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

344 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
Just the other day I was reading a manuscript. One woman came a few months ago, a friend of Pankaja and
Savita. She came here just to see what had happened to Pankaja and Savita. Pankaja is a well-known novelist
and has published beautiful novels. Suddenly she became a sannyasin and dropped her beautiful career. There
were great possibilities: she could have become world-famous. She was on the way she was becoming more and
more known. Not only did she become a sannyasin, she never went back to England. Not only that rumors must
have reached England that now she functions in the ashram as a toilet cleaner. Her friend must have been puzzled
what had happened to her?
Then Savita also disappeared. She was also doing well in her profession. She was a therapist, earning a lot of
money and moving ahead. And she also never returned to England.
Their friend came here just to see what was happening to these people ”They must have been hypnotized.”
What else can the mind think? The simple explanation comes to the mind: ”These people have been hypnotized.”
Otherwise why should one leave one’s prosperous career, good livelihood a career which was full of possibilities?
Why should one suddenly leave? Either one has gone insane or one has become hypnotized.
She came here just to observe what is happening. Then she also became a sannyasin. But she escaped
immediately I gave her the name Kanan. She escaped. Now she writes a book about the whole experience and
she says, ”I don’t know what happened, why I became a sannyasin. There is something which pulls you. There
is something intangible one cannot figure it out, what it is exactly but something like hypnosis.” She infers, ”It
may be in the eyes of this man or in the sound of his voice that one feels to become a sannyasin. Even I became a
sannyasin, but then I became very much afraid: now I am being pulled the same way into this orange whirlpool in
which Pankaja has disappeared, Savita has disappeared. It is better to go before I am too much in it and escape
becomes impossible. I escaped. I dropped sannyas immediately because I was afraid carrying this man’s mala
and his picture around my neck was dangerous. Who knows what is hidden in it?”
Now, this woman thinks she is very clever, she thinks she is very rational, she thinks she has done the right
thing. All that she has done is she has missed an opportunity which comes only once in a while; maybe for many
lives she will not come across such a man again.
There is no hypnotism. Nobody is trying to pull you, nobody is trying to influence you. But certainly there is
a fragrance which affects you, which affects you deeply. There is a calm which goes into the heart and stirs the
fast-sleeping heart into a kind of wakefulness. But if you are too much in your dreams, and you have invested too
much even in your nightmares, you may become afraid you may become afraid of being awakened. You may miss
the opportunity, you may escape from the opportunity. But then you try to rationalize. You have to rationalize,
otherwise how will you console yourself?
Now, by writing this book she is trying to convince herself that she has done the right thing. She has done the
most stupid thing in her life.
And the opportunity is still not lost, Kanan. Wherever you are in the world my eyes are reaching there too.
And whatsoever I am saying here, the sound of my voice goes on resounding around the earth. If you have even
a little bit of intelligence you will be pulled back into the orange whirlpool!
HE IS CALM. IN HIM THE SEED OF RENEWING LIFE HAS BEEN CONSUMED. HE HAS CONQUERED
ALL THE INNER WORLDS.
What has happened in the master? What has really happened in the inner world of the master? Buddha says:
The first, most fundamental thing is that the seed of renewing life is burnt, utterly burnt, is consumed in the fire
of awareness. Yes, awareness is a fire. It burns all that is rubbish, but it also purifies all that is gold. It does two
things: burns the rubbish and purifies the gold. It is alchemy.
”The seed of renewing life” is desire. Buddha used to call it tanha. Tanha means one wants to be born again
and again, one wants more and more. In this life you want more and more, but that more is never fulfilled. When
you are dying, all desires are standing there unfulfilled so you start desiring another life, one more chance.
There is a beautiful story, a great parable in the Upanishads:
One of the great kings, Yayati, was dying. He was a hundred years old, ripe enough to die one should be ready
by that time but not grown-up enough; the seed of renewing life was not yet burnt. So when death came, Yayati
fell at the feet of Death a great king, a great conqueror! and he said to Death, ”Spare me only one hundred
years more. I don’t ask for more, just one hundred years more. And it is nothing for you, you can do it. All my
desires are still unfulfilled because I had never thought about you. I was simply preparing and preparing. I have
not enjoyed my life. Now that everything is ready I have conquered the whole world, I have all the riches, the
most beautiful women, the most intelligent and courageous sons, the best army in the world, everything is settled,
all enemies killed I was just thinking to relax and enjoy. Is this the time to come? All these hundred years have