A sculptor was working on a rock.
Someone who had come to see how a statue is made saw no sign of a statue, he
only saw a stone being cut here and there by a chisel and hammer. ”What are you doing?” the man
inquired. ”Are you not going to make a statue? I have come to see a statue
being made, but I only see you chipping stone.” The artist said, ”The statue is
already hidden inside. There is no need to make it. Somehow, the useless mass
of stone that is fused to it has to be separated from it, and then the statue
will show itself. A statue is not made, it is discovered. It is uncovered; it
is brought to light.”
What have we covered ourselves
with?
--------------
Try asking a medical practitioner
what health is. It is very strange, but no doctor in the world can tell you
what health is! With the whole of medical science concerned with health, isn’t
there anyone who is able to say what health is? If you ask a doctor, he will
say he can only tell you what the diseases are or what the symptoms are. He may
know the different technical term for each and every disease and he may also be
able to prescribe the cure. But health? About health, he does not know
anything. He can only state that what remains when there is no disease is
health. This is because health is hidden inside man. Health is beyond the
definition of man.
Sickness comes from the outside
hence it can be defined; health comes from within hence it cannot be defined.
Health defies definition. We can only say that the absence of sickness is
health. The truth is, health does not have to be created; it is either hidden
by illness or it reveals itself when the illness goes away or is cured. Health
is inside us. Health is our nature.
----------
The Ganges flows from the
Himalayas. It is water; it simply flows – it does not ask a priest the way to
the ocean. Have you ever seen a river standing at a crossroads asking a
policeman the whereabouts of the ocean? However far the ocean may be, however
hidden it may be, the river will surely find the path. It is inevitable: she
has the inner urge. She has no guidebook, but, infallibly, she will reach her
destination. She will crack through mountains, cross the plains and traverse
the country in her race to reach the ocean. An insatiable desire, a force, an
energy exists within her heart of hearts.
--------------------
In nature, there is a fundamental
unity, a harmony.
----------
When we sow a seed, it may seem
as if the layer of earth above the seed is pressing it down, is obstructing its
growth. It may seem so, but in reality that layer of earth is not an
obstruction; without that layer the seed cannot germinate. The earth presses
down on the seed so that it can mellow, disintegrate, and transform itself into
a sapling. Outwardly it may seem as if the soil is stifling the seed, but the
soil is only performing the duty of a friend. It is a clinical operation. If a
seed does not grow into a plant, we reason that the soil may not have been
proper, that the seed may not have had enough water or that it may not have
received enough sunlight – we do not blame the seed.
--------
Looking at coal, it would never
strike you that when coal is transformed it becomes diamonds. The elements in a
lump of coal are the same as those in a diamond. Essentially, there is no basic
difference between them. After passing through a process taking thousands of
years, coal becomes diamonds.
Diamonds and coal are the same:
they are two points on a journey by the same element.
--------------
Anything that tires you cannot be
a natural part of life. Whenever you force something, a period of rest is bound
to follow. And so, the more adept a saint is, the more dangerous he is.
------------
If the mind could be freed of
thoughts, if the thought-ripples of consciousness could be stilled by some
other process, he reasoned, he could attain to pure bliss! And from this
developed the system of yoga, from this came meditation and prayer. This new
approach proved that even without coitus the consciousness could be stilled and
thoughts evaporated. Man discovered that the delight of amazing proportions
obtained during an act of intercourse could also be obtained without it.
------------
Accept life in its pure and
natural form and thrive on the fullness of it. The fullness itself will elevate
you, step by step. And this very same acceptance of sex will uplift you to
serene heights you had not imagined possible.
----------
The stronger a person’s ego is,
the harder it is for him to unite with anybody. The ego comes in between; the
”I” asserts itself. It is a wall. It proclaims, ”You are you and I am I.” And
so even the most intimate experience does not bring people close to each other.
As long as there is this feeling
of separation, love cannot be known. Love is the experience of unity. The
demolition of walls, the fusion of two energies is what the experience of love
is. Love is the ecstasy when the walls between two people crumble down, when
two lives meet, when two lives unite.
If you can become immersed with
me in such an experience – so that all barriers melt, so that an osmosis takes
place at the spiritual level – then that is love. And if such a unity happens
between me and everyone else and I lose my identity in the All, then that
attainment, that merging, is with God, with the Almighty, with the Omniscient,
with the Universal Consciousness, with the Supreme or whatsoever you want to
call it. And so, I say that love is the first step and that God is the last
step – the finest and the final destination.
----------
The psychologist Coue says that
the average mind is governed by the Law of Reverse-Effect. We collide with the
very thing from which we are trying to save ourselves because the object of our
fear becomes the center of our consciousness. In the same way, man has been
trying to save himself from sex for the last five thousand years. And the
result is that everywhere, in every nook and corner, he is confronted by sex –
in all its various forms. The Law of Reverse-Effect has arrested the soul of
man.
------------
Many, many years ago, in a
certain country, there was a young and famous painter. He decided to create a
truly great portrait, a lively portrait full of the joy of God, a portrait of a
man whose eyes radiated eternal peace. And so, he set out to find someone whose
face reflected that eternal, ethereal light.
The artist roamed from village to
village, from jungle to jungle, in search of his subject, and at long last he
came across a shepherd with shining eyes, with a face and features that held
the promise of some celestial home. One look was enough to convince him that
God was present in this young man.
The artist painted a portrait of
the young shepherd. Millions of copies of the portrait were made and it sold
far and wide. People felt great gratitude, just being able to hang the picture
on their walls.
After a spell of some twenty
years, when the artist had grown old, he decided to paint another portrait. His
experience had shown him that life is not all goodness, that Satan also exists
in man. The idea of painting a picture of Satan persisted; were he to fulfill
the project, then the two pictures would complement each other, would show the
complete man. He had already done a painting of godliness; now he wanted to
portray evil incarnate.
He sought a man who was not a man
but Satan. He went to gambling dens, to bars and to madhouses. This subject had
to be full of hell’s fire; his face had to show all that is evil, ugly and
sadistic.
After a long search, the artist
finally met a prisoner in a jail. The man had committed seven murders and had
been sentenced to be hanged in a few days. Hell was evident in the man’s eyes;
they spouted hate. His face was the ugliest one could possibly hope to find.
The artist began to paint him.
When he had completed the
portrait he brought out his earlier picture and set it by the side of the new
painting for contrast. It was difficult to assess which was better from an
artistic point of view; both were marvelous. He stood, staring at both of them.
And then he heard a sob. He turned and saw the chained prisoner, crying. The
artist was bewildered. He asked, ”My friend, why are you crying? Do these
pictures disturb you?”
The prisoner said, ”I have been
trying to hide something from you all this time, but today I am lost. You
obviously do not know that the first picture is also of me. Both portraits are
of me. I am the same shepherd you met twenty years ago in the hills. I cry for
my downfall in the last twenty years. I have fallen from heaven to hell, from
God to Satan.”
I do not know how true this story
is, but one thing is for certain: each man’s life has two converse sides; two
portraits of everyone are possible. In every man both God and Satan exist; in
every man there is the possibility of heaven, and the possibility of hell. A
bouquet of beautiful roses can grow in man; a heap of mud can also pile up in
him. Every man swings between these two extremes. Man can attain to either of
these extremes, but most people are inclined towards the infernal. Those
fortunate few who aspire to the eternal, who let godliness grow in them, are
rare. Can we succeed in making our lives temples of God? Can we also become
like the portrait that had the glimpse of God in it?
---------
The facts of life indicate that
all our progress, so far, has been in the opposite direction. In childhood we
are in heaven, but as we grow older, by and by we land in hell. The world of
childhood is full of innocence and purity, but we gradually begin traveling a
road paved with lies and treachery and by the time we are mature we are old –
not only physically but also spiritually. Not only does the body become weak
and infirm, but the soul falls into a ruinous state as well. But we simply
accept this; we simply let the matter finish there. But we also finish
ourselves.
Religion is fatalistic about this
question, about this downfall, about this journey from heaven to hell. But this
journey ought to be reversed. This journey should be a rewarding one – from
sorrow to joy, from darkness to light, from mortality to immortality. Man’s
inner urge is to reach the deathless from the deathbound; this is the thirst of
man’s innermost soul. The soul’s only search is to reach from the darkness to
the light. The basic drive of our primal energy is to reach from untruth to
truth.
But for that voyage, man needs to
conserve his energy; he needs to allow his energy to grow. To scale truth, to
reach to the soul, man must strive to become a reservoir of limitless strength;
only then can he reach to the eternal. Heaven is not for the weak.
I repeat, heaven is not for the
weak. The truth of life is not for those who dissipate their energy, who allow
themselves to become feeble and frail. Those who squander life’s energies, who
become insipid and impotent within,
cannot undertake this expedition. It requires great energy to scale the
heights.
-------------------
Repression is much easier than
transformation.
It is easier to cover a thing, to
sit upon it, than to tackle it, than to transform it – because the latter
demands the effort of a sadhana, of a steady course of meditative action.
We are unaware that nothing can
be destroyed by suppression; on the contrary, it is strengthened as a reaction.
We also forget that repressing something intensifies our attraction for it.
That which we repress not only becomes the center of our consciousness but also
sinks into the deeper layers of our subconscious.
------------------
Man ought to be so simple that he
can stand up naked, unclad, innocent and full of bliss. A person like Mahavir
undertook to stand up unclothed and, likewise, every man should cultivate a
mentality whereby he could also stand up unclothed. People, so-called religious
people, say that Mahavir discarded clothes, that he abandoned wearing garments.
But I deny this. His chitta, his consciousness, became so clear, so innocent –
as pure as that of a child – that he rose up, nude, to face the world. When
there is nothing at all left to conceal, a man can lay himself bare.
Man covers himself because he
feels there is something inside that needs to be hushed up. But when there is nothing
to hide, one need not even put up with clothes. There is a great need for the
kind of world where every individual will be so guiltless, so pure of mind and
so serene that he will be able to discard his clothes.
--------------
Children should be taught to
meditate – how to remain calm, serene, silent; how to reach the state of
no-mind. Children can learn to accomplish this very, very quickly. Every home
should have a scheduled program to help children move into silence. And that
will only be possible, when you, as parents, also practice with them. A daily
hour of sitting silently should be compulsory in every home. One should even do
away with a meal if necessary, but an hour of silence must be observed at all
costs. It is wrong to call that house a home where an hour of silence isn’t
observed daily. It can not even be called a family.
A daily hour of silence will conserve energy. And then, at the age of fourteen, it will surge in a tide and push open the door of meditation – that state of meditation where man touches timelessness and egolessness, where he glimpses the soul, where he glimpses the Supreme. A meeting with that summit before the experience of sex would put a stop to the mad rush after sex; the energy would have found a better, more blissful, more exalted path.
This is the first stage in the process of celibacy: to transcend sex. And the way is meditation. Children must be properly educated about sex; they must be given the right education.
--------------
Some men handle material things
with loving care, while some give other men the kind of treatment that should
not even be handed out to non-living things. To a man preoccupied with hate,
humans are no better than inanimate objects; but a man full of love even
imparts an individuality, a personality, to everything he touches.
Grow to the fullness of love. We
should adore love; we should bestow love; we should live in love. But to love
other men alone is not the name of the game; to be devoted to love is to
replenish one’s whole personality with love. I am speaking of a total education
in loving. We should be able to pick up a stone as if we were lifting a friend;
we should be able to shake hands with an enemy as if we were holding the hand
of a friend.
----------------
A learned traveler once came to
see a celebrated fakir. For some reason the man was upset, probably because of
a difficult journey, and he angrily undid his shoelaces, tossed his shoes into
a corner and pushed the door open with a heavy thud.
In anger, a man will take off his
shoes as if the shoes were his worst enemy. He will even open a door as if
there were great hostility between him and the door. The man threw open the
door, went in, and offered his respects to the fakir.
The fakir said, ”No, I do not
accept your homage. First go and apologize to the door and to the shoes.”
”What is wrong with you?” he
asked. ”Apologize to a door? And to a pair of shoes? Why? Are they alive?”
The fakir replied, ”You didn’t
consider that when you took your anger out on those inanimate objects. You
dashed the shoes down as if they had been guilty of something, and you opened
the door in such a fashion that it seemed to be your enemy. When you can
acknowledge their individuality by taking out your anger on them, you should
also be prepared to beg their pardon. Please go and offer them your apologies.
Otherwise, I am not inclined to continue this interview with you.”
The traveler figured that since
he had come so far to meet this illustrious fakir, it would be ridiculous to
end the conversation over such a trivial matter, so he went to the shoes and
with folded hands, said, ”Friends, pardon my insolence.” To the door he said,
”Sorry. It was a mistake to push you like that in anger.”
What a moment for him!
In his memoirs the traveler has
written that he felt very ridiculous at first, but that when he had finished
making his apologies something new had dawned in him: he felt so calm, so
serene, so peaceful. It was beyond his wildest imaginings that a man could feel
so quiet, so collected and so joyful just by asking forgiveness of a door and a
pair of shoes.
After he had made his apologies,
he went in and sat down by the fakir, who began to laugh and said, ”Now it is
okay. Now you are attuned. Now we can talk. Now you have shown some love and
are unburdened. Now there can be a rapport between us.”
The principle is not just to love
human beings alone, it is a question of being filled with love.
-------------
To say one should love his mother
is wrong; it is a misrepresentation. If a father asks his child to love him
just because he is his father it is deception; he is giving a reason for love.
Similarly, if a mother tells her child he must love her for the simple reason
that she is his mother, it is an imposition. The love that has the strings of
”because” and ”therefore” attached to it is misnamed. Love should be
motiveless; it should not be bogged down with reasons. The mother says, ”I
looked after you; I brought you up, therefore love me.” She is giving a reason.
And there, love ends. If a child is forced, he may unwillingly show some
affection because she is his mother, but the aim of teaching love is not to force
the child to express love for some reason, but to create an environment in
which the child will be full of love.
-----------
Do you think a man can love one
person and hate another at the same time? No, it is impossible. A loving man,
even when he is alone, is full of love because love is his nature;
Flowers blooming in the jungle
spread their fragrance whether there is anyone there to appreciate it or not,
whether anyone is passing by or not. To be fragrant is a flower’s nature. Do
not be under the illusion that a flower emits its fragrance just for you!
-----
Gautam Buddha had a disciple who
had been a devotee for many years, and one day Buddha asked him, ”Monk, what is
your age?”
The monk replied, ”Five.”
Buddha was surprised. ”Five years
old? You look at least seventy. What kind of answer is this?”
The monk replied, ”I say this
because the ray of meditation entered my life five years ago, and only in the
last five years has love showered in my life. Before that, my life was like a
dream; I existed in sleep. When counting my age I do not consider those years.
How can I? My real life only began five years ago. I am only five.”
Buddha told all his disciples to
note the monk’s answer well.
You should all count your ages in
this manner; this is the standard for calculating age. If love and meditation
are not yet born in you, your life, up to now, is negated; you are not born
yet. But it is never so late that you cannot start trying. We should all strive
for a higher life. And for that it is never too late.
-----------
The faster one’s breathing is,
the shorter the duration of intercourse; the calmer and slower one’s breathing
is, the more it is prolonged. And the longer intercourse lasts, the more
possibility there is of making sex a door to samadhi, a channel to
superconsciousness. As I said earlier, the realization of egolessness, of
timelessness, dawns upon man in that sex-samadhi. The breathing should be very
slow. Slowness of breath will open deeper and deeper vistas of realization.
-----------------
I have discussed two factors for
attaining that absolute experience: one’s breathing should be shallow, so
shallow that it is almost not there at all, and one’s awareness should be focused
on the agnichakra, on the midpoint between the eyes. The more one’s awareness
is focused on this center, the more profound the intercourse will automatically
be. And the duration of coitus will be in direct proportion to the slowness of
the breathing. And then, for the first time, you will realize that the
attraction is not for intercourse as such; the magnetic pull is that of
samadhi. If you can scale those heights, if you can glimpse that brilliance, it
will illuminate your future path.
--------------
We approach sex with an attitude
of condemnation, with a feeling of guilt, and we fail to feel the existence of
the Creator. One should never approach sex while one is in anguish, in spite,
in jealousy, in indignation; one should never approach sex filled with worries
or in an unclean atmosphere. But the general practice is the contrary. The more
one is full of anger, dejected, in torment or in despair, the more one moves
into sex. A cheerful man does not chase after sex, but a sorrowful man moves
into sex because he sees it as the perfect escape from his unhappiness. But
remember, if you approach sex with bitterness, with irritation, with
condemnation or in sadness, you will never attain to that contentment, to that
realization for which your entire soul thirsts.
I urge you to approach sex only
when you are cheerful, only when you are full of love and, last but not least,
only when you are prayerful. Only when you feel that your heart is full of joy,
peace and gratitude, should you think of having intercourse. A man who
approaches intercourse like this can attain sublimation, and the ultimate
realization, even once, is enough to free one from sex forever. With one single
experience, you can break through the barrier and enter the periphery of
samadhi.
---------
The eternal fusion can only be
with God, with Brahma, with Existence. Those who have realized the subtlety of
intercourse can imagine, if a moment’s union with an individual can bestow such
bliss, what the outcome of the meeting with the Eternal must be like. But the
average man cannot even imagine that peak of ecstasy. It is stupendous,
ethereal, beyond words. It is bliss eternal.
--------
It is a long way from sex to
samadhi. Samadhi is the ultimate goal; sex is only the first step. And I want
to point out that those who refuse to recognize the first step, who censure the
first step, cannot even reach the second step. They cannot progress at all. It
is imperative to take the first step with consciousness, understanding and
awareness. But be warned: sex is not an end in itself; sex is the beginning. To
progress, more and more steps are required.
A proper appreciation for light
music can pave the way for the eternal music; the experience of a dim candle
can lead us to the infinite light; knowing a drop is a prelude to knowing the
ocean.
-------------
A new kind of spiritual
well-being fills a woman after the birth of a child. If you look at a woman who
has become a mother and at one who hasn’t, you will feel the difference in
their personalities, in the sense of the ease they project. In a mother you
will find a glow, a calmness – the kind of calmness you see in a river that has
reached the plains – but in one who hasn’t yet become a mother you will sense a
sort of bubbling fluidity like that of a stream still flowing through the
mountains – rumbling, roaring, overflowing its banks, rushing towards the
plains. A woman becomes quiet, calm and serene inside after she becomes a
mother.
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You will find the glorious shadow
of Buddha, the sublime reflection of Mahavir. The composure and serenity on the
faces of the statues is that of samadhi. A serene sacredness emanates from
them. Nothing less than a wave of eternal peace will encompass you if you
meditate on those statues.
-------
A doctor is needed when people
become sick, but doctors will be redundant if people stop falling ill. Like the
preaching profession, the medical profession thrives on inner conflict, because
a doctor’s livelihood depends on people catching diseases. A doctor treats
patients outwardly, but inwardly he hopes they get sick. And when there is an
epidemic, he thanks God for the business.
The preacher only has the
advantage until people begin to grope about in the dark.
when we come to know samadhi;
when our mundane, ordinary lives begin to be transformed into divine lives,
there won’t be any work left for these moralists and preachers.
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