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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 117
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.”
The fourth question:
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.