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

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