGGED WITH LUST. 

Character is not a decisive factor. You can cultivate a beautiful facade around yourself, but the really decisive 

factor is your inside. 

THE MASTER’S CLOTHES ARE IN TATTERS. HIS VEINS STAND OUT, HE IS WASTING AWAY. 


For years Buddha was meditating in the forest, alone, not caring about his clothes, not caring about his body, 

not caring about anything else except his meditation; except for one thing all was dropped from his consciousness: 

how to reach the center. Once you have reached it then there is no problem, but before you can reach it, it has 

to be a one-pointed search. You have to be concentratedly concerned about only one thing, excluding everything 

else. Unless your search is so total, so whole, so wholehearted, you will not succeed in it. 


Wherever you are, learn to be alone, sit alone. It is difficult, the most difficult thing in the world, because when 

you are alone the mind starts dying. It cannot exist in aloneness, it needs company. Hence whenever you are 

alone the mind says, ”Do something, go somewhere. Turn on the TV or the radio.” The mind wants company, 

engagement, occupation. 

If you can be just alone... sitting silently doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. One 

day your inner being blooms into a one-thousand-petaled lotus. That day you have also become a buddha, and 

only then will you be able to understand the meaning of Jesus’ life, the meaning of Buddha’s sayings, the meaning 

of Lao Tzu, Zarathustra. Before that whatsoever you try to understand is just your mind interpreting, and that 

interpretation has been one of the greatest causes of mischief. 

Drop the mind the only thing to be renounced in the world is the mind and move towards the no-mind, the 

inner silence and serenity. Know yourself in your absolute aloneness and your life will be fulfilled, your life will be 

blessed: blessed with eternal bliss, blessed with truth, blessed with freedom.




Chapter 10 Laugh your way to God 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, TO BECOME ENLIGHTENED, DO YOU NEED TO BE JEWISH OR DOES IT JUST 

HELP? 

Amitabh, religion has been missing one very fundamental quality: the sense of humor. It has been very 

unfortunate because it has made religion sick. 

The sense of humor is part, an essential part, of the wholeness of man. It keeps him healthy, it keeps him young, 

it keeps him fresh. And for centuries the sad people have dominated religion. They have expelled laughter from 

the churches, from the mosques, from the temples. The day laughter enters back into the holy places they will be 

really holy, because they will be whole. Laughter is the only quality that distinguishes man from other animals. 

Only man can see the ridiculous, the absurd. Only he has the capacity and the consciousness to be aware of the 

cosmic joke that existence is. It is a cosmic joke; it is not a serious affair. 

Seriousness is a disease, but seriousness has been praised, respected, honored. It was absolutely essential to be 

serious to be a saint; hence only pathological people became interested in religion, people who were incapable of 

laughter. And people who are incapable of laughter are subhuman, they are not human yet what to say about 

their being divine? That is impossible they have not yet become human. And to be human is the bridge between 

the animal and the divine. Hence I have tremendous respect for the sense of humor, for laughter. 

Laughter is far more sacred than prayer, because prayer can be done by any stupid person; it does not require 

much intelligence. Laughter requires intelligence, it requires presence of mind, a quickness of seeing into things. A 

joke cannot be explained: either you understand it or you miss it. If it is explained it loses the whole point; hence 

no joke can be explained. Either immediately you get it.... If you don’t get it immediately then you can try to 

find out the meaning of it; you will find out the meaning, but the joke will not be there. It was in the immediacy. 

Humor needs presence, utter presence. It is not a question of analysis, it is a question of insight. 

Amitabh, as far as humor is concerned, to be a little bit Jewish is very good everybody should be a little bit 

Jewish! For enlightenment it will prepare the ground, it will make you more alive. Enlightenment is becoming 

totally alive. Laughter brings life to you. 

And if you can laugh totally there are a few more things to be understood. In deep laughter the ego disappears, 

it is not found at all. You can’t have both laughter and the ego. If the ego is there it will keep you serious. All 

egoists are serious people, and all serious people are egoists. 

To be able to laugh, you need to be like a child egoless. And when you laugh, suddenly laughter is there, 

you are not. You come back when the laughter is gone. When the laughter is disappearing far away, when it 

is subsiding, you come back, the ego comes back. But in the very moment of laughter you have a glimpse of 

egolessness. 

There are only two activities in which you can feel egolessness easily. One is laughter, another is dancing. 

Dancing is a physiological method, a bodily method to feel egolessness. When the dancer is lost in his dance he is 

no more there is only dance. Laughter is a little more subtle than dance, it is a little more inner, but it has also 

the same fragrance. When you laugh.... It has to be a belly laughter. It should not be just superficial, it should 

not be just polite, it should not be just a mannerism. 

I have heard: 

One typist was leaving her job. This was her last day in the office, and the boss was telling the old jokes that 

he had always been telling. Everybody was laughing, except the typist. The boss asked, ”What is the matter 

with you? Can’t you get the jokes?” 

She said, ”I got them long ago. You’ve been repeating them a thousand and one times, but I need not laugh 

anymore. Anyway tomorrow I am leaving. These fools are laughing because they have to laugh you are the boss. 

So whether the joke is worth laughing at or not doesn’t matter. They have to laugh, it is part of their duty. But 

I’m leaving, what can you do to me? I’m not laughing, you cannot make me laugh at all those rotten jokes.” 

If you laugh out of duty or out of a sense of mannerism, out of politeness, then it is not a belly laughter, then 

it is just superficial; on the circumference, you are managing it. You will not understand what I am saying about 

laughter then. 

Laugh so that your whole body, your whole being becomes involved, and suddenly there will be a glimpse. For 

the moment the past disappears, the future disappears, the ego disappears, everything disappears there is only 

laughter. And in that moment of laughter you will be able to see the whole existence laughing.


Indians don’t have the sense of laughter. In India we don’t have any Indian jokes. All the jokes that are told 

in India are borrowed, there is no such thing as an Indian joke. Indians are serious people, very religious people, 

holy people. How can they descend to such low things as joking? They talk about God, they talk about moksha, 

they talk about nirvana... they can’t laugh. These are not laughing matters! You cannot laugh about God. But 

if you can’t laugh about God you will never understand God. 

The Indian statues of Buddha are totally different from the Chinese or the Japanese statues of Buddha. You 

must have noted the difference; the difference is great. The Indian Buddha has a very athletic body. His belly is 

very small, almost nonexistent. He never had a belly laugh. If there is no belly how can you have a belly laugh? 

But the Chinese Buddha has a big belly, and not only a belly even on the statue you can see ripples of laughter 

on the belly. Even in marble you can see he is laughing, the belly is laughing. 

No Indian will agree with the Chinese statue. He will say, ”This is not right, Buddha was not like this, with 

such a big belly....” The Chinese Buddha looks like a clown but I have great respect for the Chinese Buddha. 

The Chinese Buddha has absorbed Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu. He is pregnant with Lao Tzu, that’s why 

that big belly. Inside his belly there is Lao Tzu. And you cannot keep Lao Tzu quiet. He must be laughing and 

kicking and doing things; hence the ripples on the belly. 

Lao Tzu has the sense of humor. Maybe because of that Lao Tzu could not become the founder of a great 

religion. There exists no religion in his name. Yes, a few rare people have followed his path, but there is no 

organized church, for the simple reason that Lao Tzu seems so nonserious. He used to ride on a buffalo. Now, 

can’t you find a horse? Anybody could have afforded at least a donkey but a buffalo...? And that too, not in 

the right position, but sitting backwards! The buffalo is going one way and Lao Tzu is looking the other way. He 

must have created laughter wherever he passed. People must have gathered to see the scene, what is happening. 

And Chuang Tzu far surpassed his master. There has never been such a beautiful man as Chuang Tzu. All that 

he has said is utterly absurd, ridiculous! but with profound meaning. First you will laugh and then slowly you 

will see the point that he is indicating, in a very joyful way, towards certain truths which can only be indicated 

in a joyful way. If you are serious you cannot make people understand the beauty of existence, the celebration of 

existence. 

Life is not a tragedy, it is a comedy. It is not tragic. But religious people have depended on the very idea of 

life being tragic: it is misery, utter misery what is there to laugh at? Hence they attracted the people who are 

incapable of laughter, of living, of loving. 

My effort here, Amitabh, is just the opposite. I want you to learn as much from Buddha, as much from Lao 

Tzu, as much from Krishna, as much from Chuang Tzu as possible. I would like you to absorb all the great 

experiences that have happened in the past, so that a higher synthesis becomes possible. In that higher synthesis 

laughter is going to be one of the most essential qualities. With truth, courage and virtue, laughter also has its 

own place. 

In that sense Jews are beautiful people. They have the greatest sense of laughter in the whole world. They are 

on the one extreme; on the other extreme are the British people. So many letters I have received, angry: ”Beloved 

Master, you don’t understand the British.” Who cares to understand? And why should I understand the British, 

for what? Is nothing else left to understand? 

I have been telling so many jokes about the Italians, but not a single angry letter. They understand that jokes 

are jokes! If you understand too much you cannot joke. A little bit of misunderstanding is needed. 

Now, one of the most British of all the British sannyasins, Prembodhi, has written, ”You don’t understand the 

British at all.” You simply prove my point! 

Somebody else has written, ”This is not right. You say that no British woman is a woman; they are all ladies.” 

I was simply paying respect! 

And I think it is a well-known fact that nothing should be said against the dead. For the dead you should 

always show respect. That’s what I was doing! Why are you angry about it? 

I repeat again: it is very difficult, almost impossible, to find a British woman only ladies are there. All men 

may not be gentlemen; men after all are men, boys are boys! And old boys more so! But as far as women are 

concerned, they carry the culture, the religion, they are the foundation stones. The British woman has a certain 

face. No other woman has that kind of nose... they all need plastic surgery! 

Amitabh, the only problem with the Jews is when it comes to the question of price. Then they will go on 

haggling for centuries. Enlightenment will be just in front of them, but they will haggle for the price. 

So that is the problem, Amitabh; there you have to be aware. 

A Scot went into a tailor’s and asked to see a suit.


The Jewish proprietor came back with a nice Harris tweed. ”Look at this,” he said, ”and it’s not fifty pounds, 

not even forty. Thirty pounds and it’s yours.” 

The Scot examined it carefully. ”I wouldn’t give you twenty-five pounds for it, not even twenty. My price is 

eighteen pounds.” 

”Right,” said the Jew. ”That’s the way I like to do business no haggling.” 

Then there were the two Jews who bumped into each other after forty years, and rushed to the nearest pub to 

celebrate. 

”It will be magic to have a drink together after all these years,” said one. 

”Yeah,” said the other, ”but don’t forget, it’s your round.” 

The rich widow needed a blood transfusion, so a Jew donor saved her life. She was so grateful, she gave him a 

hundred pounds, but after a relapse she needed another one and this time gave the donor fifty pounds. 

The third time he saved her life she had so much Jewish blood in her that she just thanked him very much. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM UTTERLY MISERABLE. HOW CAN I GET OUT OF MY MISERY? 

Vandan, I have never come across a person who is utterly miserable. You are tolerating it, you are existing 

with it, you are living with it. If it is so bad one should stop breathing! Why should one go on living? 

It can’t be so bad. Maybe you love to exaggerate. There are people who always like superlatives, who magnify 

everything. Small miseries of course there are, but what big misery can you have? Where will you have it? I 

cannot conceive of any misery that can be so bad that you can call it absolute; otherwise one will simply die, 

immediately. 

So one thing, remember, stop exaggerating. That is also a way of the ego. The ego is so strange that it wants 

to exaggerate everything. Even if it is misery it will magnify it, it will make a big fuss about it. There may be 

nothing much in it: if you go to the roots you may find a mouse, but you are talking about elephants. 

And I know you, Vandan. I have never seen you utterly miserable. You look perfectly normal. Unless all 

normal people are utterly miserable... just the ego has the habit of magnifying. 

A boy came running home from school. He was breathing hard, puffing, perspiring. He told his mother, 

”Somehow God saved me. A tiger is following me, a very dangerous tiger, a very ferocious tiger.” 

The mother said, ”You stop exaggerating! I have told you a million times not to exaggerate, and again you are 

doing it. Where is that tiger?” 

The boy showed her from the window. A very small dog, thin, lean, hungry, was standing outside. And the 

mother said, ”This is the tiger? You go upstairs, pray to God and ask his forgiveness. And never exaggerate 

again. Enough is enough!” 

So the boy went upstairs. After five minutes he went back to the mother, and the mother said, ”Did you pray?” 

He said, ”Yes, I prayed, and do you know what God said? He said, ’You don’t be worried. When for the first 

time I saw that dog I myself thought that it was a ferocious tiger. So nothing to be worried about. I myself was 

deceived, so what about you? And I am so big, still I thought it is a very dangerous tiger. I was just getting 

ready to run away, then I had another look and found: oh no, it is just a dog. And you are a small child, so if 

you got frightened it is natural.’” 

Misery is not so big as you make out. So the first thing is to reduce it to the right proportions. Before you can 

get out of it let the tiger disappear. Be very factual. If you really want to transform your life, be factual. You 

cannot get out of fictions. You can get out of facts; facts can be tackled, but fictions cannot be tackled. 

But this is the way of the mind, the way of the ego, to magnify everything. It makes everything look big. And 

then of course you start suffering in a big way. The cause is not so big, but the effect can be very big it depends 

on you. 

Look again, consider again, reconsider the whole situation. What is it that you are calling ”utterly miserable”? 

And then you will find ordinary facts of life. But we don’t want to be ordinary. The ego hankers to be extraordinary. 

Even if it is misery we would like to be extraordinary. 

Somebody asked George Bernard Shaw, ”Where would you like to go when you die, to heaven or to hell?” 

He said, ”Wherever it is, that does not matter. What matters is: I want to be the first. Even if it is hell, I 

want to be the first. I don’t want to be second to anybody. Hence I think hell will be better, because in heaven 

Buddha and Jesus and Zarathustra... and there are so many competitors. And I will have to stand in a queue, 

and that I hate! I am ready to go to hell, I am ready to suffer in hell, but I want to be the first.” 

The ego is always hankering to be the first. It says, ”My misery is bigger than anybody else’s. Whatsoever I 

am, I am bigger, I am special, I am extraordinary.”


Once a high court judge came to me. His wife used to come to me. I was surprised, because the wife always 

used to say that he is very much against me and he does not want her to listen to me or read my books or to go 

and see me. But whenever I visited that city she was always coming. 

So I was surprised. I asked him, ”Your wife always says you are very much against me.” 

He said, ”Not that I am very much against you I am simply afraid that.... My wife is already crazy, and what 

you are saying, if it gets into her mind, she exaggerates everything. You will create more trouble for me.” 

I asked him, ”Why have you come?” 

He said, ”I have just come to say to you that if she says that she has cancer, reduce it to a headache. Don’t be 

bothered about her cancer. I have suffered my whole life. Then I have learned this lesson: she exaggerates.” 

And in fact that was the case. Every time she used to come she was talking about cancer. She was telling that 

she has cancer of the heart and this and that and the husband said she had nothing! Just a hypochondriac... she 

goes on exaggerating. 

A hypochondriac died. Before he was dying his wife asked, ”Have you some last words?” 

He said, ”Yes. On my gravestone write in big letters: Now do you believe me or not?” 

The first thing for you is to bring things down to the level of reality. It is difficult, Vandan, particularly so for a 

woman. They live in fancy. When you fall in love you think you have fallen in love with a Greek god, and by the 

time the honeymoon is finished you know he is nothing but a goddamned Greek! Within seven days the Greek 

god is nothing but a goddamned Greek. 

And again it will happen. Again you will fall in love, and again you will create a great fancy, you will create 

projections. And all your projections are going to be shattered sooner or later, because reality has no obligation 

to fulfill your projections. 

So first bring down your idea of misery to the fact, to the real. And then it is not difficult to get out of it. Then 

the second thing is to be aware of it. Just be aware of it, and you are out of it because you can be aware only if 

you are not it. 

That is the miracle of awareness. When you observe something one thing is certain, absolutely certain: that 

you are not it. The observer is never the observed. The observed is there as an object confronting you. You are 

the observer, you are the subject. 

So misery is there, pain is there or pleasure, or whatsoever experience is there you are not it. You are out of 

it! 

Two ham actors were moaning about how tough things were in the motion picture business. 

”I haven’t had a part for over ten years,” one of the thespians sighed. 

”That’s nothing,” the other ham said. ”I’ve not worked since sound pictures came in.” 

”That’s really tough.” 

”You bet it is. I wish to hell I could figure some way to get out of this business.” 

For forty years you are not in the business, and you are still figuring out how to get out of it! 

Just watch. These two steps, Vandan: first, bring your misery to the level of reality, and then watch it because 

only reality can be observed; fictions cannot be observed, you become identified with them. Once the reality is 

there, it is objective; watch it, and suddenly a great realization happens. You are the watcher, you are out of it. 

You ask me, ”How can I get out of it?” Vandan, you are out of it. Right now you are out of it! It is only an 

illusion that you are in it. If you want to believe you can go on believing that you are in it. Otherwise you can 

snap out of it any moment. Try. Try to snap out of it. Snap your fingers and slap your face and wake up! 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, ARE YOU AGAINST GARLIC? I HAVE BEEN EATING IT SINCE MY CHILDHOOD 

AND I DON’T THINK THAT IT STINKS. 

Virago, meditate over this story.... 

Forster sat in the posh offices of Park Avenue’s most famous physician. 

”I’ve got this terrible problem,” he explained. ”Everything I eat turns to gas. I just had steak and potatoes 

and it turned to gas.” 

”That could be serious,” countered the doctor. 

”But fortunately,” said Forster, ”my gas is noiseless and odorless. Can you cure it?” 

”I’m sure that I’ll be able to help, but first I’m going to fit you with a hearing aid and then I’m going to fix 

your nose.” 


Question 4


BELOVED MASTER, RECENTLY YOU MENTIONED THAT THE SPIRITUAL EGO IS MORE DANGER- 

OUS THAN THE NORMAL EGO. CAN YOU EXPLAIN? 

Prem Unmado, all egos are dangerous, because the ego is a false entity. It does not exist, in fact. It is there 

because you are not aware of who you are. 

The ego is just like darkness. Darkness has no positive existence of its own; it is only the absence of light. Hence 

you cannot do anything directly with darkness. If you want to remove darkness you cannot remove it directly; you 

will have to bring light in. If you want to bring darkness in you cannot bring it directly either; you will have to 

put the light off. Whatsoever you want to do, you will have to do with the light, because the light has existence. 

Darkness has no existence, and with the nonexistential nothing can be done. 

The ego is nonexistential, it is a nonentity. It is the absence of awareness, of alertness. You are not conscious; 

hence the ego prevails, hence the darkness remains. 

All egos are dangerous, because you are living in something which is not. You are living for something which is 

not, you are sacrificing that which is for something that is not. This is the danger. A real life is being sacrificed 

at the altar of the nonexistential ego. 

You are running after money, after power, after prestige, but in fact nobody is really interested in power, money, 

prestige. They are just ways of the ego to exist. If you have more money you can have more ego; if you have more 

power you can have more ego. The basic desire is to expand the ego, but the more your ego becomes strengthened, 

the more the darkness becomes dense, the less is the possibility of your becoming aware. And without becoming 

aware you are missing the whole opportunity of life, a golden opportunity, in which God can be realized, in which 

truth can be lived. A life which can be a constant celebration, an eternal joy, is sacrificed for something absolutely 

meaningless. 

Hence, remember, all egos are dangerous. But the spiritual ego is the most dangerous simply because all other 

egos are gross. You can see that the politician is after his ego, you can see even the politician in some moments 

can see it. It is very gross, how can you avoid seeing it? You are bound to stumble on it, it is like a rock. 

But the spiritual ego is very subtle, it is like fragrance. You don’t stumble, it does not hit you like a rock. You 

cannot remove it so easily as you can remove a rock. It is a subtle fragrance. The more spiritual you become, the 

more your ego becomes subtler and subtler. Your ego becomes pious, and when the poison is pious, of course it 

is more dangerous, because you think it is nectar. Now, the label is nectar; inside the bottle is the same poison. 

Hence your saints are more egoistic than your sinners. There is every hope for the sinners, they can reach to 

God far more easily than your so-called saints. Your saints are living with such egoistic attitudes, they are full of 

holy cow dung, rubbish. 

The man of the world claims that he has so much money and the religious man claims he has so much virtue. 

The worldly man claims he has so much power, so much prestige, and your so-called holy man claims he also has 

power, spiritual power. He tries to show his spiritual power. 

Once such a so-called spiritual man came to see Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna was sitting on the bank of the 

Ganges in Dakshineshwar, where he used to live. The spiritual man said to Ramakrishna, ”I have heard that you 

are a great saint. If you really are, then come with me and walk on the water. If you can walk on the water then 

I can believe that you are spiritual.” 

Ramakrishna laughed. He said, ”Can you walk...?” 

The man said, ”Yes, I can walk.” 

Ramakrishna asked him, ”How long did it take you to learn to walk on the water?” 

The man said, ”It took me eighteen years of tremendous effort, austerities, tapascharya, fasting, prayer. I lived 

in a cave in the Himalayas. I sacrificed everything. Then this spiritual power has been given to me.” 

Ramakrishna said, ”I am not spiritual, I am a simple man, very ordinary. But one thing I would like to tell 

you. When I want to go to the other shore, the ferryman takes me for just one paisa. Your whole eighteen years’ 

effort is not worth much more than that. You wasted your eighteen years. You may be spiritual, but you are a 

fool, you are utterly stupid! I have never come across such an unintelligent person wasting eighteen years just to 

walk on water! Then what is the point? Okay, you can walk on water, so what?” 

This is the spiritual ego, which will go sooner or later to exhibit its powers, to prove that ”I am holier than 

you.” That man had come with that idea to prove to Ramakrishna that ”I am holier than you, I am higher than 

you.” 

It is meaningless. Buddha is not reported to have done any miracle. Mahavira is not reported to have done any 

miracle. And my own understanding is that all the miracles that are talked of in the name of Jesus are inventions. 

(the sound fails....) 

You see? Some Christian got mad! They are all inventions of the Christians.


I have a totally different approach. When Christians say Jesus turned water into wine it is not a literally factual 

thing. It simply means that people like Jesus get drunk on simple water. I know it from my own experience. I 

never mix my soda with whisky; I mix my soda with soda, and I get drunk, so what is the point of mixing it with 

whisky? Just pure air is enough to get drunk; water is enough. It all carries the essence of God, what more do 

you need to get drunk? This existence is more than is needed. 

But the spiritual man will try to prove in some way that he is spiritual. He will prove it through miracles, he 

will become an exhibitionist. That’s why the spiritual ego is more dangerous. He will not be able to see it, and 

others will not be able to see it either. Because you cannot see it easily, Unmado, I called it more dangerous. 

Drop the very idea that you are separate from existence. And I am not telling you to fight with the ego, that 

is nonsense. I am telling you to create more awareness in you, become more full of light and consciousness and 

the ego will disappear on its own. And when it disappears on its own it has a beauty, it has a benediction. When 

there is no ego in you, no ego worldly or otherworldly when there is no ego at all of any kind, you are one with 

God. The barrier is removed, the last barrier has fallen. 

And to experience God is to experience life in its utter simplicity, in its utter beauty. To experience God is to 

experience truth in its eternity. Then you are beyond death and beyond time. 

Ego is the only barrier. But don’t fight with it spiritual or worldly, it is the same. Create more consciousness, 

be more meditative. Meditation is the only medicine. Both the words come from the same root: ’meditation’ and 

’medicine’ because meditation also is a medicine. It heals you, it cures you from the greatest disease, the disease 

of the ego. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, WILL YOU ONE DAY GO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DISCOURSE TO THE 

KITCHEN TO INQUIRE WHAT IS BEING PREPARED FOR YOU? 

Pantha, sorry, I cannot do that for many reasons. One is, I am not Ramakrishna; I am just myself, I am 

nobody else. 

Secondly, all my kitchen people are here: Vivek is here, Astha is here, Nirgun is here, Pragya is here there is 

nobody to ask. 

Thirdly, I eat the same food, morning, evening, year in, year out. In fact, all my kitchen people are bored with 

preparing it. Except me everybody is bored! This is a device to bore them. 

Just think: the same thing they have to prepare, morning, evening, every day. Unless they become enlightened 

they are going to go crazy. 

So there is nothing to ask, I already know. There is no change ever in my food. 

Thirdly, I don’t know where my kitchen is! So, Pantha, even if I want I cannot find it. I know only my room, 

and the way from the room to Buddha Hall and back. I will get lost into Lao Tzu House. And after many, many 

lives somehow I have found the way. Please don’t make me get lost again. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS THE DIRTIEST FOUR-LETTER WORD IN THE INDIAN LANGUAGE? 

Darshan, ’work’! 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, YOU DID NOT FINISH THE STORY OF THE PRIEST AND HIS SUNDAY SER- 

MON. IS IT NOT SO? 

Chetan Hari, that is true. Knowingly I did not finish it, but now that you have asked I have to finish it. 

When the priest saw the hell, so beautiful, with such ecstatic people, he certainly became infatuated. He knew 

all the ways to reach to heaven, he had no idea how to go to hell. And now, seeing hell, he wanted to go to hell, 

not to heaven. 

So he inquired of a few people. They said, ”Better you ask the Buddha, he is there sitting under the tree.” 

He went to the Buddha and he asked, ”Sir, can you show me the way to hell, because now I don’t want to see 

heaven again. Once is enough. I don’t want to go there at all. I have lived my whole life preparing for heaven. I 

know all the ways and all the methods and means how to reach there. I don’t know how to get to hell.” 

Buddha said, ”You go back to the station and buy a ticket to Pune and take sannyas. That is the best and 

shortest way to go to hell.” 

The priest is here. Please don’t ask me his name, because priests are a little shy, and he will feel embarrassed 

and particularly a Catholic priest. But he is here. If you try a little harder you will find him.



Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, OKAY, GIVE IT TO ME STRAIGHT. CAN GOD REALLY EXIST IN AMERICA? 

LEAVING TOMORROW, I GET A LITTLE NERVOUS REALIZING HOW SERIOUS THE WORLD TENDS 

TO BE, AND WELL, YOU KNOW, GOD TOO. SO WOULD YOU GIVE ME ONE OF YOUR FUDDY-DUDDY 

JOKES TO SHARE WITH HIM JUST IN CASE WE MEET? 

Toshen, you forget this word ’him’. God is not a he, God is a she. If you go with this idea that he is a he, you 

will never find him. That’s how people go on missing him. They go on looking for him as if he is a man, and he 

has changed himself long ago. 

Colonel Stanford, a staunch segregationist, died and somehow made his way to heaven. A week later his friend, 

Colonel Beauregard, departed and was also allowed to get past the Pearly Gates. The two of them met. 

”Never had any doubt we would make it,” said Colonel Beauregard, ”but now that we did, tell me, how are 

things up here?” 

”Not bad,” answered Colonel Stanford, ”but I would advise you to watch your step. I saw God the other day 

and she is a Negress.” 

And not only that he is a she, she is a Negress a black woman. So if you are really in search of God in America, 

remember this. 

And then you will have to learn a few things. If you meet a black woman you will have to learn some art, you 

will have to learn to be a little like a black man, otherwise there will be no communication, no communion. 

God has changed. He was tired of being male and white. Everybody gets tired of being the same. And people 

are still thinking that he is the old. You are worshipping old photographs, you are carrying old albums. No 

wonder very few people find him. 

Now think of God as a woman. And God can only be a woman; the very idea of God being a man is the male 

chauvinist idea, it is the idea of man. The Christian trinity has not a single woman in it. Look at the nonsense: 

they have made even a place for the Holy Ghost. Now, who is this Holy Ghost? The trinity would not have 

missed much if there was no Holy Ghost, but the trinity looks a little ugly without a woman. The father is there, 

the son is there, and where is the mother? Do you think God is gay? 

This is man’s egoistic projection. Remember: the she contains he, but the he does not contain she. Man is 

born out of a woman, but no man can give birth to a woman. It is natural to think of God as woman as mother, 

not as father. That is a fascist idea. 

It is not accidental that Germans call their country ”fatherland.” Nobody calls their country ”fatherland.” 

Everybody calls his country ”motherland” that seems to be right except the Germans... they call it ”fatherland.” 

God is a mother, a motherly phenomenon. This whole existence is motherly. And God is far softer than man 

can ever be, far more vulnerable, far more open. God is the womb of existence. The whole existence comes out 

of the womb. 

So, Toshen, drop this idea of ”he” and ”him”; think of ”she” and ”her.” And remember: he is tired of being 

white, he is no longer white. He is black now, and he is enjoying being black, because very few people are able to 

find him now. Even if you come across him, you think, ”It is just a nigger.” Even if he knocks on your door you 

will not open the door. 

And if you meet him, you are asking me that you would like to tell him some joke. Tell him this joke: 

”What makes you black men such good lovers?” asked the white employer of Kinney, the chauffeur. 

”The trouble with you white folks is that you just go in there and rush, rush, rush, and before you know it, it 

is all over,” said Kinney. ”Now the way us black folks do it is get in there, take it easy, make long strokes, talk 

sweet a while, stop a while, take our time, then some more slow long strokes, nice and cool-like.” 

That night whitey climbed into bed with his wife and began making love to her exactly as Kinney had suggested. 

After twenty minutes of sheer delight she gasped, ”My God, where did you learn to screw like a black man?” 


The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 12 

Chapter 1 No-self Actualization 


A MAN IS NOT BORN TO MASTERY. A MASTER IS NEVER PROUD. HE DOES NOT TALK DOWN 

TO OTHERS. OWNING NOTHING, HE MISSES NOTHING. 

HE IS NOT AFRAID. HE DOES NOT TREMBLE. NOTHING BINDS HIM. HE IS INFINITELY FREE. 

SO CUT THROUGH THE STRAP AND THE THONG AND THE ROPE. LOOSEN THE FASTENINGS. 

UNBOLT THE DOORS OF SLEEP AND AWAKE.


THE MASTER ENDURES INSULTS AND ILL TREATMENT WITHOUT REACTING. FOR HIS SPIRIT 

IS AN ARMY. 

HE IS NEVER ANGRY. HE KEEPS HIS PROMISES. HE NEVER STRAYS, HE IS DETERMINED. THIS 

BODY IS MY LAST, HE SAYS! 

LIKE WATER ON THE LEAF OF A LOTUS FLOWER OR A MUSTARD SEED ON THE POINT OF A 

NEEDLE, HE DOES NOT CLING. 

FOR HE HAS REACHED THE END OF SORROW AND HAS LAID DOWN HIS BURDEN. 

Man is born only as a seed, not as a flower. Flowering has to be achieved; one should not take it for granted. 

Birth itself is only the opportunity for life, it is not life itself. You can still miss life and millions miss it for the 

simple reason that they think that just being born is enough to be alive. It is not enough. It is necessary without 

it there will be no life but it is not synonymous with life. You have to be twice-born. 

Jesus says: Unless you are born again you shall not enter into my kingdom of God. 

A kind of rebirth is needed. The ordinary birth is the birth of the bodymind mechanism, but your spirit is only 

a potential it has to be actualized. Abraham Maslow has called this process self-actualization. Gautam Buddha 

would call the same process ”no-self actualization.” Abraham Maslow has no idea of the ultimate; he is thinking 

about it, speculating about it. He has stumbled upon a certain truth, but he does not know how to express it. 

He has not experienced it himself; it is only an intellectual understanding, hence he calls it ”self-actualization.” 

But in that ultimate flowering the first thing that disappears is the self. In fact, the self is the only barrier for 

that flowering. The self is the hindrance, not the help. The self surrounds you like a wall; it is not the bridge. 

When you are really born, born to life or to God to me both are synonymous you are no more, no more as 

you understand yourself to be. A pure emptiness prevails, an utter void prevails, a silence which is soundless. A 

music is there certainly, but without any sound. The Zen people call it the sound of one hand clapping. That 

no-self is your original face. When you are not, you are, and you are for the first time. 

If Abraham Maslow had experienced the ultimate state of flowering he would never have called it self-actualization; 

he would have called it ”no-self actualization.” You are born as a self, as an ego. This is the seed and the seed 

has to disappear before the sprout can start growing. The seed has to die in the soil; then and only then the life 

that is hidden inside the seed will start manifesting itself. 

It is a miracle! You are blind, that’s why you can’t see. So many miracles are happening all around you. When 

a seed becomes a sprout, a great miracle is happening. If you cut the seed you will not find any leaves, you 

will not find any flowers, you will not find any tree, you will not find anything at all just emptiness. Through 

analyzing the seed you will not reach any conclusion. But if you let the seed fall down into the right soil, if you 

allow the seed to die and disappear, out of that nothingness something immensely beautiful arises, something 

impossible happens. Leaves come, branches come, a big tree grows. Such a small seed contains such a big tree! 

Now hundreds of people can sit under its shade, hundreds of birds can make their nests, can come to rest every 

night in its shelter, and thousands of flowers will bloom. 

A single seed is capable of making the whole earth green. It has so much potential infinite potential, because 

out of a single seed millions of seeds will arise, and so on and so forth. If you have one single seed the whole earth 

can be a garden. Why just the whole earth? the whole universe can be a garden! The potential is infinite; you 

have just to find the right opportunity for its expression, for its manifestation, for its realization. 

Buddha says: 

A MAN IS NOT BORN TO MASTERY. 

Every man is born as a slave. It hurts to know it; we would like to be told that we are born as masters. We 

believe that we are masters nobody suspects it. The people who start suspecting their mastery are the only people 

who are capable of becoming, some day, masters. You doubt everything, but you never doubt your mastery over 

yourself, and that is the most doubtful thing, the most doubtable thing. What kind of mastery have you got? 

You are a slave, an utter slave of biological instincts, of sex, of anger, of greed, of ambition. You stink of all these 

things, you are full of all these things. And still you go on believing deep down somewhere that you are masters. 

And rather than making an effort to destroy this slavery you start proving your mastery over others. You try 

to become Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan or Tamerlane. That is an effort to deceive yourself. That is 

an effort to prove something which is not there at all. You are trying to gather proofs about your mastery. Of 

course, if you become powerful enough over many people you can believe more easily that you are a master. It is 

easier for Alexander to believe that he is a master, but it is only a belief with no foundation to it. He is as much 

a slave as anybody else; maybe he is a far bigger slave than anybody else. 

When he was coming to India, Alexander met a rare man, Diogenes. Had Diogenes been born in India he would 

have been considered a buddha; he was one of the awakened ones. Even Alexander was immensely impressed by


him. He lived utterly naked by the side of a river. It was early morning when Alexander went to see him; he was 

lying naked on the bank of the river taking a sunbath. Seeing the man, feeling his presence, Alexander for the 

first time felt a kind of inferiority arising in him. He had come across many kings, he had defeated many kings, 

but here was a real king a master. 

When you come across a master it is impossible not to feel the presence unless you are absolutely blind, 

absolutely deaf, utterly dead. Alexander must have been a little sensitive, a little alert, otherwise he would not 

have come to see this naked fakir. Just the fact that he came to see him, out of the way, shows that he had some 

deep feeling that all his possessions were not enough to make him contented: ”There must be some other way to 

be contented. Life cannot be only possessions and power; life must have some more secrets to it.” 

He had heard many things about Diogenes: ”He carries a lighted lamp in the day, in the full light of the day. 

Naked he is, but he carries only one thing in his hands a lamp, a lighted lamp. And people ask him, ’Why do 

you carry this lamp?’ And he says, ’I am seeking and searching for a real man; I have not come across one yet. I 

carry this lamp so that I don’t miss him.’” 

A real man? Is he so rare? Alexander must have brooded over it. He must have thought, ”I am a real man. Let 

me go and see this Diogenes.” He had heard many stories about him: ”He seems to be the most blissful person in 

the world. Nobody has ever seen him in anxiety, in anguish, in fear; he is utterly fearless.” 

Alexander had heard that once he was caught by a few people eight people were needed to catch this simple 

man but he told them, ”Don’t make so much effort, you need not. What do you want? Simply tell me.” 

They said, ”We want to sell you in the slave market.” 

He said, ”Then there is no need to strain yourselves so much I hate to give trouble to anybody. I am coming 

with you.” 

And he went with them, ahead of them. They followed him as if they were his followers. And when they reached 

the market where men were sold and purchased, everybody was attracted towards this beautiful man. He stood 

there on a platform and shouted, ”Listen, all you slaves who have gathered here: a master is being sold! Is there 

any slave interested in purchasing a master?” 

So many stories were in the air about Diogenes... Alexander slowly, slowly became so interested that he went to 

see him. The very interest shows that there was some deep feeling in him about the futility of his own endeavors to 

conquer the world. And seeing Diogenes he immediately felt himself a nonentity, while Diogenes was an authentic 

being. Still he tried to laugh it away. 

Diogenes said, ”Stop laughing! Don’t try to befool yourself! You can see the fact that you are missing life.” 

And Alexander said, ”Yes, sir, I can feel it. For the first time I have seen a really alive person. What can I do 

for you? I have enough money, I can do anything. Just you say and it will be done.” 

Diogenes said, ”I don’t need anything. You may have all the money in the world, but I don’t have any desire, 

so all your money is absolutely irrelevant. But one thing you can do is stand aside, because you are blocking the 

sun. That’s all that I can ask from you and you will be kind enough if you can stand aside.” 

He didn’t ask for anything. Alexander said to him, ”If I have to come into the world another time, I will ask 

God to make me Diogenes instead of Alexander the Great.” 

Diogenes said, ”Why wait for the next life? You can be Diogenes right now! Can’t you see the point?” he said. 

”Nothing is needed to be a Diogenes. You are making so much effort to conquer the world and even if you succeed, 

what are you going to gain out of it? You will be as miserable as ever, in fact far more miserable, because right 

now your mind is occupied with the idea, with the ambition of conquering the world. Once you have conquered 

it you will be at a loss what to do. Better stop now!” 

Alexander said, ”I can understand you are right but I cannot stop in the middle of my journey. I have decided 

to conquer the world.” 

Diogenes said, ”Then go, don’t stop but death will stop you in the middle. It always stops everybody in the 

middle, and then you cannot do anything. Then you will remember me. And your victories won’t help you at all. 

When death knocks on the door, a slave, a poor man, a great king, a world conqueror, all are the same they are 

all equal in the eyes of death. Death cannot knock at my door,” Diogenes said. ”Listen, and look into my eyes. 

I have conquered death. That is a real victory because I have come to know my real being which is deathless. I 

have come to experience my consciousness which was before I was born and which will be there after I am gone. 

I am eternal.” 

And the day Alexander died he remembered Diogenes with bitter tears, of course, because Diogenes was right: 

his whole life had been a sheer wastage. He had struggled and struggled for nothing.


You have heard the proverb: Nothing succeeds like success that is absolutely wrong. I suggest to you another 

proverb: Nothing fails like success. But because very few people succeed very few people come to know about it. 

Those who succeed, they always come to know the utter impotence of success. 

Buddha says: A MAN IS NOT BORN TO MASTERY. 

The first thing to be understood is that you are a slave of unconscious forces. This is the beginning, the first step 

towards mastery; to recognize your slavery. To see that you are unconscious is the beginning of consciousness. But 

you go on throwing the responsibility on others, you never look inwards; for any causes you never look inwards. 

The judge looked sternly down at the defendant. ”Young man, it is alcohol and alcohol alone that is responsible 

for your present sorry state.” 

”I’m glad to hear you say that, Your Honor,” the man replied with a sigh of relief. ”Everybody else says it’s 

my fault.” 

Nobody wants to recognize that he is responsible for the sorry state he is in. You always try to find some 

excuse. Any excuse will do; if you cannot find one, you can always invent. But you never feel responsible. 

The beginning of a religious life is: total responsibility for yourself. Whatsoever you are, you are responsible 

and nobody else. And your life is a mess. 

Have you heard about the Polack who tried to throw himself on the floor... and missed? 

Your whole life is a failure whatsoever you do, even throwing yourself on the floor the reason is that you are 

not conscious at all, not aware at all. You are living in such unconsciousness, you are almost a machine. 

Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples, ”You are not men, you are machines.” And people used to feel very 

offended; nobody likes the idea that he is a machine. ”I and a machine? Me a machine? Others maybe!” But 

Gurdjieff was saying something very essential: man IS a machine. Everybody else can see it; everybody else can 

see it about you except you. But that is not going to help unless YOU see it. 

There were three travelers a Jew, a Hindu and an Italian who needed a place to stay overnight. They knocked 

on a farmer’s door. The farmer said he only had room for two in the house, but one could sleep in the barn. The 

Jew said he would sleep in the barn. 

They all settled down for the night. A little while later there was a knock on the door. The farmer answered 

it; it was the Jew. He apologized, but said there was a pig in the barn and as pigs were not kosher he could not 

spend the night in the same place as them. The Hindu said he would sleep in the barn as pigs did not bother him. 

Again the farmer went back to bed. A little while later there was a knock at the door; it was the Hindu. He 

apologized and said he was sorry, but there was a cow in the barn and as cows were sacred animals it was not 

proper for him to sleep in the same place as them. So the Italian offered to sleep in the barn as he had no problem 

with cows or pigs. 

Again the farmer went to bed, but a little while later there was a knock at the door. The tired farmer got up 

and answered it. There stood the cow and the pig! 

Even cows can see, even pigs can feel that you are an Italian but not you! You never look at yourself, you 

always look at others. You are focused on others. You are so extrovert that you don’t know how to turn your 

eyes in. And a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn is needed. Unless you start seeing yourself there is no possibility 

of mastery in your life; you will remain a slave. 

When you fall in love you think you are a master. Are you, or is it just a biological, chemical phenomenon? If 

it is a biological and chemical phenomenon you are not the master. When somebody insults you and you become 

angry, are you angry or are you just a victim of some unconscious force that is being released in you? When you 

are angry, enraged, you are almost temporarily insane; you can do anything. You can destroy, you can kill, you 

can commit suicide. And whatsoever you do, if you survive the moment you will repent. You will say, ”I cannot 

believe how it happened, how I could do such a thing? I did it in spite of myself!” 

That expression is significant. Whenever you say, ”I did it in spite of myself,” you are recognizing, without 

knowing it, your slavery: that things happen in you which are happening without you you are just a victim. 

Nobody is born as a master, but everybody is born with a tremendous potential to be a master. Everybody can 

be a master, but very rarely do people attain to their potential. Very rarely do people attain to their maximum 

peak, to the crescendo of their being. 

The psychologists say that the ordinary person only uses seven to ten percent of his potential in his whole life; 

ninety percent or more remains unused. And this is about the ordinary person. The psychologists say even the 

talented people, very talented people, don’t use more than twelve to thirteen percent. And the people we call 

geniuses, they don’t use more than fifteen percent of their potential. 

Just think, if the whole of humanity were using one hundred percent of its potential which it is capable of 

there would be no need to imagine a paradise, we could make it here. We will be in paradise if one hundred


percent potential is being used by everyone. But if you don’t use it, it remains like a weight. Rather than being a 

help in your life it becomes such a weight, like a rock hanging around your neck. That which could have become 

a boat becomes the cause of your drowning. 

Religion is concerned basically with helping you to bring your potential into action, to make your potential 

actual, so it is not just there as a seed but becomes a flower and a great fragrance is released. 

That’s what happened to Gautama the Buddha, that’s what happened to Jesus the Christ. These few people 

were just like you, made of the same stuff. There is nothing special about them, they are not special beings. 

Forget that idea. The priests have been preaching it down the ages that they were special, that Jesus was the 

only begotten Son of God. It is all sheer nonsense. You are as much a son of God as Jesus was, no more or less 

no difference between you and Jesus. As far as the potential is concerned you are absolutely alike. But Jesus 

actualized it and you have not even touched it, it is simply lying there. It is a treasure which has not been used, 

and anything which is not used for a long time goes dead, becomes stale. It goes rotten, it becomes a dead weight 

on you, it makes you heavy and ill. 

Buddha has nothing special in him. Of course, the Buddhist priests say that he is special. Why do these 

priests go on saying that Buddha is special, Mahavira is special, Jesus is special, Krishna is special? Why? for a 

simple reason: that helps to protect our egos. They are special, what can we do? If they became enlightened they 

were bound to become enlightened, they came with a special capability. We are normal human beings, they were 

avataras. They were direct descendants of God, we are very, very faraway, distant relatives, and the distance is so 

much that it is impossible to bridge it. They were coming directly from the above; they were messengers of God, 

messiahs, prophets, tirthankaras and we are ordinary people. This is a way of defending our egos a very logical 

way, a very rational way. 

Do you think you are paying respect by saying that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God? You are not paying 

respect, you are being very cunning; you are trying to protect yourself. You are saying, ”You are special and we 

are ordinary, so we have to behave in an ordinary way. You can behave like an enlightened person. What can we 

do about it? We are made in this way. The responsibility is God’s, not ours. It is not our fate to be a Buddha or 

to be a Krishna or to be a Lao Tzu. It is not our destiny to be a Zarathustra. They were destined and we are not 

destined. So if something happened to them it was bound to happen, and if nothing is happening to us, nothing 

is happening to us because nothing is destined for us.” 

This is a trick, a strategy. Buddha wants you to be reminded that you are made of the same stuff, the same 

blood, the same bones, the same marrow, the same consciousness. The only difference is that you are not working 

on yourself, you are not using the opportunity, you are not transforming yourself. And you go on finding excuses: 

”How can we do it? We have so many children and the wife and the husband and the parents. And we have to 

work in the world and we have to earn money and a livelihood.” You go on making excuses. 

That’s why my insistence is that none of my sannyasins are to leave the ordinary world. They have to become 

enlightened in the ordinary world so that this excuse, this traditional excuse, can be dropped forever. 

And there have been people who have become enlightened living very ordinary lives. Kabir was a father and 

a husband, and he worked his whole life he was a weaver yet he became enlightened. He didn’t renounce the 

world, he didn’t escape. Or Raidas, he was a shoemaker. He continued his work, he remained in the world, and 

became enlightened. 

And there have been many, but you will be surprised: priests don’t talk much about these people because these 

people are dangerous. They talk about the renunciation of Buddha, that he renounced the world, went into the 

forest; they talk about Mahavira who renounced his kingdom. In the first place you have to have a kingdom to 

renounce. Where is the kingdom? And if you don’t have the kingdom, then in this life at least you can’t become 

enlightened. Even if you have the kingdom, then you have to renounce it. 

Jesus is presented in such a way that it becomes almost impossible to conceive of him as a human being. He is 

born out of a virgin mother now, what nonsense! You are not born out of a virgin mother, so at least this life you 

have missed the train. Next life choose a virgin mother, because everything starts from there! In the first place 

you have chosen a wrong train.... But there are difficulties: if you choose a virgin mother you are a bastard. If 

Jesus chooses a virgin mother he is simply exceptional it is God’s grace. 

The priests have been trying to create a distance between you and the enlightened ones so that you can feel at 

ease. And the effort of all the buddhas is not to let you feel at ease, is to make you restless, to make you divinely 

discontented, to make you aware that you are capable of tremendous bliss and you are missing it, to make you 

alert that it is your birthright and yet you have not claimed it. 

A MAN IS NOT BORN TO MASTERY. 

A MASTER IS NEVER PROUD.


But Buddha immediately in the second sutra says something very significant, because there is every possibility 

that he will be misunderstood hence the second statement. He says that mastery is an achievement, but not 

in the ordinary sense of the word, because whenever you achieve something you become proud; you say, ”I have 

achieved this.” If mastery is an achievement which certainly it is it is in a totally different sense from ordinary 

achievements. It is not like becoming a president of a country or becoming the richest man in the world; it is not 

like becoming famous it is totally different. The difference is that in the very achievement of it the achiever dies. 

Remember it, never forget about it; otherwise your spirituality can also become a new ego trip. Hence, 

immediately, Buddha adds: A MASTER IS NEVER PROUD. He cannot be because he is no more! This is a 

very strange achievement: in the very process of achieving it, the ego melts, disappears. In fact it happens only 

when the ego is found no more. It is a very paradoxical achievement: an achievement certainly, but there is no 

achiever. Just as a sugar cube dissolves into the tea, the achiever dissolves into the achievement itself. He is no 

more found anywhere. He becomes one with the achievement. The achievement is not something that he can brag 

about, it is simply a natural flowering. He is not proud of it. 

Roses are not proud, lotuses are not proud, of course, however beautiful they are. The sunrise is not proud, the 

sunset is not proud, the night full of stars is not proud, the full moon is not proud. It is natural; there is nothing 

to say about it. It is how it should be. There is no question of being proud about it, no ego enhancement about 

it. 

Beware of the ego. If you start bragging about your spiritual attainment you have missed the whole point. It 

is no longer spiritual at all; it is again the same game played with new words. Only the words have changed, but 

nothing has really changed; there has been no transformation. 

And people play the game of the ego in many ways. The Indian thinks that he is the holiest, the most spiritual 

person in the world; now that is the same game. The American thinks, for different reasons, that he is special, 

that he is higher than anybody else. And so is the case with everybody. You will not find a single race in the 

world, a single nation in the world which does not think that it is special. Now the game is played in the name 

of nation, race. 

Every religion thinks, ”This is the only way, the true way: all other ways are false.” If you ask the Jaina he 

thinks all other ways are pseudo. If you ask the Christian he has the same idea: ”Unless you are a Christian 

you are not going to be saved, you will suffer in hell.” Ask the Mohammedan.... And you will be surprised: they 

belong to different religions, but do they really belong to different religions or do they all belong to the same 

religion the religion of the ego? They all belong to the same religion: the religion of the ego. 

The white man thinks he is special, the black man thinks he is special.... 

I have heard a story about Dr. Radhakrishnan. He was the president of India and he was talking to a few 

friends. 

One white man said, ”We are the best otherwise why did God make us white?” 

Radhakrishnan said to the white man, ”You are half-cooked, that’s why you are white!” 

A black man was also present; he was very happy. He said, ”That’s right. We are the best!” 

Radhakrishnan said, ”You are cooked too much you are almost burnt! We are the best, we are just in the 

middle, neither white nor black. Cooked just right.” 

People go on trying to defend their egos in every possible way. 

An Egyptian and an Indian archaeologist were vying with each other. 

”In our recent excavation we came across lengthy cables and have deduced that there was some kind of a 

telephone system then,” the Egyptian boasted. 

”We dug and dug and could find no cable. We have reached the conclusion that there was wireless during those 

times in India,” said his Indian counterpart. 

Beware! We are playing the same game in the name of religion, in the name of nation, in the name of race, in 

the name of color, but the game is the same. The name of the game is ego. 

The spiritual man is one who has stopped playing the game. He is the master. A MASTER IS NEVER 

PROUD. 

HE DOES NOT TALK DOWN TO OTHERS. 

He has no holier-than-thou look. But look at your so-called saints they are all looking at you with deep 

condemnation. They know you are sinners and they are saints. They are higher beings, superior beings; you are 

mundane, worldly, ordinary. What have you done? What virtue can you claim? They can claim that they have 

been fasting for years, that they are celibates, that they eat only once a day, that they sleep only three hours per 

night. And they have invented many kinds of torture for themselves. And of course torture has been thought 

for centuries to be the way towards spirituality. It is masochism, pure masochism: it has nothing to do with


spirituality. But when a person tortures himself, of course he can feel his ego fulfilled. You cannot do it and he is 

doing it. And you certainly start feeling inferior because it is difficult for you to do it. 

If you see a man lying down on a bed of thorns you cannot do it. Certainly he is higher, has superior powers. 

And if he looks at you as the condemned, as the people who are going to hell, you have to accept it because he is 

earning rewards. What have you done? You have not done anything like that. You cannot sleep on such a bed; 

you are a very ordinary human being. His will is like steel look at his willpower! 

And it is nothing. He is simply more stupid than you are, he is more dull than you are, his body is less sensitive 

than yours. And there are methods to make your body less and less sensitive. If you sit naked in the hot sun your 

body starts getting burnt; slowly, slowly all the sensitive parts which are very fragile become hard they have to 

become hard. You become thick-skinned and the thicker the skin, the more easily you can lie down on a bed of 

thorns. 

Have you not watched? Women can use sleeveless clothes more easily than men for the simple reason that 

their arms are less sensitive more beautiful but less sensitive. Even in cold countries they can move very easily 

with sleeveless clothes; man finds it difficult. Man’s body is more sensitive in that way and more fragile. In 

cold countries he needs a necktie to prevent any air going in. And look at the women their clothes are almost 

disappearing! 

Their bodies are just less sensitive; they have to be less sensitive because they have to be mothers. Giving birth 

to a child and having a very sensitive body will be difficult, will be very painful, will be utterly painful. Have 

you any idea... if the body is very sensitive then carrying the baby for nine months in your belly will be a great 

torture. Just think of yourself carrying a baby in your belly for nine months... you will commit suicide! It will 

be impossible. Nature makes the woman’s body less sensitive and compensates it with more beauty and more 

roundedness. Man’s body is not that beautiful, not that rounded, but more sensitive sensitive to cold, sensitive 

to heat, sensitive to many things. 

That is one of the causes of the constant conflict between men and women: because the woman comes to orgasm 

very slowly; her sensitivity is much less. It takes a longer time for her to come to an orgasm. Man comes quickly; 

his body is very sensitive. And the gap between the man’s body and the woman’s body creates a great problem. 

Unless the man is very alert and takes every care to move slowly with the woman’s body, the woman will never 

be satisfied. 

And her dissatisfaction will show in many ways: your tea will be cold, your vegetables will have too much salt. 

The whole day, from the kitchen, such noises of breaking things will come, as if you are living in an earthquake! 

Not that she is doing it consciously, that too is absolutely unconscious nobody is a master, all are slaves but she 

is taking revenge in her own way. 

So whenever you want to make love to a woman, immediately she has a headache, she is tired, she is no longer 

interested, for the simple reason that she never achieves the orgasm. Why should she participate in a game in 

which she is always the loser? It is only recently that man is becoming aware of the difference; that difference can 

be bridged, but skill is needed. 

Just ask your wife to prick your back with a needle on many places, and you will be surprised: there are a few 

places which are absolutely insensitive the prick will not be felt at all and a few places where the prick will be 

felt. A few spots are blind. Those people who are lying on a bed of thorns have simply arranged the whole thing 

in such a way that the thorns are touching the blind spots. It is just a kind of skill; there is nothing in it, nothing 

holy in it. 

You can eat once a day. There are tribes, many aboriginal tribes in India, in South Africa, in the Himalayas, 

who eat only once a day. The body is so adjustable: you can eat once a day, then it eats too much. You can 

eat twice, you can eat thrice, then it divides. You can eat five times... and, in fact, to eat five times is far more 

scientific than to eat one time, because to eat one time means putting too much load on the system. It is better 

to divide the load. And if man has really come down from the monkeys, look at the monkeys they are eating 

the whole day! Americans are doing exactly that, so whether Darwin is correct about anybody else or not, he is 

correct about the Americans! 

You can eat one time a day; the body will adjust to that. These things are nothing to do with spirituality, but 

these are the things that your so-called saints go on bragging about. 

A real master is not proud: HE DOES NOT TALK DOWN TO OTHERS. The real master is one who has 

recognized that everybody has the same potential. How can he talk down to others? 

Buddha has said that when he became enlightened, immediately he saw that the whole universe had become 

enlightened with him. This is true as far as he is concerned. Of course the whole universe has not become 

enlightened you have not become enlightened yet but as far as Buddha is concerned it is absolutely true. He saw


the potential, he saw that everybody is the same. Just that a few people are awake and a few are asleep; that is 

the only difference, and that is not such a big difference. Don’t make such a fuss about it. 

And even if your saints don’t say directly, ”We are holier than you,” in a thousand and one indirect ways they 

go on telling you. 

Every time the cowboy rode through the Indian village he would wave at the aged chief. In response the old 

man would give him the finger in the usual vertical manner, then he would turn his hand so that the third digit 

stuck out horizontally. 

After a few weeks the cowboy could stand it no longer. He stopped his horse and said to the redskin, ”I know 

what it means to get the finger straight up, but what does it mean when you turn it sideways?” 

”I don’t like your horse either!” replied the chief. 

There are direct ways and indirect ways, gestures. The way your saints look at you they may not say a single 

word the way they behave, all points to one thing: that they are higher than you. And they keep you constantly 

afraid of hell. They are telling you, ”Beware of hell. You are bound to go to hell.” So they are making you alert 

in advance. 

Preacher Pitts had undertaken that morning to describe the terrors of hell to his congregation. 

”Brothers and sisters,” he intones, ”some of you have seen melted iron running out of a furnace, haven’t you? 

It’s white, sizzling and hissing. Well, in the place I’m talking about they use that stuff for ice cream!” 

Their whole effort is to make you as frightened as possible. Look at the great idea of ice cream! And if you 

want to go to heaven you have to follow their advice, you have to follow in their footprints, you have to become 

imitators. And imitators are pseudo people. A real master is never an imitator. 

Hence I say to you, never become Christians, be a christ, and never become Buddhists, be a buddha. Your 

potential is of such infinite possibility that why should you settle for some small thing? Just being a Christian is 

a poor substitute why not be a christ? Why not be a buddha yourself? Why be Buddhists? 

But your preachers are telling you: Be Christians, be Buddhists, be Jainas, be Hindus! They are not telling 

you about your ultimate potential, they want you to be followers. And of course there is no Buddha, no Jesus 

available, so they are the representatives. They have created a strategy: Follow Jesus! Of course you will have to 

follow the pope where is Jesus? The pope is the representative and the pope is infallible. Look at the foolishness 

of it all. Only a fool can say that he is infallible even God is not infallible. 

Fallibility is part of the fun God must be fallible; otherwise he would not have made you! God must be fallible; 

otherwise why and how did he manage to create man? And since then he has not created anything; he stopped 

seeing what he had done he stopped the whole process. Since then nothing has been heard about him, where he 

is, what he is doing. 

The Bible says that in six days he created the world okay; the seventh day he rested. And what about the next 

week? Did the Monday come or not? And since then what has he been doing? Seeing that he has committed a 

mistake he must be escaping as far away as possible. 

Now the scientists say the world, the universe is expanding. The simple reason is that God is escaping, so with 

him of course the world goes on expanding; the boundary goes on expanding with tremendous speed. Do you 

know at what speed he is escaping from you? One hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second! That is the 

speed at which the universe is expanding; that must be the speed of his escape. And I don’t think we will be able 

to catch him; it seems impossible to make spaceships which can go at that speed, because that is the speed of 

light and anything moving at that speed will immediately become light. So if you are moving with that speed, the 

plane and the passengers and the pilot, all will disappear; they will become simply pure light. With that speed 

everything will melt and become light. Unless we can find some way not to follow him but to try to find him from 

the other side.... 

And I think that is the way of the buddhas. They don’t try to reach God, they don’t run after him, they simply 

stand silently. That is the other way, the other way round because how long can he escape for? If the universe is 

also round, finally he will come back to where these people are standing and there is the possibility of meeting. 

HE DOES NOT TALK DOWN TO OTHERS. 

OWNING NOTHING, HE MISSES NOTHING. 

The buddha simply uses, the master uses. He owns nothing, he is not an owner. Either he owns nothing or he 

owns the whole universe which is saying the same thing in two different ways. There is no need to own anything 

he uses. You use the sun, you use the moon; you need not own them. So, if one day the sun is cloudy you need 

not become anxious, you need not go mad, you need not get worried: ”What is happening to my sun?” It has 

nothing to do with you. If one day the moon has an eclipse you are not worried at all because you don’t own it;


if you own it, then trouble arises. If you own the garden and the roses are not blooming, then there is anxiety; if 

you don’t own it then you just enjoy. 

The master enjoys existence but he owns nothing; because he owns nothing he misses nothing. 

HE IS NOT AFRAID. 

There is nothing to lose, why should he be afraid? 

HE DOES NOT TREMBLE. 

Soren Kierkegaard says that every man is trembling inside, there is a constant trembling and he is right. The 

fear of death keeps you constantly trembling. You may keep yourself occupied in a thousand and one things and 

you may forget about your inner trembling, but it is there. 

Soren Kierkegaard is one of the most important thinkers of the Western hemisphere. What he is saying he must 

be saying from his own personal experience; he was very much afraid of death. He was afraid only of two things: 

death and money. He never earned anything. His father had left a certain bank balance for him; he lived on it. 

Each month, on the first day, he would go to the bank and withdraw a certain amount and live on it. He lived 

in a very, very economical way, but he was very much afraid: sooner or later the money was going to be finished 

that was his constant worry. People had seen him in Copenhagen going to the bank and coming home always in 

a state of trembling. 

And then death... and death is certainly related to money. People who are very much afraid of death start 

accumulating money as a protection as if money can protect! People who are not afraid of death don’t care much 

about money; they use money, but they don’t care. 

And one strange thing happened: Soren Kierkegaard died on the road the day he withdrew the last amount 

of money from the bank. He was coming home from the bank; this was the last amount, the bank balance was 

finished. The manager had said, ”Next month you need not come all the money is finished.” He fell in the middle 

of the road he didn’t reach home and died then and there. If money is finished, life is finished! He must have 

been a man of tremendous fear. 

When he was young he loved a woman, a very beautiful woman, Regina. For three years the love affair continued 

and finally, when they were going to get married, he refused. It was very strange because Regina was a beautiful 

woman and he was an ugly man. If Regina had refused it would have been logical, but why did Kierkegaard 

refuse? He refused out of the simple fear that ”If we get married and some trouble arises, then? If some fighting 

arises or if she falls in love with somebody else? she is such a beautiful woman....” Afraid of the possibilities of 

the future, he simply refused. He refused to live! He never left the city, he was so afraid of accidents. So when he 

says man is a trembling he is saying it from personal experience. 

Buddha says: The master does not tremble. All his trembling disappears because he knows there is no death. 

Knowing himself he has transcended death. He has no fear of the future because he lives in the present. He is not 

possessive; hence nothing can be taken away from him. 

NOTHING BINDS HIM. HE IS INFINITELY FREE. 

Because he is nonpossessive, NOTHING BINDS HIM. He is freedom, absolute freedom. 

SO CUT THROUGH THE STRAP AND THE THONG AND THE ROPE. LOOSEN THE FASTENINGS. 

UNBOLT THE DOORS OF SLEEP AND AWAKE. 

Three things are our bondage: body, mind, self THE STRAP, THE THONG AND THE ROPE. SO CUT 

THROUGH.... Be aware you are neither the body nor the mind nor the self. Awareness is the sword with which 

to cut through. 

And LOOSEN THE FASTENINGS: lust, greed, anger, hatred, ambition, jealousy, possessiveness. 

UNBOLT THE DOORS OF SLEEP: awaken yourself, become conscious. 

On a crowded subway a well-built mulatto secretary felt behind her the presence of a sexually excited soul 

brother. She tried to move away, but her fidgeting only made things worse. Finally she turned around and 

snapped, ”Mister, you are vulgar!” 

”I didn’t do nothin’ wrong, honey!” said the black man. ”But I can understand why you’re a little peeved. I 

got paid tonight, the boss had nothing but small change, and it makes a lump in my pants pocket. Believe me, 

baby, that’s all there is to it.” 

”I suppose,” said the woman, ”you also want me to believe that all the time we’re standing here your boss is 

giving you raises!” 

Just look at your sex, at your anger, at your greed. You are utterly in their power, helplessly in their power. 

Buddha is not a metaphysician; he is a superb psychologist. He is the first to create the psychology of the 

buddhas. 

He is saying: Cut through all this slavery. UNBOLT THE DOORS OF SLEEP AND AWAKE.


Mrs. Rafferty was sitting at home in Dublin with her children, all waiting for the man of the house to come 

home from his job in the local brewery. A knock came at the door. When Mrs. Rafferty opened it she saw Mick 

standing with downcast eyes and a sad look on his face. ”Bad news,” he said. ”Pat fell into a vat of whiskey and 

drowned this afternoon.” 

Mrs. Rafferty and the children burst into anguished tears, but she managed to stammer, ”Oh Jesus, did he 

suffer? Was it a painful death?” 

Mick coughed reverently and took off his hat. ”No, maam,” he said, ”I don’t think so. He got out twice for a 

piss!” 

Be awake. Just see what you are doing, just see what your life consists of. Is there any awareness or is it just 

an unconscious play of unconscious forces? Are you just a victim of forces you are not aware of either from where 

they come or what they are doing to you? Are you going to die in this way? 

THE MASTER ENDURES INSULTS AND ILL TREATMENT WITHOUT REACTING. 

The master cannot react. He responds, but he never reacts. Reactions come from the past, response is 

spontaneous; it is in the present. The slave reacts, the master responds. The unconscious mind reacts, the 

conscious man responds. He has no ready-made answers. He encounters the situation, he reflects the situation. 

He accepts the challenge of the situation and acts accordingly. His action is born out of the present. 

And remember one fundamental secret of life: if the action is born out of the present it is never binding; if it 

comes out of the past it is binding, it is karma. If the action comes out of your present awareness it is not karma, 

it is not binding. You do it and it is finished, you do it and you get out of it; it never accumulates in you. The 

master never accumulates the past; he dies every moment to the past. He is born anew every moment. 

THE MASTER ENDURES INSULTS AND ILL TREATMENT WITHOUT REACTING. 

FOR HIS SPIRIT IS AN ARMY. 

He need not react. Insults cannot insult him, ill treatment only brings his compassion, because he knows his 

awareness is a citadel, is a shelter which cannot be broken. It is an ultimate protection; he is ultimately secure in 

his awareness. 

HE IS NEVER ANGRY. HE KEEPS HIS PROMISES. HE NEVER STRAYS, HE IS DETERMINED. THIS 

BODY IS MY LAST, HE SAYS! 

LIKE WATER ON THE LEAF OF A LOTUS FLOWER OR A MUSTARD SEED ON THE POINT OF A 

NEEDLE, HE DOES NOT CLING. 

He does not cling to anything body, mind or self. He clings not, he is no more there to cling. He is just pure 

emptiness. And out of that pure emptiness arises innocence, out of that pure emptiness arises godliness. 

FOR HE HAS REACHED THE END OF SORROW AND HAS LAID DOWN HIS BURDEN. 

According to Buddha the only burden is the self, the ego. Put the burden aside and you are absolutely free. 

He does not talk about God; he only talks about the burden, the ego. Put it aside and you will know what God 

is. There is no need to talk about God; talking about God is utterly futile. He emphatically avoids talking about 

God; it is useless. He gives you the right way to experience godliness. 

You are gods. Just the seed has to die, the self has to die, and you will start growing. That growth is divine. 

Religion is the process of inner growth, the process of actualizing the potential, the process of being reborn. Unless 

you are born again you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 



Chapter 2 Just throw the whole bag 

Audio:Yes Video:Yes Length:39 mins 


Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, YOU SAY THAT ENLIGHTENMENT CAN HAPPEN ANY MOMENT. TO ME IT 

FEELS LIKE A VERY SLOW PROCESS OF LEARNING AND BECOMING AWARE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS 

PARTS OF MY BEING. DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS? 

Dharmapriya, enlightenment is not a process of learning; on the contrary, it is a process of unlearning. Whatsoever 

you know has to be dropped. Knowledge, the knowledgeable mind, has to be renounced. 

If it were a process of learning, then certainly it would take time, it would be gradual. But if it is a question 

of dropping something then it is not gradual, it need not be gradual. You can simply drop it instantly. 

Once it happened:


A man came to Sri Ramakrishna with ten thousand gold coins to offer him. Ramakrishna accepted his offering 

and then said, ”Now these coins are mine you go to the Ganges and throw them all into the river.” Ramakrishna 

lived in a temple just on the bank of the Ganges. 

The man was very much shocked. ”Ten thousand gold coins, solid gold coins, and this fool is saying, ’Throw 

them into the river!’ And I have always thought that this man had become enlightened he is simply mad!” He 

hesitated. 

Ramakrishna said, ”When you have offered them to me they no longer belong to you. Why are you hesitating? 

I can send somebody else to throw them away. You please go.” 

The man went, reluctantly of course, and he didn’t come back. One hour passed. Ramakrishna inquired, ”What 

happened to that man? Has he escaped with the coins? Go and inquire.” 

Somebody was sent. There was a great crowd, he had gathered a great crowd, and he was throwing each single 

coin, one by one, and counting them! 

When Ramakrishna was told, ”This is what is happening it may take a few hours more,” Ramakrishna went 

himself, hit the man on the head and said, ”Are you mad or something? When you collect coins, of course you 

collect them one by one, it is a gradual process. But when you are throwing them away, why are you counting? 

Just throw the whole bag! Whether they are ten thousand or a few more or a few less, it doesn’t matter. The 

Ganges won’t take any note of it!” 

This is the situation. When you stop gathering knowledge you also unlearn slowly, not because unlearning has 

to be slow. It is only your clinging mind. It is the mind that does not want to renounce knowledge, hence it goes 

on postponing. It finds beautiful rationalizations. 

The idea of gradual enlightenment is one of the most beautiful rationalizations, and it appeals to the mind 

because all that mind knows is gradual. The whole language of the mind is the language of time. Whatsoever the 

mind can do has to be done in time, it needs time. 

But enlightenment does not happen in time. When I say it can happen in a moment, please don’t misunderstand 

me the moment is not part of time at all! I am saying it can happen immediately; it needs no time at all, not even 

a single moment is needed. It can happen now... but you cling. You say, ”How is it possible? I have to become 

slowly, slowly alert, aware, meditative. Chunk by chunk I have to transform my unconscious being. I have to 

drop greed, anger, lust, jealousy, possessiveness, hatred, and there are a thousand and one things, and each thing 

is going to take time. I have to drop fear, I have to drop my identification with the body and the mind, I have 

to drop my attachments....” And the list is almost infinite. It will take eternity for you to become enlightened; in 

fact, you will never become enlightened. The very idea that it is going to be a gradual process is only a strategy 

of the mind to postpone it. 

Enlightenment is always sudden. It is a question of understanding, insight, illumination. It is like sudden 

lightning. It has always happened like that. 

Gautam Buddha was trying for his enlightenment for six years; it was a lengthy process. He was following many 

methods, many paths. He was doing whatsoever is humanly possible to do, but nothing was happening. He was 

moving in circles; he was where he had started, he was not going anywhere else. He was becoming tired, utterly 

tired. Finally one evening this sudden illumination happened to him that his whole effort was irrelevant. 

Enlightenment is not something like an achievement; one cannot achieve it. One has to disappear for it to 

happen. It is a happening and it happens only in the absence of the ego. And whenever you are doing something 

the ego becomes more and more strengthened. The ego is a doer, and enlightenment happens in a state of 

nondoing. It is simply the realization of who you are; it is not a question of achievement. You are already it! Just 

an awakening, just a turning in! 

Seeing the point, Buddha relaxed; he dropped all his methods. That is the only use of methods: you get tired 

of them, you feel utterly bored with them. One day out of sheer boredom you drop all the methods. 

That evening he dropped his whole spiritual search. He had dropped all worldly search six years before, but it 

is the same search whether you are seeking money or meditation, whether you are seeking power or enlightenment, 

whether you are running after prestige or God it is the same thing! The mind needs some object to run after. 

The mind wants something to desire. It wants an objective goal; whatsoever that objective goal is doesn’t matter 

XYZ, anything will do. 

Seeing the point, ”It is the same mind I have renounced the world, but I have not renounced the mind, and 

the mind is the real world. And these six years I have only been changing the objects of my desire, but I have not 

dropped desiring. Instead of money, now I desire enlightenment. Instead of power, now I desire ultimate truth. 

But is there any difference? It is the same desiring mind, the same ambitious ego; in fact, it has become more


subtle. It was gross before, now it is very subtle...” seeing it, he laughed. These six years he had not laughed at 

all, he had been serious. He laughed at the whole ridiculousness of the effort. 

Spiritual effort is more ridiculous than the worldly effort. The worldly effort has a certain relevance, but the 

spiritual effort has no relevance. 

He relaxed obviously, naturally. Not that he made an effort to relax: relaxation came to him because there 

was nothing to achieve, nowhere to go. Relaxation simply came to him; from the beyond something descended. 

He fell into deep rest. 

That night he slept for the first time without dreams. When there are no desires there are no dreams; dreams 

are reflections of desires. That night there was no nightmare; for six years he had been suffering from many 

nightmares. A nightmare simply says that you are desiring impossible things; hence your night is disturbed, your 

sleep is disturbed. There is no rest; it is feverish, it is pathological, it is not healthy. For the first time in his life 

he relaxed and slept well, totally, like a small child newly born. 

Deeply rested, in the morning when he opened his eyes the last star was disappearing from the sky. Seeing the 

last star disappear, the last trace of the ego disappeared in him. He had found it but he had found it without 

any effort. It had happened, but it had happened not as a goal, not as an achievement it had happened out of 

deep relaxation. 

But remember, don’t start trying to relax; that is the most absurd thing in the world. And there are many 

stupid people writing books about relaxation. I have come across one book the name of the book is You Must 

Relax! Now that very word ’must’ is enough to keep you tense. Relaxation cannot be a ”must,” it cannot be an 

effort. 

Try one night to go to sleep, make an effort to go to sleep, and it will become more and more impossible for 

you. Every night you go to sleep very easily. If you want to suffer from insomnia this is the sure method to suffer 

from insomnia. Try, make an effort to go into sleep. Toss and turn and take long breaths and count sheep and 

jog in the room and take a bath and do some Transcendental Meditation. And then naturally sleep will become 

impossible, because all these things will be disturbances, distractions. How do you go to sleep? If somebody asks 

you, will you ever be able to explain? How do you manage? Every night when you fall asleep you are doing a 

miracle! You are moving from doing to nondoing, from action to no-action. How do you manage it? Is there any 

art? Have you learned it? What is the trick in it? Try to think about it, and then you will never be able to sleep. 

I have heard about one centipede the centipede has one hundred legs. The centipede was taking a morning 

walk and a spider became very much intrigued. The spider must have been a mathematician or something like 

that. He said, ”Uncle, can you satisfy my curiosity? How do you manage? One hundred legs! Which one to 

put first and which one to put next and then... a hundred legs! You don’t fall, you don’t get confused? Do you 

keep counting inside? If I had one hundred legs I am certain I would not be able to walk. My legs would become 

entangled with each other, I would fall immediately.” 

The centipede laughed. He said, ”You mathematicians, you are always asking nonsense questions! You know 

that I am managing perfectly well but I have never thought about it. Let me think it over.” 

So he tried to walk and think and he fell down immediately. He was very angry at the spider and he said, 

”Listen! Never ask a centipede this question again now for my whole life I will be in trouble! I had never thought 

about it, things were going perfectly well. I had never looked into the matter. Now that you have asked me I will 

never be at ease until I have found the answer. Trying to figure it out... you see I am in a mess! Please never ask 

any centipede. You have crippled me for my whole life. Now I don’t think that I will ever be able to walk. One 

hundred legs! Of course you are right, and I don’t know how everything was being managed.” 

If somebody asks you how you go to sleep, don’t try to find out the answer; otherwise you will suffer from 

insomnia from that very day. People who suffer from insomnia, all that they need is to forget about sleep; there 

is no need to worry about it. If you are not feeling sleepy, be happy, enjoy. Read something, listen to music, sing, 

dance, go for a walk you are more fortunate than the people who are fast asleep and snoring. But forget all about 

sleep. Watch the stars, enjoy the stars, feel yourself far more fortunate than the others, and you will fall asleep 

without any effort on your part. But don’t make any effort. 

Enlightenment is something like that. It is not a question of making effort. 

Dharmapriya, you say, ”To me it feels like a very slow process.” It is not a process at all it is a jump, a 

quantum leap! And it has nothing to do with learning; it is unlearning. You are conditioned. Enlightenment 

means becoming unconditioned again, becoming a child again. You were a child once so you can be a child again. 

You have just to put aside all kinds of rubbish that you have gathered around yourself. You have to jump out of 

it, that’s all. It is not a question of a slow process of learning, it is simply a question of seeing the point.


But we are cunning, mind is very cunning. It can’t accept the simple fact that we still want to avoid enlightenment. 

We don’t want to be enlightened, we are afraid of the fact, but we are cunning and we cannot accept it. 

Hence we find out ways ways to deceive ourselves that it is a slow process, a very slow process; that it takes not 

only one life but many lives to become enlightened. It does not take time at all, what to say about a life or many 

lives? It has nothing to do with time. It is immediate it can happen now! 

See the point. Allow relaxation to happen, don’t try to relax. Simply relax, don’t make it a ”must.” Rest... 

and if you rest you will start falling into the deep abyss of your own being, and sooner or later you will reach the 

rock bottom of yourself. To experience that rock bottom of yourself is to be enlightened, is to be a buddha, is to 

be a christ. 

That’s why I insist again and again it can happen any moment, just to remind you that your mind is very 

clever. It can deceive others, it can deceive you. Beware of the mind! It keeps you clouded, it never allows you to 

see things as they are. 

Enlightenment is your nature, hence there is no question of learning, no question of reaching somewhere. You 

are already there, it has already happened. It is your very being, your very ground. It is in your every breath and 

in every beat of your heart. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DON’T I FEEL ANY SURPRISES IN MY LIFE? ALL SEEMS SO DULL AND 

DRAB. 

Gyano, I have given you the name Gyano: Gyano means knowledge. You are too knowledgeable, you know too 

much. And when one knows too much, life loses the quality of being mysterious. Then you are never surprised 

by anything. Your knowledge goes on supplying you all kinds of answers; even before you have asked, the answer 

is there, you seem to know everything. Knowing nothing you go on believing in borrowed knowledge, and slowly, 

slowly that borrowed knowledge hypnotizes you so much that you forget that you don’t know. You start believing 

in your own knowledge and it is not your own, it is just borrowed. You may have read the Bible, the Gita, the 

Koran.... 

Krishna knew what he was talking about, but when you read you don’t know. Jesus knew what he was talking 

about, but when you read the Sermon on the Mount you are simply collecting, gathering words words which are 

not meaningful to you at all, which cannot have any meaning because meaning comes from experience. 

Jesus says: If somebody hits you on one of your cheeks, give him the other one too. You can read it, it is a 

simple statement. You can even try to follow it thousands of Christians are trying to follow it. 

I have heard about a Christian saint who used to talk too much about this statement. A mischievous person 

came and hit the saint on one cheek. Of course, true to his teaching, the saint gave him his other cheek hoping 

that now he would understand: ”He will see how great I am, how compassionate, how considerate, how full of 

love!” 

But the mischievous person was also a great devil; if the saint was great he was also great. He was not in any 

way inferior to the saint. He hit on the other cheek even harder. 

Now this was too much! The saint immediately jumped upon him and started hitting him. The mischievous 

person was surprised. He said, ”What are you doing? What happened to your teaching? What happened to 

Jesus?” 

He said, ”Jesus has said: If somebody hits you on one cheek, give him the other. I have got only two cheeks, 

so his teaching is finished now I am free of the teaching. I will show you who I am! I have followed the teaching 

literally, exactly.” 

Once Buddha was asked by a man, ”How many times do you say one should forgive?” 

Now, the very question is enough to show the quality of the person. He is saying, ”How many times...?” When 

you ask about how many times, you are not a man of compassion. 

Buddha said, ”Seven times.” 

The man said, ”Okay.” 

Because of the way he said, ”Okay,” Buddha said, ”Wait seventy times!” 

The man felt a little reluctant about accepting seventy times, but still he said, ”Okay.” 

Buddha said, ”I withdraw my words. You have to forgive infinitely; even seventy times won’t do. The way 

you are accepting it, it seems that when seventy times are over you will take revenge. And you can do harm in a 

single blow, you can take revenge in a single blow. You are not a man of compassion. You don’t understand me, 

it is not a question of how many times.”


You can read Buddha, The Dhammapada, you can recite it every day; you will become knowledgeable. All 

questions will disappear because you will have all kinds of answers, but all those answers are borrowed. Hence they 

will destroy the beauty of life and they will destroy your sense of awe and wonder, which are the most essential 

religious qualities. 

If someone asks me which is the most fundamental religious quality, I will say wonder. And knowledge kills 

wonder. You start knowing about everything and the more you know, the more your life will be dull and drab, 

because all that dust of knowledge that gathers around you makes your mirrorlike consciousness so clouded there 

are so many layers of knowledge that you lose the quality of childlike wonder. You can’t see the beauty of flowers, 

you can’t see the beauty of a sunset, you can’t see the miracle of existence. And existence is full of miracles, and 

surprises are everywhere, all around you. 

Just look, but look with open eyes. The knowledgeable person is blind; the most blind person in existence is 

the knowledgeable person. 

Gyano, I have given you the name just to remind you again and again that that is your problem, that is your 

main characteristic. Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples, ”The first thing for the disciple is to know what his 

main characteristic is.” Your main characteristic is knowledgeability. 

Look around without carrying your burden of knowledge, and then you are stumbling continuously into new 

surprises and life again becomes worth living, worth rejoicing. Life again becomes a mystery to be loved and lived. 

It is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived. 

”Brothers,” said the colored preacher, ”the subject of my sermon today is ’liars’. How many in this congregation 

have read the sixty-ninth chapter of Matthew?” 

Nearly every hand went up. 

”You are the very people I want to preach to,” the reverend said. ”There is no such chapter!” 

But nobody wants to accept that he does not know. Sixty-ninth chapter of Matthew.... Everybody wants to 

pretend. And I will not say that they were doing it very consciously, deliberately. Maybe they were thinking that 

they had read it, maybe they were believing that they had read it, and seeing so many hands going up they must 

become convinced that yes, there is such a chapter. 

In the old days down South, a minister had a Negro named Ezra in his household. Ezra was smart and 

ambitious, but he could not read or write. 

One Sunday the minister saw Ezra in the church, scribbling away industriously through the sermon. Afterwards, 

the minister asked him, ”Ezra, what were you doing in church?” 

”Taking notes, sir. I’s eager to learn.” 

”Let me see,” said the minister, and he glanced over Ezra’s notes, which looked more like Chinese than English. 

”Why, Ezra,” he chided, ”this is all nonsense!” 

”I thought so,” said Ezra, ”all the time you was preaching it!” 

Your preachers have poisoned you. Your knowledge has destroyed you; it has taken away the simple joy of 

not-knowing. Regain that joy of not-knowing. That’s the whole purpose of meditation: coming out of knowledge 

just as a snake slips out of its old skin. 

Slip out of your knowledge, Gyano, and then life is full of surprises. Every moment you will come across so 

many wonderful things. A seed becoming a sprout is a miracle. A bud opening in the morning is a miracle. A 

flower releasing its fragrance is a miracle. The night full of stars... what more miracles do you need? The whole 

existence is in a constant celebration! 

And still you say, ”I feel dull and drab and dragging”? 

Then you must be at fault somewhere; nobody else is responsible for it. But we cling to our knowledge because 

it fulfills our ego. 

D.H. Lawrence was walking in a garden with a small child. And, as children are prone to, the child asked, 

”Why are the trees green?” 

D.H. Lawrence is one of the people I love and I respect. D.H. Lawrence is one of the people of this century who 

had tremendous insight into things. He stood there, thought for a moment, closed his eyes, meditated. 

The child said, ”Is it such a difficult question for you? Don’t you know why the trees are green?” 

D.H. Lawrence said, ”The trees are green because they are green.” 

The child said, ”Right! That’s the right answer.” 

But you will not agree; no knowledgeable person will agree with D.H. Lawrence. He will say trees are green 

because of chlorophyll or some other nonsense. But his answer is tremendously beautiful: ”Trees are green because 

they are green!” 

And the child was immensely happy. He said, ”Right, that’s what I also feel. We agree about it!”


Drop your knowledge, become more childlike, and regain your joy in life. To rejoice in life is sannyas. My 

sannyas is not renunciation: it is rejoicing, it is celebration. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, YOU HAVE SUSSED ME OUT. NOW IS THE TIME TO TELL MY DREADED 

SECRET! I AM ONE OF YOUR POLACKS. WHAT TO DO? 

Prem Veechi, that’s the most beautiful thing about Polacks I love and like. You are not the first Polack who 

has declared it. Asha wrote a note saying that, ”Beloved Master, I am also a Polack.” Anupama wrote a note 

saying that her lover, Amitabh, is a Polack. And many others. This is beautiful! 

And see what the British are doing. One British lady, Prem Lisa, has written saying, ”We are superior so what 

can we do?” 

Veechi, it is beautiful to be a Polack. It is beautiful to be a little foolish, not so superior as the British. 

Why don’t they have ice-cubes in Poland? 

Because the woman with the recipe died. 

One Polack arrived in New York seeking his fame and fortune. As he strolled down the sidewalk he noticed a 

great long ladder propped against the side of a building, stretching upward as far as the eye could see. He started 

to pass on by, but a voice high in the clouds called down, ”Climb up the ladder to success!” 

Somewhat nervously he began to ascend, rung by rung, all the way to the top of the fifty-story edifice. When 

he got there, a slender, blond, blue-eyed boy seated on the ledge of the building smiled sweetly at him. 

”Hi, there!” he said. ”I am Cess!” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, IF GOD IS A SHE, WHY DO YOU KEEP ON CALLING HER A HE? AND ANOTHER 

QUESTION: YOU SAY THE ENGLISH ARE LADIES AND THE ITALIANS, WOMEN. WHERE WOULD YOU 

PUT THE GERMAN FEMALES? 

Prem Prageeta, the German females are precisely that females neither ladies nor women. ’Female’ is more 

scientific and more German, more scholarly, neutral; it has no evaluation in it. 

And God, in fact, is neither he nor she. 

So if you say he is a he I will say he is a she; if you say he is a she I will say he is a he simply to unhinge you 

from your convictions. 


Buddha entered a village. A man asked him as he was entering the village, ”Does God exist?” 

He said, ”No, absolutely no.” 

In the afternoon another man came and he asked, ”Does God exist?” 

And he said, ”Yes, absolutely yes.” 

In the evening a third man came and he asked, ”Does God exist?” 

Buddha closed his eyes and remained utterly silent. The man also closed his eyes. Something transpired in 

that silence. After a few minutes the man touched Buddha’s feet, bowed down, paid his respects and said, ”You 

are the first man who has answered my question.” 

Now, Buddha’s attendant, Ananda, was very much puzzled: ”In the morning he said no, in the afternoon he 

said yes, in the evening he did not answer at all. What is the matter? What is really the truth?” 

So when Buddha was going to sleep, Ananda said, ”First you answer me; otherwise I will not be able to sleep. 

You have to be a little more compassionate towards me too. I have been with you the whole day. Those three 

people don’t know about the other answers, but I have heard all the three answers. What about me? I am 

troubled.” 

Buddha said, ”I was not talking to you at all! You had not asked, I had not answered you. The first man 

who came was a theist, the second man who came was an atheist, the third man who came was an agnostic. My 

answer had nothing to do with God, my answer had something to do with the questioner. I was answering the 

questioner; it was absolutely unconcerned with God. 

”The person who believes in God, I will say no to him because I want him to drop his idea of God, I want him 

to be free of his idea of God which is borrowed. He has not experienced. If he had experienced he would not 

have asked me; there would have been no need. 

”The person who believed in God, he was trying to find confirmation for his belief from me. I was not going 

to say yes to him I am not going to confirm anybody’s belief. I had to say no, I had to deny, just to destroy his


belief, because all beliefs are barriers to knowing the truth. Theist or atheist, all beliefs, Hindu or Christian or 

Mohammedan, all beliefs are barriers. 

”And the person with whom I remained silent was the right inquirer. He had no belief, hence there was no 

question of destroying anything. I kept silent. That was my message to him: Be silent and know. Don’t ask, there 

is no need to ask. It is not a question which can be answered. It is not an inquiry but a quest, a thirst. Be silent 

and know. I had answered him also; through my silence I gave him the message and he immediately followed it he 

also became silent. I closed my eyes, he closed his eyes; I looked in, he looked in, and then something transpired. 

That’s why he was so much overwhelmed, he felt so much gratitude, for the simple reason that I did not give 

him any intellectual answer. He had not come for any intellectual answer; intellectual answers are available very 

cheap. He needed something existential he needed a taste. I gave him a taste.” 

Remember this: God is neither man nor woman; he cannot be man or woman. Either he is both or he is neither. 

God is the ultimate synthesis of all opposites. Man is one extreme, woman the other. God is not an extreme, he 

is the whole existence. He is vast enough to contain the opposites; all opposites become complementaries in God. 

So don’t cling to my answers; they are not answers. I am not a teacher at all. I am not here teaching you a 

certain dogma, a certain creed. I am simply trying to help you to be unburdened of your knowledge so that you 

can be silent with me. And I am in a hurry because soon I want to go into silence, so you also have to be quick. 

Don’t linger too much. Don’t go on postponing because I will not be talking for ever and ever. Soon I want to 

be silent. You can sit in silence with me then, you can sing, you can play music, you can dance, but I want to 

stop all kinds of intellectual communications between you and me. I want to be existentially related to you. I am 

simply preparing the ground I am pulling out weeds. 

So it depends: whatsoever your belief is I am going to destroy it. I am against all beliefs. That’s why you 

will find Christian priests against me, the Catholic pope against me, the Hindu shankaracharya against me, the 

Mohammedans against me, even the communists against me; for the simple reason that I am against all beliefs, 

communist or Catholic, Hindu or Buddhist, it doesn’t matter belief is belief. 

I want you to be in a state of no-belief, in a state of not-knowing. I want you to function from that state of 

not-knowing, from that innocence. Only in that innocence will you be able to know. So if you have communist 

weeds in you I will pull them out. If I need the help of Catholic instruments, I will use Catholic instruments to 

pull out communist weeds. If you are a Catholic and communist instruments are needed, I will use communist 

instruments to pull out Catholic weeds. 

My function here is that of a surgeon. I am not much interested in what instruments are being used surgery 

has to be done. Something has to be pulled out of you. Your soil has to be completely cleared of all stones, of all 

weeds. Only then will your nature start growing roses. 

So you will be puzzled. Many times you will find my statements contradictory they are, and I don’t want to hide 

the fact. They are contradictory, they are absurd! Because I will say one thing one moment and I will contradict it 

the next moment. And I am not at all consistent or I am only consistent in one thing: about my inconsistencies, 

that is my only consistency. I am consistently inconsistent, that’s all. I am always contradictory, for the simple 

reason that you have come here from different backgrounds and I am trying to destroy all backgrounds, all 

conditionings. So it depends on you. 

God is neither a man nor a woman. In fact, God is not a person at all. The very idea of God being a person 

is anthropocentric. There is no God, in fact, but only godliness. Drop the idea of God as a person. You all have 

that childish idea of God as a superfather sitting somewhere on a golden throne in the sky, pulling everyone’s 

strings a puppeteer or something, controlling, managing, a superboss, a great manager, engineer, architect. You 

have this idea of God. 

God is not a person at all; God is the ultimate harmony of existence. Remember the harmony, the accord, the 

music, the melody, the faraway, distant call of a cuckoo... and there is godliness in it. This bird calling... and 

there is godliness in it. This silence here in which you are all drowned... and there is godliness in it. Godliness 

certainly exists. 

I perfectly agree with H.G. Wells; he has made one of the most profound statements about Buddha ever made. 

He said that Buddha was the most godless yet the most godly person who ever walked on the earth. The most 

godless and yet the most godly? 

Yes, that’s how existence is. It is a godless existence but tremendously godly. Godliness has to be remembered, 

God has to be forgotten. If you remember God you will go to the church and to the temple and to the mosque and 

you will do all kinds of stupid things which have been done down the centuries. If you remember godliness then it 

is not a question of going to Kaaba or Kashi; then it is a question of living it. Then live in a way which is godly.


Live in harmony, live beautifully, live aesthetically, live sensitively, live lovingly. Let your life be a tremendous 

love affair. 

Then there is no need for prayer, because there is nobody to hear it. It is a question of meditation, not of 

prayer. Then don’t go on calling on God; you are wasting your time. Be silent, more and more silent, and live out 

of that silence, act out of that silence. Meet people and animals and the trees and the rocks with deep reverence 

because all is divine. 

Existence is nothing but God. 

Existence is synonymous with God. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM A TOURIST. I AM HERE ONLY FOR ONE DAY. CAN I ALSO RECEIVE 

YOUR GRACE? 

Tom, so you have come! I was always waiting. Where are Dick and Harry? And you are from California of 

course, you can’t be from anywhere else. Californialand consists only of tourists! 

”Tourist” is a new species: they are not ordinary human beings. That is a new development, a breakthrough 

or a breakdown. A tourist is a strange kind of person: he is always rushing to nowhere, he does not know why 

from one place to another place. When he is in Kabul he thinks of Pune, when he is in Pune he thinks of Goa, 

when he is in Goa he thinks of Kathmandu. He is never where he is, he is somewhere else; he is all over the place 

except the place where he is. He is never at home. You will never find him in his own home; he has always gone 

somewhere else, he is always dreaming of other places. 

The tourist goes on missing everything; he is in such a rush that he can’t see anything. To see things you have 

to be a little more relaxed, a little more restful. But the tourist is always on the go. He will take his breakfast in 

New York, his lunch in London, and he will suffer indigestion in Pune! 

He carries a camera, inevitably, because he cannot see anything right now, so he goes on taking photographs. 

Later on he makes albums he is a bum and makes albums! And then later on, when it is all over, he looks at the 

Himalayan peaks, at the Goa beach and when he was there he was not there! The camera was doing his work. 

He need not be there; in fact, why does he bother at all? He can purchase these photographs anywhere, better 

photographs than he can take because he is amateurish; professionals are already taking photographs. He can get 

beautiful albums and, sitting at home, he can look at them. But now the problem is that he cannot sit down. 

It is one of the qualities that a few people are completely losing; they cannot sit. They have to do something, 

they have to go somewhere, and they have to go fast. They don’t want to lose any time and they are losing their 

whole lives in not losing time! They will not appreciate anything because appreciation needs intimacy. 

If you want to appreciate a flower you have to sit by the side of the flower, you have to meditate, you have to 

allow the flower to have its say. You have to experience the joy, the dance of the flower in the sun, in the wind, 

in the rain. You have to see all the moods of the flower in the morning, in the afternoon, in the hot sun, in the 

evening, in the full moon. You have to see all the moods of the flower. You have to become acquainted, you 

have to create a friendship. You have to say ”hello” to the flower; you have to get into a dialogue, an existential 

dialogue. Only then can the flower reveal its secrets to you. 

But the tourist is pathological. Why is he rushing? for the simple reason that he does not know what to do 

with himself if he is left alone, if he is not to go anywhere, if he has just to sit silently. He does not know what 

to do with himself. He feels awkward, embarrassed; he has to do something. 

Man has become a doer. He has lost the quality of being a witness, a watcher. 

The tourist cannot understand the Zen approach, the essential Buddhist approach of sitting silently doing 

nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself. 

Zen people sit for years doing nothing just sitting, watching... what is outside and what is inside, watching 

their breath.... 

Now, the tourist will think this is absolutely ridiculous. Why watch your breath? What is the point of it all? 

Why not watch TV, some horror film? They are glued to their chairs only when the TV takes them into some 

torture story, into some murder, into some sexual orgy, into something so they can become participants. They are 

no more spectators, they become identified with the characters. They start becoming part of the story. 

Now new dramas are being developed in the West in which the spectators can participate, for the simple reason 

that spectators cannot sit for three hours, so they are allowed to come on the stage. At least they can come on 

the stage from this side and go from that side, and the play goes on. Or they can say something, they can have a 

little chitchat with the actors on the stage! Now they are even developing new techniques where the stage should 

be just in the middle and it’s okay if anybody wants to come in, sit on the stage, do something, do some yoga


postures. Now in a Shakespearean drama somebody comes and stands on his head... that will help! The people 

who have fallen asleep will wake up something is happening! Otherwise who wants to see Shakespearean drama? 

The universities have bored people to death with Shakespeare; people are finished with Shakespeare. Once they 

get out of the university they don’t want to even hear the name of Shakespeare. It feels like a dirty word! But the 

real reason is that people cannot sit there for three hours; they have to do something. They have to be allowed 

some action; then they can sit. 

A strange quality has happened to humanity, a very insane quality: that nobody can sit silently. And that is 

what meditation is all about. 

You ask me, ”I am a tourist. I am here only for one day.” 

I am grateful that you are here for one day, Tom, because there are tourists who are not here even for one day. 

”Can I also receive your grace?” you ask. 

My grace is available, but are you available to my grace? 

An American tourist was gazing into the crater of a Greek volcano. ”It looks like hell,” he said. 

”Ah, you Americans,” said his guide, ”you’ve been everywhere!” 

Where are you going? And what is the hurry? Can’t you be here a little longer? You will be going to Goa it 

is almost certain, it is predictable. What are you going to do in Goa? You can do all those stupid things here! 

We run almost one hundred therapy groups for what? Just for people who can’t sit silently, just to tire them. 

So they are pushed and pulled and they are massaged and Rolfed. Do you know what the latest thing in hell 

is? Rolfing! Learn it here because otherwise you will be in difficulty there. Ida Rolf has died and gone to hell; 

now she is training people there! But we have managed all kinds of groups here. If you pass through these one 

hundred groups and you can survive, then you need not be afraid of hell at all. In fact, the devil and his disciples 

will be afraid of you! The moment they see the orange people coming they will close the doors. They will say, 

”Go to the other place!” 

And we do all kinds of stupid things with expertise. In Goa you will be just amateurish! Here we have the best 

experts in the world and package deals! 

Tom, just be here a little bit more.... 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, I CAN’T MAKE UP MY MIND WHETHER I WANT TO BE A PSYCHIATRIST OR 

AN AUTHOR. 

Veetrag, why not toss for it heads or tales? Get it...? 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, I THOUGHT I HAD FOUND A NICE-A BOX-A, BUT SHE TURNED INTO AN 

ICE-A BOX-A. WHAT IS THIS KARMA THAT THIS NEW YORK JEWISH BOY HAS TO WORK OUT 

WITH GERMAN WOMEN? 

Prem Samvid, every nice-a box-a turns into an ice-a box-a finally; it is nothing special about you. ”Nice-a 

box-a” is only the label ”ice-a box-a” is the reality! But you are fools, you go on being befooled by the labels. 

Nobody else is responsible for it. 

Every ice-a box-a carries a beautiful facade written in big neon letters: NICE-A BOX-A. Once you are caught, 

then you know: every woman is a nun! 

Hattie and Aretha were standing on a street corner talking when two nuns passed. 

”Say,” asked Hattie, ”why do they call them ladies nuns?” 

”Because,” replied Aretha, ”they ain’t had none, they ain’t got none, and they ain’t never gonna get none.” 

”No wonder they wear mourning!” 

But every woman basically is a nun and no man is a monk! That is the trouble. God loves troubles! He creates 

puzzles, jigsaw puzzles. There is no way to solve them; one simply learns to accept. 

Samvid, you accept the ice-a box-a. And it is summer and you will need an ice-a box-a! And when winter 

comes, we will see. Who knows about tomorrow? By that time you may be befooled by another box-a. 

And it has nothing to do with any karma; it is simply the sheer stupidity of the human mind. Women are 

always attractive when they are not available to you. They are seducers, they are all coquettish. That is natural, 

that comes just naturally, part of their femaleness. And man is constantly befooled, again and again. Once he is 

befooled he thinks for a few days, becomes very wise but only for a few days. That wisdom does not last long; 

after a few days again he is deceived. He starts thinking, ”Maybe all women are not the same.” But I tell you: 

all women are the same and all men are the same!


Be more aware. Either accept things as they are... then you are not miserable about it because you have no 

more expectations; you know this is how things are going to happen a deep acceptance of things as they are. Or, 

don’t be deceived again, if you are fortunate to get out of this trap this time which is not easy, which is very 

difficult. To get into the trap is always easy. 

And the beauty is that it is the man who tries in every possible way to get trapped. The woman knows there 

is no need to go after you, she simply waits. She believes perfectly in your stupidity, that you will come. The 

more aloof she remains, the more you are attracted. Once a woman starts running after you, you will escape, you 

will become afraid. That is like a mousetrap running after a mouse! The mousetrap simply sits there, knowing 

perfectly well that the mice are bound to come. Where else can they go? And they circle around.... And the 

mousetrap has all the allurements bread and butter and everything... spaghetti! And once the mouse is in, there 

is no way out no exit! 

Jean-Paul Sartre has defined hell as ”No Exit.” Once you get in, you are in forever, you cannot get out of it. 

That’s why it is called hell. And even if by some chance you get out of it you will feel very lonely. You have 

become so accustomed to the comforts of the mousetrap, to the security. There is some security; if you are inside a 

mousetrap, no cat can catch you. You see the security, the safety! Outside the mousetrap there is always danger. 

So sooner or later you will enter into another mousetrap of a different color. The hair will be different, the nose 

will be different, the body will be different just a few differences, but the inside is the same. 

Once this is understood that every man and every woman carries on the same program once this is understood, 

you can deprogram yourself, you can decondition yourself. Then you can remain with a woman; there is no problem 

about it. She has turned into an ice-a box-a because you still want her to be a nice-a box-a. If you don’t want 

her to be a nice-a box-a, then what does it matter what she is? Let her be a nice-a box-a or an ice-a box-a it is 

perfectly okay! You become cool and calm. 

And the same is the problem with the woman from the other side. Again and again she thinks that this man 

will fit, this man is going to deliver the goods. No man ever delivers the goods, no man can ever deliver, that 

is beyond their capacity. No man is responsible really, but your expectations are so high that nobody can meet 

them. They are impossible; hence everybody falls short. Every woman finds sooner or later just a henpecked 

husband and nothing else. And who loves a henpecked husband? No woman can love a henpecked husband. 

Just watch your life, whether you are man or woman, watch your program, your biological program. Be aware of 

it so it can be deprogrammed. Then wherever you are you will be free of it because you will be free of expectations. 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM A RUSSIAN. CAN YOU TELL ME A JOKE ABOUT THE RUSSIANS? 

Darshan, I am never miserly about jokes. If you ask me for one I will tell you two. The first: 

Brezhnev, the head of the Russian Communist Party, invites his aged mother to leave the village where she 

has always lived to come visit him in Moscow. When she arrives he proudly shows her his huge luxury flat inside 

the Kremlin... the priceless Persian carpets, the imported Swedish furniture, the antique silverware and crystal 

tableware, and the latest labor-saving machines from America. 

”It’s beautiful, son,” she says. 

”That’s not all, Mama,” he replies. 

So he takes her in his huge, chauffeur-driven limousine to his country villa outside Moscow and shows her his 

private forest, the swimming pool, the stables full of race-horses and the household staff of fifty servants. 

”So what do you think of all this?” he asks, sweeping his arm around the estate. 

His mother looks a bit worried and whispers, ”But, Leonid, what will you do when the communists come back?” 

And the second: 

Ivan, a small Russian boy, is having great difficulty grasping the basic principles of Soviet communism. After 

several hours of instruction, his father finally says to him, ”Well, look at it this way. Imagine that I, your father, 

am the party, that your mother is the motherland, that your brothers and sisters are the unions and you are the 

people.” 

Ivan still cannot understand the relationship between these institutions, and in a fit of rage his father locks him 

inside a cupboard in the parental bedroom. 

Later that night, forgetting Ivan is still there, his father makes love to his mother. When he is finally released 

by an embarrassed father the next morning, Ivan exclaims: 

”Now I know what you meant, father. The party rapes the motherland while the unions sleep and the people 

stand by and suffer!” 

Enough for today.



Chapter 3 With Love Among the Unloving 


HE LOOKS DEEPLY INTO THINGS AND SEES THEIR NATURE. HE DISCRIMINATES AND REACHES 

THE END OF THE WAY. 

HE DOES NOT LINGER WITH THOSE WHO HAVE A HOME NOR WITH THOSE WHO STRAY. WANT- 

ING NOTHING, HE TRAVELS ON ALONE. 

HE HURTS NOTHING. HE NEVER KILLS. 

HE MOVES WITH LOVE AMONG THE UNLOVING, WITH PEACE AND DETACHMENT AMONG THE 

HUNGRY AND QUERULOUS. 

LIKE A MUSTARD SEED FROM THE POINT OF A NEEDLE HATRED HAS FALLEN FROM HIM, AND 

LUST, HYPOCRISY AND PRIDE. 

HE OFFENDS NO ONE. YET HE SPEAKS THE TRUTH. HIS WORDS ARE CLEAR BUT NEVER HARSH. 

WHATEVER IS NOT HIS HE REFUSES, GOOD OR BAD, GREAT OR SMALL. 

HE WANTS NOTHING FROM THIS WORLD AND NOTHING FROM THE NEXT. HE IS FREE. 

THE MASTER LOOKS DEEPLY INTO THINGS AND SEES THEIR NATURE. HE DISCRIMINATES AND 

REACHES THE END OF THE WAY. 

Only the master can look because only the master has eyes. Without meditation you are blind. You can see, 

but only the most superficial things, only the surface of things, only the circumference and never the center. You 

cannot penetrate into the nature of things. And truth remains hidden at the very core. 

Meditation gives the master an insight into himself and the same insight becomes his bridge to the whole of 

existence. He is no more blind. Only a man of meditation is not blind. Unless you have attained meditation think 

of yourself as blind. Yes, you can see, but you can see only outwardly. And the real nature is inside you; it is in 

your interiority, it is in your subjectivity. 

You live outside the house of your being; you have never entered into the innermost shrine. Not knowing 

yourself, you know nothing. And if you don’t know even yourself, what else can you know? All that you think 

you know is only inferences not knowledge, not authentic knowledge but only guesswork. 

All your knowledge depends on guessing. Sometimes it works only by coincidence, sometimes it does not work. 

When it works you think you are very intelligent, when it does not work you think fate is against you. But you 

never realize the fact that you have no eyes yet to see into things. 

Two men were riding on a train for the first time. One of them had a bunch of bananas. He offered one to his 

friend and began to peel one for himself. Just then, the train entered a tunnel. 

”Have you tasted your banana yet?” asked the first man, very alarmed. 

”No, I haven’t,” replied his friend. 

”Well, for heaven’s sake don’t!” said the first man. ”I took one bite and went blind.” 

This is what your knowledge is just inferences from coincidences. 

Just the other day I told you a joke about a Polack who had come to New York to earn name, fame, money, 

power, prestige. He heard a voice coming from far away in the sky, ”Climb up to success!” A little hesitant, a 

little scared, he tried; he started climbing the ladder, a fifty-story-high ladder, rung by rung. He reached the very 

end and there he found a young man who said, ”Hi there, my name is Cess!” And would you believe that last 

night the young man came to take sannyas! In my whole life this is the first time a man with the name of Cess 

has come to take sannyas! I must have given sannyas to more then one hundred thousand people; thousands of 

Johns and Peters have turned up, but Cess for the first time! And I think it may be the last time too. 

Life is full of coincidences; there is nothing esoteric about it. And he looked exactly like the description! But 

he was an intelligent man he wanted to change his name. 

You go on inferring. Inference is not knowing, inference is just guesswork. Yes, sometimes it may work, but 

more often it fails. Knowing is totally different; it is never guesswork, it is a clear insight into things, into the 

very nature of things. To see into the very nature of things is the whole purpose of meditation. 

Meditation is not something occult, it is very scientific. It is a process of cleansing your eyes, of giving you 

clarity, of making you alert. Your minds are so full of prejudice that you can’t see. Your minds are so full of a 

priori conclusions that whatsoever you see is colored by your conclusions, by your conditionings. Your observation 

is not pure; it is polluted, it is poisoned. You don’t see what is the case, you go on seeing what you want to see 

or what you are prepared to see or what you are conditioned to see. This is not real seeing.


Meditation means removing all your prejudices, putting all your conclusions aside seeing without any hindrance, 

seeing without any curtains, seeing clearly without any mediation of any thought, seeing without Buddha standing 

between you and reality, or Krishna standing or Christ standing. 

That’s why Buddha is reported to have made one of the most strange statements; only a man of the caliber of 

Buddha can say it. He said to his disciples, ”If you meet me on the way, kill me. Don’t allow me to stand between 

you and the truth. Immediately kill me, remove me; otherwise I will be the barrier.” 

The true master is one who helps the disciple finally to get rid of the master too, so that the disciple can 

encounter reality directly, immediately. The false master is one who creates more and more dependence in the 

disciple, makes him a slave, so much so that the disciple cannot even think of being without the master. 

That’s what is happening all over the world. So many so-called saints go on creating dependence in you; their 

whole effort is how to enslave people. They condition you in such a way that their conclusions become your 

conclusions. They don’t give you eyes, they give you ideas. 

The real master gives you eyes, not ideas. He gives you insight into reality and then leaves you in total freedom 

to function out of that insight. 

Buddha says: 

HE LOOKS DEEPLY INTO THINGS AND SEES THEIR NATURE. HE DISCRIMINATES AND REACHES 

THE END OF THE WAY. 

’Discrimination’ is one of the very important words to be understood. Buddha has used the word again and 

again; his word is VIVEK. Vivek has far deeper meanings than the English equivalent ’discrimination’. Vivek 

contains awareness, and discrimination through awareness. One can discriminate without being aware; then it 

will not be discrimination according to Buddha. You can be told what is right and what is wrong and you can 

discriminate, ”This is right and this is wrong,” but because it is not your awareness it is not discrimination. Unless 

you see what is right and what is wrong it is not going to help much. 

The Ten Commandments are of no help to you unless they are handed over to you by God himself, not to 

Moses. They may have been of infinite value to Moses because he came to those insights himself, independent of 

the whole past, of the whole tradition. But you are simply repeating like parrots. 

From their very childhood we start teaching children what is right and what is wrong, what should be done 

and what should not be done. And they become conditioned so much that they forget completely that this is 

not their own voice. They start thinking this is their conscience it is not. It is a strategy of the priests and the 

politicians, a conspiracy against man. They have created a conscience in you and because they have created a 

conscience in you they have prevented the growth of your own conscience. Your own conscience comes out of your 

own consciousness; it can’t come from the outside. Nobody can give it to you, it has to happen to you in your 

deep aloneness. 

Buddha says: The master knows what is false and what is true. He knows on his own authority, not on any 

other authority. He does not know according to the Koran and he does not know according to the Talmud, he 

does not know according to the Vedas he knows himself. And only when you know yourself does your knowing 

have a validity, an authenticity an authenticity that can transform you, that can give you a new birth. 

And he REACHES THE END OF THE WAY.... The moment that authentic insight has arisen in you, your 

consciousness is born, YOU are born. This is a rebirth. You are born anew. You have reached the end of the 

way, there is nowhere else to go. You have arrived home. 

HE DOES NOT LINGER WITH THOSE WHO HAVE A HOME NOR WITH THOSE WHO STRAY. WANT- 

ING NOTHING, HE TRAVELS ON ALONE. 

In India, people are divided into two categories; this is a traditional division. It was so in Buddha’s time too, 

it is a very ancient division. Buddha is trying to make a distinction: he is trying to make his disciples a third 

category. The old, ancient categories are two. The first is the worldly, the householder, those who have a home. 

They are called householders for the simple reason that they live in the fallacy of security, safety a safety that 

they think comes through money, power, prestige, a security that they think comes out of relationships. The wife 

thinks she is safe with the husband, the husband thinks he is safe with the wife, the parents think they are safe 

with their children. The safety is fallacious because neither the family nor money nor anything else of this world 

can save you from death. 

When death comes it shatters everything; it shatters all your sandcastles. The householder lives in a kind 

of dream-world, a world of his own projections. It is not true, it does not correspond to reality; it is his own 

projection. The wife thinks the husband is her security and the husband thinks the wife is his security. Now, both 

are insecure. How can two insecure persons give security to each other? Two insecure persons together become 

doubly insecure, but the fallacy is created.


This is the first category: the grihastha, the householder. 

And the second category is of those who have renounced the first category, who have moved to the other extreme 

who don’t live in houses, who don’t live in families, who don’t earn money, who don’t even touch money, who 

have moved to exactly the opposite extreme. They are known as sannyasins. They used to wander around the 

country in small or big groups. 

Jaina monks are not allowed to move alone. In Buddha’s time there were thousands of Jaina monks because 

Jainism had existed for at least three thousand years before Buddha. Thousands of Jaina monks they are not 

allowed to move alone, they have to move in a group of at least five, for the simple reason that a person moving 

alone cannot be trusted. He may fall into some error and, knowing that nobody is with him, nobody knows, he 

may drink wine somewhere or he may fall in love with a woman or he may go and visit a prostitute or he may do 

something.... But moving with four others it is impossible; the other four are constantly watching. 

So that was a strategy to prevent anybody getting any kind of freedom, any kind of license a psychological 

strategy. Unless all the five decide to conspire together... and that is very difficult, that is almost impossible. 

Sinners are known to become friendly to each other, saints are not known to become friendly to each other. They 

don’t know what friendship is, they can’t conspire. They will watch, they will try to find every kind of fault in 

the other and they will report to the master. And Hindu monks used to move even now they do the same in big 

groups of hundreds. 

Buddha says: You have dropped a small family and now you have moved into a bigger crowd you have become 

another family. Nothing has changed. First you were thinking that was your security, now you think this is your 

security, but the old idea of security still persists. 

He says that to be a sannyasin means to accept the natural insecurity of life. That very acceptance is sannyas 

to accept that, ”I am born alone and I will die alone, and between these two alonenesses all ideas of being together 

with somebody are just fantasies. I am alone even while I am alive.” One is born alone, one lives alone, one dies 

alone. 

Buddha’s emphasis is very much on the fact of your aloneness; he wants you to be aware of it. Once you are 

aware of it you will be surprised at the beauty of it, at the joy of it. You will not be scared; you will rejoice in it 

because it has a freedom, it has an ecstasy in it, it has a purity and innocence in it. And why hanker for security? 

Life is insecure in its very nature, hence it is simple logic: those who want to be more alive, they have to live in 

insecurity. The greater the insecurity, the more will be your aliveness; the greater the fallacious, so-called security, 

the less will be your aliveness. 

That’s why you see so many dead people in the world, almost dead, for the simple reason that they have become 

so much attached to the idea of security. And the more dead you are, the more secure you are. Don’t do anything 

that can create any insecurity, remain confined to the familiar, don’t ever go beyond the limits. You will never 

know the ecstasy of going beyond the limits. You will never know the ecstasy of exploring the unknown and the 

unknowable. 

According to Buddha, both categories are the same people. Of course they are extremists and they appear 

opposite to each other, but don’t be deceived. They are not really opposite; they have found different kinds of 

security. 

A Jaina monk wrote to me that he would like to come here. He has been reading my books and he wants to 

become my sannyasin, but he is afraid he will lose all his security because now the Jaina community protects him, 

feeds him, takes every care of him, respects him. Once he leaves the monkhood, the Jaina community won’t be 

protecting him anymore. 

He asked me whether I am ready to take his life in my hands, whether I will be his security. Now he wants to 

change from one security to another security, he cannot take a jump into insecurity. And my sannyas is insecurity. 

Real sannyas is always insecurity because real life is insecurity. There is a great security in being insecure. In 

dropping the very idea of security you are secure with the whole, with God, with the total. And there is great 

excitement then, because each moment you don’t know what is going to happen. 

Buddha says that the master... DOES NOT LINGER WITH THOSE WHO HAVE A HOME. He does not 

linger with the first category, the people who are obsessed with money, power and prestige. He does not waste his 

time with these people, he does not linger with these insane people. 

And he says: ... NOR WITH THOSE WHO STRAY nor with those who go on roaming around the country 

in groups because that is another kind of security, a subtler kind, but the mind is the same. One wants to belong, 

one can’t be alone. 

He says: WANTING NOTHING, HE TRAVELS ON ALONE because the real master has no desire, not even 

desire for life; hence he is not afraid of death. He has no desire in this world or in the other; hence he is not


concerned with creating all kinds of safeties around himself. He is not concerned. He can be alone, utterly alone. 

He is not trying to be clever and cunning with existence; he trusts existence. 

People are trying to be very cunning with existence, although they call their cunningness their intelligence. 

They always give good names to ugly things. Just look at your life, how cunning you have been trying to be 

even with existence. On the one hand you will go to the church and pray, and on the other hand you are trying 

to be very cunning in every possible way, seeking your ends, sacrificing everybody else for your ends, not caring 

about anybody, utterly uncaring, having no respect, no love, no reverence for life. And on the one hand you go 

on praying in the churches and the temples; that too is part of your cunningness. You know what you are doing 

in your life; to compensate you go to the church every Sunday, or you go to Kaaba.... 

At least once in his life every Mohammedan is expected to go to Kaaba. For what? to repent for all the 

sins that he has committed, so that he can be forgiven. Hindus go to the Ganges as many times in their lives 

as possible, just to take a dip in the Ganges because they think the Ganges cleanses you of all your sins. You 

commit sins and the Ganges has the responsibility of cleansing you of your sins. And what will happen to the 

Ganges, taking so many people’s sins? It must be the most polluted river in the whole world, the most impure! 

Each drop of the Ganges must be full of millions of sins. So many Hindus for so many thousands of years have 

been cleansing their sins there. Avoid the Ganges! Even if by chance you come near the Ganges, escape as fast 

as you can! 

Once a man came to Ramakrishna; he was going to the Ganges to take a dip, a holy dip. He asked Ramakrishna, 

”Paramahansadeva, you bless me I am going for a holy dip. Do you think all my sins will be cleansed?” 

Ramakrishna was a very polite man. He said, ”Of course, when you take a dip in the Ganges all sins fly away 

from you; you are freed.” 

The man said, ”When you are saying it, I trust it. So it is worth going.” 

Ramakrishna said, ”It is worth going, but remember one thing: when you dive in the Ganges, don’t come out.” 

The man said, ”What are you saying? Have you gone mad? I will have to come out, I cannot survive under 

the water for more than a few seconds!” 

Ramakrishna said, ”Then it is futile because whenever you come out... have you seen the big trees standing on 

the banks of the Ganges?” 

He said, ”Yes, I have seen.” 

”Do you know their purpose and their function?” 

He said, ”That I don’t know. It is not mentioned in any scriptures.” 

Paramahansadeva said, ”I will tell you the secret. When you take the dip, when you dive in, your sins have to 

leave you because of the purity of the Ganges, but they sit on the trees waiting for you. When you come back 

they jump upon you! And the danger is that some other sins may also jump upon you which were not yours in 

the first place. So be very alert if you take a dive, then don’t come out!” 

People have found cunning ways to continue their lives as they are. All your so-called religions are your cunning 

ways of avoiding God, not of finding God. 

A young clerk in a telegraph office got married and, after a couple of years, was going to attain fatherhood. He 

was sure that the child would be a boy. However, he wanted to keep the whole thing secret from his co-workers 

so that he could surprise them with the news that he was the father of a male child. 

As the delivery was imminent, he sent his wife to her father’s place and asked her to send a telegram to him. 

The telegram, he told her, should contain only the following words: ”Cycle arrived,” so that he would know that 

she had safely delivered. 

When the time was ripe she gave birth to a female child. As the telegram, ”Cycle arrived,” was to be given only 

after the delivery of a male child, the wife was in a fix as to what to do. Luckily her brother was an intelligent 

person and he sent the telegram in this fashion: ”Cycle arrived with front tire punctured.” 

Now these people are thought to be intelligent. All kinds of cunning people are thought to be intelligent people. 

And you have to watch your own cunningnesses. To be cunning is not to be intelligent; to be intellectual even is 

not to be intelligent. Intelligence has a totally different flavor from intellectuality. Intelligence is the fragrance of 

meditation only a master is intelligent. 

WANTING NOTHING, HE TRAVELS ALONE. He can see that the householders are living in a projection, 

in a projected world of their own; and the so-called monks and nuns are living in another projection, but again it 

is a projected world. He moves alone it has not only to be an outward act, it has to be an inward feeling also. 

To be alone is the most fundamental thing for a meditator to experience aloneness, to sit silently and just be 

yourself, just be with yourself, not hankering for any company, not hankering for the other. Enjoy your being,


enjoy your breathing, enjoy your heartbeat. Enjoy the inner accord, the harmony. Enjoy just that you are, and 

be utterly silent in that enjoyment. 

People find a thousand and one ways to avoid this aloneness; there are worldly ways and there are otherworldly 

ways. The worldly person will start listening to the radio or he will turn on his idiot box his television. He can’t 

be alone. And the otherworldly person, the religious person, will start praying or reading the Bible. He is also 

doing the same. 

You have to be constantly aware that there are religious ways of avoiding yourself too irreligious ways, religious 

ways, all kinds of ways are available to avoid yourself. The religious person will start a dialogue with God. He will 

start praying in a formal way the Christian prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, or the Jewish prayer or the Hindu prayer 

and he will recite mantras, just like a gramophone record, meaning nothing. All that he wants is occupation. All 

that he wants is somehow not to feel alone. All that he wants is that God is there: ”If nobody is there then at 

least God is there; I am not alone.” 

The whole idea of God as a person is the fiction created by the people who cannot be alone; hence they have 

created God. When nobody is there, at least God is always there; you need not be worried about that, he is 

everywhere. To have an idiot box you need some money and you cannot carry the idiot box everywhere, but God 

is always there following you like your own shadow. He is always with you. Even when you are in your bathroom 

he is not gentlemanly enough to leave you alone; he comes with you. You are lying down in your bath naked and 

he sits by your side. He is a kind of Peeping Tom he goes on looking at you! You are making love to your wife 

and he is standing there; you don’t even allow him to be a little gentlemanly. No need for him to be British, but 

if he is a little gentlemanly, there is nothing wrong in it. 

This idea of God is created out of fear fear of aloneness. When you close your eyes you are alone, but God is 

there. Even in your inner being he persists, he insists on being there. This is violence! But there is no God it is 

your idea. 

It is like when you are alone and moving into a dark lane in the night or you have lost your way in the forest 

and you start whistling, just to cheer yourself up. Now that is stupid. It is your whistling, there is nobody else, 

but even that helps. It is psychologically helpful. You start whistling, you start singing, humming to forget that 

you are alone, to forget that you are lost. 

All your prayers are nothing but whistling in the dark. 

Buddha is not in favor of prayers. And this difference has to be understood: he is absolutely in favor of 

meditation, but never in favor of any prayer. Prayer is again the old trick, the old game which does not allow you 

to be alone. Meditation is the art of being alone. He says: WANTING NOTHING, HE TRAVELS ON ALONE. 

Aloneness is not loneliness, remember it. Aloneness is not solitariness, remember it. Aloneness is solitude. It 

is tremendously beautiful; it is innocent because there is nothing to pollute it, there is nothing to disturb it, to 

distract it. It is pure stillness, it is silence. It has a music of its own. 

Once you have heard the music of your own aloneness you will not like any other music. Then all other music 

is only noise; howsoever beautifully arranged, it is noise. 

HE HURTS NOTHING. HE NEVER KILLS. 

It is impossible for him to hurt or to kill, because now he knows that he is not separate from existence, that 

there is nobody else. It is all one, it is one organic unity. We are all waves of the same ocean. Hurting another 

wave is hurting yourself. It is like hitting your hand, one hand with another hand. It is childish, it is insane. 

Sometimes small children do that. If the table has hurt them they hit the table hard; they are hurt more, but 

they enjoy. They think they are punishing the table. 

Whenever you punish somebody you are punishing yourself. Whenever you torture somebody you are torturing 

yourself because there is nobody else. The master knows it. It is not only a belief for him, it is his experience. 

Reaching his own center he has reached the center of the whole existence. 

This fundamental has to be remembered: that as far as the circumference is concerned we are all different, but 

as far as the center is concerned we have only one center. That one center you can call God or truth or nirvana. 

HE MOVES WITH LOVE AMONG THE UNLOVING, WITH PEACE AND DETACHMENT AMONG THE 

HUNGRY AND QUERULOUS. 

HE MOVES WITH LOVE AMONG THE UNLOVING.... His work is difficult. He is talking to his bodhisattvas, 

making them aware of the arduousness of their work. It is not going to be easy, it is not going to be cheap, because 

the awakened one has to move amongst those who are fast asleep. The person who has eyes has to live with those 

who have no eyes. Communication becomes impossible. He says one thing, they understand something totally 

different. He tries to help them and they feel offended. He tries in every possible way to save them, but they 

think that he is trying to exploit them or something.


Just a few days back, a friend from Germany took sannyas. His name was Richard; I have called him Veet 

Richard. Richard means ”hard”; German names are like that. Strange, that all German names I come across, 

either they mean ”hard” or they mean ”strong” or they mean ”masculine” or they mean ”bear-strong” or they 

mean ”the walk of the wolf” Wolfgang. I told him, ”Go beyond your hardness. veet means going beyond. Become 

soft, become a little less German.” 

And just the other day he wrote a question, saying, ”While you were giving me sannyas I was looking at your 

shoulders and I could not believe that ’This man is my master.’” Now, what do my shoulders have to do with 

my being a master or not? This is something new! I have come across thousands of definitions of what a master 

means, but neither Buddha nor Lao Tzu nor Zarathustra nor Jesus, nobody has said anything about the shoulders! 

And he was looking at my shoulders, not looking into my eyes I had asked him to look into my eyes. 

But this is how things are. When you are moving with people who are fast asleep they have their own ideas. 

Then, Veet Richard, go to Muhammad Ali! Find some stupid wrestler for your master. And now I am wondering 

whatsoever I was saying to him, was it worth saying to him? I was simply wasting my time and his time. There is 

no possibility of any communication. He was in his own world; maybe he was looking for Adolf Hitler or somebody. 

I am not Adolf Hitler and I am not Muhammad Ali either, but he must be carrying some idea.... 

Everybody is carrying some idea strange ideas people are carrying. And I cannot fulfill your ideas. You are so 

unloving and I go on pouring my love on you and there seems to be no response. 

People write me such ugly letters that if you come to know about those letters you will be simply shocked. 

You will not be able to believe it. One woman wrote just the other day, ”Either you are mad or you are a fool!” 

Madam, can’t I be both together? Is there any contradiction? Not all fools are mad, true, not all madmen are 

fools, true, but there are a few who are both together. I belong to that third category. And certainly I must be 

mad; otherwise why should I be working on you? And I should be a fool, I must be a fool; otherwise I would not 

have initiated this madam into sannyas. You don’t belong here. 

But the problem is, everybody who comes is asleep, unloving, and they can’t see their sleep, they can’t see their 

unlovingness, they can’t see their prejudices. 

So many questions have come from British ladies and British gentlemen saying, ”The British lady is just a myth 

and you should not be so interested in a myth. It is not a reality the British lady exists nowhere.” But these 

same people believe that the Polack exists, the Italian exists, the Jew exists; they are not myths... because when 

I am joking about Jews or Italians or Polacks no British lady or gentleman writes to me that these are myths 

they are realities. 

Now, no Jew, no Italian, no Polack is writing to me that the British lady is a myth. Why are only the British 

writing to me about it? Can’t you see the point? And if it is a myth and I know it is a myth! why not enjoy 

it? Why become so much worried about it? Somewhere deep down you believe it is not a myth, otherwise why? 

Have a good laugh and it is finished! 

But your concern to make me aware of the fact that the British lady does not exist... I know it! I am surrounded 

by British ladies! I have more British ladies around me than I have Jews or Polacks or Italians. I know it is a 

myth but a beautiful myth! 

And one thing is very good about British ladies: they never disappoint you because from the very beginning 

they are ice-a box-a. That must be said in their appreciation. The Italian lady begins with a nice-a box-a; 

ultimately, finally, you find out, but then it is too late, that she is not a nice-a box-a, she is an ice-a boxa. But 

the British lady from the very beginning is clear; she never disappoints anybody. She is truthful, sincere. If you 

want an ice-a box-a, it is your responsibility. 

Buddha says: HE MOVES WITH LOVE AMONG THE UNLOVING.... Yes, the master has to move among 

the Polacks and the Italians and the Jews, the British and the French... and he has to move with people who know 

nothing about love, although they all believe they love. And the love of the master is so different that you cannot 

understand his love. His love is very cool; to you it appears it is cold because you know only two categories, cold 

or hot. You don’t know the third category: cool, neither cold nor hot. 

Coolness is not coldness, remember. The master is never cold, but certainly he is not hot either. You know 

a love which is hot, passionate, lusty, and you know a love which has gone dead, has become cold ice-a box-a 

everything has become frozen, it is a corpse. But you don’t know the third possibility: the coolness of love and 

the freshness of that coolness. And the coolness has a paradoxical quality in it. If you compare it with cold, then 

it is cool; if you compare it with hot, then it is warm. It is exactly in the middle where warmth and coolness are 

one. The master has a warmth which is cool and has a coolness which is warm, but that is very difficult for people 

who live in extremes to understand.


HE MOVES WITH LOVE AMONG THE UNLOVING, WITH PEACE AND DETACHMENT.... He loves but 

he is never attached, and you cannot understand a love which is not attached. To you love and attachment are 

always associated; it is impossible for you to keep them separate. Love is always attachment to you; the deeper 

the attachment, the more you think it is love. But the master’s love is utterly detached. He loves, yet he is not 

bound by it. He loves, but he is not binding on you. You know a love which creates excitement. The master’s 

love is utterly peaceful; there is no excitement. It is nothing to do with romance. 

HE MOVES... AMONG THE HUNGRY.... The people who are always desiring more, Buddha calls them 

hungry, constantly hungry. They go on stuffing themselves with every kind of thing and they are never satisfied. 

Their hunger is impossible, their thirst is unquenchable. The more you give, the more they want. They are never 

grateful. 

... AND QUERULOUS. And, of course, when they are always hankering for more they are quarreling with 

each other. The master is never querulous, he is never hungry. He is fully contented, utterly contented, absolutely 

contented. He has arrived! He asks for nothing. Hence it becomes more and more difficult for you to understand 

him. 

LIKE A MUSTARD SEED FROM THE POINT OF A NEEDLE HATRED HAS FALLEN FROM HIM, AND 

LUST, HYPOCRISY AND PRIDE. 

The most important thing to remember is: these things have fallen from him. He has not dropped them, they 

have fallen. If you drop them they will hang around you. He has not repressed them, he has transcended them 

and the difference is great. If you repress them they will always be with you. If you repress lust it will spread 

deep down inside your being like cancer. If you repress hypocrisy you will be creating a deeper kind of hypocrisy, 

that’s all. If you repress pride you will become a pious egoist. 

Beware of it. Millions are befooled by this because repression is easy, anybody can do it. It needs no intelligence; 

it needs only a little stubborn stupidity and you can do it. You just have to be a little stubborn, you have to 

insist and you have to force something inside yourself. You have to put pressure on it, you have to sit upon it. 

But then you will be in trouble. It is always there boiling, ready to explode any moment. 

Three priests an archbishop, a bishop and a rather young, newly ordained priest stood in the lobby in the 

airport. The archbishop told the priest to get the tickets while they took care of the baggage. 

The priest approached the ticket counter, noting the shapely, seductively dressed young woman behind the 

counter. By the time she got around to him he was quite flustered by her and stammered, ”I would like three 

pickets to Tittsburgh.” 

Embarrassed and ashamed, he ran from the counter back to his two companions. He told the archbishop, 

”Father, I am sorry, I cannot get the tickets. Furthermore, I have sinned... I was tempted by the flesh!” 

The archbishop said, ”You are young, my son, and weak we shall pray on your problem.” 

The archbishop then sent the bishop for the tickets. The bishop, though not easily swayed in his faith, was also 

quite taken with the young woman’s beauty. He said, to her, ”I must apologize for my brother he is young. Now, 

I would like three tickets to Pittsburgh and I would like the change in nipples and dimes.” 

Shocked by his slip and completely overwhelmed by embarrassment, he returned to the archbishop without the 

tickets. 

The archbishop was by now quite angry at both the priests and the young woman. He then went for the tickets 

himself. He said, ”I would like three tickets to Pittsburgh and I would like my change in nickels and dimes.” 

As the young woman began processing the tickets, the archbishop said, ”Look at you... you should be ashamed. 

How do you dare to leave the house that way? Why, your breasts are not covered and your skirt is entirely too 

short. Every man who approaches you is tempted. When you go to heaven,” he said, with his voice raising in 

pitch, ”Saint Finger will surely shake his peter at you!” 

That is bound to happen. Hence Buddha says: LIKE A MUSTARD SEED FROM THE POINT OF A NEEDLE 

HATRED HAS FALLEN FROM HIM.... He has not dropped it or repressed it; it has fallen of its own accord. ... 

AND LUST, HYPOCRISY AND PRIDE. 

How does this miracle happen that these things fall of their own accord? They fall of their own accord if you 

become more aware of them not repression but awareness is needed. Repression makes them more unconscious 

and more dangerous. Become more conscious of them, watch them, meditate over them. And as you become more 

and more capable of watching all kinds of thoughts in your mind, you will become more and more detached from 

them. You will come to know that the observer is separate from the observed, that they are there like the traffic 

on the road and you are just a spectator. They have nothing to do with you, they are not part of your being. 

Repress them and they become part of your being. Repress them and you become more and more controlled by


them. You will remain afraid your whole life if you repress anything. Repression creates fear, because you know 

it is there any opportunity and it can arise again. 

My approach is also the same: don’t repress anything watch. Nothing has to be repressed, everything has to 

be watched. Just by being watchful things start dropping on their own. And then there is a beauty because a 

silence comes to you, a stillness comes to you which is not forced, not cultivated. 

HE OFFENDS NO ONE. YET HE SPEAKS THE TRUTH. HIS WORDS ARE CLEAR BUT NEVER HARSH. 

HE OFFENDS NO ONE he cannot because all violence has disappeared from him but HE SPEAKS THE 

TRUTH. If truth offends you, then he is helpless. There is no intention to offend you, but if you are living in lies 

then truth offends. About that the master cannot do anything, he has to say the truth. In fact, he says only the 

truth; otherwise he is not interested in saying anything to you. 

The little baby was very quiet. He never cried or chuckled or said ”Mama” or ”Dadda.” 

When he was three, the parents began to get rather worried, thinking he might never talk at all. 

At last, when the child was seven years old, he suddenly spoke. They were sitting having lunch when he said, 

”Not enough salt.” 

”Good gracious!” exclaimed his mother. Then she asked, ”How is it that in seven years you have never said a 

word?” 

”Well,” said the child, ”up to now everything has been all right!” 

The master speaks only if something is wrong; otherwise he keeps quiet, he remains silent. He speaks only if 

something is wrong. But that can hurt you, that can offend you. To show that something is wrong with you seems 

to be offensive to you. You love to be appreciated, not criticized. You love to be buttressed, not to be criticized. 

You love that your lies should be supported, not destroyed. But about that the master cannot do anything. He 

has to shatter your lies, he has to bring the truth to your notice. If truth hurts, then that is another matter; 

otherwise, the master has no intention of hurting anybody. HIS WORDS ARE CLEAR BUT NEVER HARSH. 

”How was Lady Hastings’ party?” Lord Peter was asked. 

With an absentminded, faraway glance in his eyes, he said, ”Had the soup been as warm as the wine, had the 

wine been as old as the chicken, had the chicken been as tender as the maid and had the maid been as willing as 

the Lady, it would have been a great party!” 

The master will not be that roundabout. He will simply say it clearly, although he is not harsh. But he can 

appear harsh to you that is your problem. He is always sweet, and if sometimes he appears harsh to you, ponder 

over it, why he appeared harsh to you. Maybe something was inside you that started pinching, that started 

hurting. Maybe there was a wound inside you that you were hiding and the master hit the wound. He has to hit 

your wounds. He has to pull much pus out of your being. It hurts. The master is a surgeon. 

Buddha himself has said again and again: I am not a preacher but a physician. 

WHATEVER IS NOT HIS HE REFUSES, GOOD OR BAD, GREAT OR SMALL. 

That’s exactly the definition of meditation according to Buddha and according to all other buddhas too. Watch 

your mind, and whatever is not yours, whether it is good or bad, great or small, don’t get identified with it, don’t 

accept it, go on refusing. 

In the East this method is called even prior to Buddha it was called neti, neti, neither this nor that. Go on 

saying that ”I am not this, I am not this, I am not that either.” Go on rejecting inside your being whatsoever you 

can observe you are not. 

Slowly, slowly eliminating all that you are not, one day only that is left which you are. That day is a day of 

great rejoicing. Then the watcher turns over onto itself. Nothing else to watch, it starts watching itself. Nothing 

else to see, it starts seeing itself. That is the moment you become a seer. That is the moment your wisdom 

explodes. That is the moment when darkness disappears and there is just light and light and nothing else. 

HE WANTS NOTHING FROM THIS WORLD AND NOTHING FROM THE NEXT. HE IS FREE. 

Once you know that all that the mind contains is not you, all that the mind craves is not you, all that the 

mind is hungry for is not you, you are becoming free. Slowly, slowly desires disappear. Seeing that all desires are 

basically futile, that all desires end in frustration, seeing it on your own not because I say it or the Buddha says 

it seeing it on your own, desiring evaporates. You are left without any desire and there is no smoke of desire. 

Your flame of awareness burns bright, and freedom is the fragrance of that flowering of awareness. 

Ordinarily we are living like robots. Ordinarily we are living mechanically. We are not conscious at all, although 

we believe that we are conscious. We are not conscious at all. And because we are not conscious, if we drop the 

desires of this world, then we start desiring something in the other world. It is absolutely ridiculous. 

See your so-called saints and mahatmas desiring the same things that they have dropped desiring in this world, 

but now they are desiring the same things in the other world.... Mohammedans believe that in their paradise there


are streams of wine. Now this seems to be very illogical! Here wine is a sin and there it is the reward reward for 

all your virtues. And you don’t have to go to a pub streams are flowing everywhere! Here the woman is hell and 

the woman has to be renounced, and there...? 

In the Hindu paradise beautiful women are available, always young, stuck at the age of sixteen; they don’t grow 

beyond that. In fact, I always wonder how they reached sixteen! They must have been born sixteen years old 

from the mother’s womb. Since then they have not grown. And they have bodies of gold solid gold, it seems! 

And not American gold, mind you, pure gold, twenty-four-carat gold! And their eyes are made of emeralds, pure 

green emeralds. And their bodies don’t perspire of course, how can they perspire? If their bodies are made of 

solid gold it is impossible to perspire. They may melt in the heat, but they cannot perspire! 

Here women have to be renounced. And the Hindu scriptures say: The woman is the door to hell. And there 

the mahatmas are provided with beautiful apsaras, beautiful women. What kind of nonsense is this? 

And the same is the case with all the religions. Because in Mohammed’s time when the Koran was written 

homosexuality was very prevalent in the Arabian countries, provision is made for gay people also! In the 

Mohammedan paradise not only are beautiful women available but beautiful boys too. They never grow their 

mustaches, they remain always the same young. Now here, in all the Mohammedan countries, homosexuality 

is one of the greatest crimes. The homosexuals have to be beheaded, death is the penalty. Can’t you see the 

absurdity? In paradise you will be provided with all kinds of beautiful boys! I am not against homosexuality, I 

am simply against this absurdity. It is perfectly good, generous but then why are you against it here? 

It is the stupid, unconscious mind of man. He is ready to let go of something in this world, but then he moves 

to the other extreme. He lets it go here, he renounces it here, and he starts asking for it in the other the same 

thing. The problem does not change. From one problem he moves to another problem, from one desire to another 

desire. 

A fat, round-bottomed Italian woman comes to the doctor’s office with her husband. ”My husband no shit-a!” 

she exclaims. 

The doctor gives her a small bottle of cod-liver oil, saying, ”Give him this tonight and he will be all right 

tomorrow.” 

But the next day the woman returns and says, ”My husband no shit-a!” 

So the doctor gives her a bigger bottle with the same instructions. 

The following day the woman is back again: ”My husband no shit-a!” 

The doctor finally gives her a huge bottle of cod-liver oil. The next day the woman comes back again. 

”Doctor, Doctor,” she exclaims, ”no husband, only shit-a!” 

But the problem remains; now it is the other extreme. 

The seeker of truth has to be very watchful not to move from one prison into another, from one desire into 

another. He has to be very alert and aware. He has to de-automatize himself. He has to become a man, not 

continue as a machine. You are born as a machine, and unless you make a great effort, you will remain as a 

machine and you will die as a machine. Make every effort to become aware so that you are no more a machine. 

Then the real man is born. 

A wild West cowboy purchases a horse from the local priest. ”This horse is very special,” the priests explains. 

”When you shout, ’Praise to the Lord’ this horse will start galloping like crazy and the only way to stop it is to 

call out, ’Amen!’” 

At once the man jumps up on the horse’s back and shouts, ”Praise to the Lord!” 

He shoots like an arrow across the desert. Suddenly he becomes aware of a steep canyon ahead of him. ”Goddam! 

I forgot the other command,” he says. ”What shall I do with no means to slow down this mad horse?” 

Cursing and sweating, he approaches the deep canyon, and at the last moment he remembers: ”Amen!” And 

just above the gorge the horse comes to a standstill. 

Trembling and relieved, with tears in his eyes, the cowboy looks up to the sky and says, ”Praise to the Lord!” 



Chapter 4 Music comes closest 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, IS IT REALLY SO DIFFICULT FOR THE AWAKENED ONES TO WORK WITH 

US BLIND PEOPLE AS GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA SAYS?


Aseema, yes, it is even more difficult than Gautama the Buddha says, because man has become far more blind 

now than he has ever been before he has become more knowledgeable. That is his blindness. Now he lives under 

the illusion that he knows and that is the greatest illusion of all. Once you start believing that you know, the 

work of an awakened one becomes almost impossible. 

The awakened one can work easily only when you are ready to accept the fact that you know nothing, that 

your knowledge is borrowed, that it is mere information, that it is not any inner flowering of your being, that it is 

not your own music, that it is not your own experience. Once a person accepts this, things become very simple. 

The very acceptance of ignorance is the beginning of disciplehood. 

But as time has passed, man has been accumulating more and more knowledge, his mind has become more and 

more capable of memorizing. He has become a walking encyclopedia. Today man knows more than ever, hence 

the difficulty is greater today than ever before. 

The eyes are blind in proportion to the weight of knowledge that you carry. Children are not blind. The 

younger the child, the more clearly he sees, far more clearly. His perspective is totally different from the so-called 

grown-up. 

Just the other day there was a letter from a young boy from Germany. One month ago he also wrote that he 

wants to become a sannyasin. He is only sixteen years old so I told him, ”You inquire of your parents, ask their 

permission; otherwise they will create difficulties for you. If they allow, you are welcome.” 

His answer has come and what he says is tremendously beautiful. He says, ”Beloved Master, my parents will 

never understand you. We went to see the film about your ashram I was the only one in my family who understood 

it. My father and mother were absolutely unable to comprehend it, what it was all about. And I am afraid that 

if I become more grown-up like them I may miss the opportunity. Moreover,” he says, ”I have dyed all my clothes 

orange so I am already half a sannyasin just the mala is needed.” 

He says, ”I understood the film completely but my parents were simply confused by it. I have been trying to 

explain it to them, but they seem incapable of understanding.” He also says, ”I am afraid that if this is what 

happens when one becomes grown up, then I may miss the opportunity of becoming a sannyasin. So please, send 

the mala immediately before I become blind!” 

A child is not burdened with knowledge. You have to become a child again; then the work of a Buddha is very 

simple. It is the simplest work in the world because the Buddha is not going to make you achieve something, he 

is simply helping you to see what is already the case. What can be more simple? 

But grown-up people are really blind, utterly deaf. Their hearts are closed, they can’t feel, they are hung up 

in their heads, and to communicate with a Buddha you need an open heart. People are encapsulated in their 

thoughts, so much so, that they live in their own world, continuously imprisoned in their ideologies, in their words. 

You can’t talk to them. You say one thing and they immediately understand something else. 

Just the other day I received a letter dated April 18, from the Ritz Hotel, Mysore: 

”Dear Sir, 

I am very upset since one of your devotees staying at this hotel, a friend of Swami Anand Hasyo, informs me 

that you make fun of our new president, the Reverend Canon Banana, in your daily Sufi dances. I am told that 

your devotees are taught to sing: ’You are a banana to me.’ This is very disrespectful. How would you like it if in 

Zimbabwe we taught our people to sing, ’You are not my Bugwan’? Trusting that you will deal with this matter 

without delay....” 

The song is this: 

”You can fall in love with a star, 

You can fall in love with a tree. 

I love you just the way that you are. 

You are a mystery to me.” 

Or, if your partner looks serious, say ”banana” instead of ”mystery to me.” 

This Sufi dance has been going on for years, and this fellow, Reverend Banana, became president only on 7th 

April this month, only one week ago. In fact the nation of Zimbabwe is only one week old. On 11th April he 

became the president elect, on 17th April he actually became the president. We have been using the word ’banana’ 

for years; it has nothing to do with Reverend Banana. 

The letter-writer has also sent a picture of Reverend Banana and he looks like a banana, so I can very well 

understand why he is upset! 

Now he should approach the un to change the English language; bananas should not be called bananas anymore. 

And what will you do about the expression ”He has gone bananas”? Now you will have to say, ”He has gone 

Reverend Bananas.” That will be much more suitable. All the other bananas will be very happy.


Now, these stupid people are all over the world.... 

And would you believe what the name of this man is? His name is Israel Tomato! 

Now I am waiting for some letter from Michael Potato! I really got worried about the whole thing. I love 

bananas, I love tomatoes, I love potatoes. Now to eat them will mean you are a cannibal! 

I immediately went into the garden and asked a bunch of bananas, ”What do you think? What should I do?” 

The bananas were so ashamed they didn’t speak a single word. I shook them and I said, ”You have to say 

something!” They said, ”We are sorry, but once in a while a banana falls.... But this man has fallen too much! 

Please don’t include him in our family. No other banana has ever been a politician before. Yes, we have fallen 

and we have committed many sins before, but this is too much. We feel ashamed!” 

I asked the tomatoes, and they are such innocent people they look so meditative, almost like Zen masters 

sitting silently, doing nothing. And they all laughed and they said, ”Don’t be worried. Continue to eat us. That 

is the only way for us to become buddhas!” 

And he says, ”How would you like it if in Zimbabwe we taught our people to sing, ’You are not my Bugwan or 

Bhagwan’?” I would love it please do it! anyway, if your people start remembering me, that will be good. In fact, 

my sannyasin kids already call me Bugwan, and it sounds so beautiful! It is far smoother than Bhagwan nothing 

is wrong with it. 

But this fellow has not given his address; otherwise I was thinking to send him my answer! And these people 

are all around the world. 

Now my South African sannyasins will be very, very happy because they were writing to me again and again, 

”Beloved Master, you never say anything about the South Africans.” Veena, Vidya, Veetrag, they were all worried 

because I am talking about the Italians and the Jews and the British, and nothing is being said about the South 

Africans. This Tomato has given me an opportunity to say something. 

The doctor advises an African to jog ten miles a day for two weeks. 

The guy reports that he feels fine; his only complaint is that he is one hundred and forty miles from home! 

One African applying for a post as footman in a country house is asked by her ladyship to raise his trouser leg 

so that she may ascertain whether his legs will be sufficiently shapely in plush knee-breeches. He does so. She 

then appears satisfied but asks to see his testimonials. 

”And that,” he says, recounting the event, ”was where I made my big mistake and spoiled everything!” 

Get it? 

”Why are you so angry?” the doctor at the maternity ward asked the African father. ”You should be proud 

that your lovely wife had twins.” 

”Oh yeah,” snarled the leaping African. ”Just wait till I find the other guy!” 

The African sergeant gave an order for the whole company to raise the right leg. One confused draftee raised 

his left leg in error. The sergeant looked down the line and saw the upraised left leg of one soldier right next to 

the upraised right leg of the recruit beside him. ”Who is the smart aleck in the middle of the line,” he bellowed, 

”who raised both legs?” 

And to Mr. Tomato I would like to say that I have no respect for politicians; whether they are African or 

American or Indian or European, it does not matter. 

A cannibal rushed into his village to spread the word that a hunting party had captured a politician. 

”Good,” said one of the cannibals. ”I’ve always wanted to try a baloney sandwich.” 

Three surgeons were at the pub, chatting about their experiences. 

The first said, ”One guy who came to me had been in a car accident and had lost both his legs. I fixed him up 

and today he’s a champion runner.” 

”Wow,” said the second. ”I had a patient once who had been hit by a train and his body was completely 

smashed. We gave him surgery and today he’s a famous dancer.” 

”That’s nothing,” said the third. ”One guy came to me he was a bomb disposal expert. One day a bomb went 

off and all they found was an asshole and a pair of ears... today he’s the president!” 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM A MUSICIAN AND I HAVE COME ACROSS MANY MUSIC TEACHERS 

OVER THE YEARS. BUT NOW IT SEEMS THAT I HAVE NOT ONLY FOUND A MASTER BUT ALSO 

THE ULTIMATE MUSIC TEACHER. IS IT PERHAPS THE SAME THING? AND COULD YOU PLEASE 

SAY SOMETHING TO US ABOUT MUSIC AND MEDITATION? 

Harisharan, music comes closest to meditation. Music is a way towards meditation and the most beautiful way. 

Meditation is the art of hearing the soundless sound, the art of hearing the music of silence what the Zen people


call the sound of one hand clapping. When you are utterly silent, not a single thought passes your mind, there is 

not even a ripple of any feeling in your heart. Then you start, for the first time, hearing silence. 

Silence has a music of its own. It is not dead, it is very much alive, it is tremendously alive. In fact, nothing is 

more alive than silence. 

Music helps you from the outside to fall in tune with the inner. Music is a device; it was invented by the 

buddhas. All that is beautiful in the world, all that is valuable in the world has always been discovered by the 

buddhas. Only they can discover because they have traveled the inner country, the inner, immeasurable universe. 

Whatsoever they have found in the inner world, whatsoever they have experienced in the inner world, they have 

tried to make something similar on the outside for those who can only understand that which is objective, who 

are not yet able to enter the interiority of their own being, who are not yet even aware that there is an inner 

world. Devices can be created on the outside which can help. 

Listening to great music you suddenly become silent with no effort. Falling in tune with the music you lose 

your ego with no effort. You become relaxed, you fall into a deep rest. You are alert, awake, and yet in a subtle 

way drunk. 


A great musician came to the court of a king. The musician must have been an awakened master, must have 

been a buddha. He said to the king, ”I will play on my instruments, but you will have to fulfill one of my 

conditions. Unless this condition is fulfilled I cannot play.” 

The king said, ”Whatsoever the condition is, it will be fulfilled. You say it.” He had never thought what the 

condition could be: ”Maybe he will ask for much money that can be given easily or for some other favor which 

can be given easily.” The king had been waiting a long time for this man. 

But the condition was very eccentric. The condition was: ”While I am playing nobody should move his head. 

If anybody moves his head, his head has to be cut off. So the audience has to be informed beforehand that people 

should come knowing that they are playing with fire. If they start moving their heads in tune with the music, 

then they will lose their heads make it clear to everyone who comes. And surrounding the audience let at least 

one thousand soldiers stand with naked swords so everybody remains aware and never forgets.” 

The king was so interested in hearing the musician he had heard about him for years and he was not ready to 

lose this opportunity even at this cost. Of course, whatsoever he was demanding was simply insane, but the king 

had to agree. He said, ”Okay, your condition will be fulfilled.” 

The whole capital was informed. Thousands of people would have come, but now they were afraid only one 

thousand people came to listen to the musician. Even seeing one thousand people come, the king was surprised: 

”So many lovers who are risking their lives!” And one thousand soldiers were standing with naked swords. Again 

it was declared, ”You have to remember and go on looking at the swords they are standing for you. Nobody can 

escape.” And there were people standing who would take notes whoever shook his head, moved his head, would 

not reach home alive. 

The musician started playing, and he was such a master! After only a few minutes, a few heads started moving 

in tune with the master’s music. The king was very much afraid. He saw heads moving, swaying people were 

getting drunk. He himself was afraid for his own head! But a tremendous desire arose in him too, he could not 

resist it. He himself started moving his head, he forgot all about it. What to say about the audience? The people 

who were standing with naked swords, many of them started moving their heads and their swords were swaying! 

The queen was very much worried. She saw that there were going to be hundreds of people unnecessarily 

murdered. But sooner or later almost everybody was drunk with his music. 

When he finished in the middle of the night, the people who had to report, they reported that ”Not a single 

soul has remained without swaying, and we are sorry to say that we are also on the list!” 

The king said, ”Now, Master, what do you want? all these people butchered, murdered? I am also on the list, 

my wife is also on the list, my whole court is on the list!” 

The master laughed and he said, ”I was waiting for these people. These are the right people for whom I can 

play. Forget all about the condition! It was just a strategy to prevent those who were not ready to risk their lives, 

it was to prevent the cowards. These are the people for whom I will play. And not only today I am going to stay 

in this town for months together because these are my people. They have forgotten about their lives, or even if 

they had remembered they could not resist. The joy was so tremendous that they were ready to go, even with 

the risk; they were perfectly aware. These are the people for whom I exist because these are the people who can 

be turned inwards. They were fully aware and yet drunk.” 

And that is the whole secret of meditation. The paradox disappears the paradox between drunkenness and 

awareness. And its first experience can happen in music more easily than in any other place, than in anything


else. Music, dance... all these are devices, discovered by great awakened masters. They have fallen into wrong 

hands. 

To be a teacher of music is one thing he can teach you the technique. I am not a teacher of music I cannot 

teach you the technique but I can help you to listen to the inner music, and that is real music. 

In China they have the saying: ”When the musician becomes perfect he throws away his instruments” because 

they are no more needed. He can close his eyes, he can turn himself inwards and he can listen to the music that 

is already there and always there. And when the archer becomes perfect he throws away his bow and his arrows; 

there is no need for them. 

Whenever any art is perfect it ends in meditation it has to end in meditation. If it is not leading you towards 

meditation then something has gone wrong. 

That’s why much of the modern art is not art, it is insanity. Much modern music is not music; it simply makes 

you sexually excited. It is just the opposite of real music. Real music helps you to transcend your biology, your 

physiology, your psychology. Real music takes you to the world of the beyond what Buddha calls the farther 

shore, even beyond the beyond. 

Gurdjieff used to call real art ”objective art.” Modern art is not, in that sense, objective art. In the past 

the awakened masters have used all kinds of devices: painting, sculpture, music, dance, drama. Every kind of 

device has been used to help you, because there are different types of people who can be helped in different ways: 

somebody through music, somebody through painting, somebody through poetry. 

And that’s my function here: to create a buddhafield, a commune where all kinds of devices are used. But the 

purpose is one, the purpose is single, one-pointed. All these paths are leading you to the same goal to your own 

inner being. 

Harisharan, you have come to the right place. I am not a teacher of music because I don’t teach you the 

technique of music, but I am certainly the master of the inner music. I have heard it and I can help you to hear 

it not only to hear it but to be it. 

And to be it is to be for the first time. To be it is to be reborn. To be it is to know what bliss is and benediction 

is. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, TWO YEARS AGO I WAS A CALIFORNIAN TOURIST. AFTER ALL THIS TIME 

YOU STILL FILL ME WITH WONDER AND AWE. I LOVE YOU. 

Deva Nartano, I am not a consistent man. With a consistent man you are bound to get bored because the 

consistent man goes on repeating the same thing. I am so inconsistent, so unreliable, so unpredictable that you 

never know what I am going to say and what I am going to do. What is going to happen in this commune 

tomorrow nobody knows not even me! I will know only when I have done it. I know only when I have said it. 

Hence you can be here your whole life and your wonder and awe will not disappear; in fact it will deepen, it 

will become more and more profound. 

And I am not imparting information to you, because it kills wonder. And wonder is such a valuable treasure; 

no information is of such worth. 

I am not here to help you to learn about anything; on the contrary, my work is to help you unlearn. If you 

become knowledgeable, naturally whatsoever you know has no surprise for you in it anymore. Your awe and 

wonder disappear, it becomes old. You know it how can you still feel wonder for it? You can feel wonder only if 

you remain in a state of not-knowing. 

That’s what I call meditation: the state of not-knowing. I cleanse you. I don’t allow any dust to gather on your 

mirrors. I want you to remain fresh and young. The moment you become knowledgeable you will lose wonder. 

The moment you become knowledgeable you have lost contact with me. 

This place is not for pundits and scholars. This place is for people who have the quality and the courage of 

remaining ignorant before the immense mystery of existence. 

Winslow walked into the saloon and asked for a double bourbon. Suddenly he looked up and realized that 

tending the bar, apron and all, was a large dog. 

”What’s the matter?” asked the canine. ”Haven’t you ever seen a dog tending a bar before?” 

”Oh, it’s not that,” replied Winslow. ”What happened to the horse? Did he sell the joint to you?” 

This is how the knowledgeable person functions nothing can surprise him. 

McCarthy walked into a saloon where there were only the bartender, a dog and a cat. 

As McCarthy ordered his drink, the dog stood up, yawned and said, ”Well, so long, Joe,” then walked out. 

”Did you hear that?” said McCarthy to the bartender. ”The dog talked!”


”Don’t be a jackass,” said the barkeep, ”a dog can’t talk.” 

”But I heard him.” 

”You think you heard him. Dogs can’t talk. It’s just that wise-guy cat over there he’s a ventriloquist.” 

The moment you start feeling that you know something, remember, you are losing your contact with existence. 

Knowledge is the barrier, the only barrier that prevents you from communing with God. Remain innocent, remain 

ignorant. Go on dying to the past and go on dying to all your experiences. Don’t collect them, don’t be a collector. 

Remember that every night before you go to sleep, be finished with that day, be totally finished. Go to sleep again 

as a child and in the morning when you wake up, again wake up as a child. And you will never lose the eyes of 

wonder and the heart which can feel awe. 

And this is what I call the fundamental quality of a religious person: not that you know the dogma, not that 

you know the creed, but that you know nothing, or that you know only one thing that you know nothing. It is 

better to be a fool with the trees, with the rivers, with the mountains, than to be a scholar, because as the scholar 

reaches the trees, the trees simply stop any communication, they close their doors. As the scholar reaches close 

to the flower it is not the same flower; it stops sending its fragrance. 

If you reach as a fool and you can say ”Hello!” to the tree and you can say ”How are you?” the tree feels 

rejoiced: ”Here is a man who is worth talking to, with whom I can have a dialogue.” Sit with the tree, hug the 

tree, kiss the tree, feel the tree. Of course, people will think that you are mad. Let them think! It doesn’t matter. 

What people think about you is absolutely immaterial; don’t pay any attention to it. But make friends with trees, 

because they have deeper secrets to reveal. Make friends with rocks, feel their texture, their coolness, their weight, 

their age. Commune with nature and soon you will be surprised that if you are available to nature, nature starts 

becoming available to you. And it is not only that you say hello the tree responds. It sends its messages to you 

clearly and loudly. 

Now even scientists are aware of the fact that the tree behaves with different people differently. When the 

woodcutter comes, the tree trembles in fear. Now there are machines like cardiographs which can detect the 

trembling; they make a graph of what is happening in the inner being of the tree. Seeing the woodcutter with 

his ax coming to cut the tree, the tree is trembling, the tree is afraid, the tree is angry, the tree is full of hate, 

the tree does not like this man. If the tree could run the tree would run away from this man. If the tree could 

attack this man the tree would attack him, in sheer self-defense. But because the tree is rooted and she cannot 

do anything, at least she can become utterly dead. 

But when the gardener comes to water the tree, there is a different graph on the cardiogram. The tree is 

dancing and swaying, she is all open to the gardener as if she is ready to embrace him, to kiss him. If the tree 

could make love to the gardener the tree would do it. She is full of love. The fragrance of the flowers is more 

when the gardener is close by. 

Now these are scientific facts although there are mythological stories about Buddha that trees would become 

greener when he sat underneath them and meditated. It is possible now it can be said on scientific authority, 

it may be possible. A Buddha sitting underneath the tree, what more happiness can a tree have? And the tree 

underneath which Buddha became enlightened must have felt tremendous joy. 

Now scientists say that the tree Buddha became enlightened sitting underneath is the most intelligent tree of 

all the trees: the bo tree. It has the same chemical in the biggest proportion that makes a man capable of having 

a mind. No other tree has that quantity of that particular chemical. Buddha must have chosen that tree. And 

the tree has been preserved, still it is there. It has a different quality, but the quality can be felt only by those 

who are innocent. 

And the same is true about the whole of existence: it is full of God, overfull, overflowing with God. All that 

you need is an innocent heart to receive it. You are not open, you are closed. 

My whole message to you is: function from a state of not-knowing and you will know the truth not through 

knowledge but through innocence. 

Nartano, I am happy that you say, ”Two years ago I was a Californian tourist. After all this time you still fill 

me with wonder and awe. I love you.” 

It is really difficult for a Californian tourist because California is so gullible that all kinds of fools have gathered 

there Muktananda in Palm Beach... all kinds of stupid people from all over the world. They are being attracted 

towards California as if California has a magnetic force. And any fool can gather disciples there. All that you have 

to know is some esoteric nonsense. You talk about seven chakras and seven planes and you talk about kundalini 

and the serpent power and you talk about siddhis, spiritual powers and astral travels, and you will find people 

coming to you intelligent people, far more intelligent people than these Muktanandas. In fact, it is a miracle!


I have met Muktananda. Once I was passing by the side of his ashram and he invited me in, so just for a few 

minutes I went there. I have come across all kinds of stupid people he tops them all! But in California he has 

a great following. And what is he doing there? arranging Hindu marriages! Now, any kind of nonsense as if 

the Hindu marriage is something spiritual. It is the most absurd thing in the world, but people are ready to do 

anything outlandish. 

It is difficult for a Californian tourist, but you made it. That’s really creditable. I appreciate it, because to be 

with me one needs guts. One needs to be ready to drop all bullshit. And Californians are carrying so much bullshit 

because they are going from one so-called guru to another guru and collecting it from everywhere. Tibetan lamas 

are there and Hindu monks are there and Japanese Zen gurus are there and the so-called Sufis are there.... 

In fact, real masters never go anywhere. The disciple has to seek and search, the disciple has to come to the 

real master. The thirsty person has to come to the well; the well does not go running after the thirsty. 

If two years have not destroyed you and your innocence, that means now nothing will ever destroy it. Even if 

you are not here you have tasted the beauty of being silent, you have tasted the beauty, the joy of being innocent. 

Wherever you are you will never allow anybody to disturb your innocence, to destroy your beauty. 

Be alert. If you can simply live an ordinary life with joy, if you can relish the ordinary things of life, then 

nothing else is needed. Religion is not something exotic, it is not something supernatural. It is the very ordinary 

experience of being silent and innocent, of being full of wonder and awe. 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF MATURITY? 

Prem Lalit, maturity means the same as innocence, only with one difference: it is innocence reclaimed, it is 

innocence recaptured. Every child is born innocent, but every society corrupts him. Every society, up to now, has 

been a corruptive influence on every child. All cultures have depended on exploiting the innocence of the child, 

on exploiting the child, on making him a slave, on conditioning him for their own purposes, for their own ends 

political, social, ideological. Their whole effort has been how to recruit the child as a slave for some purpose. 

Those purposes are decided by the vested interests. The priests and the politicians have been in a deep conspiracy, 

they both have been together. 

The moment the child starts becoming part of your society he starts losing something immensely valuable; 

he starts losing contact with God. He becomes more and more hung up in the head. He forgets all about the 

heart. And the heart is the bridge which leads to being; without the heart you cannot reach your own being, it is 

impossible. From the head there is no way directly to being; you have to go via the heart. And all societies are 

destructive to the heart; they are against love, they are against feelings. They condemn feelings as sentimentality. 

They condemned all lovers down the ages for the simple reason that love is not of the head, it is of the heart. And 

a man who is capable of love is sooner or later going to discover his being. And once a person discovers his being 

he is free from all structures, from all patterns. He is free from all bondage. He is pure freedom. 

Every child is born innocent, but every child is made knowledgeable by the society. Hence schools, colleges, 

universities exist; their function is to destroy you, to corrupt you. 

Maturity means gaining your lost innocence again, reclaiming your paradise, becoming a child again. Of course 

it has a difference, because the ordinary child is bound to be corrupted, but when you reclaim your childhood you 

become incorruptible. Nobody can corrupt you, you become intelligent enough. Now you know what the society 

has done to you and you are alert and aware, and you will not allow it to happen again. 

Maturity is a rebirth, a spiritual birth. You are born anew, you are a child again. With fresh eyes you start 

looking at existence. With love in the heart you approach life. With silence and innocence you penetrate your 

own innermost core. You are no more just the head. Now you use the head, but it is your servant. First you 

become the heart, and then you transcend even the heart.... 

Going beyond thoughts and feelings and becoming a pure isness is maturity. Maturity is the ultimate flowering 

of meditation. 

Jesus says: Unless you are born again you will not enter into my kingdom of God. 

He is right, you have to be born again. The whole process of sannyas is a process of rebirthing. 

Once Jesus was standing in a marketplace and somebody asked, ”Who is worthy of entering into your kingdom 

of God?” 

He looked around. There was a rabbi and the rabbi must have moved forward a little, thinking that he would 

be chosen but he was not chosen. There was the most virtuous man of the town the moralist, the puritan. He 

moved forward a little hoping that he would be chosen, but he was not chosen.


He looked around. Then he saw a small child who was not expecting to be chosen, who had not moved, not 

even an inch. There was no idea, there was no question that he would be chosen. He was just enjoying the whole 

scene the crowd and Jesus and people talking, and he was listening. 

He called the child, he took the child up in his arms and he said to the crowd, ”Those who are like this small 

child, they are the only ones worthy of entering into my kingdom of God.” 

But remember, he said, ”Those who are like this small child....” He didn’t say, ”Those who are small children.” 

There is a great difference between the two. He did not say, ”This child will enter into my kingdom of God,” 

because every child is bound to be corrupted, he has to go astray. Every Adam and every Eve is bound to be 

expelled from the garden of Eden, they have to go astray. That is the only way to regain real childhood: first you 

have to lose it. It is very strange, but that’s how life is. It is very paradoxical, but life is a paradox. To know the 

real beauty of your childhood, first you have to lose it; otherwise you will never know it. 

The fish never knows where the ocean is unless you pull the fish out of the ocean and throw it on the sand in 

the burning sun; then she knows where the ocean is. Now she longs for the ocean, she makes every effort to go 

back to the ocean, she jumps into the ocean. It is the same fish and yet not the same fish. It is the same ocean 

yet not the same ocean, because the fish has learned a new lesson. Now she is aware, now she knows, ”This is the 

ocean and this is my life. Without it I am no more I am part of it.” 

Every child has to lose his innocence and regain it. Losing is only half of the process. Many have lost it, but 

very few have regained it. That is unfortunate, very unfortunate. Everybody loses it, but only once in a while 

does a Buddha, a Zarathustra, a Krishna, a Jesus regain it. 

Jesus is nobody else but Adam coming back home. Magdalene is nobody else but Eve coming back home. They 

have come out of the sea and they have seen the misery and they have seen the stupidity. They have seen that it 

is not blissful to be out of the ocean. 

The moment you become aware that to be a part of any society, any religion, any culture is to remain miserable, 

is to remain a prisoner, that very day you start dropping your chains. Maturity is coming. You are gaining your 

innocence again. 

But every child is not a saint. Of course every saint real saint is a child. The child has the same quality, 

but he is unaware of it. And what is the point of having something if you are not aware of it? You may have a 

great treasure and you are not aware of it; then it is as if you don’t have it. Having it or not having it makes no 

difference. 

A very rich man was very much puzzled because his whole life he tried to be rich and rich and rich, and finally 

he succeeded. He became rich, he became the richest man in the world, but there was no bliss. And he was 

thinking that once you become rich, bliss is attained. He was very frustrated. That is the fate of all successful 

people. He started going around asking for any wise person who could help him to attain bliss. 

Somebody suggested a Sufi master. He went to the Sufi master on his beautiful horse. He was carrying a big 

bag full of diamonds, maybe the most precious stones in the world, and he told the master, ”I have all these 

diamonds, but not a drop of bliss. How can I gain bliss? Can you help me?” 

The master jumped the rich man could not believe his eyes the master snatched away the bag and ran away. 

The rich man followed him crying, shouting, ”I have been robbed! I have been cheated! This man is not a master, 

this man is a thief catch hold of him!” 

But in that village the master was well acquainted with all the roads and all the lanes and all the streets, so he 

dodged the rich man. And the rich man had never run after anybody; it was difficult. A crowd started following. 

They knew the Sufi master, that his ways were very strange. 

Finally they came back to the same tree where the master had been sitting and the rich man had found him. 

The master was again sitting under the tree with the bag. The rich man came there, the master gave the bag to 

him, and the rich man held the bag close to his heart and said, ”I am so blissful. I am so happy that I have found 

my lost treasure!” 

And the master said, ”Have you tasted a little bit of bliss? Unless you lose it you cannot taste it. I have made 

you taste it. This is the way to taste bliss lose something.” 

If you can lose your ego you will gain yourself what Buddha calls no-self. He calls it no-self for the simple 

reason that it is not your old ego anymore. It has no shadow of the ego at all; hence he calls it no-self. Lose the 

ego and gain the self or no-self, and suddenly you are mature. Lose the mind and gain consciousness and you are 

mature. Die to the past and be born to the present and you are mature. 

Maturity is living in the present, fully alert and aware of all the beauty and the splendor of existence. 


Question 5


BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DO YOU CALL THE AMERICAN FEMALES? 

Vivek, they are also ladies, but not in the British sense. English English has one meaning of ’ladies’; the 

American English has another meaning. A lady is one who is a good lay but that is the American meaning! 

The American hangman comes home. 

”It’s terrible, darling,” he says to his wife. ”I’m going to change my profession.” 

”Why?” asks the wife. 

”I’m so fed up with seeing one hanging!” 

”Me too,” says his wife. ”That’s why I’m going to divorce you.” 

The American is the most alive person on the earth today. He is the most alive person for the simple reason 

that ”American” is not a race, it is a mixture a mixture of all races. It is a meeting-place a meeting-place of 

all the countries. America has become the richest country for the simple reason that crossbreeding brings out the 

best in every child. Other races are small ponds breeding amongst themselves; it is as if you are breeding in your 

own family. The smaller the race, the lower the standard of its intelligence becomes. That’s why it is prohibited 

for brothers to marry their sisters for the simple reason that the child will be just dumb, he will not have any 

salt. He will not be really a man, he will be more a banana or a tomato! He will not have any intelligence. 

Intelligence comes through crossbreeding. And America is the most fortunate country in that way, because its 

whole history is only of three hundred years and all the world has met there. It is the future of the world; that’s 

how the whole world is going to be. All other countries should learn something; crossbreeding should become the 

normal thing. Marry somebody as far away as possible from you. But people marry in just the opposite way. 

They find somebody in the neighborhood, somebody of the same religion, of the same race, of the same color. 

That is destroying humanity. 

Now, you can ask animal breeders they have raised the quality of all kinds of animals. Ask the people who are 

working on raising the quality of fruits and vegetables; they have raised the quality of fruits and vegetables for the 

simple reason that they have used crossbreeding. But about man we are very unscientific and very superstitious. 

In America all these superstitions have broken down. They had to because it was a new country and the whole 

world converged there. People from every country, from Spain, from Portugal, from Italy, from France, from 

Holland, from Poland, from England... from everywhere people gathered together there. A totally new kind of 

human being has been born which is far more intelligent, far more healthy, lives longer, has tremendous capacities 

for adventure, has courage. And it has created the richest country in the world. 

An Indian, an Englishman and an American were walking in a cemetery. ”When you die, who would you like 

to be placed alongside of?” asked the American of his buddies. 

”Mahatma Gandhi,” said the Indian. 

”Winston Churchill,” said the Englishman. 

”Well,” said the American, ”I would like to be next to Raquel Welch. 

”Wait a minute,” said the Indian, ”she ain’t dead yet!” 

”I know,” said the American. ”But neither am I!” 

Even small children in America are showing great insight, intelligence, far more than anywhere else. 

Jimmy decided it was time to lecture his young son who was something of a screwball. 

”Bob,” he said, ”you’re getting to be a young man now and I think you ought to take life more seriously. Just 

think if I died suddenly, where would you be?” 

”I would be here,” replied the kid. ”The question is, where would you be?” 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, SO THIS IS NOT THE NUT-HOUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS IT IS A ZOO! TODAY 

A SPIDER, A CENTIPEDE, A MOUSE, A CAT (NOT TO MENTION THE MONKEYS ON THE ROOF), 

YESTERDAY A PIG AND A COW, AND BEFORE THAT FISHES, FROGS, PRINCESSES.... ARE YOU 

NOAH? 

Premananda, you have stumbled upon a truth. I am Noah and this is Noah’s Ark! 

You say, ”So this is not the nut-house I thought it was.” 

There you are wrong. It IS a nut-house, but now you yourself have become one of the inmates! That’s why you 

can’t see that it is a nut-house. No nut will see it as a nut-house. Of course, it is a zoo too. It is many things.... 

And you say, ”Today a spider, a centipede, a mouse, a cat (not to mention the monkeys on the roof)....” 

There too you are wrong. They were not monkeys... they were American tourists on the way to Goa! 

And you have mentioned a spider, a centipede, a mouse, a cat, monkeys, pig, cows, fishes, frogs, princesses... 

you have forgotten ducks, so I will tell you a joke about ducks; otherwise many orange ducks will be angry at


you. Nobody here wants to be forgotten. I am being reminded every day. The Australians are writing every day, 

”Have you forgotten us?” Norwegians, Swedish, Swiss, they are all writing letters, ”Beloved Master, when is our 

turn coming?” 

When their father died, three brothers inherited one duck each. They decided to sell their ducks and see who 

could get the most money. 

The first brother sold his for five dollars. 

The second sold his for ten dollars. 

The third brother was walking along a country road when he met a pretty young girl. 

”Give you my duck if you’ll make love with me.” 

”Sure,” said the girl. 

When they finished, the girl was so pleased she said, ”I’ll return your duck if you’ll make love with me again.” 

”Sure,” said the third brother. 

Walking along the road again, the duck got free from the brother’s arms and ran out into the path of an 

oncoming car. The car ran over the duck. The driver agreed to pay fifteen dollars for the dead duck. 

When all the brothers had gathered together again the first brother said, ”I got five dollars for my duck.” 

The second brother said, ”I got ten dollars for mine.” 

Then they both turned to the third brother and said, ”What did you get for yours?” 

The third brother replied, ”I got a fuck for a duck, a duck for a fuck, and fifteen dollars for a fucked-up duck.” 



Chapter 5 He is the moon 


DESIRING NOTHING, DOUBTING NOTHING, BEYOND JUDGMENT AND SORROW AND THE PLEA- 

SURES OF THE SENSES, HE HAS MOVED BEYOND TIME. HE IS PURE AND FREE. 

HOW CLEAR HE IS. HE IS THE MOON. HE IS SERENE. HE SHINES. 

FOR HE HAS TRAVELED LIFE AFTER LIFE THE MUDDY AND TREACHEROUS ROAD OF ILLUSION. 

HE DOES NOT TREMBLE OR GRASP OR HESITATE. HE HAS FOUND PEACE. 

CALMLY HE LETS GO OF LIFE, OF HOME AND PLEASURE AND DESIRE. 

NOTHING OF MEN CAN HOLD HIM. NOTHING OF THE GODS CAN HOLD HIM. NOTHING IN ALL 

CREATION CAN HOLD HIM. 

DESIRE HAS LEFT HIM, NEVER TO RETURN. SORROW HAS LEFT HIM, NEVER TO RETURN. 

Gautama the Buddha is describing the indescribable. He is describing the inner world of a master. He is 

defining what a master is, what the quality of his consciousness is. Where does he exist? in time or beyond time, 

in space or beyond space? Does he have any limitations? any boundaries? or has he only a pure vastness, the 

vastness of the sky? The very phenomenon is so mysterious that it is beyond the words that we use, that we can 

use. But still a few indications have to be given. These are only hints don’t cling to these hints. They are not 

scientific statements; think of them as pure poetry. Yes, fingers pointing to the moon, but forget the fingers and 

remember the moon. 

No word is adequate enough to define a master. All words do injustice to the master because words are meant 

to describe the ordinary and the master has transcended the ordinary. Words belong to the world; the master is 

in the world and yet he is no more of it. He exists here and still he does not exist here. He is only a reflection in 

the lake. He is only a shadow lingering on this shore; the real one has already reached the other shore. 

If you can remember this, then even these words will be of great help; otherwise you are bound to misunderstand 

them.... I have been telling you again and again that life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. 

And Prem Mukta informs me, ”Osho, this really happened: I overheard an Italian sannyasin enthusing after the 

lecture, ’Osho really knows what life is like. It is so true what he says, that: Life is not a problem to be solved 

but a misery to be lived.’” 

Words are dangerous! You can hear in them something which is not there. You can project into them something 

which is your own, and it is impossible to detect what you are doing. It is good that the sannyasin was saying 

it to somebody else, but if you don’t say it to anybody else... and there are a thousand and one things that 

you will never say to anybody else then they simply remain part of your inner world. And if you have utterly 

misunderstood them in the first place, then you can start making a foundation out of them for your life. Words 

can be dangerous. 

A true story: 

Two mothers were overheard talking about their sons.


”My boy has taken up meditation,” said one. 

The other replied, ”Well, I suppose it’s better than sitting around doing nothing.” 

But that’s exactly what meditation is: sitting around doing nothing really nothing, not even inside, not even 

thinking, not even feeling. When action as such stops in toto, meditation begins. When doing ceases utterly, 

categorically, when there is no movement in your being, then for the first time there is the flowering of meditation. 

So listen to these words. These words are beautiful if understood rightly which is very difficult because you 

are so unconscious, you are so blind. You are living in a state of stupor. You are almost drunk although you 

never think of it that way. You may see the drunkenness of others, but you never think that you are also drunk 

drunk with greed, lust, ambition, ego. And these are more alcoholic than any alcohol. 

One of the greatest problems with man is: he can see very easily that others are wrong but he cannot see that 

he himself is in the same boat. 

Two pink elephants walked into a pub. 

The barman looked up and said, ”He’s not here yet!” 

Get it? He is thinking of some other drunkard who sees pink elephants. He is not drunk, it is some other guy 

who gets drunk and starts seeing pink elephants. Now he is seeing them, but he is telling the elephants, ”Wait, 

he has not come yet. He must be coming sooner or later.” 

The moment you start seeing your own state, a great, radical change sets in. 

So listen to these sutras with great alertness, awareness, not in a kind of half-asleep, half-awake state. People 

are mostly in that state twenty-four hours a day: half asleep, half awake. Something they hear, something is 

always missed. And the trouble is that whatsoever is more significant is always missed because that is beyond 

their capacity. Whatsoever is nonessential is immediately heard, is understood by them; that is within their 

capacity. But they go on forgetting the essential even if they hear it. 

Just watch yourself. Understanding a Buddha, a Christ, a Krishna is one of the greatest exercises in awareness. 

Paul was riding his bicycle on a blistering hot summer day. But the heat and fatigue had finally so gotten to 

him that he stopped and sat down beside the road. Minutes later, a small Mercedes pulled up. 

”Anything wrong?” asked the man behind the wheel. 

”No, sir, I’m on my way to town,” replied the black boy. ”I’m just plumb tuckered out.” 

”As you can see I don’t have enough room for you and your bicycle,” said the occupant of the Mercedes. ”But 

if you tie your bike to my rear bumper you can sit on it and I will tow you.” 

In a few moments the car, pulling the black boy on his bicycle, headed down the highway. At the first stop-light 

a Jaguar pulled alongside. ”Hey,” said the man inside, ”wanna race?” 

”You got it!” was the reply. 

They were soon racing at over one hundred and twenty miles an hour, the Mercedes driver having completely 

forgotten about the black boy behind him on the bike. 

Both cars were up to one hundred and forty when they passed a squad car. The bewildered police officer quickly 

picked up his radio mike. ”Hey, Sarge, you ain’t gonna believe this!” he shouted. ”A Jaguar’s racing a Mercedes 

all hell bent for leather, and there’s some white kid keeping up with them on a bicycle!” 

Listen to these beautiful sutras very consciously, meditatively, in tremendous reverence, in deep trust, because 

Buddha is revealing the greatest secrets of life. 



Go slowly each word is significant. DESIRING NOTHING, DOUBTING NOTHING.... You have been told 

by the priests down the ages, ”Don’t doubt, drop doubting.” But why in the first place do you doubt? You doubt 

because you desire. Buddha is bringing the very root of the problem to your consciousness. If a man desires 

nothing he has no need to doubt anything at all; it is desire that brings doubt in its wake. 

This is something very special, nobody has said it so clearly. In fact, nobody had said it before Buddha. If you 

desire you cannot get rid of doubt because desire brings belief and belief brings doubt. And what your priests are 

doing is simply ridiculous. They insist that you should believe and you should not doubt. They are putting you 

in a difficult situation which is impossible to maintain. If you believe, you are bound to doubt; all believers are 

doubters. This is the great insight of Buddha: no believer can ever get rid of doubt. 

Belief means basically that there is doubt and you are covering it with belief. Doubt is there like a wound and 

you are covering it with beautiful flowers of belief. But by covering a wound with flowers you are not curing it, 

it is not being healed. In fact by covering it you will make it far more dangerous. It will be growing deep inside 

you, it will go on spreading; it will become a cancer finally. Why do you believe in the first place? If you don’t 

doubt, what is the need to believe?


Buddha’s approach is always very fundamental; he goes to the very root of the problem. You believe because 

you doubt. And why do you doubt? He does not stop there. Why do you believe, why do you doubt? because 

you desire. 

For example, you believe in an afterlife and you also doubt an afterlife. Both the belief and the doubt persist 

in you side by side. You believe in afterlife because you desire; there is a great lust for life, you don’t want to die. 

Because you don’t want to die, any priest can exploit you. He can tell you, ”Don’t be worried, only the body dies; 

your soul will live forever. Your soul is immortal.” And you are immediately ready to believe. Why? Without 

inquiring into such an important matter, you believe some stupid priest who knows nothing about it, who has 

not experienced anything about it himself, who has not gone deeper into his own being. Maybe he knows the 

scriptures, he can quote the Bible and the Koran and the Gita, but so what? By knowing the Gita or the Koran 

or the Bible he does not know that the soul is immortal. How does he know? On what authority is he speaking? 

On the authority of Christ? then it is borrowed. On the authority of Krishna? then it is not his own. And 

unless it is his own there must be doubt in him. 

Unless some experience arises in your own being, doubt cannot be dispelled. You can go on believing in light 

sitting in a dark room, but that does not mean that the darkness will disappear by your believing. You can recite 

the Gita and you can talk about light, but darkness will remain. You can deceive yourself by believing in light, 

you can say there is no darkness, you can pretend that there is no darkness, but you know that there is darkness. 

Otherwise, why are you talking about darkness at all if there is no darkness? Why are you saying there is no 

darkness? If there is no darkness there is no darkness! Why waste your time? 

Why are the priests continuously teaching people that the soul is immortal? They know people are afraid of 

death and desire life. The fear of death and the desire for life are two sides of the same coin. 

Buddha says: If you desire something then you have to believe. Why do you believe in God? Have you seen 

God? Have you experienced God? You can say Jesus saw God, but he may have been a deluded man. Either he 

himself lived in an illusion or he was deceiving you. Who knows? How can you be certain that he knew? What 

grounds have you got that anybody has ever seen God? 

If you are suffering from a headache, nobody else can know except you yourself. Yes, if you say it, people can 

sympathize with you. They may not say so they may agree with you, they may disagree with you but how can 

they know that you are suffering from a headache? Only you know. 

A visiting psychiatrist, wandering through the wards of a state asylum, saw a patient huddled in a corner 

scratching himself incessantly. 

”Excuse me,” said the doctor, ”why do you scratch yourself like that?” 

”Because,” replied the man, ”I’m the only one who knows where I itch.” 

There are things which can only be trusted if they become your personal experience. 

But you are afraid of death, you believe in an afterlife, you desire an afterlife. You are afraid of being alone, 

you want protection. You want a God, a father figure. You are still childish. You can’t live on your own, you 

can’t stand on your own feet. Your real father may be dead or if he is not dead now you know perfectly well that 

he is as limited as you are he has his own fears, he has his own tremblings. Now you cannot believe in him in the 

same way as you used to believe when you were a small child; then your father was all-knowing, all-powerful. 

Every child brags about his father, saying, ”He is the greatest man in the world!” But sooner or later, he finds 

he is just an ordinary man like everybody else. He knows that, ”He suffers from the same fears as I do.” Now he 

is no more a protection to him. 

You cannot hide behind your mother anymore.... You need a greater father, hence the projection of God. It is 

just your need, your desire for security, safety, for protection. You are not mature enough yet; hence you believe 

in God. 

And look at the qualities of God: omnipresent... obviously. If he is not everywhere, then what is the point of 

believing in him? You may fall in a ditch and he is not there, and you may go on shouting and he is not there, 

or he is engaged somewhere else. And there are millions of people on this earth and this is not the only earth. 

Scientists say there are at least fifty thousand earths which are populated with life, millions of stars. If he is not 

omnipresent and you are so small and the universe is so big how is he going to take care of you? Of course 

you believe he is omnipresent, he is everywhere, so wherever you need him he is immediately available, instantly 

available. 

So he may be omnipresent, but if he is not omnipotent, then? He may not be capable enough to help you; he 

may have only two hands, and with two hands how much can he do? Hence there are people who believe that he 

has thousands of hands. But even thousands of hands won’t do much, so you have to believe that he is infinite, 

that his power is infinite, he can do anything.


And not only that: you also have to believe that he is omniscient because he may be omnipotent and he may 

be omnipresent, but if he is not omniscient then he can only take care of the present. That means when you have 

fallen in the ditch, only then can he help you, but you have fallen and broken your leg and you have fractures. 

He is omniscient, he can see the future, he can see everything, so before you fall in the ditch he can prevent you 

from falling in the ditch. 

Just look at the qualities that you have given to your God. Those are not the qualities of God, those are your 

desires of how God should be. Then you can believe in him; if these qualities are missing then doubts will start 

arising. And God has to be infallible; if he is fallible, then there is danger. How can you believe in a fallible God? 

You cannot believe in a fallible God because he may mismanage, he may mess you up. Rather than helping you 

he may create more trouble. He has to be infallible. And when God is infallible, his son Jesus Christ has to be 

infallible, because if the father is infallible how can the son not be infallible? And then his representative, the 

pope of the Vatican, has to be infallible. 

Now, you see how your logic goes on in this way... but it is rooted in desire. You believe in such foolish things 

that the pope is infallible. And even now, after two thousand years, you still believe that the pope is infallible. 

And the popes have done so many stupid things. 

Galileo said that the earth moves around the sun, not vice versa.... The Bible says the sun moves around the 

earth, all the scriptures of the world say that the sun moves around the earth, because it is apparently so. All 

the languages have these words ’sunrise’, ’sunset’. We experience it every day; every day we see the sun rising 

in the morning and setting in the evening. We see the whole movement of the sun from the east to the west, and 

then in the night it disappears; it has gone to the other side of the earth, it is going round the earth. It is our 

experience! That’s what we know, so before Galileo, all the scriptures of the world believed that the sun went 

round the earth. 

Galileo was the first man who said that the reality is just the opposite: the earth goes round the sun. Now this 

was against the Bible and to find any fault in the Bible is dangerous. If one thing can be faulty in the Bible, then 

what about other things? Maybe they are also faulty; they just need some other Galileo to find the faults. Then 

where will it end? And if prophets are faulty, what about the pope? And all the popes had believed.... 

Galileo was called into the court of the pope. He was forced he was very old, seventy years old, ill he was 

dragged in chains to the court. He was in bed and so ill that he was going to die any day. And he didn’t live long 

after. He was forced to apologize. And Galileo must have been a man of great insight. He said, ”Of course, if 

the Bible says and if all the prophets agree and if all the popes, who are infallible, if they say that the sun moves 

around the earth, I apologize, I am sorry.” 

The pope was very happy, the court was very happy that they had brought a sinner back to his senses. 

Then Galileo said, ”But one thing I must tell you: I can apologize, I can say if you want me to that the sun 

moves round the earth but the sun won’t listen to me and the earth has no obligation to follow my orders. Still 

the earth will go on moving round the sun, my apologies apart. I apologize, but what can I do? If the earth moves 

around the sun I cannot stop it.” 

And these popes have been preventing all scientific growth. Still in the twentieth century millions of Catholics 

go on believing that the pope is infallible. But this is really a logical consequence: if you believe God is infallible, 

then of course his son is infallible, then his son’s representatives are infallible. 

But deep down, why do you believe in such nonsense? And this is not only so about Catholics; it is so about 

Hindus, about Mohammedans, about Jainas, even about Buddhists. They all go on believing in utter nonsense. 

Buddhists believe that Buddha was born while his mother was standing in the garden; she had gone for a walk. 

Not only that, he was also born in a standing posture himself. He came out of the womb, stood on the earth, 

walked seven steps and declared, ”I am the awakened one!” Now for twenty-five centuries Buddhists have believed 

in this nonsense. No baby can do that, but if you suspect it then you suspect the scriptures. If you doubt the 

scriptures then great trembling arises in you because then you become afraid. Doubting is not good, doubting is 

irreligious; one should believe. And the more absurd the belief, the greater is the test for the believer. 

Buddha is saying: DESIRING NOTHING, DOUBTING NOTHING.... The master desires nothing, hence he 

doubts nothing because he believes nothing. A master lives without desire, without belief, without doubt. And 

then what is left in the inner being of the master is trust. Trust is not belief; it is absence of both doubt and 

belief. Buddha calls it shraddha. It can only be translated as trust trust in existence. 

Belief is rooted in desire and every belief carries its own counterpart, doubt, as a shadow. Trust is absence of 

desire, belief, doubt. It is purity of the heart, innocence of the heart. In that innocent heart there is a meeting 

and merging with the universe. That is trust; it has nothing to do with you. It is not that you trust; you are no 

more there, only trust is.


DESIRING NOTHING, DOUBTING NOTHING, BEYOND JUDGMENT AND SORROW.... The master 

goes beyond judgment; hence there is no question of belief or doubt. He never judges; he never says, ”This is right 

and that is wrong.” He has dropped the mind which is a constant process of judgment. The mind continuously 

judges; its judgment has become an obsession. 

You see the roseflower and before you have even seen it, the mind has said, ”It is beautiful.” You see a man 

passing by and before you have seen the man rightly, the mind says, ”He is ugly.” The judgment is instantaneous, 

it seems to take no time. You are continuously judgmental. 

The master looks at the fact but has no judgments, because in fact beauty and ugliness all are our projections. 

When you say a rose is beautiful it is your idea, nothing else. The rose is a rose is a rose; it is neither beautiful 

nor ugly, it is simply itself. The ugly man is not ugly and the beautiful man is not beautiful; it is only a question 

of your idea of what beauty is. Hence with different people different things are thought to be beautiful. 

In China beauty has a different color, a different form; in India it has a different form and color, in Europe 

obviously it is going to be different. Each country has its own idea of beauty and those ideas go on changing, they 

come like fashions. One thing is beautiful today and tomorrow it becomes ugly; today it is ugly and tomorrow 

suddenly it becomes beautiful. 

Can you believe that Picasso’s paintings would have been thought beautiful just two hundred years ago? 

Impossible! Not even a single person would have been found in the whole world who would have said they were 

beautiful. And whosoever would have said they were beautiful would have been thought insane. 

Vincent van Gogh could not sell one of his paintings, not even one, for the simple reason that everybody thought 

they were just insane not only ugly but insane too. Now only two hundred paintings are in existence and each 

painting has so much value that if those people come back and see that Vincent van Gogh’s paintings are being 

sold for millions of dollars they will not be able to believe their eyes, what has happened to man. ”What kind of 

beauty have people started seeing suddenly in Vincent van Gogh’s paintings? Nobody thought them beautiful.” 

The idea of beauty has changed. 

Modern poetry is not beautiful in the same way as Shakespearian poetry is; it is not beautiful in the same way 

as Kalidas or Bhavabhuti, as Byron or Shelley. It is a totally different kind of beauty. Just our idea! If man 

disappears from the earth there will be nothing beautiful and nothing ugly. Weeds will be as valuable as roses; 

there will be no difference, there will be simple equality. 

A master is one who has dropped all human ideas about things, hence he has no judgments. He lives in a 

nonjudgmental way. And can you see? when you live in a nonjudgmental way you attain to great serenity, 

naturally; nothing disturbs you, nothing offends you, nothing attracts you, nothing infatuates you. 

BEYOND JUDGMENT and you are BEYOND SORROW. Buddha says: If you really want to go beyond 

sorrow, go beyond judgment. But going beyond judgment means going beyond mind. Mind is judgmental; if you 

live in the mind it will keep you tethered to all kinds of judgments. If you drop the mind then suddenly the whole 

existence becomes available to you. For the first time you are unclouded. 

”Come on, let’s screw,” the Italian told his new date five minutes after he called for her. 

”Oh, you’re so sophisticated, Pietro,” she said. 

”So sophisticated” after five minutes only! But in Italy it may be sophisticated; after five minutes, in India, it 

will be rape and the girl will shout for the police. It will take months for you to woo the woman, to persuade her, 

to bring her down to earth. It is a long, long process. But things in Italy seem to be quick: five minutes and she 

says, ”You are so sophisticated, so cultured!” It all depends on your ideas. 



These four things have to be understood. The first is the senses and their pleasures; that is the lowest kind of 

life. And remember, by calling it the ”lowest” Buddha is not judging it, it is not an evaluation it is simply stating 

a fact. Just as you say ”the lowest rung of the ladder” there is no judgment. It is not bad, it is no more special 

than the highest rung. It is simply a statement of fact. This has to be continuously remembered, otherwise you 

will forget; you will start thinking that Buddha himself is judging. Then is he a master or not? He is not judging, 

he is simply stating a fact. 

Senses are the lowest because they are on the circumference, they are part of your body. There are people who 

live only in the senses, they are still living like animals. Again remember, it is not a judgment: animals are not 

bad, animals are not immoral. There is no question of hierarchy. But animals live in the body, and the man who 

lives only in his senses is living an animal kind of life. He is living in the porch of his palace. Not that he is 

immoral, but certainly he is unintelligent. He could have lived in the palace and he is living in the porch and 

suffering the heat of the sun, and in the rains he suffers the rains and in the cold he suffers from the cold. He


could have been in the safety and the comforts and the coziness of the palace. The palace belongs to him, but he 

lives in the porch believing that that’s all there is to life. 

The man who lives only in sensuality, lust, who is obsessed with food, who is obsessed with his body, continuously 

thinking of the body, is not yet a man. He is a good animal, but utterly blind to the potential that he is born to, 

utterly blind to what he can become, unconscious of the whole range of his being. 

The second circle, deeper than the body, is that of the mind. Mind has its own pleasures which are a little 

higher. Again, remember, it has nothing to do with judgment. They are a little deeper, they are a little closer 

to the innermost shrine. They actualize a little bit of your potential. The man who enjoys mathematics, science, 

philosophy certainly has a deeper sense of joy. Plato has a deeper sense of joy than Nero. 

It is said about Nero that he used to keep four physicians constantly with him even when he went to war. Those 

four physicians were to help him vomit because he liked to eat so many times in the day. Now you cannot eat so 

many times a day; there is a limitation. You can eat three times, four times, five times at the most; more than 

that will be impossible. The body will not contain it, you will burst. So after eating, the physicians would help 

him to vomit immediately so he could eat again. He used to eat at least twenty times per day. He must have been 

the greatest eater in the world. But what kind of life is this? twenty times vomiting to eat twenty times! as if 

he lived only in the buds of the tongue, in the taste buds. 

Of course Plato is far deeper. He enjoys a contemplative life: he contemplates the stars, he contemplates the 

sunrise and the sunset, he contemplates the possibility of human progress. And he enjoys it and he enjoys it so 

much that many times he forgets to eat, he forgets completely that he has missed a meal. 

It happened once: 

Albert Einstein was brought his breakfast and he was so deep in contemplation it must have been some great 

mathematical puzzle he was involved in that he was sitting with closed eyes. So the servant did not disturb him; 

he left the breakfast in front of him and went away. 

Meanwhile a friend came. He also saw him so deeply absorbed that he thought, ”It is better... the breakfast is 

getting cold.” So he ate the breakfast and pushed the plates aside. 

At that moment Einstein opened his eyes, looked at the empty plates, looked at his friend and said, ”Sorry, 

you came a little late. I have taken my breakfast.” 

Now, this is better than being a Nero. But there is a third layer still higher, still deeper: the layer of the heart 

love, music, poetry, dance. People who enjoy art, people who can enjoy and appreciate harmony, color, people 

who can see some poetry in life and existence, who can feel some celebration going on all around, of course they 

are going still deeper. A Rabindranath... the poet goes deeper than the mathematician, the musician goes deeper 

than the philosopher. But these are still concentric circles around your center. 

The fourth the mystics in India have called it simply, ”the fourth,” turiya is the world of your being, the 

innermost core. Those who enjoy meditation, neither food nor philosophy nor poetry, but who have gone beyond 

all these and entered into the world of utter silence, of absolute emptiness, who know how not to be.... Yes, the 

question is, ”To be or not to be?” Those who have chosen not to be, they are the meditators. They have moved 

from the senses to samadhi, and that is the highest experience of life. 

Buddha says: DESIRING NOTHING, DOUBTING NOTHING, BEYOND JUDGMENT AND SORROW 

AND THE PLEASURES OF THE SENSES, HE HAS MOVED BEYOND TIME. 

The man who has moved into his being has moved beyond time. Time exists with the body, with the mind, 

with the heart, but with the being there is no time. You suddenly experience timelessness or you can call it 

eternity. It is only in that state when you have transcended mind, transcended time, that you are pure and free. 

For the first time you know what purity is. It is not something to be cultivated; it is something like a fragrance of 

deep meditation. The joy, the song, the celebration that arises out of silence, the sound of soundless silence that 

is purity, that is innocence; you have become a child again. And that is maturity too, that is growth. You have 

come of age. You are really born, you are born anew. 

HOW CLEAR HE IS.... 

Now the master has clarity because all the clouds have disappeared, the clouds created by the body.... The 

body creates the darkest clouds, the densest clouds, the thickest clouds. As you go further inwards the clouds 

are less dark, less thick, less dense. When you have reached the fourth, turiya, all clouds have disappeared; there 

is pure clarity. You can see through and through. The whole existence becomes transparent. Nothing is hidden 

from you anymore. HOW CLEAR HE IS. 

HE IS THE MOON. HE IS SERENE. HE SHINES. 

At this point, suddenly there is an alchemical change in his energy. Ordinarily a man lives as a sun energy; the 

master lives as moon energy. These are just metaphors, but tremendously significant, very expressive indicators.


Moon energy means cool energy, sun energy means hot energy. When you live in passion, lust, anger, greed, 

jealousy, possessiveness, hatred, you live as fire. It is not only that others are burned through you, you are 

burning yourself. In fact, if you want to burn others you have to burn yourself first; only then can you burn 

others. You are constantly in a fever. The sun energy is feverish, it creates insanity, it drives you crazy. It keeps 

you running and rushing after illusions. 

Meditation is the miracle that transforms the sun energy into moon energy. The moon creates magic every 

night. The moon has no rays of its own, it simply reflects the sunrays. It absorbs the sunrays and reflects them 

back; the moon functions only as a mirror. Hence the moon represents two things: first it is a mirror. The master 

is a mirror, meditation makes you a mirror without any dust, absolutely clean and pure, so everything is reflected 

in you as it is, with no judgment but simply as it is in its absolute facticity. 

And second, the moon, just by reflecting them, transforms the hot rays of the sun into cool energy. That’s 

what happens through a master. He absorbs the same energy that you absorb, he eats the same food as you eat, 

he drinks the same water as you drink, he breathes the same air as you breathe, but some alchemical change is 

constantly going on in him. 

Out of your food you become more and more sexual, out of your breathing you become more and more hot. 

The master breathes the same air, but some miracle happens within him that is not perceptible to you. The same 

air no longer creates the same results for him as it creates for you, the same food no longer creates for him the 

same problems as it creates for you. The master does not live in another world; he lives in your world and he lives 

in the same way as you live. 

Those who escape from the world are not real masters; they are afraid of the world. They are afraid to absorb 

this crazy energy. The world is full of it; hence they escape to the Himalayas. But they simply show by their 

escape that they are not yet masters. The real master lives here in the world. He absorbs the same crazy energy, 

but when it comes back, when it is reflected back through him, it is no longer crazy. It becomes a grace, it becomes 

cool. He showers a thousand and one blessings even on those who are not worthy, even on those who are not 

receptive, even on those who will never feel thankful, even on those who may do harm to him. 

Jesus even kissed Judas and washed his feet, and he knew the man had betrayed him. He knew perfectly well, 

because before he washed the feet of Judas he told his disciples, ”Tonight I am going to be betrayed by one of 

you.” But he cannot do otherwise: he can only kiss, he can only wash the feet. He has no ego, he is utterly 

humble. In fact, he has no self; he is a non-self. Buddha’s word for it is anatta no-self. And he is constantly 

radiating the cool energy of the moon. 

HE IS THE MOON. HE IS SERENE. HE SHINES he is as serene as the moon and he shines as beautifully as 

the moon. 

FOR HE HAS TRAVELED LIFE AFTER LIFE THE MUDDY AND TREACHEROUS ROAD OF ILLUSION. 

He knows from bitter experience. He has every compassion for you. If you are deep in your mud he only has 

compassion for you. He makes every effort to pull you out of the mud because he has been in the same mud for 

lives. He has traveled the same path, he has gone astray thousands of times, he has suffered in the same way. 

That is one of the most beautiful things Buddha taught, because all other religions were trying to prove 

something else. Hindus were saying in India that Krishna, Rama and all their avataras, they descend from 

heaven, they are parts of God, they are incarnations of God. That is the meaning of ’avatara’; avatara means 

”descending from above.” They are not part of us, they came as messengers of God. They have not traveled on 

the same muddy path. How can they understand our misery? How can they understand our problems? They 

have never suffered the same problems. 

And the same was the case with Judaism. And remember, these are the only two religions; all other religions 

are born out of these two. Judaism was also preaching the same idea: that God sends his messengers, messiahs, 

prophets. Those are special people, they are not ordinary like you. 

Buddha’s approach is tremendously human; he is the first humanitarian mystic. He says, ”I have traveled on 

the same muddy path, I have suffered in the same way you are suffering, I have committed the same mistakes. 

Hence I can understand you, and I can understand why you are unable to understand me, because I have come 

across many buddhas in my other lives, many buddhas; I never understood them, I always misunderstood them. 

So if you are misunderstanding me there is nothing to make a fuss about. It is simple, it is natural, it is inevitable. 

So whatsoever you do to me,” Buddha says, ”it is okay. Still I will go on showering my flowers on you because I 

have nothing else to shower.” 

Buddha is not an avatara. He has not come from the above, he has risen from the below. He is a lotus: he has 

grown out of the same mud in which you are struggling. And I completely agree with him. The Hindu and the 

Jewish concept is utterly inhuman; that concept is not right. That cannot help humanity to be transformed.


Buddha brings a totally new insight. His approach is not mythological, his approach is scientific. FOR HE HAS 

TRAVELED LIFE AFTER LIFE THE MUDDY AND TREACHEROUS ROAD OF ILLUSION so he knows 

and he understands you. You may not understand him, but he understands you. 

A little girl was being driven very erratically in a car by her grandma. 

”Don’t go round corners so fast, Gran,” she pleaded. 

”Do as I do, dear,” said the sweet old lady, ”and close your eyes!” 

Blind people are leading other blind people and they have created all kinds of superstitions, mythologies, 

religions. Only a buddha is capable, only one who is awakened, only one who up to now had belonged to you. 

You are asleep and he is awake, that is the only difference; there is no other difference. He can help you to be 

awakened because he knows how he has become awake, how difficult it is, what problems have to be faced. He 

knows your state. 

The bandage-covered patient who lay in the hospital bed spoke dazedly to his visiting pal. ”Wh-wh-what 

happened?” 

”You had one too many last night and then bet that you could jump out of the window and fly around the 

block.” 

”Why didn’t you stop me?” he screamed. 

”Stop you, hell! I had twenty-five dollars on you!” 

The receptionist of a five-star hotel picks up the phone: ”May I help you?” 

”Yes,” is the reply, ”can you please tell me when your bar opens?” 

”Yes, sir. The bar opens at five o’clock.” 

”Thank you.” 

An hour later the phone rings again and the same voice asks, ”C-c-an you tell me, p-p-please, when the b-b-b-bar 

opens?” 

”At five o’clock, sir,” says the receptionist. 

”Th-th-thank you!” 

Another hour passes and the phone rings again. ”Please, when doesh... doesh... doesh the bar (hic) o-open?” 

”I repeat, at five o’clock,” answers the annoyed receptionist. 

Still another hour later, the phone rings again. ”Hic! Hic! Heelloo!” 

”You again!” exclaims the receptionist, ”I told you we open our bar at five o’clock, but in your state of inebriation 

we cannot allow you into our bar!” 

”But... but... but hic I don’t want to get in!” cries the drunk. ”I want to get out!” 

Only somebody who has been in knows the ins and the outs. Only one who has been drunk like you can 

help you. That’s why the organization called Alcoholics Anonymous is so helpful. It has helped thousands of 

drunkards for the simple reason that other drunkards are helping. They understand each other, they understand 

the problems. They are not standing high above the others looking with eyes of condemnation at them, looking 

at them with that stupid holy look, ”holier-than-thou,” and preaching to them to be good. They have been in 

the same plight, they have suffered much; they understand each other’s language. 

Hence Buddha helped more people to become enlightened than anybody else in the whole history of humanity. 

I don’t think Krishna helped anybody to become enlightened; he was enlightened, but he could not help anybody 

else. I am afraid Jesus could not help anybody, not even among his own twelve apostles. They remained very 

ordinary to the very end; not one of them became enlightened. 

Buddha seems to be an exceptional master in fact the first master whom we can really call a master, because 

through him thousands of people became enlightened. And the reason why Buddha’s appeal is so deep is that 

he is not a pretender. He is not a messiah, he has not come from above, he claims nothing. He is not the only 

begotten Son of God; he does not talk about God at all. He does not talk any nonsense. He is very sensible and 

very down-to-earth. He means business. And he can help immensely. He says: FOR HE HAS TRAVELED the 

master has traveled LIFE AFTER LIFE THE MUDDY AND TREACHEROUS ROAD OF ILLUSION. 

When are you going to wake up? You go on postponing, you go on saying tomorrow. And you have been doing 

this for centuries, and tomorrow has not come yet. When is it going to come? Stop postponing. Postponing is a 

trick of the mind. 

After a smooth take-off the captain of the Boeing 707 welcomes his passengers: ”Ladies and gentlemen, welcome 

aboard. I, Captain Cook, and my crew wish you a pleasant flight. We land in Amsterdam in approximately five 

hours.” 

A few minutes later the same voice is heard through the speakers: ”Shit, Johnny, I feel like a nice cool beer 

and a good screw....”


As the stewardess runs towards the cockpit to inform the pilot that the speakers are on, a passenger grabs her 

by the arm and says, ”Hey, lady, what’s the rush? We still got another five hours to go!” 

We are always thinking in terms of the future. Stop thinking in terms of the future; that is the way of the mind 

to live, to prolong, to get nourished. The future is the food of the mind. The moment you become decisive about 

the present, the mind has started dying. It is the beginning of the end, the end of the mind. And the end of the 

mind is the beginning of your real existence, your real life. 

And can’t you see that life has been very treacherous, that it has been deceiving you again and again? Still 

you go on being deceived. How gullible you are! And you go on falling in the same ditches they are not even 

different the same traps. 

A Jew and a Polack are sitting together in a train compartment. The Jew is eating some apple seeds. 

After some time, the Polack becomes curious and asks the Jew, ”Why are you eating apple seeds?” 

The Jew replies, ”Apple seeds make you smart!” 

The Polack, even more curious, asks, ”Are they for sale?” 

The Jew answers, ”Yes, of course, You can have these five apple seeds for five dollars only.” 

The Polack agrees to the deal and starts eating the seeds. Suddenly the Polack turns to the Jew and says, 

”Hey, you, listen, for five dollars I could have bought five kilos of apples!” 

The Jew turns to him with a satisfied smile and answers, ”Now you see it has started working already!” 

You go on repeating the same mistakes. You go on being exploited by the treacherous life, by all kinds of traps 

which are all around you. And the emperors and the beggars are all in the same boat; there is no difference. The 

poor and the rich are in the same boat; there is no difference because all are full of desires. And wherever desire 

exists ego exists, and wherever ego exists illusion exists because ego is the greatest illusion there is. Even in a 

beggar who has nothing else you will find the same ego as you will find in Alexander the Great, because desiring is 

the same. Alexander the Great may have much money and much power, that does not matter; he is still desiring. 

The beggar may not have anything, but he is also desiring. 

The distance between you and your desire always remains the same. It is like the horizon: between you and the 

horizon the distance is always the same. You can go on moving towards the horizon your whole life; the distance is 

never shortened, it remains the same. You can renounce the world, you can start running away from the horizon, 

but then again you will be facing another horizon. And now the desire to reach the other horizon.... If you were 

heading west, now you will be heading east, but it is the same horizon or south or north. You can go in any 

direction, it is the same horizon. Escaping won’t help. You can renounce the world, it will not change you. 

There is only one change only one change, only one revolution and that is the revolution of dropping the 

illusion of the ego. It is the ego that keeps you on the muddy and treacherous road of illusion. 

And remember, don’t fool yourself that ”Alexander the Great is an egoist. I am a poor man, a humble man. I 

go to the church every Sunday how can I be an egoist?” You are in the same boat, in the same way. You have 

the same ego. 

As a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce stopped at some traffic lights, a tramp tapped on the window and held out 

his hand. The somewhat literary English gentleman in the back seat rolled down the window and said in a very 

cultured voice, ”’Neither a borrower nor a lender be’... William Shakespeare.” And the Rolls Royce drove on. 

The tramp, seeing that the Rolls had stopped at the next set of lights, raced down the road and tapped on the 

window again. The gentleman rolled down the window and the tramp said, ”’Fuck you’... D.H. Lawrence.” 

HE DOES NOT TREMBLE OR GRASP OR HESITATE. HE HAS FOUND PEACE. 

He has no fear. Once desire has gone fear cannot exist. When desire is there you are always afraid are you 

going to make it this time or not? Or if you have achieved the goal of your desire then you are afraid whether you 

are capable of keeping it forever or not. If you want to become the president then comes the fear how are you 

going to make it? Millions of people want to be the president. There are so many neurotic people you are not the 

only one. The whole world is mad; you are not the only mad person. Are you going to make it? And you have to 

be really the maddest to make it because you will have to fight with other madmen. There is always trembling. 

And if by chance and it is always a chance if by some coincidence you become the president, then a new fear 

arises: are you going to keep it? because so many people are pulling you. Your legs are being pulled, people 

are pushing you from your chair. And there are so many people around you and everybody is dangerous because 

everybody wants to sit in the same chair, but the chair can contain only one person. Now there is great fear, you 

cannot sleep. In fact now you are more afraid than you ever were; you know sooner or later they will topple you. 

They are so many and you are alone. They will gather together to topple you. 

But the master has no trembling because he has no desire. And he does not cling to anything because he knows 

that there is nothing worth clinging to; he has that clarity of vision. All that is his is always his, nobody can take


it away. He sees it now. And all that is not his is going to be taken away whether you cling to it or not, so what 

is the point of clinging? Why waste time? 

He never hesitates his clarity is such. For a master it is never a question of deciding between alternatives; he 

simply sees... and he acts. It is not a question of either/or. Never! He sees the door and goes out through it. 

It is not a question of deciding whether to go through the wall or through the door. It is always a question for 

you to decide whether to go through the wall or through the door. In fact, the wall looks more appealing because 

millions of times you have tried through the wall and you are really angry at the wall and you want to prove that 

one day you are going to defeat this wall. This dumb wall has been defeating you again and again; you want 

to take revenge. In fact, you can’t see the door; you only see this wall and that wall. It is always a question of 

choosing which wall you want to go through. 

For the master it is never a question of choice. He lives choicelessly because he lives consciously. He is alert, he 

has eyes to see, and you are blind; hence you always hesitate. Because he has no fear, no clinging, no hesitation: 

HE HAS FOUND PEACE. Naturally, there is tremendous peace in his being. 

CALMLY HE LETS GO OF LIFE, OF HOME AND PLEASURE AND DESIRE. 

CALMLY HE LETS GO OF LIFE.... He does not make any fuss about it, he does not brag about renunciation. 

Whatsoever he sees is futile, he drops it. In fact, to say he drops it is not right he lets it go, he allows it to be 

dropped. He does not resist, that’s all. He makes no effort to keep it. And very calmly, without any effort. His 

life is effortless. 

OF HOME.... Home represents security he drops the idea of security. What security can there be here when 

death is going to take everything away? In this life there can be no security, on this shore there is no security; 

hence he does not bother about security. 

AND PLEASURE... because he knows pleasure always brings pain. He has seen it clearly, that pleasure is only 

a facade; behind it comes hidden pain. He can see through and through; hence he lets it go. And desire he has 

lived for many, many lives and seen that it is unfulfillable. It is always after more: the more you have, the more 

you ask for. It is an absolutely absurd exercise in futility. 

Seen, all these things start disappearing from his life. Not that he renounces.... That’s what my emphasis is: 

never renounce anything. If things are worthless they will fall of their own accord. And when things fall of their 

own accord there is tremendous beauty in them, because they leave you peaceful, calm and quiet, collected and 

centered. 

NOTHING OF MEN CAN HOLD HIM. NOTHING OF THE GODS CAN HOLD HIM. NOTHING IN ALL 

CREATION CAN HOLD HIM. 

When there is no desire, what can hold him? What can make him a prisoner? Neither this world nor the other 

world, neither the earth nor paradise. 

All the religions of the world talk about heaven and hell. Buddha says there is something beyond heaven and 

hell and that is the true existence. He calls it nirvana. No other religion talks about nirvana; nirvana is a totally 

different vision. It means you are not hankering for heavenly desires, heavenly joys and pleasures, because it is 

the same stupidity again repeated on a bigger scale, on a higher plane, but the stupidity is the same. 

The master knows the futility of desire; hence he has no desire for heaven, he has no desire at all. Nothing 

binds him and nothing holds him. 

DESIRE HAS LEFT HIM, NEVER TO RETURN. 

... Because he has seen that it is futile. If you drop it because I am saying it, then it will return again and again. 

If you drop it out of your own experience through meditation, then it has gone forever, NEVER TO RETURN. 

SORROW HAS LEFT HIM, NEVER TO RETURN. 

And sorrow is only a shadow of desire. Remember it always: everything has to happen to you through your 

own experience. 

Buddha’s last words to his disciples were: Be a light unto yourself. And how can you be a light unto yourself? 

Go beyond the body, the mind, the heart. Find the center of your being and suddenly there is light. It is already 

there, it is already burning bright. It is your very being; you just have to discover it. 

Discovering it one discovers truth. 

Discovering it one discovers peace. 

Discovering it one discovers bliss, nirvana. 



Chapter 6 Life, love, laughter 

Audio:Yes Video:Yes Length:40 mins



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, RAMAKRISHNA STAYED IN HIS BODY THROUGH SHOWING INTEREST IN 

FOOD. NOW TELL ME THE TRUTH IS IT THE JOKES THAT KEEP YOU HERE? 

Anand Masta, yes, in a way it is true. Religion has for centuries lacked many things. One of the most important 

of them all is laughter; religion has been too serious. Seriousness is a kind of disease: it is the cancer of the soul. 

It is very destructive, it is suicidal. Hence, if you don’t see religion flowering on the earth although there are three 

hundred religions, millions of churches, temples, mosques, still the earth goes on missing religious consciousness 

the simple reason is that seriousness has killed religion. 

Seriousness tends to become sad. You cannot be serious without being sad; they are two sides of the same coin. 

And you can be serious and sad only if you have missed your roots in life and existence. Only the pathological 

people are serious; the healthy, the whole will never be serious, cannot be serious. 

It was one of the most unfortunate accidents in human history that religion became associated with seriousness. 

That association has to be destroyed, mercilessly destroyed. Religion has to be freed from the imprisonment of 

seriousness. Only then will it be healthy, only then will it be able to sing and dance and rejoice. The serious 

religion has always been rooted in the idea that there is something wrong in life, something basically wrong in 

life, as if life is a punishment. 

Life is a gift of God, not a punishment. And there is nothing wrong in life. If something is wrong it must be 

in you. You don’t know the art of living, you are incapable of moving into the depth and into the mystery of 

life. You must be a coward; hence you cling to the shore, to the known, to the familiar. And life always goes on 

moving into the unknown. Life is adventurous and you are a coward, hence you soon part company. Life goes on 

its way of adventure and you cling to your security. Clinging to your security you become dead, and when you 

become dead, life seems to be a drag, a dull affair. In fact, you have lost contact with life. 

It is as if you uproot a rosebush from the earth soon it will start dying, it will lose its greenness, its roses 

will wither away. Nothing is wrong with the rosebush, nothing is wrong with the earth either, only you have 

disconnected them. The rosebush needs nourishment, then it can bloom in thousands of flowers, it can have all 

the green of the world and all the red and all the gold. Man also is a rosebush. He needs his own soil, he needs 

roots into existence. 

When you are born you are born only with the potential to exist, to survive, not with the art of making life a 

joy, a bliss, a celebration. That art has to be learned. To me, religion is that very art, the supreme art: the art of 

transforming the lower into the higher. Religion to me is alchemy. It is the process of transforming the potential 

into the actual. Man has lived at the minimum; hence he looks so dull. Man can live at the maximum and then 

there will be great brilliance and great radiance and then there will be great flowering. 

Laughter is as precious as prayer or even more precious than prayer, because the man who cannot laugh cannot 

pray either. A prayer that does not come out of a joyous heart is already dead. It cannot reach God, it cannot 

leave the earth, it has no wings. It is like a rock: it will fall back to the earth, it cannot fly into the sky. 

Religion has lived without laughter, that’s why religion has been a corpse. And you are worshipping corpses 

in your churches and in your temples and in your mosques, you have become worshippers of death. Rather than 

worshipping life you have been worshipping death. 

My approach is totally different I bring you a new vision. Religion is against laughter, is against love, is against 

rejoicing, is against celebration. The religious person, the so-called religious person, condemns everything of this 

world; he lives surrounded by a thousand and one condemnations. He lives in fear, in trembling. He does not live, 

he only vegetates. 

Your so-called saints and mahatmas are not real people, they don’t have the guts to be real, they are phony. 

But you have worshipped them for so long, and you still go on worshipping them. And the reason you worship 

them is because they are so dead, because they are so serious, because they are so ugly, because their whole 

approach towards life is so negative. They are anti-life, anti-love, anti-laughter how can they be for God? It is 

only through love and laughter and a tremendous joy in life that you start feeling the presence of something that 

is beyond. 

When life becomes an adventure, a dance of ecstasy, then only do you move beyond the confinement of the 

body and the mind and soar high towards the infinite. 

Yes, Masta, you can say I live on your laughter. I rejoice seeing you dance, sing and laugh. I rejoice seeing you 

in deep love. I rejoice seeing you dropping the garbage of centuries, the rotten, stupid superstitions of centuries. 

I rejoice seeing you getting out of the old, being born anew.


All the religions were born thousands of years ago; everything has changed. Those religions don’t fit anymore, 

they have no relevance, their context has disappeared. But they go on sitting on your head, heavy mountains, 

and they don’t allow you to move. In fact, the older the religion, the more precious you think it is. It is not so: 

the older the religion, the more irrelevant it is. 

Religion has to be as new as life itself. Religion has to be new every day, each moment. And that’s how the 

religious person lives: he goes on dying to the past every moment, he is born anew every moment. He moves with 

life. He has no clinging to the Vedas and no clinging to the Bible and no clinging to the Koran. He can read 

them as beautiful literature, but he does not cling to them. Those who cling to them are being stupid because 

something may have been relevant two thousand years ago, but it has no meaning anymore. And you know it 

perfectly well, but you don’t have courage enough to get out of the old fold. 

All the vested interests are against you getting out of the old fold. All the vested interests want you to remain 

committed to the past because then you can be exploited more easily. If you are not committed to the past 

the priests will disappear, because they represent the past. Who will pay any attention to the pope or to the 

shankaracharya? They will become laughingstocks! In fact they are ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. All their ideas 

are so out-of-date that you go on tolerating them only because it is risky to say that they are out-of-date. It is 

risky because you may lose something in your business, in your investment. You may start falling apart from the 

society. You are afraid of being individuals, you want to remain part of the crowd. 

And religion’s whole purpose is to make you individuals. Religion loses all meaning when it starts making 

you, forcing you, in fact, to be part of the crowd. Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, Buddhist these are crowds. 

You have not chosen to be a Christian; it is accidental that you are born a Christian or a Jew or a Hindu. How 

can religion be accidental? Is such an important phenomenon decided by the accident of birth? You have to be 

consciously alert to choose your path towards God. You have not chosen your path, you have not even chosen 

God. You have been forced to choose, and you have allowed all this to happen. It is a bondage! Your being a 

Christian is a bondage. 

The people gathered around Christ were real Christians, were the only Christians, because they had chosen. 

They were going against the crowd, they were risking their lives, they were moving in danger. They were born as 

Jews. They would have been more comfortable, they would have lived more conveniently if they had not followed 

Jesus. Following Jesus was dangerous. It proved dangerous to Jesus himself; he was crucified. His disciples were 

victimized in every possible way. Those were real people, authentic people. To be a Christian now means nothing. 

The people who were gathering around Gautama the Buddha were real Buddhists. They were religious people, 

because going against the whole crowd of the Hindus, against the whole pattern of the society and following a 

very rebellious man, being with him, was accepting the life of insecurity. They were genuine, authentic seekers. 

But the man who is born a Buddhist has not risked anything; it is just a coincidence that he is born a Buddhist. 

If you had been adopted by a Mohammedan when you were a small child you would have been a Mohammedan; 

if you had been adopted by a Jew you would have been a Jew. And you would have never known who you were 

by your birth, because nobody is born as a Christian or a Buddhist or a Hindu everybody is born free. God gives 

you freedom to choose. 

But society does not want you to be free. Neither the state nor the church nor other vested interests want you 

to be free. They want to cripple you and paralyze you, they want to destroy your intelligence. They don’t want 

you to be very happy either because happy people can be dangerous. Miserable people are good, miserable people 

are always controllable, miserable people are always ready to become enslaved. They are so miserable, they are 

always seeking somebody who can give them support, who can make their lives a little easier. The happy person 

becomes independent; the happier he is, the more independent. 

A Jesus or a Buddha or a Krishna or a Confucius, these are the most blissful people the earth has known. 

They are utterly independent people. They don’t care a bit about what others say; they don’t bother about their 

opinions for the simple reason that they don’t depend on anybody else. Their bliss is inner. 

The society does not want you to be really blissful. It wants you to be sad and ill; it wants you to be pathological, 

neurotic. Only a neurotic society can be dominated by the priests and the politicians. Only people who have lost 

all intelligence can be led by idiots like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. People who have intelligence can’t be 

led by such people. These people are insane! In a better world, there won’t be any possibility of Adolf Hitlers. 

The moment there is somebody like that he will be put in a mental asylum: he has to be treated, he is mad. But 

right now these mad people have become very influential. Their very madness makes them powerful. They are so 

mad that the people who are not so mad start following them. They look like leaders. 

And people are different only in degrees. Somebody is more mad than you and you are a little less mad than 

him; of course, one who is more mad than you is going to be your leader. He will be more stubborn, more


dogmatic, he will appear more determined, he will appear to have more willpower, he will have a certain hypnotic 

influence, but that is possible only if you have lost all your intelligence. 

My effort here is to give you back that which is really yours. I don’t want you to become part of any religion. I 

simply want you to be religious neither Christians nor Hindus, nor Mohammedans just religious. That is enough! 

There is no need to choose a particular doctrine. Religion has nothing to do with doctrines, it is more existential. 

And unless you love life you will not be able to love God either. If he is the creator you have to love his creation 

to love him. To hate his creation and to show love to the creator is absurd. To condemn the creation and to praise 

the creator is utterly stupid, illogical, unintelligent. If you love the music, only then do you love the musician, or 

vice versa. And this existence is so beautiful! 

Except in man you will not find any sadness anywhere. The trees are not sad and the animals are not sad 

and the stars are not sad, even rocks are not sad, only man because only man has been manipulated, exploited, 

distracted from his center. 

Yes, Masta, when I see you laughing, loving, rejoicing, dancing, singing, I feel like lingering a little more in the 

body for you. 

I have given you the name Anand Masta. Anand means bliss and Masta means mad madly blissful, utterly 

drunk in blissfulness. And very few sannyasins are so deeply fulfilling their names as you are doing. I am absolutely 

happy with you, all my blessings are for you. Get more and more drunk! 

God is not far away. Just when you lose yourself in love he is as close as he can ever be. When you lose yourself 

in dance, when you abandon yourself in dance, when the ego disappears in your dance, he is just your partner in 

the dance nobody else but him. Whoever the partner is, he is the partner. When your heart is throbbing with 

joy and ecstasy in singing, he is in your heart, at the very core of your being. And when you laugh, if the laugh 

is total, if every fiber of your being is laughing.... 

That’s why I love jokes. Jokes are very religious, very spiritual! All jokes are spiritual because they suddenly 

trigger a process in you and you forget all your seriousness. For a moment you are again an innocent child, again 

full of wonder and awe. And the laughter overwhelms you, you are drowned in the laughter. The ego is not found 

when you are deep in laughter. And whenever ego disappears, God is. 

Remember it as one of the most fundamental laws: whenever the ’I’ is absent, God is present they both cannot 

be present together. The relationship between the ego and God is just like the relationship between darkness and 

light. If light is present, darkness cannot be there, because darkness is nothing but the absence of light. How can 

there be presence and absence together? If darkness is there then light cannot be there. 

There is an ancient parable: 

After many, many millions of years, Darkness approached God and told him, ”This is too much! I have been 

patient enough, but for no reason at all your Sun goes on torturing me, chasing me every morning. I have not 

even taken enough rest and he is back and the chase begins. And I have to run and he goes on running after me. 

Now it is getting tiring. I have not done anything wrong to this Sun. Why is he so much after me? Why is he 

carrying such enmity for me?” 

God also thought, ”This is unfair!” And he called the Sun. The Sun came and said, ”I don’t know what you 

are talking about. Have you gone mad or something? What Darkness? I have never come across any Darkness. I 

have never seen her, I have never met her, so of course, why should I chase your Darkness? I don’t even know her! 

Where is she? You bring her before me! And unless you bring her before me, how can I answer? Both parties 

have to be present in court. First I have to see who this Darkness is who has been complaining against me and 

with whom I am not even acquainted. All these millions of years since you have made me I have never seen her, 

I have never met her. I don’t even know her whereabouts.” 

And God said, ”That is right. I will call her.” 

And since then, millions of years have again passed and God has been trying. You have heard that God is 

omnipotent he is not, because he has not been able to call both of them together yet. Yes, sometimes Darkness 

comes and complains and sometimes the Sun comes and says, ”This is unfair let us both be present.” But even 

God is not capable of making that happen. So it is just pending, it is in the files. One day, just looking in the 

files I came across it, and I think it is going to remain forever in the files. 

Darkness and light cannot be present together. The ego is just darkness; absence of consciousness is ego. When 

you become conscious, ego disappears. When consciousness is total, ego is not found at all. And the totality of 

consciousness is another name for the experience of God. 

God is not a person, let me remind you again and again God is only an experience of absolute awareness, of 

ultimate ecstasy. Hence I say laugh deeply, love deeply, live deeply. Risk everything for love, laughter, life. Let 

your life be a great exploration and go on always moving into the unknown and the unknowable.


Nobody else has used jokes in a spiritual way; hence sometimes people are shocked. When they come for the 

first time to listen to me, naturally they are shocked because they want to hear something very serious as if they 

are not serious enough already! They want to hear something esoteric, something nonsensical, something which 

makes no sense to them; then they think there must be great meaning in it. When something is incomprehensible 

to them they think this is great philosophy! Whenever they come across something written in stupid jargon, 

esoteric, occult, spiritual, they become very much interested. They think they are going to find some treasure in 

it. 

The treasure is not hidden in big words, the treasure is hidden in you. And it is to be discovered, not through 

big words, it is to be discovered through wordlessness, it is to be discovered through silence. 

And haven’t you felt after deep laughter that a sudden silence comes to you in the wake of it? the silence after 

a storm. For a moment it is as if the mind stops functioning... you are utterly relaxed, in a deep rest. 

Those are the moments, Masta, when you start feeling the presence of God. Those are the first glimpses that 

God is. There is no other proof. 

Hence my commune is going to remain a shock to the traditional people. They have seen many spiritual 

communes, but they were all serious. Jesus will understand what I am saying, but not the pope of the Vatican, 

because these fools go on saying that Jesus never laughed. And I tell you, on my own authority, that he must 

have been one of the most hilarious persons. Who else can laugh so beautifully as Jesus? Who else has the right? 

He was not a deadly kind of saint; he lived, and lived very close to the earth. He lived with all kinds of ordinary 

people with drunkards and gamblers and tax collectors and prostitutes and he loved eating and drinking. 

Indian spiritual phonies are very much against drinking. That’s why they cannot believe that Jesus is enlightened. 

Many Jaina monks have asked me, ”Why do you say that Jesus is enlightened, as Buddha and Mahavira 

are? He used to drink wine!” There is nothing wrong in it, one just has to learn the art of drinking wine. One 

should not drink too much; the golden mean has to be followed. Nobody has ever heard that Jesus was lying in 

the street! He must have known how much to drink and when to drink and when not to drink. 

And moreover, wine is absolutely vegetarian; far more vegetarian than milk which Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist 

monks think is the purest food. It is animal food! It is closer to nonvegetarian food than to vegetarian food. It 

is part of the human body or the animal body. Wine has nothing wrong in it. And if one is foolish one can drink 

too much water and can get into trouble. So it is not a question of drinking. 

And what is wrong with enjoying eating? He must have enjoyed eating because we have many references that 

every night with his disciples the gathering used to continue late into the night, eating, drinking.... And do you 

think he was eating and drinking and they all were eating and drinking and everybody was sitting serious and 

somber and saintly? Is this the way to drink and eat and enjoy it? They must have been telling jokes and they 

must have been gossiping and they must have been talking like human beings. 

He was very human in that sense, far more human than Buddha and Mahavira. They look more abstract, 

more in the sky and less on the earth. He was very earthly. He used to stay in the house of a prostitute, Mary 

Magdalene. Now, your Vatican pope will not have that much guts! Even though he is a Polack, that much guts I 

don’t think he will have! 

But when people come here, these people who think themselves spiritual, they come with their ideas, their 

prejudices that there should be no laughter, no dancing, no singing. And when they see sannyasins hugging, then 

this is too much as if there is something wrong in hugging! When they see people holding hands with deep love 

they are shocked. Spiritual people should be very anti-life, utterly life-negative; they should not affirm life in any 

way. And my whole effort here is to affirm life in all possible ways. 

Masta, a few jokes for you: 

Once there was a little girl who came across the word ’frugal’ and asked her mother what it meant. She was 

told that it meant ”to save.” The next day the child was asked to write a story at school, and handed in the 

following: 

”Once upon a time a princess was lost in the woods and as night fell she became frightened. She began to run, 

crying out, ’Frugal me! Frugal me!’ 

”A passing prince heard her pleas and ran to her rescue. He frugaled her and they lived happily ever after.” 

”Hey, Giulio, where did you get the black eye?” 

”Aw, I was at my girl’s house,” explained the young lover, ”and we was-a dancing together real-a tight-a when 

her father walked-a in!” 

”So?” ”So,” said the Italian, ”the old-a guy’s deaf-a. He couldn’t-a hear the music-a!” 

A Texas cowboy was walking down a Tijuana street. Suddenly young Pablo walked up to him and yanked on 

his sleeve.


”Hey, meester,” said the boy, ”you wanna make love to my seester?” 

”Podnah,” said the Texan, ”Ah don’t even drink the water here!” 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, YOU SAID THAT FOR BUDDHA FREEDOM IS THE HIGHEST. BUT HIS ”DHAMMA” 

MEANS ”THE LAW,” WHICH INHIBITS FREEDOM. HOW DO FREEDOM AND LAW GO TOGETHER? 

PLEASE COMMENT. 

Anand Maitreya, freedom for Gautama the Buddha is the very law of life. Hence there is no contradiction. Life 

itself is rooted in freedom. We are not machines, we are not preprogrammed. We are utter freedom now it is up 

to us what to make of it. All the alternatives are open, we can choose any alternative, that is our choice. We can 

become anybody, that is our choice. 

It is as if you find a marble rock now it depends on you what you want to make out of it. You can sculpt 

a Christ, you can also sculpt a Judas. The rock is totally available to you; now you have to decide, it is your 

decision, your conscious decision, what you want to make out of it. 

Michelangelo was passing by a shop which used to sell marble. He saw a big marble rock outside the shop, he 

had seen it lying there for years. He asked the owner, ”What’s the matter? Can’t you sell it?” 

The man said, ”I have dropped the idea. I can’t sell it. Nobody is ready to purchase it, it is useless. I have 

thrown it out. But if you are interested you can take it free of charge so at least my place will be empty and I 

can put other rocks there.” 

Michelangelo took the rock with him, and after one year he invited the owner to see. The owner could not 

believe his eyes; he had never seen such a beautiful Jesus. He said, ”How could you do it? You are really a 

magician! That rock was utterly useless; no other sculptor was ready to take it even free of charge.” 

And Michelangelo is reported to have said, ”It has nothing to do with me. When I was passing, Jesus called 

out from the rock saying, ’I am imprisoned here! Help me to get out of this rock!’ And I have just removed the 

unnecessary chunks, I have freed him.” 

But a Michelangelo is needed to hear it, to hear the Jesus inside the rock calling him to help him to be freed. 

A rock is just a rock; it depends on you what you make out of it. That’s what existentialists say: that 

man is born absolutely free. In the ancient days, philosophers used to think that man is born with an essence. 

Existentialists say man is born only as an existence, with no essence. He has to create the essence out of his own 

choice. And I perfectly agree with the existentialist approach. 

Buddha is the first existentialist of the world and far more truly an existentialist than Martin Heidegger, Jean- 

Paul Sartre, Jaspers and others, because after all these existentialists are only thinkers they think about existence. 

Buddha really transformed himself. He was not talking about the essence he created it, he showed the world 

what man can make out of himself. 

Gurdjieff used to say that man is not born with a soul. The meaning is the same. It looks very strange when 

you hear for the first time that man is not born with a soul. The soul has to be created, man is born empty. And 

millions die only as hollow emptinesses. Their souls are never born because they never make any effort. The old 

idea is that everybody is born with a soul; it frees you from the great responsibility of creating your own being, 

of creating yourself. When there is no responsibility to create, you go on living accidentally, like driftwood. 

Buddha says freedom is the very law of life. What he means by it is that there is nothing higher than freedom. 

But by the word ’law’, please don’t misunderstand him. In fact for dhamma, the word ’law’ is only approximately 

right. In the English language there is not exactly the right word for dhamma. In Chinese there is a word Tao 

that exactly means dhamma. The closest word in English is logos, but that has gone out of use. Hence ’the law’ 

is used, but ’law’ has other associations: the ordinary law of the state, of governments, of societies. That is not 

the meaning of Buddha. Of course, these laws are inhibitions; they prohibit you, they hinder you from freedom. 

Buddha is saying freedom is the only real law and anything that hinders your freedom is against the law of life. 

Be free. All those laws have to be broken, sabotaged. You have to take your life in your own hands and you are 

responsible for it. No fate is responsible, no destiny is responsible. You have to create yourself by your own effort. 

You are just a tabula rasa. You can write beautiful poems on it, beautiful calligraphy, you can do beautiful 

paintings on it; or you can leave it as it is. Or you can simply throw colors on it, meaninglessly, in an insane way, 

like a small child. You can destroy the whole thing. And there is nobody else who is responsible except you; the 

total responsibility is yours. 

That is the most emphatic thing that Buddha wants you to remember: don’t shirk your responsibility. Whatsoever 

you are is your own work and whatsoever you want to be you can be. But you can be that only if freedom 

is the law of life. If everything is destined, if there is something like fate, if there is something which has been


preprogrammed in you, then you are not a man at all, then you are just a biocomputer. You are simply going to 

repeat the program, you are a gramophone record. You don’t have any freedom, you can’t change anything. You 

are just play-things in the hands of unknown forces. 

Buddha says this is not true. Hence he even denies the existence of God for the simple reason that if God 

is there then there will be trouble; then he will be the suprememost being. His very presence will become an 

inhibition to you. 

That’s exactly the logic of Friedrich Nietzsche. He said: God is dead, therefore man is now free. But Nietzsche 

was only a philosopher. He could not contain that much freedom. He went mad. 

Buddha is not a philosopher at all, he is a mystic. He used the freedom. He really became responsible for 

himself. He created his own being and he became the most beautiful person who has ever lived on the earth. He 

followed the law of freedom and achieved the ultimate joy, the ultimate truth. 

You can do the same too. That is his message. He says, ”Whatsoever has happened to me can happen to you. 

If it is not happening, nobody else is responsible except you.” So take the total responsibility in your own hands, 

feel and be responsible, and use the law of freedom because it is available. Life has been given to you with no 

preprogram; now it is up to you what you want to make out of it. You can become an ugly monster a Genghis 

Khan, a Tamerlane, a Nadirshah or you can become a Gautam Buddha, a Jesus Christ, a Lao Tzu, a Zarathustra. 

It all depends on you, it is your freedom. Choose! 

But you can choose only when you are conscious; you can choose only when you are aware, alert. The more 

aware you are, the more you are capable of choosing the course of your life. The more aware you are, the more 

you know, the more you can feel a sense of direction. 

Freedom is the foundation of life and freedom is the ultimate goal too. Freedom is the source and freedom is 

the goal. 

Use freedom to be free from all bondage. 

Use freedom to become ultimately free. 

Use freedom to become freedom itself. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, I-A NEVER-A THOUGHT-A IT WOULD-A COME-A TO THIS-A, BUT-A I WISH-A 

I-A WERE-A AN-A ITALIAN! MUCH-A LOVE-A AND-A PASTA, BIGGA PREMA. 

Bigga Prema, avoid such desires, because if you carry them too long they start becoming a reality. Then don’t 

make me responsible for it! Be very careful what you desire, because the danger is that the desire may be fulfilled 

sooner or later. 

I love Italians as much as I love others but naturally many people are feeling jealous of Italians, for the simple 

reason that I am telling so many jokes about Italians. But the reason is not that I love Italians more than the 

Dutch or the Australians; the reason is simply that my librarian happens to be Lalita, an Italian, so she goes on 

finding Italian jokes for me! So rather than you desiring to be an Italian, just desire that I may get one assistant 

for Lalita from every country. In the new commune, I am thinking Lalita must have at least a dozen assistants! 

But beware of having this desire. 

Do you know why they hang salami at Italian weddings? 

To keep the flies off the bride. 

And do you know who fired the bullet into Mussolini’s body? 

One hundred top Italian marksmen. 

Bianco, the barber, nicked his customer six times while shaving him. Finally the bleeding man asked if he could 

have a razor. 

”Why?” asked the Italian. ”You wanna shave-a yourself?” 

”No,” said the victim, ”I want to defend myself!” 

Collared by the cops after he roared up a one-way street and crashed his 1949 Ford into a store window, the 

Italian drunk wanted to know what the hell was going on. 

”You went against the traffic, you dumb bastard,” the angry cop said, ”Didn’t you see the arrows back there?” 

”Holy Mother-a Jesus!” the boozed-up guinea said. ”I didn’t even see the Indians!” 

And if you really want to change in your next life, in the next round when you come back, Bigga Prema, rather 

than being an Italian, be a Polack! Now you see, the Polack has become the pope he has defeated all the Italians! 

Now if a Polack can become a pope, the next thing is that a woman is going to become a pope-a. 

Why do Polack dogs have flat noses? 

From chasing parked cars.


And why can’t Polacks be pharmacists? 

They can’t fit the little brown bottles in their typewriters! 

And do you know what is written on the bottom of Polish milk bottles? 

”Open at other end.” 

Wojawicz walked into the department store with his mangy mutt. A floorwalker rushed over, pointed to the 

sign that read, NO DOGS ALLOWED and said, ”Hey, mister, can’t you read?” 

”So,” said the Polack, ”who’s smoking?” 

And just the other day all the orange Italians and all the orange Polacks gathered together to decide who is 

really the greatest. Of course, there was no question of intellectual discussion... it had to be something existential! 

So they decided to go to the football ground by the side of the railway station and play football whoever wins.... 

For two hours everything happened except football. Karate chops were flying and yoga was done and boxing 

and wrestling and Dynamic Meditation and Kundalini Meditation. And they had forgotten completely that they 

needed a few referees as well; there were no referees at all. 

After two hours even the football lying by the side started laughing! ”What is happening?” Then a train passed 

by and hearing the whistle of the train the Italians thought the game was over, so they left the ground, thinking, 

”We are equal and the game is over.” 

But the Polacks were bent upon winning, and now, because the sun was going down, the game became even 

more fierce. And finally after one hour’s effort the Polacks were able to score one goal without the Italians, but 

that doesn’t matter! 

So if you want to be something really great, it is better to be a Polack rather than an Italian. Why choose 

something second-rate? 

Milewski was trying to light a match. He struck the first match, it didn’t work, he threw it away. He struck a 

second match. That didn’t work either and he threw it away. He struck a third one and it lit up. 

”That be a good one,” said the Polack, blowing it out. ”I got to save it!” 

A Polack and a Jew were walking in the desert. The Jew was carrying a watermelon, the Polack was carrying 

a car door. 

After a while the Polack said, ”Why are you carrying that watermelon?” 

The Jew said, ”So when it gets too hot I cut it open and eat a piece of it.” 

After a while, the Jew said, ”And why are you carrying that car door?” 

”So,” said the Polack, ”when it gets too hot I just roll down the window!” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, A WHILE AGO I WROTE TO YOU ABOUT BEING CONFUSED, AND YOU SAID 

YOU WERE TAKING CARE. NOW SINCE THEN I HAVE GOT EVEN MORE CONFUSED! WHAT ARE 

YOU DOING TO ME?! 

Prem Asang, taking care! That’s my way of taking care! You get confused because you are carrying certain 

ideas and prejudices in the mind. If you don’t carry any ideas, any prejudices in the mind, even I cannot confuse 

you; nobody in the whole world can confuse you. Confusion arises from your own inner causes. 

For example, if you believe in a certain idea and I say something against it, then there is confusion. You cannot 

leave the old idea; it is so old, it has got so many roots in you and you have lived with it so long that it has 

become comfortable and cozy. You have believed in it so long, it has given you so many consolations, that now 

suddenly to drop it will mean moving in a state of insecurity; it has become your security and safety. 

But listening to me you cannot cling to it anymore. You cannot drop it and you cannot cling to it, hence the 

confusion. You cannot cling to it anymore because what I am saying appeals to you, your heart understands it. 

Deep down something in your inner being says, ”Yes, it is so.” Between your heart and head a conflict ensues; 

that is confusion. 

Confusion simply means that now you are unable to decide where to go: to go on clinging to the old, which will 

be impossible because now you have seen that that is not right, that you have been clinging only to a comfortable 

lie. It is not true, and your heart feels that it is not true... although it gives you consolation. Lies can give you 

consolation, they are very consoling; otherwise nobody would believe in lies. Everybody believes in lies for the 

simple reason that they are cheap and give you great consolation. You need not make any effort to realize them. 

They are handed over to you by others: by your parents, by your teachers, by the society, by the atmosphere. 

You simply go on gathering from everywhere, from every source. 

You are living in a sandcastle; but everything goes well unless somebody tells you that this is a sandcastle. 

Once you have heard that this is a sandcastle, the problem arises: you cannot live in it anymore, it is dangerous


to live in it. And you cannot get out of it because you have become so accustomed to it. Hence the confusion. 

Confusion simply means you are unable to decide. 

Unless you become decisive, Asang, the confusion will go on growing. My work consists in creating confusion in 

you, because without creating confusion I cannot pull you out of your sandcastles, I cannot pull you out of your 

paper boats, I cannot pull you out of your lies and dreams. And I know perfectly well that when you have put so 

much investment in a certain belief maybe you have lived for thirty years, forty years in a certain belief to see 

now that it was wrong, that it was utterly stupid, that it was ridiculous, creates a great problem for you. Your 

self-image of being intelligent is shattered. For forty years you have carried something ridiculous without seeing 

it. What kind of intelligence do you have? You become suspicious of your own intelligence and that doesn’t feel 

good. 

That’s why to be with a master needs courage. To be with a master needs the courage to accept that ”I don’t 

know.” 

The moment you accept, Asang, that ”I don’t know,” all confusion will disappear, evaporate, simply evaporate 

just as dewdrops evaporate in the early morning sun leaving no trace behind them. The confusion is because 

you are clinging to a few things which in the past you thought were very valuable. You thought that they were 

ornaments, golden, studded with diamonds, and now I have made you aware that they are nothing but chains 

maybe golden chains and maybe studded with diamonds, but what are diamonds? they are also stones. And 

what is gold? The difference exists only in man’s mind, otherwise gold and iron are the same. The evaluation is 

ours, the projection is ours. But chains are chains and the chains have to be broken. Now the things you have 

believed were ornaments, decorations, are being shown to you persistently as nothing but chains. 

Either you will have to escape from me... but remember, escaping won’t help you. Once you have been on my 

surgical table it is better to go through the whole operation! If you escape in the middle of the operation you will 

remain confused your whole life, because whatsoever you have understood from me is not going to leave you, it 

will haunt you. So there is no escape from me. 

Once you are with me you have to learn the ways of transformation, you have to go through a radical change. 

You have to die to the past and be born anew. It is hard, it is painful. Every birth is painful, and spiritual birth 

particularly is very painful. There are no sedatives available. For spiritual birth one has to go through many 

pains, but those pains are worth it because you grow out of your imprisonments; you grow into freedom, you grow 

up. 

And once you have tasted the joy of growing up, of becoming mature, then there is no problem. Then you 

know that all that you have left behind was worthless, was rubbish. 

But, Asang, this moment has to be passed through. This critical moment has to come in every disciple’s life 

when the disciple is in a kind of limbo, neither here nor there, half in the past and half moving with me, many 

times thinking to escape. 

Just the other day Somendra asked a question: ”But, Beloved Master, where is the exit?” There is no exit here! 

It is one-way traffic. You only come in... we don’t have another door, only the entrance. Then you have to be 

reborn; that is the only exit. But the exit is not in escape, it is in ”inscape.” It is going inwards. 

Asang, I am taking as much care as you can tolerate at this moment! I will take more.... The medicine is 

bitter and it has to be given in small doses. And this is not homeopathic treatment, remember, this is pure 

allopathy it is pure poison! It is crucifixion, because only then is there resurrection. But that too takes three 

days. Between the crucifixion and the resurrection... three days. Remember those three days; they are significant, 

very significant. Those three days are the most difficult days. 

Just think of Jesus: three days in the cave, neither dead nor alive. He couldn’t have been completely dead 

because once you are completely dead you are gone. He was not completely alive either; otherwise he would not 

have remained for three days in the cave, he would have escaped sooner. He must have been hanging between 

these two polarities of birth and death. 

Those three days are significant, they are symbolic. Those three days represent body, mind, heart. You have 

to die in the body, in the mind, in the heart; then only can you be born as a soul. You have to pass through this 

dark night of the soul. This is the womb period, those nine months in the mother’s womb. In exactly the same 

way, the disciple has to be in the womb of the master. This buddhafield is nothing but a womb. You are in the 

womb. It depends on you: if you go on clinging too long it will take a long time for you to come out. 

In India we have many beautiful stories about Lucknow. Lucknow is the most mannerly city in India, very 

mannerly; too much in fact, so it is said. Once it happened, a woman got pregnant and she was carrying two 

children within her womb, and they wouldn’t come out. Nine months passed, then nine years passed, then ninety 

years passed....


Finally the woman died and the doctors had to open the womb. Two small, ninety-year-old gentlemen were 

standing there and they were saying to each other, ”Sir, you first!” 

Don’t take that much time here you need not be that mannerly! Jump out of the womb as quickly as possible... 

because the spiritual womb has no natural time nine months or nine years it all depends on the individual. It 

can happen in a single moment or it may not happen in an eternity. 

Asang, I am taking care of you, and as you become a little more available to me, a little more patient, a little 

more capable of absorbing my energy, I will take more care of you. 

Just a few days ago I was going to call you one night as a guest medium, but Arup informed me that, ”The 

first time you called Asang as a guest medium, for many days she was almost in a state of craziness, so please 

don’t call her so soon.” So I had to drop the idea. 

If you are ready, you can come tonight! But then don’t get too insane for many days. Try to absorb me. The 

more capable you become, the more I will confuse you till nothing is left to confuse, till the mind is completely 

gone and there is nobody to confuse. 

That’s what happens to my disciples who have been here long enough. Now, whatsoever I say, they listen 

joyously without making any comparison, without making any judgment, without any evaluation. They don’t 

think of what I said yesterday, because if they think of that they start becoming confused. So they live in the 

moment with me. I live in the moment, and once you have understood how to live, you will also live in the moment 

with me. And then there is no confusion, then there is all clarity. And clarity is innocence and clarity is freedom. 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS YOUR DOGMA? 

Peter, I believe you must be a tourist here; otherwise you cannot ask such a question. I don’t have any dogma. 

In the first place I don’t like dogs at all! And ’dogma’ means mother of dogs! Neither do I like any sonofabitch, 

nor do I like any mother of dogs! There are Christian dogmas and Hindu dogmas and Mohammedan dogmas, and 

what do they do? They go on barking at each other! I don’t have any dogma at all. Even my kids understand it 

here, my small sannyasins. You can ask them. 

Upachara has informed me: 

Just heard on the steps in front of the office. Five sannyasin kids are having a serious talk. One of them says, 

”Osho is not even a sannyasin!” 



Chapter 7 No yesterday, no tomorrow, no today 


HE IS CALM. IN HIM THE SEED OF RENEWING LIFE HAS BEEN CONSUMED. HE HAS CONQUERED 

ALL THE INNER WORLDS. 

WITH DISPASSIONATE EYE HE SEES EVERYWHERE THE FALLING AND THE UPRISING. 

AND WITH GREAT GLADNESS HE KNOWS THAT HE HAS FINISHED. HE HAS WOKEN FROM HIS 

SLEEP. 

AND THE WAY HE HAS TAKEN IS HIDDEN FROM MEN, EVEN FROM SPIRITS AND GODS, BY 

VIRTUE OF HIS PURITY. 

IN HIM THERE IS NO YESTERDAY, NO TOMORROW, NO TODAY. 

The master is calm, but with a difference. Many people are calm, but they are not masters. Calm can be 

cultivated very easily from the outside; it will deceive others, but it cannot deceive existence. Deep inside you will 

remain in a turmoil. 

Hence, the first thing to be understood is that Buddha is never in favor of anything cultivated. The moral 

preachers, the moralists, are continuously telling people, ”Be this, be that. Try to be calm, practice calm.” And for 

thousands of years these things have been told to you; these qualities have been praised, appreciated, worshipped. 

Naturally you try to be calm and quiet and collected, but when you practice something it simply means you are 

creating a facade, you are just creating a face. It can’t transform your being it is an exercise. Yes, it will help you 

to be more prestigious, to be more respectable; people will look up to you as a holy man. But in fact you have 

become schizophrenic, you have become a split personality, you are divided. Your surface says one thing, your 

inner reality is totally the opposite. You will live in a continuous civil war, you will be continuously at daggers 

with yourself. 

It is hell to be a saint in this way. Sinners may go to hell after they die; your so-called saints live in hell here 

and now. There is no certainty about the future hell, but the saint’s hell is very much a reality.


Never try to cultivate any quality. 

Then what has to be done? Should one remain violent, disturbed, insane? No, Buddha says there is another 

way, the right way. The right way is that these things should come as consequences consequences of inner 

awareness. The magic of awareness is that the more you become alert, naturally, the more a calm surrounds you. 

You need not cultivate it, it follows you like a shadow, it is simply your vibe. You are surrounded by a subtle 

aura of peace, serenity. When you are aware inside, there is a grace radiating from your being. That grace is 

spontaneous, not cultivated. And when something is spontaneous it has tremendous beauty. It is not an artificial 

flower, it is not a plastic flower; it is something that has grown in you, that has bloomed in you. It is your own 

flowering. It has fragrance because it has roots in your being. 

Unless calmness comes as a shadow of awareness, beware of it. It is false, it is utterly futile. The whole effort 

that you have put into cultivating it has been a sheer wastage. The same effort could have been put into becoming 

aware. 

That is the difference between morality and religion. Morality is a social phenomenon; society needs it because 

society consists of millions of people. It has to keep a certain order, a certain discipline; otherwise there will 

be chaos. Morality keeps that order. Morality creates a conscience in you. Conscience functions as an inner 

policeman who does not allow you to do anything that is against the law or against the code or against the 

tradition. Society has imprinted in your heart certain ideas and now you are dominated by those ideas. Even if 

you go against those ideas they will torture you, they will become a nightmare to you. If you follow them you will 

feel you are not tortured so much. 

So the immoral person finds himself in two difficulties. One comes from the outside because he starts losing 

people’s respect; and in this world respect is the most valuable thing in people’s eyes because it is a nourishment 

for the ego. The moment you lose respect your ego starts dying, your ego is hurt, your ego is wounded. Secondly, 

something inside you starts creating an inner torture for you your conscience. That conscience is also created by 

the same society. 

Hence, society pressures you from both sides, outer and inner. You are just crushed between these two rocks. 

So cowards cannot be immoral people; cowards are always moral people. In fact they are not moral but only 

cowards; because they are cowards they cannot be immoral that is too dangerous, too risky. And the moral 

people, the so-called moral people, live a superficial life. They are bound to live a superficial life because their 

conscience is not their own what else can be their own? They don’t possess even their own conscience, what else 

can they possess? They are the poorest people in the world. 

And they are not moral because they understand the beauty of being moral; they are moral simply because 

they don’t have guts enough to be immoral. They follow the dictates of the society and the conscience just out of 

fear. There is fear of the law and there is fear of hell; there is fear of the policeman and there is fear of God. They 

are constantly trembling, their life is nothing but a constant trembling. Their prayers arise out of that trembling 

naturally those prayers are false; they are fear-oriented. Even their conception of God is nothing but a projection 

of their fear. 

That’s why these people are rightly called God-fearing people. They are not God-loving people. And remember, 

one who fears God can never love God, and one who loves God need never fear. Fear and love can’t exist together, 

it is impossible. Their coexistence is not possible in the nature of things. 

But society pays you enough to be moral, gives you as much ego as it is possible to give not only here but in 

the afterworld too. There are also places, special places reserved for you in heaven. The sinner is suffering here 

and the sinner will suffer in hell too, and the so-called saint is respected here and he is going to be respected in 

the other world too. 

This is a strategy, a very subtle psychological strategy of society to exploit you. But because of this strategy 

you have completely lost track of real morality: a morality that is not dictated by fear, a morality that does not 

arise out of cowardice, a morality that is not fear-oriented. 

A totally different vision of morality has been given by the buddhas, by the awakened ones of all the ages. 

Their vision is that real morality comes not out of conscience but out of consciousness. Become more conscious, 

release more conscious energy in your being, explode into consciousness! and then you will see you are living a 

life in absolute attunement with existence. Sometimes it may be in tune with society and sometimes it may not 

be in tune with society, because society itself is not always in tune with existence. Whenever society is in tune 

with existence you will be in tune with society; whenever society is not in tune with existence you will not be in 

tune with society. 

But the real moral person never cares, he is even ready to risk his life. Socrates did that, Jesus did that. 

Buddha was constantly living in danger. This has always been the case, for the simple reason that they were


living according to their own light. If it fits with society, good; if it does not fit with society it is bad for society 

but it has nothing to do with you. Society has to change itself. Socrates is not going to change himself, Jesus is 

not going to change himself according to society, Buddha is not going to live according to the crowd. The crowd 

consists of blind people, of utterly unconscious people who are fast asleep, who know nothing of themselves. To 

follow them is the most stupid thing in the world that a man can do. One should be intelligent enough to wake 

up one’s own consciousness. 

Religion consists not of conscience but of consciousness. Hence, even an atheist can believe in morality. Of 

course, in Soviet Russia or communist China they have to follow a certain code of morality. They may not believe 

in God, but they have to enforce morality on people. In fact, they have to enforce it even more because the fear 

of God is lost. Now the state has to be really very dangerous, because that is the only fear which will keep people 

confined within the boundaries of morality. 

It is not accidental that the Russian government and the Chinese government don’t allow any freedom; they 

cannot allow it. Capitalist countries can allow a little freedom because God is there to help. You allow a little 

freedom, God won’t allow that freedom it compensates. But in a communist country there is no God so there is 

no fear of the supreme, the ultimate, and no other life so there is no fear of hell. 

Communist countries have to create hell here, right now, so they create concentration camps; they use Siberia as 

a substitute for hell. And they have created all kinds of very complicated tortures, all kinds of inhuman tortures. 

Even the devil himself can learn much from them! Now in Russia if you don’t agree with the society you are 

immediately declared a mental case not that you are politically of a different opinion, no, that is impossible. There 

can’t be any possibility of somebody being politically different from the government policy, from the authoritarian 

principles, from the recognized ideology. Only an insane person can think that he is different. How can you go 

against Marx, Engels and Lenin? Impossible! This unholy trinity rules absolutely. The Russian government is 

totalitarian; it has to be because it has to function in such a way that the fear of God has to be replaced by 

something; otherwise people will become unmanageable. 

Communist countries are bound to become totalitarian. They cannot be democratic, it is impossible, because 

who will do the work of keeping people afraid and trembling? Unless they accept God and hell.... God and hell are 

very helpful because they do almost all of the work. For a religious person a so-called religious person that fear 

is enough to hold him back, and the rest can be done by the government, but that is a lesser part, not more than 

twenty or twenty-five percent. Seventy-five percent of fear comes from the psychological creation of a conscience. 

In a communist country there is no question of conscience, and of course the question of consciousness does not 

arise at all because no such thing as meditation is accepted. 

A few people in Soviet Russia have become interested in my way of thinking. They have started meditating, 

but they have to meditate hidden underground in their basements. They cannot tell somebody else that they are 

meditating because meditation means you have gone insane! ”There is no need to meditate at all. Why should 

one meditate? There is no soul to experience, no God to experience. Man is nothing but a by-product of matter. 

When death comes all ends, nothing remains beyond death, nothing abides.” So consciousness cannot be allowed 

because meditation is not allowed: meditation is the science of releasing consciousness. And conscience cannot 

be created because the old ways of creating fear are no more accepted. The whole work has to be done by the 

government. Of course the government becomes ugly, the government becomes a monster. 

But the same is happening in other countries too in more subtle ways. Communists are gross; the capitalist 

countries, the so-called democratic countries, are not so gross, they are subtle, but they do the same thing. They 

keep you tethered to the crowd, but in such an indirect way that it needs great intelligence to become aware of 

the fact that you are chained. Those chains are invisible. 

Religion really consists in creating a different kind of morality, not the so-called ordinary morality, but a morality 

which is spontaneous, a morality which arises by itself and is not imposed, a morality which is a consequence of 

your own intelligence. 

Buddha is talking about that when he says: The master IS CALM. He means that he has gone deep into his 

center, he has penetrated his being to the very core, and he has settled there; now he is at rest. All hustle and 

bustle has dropped, all running hither and thither has disappeared. Now he knows there is nowhere to go. He has 

arrived home, he has found his ultimate shelter, the ultimate refuge. Now he knows, ”This is my shrine.” Sitting 

in that shrine he is absolutely calm. You cannot see where he is, but you can feel his calm. You can feel him like 

a cool breeze, you can feel him as a shower of silence. If you come close to him, suddenly you will be touched 

by something invisible. Your heart will start dancing. Not that he has done anything to you, but your mind can 

deceive you, your mind can start rationalizing.


Just the other day I was reading a manuscript. One woman came a few months ago, a friend of Pankaja and 

Savita. She came here just to see what had happened to Pankaja and Savita. Pankaja is a well-known novelist 

and has published beautiful novels. Suddenly she became a sannyasin and dropped her beautiful career. There 

were great possibilities: she could have become world-famous. She was on the way she was becoming more and 

more known. Not only did she become a sannyasin, she never went back to England. Not only that rumors must 

have reached England that now she functions in the ashram as a toilet cleaner. Her friend must have been puzzled 

what had happened to her? 

Then Savita also disappeared. She was also doing well in her profession. She was a therapist, earning a lot of 

money and moving ahead. And she also never returned to England. 

Their friend came here just to see what was happening to these people ”They must have been hypnotized.” 

What else can the mind think? The simple explanation comes to the mind: ”These people have been hypnotized.” 

Otherwise why should one leave one’s prosperous career, good livelihood a career which was full of possibilities? 

Why should one suddenly leave? Either one has gone insane or one has become hypnotized. 

She came here just to observe what is happening. Then she also became a sannyasin. But she escaped 

immediately I gave her the name Kanan. She escaped. Now she writes a book about the whole experience and 

she says, ”I don’t know what happened, why I became a sannyasin. There is something which pulls you. There 

is something intangible one cannot figure it out, what it is exactly but something like hypnosis.” She infers, ”It 

may be in the eyes of this man or in the sound of his voice that one feels to become a sannyasin. Even I became a 

sannyasin, but then I became very much afraid: now I am being pulled the same way into this orange whirlpool in 

which Pankaja has disappeared, Savita has disappeared. It is better to go before I am too much in it and escape 

becomes impossible. I escaped. I dropped sannyas immediately because I was afraid carrying this man’s mala 

and his picture around my neck was dangerous. Who knows what is hidden in it?” 

Now, this woman thinks she is very clever, she thinks she is very rational, she thinks she has done the right 

thing. All that she has done is she has missed an opportunity which comes only once in a while; maybe for many 

lives she will not come across such a man again. 

There is no hypnotism. Nobody is trying to pull you, nobody is trying to influence you. But certainly there is 

a fragrance which affects you, which affects you deeply. There is a calm which goes into the heart and stirs the 

fast-sleeping heart into a kind of wakefulness. But if you are too much in your dreams, and you have invested too 

much even in your nightmares, you may become afraid you may become afraid of being awakened. You may miss 

the opportunity, you may escape from the opportunity. But then you try to rationalize. You have to rationalize, 

otherwise how will you console yourself? 

Now, by writing this book she is trying to convince herself that she has done the right thing. She has done the 

most stupid thing in her life. 

And the opportunity is still not lost, Kanan. Wherever you are in the world my eyes are reaching there too. 

And whatsoever I am saying here, the sound of my voice goes on resounding around the earth. If you have even 

a little bit of intelligence you will be pulled back into the orange whirlpool! 

HE IS CALM. IN HIM THE SEED OF RENEWING LIFE HAS BEEN CONSUMED. HE HAS CONQUERED 

ALL THE INNER WORLDS. 

What has happened in the master? What has really happened in the inner world of the master? Buddha says: 

The first, most fundamental thing is that the seed of renewing life is burnt, utterly burnt, is consumed in the fire 

of awareness. Yes, awareness is a fire. It burns all that is rubbish, but it also purifies all that is gold. It does two 

things: burns the rubbish and purifies the gold. It is alchemy. 

”The seed of renewing life” is desire. Buddha used to call it tanha. Tanha means one wants to be born again 

and again, one wants more and more. In this life you want more and more, but that more is never fulfilled. When 

you are dying, all desires are standing there unfulfilled so you start desiring another life, one more chance. 

There is a beautiful story, a great parable in the Upanishads: 

One of the great kings, Yayati, was dying. He was a hundred years old, ripe enough to die one should be ready 

by that time but not grown-up enough; the seed of renewing life was not yet burnt. So when death came, Yayati 

fell at the feet of Death a great king, a great conqueror! and he said to Death, ”Spare me only one hundred 

years more. I don’t ask for more, just one hundred years more. And it is nothing for you, you can do it. All my 

desires are still unfulfilled because I had never thought about you. I was simply preparing and preparing. I have 

not enjoyed my life. Now that everything is ready I have conquered the whole world, I have all the riches, the 

most beautiful women, the most intelligent and courageous sons, the best army in the world, everything is settled, 

all enemies killed I was just thinking to relax and enjoy. Is this the time to come? All these hundred years have


been spent simply in preparing for these moments. Spare me just one hundred years more so that I can live to 

my heart’s content.” 

Death laughed and said, ”I am ready to spare one hundred years more to you, but I will have to take one of 

your sons because I have to go with somebody who resembles you; if not you, at least one of your sons. I can’t go 

empty-handed, I have to give the account to my boss himself. He will ask, ’Where is Yayati?’ What am I going 

to say? Such a thing has never been done before, but I feel sorry for you. Just ask one of your sons.” 

Yayati had a hundred sons; he must have had a hundred wives too. He asked his sons. The oldest was eighty, 

but he started looking downwards, was not ready to say yes. Why should he? He had lived only eighty years; if 

his father is not contented with a hundred years, how can he be contented with only eighty years? At least twenty 

years more he is entitled to live. In those days, the story says, people used to live a hundred years. Why should 

he die a premature death, an untimely death? And this old fellow has lived enough! He did not want to hurt the 

old man so he didn’t say anything, he kept quiet. 

The father was very much shocked; he used to think that his sons were ready to sacrifice themselves. But in 

this world nobody is ready to sacrifice himself for anybody else. He looked around. His sons also started looking 

at each other, meaning ”Why don’t you go?” 

The youngest, who was only twenty years old, stood up and he said, ”I am ready. Take me with you, I am 

coming with you.” 

Even Death felt sorry for the boy. Death came close to the young man and said, ”Are you a fool or something? 

Your other brothers one is eighty, one is seventy-five, one is seventy, sixty, sixty-five, fifty these people are not 

ready to go and you are the youngest, you have not lived at all. Why are you ready to go?” 

The young man said, ”If my father could not live in a hundred years, if my eldest brother could not live in 

eighty years, if my other brothers... nobody has been able to live, then the whole project is nonsense. I don’t 

want to waste time. If I have to die it is better to die now. Why wait for eighty years? If these people have not 

been able to manage, it is absolutely certain it is unmanageable. And let my father try a hundred years more.” 

Death tried to convince him, but he wouldn’t listen. Death had to take him away. 

After a hundred years, Death came back and the situation was the same. Again Yayati fell at his feet and 

started crying and weeping and he said, ”I know that now I should be ready, but nothing is fulfilled yet; all the 

desires are the same. I have lived all the desires, I cannot say that I have not lived them, but nothing is fulfilled. 

I want more! Now that I have lived a hundred years a new desire has arisen I want more! I want to live at least 

one time more, a hundred years more, just one time more.” 

And this went on happening again and again. When Yayati became one thousand years old and Death came, 

he was just going to fall at his feet. Death said, ”Wait enough is enough! Can’t you see the point, Yayati? Are 

you so blind? You have lived one thousand years, and you have been doing the same things again and again. You 

have done nothing new in these one thousand years, and still you want more? Can’t you see the simple point that 

mind lives in the more, it goes on asking for more? There is no end to it. Now you come with me I am not going 

to listen anymore. Now even my boss is feeling angry with me. He says, ’This is too much! This man has been 

given too much time.’ But I also wanted to try let us see what you can make out of one thousand years. You 

have not made any progress, you are exactly in the same place, going in circles.” 

Buddha calls this tanha going in circles this constant desire for more. One becomes a master when this desire 

for more disappears, when the seed is burnt in the fire of awareness. HE IS CALM. Then of course he is calm. 

When there is no desire, when the winds of desire are blowing no more, there are no waves in the inner ocean, 

then the ocean becomes absolutely calm. In fact, the ocean is not the cause of waves the cause is the invisible 

winds. You see the waves in the ocean so you think the waves are caused by the ocean; they are not. The waves 

are caused by invisible winds blowing over the ocean. If the winds stop the ocean will be absolutely calm. 

Why are you in a turmoil? Why are there constantly so many waves inside you, so many thoughts and so many 

memories, fantasies? Why does this whole circus go on? For the simple reason that there are invisible winds of 

desire blowing upon you. 

The watchful person, the intelligent person, becomes aware of the root cause: it is in the winds, the winds of 

desire. He stops desiring. Seeing the futility of desire he drops desiring. The seed is burnt and then there is calm. 

This calm is not the calm of your so-called polished, cultured man. This calm is totally different, its quality is 

different, its source is different it comes from the innermost core. The Buddha is calm because the winds are 

not blowing anymore. And they cannot blow because the very seed has been burnt. HE HAS CONQUERED 

ALL THE INNER WORLDS. There are worlds upon worlds inside you too, just as outside there are worlds upon 

worlds. Scientists go on discovering new solar systems, new stars, new galaxies of stars, new milky ways. They


go on discovering, there seems to be no end. There seem to be universes and universes unending. So it is in the 

inner world: there are also many planes and many universes, but all are rooted in a single seed. 

Out of a single seed a big tree can grow. You can’t see it in the seed, but if you put it in the soil soon a 

tree starts growing. A small seed brings such a big tree with such thick foliage that thousands of people can sit 

underneath it, thousands of birds can make their nests in it. And millions of seeds will grow in this tree and each 

seed contains again millions of trees, and so on and so forth. The scientists say a single seed can make the whole 

earth green; not only this earth but all the earths in the universe can be made green by a single seed. What 

potential! 

You are all carrying frozen seeds within you which are just waiting for their right opportunity. Maybe you 

have forgotten completely about a certain desire because there has not been an opportunity to provoke it. That’s 

why monks and nuns and the traditional sannyasins used to escape from the world, simply to deceive themselves 

because when they went to the caves in the mountains they were going away from the opportunities where they 

would have become aware of the seed, where the seed would have had a chance to grow. 

But remember, the seed is there whether you give it a chance to grow or not, and the seed can remain there for 

years; for lives it will wait. Give it an opportunity, an accidental opportunity, and immediately the seed becomes 

alive. The seed can remain frozen, almost dead for millions of lives. 

That’s why I am absolutely against escapism for the simple reason that if you want to burn the seed the best 

place is in the world, in the marketplace, because there are all kinds of opportunities. You cannot avoid seeing 

the seed and seeing it means you have to do something about it. If you stop seeing it, if you put a seed on a rock, 

you will forget about the seed because it cannot grow on the rock. 

That’s why monks and nuns used to move to the monasteries, nunneries; those were rocks. And they chose 

to be in the mountains. Have you observed it? that all the monasteries of the world have been made in rocky 

mountains, not beautiful mountains where there are great trees and animals and birds because there is danger: 

even two birds making love is enough of an opportunity to give you the idea! Just two animals in foreplay, and the 

monks and the nuns will have a great desire arising in them. Suddenly the seed will start sprouting. So they chose 

to be in rocks, utter rocks where not a tree grows. Or the monasteries were built somewhere in the desert. All 

Christian monasteries were made in the desert. The ancient Christians lived in the desert, for the simple reason 

that, in a desert, life is so absent, so utterly absent, that you can forget all about it. 

Jaina monks chose mountains, but ugly mountains, just rocks and nothing else, because anything beautiful can 

create trouble. The distant call of a cuckoo can drive you cuckoo! because it has a sexuality of its own, it has a 

sensuality of its own, it is a sensual call. Do you know? it is the male cuckoo who is calling; the female simply 

waits. She simply waits for the male to come closer. Yes, she gives hints that ”I am available,” and yet keeps 

herself very aloof, very proud available, but not so easily available either! 

Have you seen in the animals one strange phenomenon? that it is always the male who is taking the initiative. 

The peacock with beautiful feathers is the male; one should have thought otherwise, but it is the male not the 

female. The female has no feathers; the female is ordinary, does not look so beautiful. The male looks very 

beautiful and the male dances with great exhibition of all his feathers they are really beautiful feathers and he 

dances a great dance. He tries to allure. 

Something strange has happened in man only; it seems unnatural. In fact, ornaments should be used by men, 

not by women. Men should use more colorful clothes than women. There is no need for women to bother about 

anything else, just to be female is enough! That’s the whole story of nature if you look around: all the strategies 

have been used by males. 

The monks and nuns have to be protected, but this kind of protection is not going to help. Even if the seed 

can remain protected for many lives it is there, it is not burnt yet. 

An old maid had been going to sit in the park each day for years. As she fed the pigeons, which always roosted 

and fluttered around the bronze statue of a young Apollo, her eyes would wander over his nude form and she 

would dream of holding him alive in her arms. 

One day as she sat there, a good fairy took pity on her. 

Appearing by her side, the fairy offered her three wishes. Without delay the old maid began, ”First I want to 

be young and very desirable.” 

This was no sooner said than done. 

”Second, I wish that the statue of Apollo would come to life.” 

A wave of the fairy’s wand and instantly he sprang down from the pedestal, vibrantly alive. The new voluptuous 

maid faltered and began to blush. Fluttering her eyelashes coyly she murmured, ”I would like to give the third 

wish to Apollo.”


Turning to the naked young god, the good fairy said, ”What is your wish?” 

”I want to shit on a pigeon,” he answered. 

Now the marble statue had been carrying this seed maybe for hundreds of years. Those pigeons were continuously 

doing this thing to him. Waiting, waiting, waiting... one day the time arrived all that he wants to do is 

this. 

Buddha says: HE IS CALM. IN HIM THE SEED OF RENEWING LIFE HAS BEEN CONSUMED. HE HAS 

CONQUERED ALL THE INNER WORLDS. 

There are three worlds, and within those three there are many worlds within worlds. The first is the world of 

the body, the mysteries of the body. The second is the world of the mind, the mysteries of the mind. And the 

third is the world of the heart, the mysteries of the heart. And each contains many worlds. Because of these three 

layers there have arisen three yogas, three sciences. One is hatha yoga. Hatha yoga means going into the mysteries 

of the body. And the body has many mysteries; if you go into the mysteries of the body they are unending. You 

can go on and on forever, it is an infinity in itself. 

But that is not the way to freedom and that is not the way to nirvana: you are caught in a new net. You are 

no more interested in money and you are no more interested in being a president, you are no more interested in 

worldly name or fame, but now your whole interest is how to become a superman, how to attain the powers that 

your body contains. For thousands of years so many yogis have been wasting time in that. 

Buddha is not concerned with that type of inquiry at all. He wants you to cut through it. He wants you to 

remember that, if you go into the mysteries of the body, you may be able to walk on water, you may be able to 

walk in fire, but what is the point of walking on water or in fire? It is simply stupid! Even if you can walk in fire, 

so what? What is gained? You can fly in the air like a bird, so what? Birds are doing it already nothing special. 

Three yogis were eating their lunch on the seventeenth-floor girder of a new skyscraper. They were working on 

their bodies, talking about it continuously, discovering new mysteries. 

”Wow,” said the second man, who was new on the job. ”I see why you guys like to eat your lunch here. The 

view of the city is beautiful!” 

”Yes, the view is nice,” said the first man. ”But do you want to know why we really like to eat lunch here?” 

”Yes,” said the new yogi. 

”Well,” explained the first, ”there’s the most incredible updraft right at the fourth floor, and when we finish 

lunch we like to jump off and ride back up on that air current. It puts you right back on the very spot you jumped 

from.” 

”Bullshit!” said the second man. ”I don’t believe you.” 

”You don’t?” said the first, putting down his coffee thermos. ”Then I’ll show you.” 

He jumped. Down he went, and sure enough, right at the fourth floor whoosh! He was turned back and landed 

on the seventeenth-floor girder on the exact spot from which he had leaped. 

”Wow!” said the second man in total amazement. ”That beats the hell out of hang-gliding or anything! Let 

me do it next!” 

He stood up and jumped. Down he went then fourth floor, third floor, second floor... splat! All over the 

sidewalk! Finished! 

Back up on the seventeenth floor, the third man, who had been silent until now, turned to the first and said, 

”You know, Superman, sometimes you’re a real prick!” 

What is the point of it all? 

Buddha is not interested in the yoga of the body, neither is he interested in the yoga of the mind mantra yoga 

and other methods which work on the mind and create mental powers, siddhis. Yes, you can do miracles... you 

can read others’ thoughts, but are not one’s own thoughts enough? You can predict others’ futures, but what is 

there to predict? It is going to be almost the same as their past. 

Just the other day one sannyasin asked... he had been to some Hindu astrologer, very famous. And the 

astrologer said to him, after great deliberation, brooding, thinking about his chart and meditating about his 

future, that in this lifetime he cannot become enlightened. Now, this much can be said by any fool about you, 

because a man who goes to an astrologer to ask about his future is bound to remain unenlightened! That is 

enough proof. And what does that foolish astrologer know about enlightenment? Is he enlightened? You should 

have asked him, ”What about you? Are you enlightened, and still doing astrology?” 

Because of these fools I have to appoint Kabir here! Why go to other places? Somebody right on the spot is 

available here. Kabir makes beautiful charts, very colorful! He is doing a good job. Fools need... what to do? 

And if they are going to go somewhere, it is better to finish them here.


Only fools are interested in the future. The intelligent person is interested only in the present. And enlightenment 

is not predictable; enlightenment is absolutely unpredictable. It is such a mysterious phenomenon that 

there is no possibility of predicting it. 

But now this idea has been put into his head. Now he will feel at ease: ”This time it is not going to happen, so 

why bother?” So this man will stop meditating, he may even think of dropping sannyas. What is the point when 

you are not going to become enlightened this lifetime? ”So we will see next lifetime when the time comes, we will 

meditate again and become enlightened.” 

But I tell you one thing: next lifetime you will go again to an astrologer I can predict it right now! And 

last time also you had done this! Are you really interested in becoming enlightened or not? Why go on finding 

excuses? And people can find any kind of excuse people are great rationalizers. Now you have a reason not to 

meditate because this time around it is not going to happen, so why waste time? But then how is it going to 

happen? And why should you go to an astrologer in the first place? Even stars are not enlightened! At least 

one thing is absolutely certain: that enlightenment is not determined by any causes, it is a sudden phenomenon. 

Your death may be predictable, your illnesses may be predictable, your foolishnesses may be predictable, but not 

enlightenment. You see? (AT THIS MOMENT THE VIDEO LIGHTS SUDDENLY COME ON...!) How does it 

happen? for no reason at all! 

Somebody asked Picasso, ”You seem to be so much interested in art studies in the nude. Why?” 

”Well,” said Picasso, ”I guess it’s because I was born that way.” 

One can always find some reason. 

Julie: ”And if I refuse you, Edward, will you kill yourself?” 

Edward: ”That has been my usual custom.” 

The third world is of the mysteries of the heart, bhakti yoga. First is hatha yoga, second is mantra yoga, third 

is bhakti yoga. Buddha says: Go on cutting across them; don’t move sideways, otherwise you will be lost in the 

inner worlds. Hence Buddha is neither interested in yoga, nor in mantra, nor in bhakti, devotion, prayer nothing. 

His simple interest, one-pointed interest, is awareness. 

And I absolutely agree with him because that is the only possibility for you to get rid of all this nonsense that 

you have been living for millions of lives. And you will go on repeating it, because just by living through it again 

and again you don’t become intelligent. You change a little bit, but the basic foolishness remains the same. 

A telegram arrived at the army camp saying that Private Smith’s father had died. The sergeant was told by 

the colonel to break the news gently to Private Smith. With the colonel watching, the sergeant went over to the 

private and said, ”Smith, your father died.” 

The colonel called the sergeant over and said, ”If it ever happens again you must be more gentle break the 

news easier!” 

Two weeks later another telegram arrived saying that Private Smith’s mother had died. 

The sergeant lined up the whole platoon and said, ”Anyone who has a mother take two steps forward.... Not 

so fast, Private Smith!” 

Now, just the strategy has changed, but it is the same! And that’s what has been going on in your life, life 

after life. A little bit, of course, you change in the details, but the fundamental foolishness persists. 

WITH DISPASSIONATE EYE HE SEES EVERYWHERE THE FALLING AND THE UPRISING. 

One who has become aware, he sees everywhere only one thing: that everything is born and dies, everything 

begins and ends, that everything is a flux. Nothing is worth clinging to, nothing is worth holding, nothing is worth 

possessing, because it is bound to disappear sooner or later. Hence he remains nonpossessive. He moves through 

the world detached, calm, cool, seeing everywhere the falling and the uprising. He knows things come and go; he 

watches. When something arises he watches and knows perfectly well it will go. Misery comes he is not worried 

because he knows it will go. Happiness comes he is not excited because he knows it has come, it will go. 

WITH DISPASSIONATE EYE.... Awareness gives him a new kind of eye, a new vision dispassionate. He 

simply looks with no desire; it is a totally different vision. When you look with no desire, the world appears 

totally different; when you look with desire you are confined in your desire and you color everything according to 

your desire. 

”What are you thinking about, John?” 

”The same as you, Jane.” 

”Oh, if you do, I’ll scream!” 

Not even a single word can you hear which is not colored by your inner processes of thought. 

A farmer persuaded one of his cowhands to buy two raffle tickets for which the draw was to be held that night 

at a dance. The next day the cowhand asked the farmer who had won the draw.


”Oh, I won the first prize,” said the farmer. ”Aren’t I lucky?” 

”And who won second prize, farmer?” asked the cowhand. 

”My wife won that. Wasn’t she lucky?” 

”Arr, she were that. And what about third prize?” 

”Oh, my daughter won that. Wasn’t she lucky? By the way, you haven’t paid me for your tickets yet, have 

you?” 

”No,” replied the cowman. ”Aren’t I lucky?” 

Everybody is looking with his own world of desires, expectations, passions, lust, greed, anger. There are a 

thousand and one things standing between you and your world; that’s why you don’t ever see it as it is. 

Once your eye is completely clean, clean of all the dust, once it becomes a pure mirror, it reflects that which is. 

And that is truth and truth liberates, but it has to be your own. My truth cannot liberate you, Buddha’s truth 

cannot liberate you. There is only one possibility of liberation, that is your own truth. And all that you have to 

do is to create a dispassionate eye. 

AND WITH GREAT GLADNESS HE KNOWS THAT HE HAS FINISHED. HE HAS WOKEN FROM HIS 

SLEEP. 

The master is glad that he is finished with all the nonsense, with all the stupidity, with all the games of life. 

He is glad that he is finished, he is out of it, he has transcended. HE HAS WOKEN FROM HIS SLEEP. 

Willie D. left Harlem to visit friends in Mobile. On his second night there he met Laura Mae, a beautiful lady 

whom he soon led out in the woods. As they prepared to make love, Willie removed his pants and hung them 

neatly on a tree. 

”You must be from the North,” said Laura Mae. 

”Right on, baby,” said Willie, ”but how could you tell?” 

”A Southern boy don’t hang up his clothes ’cause when we’re finished we’re gonna be three miles from here!” 

And these games are there... and where are your pants and where are you? Three miles away! Where are your 

senses? Where is your intelligence? You must have hung it up somewhere and you have completely forgotten 

where. 

The nurse took the gentleman standing by the bed of a woman in the maternity ward aside and asked, ”Would 

you like to see the baby?” 

The gentleman nodded. ”Looks just like you!” she enthused when they finally came out of the baby room. 

Later the nurse told the woman about her husband’s delight at seeing the baby. The woman was horrified. 

”Husband? My husband is on duty in the next town and hasn’t arrived yet to see the baby! That man was here 

to collect the overdue installment on my refrigerator!” 

People are asleep. What is happening to them is almost accidental. Why you have fallen in love with somebody 

is accidental. Your birth is accidental, your death is going to be accidental. 

Buddha says: The master looks at everything falling and rising, rising and falling. All are accidents. There 

is only one thing which is not accidental, which is intrinsic, and that is your awareness of it all. That awareness 

makes you awake. 

The couple evolved a perfect plan for spending their time. One night a week he goes out with the boys, the 

other six nights she does. 

Here is a flash from Detroit: They have come up with a fast car with equally fast brakes you can come to a 

standstill in just the car’s length from a hundred miles per hour. It is equipped with a device which automatically 

wipes your remains from the windscreen. 

Altie and Big Bertha stood before the altar. Big Bertha weighed two hundred pounds, her groom a mere one 

hundred. 

”Does you take dis woman for your lawful wedded wife?” asked the minister. 

”Ah takes nothin’,” replied Altie. ”Ah’s bein’ took!” 

Just watch your life, what is happening. 

After a long, boring sermon, the minister asks Sandy, ”Well, how did you like my sermon, Sandy?” 

Sandy replies, ”Oh, a bit like outer space, Minister.” 

”What do you mean, ’a bit like outer space’?” 

”Well,” says Sandy, ”plenty of it but not much in it!” 

And that’s exactly what your life is: plenty of it, but nothing much in it. Just accidents and nothing else. You 

have not yet known the intrinsic. That’s what Buddha calls sleep.


The master has woken from his sleep. He has come to see that which is eternal in him. He has come to see 

his own consciousness, he has become aware of his own awareness. And that is the ultimate truth, the ultimate 

awakening. 

AND THE WAY HE HAS TAKEN IS HIDDEN FROM MEN, EVEN FROM SPIRITS AND GODS, BY 

VIRTUE OF HIS PURITY. 

And the way he has taken is invisible. It is not that of fasting; people can see that you are fasting, starving, 

killing your body. It is not that of torturing your body, it is not that of distorting your body through so-called 

yoga postures. The way of the buddha is so subtle; nobody can see it except you yourself unless you come across 

another buddha. Only another buddha can see it because it is simply the way of being watchful. How can anybody 

else see it? It has no ritual. 

Buddha’s religion is tremendously beautiful no ritual, no so-called ordinary religious performances simply, you 

remain watchful. But that is something inside you, nobody else can even detect what you are doing. You can be 

driving your car, you can be sitting in your office and you can be doing it. It is not even deep breathing that 

others can feel, that you are doing some deep breathing. It is simply Vipassana, it is simply watching, watching 

everything outside, inside. 

Buddha has given the purest way and the simplest and the subtlest but the most fundamental. He has given 

the golden key, the master key which can unlock all the mysteries of life and existence. 

IN HIM THERE IS NO YESTERDAY, NO TOMORROW, NO TODAY. 

Time has disappeared, because when you become absolute awareness there is no time left. Not only yesterdays 

disappear... they disappear first. In that order they disappear. 

IN HIM THERE IS NO YESTERDAY.... First yesterdays disappear; you become more and more unconcerned 

about the past. What is gone is gone, only fools care for it. And there are fools who are so worried about their 

past they even write letters to me.... 

One man from Switzerland has written a letter just the other day, saying, ”Seeing your picture and reading a 

few of your books I have recognized you, that we have met in our past lives. I recognize you absolutely. I am 

sending my picture do you recognize me? If you recognize me, then I will come.” 

I have told Laxmi, ”Inform that fellow that I don’t recognize anybody from the past. The past is finished! You 

have not read my books and you have not seen me yet. And why should you be concerned about being recognized 

that I had seen you in the past? What purpose is it going to fulfill?” Some ego-fulfillment is involved: ”Then I 

will come” if I recognize him, that I have seen him in the past. 

Now, this type of foolish person is caught by people like Muktananda. They will immediately say, ”Yes, we have 

been together in the past. You have been a disciple to me in the past too and you were working so beautifully 

and you were growing so high. Just a little bit is left that can be done now, so get initiated into siddha yoga.” 

The past exists nowhere. Many people write to me, ”Give us methods so that we can remember our past lives.” 

What are you going to do? Even if you remember that you were Alexander the Great or Cleopatra, how is that 

going to help in any way? It will create more complications. You are already in such a mess! 

That’s why nature closes the door every time you die. This is great compassion, otherwise you will be born 

mad. Remembering all your past lives you will be in such a state that it will be impossible for you to function 

at all, because your mother may have been your wife in the past life and in another life she may have been your 

daughter. Now, how to behave with her? as your mother, as your wife, as your daughter? You will get very 

confused! 

There is no need to bother about the past. As you become aware, the first thing to disappear from your mind is 

the past, and the past is one third of the mind. It is the very base of the mind, the foundation. Once it disappears, 

then the whole building starts collapsing. 

The second to go is tomorrow. When there is no yesterday you cannot conceive of tomorrow. Tomorrow is 

nothing but a projection of yesterday. You would like to live the joys of yesterday again tomorrow and you would 

like to avoid the miseries of yesterday; that’s what your tomorrow is. If yesterday is gone, tomorrow is finished; 

soon it will disappear. 

And when yesterdays are gone and tomorrows are gone, where is today? It exists between the two. If both 

the banks have disappeared, the river itself will disappear. If both the banks have disappeared, the bridge will 

disappear. Chunk by chunk in three pieces, time dissolves: first the past, then the future, and finally the present. 

Then you are left with no time, a state of timelessness. And this, Buddha says, is nirvana. 

To experience timelessness is to experience deathlessness. To experience timelessness is to experience that which 

really is. It is neither past nor present nor future; it simply is. It cannot be confined to any compartment, into 

any category; it cannot be categorized. You simply experience each moment with tremendous peace and silence


and joy. And each moment becomes so fragrant, so alive! Each moment becomes such a benediction that it is 

impossible to imagine it, it is impossible to describe it. One has to know it to know it; there is no other way. 

Nobody can explain it to you. It is not expressible, it is not explainable. It is the greatest mystery. When time 

disappears, mind disappears, what is left? That which is left, that vastness... that is your real being in Buddha’s 

words, your nonbeing, your no-self. 

Jesus will call it the kingdom of God; that is a positive way of describing it. And Buddha calls it a state of 

cessation all has ceased. AND WITH GREAT GLADNESS HE KNOWS THAT HE HAS FINISHED. HE HAS 

WOKEN FROM HIS SLEEP. 



Chapter 8 Born enlightened 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS INNOCENCE AND WHAT IS THE WAY TO BECOME INNOCENT? 

Sonja, innocence is your very nature. You do not have to become it, you are already it. You are born innocent. 

Then layers and layers of conditioning are imposed upon your innocence. Your innocence is like a mirror and 

conditioning is like layers of dust. The mirror has not to be achieved, the mirror is already there or rather, here. 

The mirror is not lost, it is only hidden behind the layers of dust. 

You don’t have to follow a way to reach your nature because you cannot leave your nature, you cannot go 

anywhere else. Even if you wanted to, it is impossible. That’s exactly the definition of nature: nature means that 

which cannot be left behind, that which cannot be renounced. But you can forget about it. You cannot lose it 

but it can be forgotten. 

And that’s exactly what has happened. The mirror is not lost but forgotten forgotten because it is not 

functioning anymore as a mirror. Not that any defect has arisen in it, just layers of dust are covering it. All that 

is needed is to clean it, to remove those layers of dust. 

The process of becoming innocent is not really a process of becoming, it is a process of discovering your being. 

It is a discovery, not an achievement. You don’t attain to something new, you simply attain to that which you 

have always been. It is a forgotten language. 

It happens many times: you see a person on the road, you recognize him, his face seems familiar. Suddenly you 

remember also that you know his name. You say, ”It is just on the tip of my tongue,” but still it is not coming to 

you. What is happening? If it is just on the tip of your tongue, then why can’t you say it? You know that you 

know it, but still you are not able to remember it. And the more you try, the more difficult it becomes, because 

making an effort makes you more tense, and when you are tense you are farther away from your nature, you are 

farther away from that which is already there. When you are relaxed you are closer; when you are utterly relaxed, 

it will surface of its own accord. 

So you try hard, but it doesn’t come, so you forget all about it. Then lying down in your bath, or just swimming 

in the pool, and you are not even trying to remember that man’s name when suddenly it bubbles up. What has 

happened? You were not trying to remember, and you were relaxed. When you are relaxed you are wide, when 

you are tense you become narrow the more tense, the more narrow. The passage between you and that which is 

inside you becomes so narrow that nothing can pass through it, not even a single name. 

All the great scientific discoveries have been made in this very mysterious way in this very unscientific way, so 

to speak. 

Madame Curie was working on a certain mathematical problem for three years continuously and the more she 

tried, the farther and farther away the solution seemed. She tried every possible way, but nothing was working, 

nothing was happening. And there was somewhere a deep, tacit feeling that ”The solution exists. I am not 

struggling with something absurd.” This tacit feeling continued all the time as an undercurrent; hence she could 

not drop the effort either. She was getting tired three years wasted for a single problem. But deep down within 

herself somebody was saying, ”The solution is possible. This exercise is not futile. Go on.” And she went on 

stubbornly, she persisted. She dropped all other projects, she forced herself totally into the one problem. But the 

more she tried, the more impossible it became. 

One night it happened, almost as it happened to Gautama the Buddha; of course, the problems were different, 

but the process was the same. Buddha had struggled for six years to attain enlightenment and he had attained 

nothing. Then one night he dropped the whole effort, went to sleep, and, by the morning when the last star was 

setting, he became enlightened.


That night Madame Curie dropped the idea, the whole project she closed the chapter. ”Enough is enough! 

Three years wasted is too much for one problem.” There were other problems which were waiting to be solved. It 

was finished in her mind, although the tacit understanding was still there just like a constant murmur. But she 

had followed it long enough, it was time. One has only a limited time; three years is too much for one problem. 

Deliberately she dropped the idea. As far as she was concerned she closed the whole project. She went to sleep 

never to be bothered by that problem again. 

And in the morning when she got up she was surprised. On a piece of paper on her table, the solution was 

there, written in her own handwriting. She could not believe her eyes. Who had done it? The servant could not 

have done it he knew nothing of mathematics, and if Madame Curie had not been able to do it in three years, 

how could the servant have done it? And there was nobody else in the house. And the servant had not entered 

in the night the doors were locked from inside. She looked closely and the handwriting resembled hers. 

Then suddenly she remembered a dream. In the dream she had seen that she had got up, gone to the table, 

written something.... Slowly, slowly the dream became clear. Slowly, slowly she remembered that she had done 

it in the night. It was not a dream, she had actually done it. And this was the solution! For three years she 

had been struggling hard and nothing was happening and the night she dropped the project, it happened. What 

happened? She became relaxed. 

Once you have dropped the effort you become relaxed, you become restful, you become soft, you become wide, 

you become open. It was there inside her, it surfaced. Finding the mind no longer tense, it surfaced. 

Innocence is there, you have simply forgotten it you have been made to forget it. Society is cunning. For 

centuries man has learned that you can survive in this society only if you are cunning; the more cunning you are, 

the more successful you will be. That’s the whole game of politics: be cunning, be more cunning than others. It 

is a constant struggle and competition as to who can be more cunning. Whosoever is more cunning is going to 

succeed, is going to be powerful. 

After centuries of cunningness man has learned one thing: that to remain innocent is dangerous, you will not 

be able to survive. Hence parents try to drive their children out of their innocence. Teachers, schools, colleges, 

universities exist for the simple work of making you more cunning, more clever. Although they call it intelligence 

it is not intelligence. 

Intelligence is not against innocence, remember. Intelligence is the flavor of innocence, intelligence is the 

fragrance of innocence. Cunningness is against innocence; and cunningness, cleverness are not synonymous with 

intelligence. But to be intelligent needs a tremendous journey inwards. No schools can help, no colleges, no 

universities can help. Parents, priests, the society, they are all extrovert; they cannot help you to go inwards. 

And buddhas are very rare, few and far between. Not everybody is fortunate enough to find a buddha. Only 

a buddha can help you to be an intelligent person, but you cannot find so many buddhas who want to become 

primary school teachers and high school teachers and university professors; it is impossible. 

So there is a substitute for intelligence. Cunningness is a substitute for intelligence a very poor substitute, 

remember. And not only is it a poor substitute, it is just the opposite of it too. The intelligent person is not 

cunning; certainly intelligent, but his intelligence keeps his innocence intact. He does not sell it for mundane 

things. The cunning person is ready to sell his soul for small things. 

Judas sold Jesus for only thirty silver coins just thirty silver coins. And a Jesus can be sold. Judas must have 

thought that he was being very intelligent, but he was simply cunning. If you don’t like the word ’cunning’ you 

can call him clever; that is just a good name for the same thing, for the same ugly thing. 

The society prepares you to be cunning so that you are capable of competing in this struggle for existence, the 

struggle to survive. It is a cut-throat competition, everybody is after everybody else’s throat. People are ready to 

do anything to succeed, to be famous, to climb the ladder of success, name and fame. They are ready to use you 

as stepping-stones. Unless you are also cunning you will be simply used, manipulated. Hence the society trains 

every child to be cunning, and these layers of cunningness are hiding your innocence. 

Innocence has not to be achieved, Sonja, it is already there. Hence it is not a question of becoming, it is your 

being. It has only to be discovered or rediscovered. You have to drop all that you have learned from others, and 

you will immediately be innocent. 

Hence my antagonism towards all knowledge that is borrowed. Don’t quote the Bible, don’t quote the Gita. 

Don’t behave like parrots. Don’t just go on living on borrowed information. Start seeking and searching for your 

own intelligence. 

A negative process is needed; it is to be achieved through via negativa. That is the Buddha’s way. You have 

to negate all that has been given to you. You have to say, ”This is not mine; hence I have no claim over it. It 

may be true, it may not be true. Who knows? Others say it is so; unless it becomes my experience I cannot agree


or disagree. I will not believe or disbelieve. I will not be a Catholic or a communist, I will not be a Hindu or a 

Mohammedan. I will simply not follow any ideology.” Because, whoever you follow, you will be gathering dust 

around yourself. Stop following. 

Here, being with me, you are not my followers, remember it. Friends certainly, but not followers. You are in a 

love affair with me, but it is not a question of following. And my work here is not to teach you something, but to 

help you to discover yourself. Just drop all knowledge. It hurts because you have carried that knowledge for so 

long and you have been bragging so much about that knowledge your degrees, MAs and PhDs and DLitts, and 

you have been bragging about all those degrees. And suddenly I am saying to you: Drop all that nonsense. 

Just be as simple as a child. Just be again a child as you were born, as God sent you into this world. In that 

mirrorlike state you will be able to reflect that which is. Innocence is the door to knowing. Knowledge is the 

barrier and innocence is the bridge. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, CAN I ALSO BECOME A GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA? 

Govind, yes and no. Yes because buddhahood is nobody’s personal possession. Gautama does not have it as 

a personal attribute; he is not the owner of it and he is not the only buddha. There have been many buddhas 

before him, there have been many buddhas after him. The word ’buddha’ simply means the awakened one. 

You are asleep. Naturally, if you can be asleep you can wake up. One who is capable of sleep is also capable of 

waking up; the very phenomenon of sleep implies the capacity to wake up. If you are incapable of waking up you 

will be incapable of sleeping too; they are two sides of the same coin. 

So, Govind, if you can sleep, if you can dream, you can wake up, you can be a buddha. Hence I say yes but you 

cannot be a Gautama the Buddha; Gautama you cannot be. You can be Govind the Buddha, but not Gautama 

the Buddha; that is not possible. Nature never repeats. They say history repeats and it certainly repeats because 

history consists of stupid human beings. What else can they do? They can only repeat. But nature never repeats; 

it never creates the same person again, the same form again. Nature is immensely innovative. 

That’s the meaning when we say God is a creator. A creator is never repetitive, he never creates the same 

painting again and again. He goes on creating something new, he is always on a new venture. 

Govind, God has never created another person like you and will never create another person like you. He loves 

individuality, he loves uniqueness. That’s his way of showing respect to you, tremendous respect. And it is not 

only so with human beings: go into the garden, watch the leaves minutely you will not find even two leaves 

exactly the same. Not on the whole of the earth will you find two leaves exactly the same, or two pebbles exactly 

the same on all the seashores. 

Everything is unique, everything has its own signature. Just as your thumb is unique and its print is unique 

there is nobody else who has the same print what to say about your soul? Even about such small details God 

is so careful or you can say ”nature,” if ”God” has lost its appeal for you. If the word ’God’ has lost its appeal 

for you, ’nature’ is as beautiful, or ’existence’, or whatsoever you want. Buddha likes the word ’dhamma’ the 

universal law. Lao Tzu loves the word ’Tao’ the harmony of existence, the inner order. 

The universe is not a chaos, that much is certain. Whether there is a God or not is irrelevant, the universe is not 

a chaos. That’s why we call it a universe. It has a certain unity, hence ”universe,” otherwise we would have called 

it a ”multiverse.” It is not a chaos, there is an order running inside it, a thread which joins everything together. 

Even the smallest grass blade is joined to the biggest star. Nothing is separate, and yet everything is unique 

and individual. This is the tremendous beauty of existence: it loves and respects the individual, it nourishes the 

individual. 

Hence, Govind, you cannot be Gautama the Buddha, but there is no need to be Gautama the Buddha. That 

will be ugly, that will be imitative. Never try to imitate because then you will always be only a carbon copy and 

never something original. And unless you are something original you are not using your life’s opportunity to its 

maximum, you are wasting it. 

Don’t be a Christian be a christ. And don’t be a Buddhist be a buddha. The Christian is trying to be like 

Jesus Christ, the Buddhist is trying to be like Gautam Buddha, and this is not possible. What is possible is that 

you will become an imitator, an actor. And you can act beautifully. You can walk like Buddha, you can talk like 

Buddha, you can sit like Buddha. You can use the same words, the same language, the same gestures, but still 

deep down you will be Govind, not Gautam. And you will know it! That all that you are doing is just on the 

outside. And it is ugly because it will create a kind of hypocrisy in you. 

Hence all Christians are hypocrites and all Buddhists are hypocrites. All followers are bound to be hypocrites 

because they are divided persons, split persons. And whatsoever they show is only on the surface, and whatsoever


they really are is hidden behind. And there is a constant conflict between these two, they live two kinds of lives. 

Avoid this. 

I know this desire arises. This desire seems to be very prevalent. 

Jesus and Moses were playing golf. When they came to a two-hundred-yard water hazard. Jesus took out a five 

iron club. Moses warned him that two hundred yards were too far for a five-iron, but Jesus insisted, ”If Arnold 

Palmer can make it with a five-iron, so can I!” 

He hit the ball and it landed in the middle of the lake. 

”Will you get the ball for me, Moses?” asked Jesus. 

”Just this once,” he replied, walked over, raised his club, and parted the water. Then he walked out and brought 

the ball back to Jesus. 

Again Jesus took a five-iron and again Moses warned, ”If you don’t make it, I’m not going to get it for you!” 

Jesus reassured him, ”If Arnold Palmer can do it, surely I can do it!” 

Again he swung the five-iron and again the ball fell in the water. This time Jesus walked out on the water, 

reached down, and was picking up the ball when the next foursome came up to the tee where Moses was standing. 

The leader of the group asked Moses, ”Who does he think he is, Jesus Christ?” 

”No,” replied Moses, ”he thinks he is Arnold Palmer!” 

Govind, you just be Govind the Buddha. There is no need for you to be Gautama the Buddha. Gautama was 

beautiful, but once it is beautiful twice it is too much. And what is the point? What will your contribution 

to existence be if you are Gautama the Buddha? No contribution. Gautama has done it, he has done what a 

Gautama can do. You cannot improve upon it. 

You do something that you can do and no Gautama can ever do. God has great hopes for you: he hopes you 

will contribute something to existence. He never loses hope, that’s why he goes on creating people. Although 

people go on deceiving, people go on misusing the opportunity, people go on wasting time, but still God goes on 

hoping. With each child a new hope is born in the world. You have to contribute something that only you can 

do and nobody else can do, hence you have to do it. Forget this whole idea of being Gautama the Buddha just 

be yourself. 

And that’s exactly what Buddha has taught, that’s exactly his essential message. His last words to his disciples 

were: Appa deepo bhava be a light unto yourself. 

When he was dying, naturally thousands of disciples had gathered and they started crying and weeping. The 

master was leaving, it was natural, and the master had lived with them for forty-two years and they had loved the 

man, they had loved his vibe. He was one of the most beautiful men who has ever walked on the earth. Not only 

was he spiritually beautiful, physically he was also one of the most beautiful men. About Jesus that cannot be 

said. He was spiritually beautiful, but the ancient scriptures say that physically he was not beautiful. He was only 

four feet five inches and, moreover, a hunchback. Buddha was one of the most beautiful expressions physically 

too, really a lotus flower. And they had all loved him. They had renounced everything and risked everything for 

this man and now he was leaving. They started crying. One can understand their crying and their weeping and 

their tears. 

But Buddha said, ”Stop! Stop all this nonsense! Why are you crying? What difference is it going to make? I 

was not your light, you have to be your own light. And,” Buddha said to them, ”it may be a blessing in the form 

of a curse, because when I am gone you will try to find yourselves. While I was here you were more interested in 

me; although I was insisting: Go in! you were focused on me. Now I will not be here, you are bound to go inside.” 

And that’s exactly what happened: many people became enlightened after Buddha died. When they were 

asked, ”Why did so many people become enlightened when Buddha died?” they all said, ”Now we understand 

what he meant, that in the form of a curse it is a blessing because once you have seen a buddha and he is gone 

there is nothing worth seeing outside. So we closed our eyes. 

”We have seen all that was the most worth seeing: we have seen the most beautiful person. What else is there? 

There is nothing worth hearing, worth seeing. We closed our eyes, we turned inwards and because Buddha was 

not there anymore we heard his words for the first time. When he was here we were able to postpone, tomorrow 

or the day after tomorrow. We were so much enchanted by his personality, by his charisma. Once he was gone 

we had to fall back upon our own selves. Maybe that was his last device.” 

Govind, be Govind the Buddha! 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, ARE THERE GREAT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT RACES OF 

MANKIND?


Meera, essentially there are no differences at all. Essentially there cannot be any differences. The whole of 

mankind is one species of being. But different races have evolved different qualities. They have lived in different 

climates, they have encountered different situations, they have passed through different histories; naturally they 

have learned to behave in different ways. 

For example, the Jews had to experience a totally different history from anybody else. They have lived for 

centuries without a country, they have wandered all over the world, they have lived without security, without a 

home; naturally that has made them very money-minded. When you don’t have a home, when you don’t have a 

country, then all your security becomes focused on money; then it is only money that can save you. And when 

you become focused on money, naturally you become more clever than others in earning it. Your whole being 

turns into a money-making machine. That’s what a Jew is a money-making machine. Nobody can defeat him in 

that because they have lived a totally different past. 

When you are living in your home surrounded by the same kind of people, the same race, protected by the 

country, by the society, you need not worry too much about money. Even without money you are not going to 

die, people will support you, you can depend on that. But the Jews had no way to depend on anything else; 

hence money became their country, money became their religion, money became their home, money became their 

security. That was bound to happen. 

In a country like India where for thousands of years everybody has been told to seek and search for his salvation.... 

And, of course, you can seek and search only for your salvation; you cannot seek and search for somebody else’s 

salvation, that is not possible. The inward journey has to be done in absolute aloneness. But the by-product of it 

has been that Indians have become very selfish. It was bound to happen. It is an ugly phenomenon, but too much 

insistence on going inwards, extreme insistence on going inwards, has made people very selfish, because there is 

nobody who is yours. That has been the teaching of all the mahatmas: ”You are alone. You are born alone, you 

have to live alone, you have to die alone. Nobody is going with you. All relationships are just superficial, so don’t 

be bothered much by them and don’t invest much in them.” That has made India more selfish than any other 

country. 

This is one of the most selfish countries in the world. It is because of this selfishness that India has remained 

in bondage for thousands of years because everybody thinks only of himself. So if an enemy comes and conquers 

the country, who bothers about the country? The country does not really exist; there is no idea of nation in India. 

Individuals are there, but there is no nation. Hence all kinds of quarrels and small divisions and subdivisions... 

you will not find the same thing happening anywhere else in the world. Every political party goes on splitting 

into many, many small fragments. Then those small fragments start splitting into smaller ones, and the process 

seems to be unending unless you are your own party! You are the member and you are the president and you 

are the secretary. When only you are left alone, only then will the process stop. And who knows whether there 

too the process will stop or not? because the habit of splitting everything has gone so deep that you may start 

saying, ”Legs are not part of my party, the lower part of my body is not in my party, only the higher. The higher 

part is superior and the lower is inferior. The higher part means the brahmins, and the lower means the sudras, 

the untouchables.” 

Every race has passed through different phases, different climates. This is a hot country. A hot country makes 

people lazy, so you cannot compete with Indians as far as laziness is concerned. They are utterly lazy and lousy! 

You cannot compete with them, it is impossible; they will surpass everyone in that. No country can have any 

superiority as far as laziness and lousiness is concerned. Indians are the tops! 

Because it is a hot country and the climate is not provoking people to work more, people have remained poor. If 

one person in the whole family earns then it is enough. If just enough is available to survive, Indians are satisfied, 

more than satisfied. Of course, they find rationalizations for it, they find great spiritual rationalizations for it 

”We are very contented people.” That is all nonsense. The reality is that they are simply lazy and the climate is 

hot and they don’t want to work so they have to create a philosophy to support themselves: ”We are not much 

concerned about mundane things, we only think of spiritual things.” 

India condemns everybody as materialist and those materialists have always been coming and conquering these 

great spiritualists! And all their spiritual power has not been of any use. All their Sai Babas, etcetera, have not 

been of any help. All they can do is, they can produce ash, holy ash, through their spiritual powers, nothing else. 

Just ordinary magic tricks, any stupid person can do it nothing to do with spirituality. 

This country has not been able to create science, technology, because, the Indians will say, ”We are so spiritual 

we don’t bother about creating material wealth.” But they all hanker for it, deep down they all are longing for it. 

Their hearts are full of desires, but because of their old habit of laziness they can’t do anything.


The cold countries became world powers for the simple reason that in a cold country if you want to be alive 

you have to work. In fact, when the climate is cold it provokes you, challenges you to work; otherwise you will 

become cold, you will die. You have to work hard, only then can you feel hot and alive. Cold countries became 

world powers; no hot country has ever been a world power, cannot be. Cold countries easily defeated big, hot 

countries. 

England is a small country, not bigger than a small state of India, a small province, but it dominated India 

easily, very easily, with no problem. It was so simple to dominate. Cold countries become adventurous; Indians 

have never been adventurous. They will not leave their villages. There are thousands of people in India who have 

never gone beyond the boundary of their village, and they will never go. But the cold countries started traveling 

around the world. Now the world is finished; they are trying to reach the stars they have reached the moon. 

Everest is Indian, the mountain is Indian, but no Indian has ever tried to climb it. ”For what?” Indians will 

say. ”For what? What is there? It is so futile!” But for a hundred years Western mountain-climbers have been 

coming and risking their lives; many have died knowing that it is risky. The more risky it was, the more it was a 

challenge. 

When Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the top of Everest, was asked, ”Why?” of course by an Indian! 

”Why did you try in the first place?” do you know his answer? He said, ”Simply because it is there! It is a 

challenge. For no other reason. We cannot tolerate this mountain unless we conquer it it is a humiliation! The 

mountain stands there so high and goes on telling us that nobody has been able yet to climb up to the top. It is 

a constant challenge!” But no Indian is challenged by it. 

Every country, every race has lived in a different way for centuries: climate, situations, history, accidents, 

ideologies also have made much difference. 

For example, Jews would not have been in such trouble if they had not carried this idea that they are the 

chosen race of God. The very idea has been the cause of all their trouble. If you think you are the chosen people 

of God, then of course you will be in trouble, because others will start fighting with you and proving that you are 

not the chosen people. ”We are the chosen people. Who says you are the chosen people?” The very idea has been 

torturing them. 

But this is something to understand: people love their misery. People are sadomasochists, they always love 

suffering. So any idea that gives you suffering, you cling to it. Jews have suffered so much, but they don’t drop 

their idea. In fact, the very suffering and the antagonism of the whole world proves that they must be the chosen 

people of God; otherwise why is everybody against them? 

So there are great differences on the surface and the surface is all that comes in contact with others. Intrinsically 

no two human beings are different; in their innermost core all human beings are just human beings. 

So, Meera, we have to understand both things. Essentially, all human beings are one, but accidentally they are 

not one. And it is not bad that they are not one. Variety is beautiful, it enriches the world, it makes the world 

more beautiful. It will be an ugly world where only Hindus live, where only Jews live, or where only Negroes live. 

It will lose all charm, it will lose all beauty. 

It is such a beautiful mess.... Italians and Polacks and the Germans and the French, and they all have their 

own ways, their own understandings, and they have all developed different styles. 

So although everybody, every human being belongs to one species, still we have been able to create a variety 

different flowerings on the same bush. It makes the world really rich. I would not like to destroy these differences, 

I would like to enhance them still with this understanding that human beings are human beings. Nobody is 

higher and nobody is lower; we should drop the idea of hierarchy, but variety is good. 

Do you know how to recognize an Italian in a submarine? He is the only one carrying a parachute! 

And how do you recognize the Polack? He is the one running after the Italian to steal his parachute! 

A colored maid and her white employer became pregnant at the same time and gave birth on the same day. A 

few months later the white woman came running into the kitchen and exclaimed to the maid, ”My baby said his 

first word today!” 

In the crib the colored baby sat up and said, ”He did? What did he say?” 

An American couple was touring Europe. 

As the bus pulled up at yet another famous cathedral in yet another famous town, the wife turned to the 

husband and said, ”You do the inside of the cathedral, dear, and I will do the outside.” 

An airplane full of tourists is flying from New York to Texas when one of the engines stops working. 

The captain speaks to the passengers: ”Ladies and gentlemen, in order to stay alive we have to throw all the 

luggage overboard. Then we will have less weight and we will safely reach our destination.”


So they do. But a few hours later the second engine stops working and again the captain speaks to the 

passengers: ”Ladies and gentlemen, in order to safely reach our destination we need three persons to jump off the 

plane.” 

An Englishman stands up. ”Sorry,” he says, ”I beg your pardon... but of course....” He turns around to the 

rest of the passengers, grabs his umbrella and jumps out of the plane shouting, ”God save the Queen!” 

A Frenchman gets up with tears in his eyes. ”Vive la France!” he cries and jumps out. 

A man from India wearing pure white, khadi clothes, looking more like Morarji Desai than Morarji Desai 

himself, walks through the plane, grabs one old woman by the throat, throws her out of the plane and shouts, 

”Long live Mahatma Gandhi!” 

Once a British lady was approached by a German man. As he was quite taken by her beauty, he marched over 

to her and shouted, ”I love you!” 

She said, ”If you really love me, jump off the cliff!” 

Before he could think he kissed her hand and jumped. 

A short time later the British lady was approached by an Italian. He swaggered up to her and passionately 

whispered in her ear, ”Amore mio!” 

She responded by whispering in his ear, ”If you really love me, jump off the cliff.” 

Coming up for air between kisses he answered, ”If you really love me, you must jump with me!” 

Impressed with his wit, she conceded to make love with him. 

Still a short while later the British lady was approached by a British man. He made her acquaintance and 

invited her for tea. After several hours of polite conversation, he said, with some reserve, ”I love you.” 

She answered, ”If you really love me, jump off the cliff.” 

To which he gallantly replied, ”Ladies first!” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE REALLY NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ORDINARY PERSON AND 

ONE WHO IS ENLIGHTENED? 

Narendra, everyone is born enlightened. Everyone is born absolutely innocent, absolutely pure, absolutely 

empty. But that innocence, that purity, that emptiness, is bound to be lost because it is unconscious. One has to 

regain it one has to gain it consciously. That is the only difference between an ordinary person and the enlightened 

one. 

The ordinary person came with the same potential, has got the same potential still, but he has not claimed it 

yet. The enlightened one has lost it and claimed it back. The ordinary person is in a state of paradise lost and the 

enlightened person is in the state of paradise regained. But you can gain it any moment, it is up to you. Nobody 

can prevent you from becoming enlightened. 

It is not a question of any particular talent. Not everybody is a musician and not everybody can be a musician; 

that is a question of talent. Only a few are musicians and real musicians are born musicians. You can learn the 

technique; if you go on and on practicing music, sooner or later you will be able to play, but you will still not be 

a musician. You will only be a technician one who knows how to play but one who has no inspiration, one who 

is not really in tune with the music of existence. Music is not flowing through you naturally, spontaneously. 

Not everybody can be a poet and not everybody can be a scientist or mathematician; these are talents. But 

enlightenment is not a question of talents. Everybody is enlightened; to be alive is enough. Life itself is the only 

need, the only requirement. If you are not dead you can still become enlightened. If you are dead, then of course 

wait for the next round, but nobody is so dead. People are ninety-nine percent dead, but even if you are one 

percent alive that is enough. That much fire is enough; it can be kindled, it can be helped. It can be used to 

create, to trigger more fire in you. 

The difference between the enlightened one and the ordinary person is not one of talent. This is the first thing 

to be remembered, because many people think that it is a question of talent. ”A Jesus is talented, a Buddha 

is talented; we are not so talented. How can we become enlightened?” No, it is not a question of talent at all. 

You cannot become a Michelangelo and you cannot become a Shakespeare unless you are born one, but you can 

become a christ, a buddha. 

Everybody is entitled to it, it is everybody’s birthright, but you will have to reclaim it. And the effort has to 

be made consciously. You have lost it simply because you were unconscious. And if you remain unconscious, then 

the difference will remain. The difference is only of unconsciousness. 

Buddha is as ordinary as you are, but he is full of awareness in his ordinariness. Because of awareness his 

ordinariness becomes luminous. He lives the same ordinary life, remember it. That is another illusion that people


are carrying within themselves: that a Buddha has to be extraordinary, that a Jesus has to walk on water. You 

cannot walk on water, so how can you be a Jesus? A buddha has to be special, from the very beginning. 

The stories say that before Buddha was born his mother had a few dreams. Those dreams are absolutely 

necessary. If the mother has not had those dreams before the birth, then the person cannot be a buddha. Now 

this is sheer stupidity! Joining Buddha with the dreams of his mother is sheer nonsense, there cannot be a more 

stupid idea. 

And what kind of dreams? Jainas have different dreams. Before Mahavira is born, the mother has a few dreams. 

She sees one white elephant that is a must. Every tirthankara, every prophet of the Jainas, before he is born has 

to be preceded by a dream of the mother of a white elephant as if the son is going to be a white elephant! 

Buddha’s mother has to see a few dreams, a series of dreams.... These are just stories, fictitious, created by 

the followers afterwards. The story is that the mother of a buddha has to die immediately when he is born, she 

cannot live. How can she live after such a great phenomenon? It is so vast and so big, the experience is such that 

it is bigger than death, she simply disappears. But Mahavira’s mother lives, Jesus’ mother lives; they didn’t have 

that idea there. But they have other ideas: that when Jesus is born he has to be born to a virgin mother. 

Now people can go to absurdities, to the very extremes of absurdities, just to make one thing settled in your 

minds: that Jesus IS special while you are ordinary. Now where will you find a virgin mother?... and you have 

already missed. Next time maybe you try again to find a virgin mother and unless you conspire with the Holy 

Ghost, it is impossible. How will you manage? And then three wise men have to come and a star has to lead 

them. Now stars don’t do that at all, no star can do it. Stars go on their routes; they cannot lead the wise men 

from the East to the exact place where Jesus is born in a stable, in a poor man’s house. Stars can’t do that that 

is impossible. 

These fictitious stories have been invented just to give the idea that you are ordinary and these people are 

special. 

My whole effort here is to proclaim to you that if they are special you are special, if you are ordinary they are 

ordinary. One thing is certain: you don’t belong to different categories, you belong to the same category. 

The miracle is not walking on water, the miracle is not walking in fire; the miracle is waking up. That is the 

real miracle. All else is nonsense. 

Wake up... and you are a buddha! Wake up and you are enlightened! And when you wake up it is not that you 

will become totally different from your ordinary self; you will be the same person but luminous. You will eat in 

the same way, but it will not be the same, there will be an intrinsic difference. You will live in the old way, yet it 

will not be the old because you will be new. You will bring a new touch to everything and whatsoever you touch 

will start turning into gold, will start turning into something meaningful. Before it was meaningless, now it will 

have significance and meaning. And it is time that you wake up! 

The master cannot force you to wake up; the master can only create a situation in which a process can be 

triggered in you. And any situation can be helpful. 

Lao Tzu became enlightened just by seeing a leaf, a dry leaf falling from a tree. As the leaf started falling 

towards the earth, he became enlightened. Now what happened? Seeing the dead leaf falling on the wings of the 

wind, with no idea of its own, utterly relaxed, utterly surrendered to the winds, he had a glimpse. He must have 

been in a very vulnerable state. And from that very moment he became a dead leaf in the winds. He surrendered 

his ego, he surrendered his clinging, he surrendered his own ideas of what should be and should not be. He 

surrendered all his mind, he simply became a let-go. And that’s how he became enlightened. 

Anything can trigger the process. The master only creates a thousand and one situations. Who knows what 

situation is going to trigger the process? 

Here you are going through hundreds of groups, doing all kinds of meditations, because nobody can predict in 

what moment, in what situation, what is going to trigger the process. It has always happened in such a mysterious 

way, it is not a scientific phenomenon. It is not a question of cause and effect, otherwise things would have been 

easier. You heat the water to a hundred degrees and it becomes vapor but it is not like that. A few people 

evaporate at zero degrees, a few people evaporate at a hundred degrees, a few people evaporate at one thousand 

degrees. People are not matter; people are consciousness, people are freedom, so nobody knows what will trigger 

the process. Not even the master can say that this is going to trigger the process. He can arrange all kinds of 

devices and he can wait patiently, lovingly, compassionately, prayerfully, and you have to move through all kinds 

of devices. 

I am talking to you. Any word may trigger it... or maybe just a pause may trigger it... and suddenly the sleep 

is gone, the dreams have disappeared. You are born, spiritually born, twice-born. You have again become a child. 

That’s what buddhahood is, that’s what enlightenment is.


Narendra, you ask me, ”Is there really no difference between an ordinary person and one who is enlightened?” 

There is no difference in this sense: that both belong to the same world of consciousness. One is asleep, one is 

awake; hence the difference. But the difference is only peripheral, not central, not intrinsic, but accidental. 

Respect the buddhas and that will teach you to respect yourself. Respect the buddhas, but don’t condemn 

yourself. Love yourself because you are also carrying a buddha within you. You are also carrying a bud which is 

going to become a buddha. Any moment, any day... it can be now, it can be here.... 


Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, A GERMAN NEWSPAPER CALLED YOU THE MOST FAMOUS RELIGIOUS 

LEADER AFTER POPE PAUL AND KHOMEINI. HOW DO YOU FEEL IN THAT COMPANY? 

Veet Vivarto, I would rather be in hell than be in that stupid company Pope Paul the Polack and Khomeini 

the Khomeiniac! I have not done anything so sinful in my life to suffer that company. I have no karmas to be 

punished that will be a punishment. 

I have heard: 

One mahatma, a great saint, died must have been someone like Muktananda. One of his followers died the 

next day. When the follower reached heaven, the first thing that he was interested in was, ”Where is our guru, 

our Muktananda? He must be enjoying he must have been given all the joys that only heaven can provide.” 

And then suddenly he saw Muktananda underneath a beautiful tree... with whom, do you know? with Sophia 

Loren! Sophia Loren sitting in his lap, both naked, hugging each other! The follower fell at the feet of Muktananda. 

He said, ”Guru Deva, O Great Master, I always knew that you were the greatest master; now I am seeing with 

my own eyes. God is so pleased with you, he has given you Sophia Loren as a reward!” 

Muktananda looked very angrily at the man and said, ”You fool, stop talking nonsense! You don’t understand 

a thing. She is not my reward, I am her punishment!” 

I have not committed any sin so I don’t think that I belong to that company. I belong to very ordinary people 

drunkards, gamblers, not to such stupid people, full of holy cow dung! 

But that journalist must think he is praising me. That’s what goes on in the world: people are so unconscious 

that they don’t know what praise is and what condemnation is. This is condemnation, not praise! 

Khomeini is not religious at all. Khomeini is the most irreligious person present today. And do you think Pope 

Paul is religious? If he is religious he cannot even be Catholic, what to say about being Pope Paul? He cannot 

be a pope. A religious person cannot be a Catholic or a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan. These are just 

politicians playing the same game of power politics in the name of religion. 

I have seen the article. The article is one of the most positive articles written about me, except for this small 

condemnation. So the journalist is not really trying to condemn me; in his vision, in his idea, he is praising me as 

the third most important religious leader. 

I am not religious in the ordinary sense of the word, and I am not a leader at all. I don’t like leading anybody. 

Certainly I am a finger pointing at the moon, but I am not a leader. You have to do all your walking, I am not 

coming along with you. I am not going to be ahead of you leading you. You are not to follow me, you have to be 

your own self. I can simply share my experience. 

If that experience touches something in you, if that experience makes you aware that life is not what you think 

it is, that it is far more, that’s enough. If I can create a thirst in you, that’s enough a thirst for God. I am not 

a leader. If I can create enough thirst in you, then you will seek and search. And those who seek find, and those 

who search are bound to find, are absolutely, inevitably bound to find. All that is needed is an authentic thirst, 

a thirst in the very heart, in the very center of your being. 

But these people are fast asleep. This journalist has never been here, he does not understand anything that I 

am saying. Otherwise he would not have compared me with Khomeini and Pope Paul. 

The Prince of Wales was vacationing in Paris. After a sumptuous dinner and many drinks he asked the hotel 

manager for a beautiful young lady to keep him company during the night. The manager showed him to his room 

and sent him a young lady. 

Although the prince was quite drunk he tried to make love with the lovely woman. Each time he tried, however, 

she would cry out, ”Matouska! Matouska!” After several attempts he fell asleep exhausted. 

The next morning the prince went for a stroll to a nearby village where he noticed some boys shooting marbles 

into holes in the ground. Suddenly one of the boys shouted, ”Matouska! Matouska!” 

The prince, surprised to hear this word used again, was curious and asked what it meant. 

One boy answered, ”Matouska means the wrong hole.”


What more can you expect from a man who is fast asleep and drunk? But he was doing his best at least he 

was trying to make love.... Missing the target, that is another thing. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS A FATHER? 

Anand Sugeet, a father is a Catholic priest who is neither a husband nor a father; but Catholics are well known 

to do such strange things. Why they call their priests ”father” is really strange. Pope also means ”father”; it is 

another form of ”papa.” 

Father Francesco and Father Viggiani were sitting in a grotto chatting. 

”Do you think the pope will ever allow priests to marry?” asked Father Francesco. 

”It won’t happen in our time,” replied Father Viggiani. ”Maybe in our children’s.” 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, CAN I ALSO BECOME THE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA? 

My God, Tom! I believe you must be the same Tom Tom the Tourist! Now great things are happening to 

you! Reading your question for the first time I understood the meaning of the word ’tomfoolery’. I had always 

wondered, why this word ’tomfoolery’? Now I know. 

Yes, you can be the president, only I think President Tom won’t look right. Change your name to Banana, 

Tomato, Potato. Mr. Potato the President what pure poetry! And I think you have the required qualifications 

for it. The first thing is, you have to be stupid. 

You have seen what Jimmy Carter did just two days ago? When Vivek told Asheesh, Asheesh thought it was 

a joke... because our orange people don’t read newspapers. Who cares about all this nonsense? But what he has 

done is so stupid one cannot believe it. They must have sent their best people for this rescue mission, and what 

happened is really just great, far out! The two American planes crashed into each other and eight persons died 

and the rescue mission was canceled. Now the whole world is laughing! 

But this is bound to happen when you make a peanut grower a president this is bound to happen. What else 

can he do? His whole life he was growing peanuts, now he has grown up and become a nut himself! 

So the first requirement is: you have to be stupid. If you are not, at least pretend to be. That’s what Nixon 

was trying to do; he was not that stupid, but he pretended long enough. But finally the Americans found out that 

he was not that stupid; they threw him out immediately. So don’t be caught continue doing something stupid. 

If you are caught, the same fate awaits you. Be like Ford, just pure stupidity, unadulterated! 

The second requirement... that I have been trying to find for you. I have been doing great research since your 

question! The second requirement is: you need an ugly wife. This is something strange. Nixon, Ford, Carter, 

they have such ugly ducklings. It is strange, it cannot be coincidental. Only Kennedy had a beautiful wife, and 

they killed him, remember. So avoid! 

Now Reagan has every chance, because just the other day, I was looking at his wife’s photograph. I said, ”This 

man seems to have every possibility. Now he can defeat anyone as far as his wife is concerned he can defeat Nixon, 

Ford, Carter, all.” And they are sitting together on a sofa and the caption reads, ”Reagan is being charged by his 

wife.” I was simply wondering... this woman can discharge anybody! If you have such a wife you will renounce 

the world immediately! And Reagan is being charged by his wife.... 

So these two things I have found stupidity and an ugly wife. And change your name: become Reverend Banana, 

Reverend Tomato, Reverend Potato anything will do. Tom does not look good, it is too ordinary; you need a 

special name, and then you can become the president. And you have toured enough now go back home. This is 

the time! Carter is losing ground every day, don’t miss this opportunity. Get married to an ugly woman, pretend 

to be stupid. Learn to laugh for no reason, no rhyme. Just exercise your lips, keep them open as much as possible. 

And I think you have every possibility, as any other American has. Don’t waste your time here anymore, because 

you don’t belong here. This is not the place. We don’t prepare people to become presidents and prime ministers. 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, BUDDHA SAYS, ”THE MASTER GIVES UP MISCHIEF.” BUT AS I KNOW YOU, 

YOU ARE PAR EXCELLENCE MASTER OF MISCHIEF! HAVE YOU SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT IT? 

Dharma Bodhi, do you think I need to say something about it? But Buddha had no knowledge about me. 

When he said that, I was not included in it. When I make sutras, then you will see! 


The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 12


Chapter 9 Possessing nothing, wanting nothing 


POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING. 

HE IS FULL OF POWER. FEARLESS, WISE, EXALTED. HE HAS VANQUISHED ALL THINGS. HE SEES 

BY VIRTUE OF HIS PURITY. 

HE HAS COME TO THE END OF THE WAY, OVER THE RIVER OF HIS MANY LIVES, HIS MANY 

DEATHS. 

BEYOND THE SORROW OF HELL, BEYOND THE GREAT JOY OF HEAVEN, BY VIRTUE OF HIS 

PURITY. 

HE HAS COME TO THE END OF THE WAY. 

ALL THAT HE HAD TO DO, HE HAS DONE. 

AND NOW HE IS ONE. 

These are the last golden sutras of The Dhammapada: 

POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING. 

HE IS FULL OF POWER. 

Why does man want to possess? It is one of the most fundamental things to be understood. Unless you 

understand why there is a constant hankering to possess more and more things, money, power, you will not be 

able to get rid of this insanity of possessiveness. Man wants to possess because he has not known who he is; he is 

unaware of his inner kingdom. He thinks he is a beggar, hence he begs. 

Desires are beggars. The more you desire, the more you prove that you are unaware of your own treasures. 

That very unawareness leads you into the desert of possessiveness. It is a desert because you will not attain 

to anything. You may possess the whole world, still you will remain the same hollow person, empty, your life 

meaningless, your vision clouded, your heart dead, your soul unborn. 

Man wants to possess because he feels tacitly that something is missing. What exactly is missing he is not able 

to decipher, but something is missing that much is felt by everybody so rush and fill the gap. Naturally we start 

imitating others. 

Children are imitators; the only way they learn things is by imitating their parents and the people who surround 

them. They are all running after money, after power, prestige, respectability. Naturally the child thinks these are 

the things that have to be attained, achieved. ”Whatsoever the cost, I have to risk all. And life is short; hence I 

have to focus my energies in a concentrated way. I have to move in one particular direction with my totality. I 

have to be money-mad if I really want to possess money, because I am not the only one who is running after it; 

millions of people are running after it. It is going to be a great struggle and only those who are cunning, clever, 

crafty, are going to win the race.” So be cunning, be crafty, but anyhow you have to win the race. You have to 

prove yourself, that you are somebody, that your life was not in vain. 

The child learns all this in a very unconscious way from the atmosphere into which he is born. And whatsoever 

the society is, the game is the same. Somewhere it is money that is more important. If you are born in America, 

money is more important; that brings power. If you are born in Soviet Russia, then money is not so important; 

then political power is real money, real gold. You have to be high in the hierarchy of the Communist Party, but 

the game is the same. If you are born in a so-called religious country like India, then you have to become a great 

saint, you have to defeat all the other saints. It is the same game now played in the name of religion. You have 

to be the greatest ascetic, the most famous; you have to leave everybody far behind. 

Look deep down: it is one single game being played in so-called religious countries, in capitalist countries and 

in communist countries. Whatsoever the format, the structure, the game is the same. The game is the game of 

the ego. 

And we are tremendously interested in fulfilling our ego, but it cannot be fulfilled. It is impossible to fulfill it 

because in the first place the ego is a nonentity. It is not real, it is fictitious. If you have real hunger there is a 

way to satisfy it, but if your hunger is unreal there is no way to satisfy it. If you have a real disease it can be 

cured, but if you are a hypochondriac and you invent diseases which exist nowhere, nobody can cure you. It is 

impossible to cure you there is nothing to cure. And if somehow you are convinced that one disease has been 

cured, you have the same old mind and it will invent another disease. It will go on inventing. 

Ego is your invention. The hunger of the ego is your invention. You have to keep yourself occupied because 

you feel in a state of embarrassment. You are not even aware of who you are how can you be at ease? You feel 

a deep unease, it is always there. To hide it you keep yourself occupied with money, with power, with religion, 

with politics. These are all escapes. You can find any escape there are many alternatives available but you keep 

yourself occupied so that there is no need to become so conscious of your inner trembling.


Whenever you have time, whenever you are unoccupied, suddenly the inner hollowness starts opening up and 

you become afraid. It is like an abyss, you are afraid you may slip into it. Hang onto something, invent something 

if there is nothing else to hang on to. 

That’s why people are even ready to cling to their misery; nobody is ready to drop his misery easily. That’s 

my experience of working with thousands of people. All their problems can be reduced to one problem, that 

they cling to their misery. It is very difficult for them to drop their miseries because their miseries keep them 

occupied. Their miseries help them to avoid themselves and their inner hollowness, emptiness, meaninglessness. 

Their miseries are nothing but a way to escape. Of course those miseries are hurting; hence they talk about how 

to get rid of them, but they cannot drop them because dropping them means they will be left empty. 

So they are in a double bind: they don’t want to be miserable and yet they cannot drop their miseries. Miseries 

are not clinging to you, remember you are clinging to your miseries. 

You can drop your miseries only when some inner meaning starts flowering in you. Miseries can be dropped 

only when meditation starts blooming in you because then you start enjoying your emptiness, it is no longer 

empty. Emptiness itself starts having a positive fragrance; it isn’t negative anymore. That’s the whole magic 

of meditation: it transforms your emptiness into a positive fulfillment, into something overwhelming. Emptiness 

becomes silence, emptiness becomes peace, and emptiness becomes divine, it becomes godliness. 

There is no greater magic than meditation. To transform the negative into the positive, to transform darkness 

into light, that is the miracle of meditation. To transform a trembling person into a fearless soul, to transform 

a person who was clinging to every stupid thing into a nonclinger, into a nonpossessor, that is what happens 

through meditation. 

Buddha used to call meditation a great sword, it cuts your problems at the very root. It makes you aware that 

you need not be afraid of your inner abyss. It is beautiful, it is blissful. You have not experienced its bliss and 

beauty because you have never gone into it, you have always been escaping. You have not tasted of it; it is nectar, 

it is not poison. But how are you going to know without tasting it? You are running away from something which 

can become your life’s fulfillment. You are running away from something which is the only thing worth achieving. 

You are running away from yourself. 

POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING.... Buddha says that’s where meditation brings the master. 

He is no longer interested in possessing and he is no longer desiring anything. All desires have left him because 

he has found the ultimate beyond which there is nothing else. He has found the inexhaustible treasure of joy, 

of bliss, of ecstasy. What else can he desire? He has found a mine of diamonds; now he cannot go on collecting 

colored stones and seashells on the seabeach. Now that whole activity is stupid not that he renounces it. 

That is one of the most significant things to be remembered: the real sannyasin never renounces anything, he 

simply understands his own inner world its beauty, its benediction, its blissfulness. And understanding it, great 

renunciation happens of its own accord. All that is futile slips out of his hands, he cannot cling to it anymore. 

He becomes nonpossessive. Nothing is so important to cling to anymore. Everything of this world becomes just 

a toy to play with, good for those who are not yet grown up but a meditator has become adult. 

Only a meditator becomes adult. Otherwise, your chronological age may be seventy, eighty or ninety, it does not 

matter you are only an old child... ninety years old but still immature because still interested in toys, still carrying 

your teddy bears, still interested in possessing more and more toys. Children can be forgiven, but you cannot 

be forgiven. Only a meditator comes of age; for the first time he becomes mature, grown-up. All childishness 

disappears from him. 

And the beauty is, when all childishness disappears from you, you again become childlike but on a different 

plane. No childishness but absolutely childlike the same purity, the same innocence, the same wonder, the same 

awe. Again existence becomes a mystery. But it is not that you are childish you are childlike. It is a totally 

different phenomenon. Childishness is immaturity; to have a childlike purity is maturity. They are polar opposites. 

POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING... the master is at home. He is no longer running after 

shadows, he is not running at all. Just now to say to you that you are also buddhas will look absurd; at least to 

you it will look absurd. You will listen, you love me and you will try to understand what I am saying, but deep 

down you will not be convinced that you are buddhas. 

That’s why we have been finding every possible rationalization to prove to ourselves that buddhas are a totally 

different race. Every country has tried to prove to its own heart’s content that ”Buddha belongs to some other 

plane of existence, Christ belongs to some other plane of existence. They are amongst us, but they are totally 

different from us. They are strangers, they are outsiders. Whatsoever they say is true, but it is not applicable 

to us, it has no relevance to our world. We live in an ordinary world and they come from some extraordinary 

existence from the beyond.”


Every country, every race has convinced itself that Moses, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed are 

not ordinary people. In some way or other we have been trying to prove that they are extraordinary. Not that we 

are much interested in their being extraordinary, we are simply interested in one thing: if they are extraordinary 

then we need not worry. Then we can go on the way we are going, we need not change. We can simply remain 

the same, as we are. To avoid a radical change we create these great rationalizations. 

I say unto you that they are all as ordinary as you are or as extraordinary as you are. No difference at all. Just 

a very small difference which is not a difference really: you are asleep and they are awake. You can be awakened, 

you can wake up unless you decide not to wake up. But right now it is difficult for you to understand that you 

are buddhas. 

The function of the master is to remind you that you may be believing that you are slaves, but you are not 

that is only your belief. You are masters. The function of the master is to remind you, to go on reminding you 

again and again that you are buddhas. If you are behaving like fools that is your choice. You have the freedom 

to behave like fools, but you also have the freedom to transform your being totally, to become as centered as a 

Buddha. 

Looking at yourself it will be difficult to believe, looking at your life it will be difficult for you yourself to 

believe that you can ever be mature, that you can ever be a master, that you can ever say about yourself: 

POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING. You are always wanting. People are so ridiculous that if they 

become convinced about wanting nothing, then they start wanting this state of wanting nothing. But it is the 

same game; now the desire has come from the back door. 

I have heard: 

After Beethoven finished his joyous Fourth Symphony he went through a dry period. Inspiration left him, his 

imagination went blank and he could compose no new music. This was too much for his restless energy and he 

fell to drinking at the local taverns where he often wound up in bar fights or went off with whores. 

One night, after losing a bar fight and being rejected by the cheapest whore in town, Beethoven sat spending 

his last pennies on cheap wine. As he was the last customer in the empty tavern, the bartender came over to him 

and said, ”Hey, buddy, you are always causing trouble around here. What do you do for a living anyway?” 

Beethoven looked up, his face bruised, his lip bleeding, and said through clenched teeth, ”I am a composer.” 

The bartender said, ”You, a composer?! Ha-ha-ha Ha!” 

That’s how the Fifth Symphony was born! 

Looking at you it is very difficult to believe that you are buddhas bruised face, bleeding lips, even rejected by 

the cheapest whore, drinking cheap wine. Who will believe that you are a buddha? But I believe it! And not 

only do I believe it. I know it. 

Just something is needed to trigger it. Just something is needed to wake you up. 

Beethoven went home and again the inspiration was back, again the sources were flowing. 

The master cannot do anything directly, but he can push you, pull you in indirect ways, to help you to see 

the point. Once seen it becomes yours and unless it becomes yours it is of no use, it is of no meaning, it has no 

validity. 

You are so unaware of yourself. That’s why you are running after money, power, prestige. Become a little more 

aware of who you are. Give a little more attention to yourself. 

Lukowski went to the bank to cash a check. Since Lukowski had no account at the bank, the clerk asked if he 

could identify himself. 

”Say,” asked Lukowski, ”is there a mirror around here?” 

”Yes,” said the teller, ”on the post beside you.” 

Lukowski glanced in the mirror and heaved a sigh of relief. ”Yeah,” he said, ”it is me all right.” 

That is how you recognize yourself, always looking in the mirror. The mirrors differ. You look in the eyes of 

other people; if they think you are a good man, you think you are a good man. If they think you are beautiful, 

you think you are beautiful. If they think you are intelligent, you think you are intelligent. All that you know 

about yourself is collected from others others who don’t even know themselves. 

This is a very strange world: you are asking people, ”Who are you?” and they don’t know themselves, and you 

depend on what they say about you you depend on it. You go on collecting information. That’s why it hurts 

when somebody says you are a fool. Why does it hurt? Let him say that you are a fool; just by his saying it 

you don’t become a fool. But why does it hurt then? It hurts because all that you know about yourself depends 

on public opinion. Now that opinion comes from the same source from the outside from where you have been 

collecting the opinion that you are very intelligent. Now you are in a contradiction, that’s why you are upset,


disturbed. Now he has created a contradiction. Now he has created trouble for you, he has created a dilemma. 

Now you are again confused, you don’t know who you are. 

A Sufi parable: 

A Sufi stayed in a caravanserai but there was no empty room available. So the manager said, ”You will have 

to share the room with somebody else.” 

The Sufi said, ”That is going to create trouble because when I am alone in my room, in the morning when I 

wake up I know perfectly well it is me, but when there are two persons in the morning, how am I going to decide 

who is who?” 

While this strange conversation was going on, the man with whom the Sufi was to share the room was also 

listening to the whole thing. He had a great idea. The manager said, ”That seems to be a relevant point” because 

the manager had come across these mad Sufis many times: ”They are always saying strange things. Now what is 

this thing he is talking about?” 

But the Sufi was saying something really significant: how do you know in the morning who is who? When there 

are two persons and there has been a gap of the whole night’s sleep, how to gather again that ”I am myself”? 

The manager said, ”I have come across many Sufis and slowly, slowly I have learned many things about them. 

Do one thing: take this rope with you and when you go to sleep tie this rope around your feet so when in the 

morning you see the rope around your feet you will know it is you.” 

The Sufi said, ”That seems to be sensible.” 

In the night, in the middle of the night, when the Sufi was snoring, the other man took away the rope just to 

play some mischief, tied the rope around his own feet and went to sleep. And in the morning there was havoc! 

The Sufi woke up; the other man was still sleeping. He shook him and he said, ”Now I know you are the Sufi, 

but then who am I? I am perfectly certain you are the Sufi the rope is there but the problem is, now who am I? 

And I had told this foolish manager that some trouble is bound to arise; now this trouble has arisen.” 

This Sufi parable is significant, it is about you. That’s how you know who you are. Yes, not so visibly; but 

invisibly how do you recognize yourself? in the mirror or in the mirror of other people’s eyes, in the mirror of 

their opinions? 

Only a buddha is unaffected by others’ opinions because he really knows who he is. He needs no arbitrary 

method, no ropes, no mirrors, no information from anybody else; he knows himself directly. He has an intuitive 

feeling about his own being, but you don’t have any intuitive feeling about your own being. 

You say you are a Christian. This is a rope your parents have put around your neck not even around your 

feet, around your neck! And you are dying because you go on getting bigger and the rope was tied when you were 

a small child; it is becoming tighter every day. A few people are dying as Christians, a few as Hindus, a few as 

Mohammedans, and everybody has a rope around his neck. 

How do you know you are a Christian? You never encountered Christ. If you had not been told that you were 

a Christian there is no possibility that you would have ever loved Christ or ever thought about him. No Jaina 

ever thinks about Christ, no Jew ever bothers about Christ, although Christ was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died 

as a Jew. But it is the same. No Christian ever bothers about Mahavira. Who cares about Mahavira? Even if 

you come across a statue of Mahavira you may look at it as a beautiful piece of art, an antique, or you may be a 

little puzzled why this man is standing naked. 

In one of the hotels in Bombay... just a few days ago the hotel opened. It belonged to a Jaina family so 

they placed a statue of Mahavira naked, a marble statue, a beautiful statue, in the compound of the hotel, in 

a beautiful spot surrounded by plants and fountains. Immediately it became a great attraction for the tourists. 

And the Jaina family was very happy, thinking, ”We are spreading the message of Mahavira.” But the tourists 

were not interested in Mahavira or in his message; they were only interested in his nakedness. They were taking 

photographs. 

The manager asked, ”Why are you so interested in this statue? Are you interested in Jaina philosophy?” 

They said, ”What Jaina philosophy? We don’t know anything about Jaina philosophy, we don’t even know 

who this man is. All that we know is that he is standing naked and we are interested in nudity.” 

Once this was known, the Jaina community was very much against it: ”This is insulting to Mahavira. Remove 

the statue.” First they were very happy, now they are against. Now they know perfectly well why people are 

taking photographs and why tourists are coming to the statue: for the simple reason that it is a statue of a naked, 

beautiful body and Mahavira has a beautiful body. 

In fact, only a man like Mahavira who has such a beautiful body should be allowed to be naked, nobody else; 

that should be a condition. I have seen many Jaina monks they are so disgusting! They should be forced to wear 

clothes because to look at them is nauseating! They are eyesores.


No Christian is interested in Mahavira, no Jaina is interested in Christ, no Mohammedan is interested in 

Buddha, no Buddhist is interested in Mohammed. You are interested only in the rope that was tied around your 

neck when you were a child. You are still carrying it, it has become your identity. 

Who are you? If you write it down, then you will write your name which has been given by others you were 

born without a name. And you will write your degrees which have been conferred by others you were born 

without any degrees. If you write down the whole description of yourself you will be surprised: there is nothing 

that depends on your own experience, all is dependent on others. This is not self-knowledge, this is self-deception. 

Unless you drop this whole deception and start discovering yourself from ABC you will never be able to know this 

beautiful experience of: POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING. This continuous wanting of something 

is simply to stuff your inner emptiness. And this constant hankering to be on top is nothing but a projection 

of a deep feeling of inferiority. All the politicians suffer from inferiority complexes; all the Alexanders and the 

Napoleons and the Hitlers and the Stalins, without any exception, they suffer from deep inferiority complexes. 

Somewhere deep down they know that they are nothing; they have to cover this nothingness with something 

beautiful. They know they are like a wound, they have to cover the wound with beautiful flowers. 

A politician was very much in love with his dog. One day he went to the market to buy some dog biscuits. 

He entered a shop and shouted, ”Have you got biscuits for dogs?” 

The shopkeeper calmly replied, ”Do you want to eat them here or do you want to take them home?” 

Politicians fight like dogs. They are dogs, and they have to be, because it is a very difficult struggle that they 

have to go through. They have to be very stubborn and stupid, doggedly stupid and doggedly stubborn, only 

then is there a possibility that some day they may reach the top. Of course, they will not find anything there, but 

they will go on smiling because now it is meaningless to say, ”I have not found anything here.” People will laugh. 

People will say, ”We knew it from the very beginning there is nothing.” That’s how people are. They always say, 

”We knew it from the very beginning. We told you before that you were a fool trying to climb an empty ladder 

on the last rung you would not find anything.” So one who has reached the last rung has to go on smiling as if 

he has achieved something, just in order not to show his idiocy; that he has been an idiot, that he has wasted his 

whole life. 

There is no need to struggle really, life is spacious enough. If we drop these foolish ideas of hierarchy, of who is 

on the top and who is the first and who is the president and who is the prime minister... if we drop these stupid 

ideas of hierarchy, if we simply start living whatsoever we are, wherever we are, life can be infinitely rich because 

the whole energy available can transform this earth into a paradise. 

Noah was closing the gate of the ark ready to leave when the elephant appeared on the horizon running like 

mad. 

”Come on,” encouraged Noah, ”faster!” 

The elephant walked the last few steps into the ark. At that moment the mosquito who also was late rushed 

in, stumbling upon the elephant’s ass sting! 

The elephant turned back in anger and said, ”Don’t push, please. There is plenty of room for everybody!” 

Even elephants understand there is plenty of room for everybody and just a mosquito! There is enough room 

for you if there is enough room for an elephant don’t push. But these political mosquitoes, they go on pushing 

like mad; their whole life depends on pushing. Go on pushing till you reach the end and then there is nothing. 

There has never been anything, but we are brought up, educated, conditioned, to be ambitious, to be egoists. 

Yes, people drop desiring and wanting only when they are almost on their deathbeds, but then it is too late. 

The old idea of sannyas was that you should become a sannyasin after seventy-five years. Buddha changed it; 

he brought a revolution into the very concept of sannyas. Hence India has never been able to forgive him. Even 

now India has not forgiven him, although he was born in India. He was the best flowering of Indian genius, no 

other person can be compared to him. In the whole history of the Indian subcontinent he is the brightest star, 

but India rejected him. There were many reasons to reject him; one of the most important was that he destroyed 

the old idea of sannyas. 

The old idea of sannyas was, when you are too old to live, when life itself is slipping out of your fingers, then 

renounce. Buddha said, ”What is the point of renouncing then? Life is renouncing you. Now why are you trying 

to deceive yourself? You deceived yourself your whole life do you still want to deceive yourself?” Buddha said, 

”If you want to renounce life, renounce it when desires are very young, when possessiveness is very strong, when 

your whole being is ambitious. That is the moment. If you cannot do it then, you have missed one life.” 

Mrs. Silver and Mrs. Gold were gossiping over the back fence as they hung out the wash. 

”My husband, ah, such a faithful man!” boasted Mrs. Silver. ”He never even looks at another woman.”


”The same with my husband,” said Mrs. Gold. ”He never chases after women either. He is too fine, too decent 

too old!” 

Buddha says: POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING.... 

HE IS FULL OF POWER. 

When you try to possess, your power becomes invested in meaningless things. When you desire, your power 

becomes desires and desires are infinite. Each desire becomes a leakage of your power. When all possessiveness 

and all desires have been understood as futile, and dropped, you become a reservoir of power. And to be a 

reservoir of power is the only experience that gives you the feeling that God is because God is power. When you 

also experience power within yourself, overflowing, abundant power, you know God is. If you are empty, with no 

power, tired, wasted in your desires, no proof that God exists can help. All those proofs are for impotent people. 

The real person needs no proof for God. He comes to know God from the experience of inner power, from his 

own inner glow. 

FEARLESS, WISE, EXALTED. HE HAS VANQUISHED ALL THINGS. HE SEES BY VIRTUE OF HIS 

PURITY. 

And when you are full of power, death disappears. Death appears only because you are so powerless. Death 

appears only because your desires are exploiting your power, they are sucking your power. Desires are suckers, 

parasites; they leave you empty. When you are overflowing with energy there is no death. That experience of 

overflowing power makes you absolutely certain without any doubt that you cannot die. The body will go, the 

mind will go, but this power that you have felt is going to remain. It is going to expand; there is no way to destroy 

it. If you yourself don’t waste it in desires, death cannot take it away from you. 

And when there is no death there is no fear. All fear is death-oriented, all fear is the shadow of death. When 

you don’t possess anything you are fearless, when you don’t desire anything you are fearless. Nobody can take 

anything away from you because you don’t possess anything. Nobody can hinder you because you don’t have any 

desire. Nobody can obstruct your path, nobody is your enemy. The whole of existence suddenly becomes friendly. 

And when there is power, fearlessness, wisdom arises. Wisdom means your capacity to see the truth. You 

become a seer. Not that you know the Koran, the Gita or the Bible, but that now you know the inner scripture 

of consciousness itself. You know the inner christ, you know the inner krishna. You know that as Mohammed was 

receiving messages from God you are also receiving messages from God; you are no less than any Mohammed. 

You are also a prophet and a messenger, you are also a messiah. When you are full of power you become receptive. 

God can connect with you only when you have power. Right now you are powerless; there is no possibility 

of any communion between you and God. Power can only be connected with power. Powerlessness cannot be 

connected with power. Only the same can meet the same. You have to be something of the divine in your own 

right; then only do you earn, do you deserve that God should communicate with you. 

He becomes wise, exalted exalted by existence itself. Society may not respect you, society may condemn you, 

society may crucify you, but who cares about society? Society is man-made. Existence itself exalts the man of 

wisdom the man who has known himself, the man who has experienced God, the man who can say authoritatively, 

”I know God, not through the scriptures but through my own experience,” existence exalts him. 

It is said that when Buddha became enlightened trees bloomed out of season. When Mahavira became enlightened 

gods descended from heaven and showered flowers on him. These are just metaphors, remember, not 

historical facts, but they indicate something. Whenever a man becomes a buddha, whenever a man becomes 

enlightened, the whole of existence exalts him, the whole of existence bows down to him. He has come home. The 

whole of existence welcomes him. 

And why does the whole existence exalt him? because existence itself is exalted through him. One of its 

members has reached the ultimate peak of awakening; through him the whole existence has moved a little ahead 

in evolution. Just cancel a dozen names from the history of humanity Lao Tzu, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, 

Buddha, Mahavira, Christ, Kabir, Nanak... just a dozen names, cancel them, and where will mankind be? You 

would all have been Reverend Bananas or Reverend Tomatoes, Reverend Potatoes, but not human beings at 

all. You may know, you may not know; you may be aware, you may not be aware, but these few people have 

contributed immensely to the growth of human consciousness. Without Buddha and Mahavira and Krishna and 

Christ, humanity would be still hanging in the trees, just like American tourists! 

They came a few days ago and they were making much noise on the roof. You knew them as monkeys, but you 

could not see them because they were on the roof. I can see through the roof! I immediately recognized them 

these are American tourists on their way to Goa, just paying their homage for a moment here and then gone. You 

would have all been American tourists!


These few people have released so much consciousness into the world. With each buddha, with each person 

becoming enlightened, humanity goes a little ahead, a step ahead. Hence the whole universe exalts him. 

HE HAS VANQUISHED ALL THINGS. Buddha means by ”all things” the world of the mind; not that he has 

vanquished all the things which are really there. You don’t live in reality, you live in your projections. 

”The water is absolutely divine this morning,” enthused the pretty lass as she came out on the beach. ”It is 

full of men!” 

It is your projection. You live in a world of your own ideas. 

”My wife deserted me,” moaned the unhappy husband. ”She took the car and ran off with a traveling salesman.” 

”Why, that is terrible!” exclaimed his friend, aghast. ”Your brand new car!” 

Everybody lives in his own world of ideas. 

Buddha says: HE HAS VANQUISHED ALL THINGS. Now there is no world of ideas, he has vanquished the 

mind. Once the mind disappears you can see things as they are in reality. Otherwise you never see them as they 

are, you see them according to your ideas. You always look through your own projections; those projections are 

subtle, but they color everything. You always look through your own prejudices; those prejudices are so close 

to you that you are not aware that they are there. It is as if on the panes of your window a layer of dust has 

gathered. 

I have heard: 

One old woman was looking out of a window and she said to the small boy playing outside, who must have 

been her grandson, ”Bobby, today the morning seems to be very cloudy.” 

And the boy said, ”Grandma, the day is perfectly fine as it always is. There are no clouds, it is just that on 

our window much dust has gathered.” 

But the old woman is not aware, may not be able to see; her eyes are weakening. She is not able to see that 

the panes are dusty and she thinks the morning is cloudy. 

Your window panes are dusty, but when they are so close to your eyes you become unaware of them; they are 

colored, hence the whole world looks colored. 

Buddha says: When you are full of power and all desires and all possessiveness have disappeared from you, that 

means your mind has died, ceased to exist. Now you can see things as they are. HE SEES BY VIRTUE OF HIS 

PURITY. Now everything is pure. He does not see through any screen, he sees through purity. Now he regains 

the wonder of childhood again, the same awe, the same mystery. 

HE HAS COME TO THE END OF THE WAY, OVER THE RIVER OF HIS MANY LIVES, HIS MANY 

DEATHS. 

And this is the end. When the mind ends, the journey ends. Now there will be no birth anymore and no death 

anymore. You have been born millions of times and you have died millions of times. What have you been doing 

all this time, all along? Nothing in fact, just playing the same games again and again and forgetting the lessons 

again. It seems man never learns a thing. Each time he dies he forgets all the lessons of that life. Next time, next 

birth, he starts from ABC again. 

It happened: 

A great king asked to be initiated by Buddha and became a bhikkhu, became his sannyasin. But he was just 

a junior sannyasin; there were elders who had meditated for thirty years, forty years. So where Buddha was 

staying in a caravanserai, the younger sannyasins not younger according to age, younger according to the time 

of initiation.... This king was old and he was a great king, but in the world of Buddha those things don’t count, 

neither the age nor the money nor the kingdom. He was the most junior because just that day he had taken 

sannyas, so he had to sleep in the porch because there was no other place. 

The king could not sleep; it was difficult, and one can understand his difficulty. He had never slept in such a 

place. And you know Indian mosquitoes... and the king had never experienced mosquitoes. And the ground was 

hard and the bhikkhus use no pillows, just their hands, their arms. He tossed and turned but he could not go to 

sleep. 

In the middle of the night he thought, ”What have I done? This seems to be stupid! I should be sleeping in 

my palace, I had everything. This seems to be pointless. Tomorrow morning the first thing I am going to do is to 

ask permission of the master: ’Please excuse me. I cannot tolerate such unnecessary misery. I am going back to 

my palace.’” 

But in the middle of the night Buddha came out and he said, ”Why wait for the morning? If you want to drop 

sannyas, drop it right now! Why suffer the whole night?” 

The king was amazed. He had not said it to anybody there was nobody else, he was alone in the porch. He 

said, ”But how did you come to know? It was just a thought in me.”


Buddha said, ”If your thoughts disappear you can start seeing others’ thoughts because others’ thoughts are 

then like things. It is because of your thoughts that you cannot see others’ thoughts. You are so covered with 

your own thoughts that there is no space for others’ thoughts. But you please go!” 

The man said, ”Now I cannot go. How can I leave such a master?” 

Buddha said, ”But my suggestion is still this, because you will again think of leaving. You had better leave. 

Only one thing I have to remind you of: you took sannyas in your past life too and the same difficulty was there, 

and you renounced sannyas. Now the same difficulty has arisen and it will arise again and again. You have not 

learned anything from your past life.” 

As Buddha was saying this, the man suddenly felt a tremendous upsurge of the memories of the past life. He 

could see, he could remember that yes, this had happened. The whole situation was the same. The master was 

different, the serai was different, the mosquitoes must have been different, but the king was the same person and 

the difficulty was the same. 

The king said, ”That’s enough, now I am not going to leave; I am going to stick to it. Now whatsoever 

happens.... I have lived in palaces many times and I have not gained anything so I am not going to waste this life 

anymore.” 

And he became enlightened one day. He persisted; a great perseverance must have been needed. 

HE HAS COME TO THE END OF THE WAY, Buddha says, OVER THE RIVER OF HIS MANY LIVES, 

HIS MANY DEATHS. 

What have you been doing all your past lives? You have been just a driftwood at the mercy of the winds, no 

sense of direction. You have not achieved any integrity. Don’t waste this life; make something out of it, create 

something out of it. 

Bailey, a violin player from New York, finally found a job in a small restaurant orchestra. But on his first night 

of work he played so terribly that the other musicians decided to fire him on the spot. 

Bailey explained to them that he could really play much better, but he had been traveling for two months and 

had not been able to even touch his instrument. Tomorrow he would practice the whole day to get back in shape. 

The second day of work came and he sounded just as bad. Now he was really going to get fired, but he explained 

to the others that his wife had been nagging him the whole day so that he had been unable to play even one note. 

Now this was something that the other musicians had much understanding for, so they gave him another chance. 

Bailey said that tomorrow his wife would go to her mother’s so he could practice the whole day. 

But the third day Bailey sounded so bad that now even the waiters complained. That was it he did get fired. 

Just as he was about to leave one of the other musicians walked up to him and said, ”Excuse me, but just out 

of curiosity, do you really make a living as a musician?” 

”Yes,” replied Bailey. 

”Oh, but where do you work?” 

”Well, three nights here and three nights there,” answered Bailey. 

And that’s what you have been doing for many nights: three nights here and three nights there, somehow 

earning your livelihood, somehow just trying to hold yourself together. But for what purpose? What have you 

achieved? What has been the gain? Certainly you have passed time, but life is such a valuable phenomenon, it is 

not just to pass through. It is an opportunity to grow, to be. 

BEYOND THE SORROW OF HELL, BEYOND THE GREAT JOY OF HEAVEN, BY VIRTUE OF HIS 

PURITY. 

... The master transcends. BEYOND THE SORROW OF HELL, BEYOND THE GREAT JOY OF HEAVEN.... 

He is no longer interested in pain and pleasure. Remember, if you seek pleasure you are bound to suffer pain in 

the same amount; they always come in the same proportion. If you have so much pleasure you will have to suffer 

so much pain; that is unavoidable. This is a fundamental law of life, life keeps a balance. The more pleasure you 

have, the more you will have to suffer pain. 

Hell and heaven are not geographical places but psychological experiences. And they are not separate either, 

they are two sides of the same coin. If you have one, the other is there just waiting for the right opportunity to 

assert itself. 

The man of understanding, the man of awareness, the man who has gone deep into meditation, into no-mind, 

becomes aware of this whole phenomenon; he drops the whole coin. He is neither interested in hell nor in heaven. 

He is neither worried about hell nor desirous of heaven, because he knows if you desire heaven you will suffer in 

hell. 

This is something tremendously beautiful remember it. The so-called religious people are all desirous of heaven 

and the heavenly joys; they are not religious at all. And these are the people who will suffer in heaven... in hell.


Wherever they are it is not going to make much difference because if you desire one, the other follows it like a 

shadow. 

I have heard about a man.... In Hindu mythology it is said that in heaven there are kalpavrikshas. A kalpavriksha 

means a wish-fulfilling tree. You sit underneath the tree and whatsoever your wishes are they are fulfilled 

immediately. You wish and they are fulfilled instantly. Even instant coffee takes a little time, it is not so instant, 

but under a kalpavriksha there is no time gap between the desire and its fulfillment; you have not even desired 

and it is fulfilled. 

One man, a very religious man, reached heaven. He was tired the long journey from earth to heaven. The first 

tree that he came across he sat underneath. Tired he was, weary from the journey, and the tree was cool, shady. 

He rested underneath the tree. 

Suddenly he felt hungry. Immediately beautiful food appeared. He was so hungry he did not even bother from 

where this food had appeared. He ate to his heart’s content. 

Then he thought, ”If there was something to drink....” Immediately a cold drink maybe Coca-Cola! appeared. 

He was very happy and he thought, ”Now I would like to rest a little bit, but the ground is so uneven. If there 

was some bed available somewhere....” Suddenly out of nowhere a beautiful bed he had never seen one like it in 

his life. He fell asleep; he was so tired that there was no question of becoming curious. But when he woke up the 

sun was just coming down, was going to set. Now he was refreshed, well, nourished. He became a little suspicious: 

”What is the matter? I desired food, food appeared. I desired drinks and drinks appeared. I desired the bed and 

the bed appeared. It seems this tree is haunted by ghosts! My God! Are there ghosts?” he thought. 

And suddenly ghosts appeared, so terrible, big monsters, just ready to jump upon him. He said, ”I am finished! 

These people are not going to leave me!” And, of course, he was finished; they did not leave him, because 

whatsoever you wish.... They jumped upon him, tore him to pieces and ate him up then and there, raw! 

The religious person, the so-called religious person, is not going to find peace even in heaven because his whole 

desire for heaven is basically wrong. The desire for pleasure is wrong because it contains the other side, pain. You 

cannot divide them, they are indivisibly one. 

This is one of the greatest contributions of Buddha: that he helped religious consciousness to go beyond heaven 

and hell. Otherwise Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, they are all confined to the world of 

heaven and hell. Their ultimate desire is how to attain to heavenly joys. Buddha says the ultimate is how to drop 

all desire, even that of heaven, because only when all desire disappears are you in a state of absolute freedom. 

He calls it nirvana. When the mind ceases then you yourself are bliss. But it happens not because of desiring, it 

happens only when the state of desirelessness has been achieved. When desires have left you, in that space, bliss 

starts growing in you. 

HE HAS COME TO THE END OF THE WAY. 

Of course there is no longer anywhere to go he has come home. 

ALL THAT HE HAD TO DO, HE HAS DONE. 

AND NOW HE IS ONE. 

... One with himself and one with the whole. You are many, you are a crowd. The master is one, he is not a 

crowd. You are not one, you are many selves. So one moment you are one thing, another moment you are another 

thing. You go on changing. Just watch your mind every moment you go on changing, because one self says do 

this, then another self comes and says don’t do this, then another self comes and says do something else. And 

you have many selves you are multipsychic. You don’t have one mind, you have many minds. And you are being 

tortured by all these minds, pulled into different directions. 

The master has no mind, hence he becomes one. With no desire, with no possessions, with no desire even for 

heaven, he is bound to become one. He becomes integrated. He is really individual, literally individual. The word 

’individual’ means one who is indivisible. You are not individuals, you are only persons, personalities and that 

too not one. You have many personalities, many faces, you wear many masks. The master has no masks, no faces; 

he has only one face his original face. He is simply natural. He has no mind; hence he is one. 

And the miracle happens: when you are one with yourself, when you are one within yourself, you become one 

with the whole. And that is the ultimate state. Call it nirvana, call it kingdom of God, call it God-realization, or 

whatsoever name you want to give it it is nameless. But this has been the real goal of all the seekers of truth. 

Let this be your only goal. Prepare for it. I hope these beautiful sutras of Buddha will help you tremendously. 

Meditate over them. They are not philosophy; they are just statements of inner truths, statements of his 

experience. And they are also statements of my experience. 

Whatsoever I am saying here is not just a commentary on Buddha’s sutras; Buddha’s sutras are just an excuse. 

I am saying something which is my own experience. I would like you to be able to say one day this is your


experience too. It is possible. You all have the potential of being a buddha. Don’t settle for anything less than 

that. 

Shake yourself and wake up! 


Chapter 10 Forget all about it 



Question 1 

BELOVED MASTER, YOU CONTINUALLY SPEAK OF DROPPING THE EGO, BUT HOW CAN I DO 

SO WHEN I CAN’T DISTINGUISH BETWEEN WHAT IS THE EGO AND WHAT IS MY TRUE NATURE? 

Anand Vedant, the ego cannot be dropped. It is just like darkness you cannot drop darkness, you can only 

bring light in. The moment light is, darkness is no more. You can say this is the way of dropping darkness, but 

don’t take it literally. Darkness does not exist at all it is absence of light. Hence you cannot do anything directly 

to it. You can only do something to light either bring light in or take light out. If you want darkness, put the 

light off; if you don’t want darkness, put the light on. The ego cannot be dropped. 

Meditation can be learned. Meditation functions as a light, meditation is light. 

Become light, and you will not find the ego anywhere. 

If you want to drop it you will be in trouble, because who is this one who wants to drop it? It is the ego itself 

now playing a new game, the game called spirituality, religion, self-realization. Who is asking this question? It 

is the ego itself, befooling you. And when the ego asks how the ego can be dropped, naturally you think, ”This 

can’t be the ego. How can ego ask for its own suicide?” That’s how ego goes on deceiving you. 

Your self-nature has no questions, it needs no answers. Your self-nature is absolutely light, full of light. It 

knows no darkness, it has never met any darkness. 

Bodhidharma reached China. He was one of the greatest buddhas of all the ages. After Gautam Buddha, 

Bodhidharma seems to be the most precious person in the Buddhist heritage. When he reached China, his fame 

had reached far ahead of him. Even Emperor Wu who ruled over the whole of China came to receive him at 

the boundary. And the conversation that transpired between the two is of immense importance. It has to be 

meditated upon again and again. It has a tremendous message for you all. 

Emperor Wu was not only a great emperor, he was very religious too, and he had done much for Gautam 

Buddha’s message. In fact no other person except Emperor Ashoka had done so much for Buddhism as Emperor 

Wu had done. He transformed the whole of China into a Buddhist world. He made thousands of temples for 

Buddha, he made hundreds of monasteries millions of Buddhist monks were supported by the royal treasury. He 

translated all the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. Thousands of scholars worked for years, almost their whole 

lives. He had done great work. Naturally, he wanted to know from Bodhidharma, ”What is my merit?” 

The first thing that he asked Bodhidharma was, ”I have done so much, what is my merit? What have I gained? 

What virtue?” 

Bodhidharma looked at him very sternly. If you have seen Bodhidharma’s pictures you will be puzzled. He 

looks more like a lion than like a man very fierce; his eyes are very penetrating, like swords. He must have cut 

Wu down to his proper size just by his look. 

Wu started trembling, he had never come up against such a man. He had conquered many enemies, he had 

conquered many dangerous kings, but Bodhidharma was the most dangerous person he had come across. It was 

a cool morning, but he started perspiring. 

And Bodhidharma said, ”Merit? Virtue? You are stupid! Now this is the ego and nothing else getting nourished 

and fat in the name of religion and spirituality. You are bound for the seventh hell, mind you!” 

Wu could not believe his ears, could not believe his eyes. He said, ”But thousands of other monks have come 

from India and they have all said, ’Wu, you have done a great service to Buddha’s religion. You are a beloved of 

Buddha, you are blessed by Buddha.’ But you are saying just the opposite!” 

Bodhidharma said, ”Forget all about those monks! They were buttressing you, they were praising you because 

they knew that that’s what you expected from them. They are cunning and crafty people. They know nothing of 

Buddha and his message. I am a buddha myself, I am not a Buddhist monk. I speak on my own authority, and I 

say to you: You are cursed!” 

Emperor Wu asked, ”Do you mean to say there is nothing holy, nothing spiritual, in all these beautiful acts?” 

Bodhidharma said, ”No action is holy, because every action arises out of the ego. When you forget all about 

actions, when you disappear and things start happening on their own and you cannot claim that they are your 

actions, only then does something of immense value, of immense beauty penetrate your life.


”Spirituality has nothing to do with doing, spirituality is the fragrance of being, and you are not a being yet. 

You are still concerned that you have done this, you have done that. 

”The ego is a doer, your self-nature is a non-doer. Your self-nature simply allows existence to flow through it, 

it simply allows the ultimate law to function through it. Your self-nature is just a hollow bamboo. In the hands 

of the ultimate nature it becomes a flute and a beautiful song is born out of it. But the flute cannot say, ’This 

is my song. What is my merit? What am I going to gain out of it? To what heaven, to what joys will I attain?’ 

The bamboo flute is just nothing. Its whole being consists of nothingness. That’s why the song can flow through 

it, it is utterly empty.” 

Shocked but he could see the point Wu said, ”You are the first man who is not impressed by my great power, 

money, my empire. You are the first man with whom I am feeling that something is possible. How can I drop 

this ego? Yes, I can understand your point. First, I was claiming a great empire, now I am claiming something of 

the beyond. But the claim is the same and the claimer is the same. I can see your point. I bow my head to you. 

I am grateful that you have not been polite to me, that you have hit me hard. You have wounded me but I am 

thankful. How can I drop this ego?” 

And Bodhidharma asked, ”What ego do you want to drop? Again you want to do something. If you drop it, 

then the ego will persist. This is the subtle game of ego: if you drop it, the ego starts coming from the back door. 

It starts saying, ’Look! I have dropped the ego. Look how humble I am. There is nobody who is more humble 

than me. I am the humblest person in the world just dust under your feet.’ But look into the eyes, look into 

the heart of the man who is claiming that he is the humblest person it is the same ego. It is not egolessness. 

Egolessness cannot claim humbleness. Egolessness cannot claim egolessness. Egolessness cannot claim at all, it 

simply falls silent. It cannot even say, ’I am not, I am nobody’ because the ’I’ can exist in any claim whatsoever.” 

The emperor asked, ”Then help me because I cannot get out of this ego.” 

Bodhidharma said, ”Come early in the morning, three o’clock. Come alone, don’t bring anybody with you. 

And don’t be worried I will finish it once and for all.” 

The emperor could not sleep the whole night. ”What does he mean? this mad monk. He will finish it once 

and for all? And the man looks so dangerous... and three o’clock is not the time to meet such a person. He can 

do anything, he’s so unpredictable. And he has asked that I should come alone.” 

Many times he decided not to go, but the pull was great, the man had something magnetic. He had to go. 

At three o’clock he found himself getting ready. He went. Bodhidharma was staying outside the town in a small 

temple. It was dark, and Bodhidharma was waiting... with his staff in his hand. 

And he said, ”So you have come! although you hesitated much. You decided many times not to come. You 

could not sleep the whole night, neither did you allow me to sleep because I had to go on pulling you. But now 

that you have come things can be settled forever. Sit in front of me, close your eyes, go in, and find out where 

the ego is! And don’t fall asleep because I am sitting in front of you with my staff. I will hit you on the head 

immediately if you go to sleep! Be alert because when I hit I hit really hard. And find out.... If you can find the 

ego, just show me that this is the ego and I will finish it. First you have to find it, where it is.” 

The emperor followed the logic. He closed his eyes. It was impossible to fall asleep. Bodhidharma was sitting 

there. Even with closed eyes he could see Bodhidharma sitting there, and once in a while Bodhidharma would hit 

his staff on the ground just to let him know that ”I am here. You go on searching.” 

Two hours passed, three hours passed. Wu looked and looked. For the first time he looked inside. In fact if 

you look inside and you can remain alert, just for forty-eight minutes.... That is the limit. The ego can go on 

eluding you only for forty-eight minutes, not more than that. This has been the experience of all the buddhas 

down the ages. Now, don’t ask why forty-eight minutes, because that’s impossible to answer. It is just like at a 

hundred degrees water evaporates, nobody asks why. Why not at ninety-nine degrees? Why not at a hundred 

and one degrees? There is no question about it, it is simply so, the law of nature. At a hundred degrees water 

evaporates. Exactly like that, if you can remain alert and watchful continuously without wavering, for forty-eight 

minutes, your whole inner being becomes so quiet, so silent, so peaceful, so alert. For the first time there is clarity, 

transparent clarity. You can see everything that is there. 

And Wu looked and looked and looked and could not find any ego because ego cannot be found. It is fictitious, 

it is just your idea, it has no substance in it. It is not even a shadow, what to say about substance? It exists 

only because you have not looked in. Looking in, your light is discovered which is always there, you just have to 

look in and find it. He was looking for the ego but he found the light, because the ego is not there and the light 

is there. He had gone to search for the ego but he found the light. And once the light was found there was no 

darkness.


Three hours passed and then the sun was rising, and Wu’s face was transformed. He had a new beauty, a new 

grace. Bodhidharma laughed and he said, ”Now, open your eyes. You have not been able to find it... so I have 

finished it forever.” 

Wu opened his eyes, touched Bodhidharma’s feet and said, ”Master, you have not done anything and yet you 

have finished it.” That’s the miracle of a master; he never does a thing, and yet the ultimate miracle happens in 

his presence. His presence is the miracle, his presence has the magical quality. 

Anand Vedant, you need not drop the ego. Just look in, search for where it is first find it. Don’t worry about 

self-nature right now. Just go in, search for the ego, and you will not find it; instead you will find your self-nature, 

luminous, fragrant like a lotus flower. One never comes across such beauty anywhere else. It is the most beautiful 

experience of life. And once you have seen your own lotus of light, your own lotus blossoming, the ego is finished 

forever. Then you will not ask such meaningless questions. 

”How to distinguish,” you say, ”between what is the ego and what is my true nature?” 

Either the ego is there, then the true nature is not known; or the true nature is known, then there is no ego left. 

You cannot have both, hence you cannot make any distinctions; you cannot distinguish them, they can’t both be 

present together. Only one can be present. 

Right now, whatsoever you are is ego, so don’t be worried about distinguishing. If there were no ego the 

question would not have arisen at all. Self-nature knows no questions, self-nature is ecstasy, not a problem. 


Question 2 

BELOVED MASTER, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN SURRENDERING 

TO A MASTER AND FOLLOWING A MASTER? 

Edward Kiefer, there is a great difference. They are poles apart. Surrendering to a master is something of the 

heart, it is a love affair, it is not an intellectual conviction. It is not that you are convinced intellectually that 

what the master is saying is right. It is not philosophical. What the master is saying may be absurd in fact, it 

is bound to be absurd, because he speaks from a totally different kind of vision, from the peak where opposites 

meet, where the ultimate synthesis has happened, where life and death are one, where man and woman are one, 

where negative and positive are one. Hence whatsoever he says is bound to be paradoxical. 

Surrendering to a master means you have felt his grace. It is not a question of his knowledgeability. He may 

not be knowledgeable at all. Jesus was not knowledgeable. Mohammed was not even able to read or write, he was 

not even able to sign his own name. But thousands fell in deep love with the man. He had no logical acumen. If 

you go into the Koran you will not find great philosophy simple statements which can be refuted very easily. But 

the man must have had something totally different. So many people gravitated towards him. Now you cannot 

see gravitation; it is an energy, it is a force, invisible. It is a communion, heart-to-heart. The master’s presence 

overwhelms you, then surrender happens. 

It is not something that you do. You cannot do surrender, remember. Surrender done is not surrender at 

all, because you can withdraw. Any day you can say, ”I take back my surrender.” Surrender is something that 

happens. Sometimes it happens even in spite of you, you never wanted it to happen, you resisted it. People resist 

to the very end; when it becomes impossible to resist, only then do they surrender, because surrender goes against 

the ego, it shatters your ego. The very idea of surrendering to someone is against your whole upbringing, your 

whole education, your whole psychology. You are brought up with the idea of having a strong ego. 

Surrender means you are dropping your whole upbringing, you are pushing aside all your knowledge, you are 

bypassing your mind, you are allowing the heart to say ”Yes!” a total yes. It is a happening, not a doing. It is 

just like falling in love. 

What is the difference between falling in love and marriage, an arranged marriage? Exactly that is the difference 

between surrendering to a master and following a master. Surrendering to a master is like falling in love. The 

force is irresistible. You are behaving like a madman. The master is mad, now you are becoming mad. The master 

is like a flame, and you are moving towards the flame like a moth, to your own death. 

Following a master is a safe phenomenon, like an arranged marriage. You are moving on safe ground. You 

think about everything about the family of the woman or the man, about their economic status, about their 

social prestige, about everything except love. It is a calculated phenomenon. There is no risk in it. And not to 

take any chances you go to the astrologer so that he can even predict the future, how things will be going in the 

future: ”Will I be sailing safely?” 

You make everything safe before you take the plunge. It is not a jump, it is a calculated step. And that’s 

what following a master is. It is intellectual, it is of the mind, it is of the head. You are trying to understand 

intellectually, logically what he is saying. Does it appeal to you?


And who are you and what do you know? And how are you going to judge whether he is right or wrong? 

according to your prejudices, according to your conditioning? A Christian coming across Jesus may be impressed, 

but not a Jew, because their conditioning differs. 

I have heard about two hippies: 

They were hungry and had no money, and on a Sunday morning they were just passing by a church when 

an idea occurred to them. Both had long hair, beards, tattered clothes they looked exactly like Jesus and his 

followers would have looked. 

One said to the other, ”We should find a cross; we should go to the cemetery and take one cross from some 

grave. You carry the cross, you look more like Jesus, and I’ll go ahead of you proclaiming that the Lord has come. 

Let’s see, maybe something is possible.” 

So they entered the church. It was a Protestant church. The first entered and shouted loudly, ”Awake! Behold! 

The Lord has come back! He has fulfilled his promise.” 

Everybody looked and then entered the second hippie with the cross. A few women fainted, a few old people 

fell at his feet. And people started giving money. When they went out they had collected fifty dollars. They were 

very happy. 

The week went beautifully marijuana and all. They enjoyed it as spiritually as possible. 

The next week they entered a Catholic church. Even more things became possible. The Catholics went crazy! 

They could not believe their eyes. People were crying and weeping and trembling and calling ”Lord!” They 

collected one hundred and fifty dollars. That week they were really high.... 

The third week, just for fun, they thought why not try the synagogue? So they went into the synagogue. They 

proclaimed, ”Behold! The Lord has come back as he promised!” 

The old rabbi fixed his glasses, looked, and then asked his assistant, ”You go and bring the hammer and nails 

it seems that fool has come back.” 

You behave according to your conditioning. 

If Mahavira appears suddenly on M.G. Road, only Jainas and that too only Digambara Jainas will recognize 

him. The Svetambara Jainas, another sect of the Jainas, will not recognize him because they don’t believe that 

he lived naked. He lived in white clothes of course those clothes were invisible. So they will ask, ”Where are the 

invisible clothes?” And Hindus and Mohammedans and Christians will simply rush to the police station, because 

a naked man is standing on M.G. Road he seems to be an Osho freak! 

How are you going to judge? According to your prejudices. When you become convinced that this man is 

saying the right thing, that simply means he is saying the thing that you think is right. But if you know already 

what is right, there is no need to bother about this man. 

Following is useless, it is unnecessary. You are simply collecting support for your own beliefs. It is not going 

to help, it is not going to change you. Only surrender transforms. Anything that happens through the heart can 

bring a radical revolution into your being. The head is impotent avoid the head. 

Sir, avoid the head! Listen to the heart and follow the heart, then surrender happens of its own accord. 


Question 3 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS MISUNDERSTANDING? 

Sahajananda, misunderstanding happens only to knowledgeable people, it never happens to the innocent. It 

never happens to those who know that they know nothing; only to them understanding happens. But to those 

who think they know already, their very knowledge is a disturbance, a distraction. It is knowledge that creates 

misunderstanding. 

If you are already carrying something in your mind, and then you listen to me, there are only two possibilities: 

either you find me agreeing with you or you find me disagreeing with you. If you find me agreeing with you, you 

must have misunderstood, because I cannot agree with you. It is impossible, I can agree with you only if you are 

also awakened, if you are also in the same space, only then. So you must have distorted the words, dropped a 

few words, added a few words, given them new meanings your meanings, coloring them, dyeing them according 

to your philosophy, way of life, or whatsoever you call it. It is a kind of adjustment. And then you can be very 

happy that I agree with you. 

I cannot agree with you. It is impossible. Agreement is possible only if we both exist in the same space, 

otherwise not. In your confusion, in my clarity, there is no possibility of agreement. So that is the first kind of 

misunderstanding, which is far more dangerous than the second kind of misunderstanding. 

The second kind of misunderstanding is: I say one thing and you immediately jump against it because you have 

come with a negative approach. The first misunderstanding comes from the one who has come with a positive


approach. Ordinarily, people think that if you come with a positive approach you cannot misunderstand. The 

positive approach is very much appreciated around the world. Of course, your priests, your leaders praise your 

positive approach because you are agreeing with them. I cannot praise it because your agreement means nothing 

to me. 

Your negative approach means disagreement, but both are misunderstandings. If you have come already with 

a negative mind that you are against me, that this man is wrong you must have gathered it from public opinion, 

from newspapers, from magazines. And if you have come already with a negative attitude, then whatsoever I say 

you will find something wrong with it. You are bent upon finding something wrong with it. That is another kind 

of misunderstanding. 

To me, both are misunderstandings. And the first is more dangerous, because the second misunderstanding 

is not going to do any harm. You will go empty-handed, that’s all; you have not lost anything. But the first 

misunderstanding can be dangerous. You will go with the idea that I agree with you. You will become more 

egoistic, thinking that your ideas are right, and that is more dangerous. If you think my ideas are wrong, there is 

no problem, you remain the same. But if you think that your ideas are right because they are in agreement with 

me and I am in agreement with you, then you are going with a more strengthened ego. 

The positive approach is far more dangerous than the negative. 

The real seeker comes with neither the positive mind nor the negative mind. He comes only with an open mind. 

He comes silently. He has no a priori idea this way or that way. He simply listens, he does not interfere. He does 

not go on continuously judging. He remains in a kind of let-go silent, open, vulnerable. It is not a question of 

agreeing or of disagreeing. You are simply listening! What this man has to say, you are simply listening to it. 

And you are not continuously commenting inside yourself that ”Yes, this is right, that is wrong. This agrees with 

the Gita and this does not agree with the Gita. If it does not agree with the Gita how can this man be right? 

The Gita is bound to be right.” 

And what do you know about the Gita? All that you know about the Gita is your idea of the Gita. You can’t 

understand Krishna. To understand Krishna you have to be a krishna, to understand Buddha you have to be 

a buddha there is no other way. And when you are a buddha, why should you bother to understand Buddha? 

When you are a krishna, what is the need to understand Krishna? You yourself know. 

The real seeker listens with an empty mind, utterly empty. He listens totally, with no evaluation, no judgment. 

Then there is no possibility of misunderstanding. And the miracle of right listening is that, if you listen silently, 

whatsoever is true immediately strikes deep down somewhere in your heart a chord, a rhythm. Deep down 

somewhere in your heart a synchronicity happens. That is the miracle of truth. If the mind is silent and if truth 

is being told, your heart immediately starts beating with it, starts dancing with it. And that is true agreement, 

not the agreement of the head, not the agreement of the ego, but something existential, something total. Then 

you have understood. And if something is not true, your heart remains cold. 

So there is no need to bother whether it is right or wrong. If it is right it touches something so deep in you 

that you were not even aware that such a depth exists. And if it is not right nothing moves in you. So your whole 

being becomes decisive, not just your head which is just a fragment. Never allow the fragment to decide for the 

whole; let the whole decide. 

The fanatic fisherman was telling a pal about his great dream: ”I dreamt I was out on a lake alone in a boat 

with Elizabeth Taylor.” 

His pal said, ”Wow how did you make out?” 

He said, ”Great I caught a ten-pound flounder!” 

You know fishermen, you know people who are mad about catching fish who cares about Elizabeth Taylor? 

That is beside the point. He catches a ten-pound flounder. 

He was really a golf nut. He was just about to tee off on the first hole when a beautiful girl came running up 

to him in a gorgeous bridal outfit. 

The golfer waved her away and said, ”Sylvia, I told you only if it rains!” 

Two drunks were driving over a bridge and one said, ”When you come to the end of the bridge, turn left.” 

The other slobbered, ”What’re you telling me for? You’re drivin’!” 

In your state of sleep, in your state of drunkenness, what agreement? what disagreement? what understanding? 

what misunderstanding? It is all the same. 

Here, listening to me, become more and more silent and alert. Forget all about agreeing and disagreeing. I am 

not interested in converting you, I am not a missionary. I am not interested in creating a following not at all. I 

am certainly interested in sharing my joy with you, certainly interested in sharing my truth with you. But that 

is a totally different matter.


Dave and Mabel were just married and on their way home to the farm. Their old horse was getting slower and 

slower, and despite Dave’s efforts, just before dusk the nag fell and died! There was nothing to do but put up 

camp for the night under a nearby tree. 

The newly-weds snuggled under the blanket, and Dave turned to Mabel, saying, ”Well, what about it, love?” 

”What about what, dear?” Mabel replied. 

”Oh, never mind,” said Dave. 

Shortly after, Dave said, ”Well... ah, hum, what about it?” 

Mabel replied, ”What about what, dear?” 

Dave asked, ”Oh, didn’t your mum ever tell you about what marriage is for?” 

Mabel answered, ”I don’t know what you mean, dear!” 

Dave said, ”Well ah um ah you are a woman, and I am a man, and you see well a man has this and it 

gives life.” 

”Well, for God’s sake, Dave,” said Mabel, ”go and stick it in the horse and let’s get going!” 


Question 4 

BELOVED MASTER, IN YOUR PROPHETIC VISION, WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE FUTURE 

OF SCIENCE? 

Raju Bharathi, I have no prophetic vision. I am not a prophet I am not that old-fashioned at all. Do you 

think I am coming out of the Old Testament? 

I am a twentieth-century man and still fully alive, and I don’t care a bit about the future; neither do I care 

about the past. My whole concern is the present, because only the present exists. The past is no more, the future 

is not yet. Both are nonexistential. Those prophets must have been mad who were concerned about the future. 

They were always talking about the future. 

There are only two types of mad people in the world: a few who are always talking about the past, and a 

few who are always talking about the future. The people who are talking about the past are the historians, 

archaeologists, etcetera. And the people who are talking about the future are the prophets, visionaries, poets. I 

am neither. 

My whole concern is this moment... now... here. 

So drop that idea, Raju. Raju is a scientist, and naturally he is interested in the future of science. I am not 

a prophet, but one thing I can say, and it has nothing to do with the future really. It is happening right now. 

Because people are blind they cannot see it. I can see it. It has already become a reality. 

The greatest thing that is happening which will be understood only later on is the meeting of science and 

religion, is the meeting of East and West, is the meeting of materialism and spiritualism, is the meeting of the 

outer and the inner, is the meeting of the extrovert and the introvert. But that is happening right now. It will grow 

in the future, but my concern is the present. And I am tremendously happy that something of great importance 

is on the way. 

The seed has sprouted. You are so much concerned with the past or with the future that you can’t see the 

small sprout that is growing right now. Here, under your eyes... the meeting of the opposites the opposites are 

turning into complementaries. 

Science alone is only half and cannot be a fulfillment for man. It can give you a better body, it can give you 

better health, longer life. It can give you more comforts, more luxury. I am not against any of these. I am not 

an ascetic, I am not that stupid at all. But it can only give you things of the outer world which are beautiful in 

themselves. 

I would like everyone to live in more comfort, in more luxury, in better health, better nourished, better fed, 

better educated. But that’s not all that is only the circumference of life, not the center. 

Religion provides the center. It gives you a soul. Without it science is a corpse a beautiful corpse maybe. You 

can paint the corpse, you can wash the corpse and put beautiful garments on it, but a corpse is a corpse! And, 

remember, the same is the case with religion. Religion alone is not enough at all. Religion alone makes you a 

ghost, maybe a holy ghost, but it makes you a ghost. 

You can see this happening in India. The whole country has become a holy ghost the body has disappeared, 

the physical health has disappeared, the material wealth has disappeared. And when there is no body to support 

a soul, you are simply talking nonsense. You can go on talking about the Brahman the ultimate reality but on 

a hungry stomach it does not work. It may be just an escape from reality. 

If religion itself is not realistic it becomes an escape from reality. If religion is not materialistic enough it 

becomes an escape, it becomes a dreamworld, a Disneyland. That’s what has happened in the East: we talked too


much of the spirit and forgot all about the reality that surrounds us. We became introverts, too much concerned 

about ourselves. We forgot all about the beauties of the trees and the mountains and the sun and the moon and 

the stars. Humanity in the East became ugly. It has a center but no circumference. Everything has shrunk to 

the center. 

The West has a circumference but no center. People have everything, but something essential is missing. 

Science and religion are becoming one. They are already becoming one. I am not saying they will become one, 

they are already becoming one. All the greatest scientists Eddington, Planck, Einstein people of the highest 

caliber in the world of science, became aware that science alone is not enough. There is something far more 

mysterious which cannot be grasped only through scientific methodology and means, something which needs a 

different approach, which needs more meditative awareness. 

Eddington says in his autobiography, ”When I started my career as a scientist I used to think that the world 

consisted of things, but as I grow old I am becoming more and more aware that the world does not consist of 

things but of thoughts.” 

Reality is far closer to thoughts than to things. Reality is far more mysterious than you can weigh, measure, 

than you can experiment with. Reality is not only objective but also subjective. Reality is not only content but 

also consciousness. And the greatest religious people, like J. Krishnamurti, are aware that religion cannot exist 

anymore as it has existed up to now. Something of a radical change is needed. 

My own approach is that we have to create Zorba the Buddha. 

Today, just by coincidence, is Buddha’s birthday, also his enlightenment day, and also the day of his death. He 

was born on this day, he became enlightened on this day, he died on this day. Today’s full moon belongs to him. 

It is a strange coincidence that this long series of Buddha lectures one hundred and twenty-six lectures in all... 

when I started I had no idea that it would end today. 

Just the other night Laxmi told me, ”Tomorrow is Buddha Purnima” Buddha’s full moon. 

Let this day also be the birth of a new buddha. The new buddha will be a synthesis of Zorba the Greek and 

Gautama the Buddha. He cannot be just Zorba, and he cannot be just Buddha. 

And that’s my whole effort here, Raju, to create a bridge between Zorba and Buddha to create a bridge, 

a golden bridge, or a rainbow bridge, between the earth, this shore, and the farther shore, the beyond. It is 

happening here! You can’t see it happening anywhere else.... 

We have all kinds of scientists here. Now, Raju himself has become a sannyasin. He has great scientific 

intelligence. He is young, but of tremendous intelligence. He is one of those scientists who put the first man on 

the moon he belongs to that project. There are so many other scientists here. There are poets and musicians, 

painters all kinds of people, and they have all joined together in one great effort: meditation. There is only one 

meeting-point here and that is meditation. Only on one point do they meet; otherwise they all have their own 

individualities. Out of this meeting a tremendous explosion is possible. It is already happening. Those who have 

eyes can see it happening. 

This may be the only place on the earth where all the countries are represented. We were missing Russians but 

now I am happy to say that they are also here. All the races are meeting here, all the religions are meeting here. 

This is a miniature universe, a small world, and we are all meeting here as human beings. Nobody is a Christian, 

Hindu or Mohammedan. Nobody knows who is a scientist, who is a musician, who is a painter, who is a famous 

actor. Nobody even tells.... 

Just the other day I came across the news: one of our sannyasins has won a great, world-famous prize. She 

has been here, she was here for months, but she never told anyone that she is a great actress. And now she is 

world-famous; she is now thought to be one of the most serious contenders for the highest award. But she never 

told anybody anything. 

There are musicians of great caliber, poets, authors, painters, sculptors, magicians... all kinds of people are 

here. And they have all met in a deep merging. Their only meeting-point is meditation and their love for their 

master. 

A totally new science is bound to arrive. It will be both science and religion, only then can it be total. It will 

be science both of the inner and the outer. In fact, the days of religion are over, just science will do, one word 

will do. ’Science’ is a beautiful word; it means knowing, wisdom. 

Science should be divided in two categories: objective science chemistry, physics, mathematics, etcetera and 

subjective science. Then there is no need to divide religion and science. And the meeting of religion and science 

in one whole will create for the first time a whole man on the earth. Otherwise, up to now humanity has been 

schizophrenic, split, insane, divided. 

I am all for the whole man, because to me the whole man is the holy man.



Question 5 

BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING MAD AND BEING ENLIGHT- 

ENED? 

Deva Sadyo, not much. The only difference is that the enlightened person knows that he is mad and the 

madman does not know that he is mad. 


Question 6 

BELOVED MASTER, IF ITALIANS ARE ”WOMEN,” BRITISH ARE ”LADIES” AND GERMANS ARE 

”FEMALES,” WHAT ABOUT SOUTH AMERICAN WITCHES? CAN YOU MAKE SOME COMMENT ABOUT 

THEM? 

Deva Samya, they are amazons. 


Question 7 

BELOVED MASTER, I AM LEAVING TOMORROW FOR FRANCE. PLEASE TELL ME A JOKE TO 

MAKE THE FRENCHIES LAUGH. 

Toshen, an agitated Frenchman came into a Paris bistro and told the waiter to bring him a triple shot of cognac. 

He downed the huge drink in one gulp and asked for another. 

The waiter brought it and asked, ”What’s the matter, monsieur? Did your wife catch you making love to the 

maid?” 

”No,” he sighed. ”The maid caught me in bed with my wife!” 


Question 8 

BELOVED MASTER, WHY DOES THE BUDDHA ALWAYS SAY: BE A LIGHT UNTO YOURSELF? 

Paritosho, simple. Buddha says: Be a light unto yourself, because you cannot trust Indian electricity. 

In fact, you cannot trust anything made in India. 

What is the difference between an American computer and an Indian one? 

The American computer has a memory; the Indian one has a vague remembrance. 

How many Polacks does it take to put in a light bulb? 

Four one to hold the bulb and three to spin him around. 

How many Jews does it take to put in a light bulb? 

Three one to put it in and two to supervise. 

How many Californians does it take to put in a light bulb? 

Four one to put it in and three to share the experience. 

How many Italians does it take to put in a light bulb? 

About sixteen one to give the orders, one to handle the money, one to get the bulb, one to tell the rickshaw 

driver where to go, one to clean up the broken glass, one to translate, three to carry the ladder, one to check the 

switch, one to shoo away the beggars, four to entertain you while you wait two or three minutes, two or three 

minutes, two or three minutes... etcetera. 

And how many Indians it takes to change a light bulb? 

Two hundred one to hold the bulb... and one hundred and ninety-nine to turn the house around! 

And the last question: 

Question 9 

BELOVED MASTER, IN A PREVIOUS LIFE YOU MUST HAVE BEEN AN ITALIAN. COULD YOU SAY 

SOMETHING ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE? 

Satyen, I am not a Californian, so I cannot share the experience with you. But I will tell you a few jokes.... 

”I find it hard to believe that you murdered that crippled old man for fifty cents,” the outraged judge told the 

Italian mugger. 

The Italian shrugged. ”Fifty cents here, fifty cents there it adds up.” 

Martinelli always takes his superugly wife along with him when he goes away on business. 

He explains, ”It’s easier to take her along than to kiss her good-bye.” 

Maria was complaining to her neighbor, Donna Arminda, ”These pains drive me crazy. Every night it’s the 

same thing. If I turn right, the pain attacks the liver; if I turn left, it attacks my heart. It’s really hell!” 

”But why don’t you sleep on your belly?” asked the neighbor. 

”On my belly? If I sleep on my belly, Roberto attacks me!”


An Italian was walking down the street with a pig under his arm. 

”How much did that cost you?” asked a passerby. 

”Fifty cents,” replied the pig. 

”I see you are no gentleman,” hissed the woman on the street corner at the Italian who laughed as the wind 

swept her skirt over her head. 

”No,” he replied, ”and I see-a you are not-a one-a either.” 

A long-suffering Italian husband was burying his wife. It chanced that in passing through the gate, the coffin 

was thrust hard against one of the posts. Almost immediately, to the amazement of the mourners, a muffled 

scream was heard. The lid was hastily unscrewed, and lo! the woman was not dead at all. She was taken home, 

and lived for three years. Then she died again. 

At the funeral, as the coffin was being lowered from the hearse, the husband addressed the bearers very solemnly: 

”Boys, mind that post!” 

Enough for today.

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 The ...

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