Gorakh

  Gorakh          Death is Divine

[Note: This is a translation from the Hindi Maran Hey Jogi Maram, which is in the process of being edited. It is for research only.]

YOGIS STILL CONDEMNING OTHERS, EATING MEAT, DRINKING WINE, TAKING DRUGS?

BY THE HUNDREDS THEY GO TO HELL, SHREE GORAKH RAJA SPEAKS PLAIN TRUTH.

ALONENESS THE SIDDHA KNOWS, NEEDING TWO IS SADHU, THE TRUE SEEKER,

NEEDING FOUR-FIVE THE HOUSEHOLDER, TEN-TWENTY THE WORLDLY MAN.

GREATNESS IS WHEN GREATNESS EFFACED, CONSIDER THIS WORD OF TRUTH:

ONE WHO BECOMES TINY THE MASTER SEEKS OUT, LIFTS THE LOAD OFF HIS HEAD.

[The following and other indented couplets are "extra" dohas of Gorakh that Osho shared, not part of the sutra.]

NATH SAYS, LISTEN O AVADHU, KEEP THE MIND FOREVER STEADY,

REMOVE THE EGO, SEX, ANGER. YOU HAVE TRAVELED TO ALL SACRED PILGRIM PLACES.

HOPE BRINGS DISTRESS, DOUBT BRINGS SORROW,

THESE TWO BIG DISEASES WON'T LEAVE WITHOUT A MASTER.

BALANCE HAS BECOME THE ESSENCE OF ALL AUSTERITY AND PENANCE HAS REDUCED THE CHILDISH CUPID TO ASH,

LOOK FOR SUCH A YOGI IN THE WORLD, ALL OTHERS JUST FILL THEIR STOMACHS.

HOW CAN I SAY O PUNDIT, WHERE GOD IS?

IF YOU LOOK FOR OWN SELF, THERE IS

NO I, NO THOU.

HIDE SEEING IN YOUR EYES, LISTENING IN THE EARS,

HIDE BREATHING AT THE NOSE TIP, ONLY THE STATE OF NIRVANA REMAINS.

A STONE HOUSE OF GOD, A GOD OF STONE. HOW WILL LOVE BURST FORTH WORSHIPPING STONE?

OFFERING LIFE TO WORSHIP THE LIFELESS? HOW CAN YOU SWIM THE INFINITE THROUGH SUCH SINFUL ACTS?

BATHING IN TIRTHA AFTER TIRTHA, HOW CAN THE INNER BE PENETRATED THROUGH OUTER CLEANSING?

ADINATH MY GRANDSON, MACHHINDRANATH MY SON,

GORAKH AVADHUT BEHOLDS HIS OFFSPRING.

AVADHU, CALL GOD MY DISCIPLE, CALL MACHHINDRA MY GRANDSON,

LEST GURULESS THE EARTH IS ANNIHILATED, COMPASSIONATELY I REVERSE THE ORDER.

An unravelled scrap of life

knitting - unknitting

what rhyme or reason in going on like this?

only crying crying

losing consciousness of oneself

weeping-lament

it is futile

living in suffocation

drinking only poison

wandering

it is futile

significance

something is put in order  --

crackling perpetually

 --  chuk-chik-chik

chuk-chuk

what rhyme or reason in going on like this?

two moments or four

that which is called life

 --  to know

not a sin

short lines

of someone else's song

reading aloud inside the mind

not sin

singing only in thy inner language

--  sun-pleasant-entertaining-stars

 --  cuckoo-parrot

what rhyme or reason in going on like this?

life in an enclosure

blinders on the eyes

 --  torment

incessant

cart fixed on a traditional course

lash upon lash

 --  fleeing

incessant

machine magic

cut-chit-chit-put

stop a little

what rhyme or reason in going on like this?

An unravelled scrap of life

knitting - unknitting

what rhyme or reason in going on like this?

Man keeps on moving  --  without thinking why, without thinking where from, without thinking in which direction. He does not even think 'Who am I?' but goes on running. What will the result of this hard running be? What will we get?

what rhyme or reason in going on like this?

Stop a little. Reconsider it for once: 'Who am I?' Let this question awaken, because when you know the answer to this question in your depths, when the arrow of this question pierces your soul the mystery of life lifts its veil.

But people sitting in temples, mosques, and churches in the name of religion  don't stop either. They just keep on going. Their running continues. You want to have money, they want to have heaven. You want to have power, they want to have god. But where there is wanting, there is madness. And where there is wanting, there is rivalry. Where there is wanting there is competition, the whole marketplace. Where there is wanting there is fear  --  I shouldn't be defeated anywhere, no one should win before me. Where there is wanting there is condemnation, there is opposition. Where there is wanting there is struggle, there is tension. As soon as wanting is gone an incomparable relaxation comes into life. As soon as wanting goes the days of autumn are gone, spring has come.

Who is religious? Not one who has changed his desire, rather one who has understood desire. Wanting makes you run, run irrelevantly, run uselessly, run meaninglessly, run for the sake of running. Then running becomes a habit. Man just goes on running. Running continues until he falls into his grave. He never reaches anywhere. After all this running we reach only to our grave. Nothing remains in our hands. Perhaps we had brought something, that too we let slip through our fingers. But running latches on to the mind so tightly that even if we awaken from the meaninglessness of running, we will start running again. We are so bound in chains that even when we are tortured by the agony of chains, we caste new chains. It may be that you caste golden chains in place of iron ones. And it may also be that you stud your golden chains with diamonds and jewels. But chains are chains.

Here certainly the worldly are bound, here the so called spiritual people are also bound. A free person is one who has no wanting. He doesn't want god. He doesn't even want heaven. One who has understood the meaninglessness of wanting, that wanting takes one astray, makes one run. One who has understood the feverishness of wanting, one who has understood the madness of wanting, one who has seen the whole eye of wanting and has let desire drop and not taken up any new desire  --  one who becomes so empty of wanting attains god. God is already attained. Wanting goes and immediately the eyes open. Desire is destroyed and immediately god is incarnated. He was hidden, waiting for desire to get out of the way so he could appear face to face. It is not only that you are eager for his sight and touch, he too is eager for your sight and touch. But a wall of wanting stands in between.

What is the meaning of wanting? Wanting means, I don't want to be as I am, I want to be something else. Wanting means, I don't want to be where I am, I want to be somewhere else. Wanting means: today?  --  today I am not happy, tomorrow I will be happy. Wanting says: move, run, reach.

Dropping wanting means, I am satisfied where I am, I am blissful as I am, there is no desire to be anything else.

All desires are desires to be something else. Hence all desires deprive you of your center. As soon as wanting is gone you become enthroned in your center. As soon as you have become enthroned in your center the devotee is god.

Today's sutra:

YOGIS STILL CONDEMNING OTHERS, EATING MEAT, DRINKING WINE, TAKING DRUGS?

BY THE HUNDREDS THEY GO TO HELL, SHREE GORAKH RAJA SPEAKS PLAIN TRUTH.

YOGIS STILL CONDEMNING OTHERS...

He says, if you become a yogi but still condemn others then yoga has been lost.

Here, a few things have to be understood. The first thing, it is necessary to understand the difference between condemnation and criticism. Gorakh also makes criticisms. This too is a critical sutra. He is saying...

YOGIS STILL CONDEMNING OTHERS, EATING MEAT, DRINKING WINE, TAKING DRUGS?

... those who become yogis and condemn others, eat fish and meat, drink and smoke drugs, such people numbering in the thousands, fall into hell.

BY THE HUNDREDS THEY GO TO HELL...

Such people exist in vast numbers and fall into hell. Gorakh says, I am telling you the truth: listen.

This does contain criticism, but there is no condemnation in it. The difference between criticism and condemnation is subtle and if it is not understood there can be misunderstanding. Buddha criticized and so did Mahavira. Christ criticized and Mohammed also. There has never been a master on the earth who did not criticize. What is the difference?

The difference between criticism and condemnation is subtle. Sometimes condemnation can appear like criticism and sometimes criticism can appear like condemnation. There is a very close relationship. Their form and color are similar but their soul is very different. Criticism is out of compassion, condemnation is out of hatred. Criticism is to awaken, condemnation is to destroy. The objective of criticism is discovery, the objective of condemnation is to demolish the other's ego, to cover them with dirt, to trample them underfoot. The objective of condemnation is to deliver a blow to the other's being, to wound. The objective of criticism is to seek the truth. The diamond has fallen in the dirt, how can we wash it, how can we cleanse it.

Criticism is utterly friendly, no matter how hard it is, still it contains friendliness. And condemnation no matter how sweet it is, no matter how pleasant it is, contains poison. Poison can be given only covered in sugar.

Condemnation arises from egotism: I am greater than you, I am going to make you look small. Criticism is not concerned with the ego. Criticism is not concerned with me versus you.

Criticism is an exploration into what truth is, into how is truth is. Criticism can be very hard because a sword sometimes must be used to cut falsehood. There are stones of falsehood so the hammers and chisels of truth have to prepare them.

Ultimately Gorakh is making blows with hammer and chisel. And after Gorakh comes Kabir who keeps a sharper blade  --  on his sword there is more of an edge. Kabir's blows are such that they cut to bits. But they don't cut you to bits, they cut your falseness. When you attack a thief it is condemnation and when you attack stealing it is criticism. When you start hating the sinner it is condemnation and when you hate the sin it is criticism.

A yogi cannot condemn. Only a completely unconscious person enjoys condemning. What is the psychology of condemning? Most people in the world have fallen into condemning. What is its psychology? Its psychology is clear and very simple. Every person wants the status for his ego that I am the greatest. It is very difficult to prove this. It is difficult to prove that I am the greatest because everyone else is trying to prove it. And they are all trying to prove only one thing that they are the greatest. How many people can be the greatest? Such fierce fighting ensues that it is almost impossible to win. Who can win? Every person will fight against billions of others. Defeat is certain. In this, all will be defeated. In this, no one can ascend. So the mind finds an easy remedy. The mind says: it may be difficult to prove that I am the greatest but it is easy to prove that no one is greater than me.

Remember it is always very difficult to prove the affirmative of anything. A negative statement is always easy. For instance if you want to prove that god exists it is very difficult. Your life will have to pass through the fire of austerities. Even then it is unknown when the proof will happen  --  in this lifetime, in many lives? But that god does not exist can be proven right now. There is no problem. Only a little skill in argument is needed. To be an atheist is not a matter of great proficiency, of great intelligence. The most idiotic of idiots can be an atheist.

There is a famous story by Turgenev: THE GREAT FOOL. In a village there was a fool. He was very upset because no matter what he said people laughed at him. People had decided he was a blithering idiot. Even when he said something right people still laughed at him. He lived cowering, not daring even to speak. If he didn't speak people laughed, if he spoke people laughed. If he did something people laughed, if he didn't do anything people laughed. A monk came to the village. That night the fool fell at the monk's feet and said, "Give me some blessing. is my whole life to be spent shrinking and cowering like this? Will I die a blithering idiot? Is there no way I can become a little intelligent?"

The monk said, "There is a way. Follow this sutra: condemn everything."

He said, "What will happen through condemning?"

The monk said, "You do it for seven days then come again to me."

The fool asked, "How should I condemn?

The monk said, "Whatever anyone says make a negative statement. For instance if someone says look what a beautiful sun is coming out, you say what's beautiful about it? Prove it.  Where is the beauty? What beauty? It comes out everyday, it has been coming out for billions of years. It is a globe of fire  -- what beauty? If someone says look Jesus' words are so lovely, you immediately jump on him saying what is so lovely in them? What is so special about them? What's new in them? The same thing has always been said, it is all thrashed over. It is all stale, all borrowed. You just deny. Someone says, looking at a beautiful woman, what a beautiful woman. You say: what of it? So what if her nose is a little longer? So what if her skin is a little whiter? Lepers are white too. What beauty? Prove it. You demand proof from everyone and remember to always remain in the negative. Put them in the positive, you remain in the negative. Come to me after seven days."

After seven days when the idiot came, he did not come alone, many had become his disciples. They came on ahead. They had hung flower garlands around his neck. A band was playing. He said to the monk, "The device worked. The whole village was forced to be silent. Wherever I went people lowered their heads. The news spread among the people that I am a great genius. No one could win against me. Now what should I do?"

He said, "Now don't do anything, just remain with this. If you want to save your intellect never fall into the positive. If someone speaks of  god then immediately bring in atheism. Whatever is said, always make a negative statement. No one will be able to defeat you because to disprove a negative statement is very difficult. To prove a positive statement is very difficult."

To affirm god great intelligence is needed, a very subtle sensitivity is needed. Total wakefulness of the heart is needed. A purified state of consciousness is needed. A little light is needed within. But to deny god nothing is needed. In denying god there is no commitment. This is why people in the world condemn.

The psychology of condemnation is cheap psychology, an easy way out. Your genius will be proven by it. And there is no cost. "Using neither turmeric nor alum the dye came out fine." There is no cost at all. There is no need to go anywhere to learn. There is no need for satsang. This is why everyone is skillful at condemning.

You find people everywhere enjoying the mood of condemnation. Who knows, why did those who numbered the nine rasas, the nine dramatic moods leave out the mood of condemnation? All the other moods come only now and again, the mood of condemnation comes to people every day from morning till night. You read the newspaper to enjoy the feeling of condemnation. When someone is being condemned you immediately cock your ears and start listening. If someone comes and says that the neighbor's woman has eloped with someone, how attentive you become! Your attention is so focused in that moment that you forget all matters of the world. You start digging, asking, "Say something more, tell what happened next. Elaborate a little, don't make it so brief. Where were they eloping to, tell the whole story before you go. Sit down and have some tea." You roll out the red carpet.

Wherever you notice condemnation happening you enjoy. You enjoy because another person is being made small and in his becoming smaller you inwardly experience I am bigger. This is why if a beggar slips and falls on a banana peel on the street there is not so much enjoyment as when an emperor slips and falls on a banana peel. The heart becomes happy  --  what Mulla Nasruddin calls the experience of the heart becoming garden-garden.

When he said this to me this the first time I was surprised and I asked him, "What is this 'garden-garden?"

He said, "Oh, it is just the English translation of our Hindi expression 'baag-baag ho jaana'."

If some emperor slips and falls, how happy the mind becomes. When when you hear the news that the prime minister or the president has been caught doing some illegal activity, how the joy of condemnation spreads. What's the point? Why should anyone be concerned with it? If the prime minister has fallen in love with some woman, enough...  As if a very rare incident has occurred. So much interest spreads, people become so eager. This tells only one thing about what is inside you, indicates only one thing: that you were waiting for someone to get caught, to fall somewhere, for a foot to slip on a banana peel, for him to fall flat. This was your heart's desire.

This is why people become eager and excited to remove someone from power when he has been in office for four or five years. It is too long, this man must fall. Then trivial things are blown out of proportion and spread around. And people are ready to believe them.

Have you noticed something strange, if you praise someone no one is ready to listen, no one is ready to accept it. If you say, "Look at such and such person. He has become a great being." They will say, "We have seen all these great souls, these mahatmas! There is no great soul, nor has there ever been. It's all deception. Some trick is happening. Just wait, stop a little, when he is caught you will know. We have seen many falling."

But if someone says to you that such and such person is stealing, such and such person is deceiving, such and such person has taken a bribe you will never deny it saying, no-no, how could it be? You will immediately agree, as if you had already known it. We have accepted that except ourselves people are all bad. Some have been found out. Others have not been found out and will be sometime. But except for us all people are bad. This is our preconceived belief. Whatever supports our preconceived belief we agree with immediately.

Our state is such that if someone says to you, look at such and such man, he is playing flute so nicely, you will say: "What bad flute playing!  He's a thief, depraved, a scoundrel." As if being a scoundrel and depraved and a thief prevents him from playing flute. You will immediately condemn saying, "What lousy flute playing, what's special about his flute? We know him well enough. We know his father and grandfathers too. How can he play flute?"

But the reverse statement you will never hear  -- when someone says, look, that man is a thief, a cheat, depraved; and you say, "No, how can it be? Because he plays such lovely flute. No-no, it cannot be. A man who plays such lovely flute a thief? depraved?  --  how is it possible?"

You will never speak this way. It is against your ego. It is condemnation that inflates your ego. This is why people praise very reluctantly  --  they do it very unwillingly, as if compelled. They do it when there is something to get by praising. This is why superficially they praise, but beneath they are taking revenge.

There was a case in court. A political leader had initiated a defamation case against a man. The man, in a restaurant where fifty or sixty people were present, had called the politician a son-of-an-owl. Naturally the politician became angry. Son-of-an-owl! I will get him back good.

Mulla Nasruddin was standing right next to the politician when he was called a son-of-an-owl. So he said, "Mulla, you will have to be a witness. He said it in front of you."

He said, "I will certainly be a witness, I am an eye witness. He insulted you just in front of me. I was standing next to you."

Witnesses were called in court. The magistrate asked Mulla Nasruddin, "Fifty people were there, and the man being charged with making insults says: 'I didn't say it to anyone in particular. Yes, I used the word son-of-an-owl. But fifty or sixty people were there. I wasn't implicating the politician when I said this.' What proof do you have Nasruddin that he said it implying the politician?"

Nasruddin said, "I know that there were fifty or sixty people there, but there was no son-of-an-owl except the politician."

Now what to do? Even his witness is saying it. You hope that those in power, in office, those who have money will fall flat. Your heart will get great comfort from this. In the world whenever someone's downfall happens, people share great comfort, much lightness comes. People are waiting for someone's character to be corrupted. They are greatly supporting it. To create character is very difficult. To bring dignity to one's life is difficult, to bring greatness is difficult. But if you want to take away someone's greatness it is easy to spread and inflate rumors about him. The more you talk badly of him the more you feel good inside. This is the psychology of condemnation  --  it is the shadow of ego and the nourishment of ego also.

But this does not mean that I am telling you to live blindly. Or that Gorakh is telling you to live blindly. To remain silent when you see something wrong: I am not saying this, nor is Gorakh saying it. If Gorakh were saying this then what he has said here could not be said. Remember this, he has seen this wrong, hasn't he? He has seen a yogi and condemning, a yogi and consuming fish, meat and drugs. So he says they will fall into hell. Don't take it as condemnation. There is no condemnation at all in it. There is natural compassion in it, there is spontaneous sympathy in it. It is not his intent to make them look lower. In reality it his desire that they rise higher, his desire that they awaken.

Sometimes one who comes to awaken seems like an enemy. Sometimes it happens that you tell someone, "Brother, wake me up in the morning, I have to catch a train at four o'clock. And anyway you get up at three, at the hour of Brahma. Please get me up."

He comes to get you up at three o'clock, you are swearing at him under your breath  --  at the man that you told to wake you up at three  --  saying, this rude fellow has come, this bastard. I told him  --  it was a mistake  --  but there is no need to go through with a mistake, how to get rid of this knave? And if he starts to pull on you to get you up there can be a fight.

There was a famous German thinker, Immanuel Kant. He used to keep a servant. He had great difficulty in getting up in the morning. The servant's whole job was this: to wake him up even if he fights. So the servant was hit, he hired the servant for this! Many servants had quit and left saying, what kind of arrangement is this? But he said this is what I have hired you for. Don't worry about it, I am not saying not to strike back if I hit you.

There are all kinds of people! In the West now an electric blanket is made that you can set an alarm on, it has a clock attached and at exactly five o'clock in the morning an electric shock... An arrangement had to be made for those who cannot get up. A shock is applied and you leap up. An ordinary alarm won't work, people just turn it off. They throw the clock on the floor. Their own clock! Then they regret later that it was smashed, a fifty rupee loss. They themselves set the alarm, they themselves smash the clock. Something had to be done for them.

One who awakens does not seem loving because at that time you are lost in sweet slumber. It may be that you are seeing a sweet dream. It may be that at just that very moment you were going to meet Cleopatra, or Hema Malini was just coming. You were almost going to embrace and this fellow came, or the alarm went off. Will anyone put up with such a clock?

This is why we have been able to accept buddhas only with great difficulty. We can accept them only grudgingly. How can the people who break your dreams seem loving to you? You will be angry. Do not think that a yogi should not be critical, who else will? He has earned the right. But he will not condemn. In his eyes you will not be disgraced. His voice may be hard. His voice may be very sharp. His words may be razor like. They should be.

Kabir has said,

Kabir stands in the market, stout staff in hand.

"Burn down your house, and come along with me."

If you are ready to set fire to your own house, come with me. And he is standing with a staff! He won't even let you look back, otherwise he'll smash your head.

A yogi can be hard. But hard towards your defects, not towards you. He has great compassion towards you, great love. This is why sometimes there can be confusion. Sometimes you can be mistaken. But understand the distinction clearly.

YOGIS STILL CONDEMNING OTHERS...

You have become a yogi and you are condemning others?

... EATING MEAT, DRINKING WINE, TAKING DRUGS?

And still you haven't let go of meat, haven't let go of wine? And you still go on drowning in intoxicating substances like marijuana and ganja?

Remember one thing: those who are awake are against your wine, your meat and liquor for a different reason. You also may be against them, but your reason is different. You say don't drink wine because it is a useless loss of money, because your health will be ruined. Don't drink because your wife and kids will die of starvation. These reasons won't stay with you long.

For instance if you have wealth in abundance and your wife and kids won't die of starvation from your meat eating and drinking alcohol, then what is the problem? This teaching must be for the poor. For the rich? No, there won't be any hindrance for them. Then this becomes a conditional teaching. This teaching says that the body will be ruined, but the body will be ruined at any rate. What difference is a day or two earlier or a day or two later? If you die at eighty or you die at seventy... it is better that you die at seventy, to leave the space empty for someone else those ten years. As it is there is too little space in the world. The crowd goes on growing, there is no space left to even wave ones hand. The sooner you leave the better. So if you live ten years longer, the world gets no benefit from it, nor is it a benediction for mankind. And if you die ten years earlier or ten years later what is the difference? If you stay ten years more, you will exploit a few more people, you will amass a little more money, fill your treasury a little more. People will be more bothered by you, what else? What more has your life been? There was no harmony, there was no coherence, there was no music. What will you do if you live longer?

These arguments do not work. And these arguments are not even true, because alcoholics are seen living long. An alcoholic doesn't die quickly. If to die sooner or to die later is decisive then it is a great problem. Shankaracharya died at the age of thirty-three. Does it mean that one should avoid religion? Vivekananda died at age thirty-four. What does it mean? It means, "Brother, be careful! Don't get involved in religion. Did you see the fate of Vivekananda? Did you see poor Shankaracharya, dying while still so young? This is no way to live a long life."

In a BBC interview recently someone asked Morarji Desai, "What do you think about Churchill? because he drank a lot, smoked cigarettes, drank wine, ate meat. He never got up at the predawn hour of Brahma, never got up before nine or ten o'clock, but he lived long." So Morarji Desai said he is an exception. And Morarji Desai thinks that he is living long due to drinking his own urine. But Churchill is an exception!

I have heard, Mulla Nasruddin has turned eighty years old, but even now he comes in first in swimming. So journalists came to his house. His eightieth birthday was being celebrated. They asked, "You have just turned eighty, what is your secret? How do you still come first in swimming?  --  even the young are defeated by you."

So he said, "It is because I never drank wine, never ate meat, never chased after women. I was never addicted to anything.  This is the reason."

The interviewers were impressed. But then Mulla said, "You needn't be too much impressed by this. I am nothing. My father has reached a hundred, but in horse riding he has no equal. I also cannot equal him at horse riding, nor can the youngest of the young. And he drinks wine, pardon me," Mulla said, "but he drinks wine and eats meat."

So the journalists asked, "We want to meet your father. This is very surprising thing that he drinks wine, eats meat, is a hundred years old and no one can equal him at horse riding. Your family seems to be really marvellous. Where is your father, we want to meet this man."

Mulla Nasruddin said, "It is not possible, because my father has gone to walk in my grandfather's wedding procession."

"Grandfather's wedding?"

Then Mulla said, "Yes, he had to."

"Your grandfather is getting married?" the people asked.

Mulla said, "Not by choice, he had to. The woman is pregnant."

"How old is your grandfather?"

"One hundred and twenty years."

What conclusion will you reach? How will you reach it? Alcoholics live long. By giving this kind of argument you cannot save anybody from drinking. These arguments are hollow. There is no strength in these arguments. This is why arguments continue and people continue drinking wine, continue smoking cigarettes, continue eating meat. Everything goes right on. This argument continues and everything else continues. No connection is ever created between these arguments and their way of life.

When the enlightened say, when a man like Gorakh says don't drink wine his reason is very different. It is not because you will live longer. Even if you live longer what will you do? What is the value of living? Nor is it because you will be healthier. Health has no great spiritual value. A sick man can attain god. And it is possible that a healthy man cannot attain god because he remains entangled in the world on account of his good health, thinking, "Now I am healthy. I will remember Rama in the end, right now I will enjoy. This life is only four days. Right now I will enjoy."

No, these hollow principles are not any help. Then why does a person like Gorakh say it? His reason for saying it is very unique. You will be surprised to know it.

I also want you to be free of wine, but my reason is not the same as Morarji Desai. I want you to be free of wine because there is a greater wine. If you remain entangled with this wine then you will never be able to drink that higher wine. I want to take you to the real wine hall, this is why I want to take you out of the false wine hall.

God is wine and such a wine that one who drinks it, drinks it forever. And such a self-forgetfulness that it comes and stays. And such a high that it is never broken. What you buy from the market and drink, if you drink it at night by morning the high will break. Then the same uneasiness, the same tension, the same worries. They can be forgotten for a little while drowning in alcohol but they cannot be destroyed. There is another wine where worries are destroyed. I want to give you this wine. Meditation is wine, prayer is wine. And when a temple is alive its style is that of a wine hall.

I too want that you do not drink wine, but my reason is very paradoxical. I want it because if you remain entwined in the lower wine, then when will you drink the higher wine? When will you drink the real wine? Those who go on drinking water from dirty ponds at the side of the road, will they make the pilgrimage to the lake of consciousness or not? Will they swallow that clear, crystal clear, water down their throat or not?

I don't tell you to leave wine because I am a moralist, or because drinking wine is committing a great sin. What sin? Wine is purely vegetarian  --  the essential juice of the grape. What sin can this be? There is no sin from eating grapes, how can there be from drinking wine? You will not go to hell by drinking wine. But yes, by drinking wine you will be unable to receive the heavenly wine. You will remain deprived of it.

I want the pebbles and stones to drop from your hands because a diamond mine is present. Why are you filling your bag with pebbles and stones? Morarji Desai and my statements are as different as earth and sky. His enmity is with your pebbles and stones. He says drop pebbles and stones, pebbles and stones are bad. I say I have no enmity with pebbles and stones. But there are diamonds and jewels. If your bag remains filled with pebbles and stones then diamonds and jewels will remain lying where they are. They are your birth right to attain, you should attain them, your destiny will never be fulfilled without  them.

Remember the difference, the difference is fundamental. I also say drop eating meat, but not because you will go to hell if you eat meat, not because if you eat meat it will be violence. I have no concern with these small things. If everyone who eats meat goes to hell then Jesus must be in hell. Ramakrishna Paramahansa must also be in hell  --  can a Bengali exist without fish? Without fish and boiled rice they cannot even exist. Ramakrishna Paramahansa kept on eating fish, he must be in hell.

These are trivial things. They have no value. But this much is certainly proven by them: that Ramakrishna Paramahansa's sensitivity never became as deep as it could have. A small veil remained. His heart did not become as full of love as it could have. A little soot remained. Not that he went to hell, but there could have been another experience of beauty which he remained deprived of.

Not that Jesus will go to hell. But there remained a little something missing in his understanding of life, a thorn remained. That thorn too could have come out, should have come out. And it seems to me that if Jesus had lived longer... he died young, was murdered... then perhaps the thorn would have come out. He was young. And where he was born they were all meat eaters. If he had grown a little older, his awareness had deepened, if his experience of the presence of god had become more and more solid, then certainly he would have dropped eating meat. In the ultimate state, when god starts appearing everywhere, it is impossible to think of destroying someone's life for food.

So I don't say it because meat eating is a sin, that in consequence of this sin you will be suffering in hell. Rather I say it because eating meat will decrease your sensitivity. It will take away the subtlety of your sensitivity. The pure music that could arise from within you will not be able to arise. You have put such thick and coarse strings on your veena. There will be music, song will arise, but you have put on thick, rough, cheap strings, when fine, subtle, aristocratic strings were available. You have mistreated your veena. Not that you will fall into hell, because you have put coarse strings on your veena.

And note, don't fall into the illusion that when you eat meat you have killed someone. No one can die. Hence it is not a sin that you have killed something. Death does not exist here. There is no way to kill anything. You only took away the body of a being. That being will take a new body. The question is not of killing, the question is can you take its body? The question is for you. That being will take a new body, take a new womb. No one dies. Krishna says, "Na hanyate hanyamane sharire." The soul does not die when the body is killed. But the question is for you. You have shown insensitivity. There is not heartfulness inside of you. You remain a little stonelike, you are not soft. And if you are not soft your inner lotus will not blossom. Or will remain half blossomed. Or one or two petals will remain unblossomed.

In the highest state of consciousness meat eating is not possible. And those who want the highest state of consciousness should remain aware of this.

So Gorakh says rightly:

YOGIS STILL CONDEMNING OTHERS, EATING MEAT, DRINKING WINE, TAKING DRUGS?

BY THE HUNDREDS THEY GO TO HELL...

I have seen thousands of people going to hell this way.

... SHREE GORAKH RAJA SPEAKS PLAIN TRUTH.

I am speaking the truth, I am not condemning anyone. I am simply submitting what the fact is. And a revolution begins in the life of one who listens to the truth.

Now Rahim is in a quandary, feet in both worlds,

Seeking truth the world is lost, moving false Rama is lost.

A moment of revolution comes in the life of one who has heard the truth, understood the truth. He starts to see that if he follows the truth he can attain Rama and by itself the world will disappear. The world does not have to be dropped, it disappears by itself. By the false Rama is not found, by the truth the world is not found. One who sees this will have to make a clear choice. I call making this choice initiation, I call this choice sannyas. It is a decisive event.

ALONENESS THE SIDDHA KNOWS, NEEDING TWO IS SADHU, THE TRUE SEEKER,

NEEDING FOUR-FIVE THE HOUSEHOLDER, TEN-TWENTY THE WORLDLY MAN.

The siddha, the realized one knows he is alone. And even in a crowd he is still alone. Understand it this way, even if you are sitting in a forest you are not alone. You have seen people going, where are they going? They are going to the mountains, but they take their transistor radio with them. They get lots of newspapers, buy magazines. Bring the wife, kids, and friends along  --  who wants to go alone? They are going to the mountains taking along a crowd, taking the whole bazaar. And if sometime they remain alone in the mountains even then they are not alone. It looks like they are sitting alone, but inside them memories go on circling of friends, wife, husband, children, family, money, wealth, shop, bazaar.

Even if you are alone you are in a crowd. The siddha is one who is alone wherever he is. If he's in a crowd he is still alone. A siddha means one who has become acquainted with his inner nature. We have come alone, we will go alone. We are alone. As we have come, so we are, so we will go. Our aloneness is eternal. And the play that we have created, of husband and wife, the ceremonies we have enacted, the families we have established are all illusion, they are play. They are not any more valuable that playing with dolls and doll houses. Play, certainly: I am not saying to stop playing, but remember that play is play.

ALONENESS THE SIDDHA KNOWS...

One who experiences aloneness is realized, and is called a siddha. One who remains alone even in company is called a siddha.

... NEEDING TWO IS THE SADHU...

One who needs two, that cannot be alone, that cannot live without 'I and thou'  --  Gorakh says to consider him a sadhu, a seeker. He is called sadhu. This is no small thing, to be ready for only two. The mind is not ready even to accept many. One who has reached the one and accepts his being is a siddha. Now there is nothing left for him to attain. He has no more dependence. He has no more reliance on others. One who says at least one other is needed  --  whether that one is wife, or husband, or friend, or master, or disciple; one other is needed  --  even if that one is god, as long as the devotee says god is needed he has not been able to rise above the sadhu. Duality still remains established. You can establish duality  in new directions  --  duality of husband and wife, duality of disciple and master, duality of devotee and god, but duality remains established. You will become a siddha, when you become non-dual. Now you are a seeker. This is no small thing, that you are ready for two. There are people here, who are not happy with many.

A letter of Albert Camus says, even if I have all the women in the world, still I can't be satisfied. Because when I see a woman walking on the street, I feel I want to have her. And what Camus' letter says is the state of almost every man. How many will satisfy you? If god were to stand before you and say, ask, how many will satisfy you? Then you will be in great difficulty, how many should you ask? If you think of a million the mind will say a hundred million while the opportunity is available. If you think of a hundred million then a hundred million too will seem small. It seems you should ask ten billion or a trillion or a billion billion. And still you will be uneasy, thinking why not take a bigger number, beyond a billion billion. You will ask for ten billion billion. Who knows what greater numbers there are! No matter how many you get you cannot be satisfied.

This is why Gorakh says that one who is a seeker is happy with two. He is happy with much less. He has come near to one. Now only one more remains to be dropped. Now only one more to be free of.

NEEDING FOUR-FIVE THE HOUSEHOLDER...

And one who is not happy with less than four or five is a householder. He is living in a family. Consider the meaning of householder, one who lives in a house is not called a householder  --  one who needs many is called a householder. One whose mind still cannot accept two.

A friend of mine used to go to the mountains for the hot season. It happened about ten years ago that he said to me, "You come too." The husband and wife both used to go.

I said, "Why take me along between the two of you, husband and wife? Just you two go."

He said, "We wish to take you along because if it is just the two of us we can never figure out what we want to do. If there is a third we feel a little easier. If only the two of us are to go then we won't go. Two won't do, at the very least three are needed."

Notice that at first people are alone, they are restless, they get married. Then married they begin to feel restless again so they give birth to children. The number goes on increasing... And it has no end. And if this is still not enough, go and become a member of the Rotary Club. If this still is not enough, join the Janata Party. Some crowd or other... some disturbance...

... TEN-TWENTY THE WORLDLY MAN.

And people who are not happy even with ten or twenty, they need a horde of associates, they need a whole army. They are worldly.

The siddha is one who is happy with his own existing. The worldly is one who is not satisfied even with a crowd of thousands, who is always searching for a crowd. Okay... let's go see the Kumbha Mela. What will you do at the Kumbha Mela? Do you want to be pushed and shoved? The bigger the crowd, the more it grows, because many people enjoy a crowd. If a crowd is standing somewhere, you will abandon a hundred thousand jobs and go stand in the crowd. You forget your real work, why you had gone out. It may be that your wife was sick and you were going to call a doctor, but the crowd was so much that you felt to have a look at what is going on. You stood in the crowd, got lost in excitement.

A crowd has its own magnetic attraction, that pulls people. The bigger the crowd, the more they get excited, get agitated. This is the most degenerate state of the mind, the crowd. And one who wants to stay with the crowd will have to follow it.

Sannyas is a means of becoming free of the crowd. One must repudiate the psychology of the crowd. The crowd says, if you remain like us you can live among us. Wear clothes like the clothes we wear. Have your hair cut like we have our hair cut. Do everything as we do. Then you can be a member. Then you can be with us.

The crowd says that if you attempt to show your own individuality then you can't be with us. This is why every crowd tries to take away your individuality, to efface you, to make you a number, a statistic not a man. This is why no crowd can forgive you if you become a little unique. Very small things cannot be forgiven.

A gentleman came to me saying, "Since my son has started coming to listen to you he has let his hair grow."

So I said, "How does letting hair grow damage you?"

"No," he said, "It doesn't damage me at all but in our family no one lets their hair grow like that."

So I said, "It is the hairs fault. If they are left alone, won't they grow? What's the harm in it? He saves a little money. Why are you bothered by your son's hair getting long?"

He was bothered but couldn't give any clear answer to what was bothering him, but he was bothered, "... because he is becoming a little unique, becoming a little distinct from us. This has never happened in our family. Hair should be cut just like it should be."

Who decides how it should be cut? Who is the boss to decide this matter?

I told him, "Do you worship Bhagwan Krishna?"

He said, "Of course I worship."

"Do you accept him totally?"

"I accept him."

"His hair? If he were born in your family you would call him a hippie. And if he puts on his peacock crown, then? Think about your son a little, if he grows his hair, wears yellow clothes of silk, puts on ornaments etc, picks up a flute, starts setting down rhythms with his feet and stands with his peacock crown, then what will you do? Will you worship or not? Will you do puja and worship him  --  or will you do puja in the other sense and punish him?"

The crowd cannot forgive the slightest difference. The crowd wants you to become obedient. Do you know what people do in villages? The crowd ostracizes you  --  food and snacks are cut off, tobacco and visiting are cut off. And a man in the village for whom tobacco and visiting are cut off  --  no one offers him a smoke, no one calls him for a meal  --  that man is dead, his very living becomes difficult.

The cities have given man a kind of freedom that never existed in villages and could never exist there. The village was very enslaving. Villages have started being eliminated so freedom is increasing in the world. A village was a very collective thing. The greatest danger in the village was that the village could excommunicate you on any excuse. Any slight thing and you were excommunicated, your life became hard. Who to live with all the time? Who to talk to? Social intercourse was shut off. Life was impossible. No one would speak to you or converse with you. The village is so small that if anyone talks with you social intercourse will be shut off for him too. Going out, people will avoid you.

People praise the village highly, without seeing and understanding. The village was a great bondage, the village was a total prison. Even now the village is a prison. Even now there is no freedom in the village. There cannot be freedom in the village. Freedom is possible only in a big town where there are enough people that social intercourse cannot be shut off. If someone shuts you off then other people will be available that you can sit with, that you can speak with. The village is so small that control can easily be maintained.

Hence in a country like India the elimination of untouchability is impossible as long as villages exist. And the strange thing is that Mahatma Gandhi and all the people that have followed him think that the village should remain  --  and at the same time this they want untouchability to be eliminated. Untouchability cannot be eliminated in the village. In the village it is impossible to eliminate untouchability. There is no way. Untouchables cannot even drink water from the village well. They cannot even go to the village temple. In the city it can be eliminated, in the city who can know that an untouchable has come into the temple? No seal has been marked on the face of an untouchable.

In the world the job that Buddha and Mahavira were not able to accomplish, has been done by small things, like the railway. Buddha and Mahavira could not do the work that trains have done. An untouchable is sitting happily at your side. You cannot do anything. He has taken a ticket too. If you are to do something what will you do? And it is not certain that he is an untouchable. And it is possible he is wearing more stylish clothes than you, that you are smoking a 'bidi' and he is smoking a cigarette. What will you do? If you are hungry on the train you will eat with the untouchable sitting at your side, he will push up closer, he will shove more. You cannot do anything.

I say unto you that what Buddha and Mahavira could not do the trains have done. Buddha and Mahavira tried hard to eliminate untouchability, they couldn't manage. The poor trains have done it, have accomplished it. They have brought a revolution. The job that temples could not do, restaurants have done. The job pilgrimage centers could not do, cinema halls have done. Life has its own way of moving.

The city has brought a kind of freedom to man. In the village there is great trouble. In the village every inch of your behavior is known, every inch of your character is known. It is a small place. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing every moment. Each one knows, knows you through and through, just as you know them through and through. In the city it is very convenient. If you fall in love with a woman, she lives in the other side of the city. Your neighbors will not know that you have fallen in love with a woman. They think that every day you are going for satsang, that you have become a great devotee, early in the morning you leave for the temple. In the village this was not possible. In the village freedom was impossible, the village was bondage. The crowd was in control.

The birth of the individual has happened in cities. In villages no individuals existed, only the crowd existed. The soul is born in one who rises above the crowd, in him the birth of a soul starts to happen. In the crowd the soul is not born.

This is why I say a Hindu has no soul. A Muslim has no soul. He is part of a crowd. The crowd is suppressed by politics.

Be an individual. Free yourself from prisons. Drop all discriminations. And you will find the soul starts shining inside of you. Start being alone.

There are difficulties in being alone. But one who passes through difficulties is cleansed also.

GREATNESS IS WHEN GREATNESS EFFACED, CONSIDER THIS WORD OF TRUTH:

ONE WHO BECOMES TINY THE MASTER SEEKS OUT, LIFTS THE LOAD OFF HIS HEAD.

A lovely statement. Gorakh is saying greatness comes only when you completely obliterate your greatness.

GREATNESS IS WHEN GREATNESS EFFACED...

Greatness will arrive in your life when you completely efface and destroy your ego. When the feeling of I completely disappears. When will the 'I' disappear? When 'thou' is no longer needed. As long as you need the other, I too will remain. I and thou exist together.

You will be surprised to know that psychologists say the child first knows the other, then knows I. How can the child see himself at first? He doesn't know anything of himself. First he knows the mother. He sees his mother sometimes comes close, sometimes goes away. Lying there in the cradle he goes on seeing that when I am hungry, when I cry mother comes near. When I am not troubled mother goes away. Slowly slowly it starts becoming clear to him that mother is separate from him. Mother is the other. As it starts to get clear to him that mother is distinct, then at the same time slowly slowly like a shadow it starts to become clear to him, I am distinct also.

The other arises first, then the I arises. And it disappears in the same way: first the other disappears, then I disappears. People who want to get rid of the I first, never get rid of it. So don't try to get rid of the ego directly. Drop dependence on the other. Become such that you have no need of the other, such that you alone are enough  --  sufficient, satisfied, contented! Slowly slowly as the other is gone, the I will go just after it.

I and thou are two sides of the same coin  --  on one side is written I, on the other side thou. It is easy to drop the other, because the other is other, she is separate. To drop the I is difficult. And in one who drops the other, the I drops by itself.

GREATNESS IS WHEN GREATNESS EFFACED...

... and then greatness comes into your life. This is a rare statement. One whose ego, whose I; that I am above, I am great, I am prominent, I am special, I am extraordinary, incomparable  --  if such ideas of importance are destroyed, are erased, then importance manifests inside him. He becomes incomparable. You only think you are incomparable, you are not. He becomes certain.

Gorakh says think about this truth a little.

ONE WHO BECOMES TINY THE MASTER SEEKS OUT...

And one who becomes void of I like this becomes tiny, becomes simple like a small child in whom the I has not yet been born, the master himself comes looking for him.

ONE WHO BECOMES TINY THE MASTER SEEKS OUT, LIFTS THE LOAD OFF HIS HEAD.

And naturally if a bundle has been put on the head of a small child then who will not think of lifting it down? When you become tiny, become small, become a child, the master appears before you and only then can the bundle be brought down, only then can compassion shower on you. And if the bundle comes down, your load comes down  --  of thoughts, of desires  --  then the root is cut!

Watering leaf by leaf, salting one snack at a time

Rahim such intelligence! Who will call it great?

You have seen in a village when a woman is making bari snacks she will never salt them one bari at a time. Salt has to be mixed into the batter. When a gardener waters he doesn't water each and every leaf, he waters the roots.

Watering leaf by leaf...

It would be total madness if a gardener watered leaf by leaf.

... salting one snack at a time

And if someone separately salted each bari it would be madness.

Rahim such an intelligence! Who will call it great?

No one will say this is an indication of intelligence. A gardener gives water to the roots. A woman making baris puts the salt in the batter. Get to the root. The root of all your illusions is ego. Cut the ego.

Another statement of Gorakh:

NATH SAYS, LISTEN O AVADHU, KEEP THE MIND FOREVER STEADY,

REMOVE THE EGO, SEX, ANGER. YOU HAVE TRAVELED TO ALL SACRED PILGRIM PLACES.

Don't go on a pilgrimage. There is not need to go anywhere. All directions become transformation, all become places of transformation. Just do one thing:

REMOVE THE EGO, SEX, ANGER...

And ego is the root. And ego still contains all the leaves  --  of sex, of anger, of greed. All the leaves are contained in the ego. Ego is the root. If this one thing is removed, it this one thing is said farewell to  --  the I  --  enough, the moment of life transformation has come.  The great transformation has happened. You have entered from darkness into light.

HOPE BRINGS DISTRESS, DOUBT BRINGS SORROW,

And one who lives preserving hopes, lives holding desires will always be surrounded by adversities. The more your desire the more your dejection, because in this world no desire is fulfilled. Desire cannot be fulfilled. The nature of desire is not to be fulfilled. Desire is unfulfillable. As Buddha has said, craving is unfulfillable. It cannot be fulfilled.

A man came to a Sufi fakir. And he said, "How can my craving be fulfilled?"

The fakir said, "Come with me. I am going to the well to get water, at the same time I can instruct you. When we reach, there will be no need to speak. You will be able to see it and understand."

The enquirer was a little surprised, thinking what kind of instruction is this that can be given at the well. And is this man in his senses or not?" This fakir was carefree, very ecstatic. His eyes were as if he had just drunk wine. They were red. He was in ecstasy. His feet wobbled as he walked the way a merry drunkard walks. The enquirer started to feel a little afraid, the matter of the well, if he gives a shove? If he does something or he himself jumps in and I am caught? But still he was interested in the answer he will give. Okay let's go, I will stand back a little and watch. And what he saw surprised him even more. He thought, he is completely mad.

He dropped a bucket in the well that had no bottom in it. The bucket made a great racket inside the well, made a huge noise and sank in the water. It didn't take any time to fill up, because there was no bottom in it. Then he pulled, but got nothing. The bucket came up empty, then he threw it again. Two or three times the man watched. He said, "Brother, are you in your senses? I had come to be instructed by you: it seems you yourself are in need of instruction. What are you doing? Are you mad? Will this bucket ever be filled?"

The fakir said, "You have understood something? I am dropping this bucket in the well for you. The bucket of craving has no bottom. You go on filling it your whole life, it will not fill up. No one has ever filled it. There is no bottom: what can I do, what can you do? This is why there is sorrow. Then when the bucket... you make so much effort, reach the well, manage to reach the edge of the well with great difficulty, because there was a line there, a crowd. With great difficulty, somehow you get the chance to drop the bucket. You drop the bucket and it fills up too: when you look into the well you find the bucket full, you see it submerged in the water. You are in high spirits, you start pulling. You pull with great expectations and when it reaches your hand  --  not a drop in it!

"How many desires have you had? How many times have you felt that now I am satisfied? But were you ever? How many times have you felt that now the bucket far away in the well is full?  --  by the time it reached your hand it was empty. Again and again this has happened, but still you didn't wake up, still you weren't startled out of your sleep?"

HOPE BRINGS DISTRESS, DOUBT BRINGS SORROW

One who lives in hope this way will always be in affliction.

... DOUBT BRINGS SORROW

And there will be nothing but suffering in the life of one who is doubtful, who has not yet been able to catch hold of the thread of trust.

Doubt can never give rise to happiness because doubt is a dilemma, a wavering, a mind in fragments. In trust the mind becomes collected, become united, becomes unfragmented. And the very nature of an unfragmented mind is bliss.

THESE TWO BIG DISEASES WON'T LEAVE WITHOUT A MASTER.

This double affliction  --  of hope and of doubt  --  will not let up, until some master startles you, awakens you.

THESE TWO BIG DISEASES WON'T LEAVE WITHOUT A MASTER.

One who does not run away, a master will invite with his light, let you join his radiance too, he will give you an opportunity to look inside of him. And you will see a burning light there and a shower of bliss and a taste of immortality. Then you will understand completely how it happened  --  it happened through trust. How it happened  --  it happened through becoming free of desire.

As I was saying, I and thou are two faces of the same coin, in the same way desire and doubt are two faces of the same coin, in the same way trust and bliss are two faces of the same coin. These things go together. But how can you know that trust and bliss are two sides of the same coin? You can know it sitting near one in whom the happening has occurred.

BALANCE HAS BECOME THE ESSENCE OF ALL AUSTERITY AND PENANCE HAS REDUCED THE CHILDISH CUPID TO ASH,

LOOK FOR SUCH A YOGI IN THE WORLD, ALL OTHERS JUST FILL THEIR STOMACHS.

The essence of all chanting and austerities, all centering  --  is satsang. Without it nothing can happen. Without it no matter what you do will be the groping of a blind man. It is like a blind man shooting arrows. He cannot see the arrow, he cannot see the target. Does an arrow shot in the dark ever hit? And if it should hit it has no value.

BALANCE HAS BECOME THE ESSENCE OF ALL AUSTERITY AND PENANCE...

Only through satsang is there an emergence of centering, of sanyam, which is the essence of all chanting and austerities.

Consider this word sanyam  --  it means centering not restraint or control. The word sanyam has become very distorted in people's hands. Ordinarily you call a renunciate a sanyami. This is incorrect. Neither the worldly nor the renunciate is sanyami: both are asanyami  --  uncentered, imbalanced. One is imbalanced in the direction of worldly enjoyment, the other is imbalanced in the direction of renunciation. The balanced, the sanyam, lives in the middle. The very meaning of the word sanyam is in the middle, balanced, even tempered.

One man is eating too much, he is uncentered. And another man fasts too much, he too is uncentered. He is uncentered at the other extreme. But one who eats the right amount of food, eats just as much as is necessary, neither less nor more  --  he is sanyami, centered.

The word sanyam indicates music in one's life. Sanyam is the music of life's veena. The strings should not be too tight, should not be too loose.

LOOK FOR SUCH A YOGI IN THE WORLD...

If you meet a yogi somewhere who is centered he is worth seeing. Neither indulgent, nor renunciate. This is a problem with me, with my sannyasins. I don't tell them to become renunciates. And for centuries you have understood that a renunciate is sanyami. This is why you think I am not teaching my sannyasins sanyam. I am teaching them nothing but sanyam, centering. I tell them: Move away from indulgence a little, don't lean towards renunciation. Indulgence is on the left, renunciation is on the right. Truth is in between the two, in the exact middle  --  majjhim nikaya, the middle path. This is the golden path: living in between. Live in the world but live such that the world is not in you at all. Sit in the market and be in meditation.

LOOK FOR SUCH A YOGI IN THE WORLD...

You should see this. If there is a wonder in the world worth seeing it is not the Taj Mahal, or the pyramids of Egypt, or the Great Wall of China  --  if there is a wonder in the world worth seeing it is a person who has come to the center, who is in sanyam, because from there arises a fragrance, a sound, that if you understand it, if it reaches your nostrils, if it gives your ear its secret, if it pierces your heart  -- then you will start to be transformed. A new journey will begin in your life. 'Lead me from darkness unto light.' You will start moving from darkness towards the light. 'Lead me from death to immortality.' You will start moving from death to the immortal. 'Lead me from falsehood to the truth.' You will start moving from the false to the truth.

But this happening will occur near a sanyami.

THESE TWO BIG DISEASES WON'T LEAVE WITHOUT A MASTER....

LOOK FOR SUCH A YOGI IN THE WORLD, ALL OTHERS JUST FILL THEIR STOMACHS.

And the rest of what goes on in the name of yoga, this whole profession, is just a way of filling the belly, nothing more than that. You can see your Akhandanandas, Pakhandanandas etc, etc... Their whole employment is growing a big belly. The bigger the belly the bigger the yogi  --  this seems to be the definition. And the one who has defeated everyone is Nityananda, the guru of Baba Muktananda of Ganeshpuri. Have you seen his picture? Look at his picture and then read this statement of Gorakh again:

... ALL OTHERS JUST FILL THEIR STOMACHS.

You may have seen many bellies, but Nityananda's has no equal  --  nothing but stomach! Have you seen his picture or not? If you haven't seen it then definitely see it. People just go on filling up. And you call him a sannyasin, call him a mahatma.

Sanyam is music. Sanyam is a rare art. Sanyam is not a matter of forcing, sanyam is spontaneity.

HOW CAN I SAY O PUNDIT, WHERE GOD IS?

IF YOU LOOK FOR OWN SELF, THERE IS

NO I, NO THOU.

O pandits, o scholarly people. How can I explain to you in which place god is, because god is everywhere. He exists and nothing else.

O pandits, how can I explain where god is, where is god not?

IF YOU LOOK FOR OWN SELF, THERE IS

NO I, NO THOU.

One thing I can say to you, if you look at yourself then you will not find any I nor any thou. And the moment there is no more I, no more thou, what will remain is god. You cannot attain god anywhere else.

A statement of Gorakh:

HIDE SEEING IN YOUR EYES, LISTENING IN THE EARS,

HIDE BREATHING AT THE NOSE TIP, ONLY THE STATE OF NIRVANA REMAINS.

Hide the flame in your eye, hide the sense of seeing. Don't look outside, looking out you get entangled.

HIDE SEEING IN YOUR EYES...

Hide the capacity of the eyes to see and close the eyes, so that the whole energy of seeing becomes collected inside, so you can see yourself.

... LISTENING IN THE EARS

And now don't listen outside the ear. Now be free of what is outside the ear and listen within.

... LISTENING IN THE EARS,

HIDE BREATHING AT THE NOSE TIP...

It is enough this taking breath from outside. Now search for that moment when the outer breath stops, becomes peaceful, neither comes nor goes. Then you will experience a new life inside, you will experience a new breath.

... ONLY THE STATE OF NIRVANA REMAINS.

Then nothing remains, then only the state of nirvana remains. This experience is the experience of god, this experience is liberation, this is nirvana. These are differences of name.

ONLY THE STATE OF NIRVANA REMAINS.

HOW CAN I SAY O PUNDIT, WHERE GOD IS?

How can I tell you, O pandits, you are looking in scriptures: you have gone mad. You are looking on pilgrimages? You are mad. You are seeking in idols? You are mad. God is not found in such places.

IF YOU LOOK FOR OWN SELF...  look at yourself!

... THERE IS NO I, NO THOU.  There neither I remain nor you remain, no I no thou  --  whatever is left is god.

... ONLY THE STATE OF NIRVANA REMAINS.

A STONE HOUSE OF GOD?

The idol too is made of stone.

A GOD OF STONE?

The temple is stone, the idol is stone.

HOW WILL LOVE BURST FORTH WORSHIPPING STONE?

And endlessly worshipping stone you think a fountain of love will spring up in you heart?

Guard this statement deep in your heart. This calamity has happened so clearly in this country it is not necessary to prove it. India has become so stone-hearted, the whole cause is the worship of stones. If you worship stone you become stone. Worship with a little understanding, because what you worship becomes the destination of your life. What you worship becomes an ideal for you. What you worship, you will start to become like. Think before you worship.

A STONE HOUSE OF GOD, A GOD OF STONE? HOW WILL LOVE BURST FORTH WORSHIPPING STONE?

And how will prayer arise within you? How will love be awakened? How will the lamp of love be born? A stone is your god, your temple is of stone, you too will become stone. The devotee whose god is stone will not remain human for long, he will become stone.

In this country you will see a very miraculous thing. People are worshipping a lot, they are praying  --  and they are completely stonelike. There is no kindness, no compassion, no love. Kindness, compassion and love are completely gone. No one has anything to do with anyone else. If someone is dying or living it is no one's business. And people have discovered great doctrines: that each one is suffering the fruits of his own karma, what should we do?  --  we are on our way to worship in the temple. People are suffering the fruits of their own karma. As you have done so you will suffer. As you have sown so you will reap. If your house catches fire, sometime you must have set fire to someone else's house. Now suffer it, who will put it out? You are dying of starvation, die, you must have caused someone to starve in a past life, so now you are suffering the fruit.

These are tricks. These are the snares of doctrine. And remember, just as spiders spinning webs to catch flies, won't sit on their web proclaiming, "Come, flies and be caught, I will eat you." Will any flies be caught then? When a spider spins a web he says to the flies, "Come flies, drink some tea, have breakfast... Come by sometime, lets get together. We'll have satsang, discuss a couple of things." Then the flies will be caught. And if they are caught, they are caught.

Great spider webs of religious doctrine are spread all around you. If you are caught in them you will writhe in agony, the spiders will suck you. These spiders have become your religious teachers, pandits, priests. They have become ones who direct your life, great seers of life. They are giving you paths, they show you the way  --  they who don't know any path. Those who haven't had any experience of themselves are talking about the soul, talking about god. Empty words, false words. There is no breath in their words,  nor is a there a beating heart.

A STONE HOUSE OF GOD, A GOD OF STONE? HOW WILL LOVE BURST FORTH WORSHIPPING STONE?

OFFERING LIFE TO WORSHIP THE LIFELESS?

You see how people pick flowers, living flowers. Flowers have just blossomed, they were just dancing in the wind. They were just spreading their fragrance to the sky. They were just having a dialogue with the rays of the sun. They were so happy, so ecstatic. Then they were picked. People go out in the morning to pick them. Picked, they are offered in the temple. Living flowers are murdered, and offered up to a stone? What was already offered to existence you steal and offer to a stone?

He is right:

OFFERING LIFE TO WORSHIP THE LIFELESS?

How insane you are! If you brought stones and offered them to flowers okay, but don't destroy flowers. And people say, "No-no, we love flowers very much, this is why we pick them."

A friend wanted to pick a flower and give it to George Bernard Shaw. They were strolling together in a garden. The friend's garden, the flowers... He saw Bernard Shaw standing near the flowers overwhelmed, absorbed... The friend started to pick. Bernard Shaw said, "Stop! Stop! Don't pick them."

He said, "Don't you like the flowers?"

Bernard Shaw said, "I like them very much, they are very lovely."

So he said, "That's why I am picking them."

He said, "This is too much! If a child is lovely do you break its neck and make a bouquet? If a flower is lovely how can you pick it? How are you able to do it? You don't cut children's heads to decorate your bouquets, putting the head of the child on the table, saying look he is our son, how lovely! So why do you pick flowers?"

Gorakh is right:

OFFERING LIFE TO WORSHIP THE LIFELESS?

I lived in Jabalpur for many years. I used to keep a lovely garden. Many flowers bloomed there. People started coming in the morning to pick flowers. They came with tilak and sandalwood paste on their foreheads, chanting Rama-Rama, Rama-Rama. So I said, "Don't pick the flowers."

They said, "But we are picking them for worship. Everyone has the right to pick flowers for worship."

I said, "If you are picking them for any other reason I can give them, but not for worship."

They said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "For worship I absolutely cannot give, because they are already worshipping. Don't disturb their worship. They are offered up to god. Yes, if you have fallen in love with some woman and you want to offer her a flower, good, take it. At least offer it to the living."

"No," they said, "We are going to the temple of the goddess."

I said, "If you offer them to a living goddess you can pick them, but they are not for any temple-shlemple."

Then I had a sign put up, saying, "If you want flowers for anything except worship, pick them. But for worship it is not allowed."

In this garden too, flowers are blooming, they wither just where they bloom. They have been offered to existence right where they are. Why pick them?

OFFERING LIFE TO WORSHIP THE LIFELESS? HOW CAN YOU SWIM THE INFINITE THROUGH SUCH SINFUL ACTS?

How to swim across this difficult ocean with these false acts? with these useless actions? with these unconscious activities?

BATHING IN TIRTHA AFTER TIRTHA...

How many pilgrimage places, how many bathing ghats, have you bathed at?

... HOW CAN THE INNER BE PENETRATED THROUGH OUTER CLEANSING?

And you have washed the body outside, how will it penetrate inside? When will you wash the inside? The inside will be washed at only one tirtha  --  when you find a bathing ghat of satsang, of sitting with the master. Satsang is the only lake where an inner bath happens.

ADINATH MY GRANDSON, MACHINDRANATH MY SON,

GORAKH AVADHUT BEHOLDS HIS OFFSPRING.

A very amazing statement. You will be surprised hearing it. He is saying...

Adinath is a unique mythical name in India's history. I say mythical, not historical, because history doesn't account for such things. But Adinath is like the source of the Ganges. The Jainas consider Adinath their first master, their first tirthankara. Rishabdev and Adinath are his names. He is the first tirthankara: hence 'Adi-nath'  --  the 'original master', the one who was first, the one who began it. The Jaina tradition was born from Adinath.

In the Rig Veda Adinath is mentioned with great respect, an extremely respectful description. Hence he is given total respect in the Hindu tradition too. The Hindu tradition has not given any respect to Mahavira. They have not even mentioned his name. If there were no Jaina and Buddhist scriptures it would not be known that Mahavira ever existed. But Adinath has been given great respect. It appears that Jaina and Hindu traditions became separate later on. At the time of Adinath they must have been one. No distinction had been made yet. This is why the description in the Rig Veda indicates respect, great respect. And he is the first tirthankara of the Jainas. He is the very foundation of their whole religion.

Tantrikas also maintain that Tantra began with Adinath. And Siddha Yogis also maintain that Adinath is their first guru. Hence Adinath appears to be the original source. As if all the traditions of this country emerged and flowed from this one individual.

But Gorakh's statement is very shocking. Gorakh says:

ADINATH MY GRANDSON!

Adinath is my grandson.

... MACHINDRANATH MY SON!

And my guru - his master was Machindranath  --  is my son.

... GORAKH AVADHUT BEHOLDS HIS OFFSPRING.

Seeing my sons and daughters, seeing my sons and grandsons I am very happy.

As we come closer and closer to the time of Kabir, statements like this began to be called ulatbansi, reversed flutes. It is a very lovely statement! Jesus too has a statement like this. Someone asked Jesus: "On what authority do you speak?"

And Jesus said, "On what authority? Before Abraham existed, I am."

Abraham has the same place in Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions as Adinath has in Jaina, Hindu and Buddhist tradition. Abraham is the first man of the Jewish tradition. Later Christianity emerged from him. Later Islam emerged from him. Jesus' statement is very wonderful. Jesus says: "On what authority? Before Abraham I am."

The questioner said, "You are trying to startle me. Are you talking senses? Thousands of years have passed since Abraham existed."

Jesus said, "Yes, I know, but I precede him."

What could Jesus mean? Jesus is saying that which is at my center of centers, that which is the life of my life, existed before anything had happened. When existence had not yet begun, when the sunrise of existence had not happened, since then I am.

And whenever someone knows it, then everything else is afterwards. One who has known his own nature has known god, he has known the root of existence. And the root is certainly before everything. Adinath was after him, Abraham was after him.

Gorakh it saying the same. A profound joke, a lovely jest. Gorakh is saying since I have known myself, since then I have known that everything else happened after me. Remember 'me' does not mean Gorakh. Me has the same meaning as Krishna means in the Geeta. Drop all religion Arjuna, and come to my feet. This my feet does not mean come to the feet of Krishna. I am the one. Who is that 'I am the one'? Not Krishna. That one is manifest in Krishna, that one is also manifest in Arjuna. That one is always being manifested and will always be manifested. That same has manifested in me, that same has manifested in you. If someone finds out, he becomes a buddha and if someone does not find out he remains sleeping. This is the only difference between buddhas and non-buddhas. There is no other difference. One has awakened, the other is sleeping. But the one who is sleeping is just as much god as the awakened. There isn't a grain of difference. There is no qualitative difference.

He is revealing this fact:

ADINATH MY GRANDSON...

What should I say about myself? Since I have known myself, I have seen myself, what has happened? Now it appears to me that even Adinath happened after me.

ADINATH MY GRANDSON, MACHINDRANATH MY SON...

And perhaps Adinath you have quite forgotten already, you don't even remember him. But Machindranath, who is my master  --  and who was just alive  --  he is my son.

... GORAKH AVADHUT BEHOLDS HIS OFFSPRING.

And this whole existence is my own offspring. Seeing this Gorakh Avadhut is very happy. There is another saying of Gorakh, Narendra had just asked about it yesterday. That saying is also lovely:

AVADHU, CALL GOD MY DISCIPLE, CALL MACHHINDRA MY GRANDSON,

LEST GURULESS THE EARTH IS ANNIHILATED, COMPASSIONATELY I REVERSE THE ORDER.

O Avadhut, Shiva is my chela, my disciple, god himself is my disciple. O Avadhut, existence is my disciple, Machindranath my grandson, meaning a disciple of a disciple. I have no need to establish myself as a master because I am god in person. But from the fear that the unenlightened people that follow me will not be able to have faith in a yogi without a guru, I have made Machindranath my guru, while in reality the order is reverse, because Machindranath himself is my disciple.

LEST GURULESS THE EARTH IS ANNIHILATED...

So that people with no master don't start making their own declarations that they have reached. So that hollow people don't start making false declarations, this is the reason.

LEST GURULESS THE EARTH IS ANNIHILATED...

So that the whole earth doesn't go into annihilation.

... COMPASSIONATELY I REVERSE THE ORDER.

This is why I have made a reversal. I have made my own son my father. I have made my own disciple my master, so that for unenlightened people an indication remains, that without a master there is no enlightenment.

And whoever becomes enlightened, this is their experience:

AVADHU, ISHVAR MY CHELA, BHANINJAY AND MACHINDRA MY GRANDSONS,

Whoever is enlightened becomes the form of the divine. One who has known himself has become the ultimate. What he knows he becomes. Then everything else comes after him. He has gone beyond time, he has gone outside of time and place. He is first, he is last. He is the very first, he is also the very last. In reality there is just one, not two. Who is guru and who is chela? Who is bhakta, who is bhagwan? Who is devotee, who god? Not even this distinction remains, nor should it remain. Only in this identity is the showering of bliss, the experience of the immortal.

But you will have to disappear before this. As you are you are egotistical, this ego state you will have to say good by to.

DIE, O YOGI, DIE!  DIE, SWEET IS DYING.

DIE THAT DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW.

 

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