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

364 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
disturbed. Now he has created a contradiction. Now he has created trouble for you, he has created a dilemma.
Now you are again confused, you don’t know who you are.
A Sufi parable:
A Sufi stayed in a caravanserai but there was no empty room available. So the manager said, ”You will have
to share the room with somebody else.”
The Sufi said, ”That is going to create trouble because when I am alone in my room, in the morning when I
wake up I know perfectly well it is me, but when there are two persons in the morning, how am I going to decide
who is who?”
While this strange conversation was going on, the man with whom the Sufi was to share the room was also
listening to the whole thing. He had a great idea. The manager said, ”That seems to be a relevant point” because
the manager had come across these mad Sufis many times: ”They are always saying strange things. Now what is
this thing he is talking about?”
But the Sufi was saying something really significant: how do you know in the morning who is who? When there
are two persons and there has been a gap of the whole night’s sleep, how to gather again that ”I am myself”?
The manager said, ”I have come across many Sufis and slowly, slowly I have learned many things about them.
Do one thing: take this rope with you and when you go to sleep tie this rope around your feet so when in the
morning you see the rope around your feet you will know it is you.”
The Sufi said, ”That seems to be sensible.”
In the night, in the middle of the night, when the Sufi was snoring, the other man took away the rope just to
play some mischief, tied the rope around his own feet and went to sleep. And in the morning there was havoc!
The Sufi woke up; the other man was still sleeping. He shook him and he said, ”Now I know you are the Sufi,
but then who am I? I am perfectly certain you are the Sufi the rope is there but the problem is, now who am I?
And I had told this foolish manager that some trouble is bound to arise; now this trouble has arisen.”
This Sufi parable is significant, it is about you. That’s how you know who you are. Yes, not so visibly; but
invisibly how do you recognize yourself? in the mirror or in the mirror of other people’s eyes, in the mirror of
their opinions?
Only a buddha is unaffected by others’ opinions because he really knows who he is. He needs no arbitrary
method, no ropes, no mirrors, no information from anybody else; he knows himself directly. He has an intuitive
feeling about his own being, but you don’t have any intuitive feeling about your own being.
You say you are a Christian. This is a rope your parents have put around your neck not even around your
feet, around your neck! And you are dying because you go on getting bigger and the rope was tied when you were
a small child; it is becoming tighter every day. A few people are dying as Christians, a few as Hindus, a few as
Mohammedans, and everybody has a rope around his neck.
How do you know you are a Christian? You never encountered Christ. If you had not been told that you were
a Christian there is no possibility that you would have ever loved Christ or ever thought about him. No Jaina
ever thinks about Christ, no Jew ever bothers about Christ, although Christ was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died
as a Jew. But it is the same. No Christian ever bothers about Mahavira. Who cares about Mahavira? Even if
you come across a statue of Mahavira you may look at it as a beautiful piece of art, an antique, or you may be a
little puzzled why this man is standing naked.
In one of the hotels in Bombay... just a few days ago the hotel opened. It belonged to a Jaina family so
they placed a statue of Mahavira naked, a marble statue, a beautiful statue, in the compound of the hotel, in
a beautiful spot surrounded by plants and fountains. Immediately it became a great attraction for the tourists.
And the Jaina family was very happy, thinking, ”We are spreading the message of Mahavira.” But the tourists
were not interested in Mahavira or in his message; they were only interested in his nakedness. They were taking
photographs.
The manager asked, ”Why are you so interested in this statue? Are you interested in Jaina philosophy?”
They said, ”What Jaina philosophy? We don’t know anything about Jaina philosophy, we don’t even know
who this man is. All that we know is that he is standing naked and we are interested in nudity.”
Once this was known, the Jaina community was very much against it: ”This is insulting to Mahavira. Remove
the statue.” First they were very happy, now they are against. Now they know perfectly well why people are
taking photographs and why tourists are coming to the statue: for the simple reason that it is a statue of a naked,
beautiful body and Mahavira has a beautiful body.
In fact, only a man like Mahavira who has such a beautiful body should be allowed to be naked, nobody else;
that should be a condition. I have seen many Jaina monks they are so disgusting! They should be forced to wear
clothes because to look at them is nauseating! They are eyesores.