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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 203
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.