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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 133
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.