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

270 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
”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.
The fifth question:
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....
The sixth question:
Question 6