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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 285
BELOVED MASTER, RECENTLY YOU MENTIONED THAT THE SPIRITUAL EGO IS MORE DANGER-
OUS THAN THE NORMAL EGO. CAN YOU EXPLAIN?
Prem Unmado, all egos are dangerous, because the ego is a false entity. It does not exist, in fact. It is there
because you are not aware of who you are.
The ego is just like darkness. Darkness has no positive existence of its own; it is only the absence of light. Hence
you cannot do anything directly with darkness. If you want to remove darkness you cannot remove it directly; you
will have to bring light in. If you want to bring darkness in you cannot bring it directly either; you will have to
put the light off. Whatsoever you want to do, you will have to do with the light, because the light has existence.
Darkness has no existence, and with the nonexistential nothing can be done.
The ego is nonexistential, it is a nonentity. It is the absence of awareness, of alertness. You are not conscious;
hence the ego prevails, hence the darkness remains.
All egos are dangerous, because you are living in something which is not. You are living for something which is
not, you are sacrificing that which is for something that is not. This is the danger. A real life is being sacrificed
at the altar of the nonexistential ego.
You are running after money, after power, after prestige, but in fact nobody is really interested in power, money,
prestige. They are just ways of the ego to exist. If you have more money you can have more ego; if you have more
power you can have more ego. The basic desire is to expand the ego, but the more your ego becomes strengthened,
the more the darkness becomes dense, the less is the possibility of your becoming aware. And without becoming
aware you are missing the whole opportunity of life, a golden opportunity, in which God can be realized, in which
truth can be lived. A life which can be a constant celebration, an eternal joy, is sacrificed for something absolutely
meaningless.
Hence, remember, all egos are dangerous. But the spiritual ego is the most dangerous simply because all other
egos are gross. You can see that the politician is after his ego, you can see even the politician in some moments
can see it. It is very gross, how can you avoid seeing it? You are bound to stumble on it, it is like a rock.
But the spiritual ego is very subtle, it is like fragrance. You don’t stumble, it does not hit you like a rock. You
cannot remove it so easily as you can remove a rock. It is a subtle fragrance. The more spiritual you become, the
more your ego becomes subtler and subtler. Your ego becomes pious, and when the poison is pious, of course it
is more dangerous, because you think it is nectar. Now, the label is nectar; inside the bottle is the same poison.
Hence your saints are more egoistic than your sinners. There is every hope for the sinners, they can reach to
God far more easily than your so-called saints. Your saints are living with such egoistic attitudes, they are full of
holy cow dung, rubbish.
The man of the world claims that he has so much money and the religious man claims he has so much virtue.
The worldly man claims he has so much power, so much prestige, and your so-called holy man claims he also has
power, spiritual power. He tries to show his spiritual power.
Once such a so-called spiritual man came to see Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna was sitting on the bank of the
Ganges in Dakshineshwar, where he used to live. The spiritual man said to Ramakrishna, ”I have heard that you
are a great saint. If you really are, then come with me and walk on the water. If you can walk on the water then
I can believe that you are spiritual.”
Ramakrishna laughed. He said, ”Can you walk...?”
The man said, ”Yes, I can walk.”
Ramakrishna asked him, ”How long did it take you to learn to walk on the water?”
The man said, ”It took me eighteen years of tremendous effort, austerities, tapascharya, fasting, prayer. I lived
in a cave in the Himalayas. I sacrificed everything. Then this spiritual power has been given to me.”
Ramakrishna said, ”I am not spiritual, I am a simple man, very ordinary. But one thing I would like to tell
you. When I want to go to the other shore, the ferryman takes me for just one paisa. Your whole eighteen years’
effort is not worth much more than that. You wasted your eighteen years. You may be spiritual, but you are a
fool, you are utterly stupid! I have never come across such an unintelligent person wasting eighteen years just to
walk on water! Then what is the point? Okay, you can walk on water, so what?”
This is the spiritual ego, which will go sooner or later to exhibit its powers, to prove that ”I am holier than
you.” That man had come with that idea to prove to Ramakrishna that ”I am holier than you, I am higher than
you.”
It is meaningless. Buddha is not reported to have done any miracle. Mahavira is not reported to have done any
miracle. And my own understanding is that all the miracles that are talked of in the name of Jesus are inventions.
(the sound fails....)
You see? Some Christian got mad! They are all inventions of the Christians.