Talks on Ashtavakra Samhita
Talks given from 11/09/1976 - 20/09/1976
Original in Hindi
Book Chapters : 10
Year published : 1993
Source: www.osho.com and www.oshoworld.com

[NOTE: This discourse is in the process of being edited for publication. It is for reference use only.]

Chapter No. 9 - No Title
19 September 1976 am in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium

JANAK SAID:

LIGHT IS MY VERY NATURE. I AM NOT OTHER THAN IT. WHEN THE UNIVERSE ILLUMINATES ITSELF, THEN IT IS VERILY I THAT SHINE.

AMAZING THAT THROUGH IGNORANCE THE IMAGINARY UNIVERSE APPEARS IN ME, JUST AS SILVER APPEARS IN MOTHER OF PEARL, A SNAKE IN A ROPE, OR A MIRAGE IN THE RAYS OF THE SUN.

JUST AS A POT DISSOLVES INTO CLAY, A WAVE INTO WATER, OR A BRACELET INTO GOLD, THE UNIVERSE WHICH HAS EMANATED FROM ME IS BORN OUT OF ME WILL DISSOLVE INTO ME.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD SHALL PERISH FROM BRAHMA TO THE VERY CLUMPS OF GRASS I SHALL NOT PERISH. IMPERISHABLE AM I.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. THOUGH EMBODIED, I AM THAT ONE WHO NEITHER GOES ANYWHERE NOR COMES FROM ANYWHERE BUT ABIDES PERVADING BEYOND ENCIRCLING THE UNIVERSE.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. NONE HERE IS AS CAPABLE AS I, WHO HAVE BEEN SUPPORTING THE UNIVERSE FOR AN ETERNITY WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING IT WITH THE BODY.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. I HAVE NOTHING AT ALL OR I HAVE ALL THAT IS ENCOMPASSED IN SPEECH OR THOUGHT.

Religion is experience, not thinking. Thought cannot be even the shadow of religion. And one who is entangled in thoughts will always remain far away from religion. No one is further away from religion than a thinker.

Just as love is an experience, this existence is also an experience. And if you want to experience it, it is possible only with one's totality.

The process of thinking is a small fragment of man -- and a very superficial one. It has no depth. It is not part of the interiority, not of the center, it is on the periphery. Even if thinking stops man can live. And now thinking machines have been developed. They make it very clear that a machine too can think. It is no special glory of man.

Aristotle and thinkers like him have called man the thinking animal, the rational animal. This definition should be changed, because now computers can think -- and with greater efficiency, with greater skill than man. Man makes mistakes but with computers there is no possibility of error.

Man's greatness is not in his thinking. Man's greatness is in his experience.

Just as when you taste something, the taste is not just a thought. ... it happened! It happened in your very cells. You are immersed in the joy of tasting.

When you drink wine, the effects of drinking are not only in your thoughts, your limbs begin wobbling.

Have you seen a drunkard walking? The wine has reached to his very cells! It is visible in his stride, in his eyes, it is visible in every move, it doesn't just show in his thoughts, but encompasses his totality.

Religion is like wine -- one who drinks it will know. One who drinks it and becomes delighted, will experience it.

Janak's words were uttered in a moment filled with this wine. If you consider them without tasting there is a possibility of misunderstanding and his meaning will seem something quite different. Then you will add your own interpretations.

For example when Krishna says in the Gita, "Drop everything Arjuna and surrender at my feet."

When you read it you will feel this declaration is very egotistic: "Drop everything Arjuna and come to my feet." To 'my' feet!

Then the meaning you give to this 'my' will be yours, not Krishna's. In Krishna no I remains. It is just a reference. It is only a symbol. For you the symbol is much more. In your illusion the symbol has become the truth. For Krishna it is merely practical, not indicating anything more.

You have seen, if someone spits on the national flag it will cause a fight, it will result in bloodshed, it can cause a war. "He spit on the national flag!" But have you ever thought that the national flag is a symbol of the nation and you spit on the nation every day, but nobody starts fighting. Nobody starts a fight if you spit on the earth. Whenever you spit you are spitting on the nation -- wherever you spit. Nobody starts a fight if you spit on the nation. The symbol of the nation, merely an indication, just an ordinary piece of cloth -- but if someone spits on it then even war can happen.

Man gives great importance to symbols -- more importance than they have. In his blindness man lives in symbols.

When Krishna uses the word 'I' it is only practical. He has to speak so he uses it. He wants to communicate so he uses it. But after speaking there is no 'I'. If you look into Krishna's eyes you will not find any 'I', only ultimate silence is there, only emptiness. The 'I' has disappeared. This is why Krishna can easily say, "Come, come to my feet!" When he says to come to my feet, we feel it is very egotistical, because we interpret 'I' as we know it.

These words of Janak will surprise you even more. These statements are unique on this earth. Krishna had at least said, "Come to my feet." These assertions of Janak are such that you will not believe them.

Janak says in them, "Amazing, my nature! Amazing, my light! Surprising! What am I? I go to my own feet! I bow down to myself!" It will shock you.

In these statements Janak bows down to himself; the other no longer remains. He says again and again, AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF.

IMPERISHABLE AM I -- "I am so filled with awe, I myself am in wonder. I bow down to myself, because all will perish, but still I will remain. From brahma to the smallest atoms all will be destroyed, but still I will remain. I bow down to myself. Who is skilled like me? I am in the world and yet unattached, in the water like a lotus leaf. I bow down to myself."

Mankind has never heard such a declaration: "I bow down to my very self." You will think, "This is ultimate egotism. It would be alright if he said it to others, but he is touching his own feet...!"

It is told about Ramakrishna that an artist came and painted his portrait. When he brought the completed portrait, the devotees of Ramakrishna felt very strange because Ramakrishna looked at the picture and started to touch the feet in it. It was his own picture. He began to bow down to it. A devotee said, "Paramahansa, are you going mad? This is your own picture."

Ramakrishna said, "It's good you reminded me, I was seeing a picture of samadhi. It must have been painted while I was in samadhi. It's good you remind, otherwise people will think I am crazy. I was just starting to pay my respects to samadhi. This is a picture of samadhi, not of me."

But those that saw it must have understand that the man has gone mad. Touching the feet of his own picture! Bowing his head to his own picture! What can be more insane? This is the last word in egotism, there can be no heights of ego beyond this.

Janak is making these statements in ecstasy. The taste has arisen. He has become oblivious. If he could dance he would dance like Meera. If he could sing like Chaitanya he would sing. If he could play flute like Krishna he would play on his flute.

Each individual has his own unique possibilities of expression. Janak was an emperor, a cultured man, a well educated person, brilliant, the essence of brilliance -- his statements are worthy of being written in gold letters in the history of man. To understand these words, put aside your own interpretations.

Some day I'm going to look into this world, the life of man is a window into wisdom.

What kind of thing is this intellect which stops my joyful heart in every activity, which interferes with everything.

Creating beauty with meaning is the inspiration of a poet. Getting entangled in words is the art of the mere rhymester.

What kind of thing is this intellect which stops my joyful heart in every activity, which interferes with everything.

Whenever waves arise in the heart, intellect immediately stops them. Whenever some feeling goes deep, intellect immediately starts meddling.

What kind of thing is this intellect which stops my joyful heart in every activity, which interferes with everything.

Put this intellect aside a little -- just for a little while, just for a moment. In these moments the clouds will scatter and the sun will be seen. If you cannot put this intellect aside it will go on interfering. It is in the habit of questioning. Its nature is to interfere. Its juice is in meddling.

And religion comes through the heart, those waves will be spoiled. The mind will influence them and they will be lost. Your understanding will be completely wrong.

Creating beauty with meaning is the inspiration of a poet.

A real poet, a seer, a sage, gives all his attention to meaning --

Creating beauty with meaning is the inspiration of a poet. -- the flowers of meaning that blossom in his imagination, to the fragrance of meaning.

Getting entangled in words is the art of the mere rhymester.

But one who is just rhyming verses gets entangled in words. He is not a poet. The rhyme maker just goes on joining words to words. He has no use for meaning, getting words to fit together is enough.

Intellect is a rhyme maker, a rhymester. The secret of meaning, the mystery of meaning is hidden in the heart. You will be able to listen only when you put aside the mind.

I have heard that Mulla Nasruddin went into a cloth shop and asked about a particular cloth, "Brother, what is the price of this cloth?"

The shopkeeper said, "Mulla, its five rupees per meter."

Mulla said, "Will you give it for four and a half rupees?"

The shopkeeper said, "Sir, even to take it home will cost me four and a half."

So Mulla said, "Good, that's fine. I'll just take it home."

Man goes on putting his own interpretations on things.

A patient asked a dentist, "Can you pull a tooth without pain?"

The dentist said, "Not always. Just yesterday I dislocated my wrist while twisting on someone's tooth."

The dentist has his own pain. The one who came to have a tooth pulled has other worries, his own pain.

Mulla Nasruddin was given a job somewhere. The boss said, "When you were given this job you said that you never got tired and now you are sleeping with your feet stretched out on the desk."

Mulla said, "Boss, this is the secret of my not getting tired."

We go on interpreting our own way. And as long as we go on interpreting, the meaning of the sutras will not be apparent. A special art is needed to read sutras. To read sutras a mind free of projections is needed, a mind emptied of projections. Reading sutras don't be in a hurry to interpret: the capacity of listening, of tasting, of relishing joyfully and patiently is needed.

Listen to these sutras:

LIGHT IS MY VERY NATURE. I AM NOT OTHER THAN LIGHT. WHEN THE UNIVERSE IS ILLUMINATED, IT IS ILLUMINATED BY MY LIGHT ONLY.

Janak says this whole universe is illuminated by my light.

Certainly this light Janak is talking about cannot be the light of the 'I'. This light can only be a light void of I. Hence don't look at the language, don't be a rhyme maker, don't let the intellect meddle. The meaning is plain and simple, don't twist and distort it.

LIGHT IS MY VERY NATURE. If one is to speak, one has to speak this way, because language belongs to the ignorant. The enlightened have no language. If two enlightened ones meet they remain silent, what is there to say? There is neither language, nor anything to say; neither any subject to speak on, nor the language to say it in.

It is told that when Farid and Kabir met, they remained silent for two days. They took each others hands in their own, they embraced each other, tears flowed in streams, they began swaying in great ecstasy.

Their disciples freaked out. The disciples had a great expectation that, "If they speak together it will shower on us too. If they say something we can also hear it. If we catch even a single word, it will give meaning to life."

But they didn't speak. Two days passed. Those two days became very long. The disciples were waiting while Kabir and Farid sat silently. Finally, when they had left, when Kabir had seen Farid off, Farid's disciples asked, " What happened? Why didn't you speak? Ordinarily you are always speaking. If we ask anything you speak. And we had brought you together with Kabir in the hope that there would be some talk between you, some juice would flow, so that we unfortunate ones could also drink a little of it. We brought the two banks together so that if the Ganges flows we can bathe in it, but the Ganges didn't flow. What happened?"

Farid explained, "There was nothing to be said between Kabir and me, nor any language to say it in. Neither anything to ask, nor anything to say. Much was present there, a current was flowing, the Ganges flowed but not in words, in silence."

Kabir's disciples asked him the same thing, "What happened? Why did you become silent? It seemed as if you have always been a deaf-mute!"

Kabir said, "Idiots! If I speak in front of Farid I prove myself ignorant. Whoever speaks proves ignorant. Where not speaking will do, there is no question of speaking. Where a needle can do the job, only a madman raises a sword. It was already happening without speaking. An immense stream was flowing. Didn't you see how the tears were flowing, what ecstasy there was?"

Words are not needed between two enlightened ones. Between two unenlightened ones there are words heaped upon words, but without any meaning. Between two enlightened ones there are meanings within meanings, but without any words. Between an enlightened one and an unenlightened one there are both words and meaning. For dialogue an enlightened one and an unenlightened one are needed.

Between two unenlightened there will be argument. Dialogue is not possible, conversation is not possible: only clashing of minds is possible.

Between two enlightened ones there is no verbal conversation. In some deeper world their centers are meeting. Union is happening, what need is there of conversation? Without speaking it is communicated, without talking about it darshan happens.

The possibility of dialogue exists between an unenlightened and an enlightened person. If the enlightened one is ready to speak and the unenlightened is ready to listen, then dialogue is possible.

In one sense the meaning of sutras from scriptures is always paradoxical. Because what the scripture says cannot be said, it is an attempt to say the unsayable. It is a great kindness that innumerable enlightened ones have tried to say that which cannot be said. They have wanted us to lift our eyes where we have long forgotten to lift them. They have given us a little vision of the sky. We crawl and wriggle along on the ground, we have stopped raising our heads.

It is said that when Mansoor was captured and hung on the cross he began to laugh. A crowd of one hundred thousand had gathered and someone asked, "Mansoor, why are you laughing?"

Mansoor said, "I am laughing because, yes, it is good that I have been crucified, at least you have raised your eyes a little bit!"

He was hung on a cross so people had to turn their faces up to see. So Mansoor said, "At least -- even by this excuse -- you had to raise your eyes towards the sky. Hence I am happy -- this crucifixion was right. Perhaps looking up at me you will see what it is hidden within me. Perhaps in this moment of death, from the impact of this death, your thought processes will stop and for a moment the sky will open and you will have a vision of that one that I am."

LIGHT IS MY VERY NATURE. I AM NOT OTHER THAN LIGHT. I am not separate from light.

This inner source of light is achieved when the 'I' has gone. But how can one say it? When it is to be described then the 'I' has to be brought in again.

WHEN THE UNIVERSE IS ILLUMINATED IT IS ILLUMINATED BY MY LIGHT ONLY.

Certainly Janak is not talking here about the person named Janak. That person has disappeared, that individual wave is gone -- only the ocean remains. This ocean is everyone's. This declaration of Janak's is not only about himself, it is also about you. It is about everyone who has ever been, it as about everyone who will ever be. This proclamation is for the whole existence.

Learn to be obliterated, then the taste of this will start coming. And when the taste comes declarations like this will arise from you too. It is difficult to stop them.

Mansoor knew that if he makes this sort of statement -- "Anal Haq -- I am the truth, I am the divine existence" -- then he will be crucified. The Muslim crowd will not be able to tolerate him. This crowd of blind people will not be able to see him. Still he proclaimed. His friends told him not to make such claims, these proclamations will be dangerous. Mansoor also knew that it will be dangerous, but he could not stop such declarations.

When the flower blossoms its fragrance will have to be shared. When the lamp is lit, its light will have to spread. Then whatever happens, happens.

One of Rahim's sayings is:

Welfare /khair, murder, coughing, happiness, hate, love, intoxication: Rahim says try to repress they remain unrepressed, the whole world will know.

There are some things that cannot be suppressed. Drinking ordinary wine how can you suppress its effects?

It usually happens that the more a drinker tries to hide his drunkenness the more it shows. Have you ever noticed a drunkard trying hard to prevent anyone from knowing? He speaks very cautiously, and this is what gives him away. He tries to walk with great care and this is what makes him stagger. He wants to show his alertness so no one will know.

Mulla Nasruddin came home drunk one night. As he was returning he thought hard how to keep his wife from knowing. What should he do? He thought let me read the Koran. Has anyone heard of a drunk reading from the Koran? If I read the Koran then it will be clear that I am not drunk. Have drunkards ever read the Koran?

He got home, lit a lamp and sat reading the Koran. Finally his wife came and gave him a good jerk, saying "Stop this nonsense! What are you doing sitting here with this suitcase open?"

How can a drunkard find the Koran? He took the suitcase, opened it and started reading.

It is impossible to conceal it. And when ordinary wine cannot be hidden how can divine wine be hidden? Ecstasy will be reflected in the eyes. The eyes will become intoxicated. The flavor of another world will color one's speech. The speech will become rainbow-like, expanding all seven colors. Speaking ordinary prose becomes pure poetry. Talk and it sounds just like a song. Move and it feels like a dance. No, it cannot be hidden.

Welfare /khair, murder, coughing, happiness, hate, love, intoxication: Rahim says try to repress they remain unrepressed, the whole world will know.

It goes on being revealed.

Revelation is the nature of truth. As soon as truth happens within you your declaration starts unknowingly being disclosed.

Janak did not say these words after thinking it over: he would have hesitated to say them if he had thought about it. He had just brought Ashtavakra there, Asthavakra said a few things and Janak's enlightenment happened! He would have held back if he considered it intellectually, thinking, "What will Ashtavakra think: an ignorant man like me saying such things? This is appropriate only to realized ones. Does it ever happen so quickly? Just hearing about it it happens? Has it ever happened this way? It takes time, it takes many lives, it is a very arduous journey. It is like walking on the edge of a sword." He would have remembered all this and thought to himself, "Don't make such a far reaching declaration!"

But I want to remind you that this declaration is happening by itself. It is not right to say that Janak is speaking, it will be more correct to say it is being said through Janak.

AMAZING THAT THROUGH IGNORANCE THE IMAGINARY UNIVERSE APPEARS IN ME, JUST AS SILVER APPEARS IN MOTHER OF PEARL, A SNAKE IN A ROPE, OR A MIRAGE IN THE RAYS OF THE SUN.

... just like the illusion of silver appearing in mother of pearl, like the projection in the dark of a snake on a rope and like the illusion of an oasis in a desert appearing because of the sun's rays, like this mirages are born.

Amazing! The happening happened so suddenly, it happened so forcefully -- his enlightenment happened so quickly that Janak cannot contain it. He is filled with awe. As if a small child has entered into the world of fairies and everything captivates him and everything is beyond belief.

Tertullian has said: "As long as I had not seen god, there was disbelief. And when I saw god, then too there was disbelief."

He disciples asked: "We don't understand. We have heard that when one sees god then faith comes?"

Tertullian said, "As long as one has not seen there is disbelief -- how can god exist? Impossible! How can there be faith without experience? And when the experience of god happens then one cannot believe that so much bliss is possible! So much light! So much nectar! It still seems impossible. When it hasn't happened it seems impossible, and when it happens it seems even more absurd."

Janak is in exactly the same state:

"Amazing! Everything is just imagined. Only I am true, only the witness is true everything else is illusory, everything else is maya?"

THE UNIVERSE WHICH HAS EMANATED FROM ME WILL DISSOLVE INTO ME, JUST AS A POT DISSOLVES INTO CLAY, A WAVE INTO WATER, OR A BRACELET INTO GOLD.

Do you see the transformation? Janak's human form is disappearing and his existential form is manifesting.

Swami Ramteerth went to America. He was an ecstatic person. Someone asked him who created the universe? He must have been in ecstasy, it must have been a moment of samadhi -- he said, "I did." In America no one is going to listen to such a thing. Here it is alright, in India it's accepted, even this kind of expression is accepted. It became a great sensation there.

People asked, "Are you in your senses? You made the moon and stars?"

Ram said, "I made them. I set them in motion, and they have been moving ever since."

To understand this statement is difficult. And it is not surprising if his American listeners couldn't understand. It is natural. This statement is not Ram's or if it is it is the real Rama's -- not Ramteerth's. At this moment Ramteerth is not speaking as a wave, he is speaking as the ocean. He is peaking as the eternal, the immortal, not speaking as the momentary. Not speaking as a man limited and defined by body and mind -- speaking as the one beyond body and mind, undefinable, unknown. It is Rama speaking through Ram, not Ramteerth himself. This declaration is from existence itself.

But it is very difficult, very hard to accept it.

Ram returned to India... he had gone on a pilgrimage to the source of the Ganges. He had been bathing in the Ganges and he jumped into it from a mountain. He left behind a short note that said, "Now Ram goes to meet his original form. The call has come, now I cannot stay in this body. The universe has called me!"

The newspapers printed the news that he had committed suicide. It is true, the newspapers were also right. He jumped into the river and committed suicide. But if anyone asked Ram he would say, "You say I committed suicide? I only broke the bounds and became one with the universe. I removed the barrier in between. I have not died. I was as if dead, now I have become alive, now I am one with the universe. Now that small stream of life has become the ocean. I let go of the limitaton, not of life itself. Now I have achieved real life, by letting go of the limitation."

Hence it is necessary to remember this always that when samadhi becomes stronger inside of you, when the clouds of samadhi gather within you, the rain is not of your ego, your I-ness. That rain comes from beyond you, it transcends you.

In this moment Janak's personality is going.

THE UNIVERSE WHICH HAS EMANATED FROM ME WILL DISSOLVE INTO ME JUST AS A POT DISSOLVES INTO CLAY, A WAVE INTO WATER, OR A BRACELET INTO GOLD.

When there was nothing god was, when there will be nothing god will be. I am drowned in being, if I were not then what would be?

'I am drowned in being' ... we will say Ramteerth committed suicide. Ramteerth will say, "'I am drowned in being' ... it was when I drowned in the Ganges that for the first time I existed. As long as 'I' was, I was drowned."

When there was nothing god was, when there will be nothing god will be. I am drowned in being, if I were not then what would be?

' -- god will be.' Existence is!

This I, this limitation of being -- when someone removes it as if taking off his clothes, he sees the truth.

Like a snake sloughing off its old skin as it slides along -- this is exactly how it happened to Janak. Ashtavakra was there as a catalyst.

Scientists have discovered catalytic agents. They say that some substances don't take an active part in certain reactions, but without their presence the reaction will not take place.

You have seen lightning flashing in the rains. Scientists say that water is made from combining oxygen with hydrogen, but hydrogen and oxygen will combine only when lightning is present. If lightning is not present they will not react. Still lightning does not take any part in it, lightning does not get involved in bringing hydrogen and oxygen together -- only its presence.... Scientists call this kind of presence a catalytic agent.

The master is a catalytic agent. He doesn't do anything but without his presence nothing will happen. In his presence something happens, although he doesn't do anything. Just his presence... understand it like this: his energy surrounds you. Engulfed in this energy field, strength arises in you -- the strength is yours. Songs start exploding -- the songs are yours. Declarations start to happen -- the declarations are yours. But without the presence of the master perhaps they would not happen.

The presence of Ashtavakra worked as a catalytic agent. Janak must have been reminded of his forgotten home seeing Ashtavakra's gentle, silent, highest state. Looking deep into those eyes, seeing that infinite expanse he must have recalled his own lost and forgotten potential. Hearing Ashtavakra's words -- soaked in truth, soaked in experience -- his own taste must have been aroused.

I have heard about a man who raised a lion as a pet. He brought it home it was a tiny cub whose eyes were yet to open. The lion had never eaten meat, had never tasted blood. He was a vegetarian lion. He ate vegetables and bread. He didn't have any idea... He had no reason to know. But one day the man was sitting in his chair when he scratched his leg and a little blood oozed out. The lion was sitting nearby. Sitting there he licked up the blood with his tongue. It was enough! In one moment, he changed. The lion roared. There was violence in that roar. Until then he was a perfect Jaina -- suddenly he became a lion. Until then he was a vegetarian, and he made only the sounds of a pure vegetarian. Although he still had not not eaten any meat -- only tasting a few drops of blood -- but he was reminded. The dormant capacity of being a lion that had been sleeping in every cell awoke. Something woke up. Something started stretching its limbs. The one who was asleep opened his eyes. He stood up growling. Soon he started attacking. It became impossible to keep him at home. He had to be set loose in the jungle. He had been asleep for so long -- that was the first time he remembered who he was.

Under Ashtavakra's influence Janak remembered who he was. If Janak was saying these words after thinking about it beforehand he would not have spoken, he would have hesitated. Is this something easy to say:

THE UNIVERSE WHICH HAS EMANATED FROM ME WILL DISSOLVE INTO ME JUST AS A POT DISSOLVES INTO CLAY, A WAVE INTO WATER, OR A BRACELET INTO GOLD.

Under Ashtavakra's influence, in Ashtavakra's presence he awoke. The lion that had been sleeping for lives, began to roar! He remembered his own nature, he remembered his being. This is the meaning of satsang.

Great importance has been given to satsang in the East. In Western languages there is no equivalent word for it, because the West does not understand the significance of satsang.

The meaning of satsang is simply sitting near one who has known, and the taste becomes infectious. Getting absorbed in the waves of someone who has known, the forgotten waves sleeping within you are activated, they begin vibrating.

The meaning of satsang is simply seeing one who has gone beyond you, seeing that he has gone ahead, a challenge is provoked within you. You also have to go! Then it is difficult to stop.

The meaning of satsang is not so much listening to the master's words, as it is drinking the presence of the master, as it is letting the master come deep inside, it is vibrating in one rhythm with the master.

The master is living in a certain vibe. When you are near the master his vibration provokes the same kind of vibration in you. And even if only for a short while, you too enter into another world, the gestalt changes. Your way of looking at things changes. For a little while you look through the eyes of the master, hearing through the ears of the master.

I want to make it clear to you, that although Janak said these words, still these words are Ashtavakra's. It says "Janak said," but I want to remind you it is really "Ashtavakra said." The presence of Ashtavakra and what Ashtavakra had said to him became so strong that Janak was gone, Janak was washed away in the flood, his abode is gone without a trace, that house had collapsed. Someone else has started speaking:

THE UNIVERSE WHICH HAS EMANATED FROM ME WILL DISSOLVE INTO ME JUST AS A POT DISSOLVES INTO CLAY, A WAVE INTO WATER, OR A BRACELET INTO GOLD.

I am that wander-loose traveller, yet I am my own destination. What shall I gain from existence? I myself am the culmination of existence.

"I am that wander-loose traveller..." I am a pilgrim gone far astray, a traveller, who has lost himself, "... yet I am my own destination." I don't know it but I am my own destination. The destination is not somewhere outside. I have gone astray because I have not closed my eyes and looked inside. Otherwise there is no need to wander. I have gone astttray because I have not closed my eyes and looked inside. I have gone astray because I have not made any effort to know myself. And where I am searching for the goal, the goal cannot be possible.

"... that wander-loose traveller, yet I am my own destination." This is the reason for straying: the goal is inside and we are looking outside. The lamp is burning within, but the the light falls without. Seeing the light that falls without, we start running, thinking that the source of light is also outside. The light that falls outside is our own. The fragrance that comes outside is the fragrance that we have given off, it is reflected, it is an echo. We are running after this echo.

There is a Greek story, about Narcissus. A very beautiful young man. He got into great difficulty. He was sitting on the shore of a lake -- a calm, beautiful lake without any waves. He saw his reflection in it. He was became infatuated with his own reflection. He fell in love with it. He became so mad that he never left that place. He forgot hunger and thirst. He became Majnu and took his own reflection as his beloved Laila. The reflection was beautiful, again and again he went into the lake to catch hold of it. But when he went in the lake was disturbed, waves arose and the reflection disappeared. Again he would sit on the bank. When the lake became calm it would appear again. It is said he went mad. He died on the shore of that lake.

He must have seen the narcissus plant. It is a Western plant, found on the banks of rivers. It has been named in memory of Narcissus. It grows on the bank of a river and looks at its reflection, goes on looking at its own flowers in the water.

But everyone is a Narcissus. What we are seeking is within us. But where we are searching there are only reflections, only echoes. There is no way to find anything in echoes. We must turn towards the original source.

I am that wander-loose traveller, yet I am my own destination. What shall I gain from existence? -- what have I got to do with life?

I myself am the essence of existence.

I myself am the conclusion of life. I don't have anything to get from or give to life. I am not searching for some meaning in life -- I am myself the meaning of life. I am the conclusion of life, the epitome of life. I am its ultimate flower, its final stage, its highest peak.

But one who is searching for meaning in life continuously experiences meaningless. This has happened in the modern world -- meaning has disappeared. People say what meaning is there in living? Such a disaster has never happened before. It is not that there were not intelligent people before -- there were very intelligent people, it is difficult to find anyone to compare them with. There were people like Buddha, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Ashtavakra. What greater peak of intelligence can there be? What great brilliance can there be? But none of them ever said there is no meaning in life. Intelligent people in the modern age -- whether it is Sartre or Camus or Kafka -- all say there is no meaning in life. Meaningless, perverse, a tale told by an idiot. The meaningless babble of an idiot. Incoherent prattle! "A tale told by an idiot full of noise and fury signifying nothing!" No meaning, no substance, just useless nonsense -- this is life!

What happened? Why has life suddenly become meaningless? Is it not that we are looking for meaning in the wrong direction? Because Krishna says that life is immensely meaningful. Krishna says that life is filled with ultimate meaning and brilliant light. And Buddha says that ultimate peace, ultimate bliss are hidden in life. Ashtavakra says that life is pure godliness. There must be some mistake, we must be missing something. Somehow we are searching in the wrong direction.

What have I gotten from existence? I myself am the culmination of existence.

When we search outside, life seems meaningless. When we search within, life becomes full of meaning: we ourselves are the meaning of life.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD PERISHES FROM BRAHMA DOWN TO THE VERY CLUMPS OF GRASS I SHALL NOT PERISH. IMPERISHABLE AM I.

Such a wonderful statement had never been uttered before, nor has it been said since. Do you see how wonderful this statement is: "I bow down to myself!" Certainly this is not Janak's statement. This is an expression of the ultimate happening that has taken place. This is the voice of one in samadhi. This is music of samadhi.

I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD PERISHES FROM BRAHMA DOWN TO THE VERY CLUMPS OF GRASS I SHALL NOT PERISH.

All shall be destroyed, I will not be destroyed. All are born, all die -- I am not born, I will not die. I am amazed. I myself am in awe! I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD PERISHES FROM BRAHMA DOWN TO THE VERY CLUMPS OF GRASS... their time comes and goes. They are all events, waves happening in time. I am the witness! I watch them being created and destroyed. They are an acting, a play, a drama happening before my very eyes. They are illuminated by the light of my eyes and absorbed back into it.

... Brahma too! Those who you worship in the temple -- Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva -- they come and go. There is only one thing in the universe that does not come and go. It is you -- you freed from yourself. And when you are free of yourself, you find you have bowed down at your own feet! You find existence totally revealed within you. You find that what you were searching for had always been present inside of you, waiting.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. ALTHOUGH I HAVE A BODY, I AM ONE.

Two appear, but still I am non-dual. This appearance of two is only on the outside, like seeing the branches of a tree. If you count the branches there are many. If you come down the tree to the trunk they all become one. It is just the same in the world, many are seen but coming back to the source, they become one. It is the expanse of the one.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. ALTHOUGH I HAVE A BODY, I AM ONE. I NEITHER GO ANYWHERE NOR COME FROM ANYWHERE BUT EXIST SURROUNDING THE UNIVERSE.

Listen! Janak is saying that I exist surrounding the world, I have encircled the world. I am the definition of the world. I am unlimited. The world is inside of me.

Usually we see ourselves as inside the world. This is an unparalleled transformation. The whole gestalt has changed.

Janak says the world exists inside of me. Like clouds arising in the sky and disappearing, whole ages arise and dissolve in me. I am formless, I am the witness, I am only the observer, I am surrounding all.

Understand it like this: when you were a child then one form was contained in your sky -- childhood. Then you became a young man, and that form disappeared and another cloud surrounded you. You assumed a new form, you became a young man. When you were a child you didn't have any idea of sex. Even if someone explained you would be unable to understand. When you became young, new desires arose, desire put on new clothes, new colors flowered, your life took on a new style. Then you started getting old. Youth also left. The noise and clamor of youth also went. Desires too washed away. Now you are surprised, that you went down into those desires. Now you are shocked to think that you were such an idiot, that you were so foolish.

One day or another every old man -- if he has really succeeded in seeing life a little -- is filled with surprise at, "What kinds of things I was running after -- money, power, infatuations, women or men, running after all sorts of things. What all was I chasing after? I really chased around like that? I cannot believe that I could be in such dreams."

In Arabia there is a saying that if a young man cannot cry he is not truly young and if an old man cannot laugh he is not truly old. A young man who cannot cry he is not truly young because one who cannot cry, who cannot let tears flow, his feelings are blunted, there are no waves of feeling, no enjoyment. One who cannot suffer in misery is not young, he is stone-hearted. His heart has not flowered, it is still unflowered. And an old man that cannot laugh -- at this whole life and at himself -- what idiocy! What foolishness! -- then he is not truly old. An old man is one who can laugh at all this idiocy -- his own and everyone else's and say what great foolishness! People are running like mad -- after those things that have no significance. Now he can see there is no real value.

Sometimes you are young, sometimes you are old. Sometimes clouds take one form, then another, and yet another. But have you ever thought that inside you are one? The one who had seen childhood is the same one who saw youth. The one who saw youth is the same one who saw old age. You are the observer. The one who stands back and sees is exactly the same. When you sleep at night your observer watches dreams. When there are no dreams, only deep sleep, dreamless sleep -- then your observer watches dreamless sleep, what a good deep sleep...! This is why sometimes when you wake up in the morning you say what a deep sleep you had. Who observed it? If you were totally asleep, no seer left inside of you, then who saw it? Who knew? Who found out? Who is saying it? Getting up in the morning who says last night I slept very deeply? If you were sound asleep then who is the one who knows? Certainly someone remains awake inside of you, in some corner a lamp goes on burning and seeing that sleep is deep, very restful, very delightful, very peaceful, without a wave of dreaming, no tension, no thought! Someone goes on seeing. In the morning the seer says last night sleep was very deep. If the night was full of dreams then you say in the morning, "I spent the night dreaming, who knows how many bad dreams I had." Certainly the seer was not lost in dreams. Certainly the seer did not become a dream. The seer remained standing apart.

Then in the day you see the world with open eyes. At your business you are a businessman. With your friend you are a friend, with your enemy you are an enemy. You come home -- with your wife you are a husband, with your son you are a father, with your father you are a son. Thousands and thousands of forms...! You see all this. But you are the seer beyond all these. Sometimes you see success, sometimes failure; sometimes illness, sometimes health; sometimes good days, sometimes bad days -- but one thing is fixed, these all come and go: you neither come nor go.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. ALTHOUGH I HAVE A BODY, I AM THAT ONE. I NEITHER GO ANYWHERE NOR COME FROM ANYWHERE...

... neither going nor coming. Just being. This just being is your nature.

BUT EXISTS SURROUNDING THE UNIVERSE. -- and I have included the universe in me. This is your world. This world is inside of you, you are not inside of it. You are the master of it, you are not its slave. The very moment you decide to, you can spread your wings and fly away! If you are inside of it, it is of your own choice, no one has forced you. If you remember this much then there is no problem. Then if you accept any limitation of your own free will, bondage is no longer bondage. Then whatever you choose, whatever you want to do you can do. But never forget one thing, that you are not the doer, the doer is again a form. You are are not the enjoyer, the enjoyer is a form. You are the witness. This is your very immortality.

In the East the goal of our greatest seeking has been to find that which is beyond time, not bound by time. What is created and falls deteriorates in the flow of time is a reflection. Only what stands beyond time as a witness is true.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. NONE HERE IS AS CAPABLE AS I...

Do you hear? Janak is saying no one is as capable as I am!

... WHO HAVE BEEN UPHOLDING THE UNIVERSE FOR AN ETERNITY WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING IT WITH THE BODY.

This is art, skillfulness.

"Who is as skillful as I? As capable as I? I haven't touched the body, I have never touched it!" There is no way to touch it because your nature and the nature of the body are so different that touching is not possible, touching cannot happen. You are simply the witness, you can only see. The body is the observed, it can only be seen. You and the body cannot meet. You exist in the body, the body exists in you -- but without touching -- as if at an infinite distance! Their natures are so different that you cannot mix them.

You can mix milk with water, but you cannot mix water with oil. Their natures are different. Water will mix with milk because milk is water in the first place, more than ninety percent water. Hence water will mix with milk. But you cannot mix water with oil, they just won't mix. They cannot mix. Their natures are different.

Still it can be that perhaps scientists will find some method of mixing oil and water, because no matter how different they are, both are matter. But there is no way to mix the conscious and the inert, because the inert is matter and the conscious is not matter. There is no way to mix the observer and the observed. The observer remains the observer, and the observed remains the observed.

Hence Janak says I am filled with wonder, I have become wonder itself! What is this capacity of mine, I have done so many actions and still I am unattached. I have enjoyed so much but still no trace of attachment pulls on me!

As if you are writing on water, you go on writing and nothing is written -- with the witness you go on doing things, enjoying things but nothing is written, everything disappears like lines on water. You don't manage to write and already they disappear.

NONE HERE IS AS CAPABLE AS I, WHO HAVE BEEN UPHOLDING THE UNIVERSE FOR AN ETERNITY WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING IT WITH THE BODY.

He resides as master in thy heart. He is not separate from than thy heart. A thousand times it seems He is separate from thee, but never consider Him separate.

We can go on telling ourselves we are united with the body but we cannot be united. And we can go on telling ourselves we are separate from the divine but we cannot be separated. And we understand only when we understand both of these together. As long as you think you are united with the body, on the other side you will also think your connection with the divine is broken. The day day you know you are joined to the divine. The day you will know: Oh! Wonder of wonders I had never been united with the body!

He resides as master in thy heart. He is not separate from thy heart.

That highest truth resides in your heart. 'He resides as master in thy heart.' He has built his house there. 'He is not other than thy heart.'

A thousand times it seems He is separate from thee, but never consider Him as separate.

No matter how much you are feeling that you are separate, don't consider yourself separate, because there is no way to be separate. There is no possibility of being separate from the divine and there is no way to one with the world. Although we have been doing this which is not possible for life after life. The day you wake up -- and certainly you will awaken one day, because if one is asleep, how long can he go on sleeping? Because awakening is the nature of a sleeper -- that's what falling asleep means. Sleep gives the indication that one can wake up, that awakening is his potential. How can one who cannot awaken fall asleep? Only one who can awaken can fall asleep.

You will wake up one day or another. When you wake up you too will feel: "NONE HERE IS AS CAPABLE AS I, WHO HAVE BEEN UPHOLDING THE UNIVERSE FOR AN ETERNITY WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING IT WITH THE BODY. And I have upheld this universe, no one else is supporting it. I have not touched it and still I am supporting it.

Zen masters say cross the river but remember the water cannot touch you. They are saying that if you understand what witnessing is, then you will cross the river but the water will touch the body, it cannot touch you. You will go on witnessing.

Learn to be a witness in ordinary life. Make a little effort. Sometimes when you are walking, walk in such a way that you are not walking, only the body is walking. You "NEITHER GO ANYWHERE NOR COME FROM ANYWHERE. Watch yourself walking on the road and be a witness. While eating at the dinner table -- watch yourself eating, the body is eating, the hand picks up a bite, brings it to the mouth, you stand silently watching. Watch yourself making love, watch yourself being angry. In happiness watch, in suffering watch. Slowly slowly you help and support the witness. One day the declaration will happen within you too, the ultimate rain will come, nectar will spring forth. It is your right, it is your birthright, the right of your inherent nature. Whenever you want to you can declare it.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. I HAVE NOTHING AT ALL OR I HAVE ALL THAT IS ENCOMPASSED IN SPEECH OR THOUGHT.

Janak is saying in one sense nothing is mine because I am not. I no longer exist, how can 'mine' exist? So in one sense nothing is mine and in another sense everything is mine. As I am no longer, only existence remaining in me, god remains and everything belongs to it. This paradox has happened, where it seems nothing is mine and everything is mine.

AMAZING AM I, I BOW DOWN TO MYSELF. I HAVE NOTHING AT ALL OR I HAVE ALL THAT IS ENCOMPASSED IN SPEECH OR THOUGHT.

Whatever is visible to the eyes, whatever experience comes through the senses is not mine because I am the observer. But as soon as I became the observer, I found out that all is mine, because I am the center of the whole existence.

The observer is not your individual form. The observer is your universal form. As an enjoyer we are all separate, as the doer we are all separate but as the observer we are one. My observer and your observer are not separate. My observer and your observer are one. Your observer and Ashtavakra's observer are not separate. Your observer and Ashtavakra's are one. Your observer and Buddha's observer are not separate. The day you become an observer is the day you become Buddha, Ashtavakra, Krishna, the day you become all. When you become an observer you become the center of the universe. You disappear from this side, you are fulfilled from that side. You lose this small 'I', this small droplet -- and gain the infinite ocean.

These sutras are the sutras of worshipping your own being. These sutras are saying that you yourself are the devotee, you yourself are the divine. These sutras say you are the one worthy of adoration and you are the adorer. These sutras are saying that both are present inside of you: allow them to meet! These sutras are saying something very unique: bend down at your own feet, lose yourself within yourself, drown inside yourself! Your devotee and your bhagwan are inside of you. Let the union happen there! Let the fusion happen! The revolution will happen, when inside you your devotee and your bhagwan meet and become one. Neither bhagwan nor devotee will remain. Something will remain -- without form, without qualities, beyond limit, beyond death, beyond time, beyond measure! Duality will disappear, non-duality will remain.

The first glimpses of these non-dual moments are what we call meditation. When these non-dual moments start becoming stable it is what we call samadhi with distinctions. And when this non-dual moment becomes permanent, becomes so stable that there is no way it can be dismissed -- this is what we call samadhi without distinctions.

This can happen in two ways. Either just by awareness -- as it happened to Janak: merely through understanding. But great intelligence is needed, sharp intelligence is needed, great intensity is needed. A very sharp edged awareness is needed within you. It can happen immediately. If you find this happening, good. If you find this is not happening then don't sit repeating these sutras. It will not happen from repeating them. These sutras are such that if it happens while listening, then it happens; if listening you miss, then even if you repeat them a million times it won't happen. Because it does not to happen through repetition. The sharpness of your brain does not come through repetition; through repetition its edge is lost.

One way is if it happens when you hear these sutras. If it happens it happens, you cannot do anything. If it doesn't happen then slowly slowly you will have to start with meditation, from meditation to samadhi with distinctions, from samadhi with distinctions to samadhi without distinctions -- you will have to make the journey. If the leap happens then good, if not you will have to go down the steps. If the leap happens, it happens. It can happen to some. Every miracle is possible because you are a miracle of miracles. There is nothing impossible in it. Sitting here listening to me the leap can happen to someone. If you don't come in between, if you keep yourself separate, if you put away your intellect like taking off your shoes and clothes and putting them away, if you become pure naked consciousness before me -- this leap can happen. It can happen to you as it happened to Janak. If it happens, good. Then there is no method in it. You won't be able to ask how to prepare for it to happen.

If you ask about preparations it doesn't happen. Then there is another way. Then Patanjali is your path, then Mahavir or Buddha. Then Ashtavakra is not your path. This is why the Ashtavakra Gita goes on lying in darkness. Such urgency, such intensity, such brilliance is rare. This can happen with one who has prepared himself for many lives. But it happens! Only to one or two in a hundred, but it happens. There are many historical accounts of some insignificant event transforming someone.

I have heard of one sadhu in Bengal. He was a clerk at the court, the head clerk, then he was retired. Rajababu was his name. He was Bengali so of course he was a small official, a babu. His age was more than sixty. One morning he went out walking. It was early morning, the sun had not yet risen. Behind closed doors some woman in her hut was waking somebody. It must have been her son or brother -- she was waking somebody up. She said, "Rajababu get up, it is very late!." Rajababu was just going out with his walking stick in hand, going out for his morning walk. Suddenly in this predawn moment, the sun was just about to rise, pink was spread across the sky, the birds were starting to sing, the whole of nature was full of wakefulness -- it happened!

The woman was waking up someone else, she hadn't even said anything to this Rajababu. She didn't even know that this Rajababu was passing by. He was going out walking, she was saying to someone inside, "Rajababu get up, it is morning, it is very late. Get up will you, how long are you going to go on sleeping?" He heard. It happened. He didn't return home. He kept going. He reached the forest. His family found out. They came looking and found him in the forest. They asked, "What happened?"

He started laughing! He said, "It is enough! Rajababu woke up, now you can go!"

They said, "What do you mean? What are you saying?"

He said, "Now there is nothing to say, nothing to hear. It is already too late. /bahut der vaise hi ho gaii thii. I have understood. It was dawn, all of nature was awakening -- in this awakening I also woke up! Some woman was saying get up, it is very late. Her words struck home."

This woman was not Ashtavakra, she herself was not awakened. So sometimes it happens, if your intelligence is crystallized, if your fruit has ripened, then one puff of wind... Or if no wind blows sometimes ripe fruit falls by itself. If it happens it happens! But if it doesn't don't be dishearted, don't be sad. If it is not sudden then it can be step by step. Sometimes it does happen suddenly -- as an exception. So Ashtavakra's Gita is an exception. There is no method in it. There is no path.

In Japan there are two schools of Zen. One school is sudden enlightenment. What they say is the same as what Ashtavakra says. The master doesn't teach anything. He comes and sits. If he is in the mood he says something. If it happens, it happens.

Once an emperor invited a Zen master to his palace. The master came and mounted the dais. The emperor had been very eagerly awaiting him. He sat before him like a disciple. After sitting a short dais on the throne the master looked left and right, pounded the table with his fist, stood up and left!

The emperor was surprised and wondered what had happened. He asked his vizier. The minister said, "I know him. He has never given a more significant commentary than this. But if you get it you get it, it you don't get it you don't get it."

The emperor said, "This is a commentary! Beating three times on the table with his fist and leaving -- this is it?"

The vizier said he tried to wake us up and left. Wake up if you can. "Rajababu, get up, morning was come." He sounded the alarm and left.

The vizier said, "I have heard other discourses of this master, but he has never given a more potent, a more wakefulness provoking discourse than this. But don't worry, because I have heard many times and I have not awakened. You have only heard your first discourse. Keep on listening, perhaps it will happen."

It is an instantaneous event, it is not related by cause and effect. It is completely new, it has no connection with your past -- if it happens it happens. This is not a scientific experiment like heating water up to one hundred degrees and it becomes steam. This event is such that sometimes steam happens without heating the water. It has no scientific explanation.

Ashtavakra is beyond science. If you have a scientific mind and you say, "How can it happen that way? It can happen by doing something." Then follow your scientific mind. Then ask Buddha the eight-fold-path. Then ask Patanjali about his yoga. Then there are methods. This is not yoga, this a the pure expression of what Indian philosophy calls sankhya.

It is not that Ashtavakra can awaken many. If a Janak or two awakens it is miracle enough! That Janak awoke is more than enough. And there is no mention anywhere of Ashtavakra awakening anyone else.

Buddha awakened many. Even now Patanjali goes on awakening people. Ashtavakra only awakened one person. It is hard to say if he awakened even this one. Janak was ready to be awakened, Ashtavakra was only an instrument. Not a cause -- a catalyst.

With the devices of sudden enlightenment the master is only a catalyst. He will try -- if it happens it happens. It is not a science. If is doesn't happen don't be dishearted. Don't follow a master with the expectation that it will happen to you. It will happen to some! Whoever it doesn't happen to will at least have their thirst aroused. They can search for a method, they can move with a method.

The rule can only be with methods. It it happens without methods it is an exception, it is outside the rule.

So listen attentively here. If it happens be blessed, it doesn't don't be dishearted.

Hari Om Tat Sat.

Chapter No. 10 - No Title
20 September 1976 am in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium

The first question:

Question 1

YESTERDAY YOU SAID THAT SUDDEN ENLIGHTENMENT IS NOT BOUND BY THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT, BUT IF NOTHING IS HAPHAZARD IN EXISTENCE, NOTHING HAPPENS ACCIDENTALLY, THEN HOW CAN THE HIGHEST EXPERIENCE LIKE ENLIGHTENMENT HAPPEN THIS WAY?

It is true that in existence nothing happens without cause, but existence itself is uncaused. Existence has no cause. Enlightenment means existence. Everything else happens, existence does not happen -- it is. There has never been a moment when it was not. There will never be a moment when it will not be. Everything else happens, man happens, trees happen, birds and animals happen. Existence does not happen -- existence is. Enlightenment doesn't happen. Enlightenment is not an event, otherwise if it happened uncaused, it would be an accident. Enlightenment does not happen, enlightenment is your nature, you are enlightenment. This is why it can happen suddenly, and can happen without cause.

You have asked, "... HOW CAN THE HIGHEST EXPERIENCE LIKE ENLIGHTENMENT HAPPEN THIS WAY?" Because it is the highest. Everything lower occurs by causation. If samadhi occurs by causation like other things, then it becomes lower and ordinary. Heat water to one hundred degrees and it becomes steam -- if in the same way if you do one hundred degrees of ascetic practice and samadhi occurs, then it will be captured in a scientific laboratory and very soon there will not be any way to save religion: because whatever happens with a cause comes into the grasp of science. Whatever has a cause will fall within the limits of science.

Religion remains religion because enlightenment is uncaused. Science will never be able to contain it. Whatever is caused will eventually become science. Only one thing will remain that will never become science, that is existence itself. Because existence is uncaused, it simply is. Science has no explanation for it. How can there be a cause for this vastness, for the whole? Because everything that is, is included in it, there is nothing outside of it.

This is why samadhi does not happen, because it is not limited -- it is vast.

You have asked, "... THE HIGHEST EXPERIENCE LIKE ENLIGHTENMENT..." It is the highest precisely because it does not depend on your limited law of cause and effect. Do this many virtuous acts and samadhi will happen; give that much charity and samadhi will happen; renounce so much and samadhi will happen -- then samadhi would follow your calculations, would come into the account books, it would not keep its height. It happens uncaused.

This is why the devotees say it happens as grace. It does not happen through your making it happen. It showers on you -- suddenly, as a gift, as grace.

Then what is the result of our struggle and efforts? If you can understand Ashtavakra then any effort will be useless, then you are practicing rites and rituals uselessly. There is no need to practice, understanding is enough. Just understand that only existence is and let go of the search. Understand this: what we are is joined at the roots, hence running around doing and efforts to unite must be be dropped -- and the union will happen. The union will happen -- not from effort to unite but from dropping the effort to unite. Efforts to unite increase the gap -- the more you long for union, the more the distance grows. The more you seek the more you are lost because what you go to seek is not to be sought. It happens by waking up and looking: it is present, it is standing at the door. It is manifest within the temple, manifest within you. It has never abandoned you for a moment, never been separate for a moment. You remain lost by searching for what is not separate, what you have never been parted from, what you cannot be separated from.

Only one result is possible from your practices: you will become tired, your whole effort will reach a place one day where you are fed up with effort. In that moment of boredom you let go and immediately you see how mad you have been.

Yesterday I was reading someone's autobiography. He has written that he had travelled to a foreign city and got lost there. He did not understand the language. He became very nervous. And in his nervousness he forgot the name of his hotel, and forgot the phone number too. Then his panic increased: now how will he inquire? He was looking with great anxiety as he walked along the road, looking for someone who could understand his language. It was an eastern country, in the far east, and this American! He was looking to see if any white skinned person appeared, who will understand his speech, or if he could find a store with an English sign board, so he can go ask there. He was walking along looking with such intensity, sweating, that he did not hear that a police car was coming behind him sounding the horn again and again. The police had begun to suspect that the man was lost. He heard the horn only after two minutes. He stopped in shock. The police got out and said, "Are you in your senses or not? We have been sounding the horn for two minutes, we suspected you might be lost, come ride in the car."

He said, "This is strange! I was searching ahead for someone who can guide me, and the guide was behind me. But I was so absorbed in my search that I didn't hear the horn sounding behind me. I didn't even look back."

What you are seeking is following you. Of course existence does not blow a horn, nor call out to you, because calling out will be a violation of your freedom. It whispers, it secretly says something in your ear. But you are so occupied, when do you listen to this whispering? You are so full of noise, so much reflecting for and against is moving in your mind, you are so involved in seeking...!

Swami Ramteerth has told a small story: a lover went away to a far land. He did not return. His beloved kept watching the road she became tired, waiting and waiting. He wrote letters, saying again and again, I am coming now, I am coming soon, this month, next month. Years began to pass and finally the beloved got upset. There is a limit to waiting. She travelled to the distant city where her beloved was. She inquired the way and arrived at his house. The door was open. It was evening, the sun had set. She stopped at the door looking inside. For many days she had not seen her lover. He was sitting before her, but he was absorbed in deep concentration, he was writing something. He was so absorbed that the beloved felt to wait a little, not to interfere with him, who knows what threads of thought might be lost. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that tears were flowing from his eyes. He was writing something and kept right on writing. An hour passed, two hours passed. Then he lifted his eyes and saw: he couldn't believe it, he was shocked. He had been writing a letter to his beloved. He was writing a letter to this one who had sat two hours in front of him. And she was waiting for him to lift his eyes. He couldn't believe it, he thought, "It must be hallucination, it is an illusion, perhaps a sort of auto-hypnosis. I had such abundance of feeling for the beloved, perhaps that is why she is appearing like a dream. Is it not an illusion?" He rubbed his eyes. His beloved began to laugh. She said, "What are you thinking? Do you think I am a mirage?"

He started trembling. He said, "But how did you come? I was writing a letter to you. Mad one -- why didn't you stop me? You were in front of me while I was writing you a letter."

Existence is here in front of us and we are praying to become one with it -- Oh lord where art thou? Tears are pouring from our eyes but because of our wall of tears we don't see what is in front of us. We are searching for it. We miss only because of our search.

Ashtavakra's words are very clear. He says, "Stop this letter writing. Stop this practicing."

Samadhi doesn't happen. Yes, if samadhi were also a happening then it would happen as cause and effect. If it happened by cause and effect it would become an item in the market. Samadhi is virgin, untouched, it is not sold in the market.

Have you ever noticed that your market-oriented mind also brings enlightenment into the market. You think that if you do this much you will be enlightened... as if it is a business deal. If you do good deeds you will attain god himself. Your so-called religious people go on telling you this: do good deeds if you want to attain god. As if to attain god one has to do something. As if god will never be attained without doing anything. As if one must pay the price to buy god. Do this many good deeds, this much ascetic practice, this much meditation, this much reciting of prayers -- then you will attain. You have brought him to market. You have made him an item for sale. Customers will buy him. Those who have virtue will buy. Those without virtue will be denied him. One needs the coin of virtue. If the coins of virtue jingle one attains him.

Ashtavakra is saying, what madness you are suggesting! -- god will be attained by virtue? -- then it has become a business transaction. You will attain god from prayer? -- then you have bought him. What happened to his grace? And if something is received through a cause, when the cause disappears it will also disappear. That which is attained through a cause will be lost when the cause is destroyed.

You have accumulated wealth, you worked hard, you competed well in the market and you earned money. But do you think this earned money will last? Thieves can steal it. A thief means one who is more ready to stake his life than you. A businessman makes efforts, but the thief stakes his very life. He thinks, "I am ready to die and kill, but I will take it." So he steals it.

What is attained through a cause can be lost. Enlightenment is attained without cause. But our ego does not believe it. Our ego says, receiving it without cause means that those that didn't do anything will also attain? It is very difficult to swallow that those that didn't do anything will also receive.

Arup is sitting here in front laughing. Yesterday he told to me he has no feeling to do anything. I said okay dissolve into non-doing. Is there any need to do anything for enlightenment? Although I say it, it is hard to believe. Because our mind says, without doing? One cannot get ordinary things without doing -- you won't get a house, a car, a business, wealth, power, you won't get fame -- enlightenment happens without doing? You don't believe it. One has to do. There must be some trick to it. This non-doing also has to be done. This is why we make up such expressions as 'non-doing in doing', 'doing in non-doing' -- but we insist on doing. Doing in non-doing -- do things in this way, but keep on doing. Has anyone attained without doing?

Ashtavakra is saying the same thing that I am telling you: it is already attained. The very language of attainment is wrong. Distance is part of the very language of attaining. As if existence is separate. If it is separate can you live for a single moment? How can you live separate from existence? Separate from existence your condition will be like a fish out of water. Yet a fish can be separated from the ocean. Because there are places other than the ocean, but how can you be separated from existence? It is and only it is, everywhere it is this, every place is in this. Where can you be separated? Where will you go? Does existence have any shore? It is an unending ocean. There is no way to move outside of it.

Ashtavakra is saying you have never gone away from enlightenment, hence it can happen uncaused. If it is not lost then it can be attained uncaused.

Enlightenment is not an event -- it is your nature. But, does it ever happen that grace showers without doing?

We have become very poor. Poor through our experience of life. Here nothing is attained without doing, so we have become very narrow minded. We cannot think that enlightenment could be attained without doing. Our poverty cannot even imagine it.

But we are not poor. This is why Janak says, "Oh! I am amazed! I bow down to myself." I bow down to myself means both the devotee and god are within me. To say 'both' is not right, there is only one within me, mistakenly I think he is a devotee. When I realize this error, I know him as god.

Think of it this way: you take two chairs and put them in a room, then you put in two more chairs and mistakenly count them up getting five. But in the room there are only four. If you mistakenly count five, or six, or fifty, the number of chairs in the room does not become five. Chairs are four whether you count three or you count five. Only you know about your three or five, it doesn't make any difference to the chairs, they are still exactly four.

Your thinking to seek god is your three or five. God is already attained, the chairs are exactly four. Whenever you find the right calculation will you think, "Oh, there were five chairs, now they have become four." Will you think this way? No, you will think, "I was very mistaken, there were always four, I had counted five. The error was only in addition."

The error is not existential -- the error is only in memory. The error is not existential, the error is only in your arithmetic. The error is in your understanding.

This is why Ashtavakra says there is no question of doing. To make these five chairs into four one doesn't have to take one out. Or if you counted three you don't need to bring one in from outside to make four -- there are four chairs already. It is only an error of addition. Add it correctly. So when the addition is correct, then will you think that without cause three chairs became four? Without cause five chairs became four? No, you will laugh. You will think, it was not a question of becoming, they already were, the error was only in thinking. The error was only mental, not existential.

If you take yourself to be a devotee -- it is a error in addition. This is why Janak can say, "Oh! I bow down to myself! What an idiot I have been! How amazing that I had gone astray in my own illusions! I did not know what always was, but knew what has never been! I saw a snake in a rope! I saw silver in mother of pearl! I saw water in the net of light rays, an illusion of an oasis! I saw what was not! 'What is' was hidden in this hallucination, this maya, and I did not see it."

Enlightenment is the highest experience, because it does not happen. Enlightenment is the highest experience because it is beyond cause and effect. Enlightenment has already happened. The moment you become ready, the moment you take courage and are ready to drop your poverty of mind, the moment you are ready to drop your ego -- that very moment it will happen. It is not dependent on your ascetics, it is not dependent on your prayer -- don't remain lost in ascetics and prayer.

Once I was a guest in a house. The whole house was full of books. I asked is it a big library? My host said, "It is not a library, I have been writing the name of Rama in all these books. This is what I have been doing my whole life. I buy books and write Rama-Rama-Rama-Rama all day long. I must have written it many millions of times. Perhaps you can tell me how much virtue it is?"

"What virtue it is? It may well be sin... So many notebooks could have been used by school children, you have ruined them -- you are asking about virtue? Has your brain quit functioning? -- from writing Rama-Rama in notebooks..."

He was very shocked because other religious people had visited him, they had said you are very virtuous. You have written Rama so many times, you have counted the beads of your rosary so many times, you have have remembered Rama so much -- just by remembering once, one reaches heaven and you have done this many! He was angry with me, he never invited me again: what use is this man who says it is sin? He was very shocked. He said, you are hurting my religious feelings.

I do not hurt your religious feelings, I am only asking, what madness this is? What is the meaning of writing Rama-Rama? Let the one who is writing know himself, he is Rama. How did He get involved in writing Rama-Rama? Tell me, if Rama is captured, sat down and told to drop his bow and arrow, and to take up a pen and write Rama-Rama -- without going off in search of Sita: will it be sin or virtue? And the historical Rama if he is a gentleman, he would agree, thinking this man is after me. If I don't write he will feel hurt, so Rama sits writing Rama-Rama -- then you have destroyed his life.

When you are writing, it is also Rama writing. Who is it who is writing? Come to know that one. Who is it that is repeating Rama-Rama? Where is this repeating arising? Descend to that depth. Ashtavakra says you will find Rama there.

The second question:

Question 2

YESTERDAY YOU SAID DON'T ALLOW THE ELEPHANT DRIVER'S HOOK OF THE INTELLECT TO RIDE OVER THE FEELINGS OF THE HEART. BUT OSHO I FIND YOUR DISCOURSES ABSOLUTELY LOGICAL. IS THE MIND NOURISHED BY THE ENJOYMENT OF ARGUMENT? IS IT NOT A DANGER FOR ME THAT THE ARGUMENT-NURTURED MIND WILL TAKE CONTROL OF THE HEART AND SUPPRESS THE EXPERIENCE OF FEELINGS? PLEASE SHOW ME THE PATH.

What I am saying is certainly logical, but not just logical -- something more too. I speak logically for you, and something more is for me. If I do not speak logically you won't be able to understand. And if I do not say that which is beyond logic, I would not speak at all: what would be the use of speaking?

When I am talking, speaking to you two are present: you and I. There is both a speaker and a listener.

If it was up to me I would speak In transcendence of logic, I would completely drop arguments, but then you would think I am insane. Then you wouldn't understand anything, you would feel it is just noise with no meaning.

I speak logically to fit with your pattern of logical thinking. But if this is all you understand, then your visit here has been useless.

It is like filling a spoon with medicine and pouring it in your mouth -- we don't pour the spoon. With the spoon of logic I go on pouring what is beyond logic. Don't swallow the spoon, otherwise you will be in trouble. Use the spoon. Drink the liquid that is on the spoon. Logic is a spoon, logic is a help, because right now you don't have enough courage to listen to that which is beyond logic. If you want to hear what is beyond logic then listening to the songs of birds will be the same as listening to the song of Ashtavakra. They are beyond logic. The whispering noise of wind passing through the trees, the rustling of dry leaves blowing on the path, the sound of running water, the thundering of clouds -- they are all beyond logic. Ashtavakra is speaking to you from all eight directions, from all sides! But you will not understand anything. How long can you listen to this chirping of birds? You will say it is nonsense. To listen a little is okay but there is no meaning in this chirping. That which is beyond logic is like the chirping of birds, I make a bridge of logic so it can reach to you. If you hold on to the bridge and forget the destination, if you catch the words and forget that which was delivered by the words, then you are collecting pebbles where you could have filled your bag with diamonds and jewels.

The friend has asked, "... YOU SAID DON'T ALLOW THE ELEPHANT DRIVER'S HOOK OF THE INTELLECT TO RIDE OVER THE FEELINGS OF THE HEART.

Certainly. Understand with the intellect but let the heart be the master. Make the intellect a slave and mount the heart on the throne of the master. The servant has sat on the throne too long. You are not living for the intellect, you live for the heart. This is why fulfillment never comes from the mind. No matter how great a mathematician you become, will the heart ever become peaceful? And no matter how great a logical thinker you become, will fulfillment ever arise? And no matter how many scriptures you gather, will this become samadhi? The heart asks for love, the heart asks for prayer. The final demand of the heart is for samadhi: bring samadhi, bring samadhi! At the most intellect can bring logical arguments for samadhi, can bring theories about samadhi. But what can theories do?

Someone is sitting hungry and you give him a cook book, saying everything is written here, read it and enjoy! And he reads it because he is so hungry he hopes it can help. Discussions of the finest tasting foods -- recipes of how to fix, how to prepare them -- but what can this do? He asks, "What help is a cook book? I need food." The hungry need food. The thirsty need water.

You can write and give a thirsty man... he is thirsty and you write down H2O, the formula for water. He will sit with the paper, what will happen? It is just the same as people sitting reciting Rama-Rama. All mantras are like H2O. Certainly water is made by uniting oxygen and hydrogen, but thirst is not quenched by writing H2O on paper.

Understand with logic, but drink with the heart. Use logic but understand it is only useful, don't think it is all. Let the heart be the master. And remember don't let the intellect interfere in love and prayer, in worship and offerings, in meditation and samadhi. The more helpful it can be, the better. This is why I speak to you using logic, so I can persuade and convince your intellect, convince you to come two steps towards the heart. If you get just a little taste you will be engrossed in its joy. Then you yourself will drop worrying about the intellect. When the real taste comes, who cares about the words?

BUT OSHO I FIND YOUR DISCOURSES ABSOLUTELY LOGICAL.

They are logical. My whole effort is to make what I say to you logical so that you are ready to walk with me. Once you are convinced, you have fallen in a ditch I will take away your return tracks. Once you are convinced, once our hands come together, then there is no worry. Once your hand has come into my hand you will not remain out of my hands for long. First I grab the wrist, then the fore arm, then... one is just lost!

So I make the first contact with logic because that is where you live. Contact can be made there, that's where you are. This is why atheists also come to me. Atheists can accept me too. Atheists have no arguments with me because I speak the language of atheists. But it is a trap. The language is a snare. It is like going fishing and putting bait on the hook. It is bait. If one wants to avoid the hook, he has to avoid the bait, because once the bait is in the mouth one finds out it is a hook.

Logic is bait, the beyond is the hook. I persuade you. To give you bitter medicine I sugar-coat the pill. Man's state is like that of very small children,. Enjoying sugar he swallows bitter medicine -- you can even swallow poison. But if what is beyond logic is put directly before you, you will start running away: "No, my mind does not believe this." So I want to convince your intellect. But if you stop there and think that the intellect is convinced, if you go home now -- then you missed the point. Then it as if you have taken the sugar coating off the medicine, eaten it, and thrown away the medicine.

IS THE MIND NOURISHED BY THE ENJOYMENT OF ARGUMENT?

It depends on you. If you hear nothing but logic, then the mind will be nourished. But between arguments if you allow a little of the non-logical, the irrefutable, just a drop at a time, then that drop in your brain will create the revolution of the heart.

It depends on you. There are some people who hear nothing but logical arguments. Whatever is outside of logic they push aside. Then they have not come close to me -- coming here and not coming here are equal. They return exactly as they came -- they go strengthened in their beliefs. They have chosen by what fits their thinking, chosen their own understanding. They have chosen what fits with their understanding. What doesn't fit they drop. What doesn't fit with your understanding will become a burning coal of transformation inside of you. What fits with your understanding will strengthen you as you are: your illness, your worry, your anxiety will become stronger -- your ego will be strengthened.

So be a little skillful. This is why Janak says to Ashtavakra: "What skill, that I saw in an instant! What dexterity I have, what ability!" Remember that skillfulness, remember that ability.

It depends on you. When I am speaking here, the speaking is my responsibility, but the listening depends on you. After speaking I have no control over what I have said. As soon as I speak it is out of my hands -- a released arrow. Then it is up to you where it will land, where it will strike home. Will you let it strike you or will you save yourself? Will it land in the intellect? -- then you will go back a bigger scholar, strengthened in your debating skill, more skillful in argument. But you missed. If you let it strike the heart you will be more blissful, you will be filled with gratefulness. Then the door of blessedness opens. Then the possibility of grace increases. Then you have come towards the immortal a little. You have taken two steps towards the final destination.

Don't return as a scholar. Return as a lover. Kabir says: "Two letters and a half in love, who studies them is learning." Don't forget these letters of love.

Listen to my arguments, be persuaded by my arguments -- but as a means. The end is that one day you gather courage and take the jump into that which is beyond logic. By means of logic I will take you as far as your intellect can go. Then a frontier will come, then a border is reached, then the responsibility is yours. You can stand at the border and look -- at your past and at your future. Then you will see -- backwards into the intellect you have come through, and ahead towards the potential that is opening. The future is of the heart.

No one has ever attained the real wealth of life through thinking -- someone may have attained through meditation, through witnessing, through love, through prayer, through the juice of devotion. Then it is in your hands if you want to remain a barren desert, it is up to you, you are your own master. But once I have brought you to the edge where you begin to see beautiful forests, greenery, valleys and passes and mountains, snow-capped peaks. Let me show this to you once, then it is up to you. Then if you want to go back, go back. But then you will know that you are returning by your own choice. Then the responsibility is yours.

So I take your logic up the the point where you get your first glimpse of the golden peaks, where you see the open sky for the first time, then that glimpse will start following you. Then it will hover around inside of you. Then the call will call out louder and louder. Then slowly slowly the drip-drip-drip that was falling, will begin pouring as a great current. You will not be able to save yourself, because once you get even a small glimpse of the heart, the intellect is just rubbish. Before the glimpse this rubbish seems to be diamonds and jewels.

IS IT NOT A DANGER FOR ME THAT THE ARGUMENT-NURTURED MIND WILL TAKE CONTROL OF THE HEART AND SUPPRESS THE EXPERIENCE OF FEELINGS?

It is a danger. Be alert. If we want it to, a stone lying on the path can be a block and we can stop right there. And if we wish the stone can be made into a step to climb and go beyond. It depends on you whether you make the logic-nurtured mind a block or a step. Those that have made it a step have embarked on a great journey. Those who have made it a barrier have remained small ponds.

An atheist is a pond. One who trusts is a river flowing to the ocean. An atheist stagnates. As soon as water is stopped from flowing it starts stagnating. Water stays clean when it flows. But to flow the ocean is needed. If not, why flow? For flowing, enlightenment is needed. If not, why flow? -- otherwise there is nothing more to be attained, nothing more to become, whatever has already happened is enough...

Remember there are two kinds of people in the world, the world can be divided into two types. One type is those who are never satisfied with outside things: we have this house, we need another one; we have this much money, more is needed; this woman is with me, another kind of woman is needed. He is never satisfied with outer things, but he has no dissatisfaction with the inner. One who has no inner dissatisfaction, just outer dissatisfactions. This is the worldly man. Then there is the second type of person. He is satisfied whatsoever is outside, but who is not satisfied within. There is a fire blazing inside of him -- a divine discontent. He lives in continuous process, in continuous change, in continuous transformation.

Let skill with reasoning be helpful in your inner revolution, in your transformation -- remember this. Where logic becomes a rock and a barrier to your transformation, drop logic, don't drop the transformation.

I am saying that ultimately the choice is in your hands.

One was to go beyond the level of intellect. And love was to go beyond the object of devotion.

What to say about where I started from, O companion, I didn't even know where I had to go.

The intellect doesn't know anything about where it has to go. This is why intellect never goes anywhere. It goes around in circles like a bullock grinding grain. You have seen a bullock with blinders over his eyes, going around and around. With blinders over his eyes he feels he is moving, that he is going somewhere, that something is happening.

Have you observed how you go around and around? The same morning, the same moving around, the same day's work, the same evening, the same night, again the same morning, again the same evening.

A whole life spent like this:

again morning, again evening.

You go on circling around and around like a bullock grinding grain.

What to say about where I started from, O companion, I didn't even know where I had to go.

One was to go beyond the level of intellect. And love was to go beyond the object of devotion.

When you rise a little above the level of intellect, you rise into the sky, leaving the earth behind. Limits drop, the infinite begins. Bondage drops, one has a small glimpse of liberation.

"Love was to go beyond the object of devotion." Then a moment also comes -- first you move from intellect towards the heart -- then a moment comes when you go deeper than the heart. "Love was to go beyond the object of devotion." Then love becomes free from the object of love. Then the devotee is liberated from god. Then the worshipper is liberated from worship.

So first move with logic towards love and then move with love towards silence. That great silence is our home.

You are in the mind, you are to be in the heart. I begin with intellect to bring you towards the heart. But I don't allow one who has arrived in the heart to sit still. I tell him: Keep moving, keep moving.

Each new moment as fresh as the old. Like a familiar love-song, filling thy breast, go on planting string upon string! And each string such that the melody of the completed ragini never becomes empty.

A new step has to be taken into the unknown, the unfamiliar. Don't remain stuck with the familiar.

Have you ever thought what intellect means? -- the collection of what you know. What does it mean? -- just the accumulation of your past. In the intellect whatever you have heard, read, studied or experienced is accumulated. Whatever has already happened is accumulated. The intellect has no idea of what is about to happen. The intellect is of the past -- finished, dead! The intellect is dead ashes! If you are stuck in intellect, you go on wandering the byways of the past, go on moving in the known. Movement is into the unknown. There is no movement in the known, it is just going round and round like a bullock grinding grain.

The heart means: the unknown, the unfamiliar, an adventure. Who knows what will happen? It is not certain because it has never been known, so how can it be certain? The map is not in your hands, it is an unknown journey. There are no mile posts, or police on the path to tell you the way.

But a person who makes a journey towards the unknown makes a journey towards enlightenment. Enlightenment is the most unknown happening in this world -- even when we know it, we still don't know it. It always remains unknown, go on knowing, go on knowing, still it remains unknown. The more you know the more it feels there is more left to know. The challenge becomes greater and greater. Peak after peak goes on emerging. While ascending one peak it seems the goal is reached, when you arrive at the top more peaks appear ahead. One doorway is entered and new doors appear in front of us.

This is why we call enlightenment an unending mystery. Mystery means that which we know but still are unable to know. This is why we say enlightenment is never attained by intellect. Because intellect can only know that which it has finished knowing, enlightenment is never finished.

So don't miss with the mind, don't remain bound with the dead past. If you tie a dead body to yourself, you will understand what the mind is. Tie a corpse to your body and you will be unable to move around. That corpse is rotting, is decaying and has become a burden. Intellect is a corpse, the heart is a new sprout -- life's new sprout. And one has to go even beyond the heart.

Each new moment as fresh as the old. Like a familiar love-song, filling thy breast, go on planting string upon string! And each string such that the melody of the completed ragini never becomes empty.

Move afresh with each new step.

And keep the breast open for every available possibility -- welcoming! Keep the heart ready. Don't hold back when the unknown calls. Do not hesitate when the unfamiliar beckons. When the unknowable knocks on the door, don't be frightened, move with it. This is the characteristic of a religious person.

The third question:

Question 3

PRAISES TO YOU! IN A THOUSAND LIVES I COULD NOT ACHIEVE AS MUCH AS YOU HAVE SPONTANEOUSLY GIVEN ME. PLEASE ACCEPT ME AS YOUR DISCIPLE!

... you have taken it? Then you have become a disciple.

Becoming a disciple is not dependent on my acceptance. Becoming a disciple is dependent on your acceptance. A disciple means one who is ready to learn. A disciple means one who is ready to bow down, to fill his begging bowl. A disciple means one eager to listen in humility, eager to contemplate deeply and quietly, eager to meditate.

You have become a disciple. If you took it, then by your very taking you have become a disciple.

Being a disciple is not dependent on my agreement. What can I do if I accept you but you don't take it? What can I do if I don't accept you but you go ahead and take it anyway?

Discipleship is your freedom. If is not anyone's charity. Discipleship is your privilege, your dignity. There is no need for any papers to prove it.

This is why Eklavya could sit alone in the forest. See how he didn't worry about Dronacharya's refusing him. The master simply refused, but the disciple was ready, insisting on becoming a disciple. So what can the master do? One day the master discovered that the disciple had defeated him. Eklavya had made an earthen image and set it up to practice archery in front of. He obeyed it and touched its feet.

When Drona heard that Eklavya had become very adept, he went to see. He was surprised. Not just surprised, he became frightened. He was upset because Eklavya had become so well-practiced that Arjuna paled in comparison.

Drona may not have been much of a master, but Eklavya was a very great disciple. Drona must have been an ordinary master -- most common. Not worthy to be called a master. He must have been skilled, well-versed, but had nothing at all of the quality of a master. First he had refused because Eklavya was a shudra -- an untouchable. Is this something for a master to do? Does a master still see any distinction between brahman and shudra? No, he must have been a businessman, with his mind on the market. How can a master of kshatriya warriors accept a shudra? He must have been very afraid of society. He must have been a pillar of the society and lived within its restraints. He must have been narrow minded.

The day Drona refused Eklavya saying he was a shudra was the day Drona himself became a shudra. Such foolishness.

But Eklavya was wonderful. He didn't bother that the master had refused. In his heart he had accepted him as the master -- it was finished. Even the refusal of the master did not destroy his respect for him. He must have been a rare disciple!

And then the ultimate deception: when Eklavya's is skill was known he became famous. Drona was shaken because he wanted his disciple Arjuna to be known to the world. Eklavya was also his own disciple, but without his assent. The master felt at a loss. The one he had taught with heart and soul, had put all his efforts into, he had become just pale before this man -- who had only made a crude clay statue with his own hands and had attained great skill practicing in front of it. Drona requested his thumb.

It is very strange -- he was not ready to give instruction to him, but he has come to ask for the gift for instructing him! But Eklavya must have been an amazing disciple: he did not refuse to give the gift to the man who had refused to initiate him. A disciple like Eklavya is a real disciple. He immediately cut off his thumb and gave it to Dronacharya. Dronacharya had asked for the thumb of the right hand -- it was cunning politics to have him cut off his thumb: then Eklavya's archery would be useless. This Drona certainly must have been cruel, evil natured person. Far from being a master, it is not easy to call him human. What a low trick he played! And played it on such a simple-hearted disciple. And still Hindus consider Drona a master, go on calling him guru. Do you become one who knows the infinite Brahma just by being born a brahman?

Eklavya was a real brahman and Drona just a shudra. His mentality is lowly. This brahman Eklavya cut off his thumb, he didn't hesitate a bit. He didn't even say, "What are you asking? When I asked for instruction you refused to give it. I have not learned anything from you." No, although the whole affair was wrong, it never even occurred to him.

He said, "I have learned from you. What difference does it make that you refused me? I have learned this art from you. You went on refusing, but still I learned from you. Look, I have made your statue, so I am indebted to you. You ask for a thumb, even if you ask for my life I would give it. He gave him his thumb."

To be a disciple depends on you. It is not a question of anyone's agreement or disagreement.

If you feel that you have received much, then it has happened. Let this feeling go on deepening. Don't lose the feeling of being a disciple and your growth will be tremendous. You will go on and on receiving. Discipleship is the art of learning.

The fourth question:

Question 4

I HAD HEARD THAT WINE IS BITTER AND BURNS THE BREAST, BUT THE TASTE OF YOUR WINE IS SOMETHING ELSE.

Then the wine you are familiar with is not real wine, because wine is neither bitter nor burns the breast. And what burns the breast and is bitter is fake wine, not real wine. This is the first time you have come to know the taste of wine. Don't bother with false wine any more. You have entered the tavern for the first time. Now make your heart a vessel and drink to your heart's content, because this drinking will bring transformation. This wine will not bring forgetfulness, this wine will bring remembrance. Is what makes you unconscious really wine? Wine is that which brings you consciousness. This wine will wake you up. This wine will acquaint you with the one who sits hidden inside of you. This wine will make you 'you'.

Outwardly you may seem to others to be a drunkard -- don't worry. Perhaps people outside will misunderstand your ecstasy and think it is insanity or unconsciousness -- you needn't bother: the real test is within you. If your consciousness is growing you needn't bother, let the world understand whatever it wants to.

Some lines of Majaz:

As messiah-hood comes into my words, people say that I am unwell.

I will know well the secrets, I am a seeker of that thing called love.

My world is love and only love, I am fed up with the wiliness of intellect.

Yes, that vice which both Hafiz and Omar Khayam had; I too am a little guilty of it.

[What is life, the sin of Adam? If life is, then I am guilty.]

Messiah-hood comes into my words, people say that I am unwell.

People said that Jesus too was just sick, only with great reluctance did they call him messiah. People also called Socrates insane, and they poisoned him. People never thought Mansoor was intelligent, otherwise why did they execute him? And I have told you the story of Ashtavakra: his very father got so angry that he cursed him saying that his body would be deformed in eight place. Jesus was on the earth for thirty-three years before he was crucified. Socrates was already old when was poisoned. Stones were thrown at Mahavira and Buddha, it is true -- but consider Ashtavakra: he was not even born and he was cursed. He was still in the womb and he was deformed for life. And if someone else had done it, it would be forgivable -- but his very father did it. The one who was the cause of his life got angry.

The message of enlightenment does not fit with people. The truth troubles people. An ecstatic person fills people with anxiety. If you are unhappy no one is disturbed, just enjoy being unhappy. People say, open your heart and suffer, there's no harm -- this is exactly how it should be. If you laugh people become anxious. Laughing is not acceptable. People suspect that you are mad. Does a sensible person ever laugh? Do you ever see a wise man laughing? Do you see intelligent people dancing or singing a song? An intelligent person is serious, his face is long, his mood is sad. We call them great saints, great mahatmas: the more sick a person is the greater a saint he becomes. If someone sits like a corpse, sick, poverty stricken -- people say, what asceticism. What renunciation!

I had gone to a village. Some people brought a saint to meet me. They said "He is very miraculous, he only rarely eats, he rarely sleeps. He is very quiet, he speaks very little. And his asceticism is so powerful that his face has become like pure gold."

When they brought him I said, "Why have you tortured this man? He is sick, his face is not like gold, he is merely starving and thirsty -- his face has become yellow because he is anemic. ... you think he is religious? And how can he speak? He doesn't have energy to speak. This man seems to be a little idiotic. There is no fire in his eyes, no individuality, no joy. How can there be? He doesn't sleep properly, nor eat and drink properly. And you are worshipping him? He is only interested in your worshipping him for what he is doing. He does it for your worship."

Stop worshipping them for a while and you will find that ninety-nine out of one hundred of your mahatmas disappear -- disappear the very night you stop worshipping. They do all kinds of idiotic things because of your worship. They do whatever you want them to do. If you say pull out your hairs one by one, they pull out their hair. If you say be naked, they stand naked. If you say starve yourself, they starve themselves. In return you have to do only one thing: to respect them, to give strength to their egos.

The real religion is always a laughing religion. The real religion is always healthy, fulfilled, affirming life. The real religion is like flowers, there is no sadness there. People understand sadness as peace! Sadness is not peace. Peace sings joyously. Peace is very vibrant. Peace is a great drunkard -- your feet become unsteady. Ecstasy surrounds you. You walk on the earth, yet you are not walking on the earth, you are moving in the sky. As if you are spreading your wings, just ready to fly off.

It is good -- if you have tasted my wine, you have tasted the real wine -- now there will be no need of going to any other tavern.

I will know well the secrets, I am a seeker of that thing called love.

Keep just one thirst -- of that thing called love. Ask for only one thing -- for that which is called love.

... I am a seeker of that thing called love.

My world is love and only love...

And let your whole world and your whole being be filled with love, it is enough.

... I am fed up with the wiliness of intellect.

And be finished with the disturbances of the mind, descend into the protection of love.

My world is love and only love, I am fed up with the wiliness of intellect.

Yes, that vice which both Hafiz and Omar Khayam had; I too am a little guilty of it.

"Yes, that vice which both Hafiz and Omar Khayam had" -- Omar Khayam has not been understood. A great injustice has been done to him. One day in Bombay I saw the sign for a bar, it read: Omar Khayam -- a great injustice has been done to him. Fitzgerald was very mistaken when he translated his poetry into English. Fitzgerald did not understand Omar Khayam. He could not understand because to understand Omar Khayam one needs to experience the ecstasy of the Sufis, the samadhi of the Sufis. Omar Khayam was a Sufi mystic. He is one of those rare people who have reached: in the same category as Buddha and Ashtavakra, Krishna and Zarathustra. The wine he speaks of is divine wine. The beauty he speaks of is divine beauty. But Fitzgerald did not understand. With his western mind he understood wine means wine. He translated and Fitzgerald's translation became very famous. The translation is very beautiful, its poetry is very beautiful. Certainly Fitzgerald is a great poet. But he could not understand. The special character of the Sufis was lost in his poetry. And Omar Khayam became known through Fitzgerald. So everything about Omar Khayam is mistaken. Omar Khayam never drank wine, never went to any tavern. But he certainly drank that wine, which makes all other wines pale. He went into that tavern which we call the temple, which we call the temple of god.

Yes, that vice which both Hafiz and Omar Khayam had; I too am a little guilty of it.

Majaz, who has written these lines, also misunderstood Omar Khayam. He also understood that wine means wine. Majaz died drinking. Majaz died in his youth from drinking that wine that you say burns the heart and is bitter and strong. Majaz died drinking it in his youth. He died pathetically, a very terrible death.

Don't misunderstand the wine that I am talking about as something else. Don't make the same mistake with me that was made with Omar Khayam. It is possible.

I say unto you, enjoy life with the witnessing consciousness. But you want to drop the witness. You catch only 'enjoy'. Enjoy life but if you enjoy it without remaining the witness, you didn't enjoy it. Real enjoyment is only when you remain a witness. Drink wine but if consciousness is lost you didn't drink it. You have drunk real wine only if consciousness grows as you drink. There is no other wine than samadhi.

As I see it, the attraction for alcohol will continue in man until the attraction for samadhi grows. People will go on drinking fake wine until real wine is available to them. False coins will pass until the real coin is available. Governments throughout the world try to stop the consumption of wine, but it doesn't happen. They have always been trying to do it. Religious people have been advising governments to enact prohibition. They fast and do this and that: alcohol consumption must be stopped. But no one has succeeded with prohibition. Under various names and by differing means man goes on seeking intoxicating substances.

As I see it, prohibition is beyond the power of governments to enforce. But if the wine of samadhi begins to spread, if the real coin appears on the earth, the false will stop. If we make temples into taverns and there starts to be joy and songs and bliss and celebration there, and if we live by healthy principles, instead of wrong ones and let life become a blessing -- then alcohol will disappear on its own.

Man drinks wine because of misery. If misery decreases, wine will decrease. Man drinks alcohol to forget himself, because there are so many worries, so many problems, so much misery -- If we don't forget them then what will we do? If worry, unhappiness, and misery are decreased, alcohol consumption will decrease.

And I have seen a rare thing happen. Many times drunkards have come and taken sannyas from me. They got caught by mistake. They came thinking that this man does not prohibit anything, to drink or not to drink, to eat or not to eat this or that -- there's no harm in trying... They were very happy. They say, "We totally agree with what you say, no one has ever said it before." But as their meditation deepens, as the color of sannyas deepens, their feet quit taking them to the tavern, another tavern begins to call them.

After meditating for six months one drinker told me, "Previously I drank because I was unhappy, then I would forget the unhappiness. Now I am a little happy, and if I drink happiness is forgotten. Now it has become a problem. No one wants to forget unhappiness. What have you done?"

I said, "Now you choose."

He said, "Now if I drink my meditation goes bad. Otherwise the slow gentle current of meditation flows inside, a faint cool breeze goes on flowing. If I drink wine then the flow of meditation is disturbed for two to four days. Then I can nurse it back only with difficulty. Now it has become a problem."

I told him, "You decide, now the choices are before you. If you want to drop meditation, drop meditation. If you want to drop alcohol, drop alcohol. They don't go together, but if you want to have both, then try both."

He said, "Now it is difficult because the juice of meditation that is flowing, is so sacred and it is taking me to such heights: I had never imagined that a sinner like me could ever have such experiences! I do not talk about this to anyone except you because if I say it to anyone else they think I am a drunkard, I must have drunk too much. They tell me to sober up, speak soberly. If I tell them of my inner experience they think that I have drunk too much. They don't believe it. Even my wife won't believe it. She says, 'Stop talking nonsense. This is not a question of spirituality... you have drunk too much.' I tell her I have not touched a drop for a whole month.

"So you are the only one I can tell," the drunkard said, "Only you understand. And now it is difficult to drop meditation."

See life from a positive viewpoint. If you start being happy then the things that you grabbed onto because of your misery will drop by themselves. If meditation comes then wine will drop. If meditation comes, then meat-eating will drop. If meditation comes then slowly slowly sex energy begins to be transformed into brahmacharya. Just let meditation come.

I say unto you, drink the wine of meditation. I say unto you, enter the tavern of samadhi and join the assembly of wine drinkers.

Let me live this one moment of happiness. Let me sew this torn blanket of dreams. Such a rain cloud will never cast its shadow again. Let me drink, if not from a cup, then from the eyes.

Drink this satsang -- "... if not from a cup, then from the eyes." Drink this satsang, return drunk from this satsang. But in this drunkenness don't let your awareness be lost. Be ecstatic but burn the inner lamp of awareness.

Let me drink, if not from a cup, then from the eyes.

The fifth question:

Question 5

ARE BELIEF AND AUTO-SUGGESTION ONE AND THE SAME THING? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BELIEF AND INNER-NATURE OR AWARENESS?

WAS THE MOTHER KALI OF RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHANSA PURELY HIS BELIEF, HIS PROJECTION, OR DOES SHE HAVE HER OWN REALITY?

IS DIALOGUE NOT POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPERNATURAL OR GOD?

Belief and auto-suggestion are the same thing. Auto-suggestion is the scientific name for belief. There is no difference between them.

However inner nature and belief are very different. Inner nature is that which becomes manifest when all beliefs have been dropped. When all thoughts and all beliefs have disappeared from your mind, you experience your inner nature. Inner nature is not to be made a belief.

Once a sannyasi was a guest at my house. He would sit morning and evening chanting "aham brahmasmi -- I am the ultimate. I am not the body, not the mind, I am the ultimate." I listened to this for two or three days. I said, " If you are, you are. Why repeat it again and again? If you are not, what will repeating it do? It is possible to create an illusion by repeating it over and over. By repeating I am the ultimate the illusion can happen that one has become the ultimate, but this illusion is not the inner experience of one's nature. If you know that you are the ultimate then why do you repeat it? If a man is on the road repeating that I am a man, I am a man, then everyone will suspect that something is not right. People will say, "Stop, is something wrong with you! Why are you repeating? If it is true, the matter is finished. Do you have some doubt about it?"

Is 'I am the ultimate' something to be repeated? It is a declaration once and for all. It is a declaration of realization that arises only once. After that the matter is finished. It is not a mantra. A mantra is only a suggestion. The meaning of the words of a mantra are only a suggestion. This is why we call people who give advice, who give suggestions 'mantris' -- ministers. A mantra repeats a suggestion again and again. From repeating again and again an impression is made in the mind. And because of that impression we begin to project illusions.

WAS THE MOTHER KALI OF RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHANSA PURELY HIS BELIEF, HIS PROJECTION, OR DOES SHE HAVE HER OWN REALITY?

It was pure projection -- just his belief. There is no Kali anywhere, nor any virgin Mary. They are all projections of the mind. And all projections have to drop. This is why when Ramakrishna's projection of Kali dropped he said the last barrier has fallen. It was his own projection. And when Ramakrishna raised a sword to behead his projection of Kali, do you think blood came out? Nothing came out. The projection was false, the sword was also false: two false things crashing into each other and nothing else.

IS DIALOGUE NOT POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPERNATURAL OR GOD?

No! Whatever dialogue you have will be your imagination. Because as long as you exist there is no god. And when god is you are not -- how can there be any dialogue? Two are needed for dialogue. If you and god stand face to face then dialogue is possible. As long as you are, where is god? And when god is where are you?

Kabir says, "The lane of love is very narrow, there two can never pass." In that lane two do not fit, only one remains, how can there be dialogue? Two are required for dialogue, a minimum of two.

So whoever you are talking to is your imagination, it is not the real blessedness. When blessedness happens, dialogue does not happen: resonance happens not dialogue... what the seers of the East have called 'the unstruck sound' happens. A sound of humming -- but that vibration happens only in oneness, with no exchange of words with any other. It is the arising of the sound of om. But it is not talking to any other, the other no longer remains.

No devotee has ever seen god. As long as god is seen, the devotee is also present. Then it is still an imaginary vision. This is why a Christian meets Jesus, a Jaina meets Mahavira, a Hindu meets Rama. Have you ever heard of a Hindu meeting Jesus? -- somehow accidently meeting Jesus on the road -- they never meet him. It is not their projection, how can they meet him? Have you ever heard of a Christian sitting in meditation and Bhagwan Buddha appears to him? It never happens. How can it happen? How can a seed not planted by belief enter the imagination? Whatever your belief is, it will be developed by your imagination.

Ashtavakra's sutra is this: be free of all projections, all beliefs, all imagination, all interpretations, all practices and rituals. Practices and rituals are always bondage. When no one remains within you -- no devotee, no god -- a silence manifests. In that silence a shower of bliss falls days and night. In that moment how can there be dialogue, how can there be debate? No, all dialogue is of the imagination.

Sometimes night surrounds me, sometimes I summon the day. Sometimes a radiance seeks me, sometimes I give off rays of light. How shall I know when the voice of being is coming forth and how when the mind is speaking?

I tell you the recognition is simple: as long as something is spoken, it is the mind speaking. As long as something is visible, the mind is visible. When nothing is seen, nothing speaks -- then what remains is no-mind, is samadhi. As long as their is experience there is mind. This is why the expression 'the experience of god' is not correct, because experience is always of the mind. Experience is always of duality, of two. How can there be experience when only non-duality remains? This is why the expression 'spiritual experience' is not correct. Spirituality is where all experience has ended.

Or you can go on playing games. It is a game of hide and seek, of sunlight and shadow.

Should you become a bowing in trust, I will become sweet smelling sandalwood. If you should be the sacred idol, I will present my life as offering.

When you were the pearl hidden in the oyster, I became the ocean's tide. If you come raining down as purest droplets, I will drink a thousand seasons of rains.

The hopes of a handful of dreams, searching for the meaning of life. If you become the lamp of good luck, I will light the flame of life.

Silent longing, and eager desire are unveiling the language of the eyes. Should you set foot on the earth, I will feed you, O swan, with pearls.

I am deceived like a musk deer, rocking in a cradle of illusion. If you set out your heart as a lamp, I will become a thousand adorations.

But this is all the play of imagination. If you want to play, play. It is a delightful play of imagination, very lovely, very juicy -- but it is the play of imagination. Do not pretend it is truth. Truth is when there is no I, no thou. Truth is when the two are gone, duality is gone. Only one remains: Ek Omkar Satnam -- the sound of om is the truth.

The last question:

Question 6

OSHO! TRILLIONS OF BOWS TO YOU! ON SACRED MOUNT ABU, I WAS BLESSED TO COME TO THE PROTECTION OF YOUR BLESSED HAND. SINCE THEN THERE IS NO CALCULATING HOW MUCH I HAVE LOST, HOW MUCH I HAVE GAINED. MY LIFE HAS BECOME COMPLETELY ENRICHED. NO QUESTION COMES, SO I AM MAKING ONE UP.

THE CAMP IS OVER TODAY AND I AM ANXIOUS TO HEAR TWO WORDS FROM YOU. PLEASE, JUST DROP TWO FLOWERS INTO MY BEGGAR'S BOWL TODAY.

..why two, let it be three.

- x -

Other books of Osho (with dA cover concept):

From Sex to Superconciousness -- (dA concept)

I Am That -- (dA concept)

The Great Path -- (dA concept)

Hidden Mysteries -- (dA concept)

The Heartbeat of the Absolute -- (dA concept)

The White Lotus -- (dA concept)

For advanced seekers (txt format):
The Secret of Secrets Vol.1 // The Secret of Secrets Vol.2 // The Heart Sutra // Turning In // Vedanta

More Books (html format) and Music:
The Mahageeta // Death is Divine // Yes! // The Divine Madness // Narayana // Om Namo // The Radiance