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

326 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
And not only that: you also have to believe that he is omniscient because he may be omnipotent and he may
be omnipresent, but if he is not omniscient then he can only take care of the present. That means when you have
fallen in the ditch, only then can he help you, but you have fallen and broken your leg and you have fractures.
He is omniscient, he can see the future, he can see everything, so before you fall in the ditch he can prevent you
from falling in the ditch.
Just look at the qualities that you have given to your God. Those are not the qualities of God, those are your
desires of how God should be. Then you can believe in him; if these qualities are missing then doubts will start
arising. And God has to be infallible; if he is fallible, then there is danger. How can you believe in a fallible God?
You cannot believe in a fallible God because he may mismanage, he may mess you up. Rather than helping you
he may create more trouble. He has to be infallible. And when God is infallible, his son Jesus Christ has to be
infallible, because if the father is infallible how can the son not be infallible? And then his representative, the
pope of the Vatican, has to be infallible.
Now, you see how your logic goes on in this way... but it is rooted in desire. You believe in such foolish things
that the pope is infallible. And even now, after two thousand years, you still believe that the pope is infallible.
And the popes have done so many stupid things.
Galileo said that the earth moves around the sun, not vice versa.... The Bible says the sun moves around the
earth, all the scriptures of the world say that the sun moves around the earth, because it is apparently so. All
the languages have these words ’sunrise’, ’sunset’. We experience it every day; every day we see the sun rising
in the morning and setting in the evening. We see the whole movement of the sun from the east to the west, and
then in the night it disappears; it has gone to the other side of the earth, it is going round the earth. It is our
experience! That’s what we know, so before Galileo, all the scriptures of the world believed that the sun went
round the earth.
Galileo was the first man who said that the reality is just the opposite: the earth goes round the sun. Now this
was against the Bible and to find any fault in the Bible is dangerous. If one thing can be faulty in the Bible, then
what about other things? Maybe they are also faulty; they just need some other Galileo to find the faults. Then
where will it end? And if prophets are faulty, what about the pope? And all the popes had believed....
Galileo was called into the court of the pope. He was forced he was very old, seventy years old, ill he was
dragged in chains to the court. He was in bed and so ill that he was going to die any day. And he didn’t live long
after. He was forced to apologize. And Galileo must have been a man of great insight. He said, ”Of course, if
the Bible says and if all the prophets agree and if all the popes, who are infallible, if they say that the sun moves
around the earth, I apologize, I am sorry.”
The pope was very happy, the court was very happy that they had brought a sinner back to his senses.
Then Galileo said, ”But one thing I must tell you: I can apologize, I can say if you want me to that the sun
moves round the earth but the sun won’t listen to me and the earth has no obligation to follow my orders. Still
the earth will go on moving round the sun, my apologies apart. I apologize, but what can I do? If the earth moves
around the sun I cannot stop it.”
And these popes have been preventing all scientific growth. Still in the twentieth century millions of Catholics
go on believing that the pope is infallible. But this is really a logical consequence: if you believe God is infallible,
then of course his son is infallible, then his son’s representatives are infallible.
But deep down, why do you believe in such nonsense? And this is not only so about Catholics; it is so about
Hindus, about Mohammedans, about Jainas, even about Buddhists. They all go on believing in utter nonsense.
Buddhists believe that Buddha was born while his mother was standing in the garden; she had gone for a walk.
Not only that, he was also born in a standing posture himself. He came out of the womb, stood on the earth,
walked seven steps and declared, ”I am the awakened one!” Now for twenty-five centuries Buddhists have believed
in this nonsense. No baby can do that, but if you suspect it then you suspect the scriptures. If you doubt the
scriptures then great trembling arises in you because then you become afraid. Doubting is not good, doubting is
irreligious; one should believe. And the more absurd the belief, the greater is the test for the believer.
Buddha is saying: DESIRING NOTHING, DOUBTING NOTHING.... The master desires nothing, hence he
doubts nothing because he believes nothing. A master lives without desire, without belief, without doubt. And
then what is left in the inner being of the master is trust. Trust is not belief; it is absence of both doubt and
belief. Buddha calls it shraddha. It can only be translated as trust trust in existence.
Belief is rooted in desire and every belief carries its own counterpart, doubt, as a shadow. Trust is absence of
desire, belief, doubt. It is purity of the heart, innocence of the heart. In that innocent heart there is a meeting
and merging with the universe. That is trust; it has nothing to do with you. It is not that you trust; you are no
more there, only trust is.