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

88 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
Just the other day I received two letters, one from a Western sannyasin, Mudita. She says, ”Beloved Master,
listening to you I feel great joy, but then suddenly I become horny.” She must have been brought up with Victorian
ideas, with Victorian education outmoded thoughts.
And another letter has come from Rekha, an Indian sannyasin. She says, ”Listening to you, suddenly I had a
great desire to eat spicy food.” Now, she is an Indian! An Indian woman cannot recognize even in herself that
she is feeling horny that is impossible. The whole desire has to move towards spicy food. But both are the same,
there is no difference.
Food and sex have one thing in common. Food is needed for the individual’s survival; without food you will
not survive. And sex is needed for the species’ survival; without sex the species will disappear.
Another phenomenon: the person who is living a natural life will neither be obsessed with sex nor will be
obsessed with food. He will not be obsessed at all. But religions don’t allow that: you have to be obsessed with
something or other. If you are not obsessed you will not go to the temples and the mosques and to the churches
and to the synagogues. That is the very secret of their trade. This whole business of religion goes on and on with
no sign of ever stopping, for the simple reason that you go on being obsessed with something or other.
The person who is obsessed with sex will be less selfish; the person who is obsessed with food will be more
selfish, for the simple reason that food means your survival and sex means survival of the species. It is better to
be sexual and to be after sexual pleasures than to live just to eat.
This country has become very selfish for the simple reason that sex has been completely denied; brahmacharya
celibacy has been propounded down the ages as one of the greatest values. And the ultimate result has been
that everybody has become obsessed with food. Whenever people are obsessed with food they become selfish
obviously, because they are no longer interested in the species.
Immanuel Kant, one of the great thinkers of the world, says: This to me is the fundamental criterion of all
morality: that any principle, if followed, destroys humanity. It is immoral. Now, what will Immanuel Kant say
about brahmacharya? If brahmacharya is followed by the whole humanity it will destroy humanity. It will be a
suicidal phenomenon. According to Immanuel Kant, brahmacharya is immoral more immoral than stealing, more
immoral than dishonesty, more immoral than breaking your promise, more immoral than anything.
And I agree with Immanuel Kant, rather than with the whole Indian tradition. The criterion is this: you should
think what will be the result if the principle is followed by everybody. It will be suicidal it will be global suicide.
There will be nobody left to be celibate anymore.
And the same is true about the so-called old escapist sannyas renunciation; that too is immoral. If everybody
follows the escapist idea and drops out and escapes to the Himalayas, the whole humanity will die.
In fact, your so-called mahatmas and saints live because you are in the world and you go on supporting them.
If you are not in the world if you are also in the Himalayas, following your saints and mahatmas they will be at
a loss. Who will feed them? Who will support them? They will have to commit suicide with their followers and
the Himalayas is a really beautiful site if you want to commit suicide, the best place in the world. If you could
not live beautifully, at least you can die in a beautiful place. Your mahatmas are supported by the worldly people
and still they go on condemning the world. It is an immoral act. Escapism is an immoral act.
I agree with Immanuel Kant; his criterion has something really valuable about it.
Pleasure means either the pleasure of the tongue, food which is very childish or the pleasure of sex, which is
also very childish because you are not just the body, you are more than that.
Rise from pleasures to happiness. Happiness is psychological, pleasure is physiological. Listening to great music
or reading great poetry or watching a sunset or just enjoying a morning walk and the wind passing through the
pines and the music that it creates, the sound of running water it thrills you. Although it comes through the
body, it reaches deeper deeper than food or sex. It is more fulfilling. But that, too, is not the end because
anything that is psychological is bound to be momentary.
Beyond happiness is bliss which is of the spirit, which is a timeless phenomenon. You go beyond time, you go
beyond mind and body both. Then you know who you are. Then you function from your center. For the first
time you are not eccentric. You become centered, you are not off-center. For the first time you have roots in your
being, and those roots connect you with God, with the whole. You become holy only when you are blissful. But
pleasure prevents you; it prevents you at the lowest.
I am not against pleasure, remember. I am not against anything. Everything has to be used as a stepping-stone
for the ultimate peak. The body IS beautiful and enjoying your food is good. Just don’t be obsessed by it. But
if your saints are continuously condemning it, you will be obsessed by it.
Obsession is created by your so-called saints. Whatsoever they condemn becomes your obsession. In fact, the
more they condemn, the more attractive it becomes, the more magnetic it becomes.