Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-10

The alchemy of celebration

The first question:

THE MORE I WATCH MYSELF, THE MORE I EXPERIENCE THE FALSENESS OF MY EGO. I HAVE STARTED TO FEEL LIKE A STRANGER TO MYSELF, NO LONGER KNOWING WHAT IS FALSE. THIS LEAVES ME WITH AN UNCOMFORTABLE FEELING OF HAVING NO GUIDELINES, AS I SENSED I HAD BEFORE.

THIS happens; this is bound to happen. And remember that one should be happy that it has happened. It is a good indication. When one starts on the inner journey everything seems to be clear, rooted; because the ego is in control and the ego has all the guidelines, the ego has all the maps, the ego is the master.

When you move a little further into the journey, the ego starts evaporating, seems to be more and more false, seems to be more and more a deception, a hallucination. One starts awakening out of the dream, then guidelines are lost.

Now the old master is no more the master, and the new master has not yet arisen. There is a confusion, a chaos. This is a good indication. Half the journey is over, but there will be an uncomfortable feeling, an uneasiness, because you feel lost, a stranger to yourself, not knowing who you are. Before, you knew who you were: your name, your form, your address, your bank balance -- everything was certain, this was you. You had an identification with the ego. Now the ego is evaporating, the old house is falling and you don't know who you are, where you are. Everything is murky, cloudy, and the old certainty is lost.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-09

The seer is not the seen

15. THE DISCRIMINATING PERSON REALIZES THAT EVERYTHING LEADS TO MISERY BECAUSE OF CHANGE, ANXIETY, PAST EXPERIENCE, AND THE CONFLICTS THAT ARISE BETWEEN THE THREE ATTRIBUTES AND THE FIVE MODIFICATIONS OF THE MIND.

16. FUTURE MISERY IS TO BE AVOIDED.

17. THE LINK BETWEEN THE SEER AND THE SEEN THAT CREATES MISERY, IS TO BE BROKEN.

LIFE IS a mystery, and the first mysterious thing about life is that you can be alive and you may not have life at all. Just being born is not enough to have life.

To be born is just an opportunity. You can use it to have life, and you can miss it also. Then you will live a dead life. Only apparently will it look like life, but deep down there will be no alive current in you.

Life has to be attained, one has to work for it. It is like a seed in you: it needs much effort, soil, right soil, care, love, awareness. Only then does the seed sprout. Only then is there the possibility that someday the tree will bear fruit, someday it will flower. Unless you reach to the state of flowering you are alive just in name, but you have missed the opportunity. Unless life becomes a celebration, it is not life at all.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-08

The psychology of the buddhas

The first question:

YOU SAID THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DEVELOP THE THIRD TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BUDDHAS, BUT WHERE WILL YOU GET BUDDHAS FOR STUDY?

TO BEGIN with, one is already here, and sooner or later he will turn many of you into Buddhas. If one is there, many become immediately possible because the one can work as a catalytic agent. Not that he will do something, but just because he is there things start moving on their own. That's the meaning of a catalytic agent. Sooner or later, many of you will turn into Buddhas, because everyone is basically a Buddha. How long can you delay in recognizing it? How long can you postpone it? Difficult -- you will try your best to postpone, to delay, to create millions of difficulties, but how long can you do this?

I am here to push you somehow into the abyss, where you die and the Buddha is born. The problem is always in finding the one. Once the one is there the basic fulfillment, the basic requirement is fulfilled. Then many become immediately possible. And if many are there, then thousands become possible. The first works like a spark, and a small spark is enough to burn the whole earth. This is how it has happened in the past. Once Gautam became a Buddha, thousands by and by had to become. Because it is not a question of becoming; you are already that.

Somebody has to remind you, that's all.

Just the other day I was reading one of Ramakrishna's parables. I love it. I read it again and again whenever I come across it. It is the whole story of the Master being a catalytic agent.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-07

Awareness: the fire that burns the past

12. WHETHER FULFILLED IN THE PRESENT OR THE FUTURE, KARMIC EXPERIENCES HAVE THEIR ROOTS IN THE FIVE AFFLICTIONS.

13. AS LONG AS THE ROOTS REMAIN, KARMA IS FULFILLED IN REBIRTH THROUGH CLASS, SPAN OF LIFE, AND TYPES OF EXPERIENCES.

14. VIRTUE BRINGS PLEASURE; VICE BRINGS PAIN.

MAN APPEARS to be in the present, but that is only an appearance. Man lives in the past. Through the present he passes, but he remains rooted in the past. The pre, sent is not really time for the ordinary consciousness. For the ordinary consciousness, the past is real time, the present just a passage from the past to the future, just a momentary passage. The past is real and the future also, but the present is unreal for the ordinary consciousness. Future is nothing but the past ex, tended. Future is nothing but the past projected again and again.

The present seems to be non-existential. If you think of the present, you will not find it at all because the moment you find it, it has already passed. Just a moment before when you had not found it, it was in the future. For a Buddha- consciousness, for an awakened being, only the present is existential. For ordinary consciousness, unaware, sleepy like a somnambulist, the past and future are real, the present is unreal. Only when one awakes is the present real; the past and future both become unreal.

Why is this so? Why do you live in the past? -- because mind is nothing but an accumulation of the past. Mind is memory: all that you have done, all that you have dreamed, all that you wanted to do and could not do, all that you have imagined in the past, is your mind. Mind is a dead entity. If you look through the mind, you will never find the present, because the present is life, and life can never be approached through a dead medium. Life can never be approached through dead vehicles. Life cannot be touched through death.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-06

The existentialist cul-de-sac

The first question:

PATANJALI SAYS, 'DO NOT CLING TO LIFE,' AND THIS IS EASY TO UNDER STAND AND FOLLOW. BUT HE ALSO SAYS, 'DO NOT LUST FOR LIFE.' ARE WE NOT TO ENJOY IN THE PRESENT ALL THAT NATURE HAS TO OFFER US: FOOD, LOVE, BEAUTY, SEX ETC? AND IF THIS IS SO, IS IT NOT LUST FOR LIFE?

PATANJALI SAYS that lust for life is a barrier, a barrier to enjoying life, a barrier to being really alive, because lust is always for the future; it is never for the present. He is not against enjoyment. When you are in the moment enjoying something, there is no lust in it. Lust is a hankering for the future, and this has to be understood.

People who are not enjoying their lives in the present have lust for life in the future. Lust for life is always in the future. It is a postponement. They are saying, 'We cannot enjoy today so we will enjoy tomorrow.' They are saying, 'Right this moment we cannot celebrate, so let there be a tomorrow so that we can celebrate.'

Future arises out of your misery, not out of your celebration. A really celebrating person has no future; he lives this moment, he lives it totally. Out of that total living arises the next moment, but it is not out of any lust. Of course, when out of celebration the next moment arises, it has more capacity to bless you. When out of celebration the future arises, it goes on becoming more and more rich. A moment comes when the moment is so total, so whole, that time completely disappears.

Time is a need of the miserable mind. Time is a creation of misery. If you are happy there is no time -- time disappears.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-05

Prati-prasav: the primal of the ancients

9. FLOWING THROUGH LIFE IS THE FEAR OF DEATH, THE CLINGING TO LIFE, AND IT IS DOMINANT IN ALL, EVEN THE LEARNED.

10. THE SOURCES OF THE FIVE AFFLICTIONS CAN BE ABOLISHED BY RESOLVING THEM BACKWARDS TO THEIR ORIGIN.

11. THE OUTWARD EXPRESSIONS OF THE FIVE AFFLICTIONS DISAPPEAR THROUGH MEDITATION.

LIFE SEEMS to be an endless chain of miseries. From birth to death one suffers and suffers; still one wants to live. One continues to cling to life.

Albert Camus has said somewhere, and very rightly, 'The only metaphysical problem is suicide.' Why don't you commit suicide? If life is such a misery, such a hopeless affair, why don't you commit suicide? Why be at all? Why not not be?

Deep down, this is the real philosophical problem. But nobody wants to die.

Even people who commit suicide, commit suicide in hope that by committing suicide they will get to a better life, but clinging to life remains. Even with death, they are hoping.

I have heard about one Greek philosopher who taught his disciples nothing else but suicide. Of course, nobody ever followed him. People listened; he was a very articulate man. Even while listening to him about suicide -- it looked beautiful, worth listening to -- nobody followed him. He himself lived to the very ripe age of ninety. He himself didn't commit suicide. While on his death-bed, somebody asked, 'You taught continuously about suicide. Why have you yourself not committed it?' The old, dying philosopher opened his eyes and said, 'I had to be here just to teach people.'

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-04

To become free in an unfree society

The first question:

ARISING OUT OF ONE OF YOUR ANSWERS THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, I FELT YOU DIDN'T GIVE SUFFICIENT VALUE TO WESTERN MAN FOR THE USE OF THE DREAM AS ONE OF THE MEANS TO CONSCIOUSNESS. I'M THINKING PARTICULARLY OF JUNG'S TECHNIQUES IN HIS PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF REALIZATION.

YES, I don't give much value to Freud, Jung, Adler, or Assagioli. Freud, Jung, Adler, and others, are just children playing on the sand of time. They have gathered beautiful pebbles, beautiful colored stones, but when you look at the ultimate, they are just children playing with pebbles and stones. Those stones are not real diamonds. And whatsoever they have gained is very, very primitive.

You will have to go slowly with me to understand.

Man can be physically ill; then the physician, the doctor is needed. Man can be psychologically ill; then a little help can be given by Freud and Jung and others.

But when man is existentially ill, neither a physician nor a psychiatrist can be of any help. Existential illness is spiritual. It is neither of the body nor of the mind, it is of the total -- and the total transcends all parts. The total is not just a composition, a composition of the parts. It is something beyond the parts. It is something that holds all the parts into itself. It is a transcendence.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-03

Sleep, identification, duality

5. LACK OF AWARENESS IS TAKING THE TRANSIENT FOR THE ETERNAL, THE IMPURE FOR THE PURE, THE PAINFUL AS PLEASURABLE AND THE NON-SELF FOR THE SELF.

6. EGOISM IS THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE SEER WITH THE SEEN.

7. ATTRACTION, AND THROUGH IT, ATTACHMENT, IS TOWARDS ANYTHING THAT BRINGS PLEASURE.

8. REPULSION IS FROM ANYTHING THAT CAUSES PAIN.

WHAT IS AVIDYA? The word means ignorance, but avidya is not ordinary ignorance. It has to be understood deeply. Ignorance is lack of knowledge.

Avidya is not lack of knowledge but lack of awareness. Ignorance can be dissolved very easily; you can acquire know ledge. It is only a question of training the memory. Knowledge is mechanical; no awareness is needed. It is as mechanical as ordinary ignorance. Avidya is lack of awareness. One has to move towards more and more consciousness, not towards more and more knowledge.

Only then can avidya be dissolved.

Avidya is what Gurdjieff used to call 'the spiritual sleep'. Man moves, lives, dies, not knowing why he was alive, not knowing from where he was coming, not knowing where he was moving, for what. Gurdjieff calls it sleep, Patanjali calls it avidya: they mean the same thing. You don't know why you are. You don't know the purpose of your being here in this world, in this body, in these experiences.

You do many things without knowing why you are doing them, without knowing that you are doing them, without knowing that you are the doer.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-02

You are already that....

The first question:

YOU SAID YESTERDAY THAT SURRENDER HAPPENS WHEN THERE IS NO EGO, BUT WE ARE WITH EGOS. HOW CAN WE MOVE TOWARDS SURRENDER?

THE EGO is you. You cannot move towards surrender; in fact you are the barrier, so whatsoever you do will be wrong. You cannot do anything about it.

You simply, without doing anything, have to be aware. This is an inner mechanism: whatsoever you do is done by the ego, and whenever you don't do anything and remain just a witness, the non ego part of you starts functioning.

The witness is the non-ego within you and the doer is the ego. The ego cannot exist without doing anything. Even if you do something to surrender, it will strengthen the ego and your surrender will become again a very subtle egoistic standpoint. You will say, 'I have surrendered.' You will claim surrender, and if somebody says that it is not true, you will feel angry, hurt. The ego is now there trying to surrender. The ego can do anything; the only thing that the ego cannot do is non doing, witnessing.

So just sit silently, watch the doer, and don't try in any way to manipulate it. The moment you start manipulating, the ego has come back. Nothing can be done about it; one has just to be a witness to the misery that ego creates, of the false pleasures and gratifications that ego promises. Doings in this world and doings in the other world; the spiritual world, the Divine, the material, whatsoever the realm, the doer will re main the ego. You are not supposed to do anything and if you start doing something you will miss the whole point. Just be there, watch, understand, and don't do. Don't ask, 'How to drop the ego?' Who will drop it?

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 4 Chapter-01

The seeds of misery

1. KRIYA-YOGA IS A PRACTICAL, PRELIMINARY YOGA, AND IT IS COMPOSED OF AUSTERITY, SELF-STUDY AND SURRENDER TO GOD.

2. THE PRACTICE OF KRIYA-YOGA REDUCES MISERY, AND LEADS TOWARDS SAMADHI.

3. MISERIES ARE CAUSED BY: LACK OF AWARENESS, EGOISM, ATTRACTIONS, REPULSIONS, CLINGING TO LIFE AND FEAR OF DEATH.

4. WHETHER THEY BE IN THE STATES OF DORMANCY, ATTENUATION, ALTERATION OR EXPANSION, IT IS THROUGH LACK OF AWARENESS THAT THE OTHER CAUSES OF MISERY ARE ABLE TO OPERATE.

THE ORDINARY humanity can be divided into two basic types: one is the sadist and the other the masochist. The sadist enjoys torturing others, and the masochist enjoys torturing himself. The sadist is of course attracted towards politics. There, there is the possibility, the opportunity to torture others. Or, he is attracted towards scientific research, particularly medical research. There, there is the possibility in the name of experiment, to torture innocent animals, patients, dead and alive bodies. If politics is too much and he is not so certain about himself, or not intelligent enough to move into research, then the sadist becomes a schoolmaster; he tortures small children. But the sadist always moves, knowingly or unknowingly, towards a situation where he can torture. In the name of country, in the name of nation, society, revolution, in the name of truth, discovery, in the name of reformation, of reforming others, the sadist is always in search of an opportunity to torture someone.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-10

The consistency of being

The first question:

WHAT HAPPENED TO RAJNEESH ON MARCH 21ST? DID HE ATTAIN SAMADHI WITH OR WITHOUT SEED? 

THIS IS NOT ONLY your question, this is mine also! Ever since, I have also been wondering what happened to this guy Rajneesh. On that night, one moment he was there, and next moment he was not there.

And since then I have been looking for him within and without: not even a trace has been left behind, no footprints. If ever I get him, I will remember your question. Or, if it happens that you come across him somewhere, you can ask the question from my side also.

It is just like a dream. In the morning you are awake, you look around, you search for the dream in the sheets of the bed, under the bed, and it is not there. You cannot believe - just a moment before it was there, so colorful, so real, and suddenly it is not found at all, and there is no way to find it. It only appeared; it was not a reality, it was just a dream. One is awake and the dream has disappeared. Nothing happens to the dream.

To Rajneesh also, nothing happened; it was never there in the first place. I was asleep, that's why he was there. I awoke and I couldn't find him, and it happened so unexpectedly there was no time to ask the question. Simply the guy disappeared, and there seems to be no possibility to find him again, because there is only one possibility: if I fall asleep again, only then I can find him - and that is impossible.

Once you are totally conscious, the very root of being unconscious is cut. The seed is burned. Again you cannot fall into the unconscious.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-09

The fall of the idiots

IN THE STATE OF NIRVICHARA SAMADHI, AN OBJECT IS EXPERIENCED IN ITS FULL PERSPECTIVE, BECAUSE IN THIS STATE KNOWLEDGE IS GAINED DIRECT, WITHOUT THE USE OF THE SENSES. 

THE PERCEPTION GAINED IN NIRVICHARA SAMADHI TRANSCENDS ALL NORMAL PERCEPTIONS BOTH IN EXTENT AND INTENSITY. 

WHEN THIS CONTROLLING OF ALL OTHER CONTROLS IS TRANSCENDED, THE SEEDLESS SAMADHI IS ATTAINED, AND WITH IT, FREEDOM FROM LIFE AND DEATH. 

KNOWLEDGE IS indirect, knowing is direct. Knowledge is through many mediums; it is not reliable. Knowing is immediate, without any medium. Only knowing can be reliable.

This distinction has to be remembered. Knowledge is like a messenger comes and tells something to you: the messenger may have misunderstood the message; the messenger may have added something of his own into the message; the messenger may have dropped something from the message; the messenger may have forgotten something from the message; the messenger may have added his own interpretations into it, or the messenger may be simply cunning and deceptive. And you have to rely on the messenger. You don't have any direct approach to the source of the message - this is knowledge.

Knowledge is not reliable, and not only one messenger is involved in knowledge, but four. Man is behind many closed doors, imprisoned. First knowledge comes to the senses; then the senses carry it through the nervous system, it reaches to the brain, and then the brain delivers it to the mind, and then the mind delivers it to you, to the consciousness. It is a vast process, and you don't have any direct approach to the source of knowledge.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-08

The Master appears

The first question:

HOW IS IT THAT AN ENLIGHTENED PERSON LIKE KRISHNAMURTI CANNOT SEE THAT HE IS NOT HELPING PEOPLE? IF HE IS ENLIGHTENED SHOULD NOT HE BE ABLE TO SEE ALL? AND YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO HELP ALL TYPES BUT YOU ALSO SAY THAT YOU ARE CONTRADICTORY ON PURPOSE, SO THAT SOME PEOPLE WILL GO AWAY. IF YOU ARE ABLE TO HELP ALL, WHY SHOULD SOME NEED TO GO AWAY? 

A PERSON LIKE Krishnamurti can see. There is no hindrance, no obstacle, and he sees everything that is happening around him. But an enlightened person cannot do anything. He has to be as he is, loose and natural. Doing brings tension, and doing makes you unnatural. Then you are floating against the current.

Krishnamurti knows what is happening but he cannot do anything. He has to allow it to happen. It is how the whole wills it. Nothing can be done about it. The doer is always in ignorance. The doer is never found when one is awakened. When one is awakened one accepts whatsoever is the case.

So don't think that Krishnamurti does not know. He knows perfectly, but this is how it has happened. This is how it is happening. And there is nobody inside to judge whether it should happen like this or otherwise. Nothing can be done. A rose flower is a rose flower, and a mango tree is a mango tree. The mango tree cannot bring roses, the rose plant cannot bring mangos. This is how it is - a total acceptance.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-07

The thought of no-thought

THESE SAMADHIS THAT RESULT FROM MEDITATION ON AN OBJECT ARE SAMADHIS WITH SEED, AND DO NOT GIVE FREEDOM FROM THE CYCLE OF REBIRTH. 

ON ATTAINING THE UTMOST PURITY OF THE NIRVICHARA STAGE OF SAMADHI, THERE IS A DAWNING OF THE SPIRITUAL LIGHT. 

IN NIRVICHARA SAMADHI, THE CONSCIOUSNESS IS FILLED WITH TRUTH. 

CONTEMPLATION is not meditation. There is a vast difference, and not only of quantity but of quality. They exist on different planes. Their dimensions are altogether different; not only different, but diametrically opposite.

This is the first thing to be understood. Contemplation is concerned with some object; it is a movement of consciousness towards the other. Contemplation is outgoing attention, moving towards the periphery, going away from the center. Meditation is moving towards the center, away from the periphery, away from the other. Contemplation is arrowed towards the other, meditation towards oneself. In contemplation, duality exists. There are two, the contemplator and the contemplated. In meditation there is only one.

The English word "meditation" is not very good, does not give the real sense of dhyana or samadhi, because in the very word meditation, it appears that you are meditating upon something. So try to understand: contemplation is meditating upon something; meditation is not meditating upon something, just being oneself, no movement away from the center, no movement at all... just being yourself so totally that there is not even a flickering; the inner flame remains unmoving. The other has disappeared; only you are. Not a single thought is there. The whole world has disappeared. The mind is no more there; only you are, in your absolute purity. Contemplation is like a mirror mirroring something; meditation is simply mirroring, not mirroring anything - just a pure capacity to mirror but not actually mirroring anything.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-06

Mind in a hurry

The first question:

WHEN YOU SPEAK ON PATANJALI, I FEEL THAT HE IS THE PATH FOR ME. WHEN YOU SPEAK ON ZEN, THEN ZEN IS THE PATH FOR ME. WHEN YOU SPEAK ON TANTRA, THEN IT IS TANTRA FOR ME. HOW DO I KNOW WHICH IS THE PATH FOR ME? 

IT IS VERY SIMPLE - if when I speak on Patanjali and you feel that Patanjali is the path for you, and when I speak on Zen, you feel Zen is the path for you, and when I speak on Tantra, you feel "Tantra is the path for me," then the problem doesn't exist - I am the path for you!

The second question:

IS IT ESSENTIAL FOR A SEEKER TO PASS THROUGH ALL THE STAGES OF SAMADHI? CAN BEING WITH A MASTER HELP TO SHOOT THROUGH A FEW? 

No, it is not essential. All the stages are described by Patanjali because all the stages are possible, but not essential. You can bypass many. You can even go from the first step to the last; the whole path in between simply can be bypassed. It depends on you, your intensity, your passionate search, your total involvement. The speed depends on you.

That's why it is possible to attain a sudden enlightenment also. The whole gradual process can be dropped. Right this very moment, you can become enlightened. That's possible, but it will depend on how intense is your search, how much you are in it. If only a part of you is in it, then you will attain to a fragment, a step. If half of you is in it, then you will reach half the journey immediately, and there you will be stuck. But if your total being is in it and you are not withholding anything, you are simply allowing the whole thing to happen right now, immediately it can happen. Time is not needed.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-05

The pure look

NIRVITARKA SAMADHI IS ATTAINED WHEN THE MEMORY IS PURIFIED, AND THE MIND IS ABLE TO SEE THE TRUE NATURE OF THINGS WITHOUT OBSTRUCTION. 

THE EXPLANATIONS GIVEN FOR THE SAMADHIS OF SAVITARKA AND NIRVITARKA, ALSO EXPLAIN THE HIGHER STATES OF SAMADHI, BUT IN THESE HIGHER STATES OF SAVICHARA AND NIRVICHARA SAMADHIS, THE OBJECTS OF MEDITATION ARE MORE SUBTLE 

THE PROVINCE OF SAMADHI THAT IS CONNECTED WITH THESE FINER OBJECTS EXTENDS UP TO THE FORMLESS STAGE OF THE SUBTLE ENERGIES. 

MIND IS MEMORY; it is like a computer. To be exact, it is a biocomputer. It accumulates all that is experienced, known. Through many lives, through millions of experiences the mind gathers memory. It is a vast phenomenon. Millions and millions of memories are stored in it. It is a great storehouse.

All your past lives are stored in it. Scientists say even in a single moment thousands of memories are being collected continuously - without your knowing, the mind goes on functioning. Even while you are asleep, memories are being formed. Even while you are asleep... somebody cries and weeps, your senses are functioning and collecting the experience. You may not be able to recall it in the morning because you were not conscious, but in deep hypnosis it can be recalled. In deep hypnosis, everything that knowingly and unknowingly you have experienced ever, can all be recalled back - your past lives also. The simple expanse of mind is really vast. These memories are good if you can use them, but these memories are dangerous if they start using you.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-04

The un-minding of being

The first question:

YOU SAID THAT NATURE ABHORS DISORDER, AND DISORDER SETTLES ITSELF AUTOMATICALLY IN DUE TIME. 

THEN WHY HAS THE WORLD ALWAYS BEEN IN CHAOS AND DISORDER? 

THE WORLD has never been in chaos and disorder, only the mind. The world is absolutely orderly. It is not a chaos, it is a cosmos. Only the mind is always in chaos, and will always be in chaos.

Something has to be understood: the very nature of the mind is to be in chaos because it is a transitory stage. From nature to supernature mind is just a transition. No transitory stage can be in order. How it can be in order? When you move from one stage to another, the inbetween is bound to be in chaos.

There is no way to put the mind in order. When you are transcending nature and moving into supernature, changing from the outer to the inner, changing from the material to the spiritual, there is bound to be a gap between the two when you are nowhere, when you don't belong to this world and you yet don't belong to the other. This is the chaos - this has been left, and death has not been achieved yet. In the middle, everything is a disorder. And if you remain in the middle, then you will be always in chaos. Mind has to be transcended. It is not something to live with.

It is like a bridge: it has to be crossed, the other shore has to be attained. And you have made a house on the bridge. You have started to live on the bridge. You have become attached to the mind. You are in a trap because you are nowhere. And how can you settle in the land of nowhere?

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-03

Periphery and center

WHEN THE ACTIVITY OF THE MIND IS UNDER CONTROL, THE MIND BECOMES LIKE PURE CRYSTAL, REFLECTING EQUALLY, WITHOUT DISTORTION, THE PERCEIVER, THE PERCEPTION AND THE PERCEIVED. 

SAVITARKA SAMADHI IS THE SAMADHI IN WHICH THE YOGI IS STILL UNABLE TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE REAL KNOWLEDGE, KNOWLEDGE BASED ON WORDS AND KNOWLEDGE BASED ON REASONING OR SENSE PERCEPTIONS, WHICH ALL REMAIN IN THE MIND IN A MIXED STATE. 

WHAT IS MIND? Mind is not a thing, but an event. A thing has substance in it, an event is just a process. A thing is like the rock; an event is like the wave: it exists, but is not substantial. It is just the event between the wind and the ocean; a process, a phenomenon.

This is the first thing to be understood: that mind is a process, like a wave or like a river, but it has no substance in it. If it has substance, then it can not be dissolved. If it has no substance it can disappear without leaving a single trace behind. When a wave disappears into the ocean, what is left behind? Nothing, not even a trace. So those who have known, they say mind is like a bird flying into the sky - no footprints are left behind, not even a trace. The bird flies but leaves no path, no footprints.

The mind is just a process. In fact, mind doesn't exist, only thoughts, thoughts moving so fast that you think and feel that something is existing there in continuity. One thought comes, another thought comes, another, and they go on. The gap is so small you cannot see the gap between one thought and another. So two thoughts become joined, they become a continuity, and because of that continuity you think there is a mind. There are thoughts - no mind - just as there are electrons, no matter. Thought is the electron of the mind. Just like a crowd... a crowd exists in a sense, doesn't exist in another; only individuals exist. But many individuals together give the feeling as if they are one. A nation exists and exists not; only individuals are there. Individuals are the electrons of a nation, of a community, of a crowd.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 3 Chapter-02

Ego's attraction

The first question:

I FEEL A CONFLICT BETWEEN BEING LOOSE AND NATURAL AND BEING AWARE. 

THERE IS NO conflict, but you can create a conflict. Even where no conflict exists the mind creates the conflict, because the mind cannot exist without being in conflict.

Being loose and natural will give you a spontaneous awareness. There is no need to make any effort for awareness; it will follow like a shadow. If you are loose and natural, it will come. There is no need to make any other effort for it because being loose and natural automatically flowers in being aware. Or, if you are aware, then you will become loose and natural. They both go together. But if you try for both, then you will create the conflict. There is no need to try for both together.

What does it mean when I say: Be loose and natural? It means: make no effort. Just be whatsoever you are. If you are unaware, then be unaware because that is what you are in your loose and natural state. Be unaware. If you make any effort, then how can you be loose and natural? Simply relax, and accept whatsoever is the case, and accept your acceptance also. Don't move from there. A time will pass before things settle down. In that transitory period, you may not be aware because things are settling. Once things are settled and the flow is natural, you will be suddenly surprised. Unexpectedly, one morning you find you are aware - no need to make any effort.

Beware of Socialism - 05

Gandhiism capitalism and socialism

Hundreds of questions -- all in the context of what I said in the course of the last four discourses -- have been received. I will try to answer in brief as many of them as is possible.

A friend has asked if in my view socialism call come through Vinobe Bhave's sarvodaya -- his concept of "the good of all".

Sarvodaya, whether it is Vinoba's or Gandhi's, cannot bring socialism, because the whole concept of sarvodaya is concerned with taking man back to the jungle -- the primitive way of life. The ideal of sarvodaya is opposed to capitalism -- not in the sense of going beyond it, but in the sense of going behind it.

There are two ways of getting rid of capitalism -- either you go beyond it or you go behind. And for some people going back is always easy, and alluring too. But going back to the past is neither possible nor desirable.

We have to go forward willingly or compulsively. Those who go forward compulsively do so listlessly like animals. And those who go voluntarily do so with a song in their hearts and with a rhythm in their walk. They go with a hope and a dream and a thrill to find their future.

The thought of going back to the past has gripped India so firmly that whenever we are faced with difficulties we immediately think of turning back. And the reason is psychological, which we would do well to understand. It would be very useful to investigate the psychological meaning of Vinoba's sarvodaya and of the whole Gandhian thought and outlook.

Beware of Socialism - 04

Democratic socialism is a lie

A number of questions have been received; they are in the context of the previous discourses. A friend has asked: IN THE COURSE OF YOUR TALKS ON SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM YOU DID NOT GIVE ANY THOUGHT TO DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM. CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM?

It would be useful to understand a few things about democratic socialism. Democratic socialism is a contradiction in terms; it is a combination of two words that contradict each other. It is like saying "a barren woman's son", which is again a contradiction in terms. If a woman has a son she could not be barren; and if she is barren she could not have a son.

There is no grammatical mistake in the composition of the phrase "a barren woman's son", but it cannot be true. In the same way there cannot be a thing like democratic socialism; it is just an empty phrase, a meaningless cliche. Why?

Democracy and socialism, as socialism is currently known cannot go together, because the one cancels the other. Because democracy has to be destroyed in the very process of bringing socialism, the so-called socialism cannot be brought without murdering democracy. And it is necessary to understand why democracy will have to go for socialism to come.

The first principle, the foundational principle of democracy is that it gives every individual person the freedom to live, to work, to earn, to produce and to own, use and amass his production, his property. It is one of his basic rights. The next fundamental principle of democracy ordains that there should be no injustice to anyone. And another basic principle of democracy says that the majority cannot subject the minority to any injustices. If, in a village, there live a hundred Mohammedans and ten Hindus, and the Mohammedans decide to kill the Hindus and say that they are going to do it democratically, because the majority is in support of killing and only the minority is against it, then we will say that it is wrong, it violates democracy. Democracy means that even if there is a minority of one, the majority cannot subject it to injustices, and deprive it of any of its basic rights.

Beware of Socialism - 03

No going back to the past

A friend has a question, and there are a few more questions to the same effect. The friend has asked, HOW IS IT THAT YOU SUPPORT CAPITALISM WHICH IS BASED ON SELFISHNESS?

A few things have to be understood in this connection. Firstly, down the ages we have been taught many wrong things, and among them, one is that it is wrong to live for oneself. In fact, man is born to live for himself, but he is taught to live for others, and not for himself. The father should live for his son, and the son, in his turn, should live for his son. This means that neither the father nor the son can really live. They say, "Live for the society, live for the nation, live for humanity, live for God, live for salvation, but please, never commit the mistake of living for yourself."

This thing has been so incessantly preached that it has sunk deep into our consciousness, and we really believe that it is a sin to live for oneself. But the truth is that if a person has to live, he can only live for himself, and for no one else. And if living for others happens, it is just the consequence of living very deeply for oneself; it iS Just Its fragrance.

No one in the world can live for the other; it is just impossible. A mother does not live for her son; she lives for the joy of being a mother. And if she dies for her son, it is really her own joy. The son is an excuse. If you see a man drowning and you jump into the river to save him, you might say to others that you risked your life to save another man's life, but it would be a wrong statement on your part. The truth is that you could not bear to see the man dying, which was your own pain. And to rid yourself of this pain you jumped into the river and saved him. You had nothing to do with the other really. Would you have saved him if you had not suffered pain? There were many others on the bank of the river too; they felt no pain and they did not do a thing. Whenever a man saves another man from drowning, he really does so to save himself from pain, because he cannot bear to see him dying. Deep down he is saving himself from pain and sorrow.

Beware of Socialism - 02

Socialism and self-realization

A friend has asked:

Question:

WE WANT SELF-REALIZATION, AND WHAT YOU SAID LAST EVENING WAS SOMETHING QUITE DIFFERENT. WHAT HAS IT TO DO WITH SELF-REALIZATION?

It has lots to do with it. It is not possible in today's Russia or China to seek and find what you say you are seeking. Let alone Mahavira, Buddha, Mohammed and Christ, even Karl Marx will not be allowed to be born in these communist countries. Man's search for self- realization needs a climate of freedom. And what you call socialism does not accept that man has a soul. Basically, socialism is a materialist way of life. One of its fundamental tenets says that man is nothing more than matter.

It is necessary to understand this, because the socialism that does not accept man's soul will be dangerous. Because it will, according to its principles, do everything to suppress and wipe out man's soul if it is there.

The questioner wants to know what connection there is between self-realization and my criticism of socialism.

The connection is deep. In the history of man, socialism has emerged as the most formidable ideology in opposition to what you call self, soul or God. Never in the past had atheism succeeded anywhere in the world, nor had an atheist system, an atheist society or country, been established on this planet. Why? Because the atheists had mounted a direct attack on the existence of God and soul. And they lost the fight, they could not win. But communism has entered this battle from the back door. And for the first time in history the communists have created an atheistic society, an atheistic state.