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

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354 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 they really are is hidden behind. And there is a constant conflict between these two, they live two kinds of lives. Avoid this. I know this desire arises. This desire seems to be very prevalent. Jesus and Moses were playing golf. When they came to a two-hundred-yard water hazard. Jesus took out a five iron club. Moses warned him that two hundred yards were too far for a five-iron, but Jesus insisted, ”If Arnold Palmer can make it with a five-iron, so can I!” He hit the ball and it landed in the middle of the lake. ”Will you get the ball for me, Moses?” asked Jesus. ”Just this once,” he replied, walked over, raised his club, and parted the water. Then he walked out and brought the ball back to Jesus. Again Jesus took a five-iron and again Moses warned, ”If you don’t make it, I’m not going to get it for you!” Jesus reassured him, ”If Arnold Palmer can do it, surely I can do it!” Again he swung the five-iron and again the ball fell in the water. This time Jesus walked out on the water, reached down, and was picking up the ball when the next foursome came up to the tee where Moses was standing. The leader of the group asked Moses, ”Who does he think he is, Jesus Christ?” ”No,” replied Moses, ”he thinks he is Arnold Palmer!” Govind, you just be Govind the Buddha. There is no need for you to be Gautama the Buddha. Gautama was beautiful, but once it is beautiful twice it is too much. And what is the point? What will your contribution to existence be if you are Gautama the Buddha? No contribution. Gautama has done it, he has done what a Gautama can do. You cannot improve upon it. You do something that you can do and no Gautama can ever do. God has great hopes for you: he hopes you will contribute something to existence. He never loses hope, that’s why he goes on creating people. Although people go on deceiving, people go on misusing the opportunity, people go on wasting time, but still God goes on hoping. With each child a new hope is born in the world. You have to contribute something that only you can do and nobody else can do, hence you have to do it. Forget this whole idea of being Gautama the Buddha just be yourself. And that’s exactly what Buddha has taught, that’s exactly his essential message. His last words to his disciples were: Appa deepo bhava be a light unto yourself. When he was dying, naturally thousands of disciples had gathered and they started crying and weeping. The master was leaving, it was natural, and the master had lived with them for forty-two years and they had loved the man, they had loved his vibe. He was one of the most beautiful men who has ever walked on the earth. Not only was he spiritually beautiful, physically he was also one of the most beautiful men. About Jesus that cannot be said. He was spiritually beautiful, but the ancient scriptures say that physically he was not beautiful. He was only four feet five inches and, moreover, a hunchback. Buddha was one of the most beautiful expressions physically too, really a lotus flower. And they had all loved him. They had renounced everything and risked everything for this man and now he was leaving. They started crying. One can understand their crying and their weeping and their tears. But Buddha said, ”Stop! Stop all this nonsense! Why are you crying? What difference is it going to make? I was not your light, you have to be your own light. And,” Buddha said to them, ”it may be a blessing in the form of a curse, because when I am gone you will try to find yourselves. While I was here you were more interested in me; although I was insisting: Go in! you were focused on me. Now I will not be here, you are bound to go inside.” And that’s exactly what happened: many people became enlightened after Buddha died. When they were asked, ”Why did so many people become enlightened when Buddha died?” they all said, ”Now we understand what he meant, that in the form of a curse it is a blessing because once you have seen a buddha and he is gone there is nothing worth seeing outside. So we closed our eyes. ”We have seen all that was the most worth seeing: we have seen the most beautiful person. What else is there? There is nothing worth hearing, worth seeing. We closed our eyes, we turned inwards and because Buddha was not there anymore we heard his words for the first time. When he was here we were able to postpone, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We were so much enchanted by his personality, by his charisma. Once he was gone we had to fall back upon our own selves. Maybe that was his last device.” Govind, be Govind the Buddha! The third question: Question 3 BELOVED MASTER, ARE THERE GREAT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT RACES OF MANKIND?
THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 355 Meera, essentially there are no differences at all. Essentially there cannot be any differences. The whole of mankind is one species of being. But different races have evolved different qualities. They have lived in different climates, they have encountered different situations, they have passed through different histories; naturally they have learned to behave in different ways. For example, the Jews had to experience a totally different history from anybody else. They have lived for centuries without a country, they have wandered all over the world, they have lived without security, without a home; naturally that has made them very money-minded. When you don’t have a home, when you don’t have a country, then all your security becomes focused on money; then it is only money that can save you. And when you become focused on money, naturally you become more clever than others in earning it. Your whole being turns into a money-making machine. That’s what a Jew is a money-making machine. Nobody can defeat him in that because they have lived a totally different past. When you are living in your home surrounded by the same kind of people, the same race, protected by the country, by the society, you need not worry too much about money. Even without money you are not going to die, people will support you, you can depend on that. But the Jews had no way to depend on anything else; hence money became their country, money became their religion, money became their home, money became their security. That was bound to happen. In a country like India where for thousands of years everybody has been told to seek and search for his salvation.... And, of course, you can seek and search only for your salvation; you cannot seek and search for somebody else’s salvation, that is not possible. The inward journey has to be done in absolute aloneness. But the by-product of it has been that Indians have become very selfish. It was bound to happen. It is an ugly phenomenon, but too much insistence on going inwards, extreme insistence on going inwards, has made people very selfish, because there is nobody who is yours. That has been the teaching of all the mahatmas: ”You are alone. You are born alone, you have to live alone, you have to die alone. Nobody is going with you. All relationships are just superficial, so don’t be bothered much by them and don’t invest much in them.” That has made India more selfish than any other country. This is one of the most selfish countries in the world. It is because of this selfishness that India has remained in bondage for thousands of years because everybody thinks only of himself. So if an enemy comes and conquers the country, who bothers about the country? The country does not really exist; there is no idea of nation in India. Individuals are there, but there is no nation. Hence all kinds of quarrels and small divisions and subdivisions... you will not find the same thing happening anywhere else in the world. Every political party goes on splitting into many, many small fragments. Then those small fragments start splitting into smaller ones, and the process seems to be unending unless you are your own party! You are the member and you are the president and you are the secretary. When only you are left alone, only then will the process stop. And who knows whether there too the process will stop or not? because the habit of splitting everything has gone so deep that you may start saying, ”Legs are not part of my party, the lower part of my body is not in my party, only the higher. The higher part is superior and the lower is inferior. The higher part means the brahmins, and the lower means the sudras, the untouchables.” Every race has passed through different phases, different climates. This is a hot country. A hot country makes people lazy, so you cannot compete with Indians as far as laziness is concerned. They are utterly lazy and lousy! You cannot compete with them, it is impossible; they will surpass everyone in that. No country can have any superiority as far as laziness and lousiness is concerned. Indians are the tops! Because it is a hot country and the climate is not provoking people to work more, people have remained poor. If one person in the whole family earns then it is enough. If just enough is available to survive, Indians are satisfied, more than satisfied. Of course, they find rationalizations for it, they find great spiritual rationalizations for it ”We are very contented people.” That is all nonsense. The reality is that they are simply lazy and the climate is hot and they don’t want to work so they have to create a philosophy to support themselves: ”We are not much concerned about mundane things, we only think of spiritual things.” India condemns everybody as materialist and those materialists have always been coming and conquering these great spiritualists! And all their spiritual power has not been of any use. All their Sai Babas, etcetera, have not been of any help. All they can do is, they can produce ash, holy ash, through their spiritual powers, nothing else. Just ordinary magic tricks, any stupid person can do it nothing to do with spirituality. This country has not been able to create science, technology, because, the Indians will say, ”We are so spiritual we don’t bother about creating material wealth.” But they all hanker for it, deep down they all are longing for it. Their hearts are full of desires, but because of their old habit of laziness they can’t do anything.
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