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Mosquitoes are ancient meditators who have fallen. Hence, they are against anybody succeeding in meditation; they are very jealous. So whenever you meditate they are there to disturb, to distract.

And this is nothing new, this has always been so. It is mentioned in all the ancient scriptures; particularly in Jaina scriptures because the Jaina monk lives naked. Just think of a naked Jaina monk. And India. And mosquitoes.

Mahavira had to give specific instructions on what attitude to take toward mosquitoes. He told his disciples that when mosquitoes attack, accept. This is the ultimate distraction: if you can win this, then there is no other difficulty, no greater difficulty. And when Mahavira says this, he knows it; to live naked in India is a difficult thing.

Once I stayed in Sarnath, where Buddha first turned the wheel of dhamma – delivered his first sermon, the most important sermon, which became the beginning of a new tradition. I was staying with a Buddhist monk.

I have seen mosquitoes, but nothing to compare with Sarnath mosquitoes. Pune mosquitoes are just nothing! You should be very happy about it; you are fortunate that I am not in Sarnath.

The mosquitoes were really that big. Even in the daytime we used to sit under mosquito nets. On one bed, under one mosquito net, would sit a Buddhist monk, and on the other I would sit, and we would talk.

I said, “I am never going to come here again” – because he was asking me to come and stay again. I said, “Never, never. This is my first and last time.”

He said, “That reminds me that Buddhist monks have been laughing and joking down the ages about why Buddha never again came to Sarnath. He came only once. He delivered his first sermon, and escaped.”

Buddha went to other places many times. He must have gone to Shravasti at least thirty times, he must have gone to Rajgiri at least forty times, and so on and so forth. Each place that he visited, he visited again and again. But Sarnath, only once; he never went back there.

“And,” the monk said, “it is because of these mosquitoes. And you also say that you will never come again.”

I said to him, “At least in one thing I will follow Buddha. I cannot follow in other things – I have to be a light unto myself – but about this thing let him be the light.”

I know it is difficult, very difficult, but you will have to learn. Don’t be distracted.

That does not mean that you allow the mosquitoes to exploit you. Protect yourself in every possible way, but with no anxiety, no irritation. Protect yourself, avoid the mosquitoes, wave them away, shake them off, but with no irritation. They are doing their thing, and that much has to be accepted.

They are not particularly against you. Every mosquito must have his breakfast or lunch or dinner… So be polite. You have every right to protect yourself, but there is no need to be irritated. Irritation will disturb the meditation, not the mosquito. You can shake the mosquito off very meditatively, attentively; fully alert, with no irritation. Try it.

The real problem never comes from the outside; the real problem always comes from inner irritation.

For example; dogs are barking outside and you are meditating. Now, immediately you are angry – these stupid dogs! But they are not in any way disturbing your meditation, they are simply enjoying their life.

They must have seen a policeman or a postman or a sannyasin. Dogs are very much against uniforms, very anti-uniform. The moment they see a uniform they start barking. They don’t believe in uniforms, and they are entitled to have their own beliefs – but they are not particularly trying to disturb you.

Once I stayed in a rest house where a politician was also staying. He was the chief minister of a state. And just as you see mosquitoes here, exactly the same was the case with that rest house.

Somebody else has written that the mosquitos have disappeared from all over the city and have come to the ashram. They are not so much in the town as they are here in the ashram. In fact, they cannot get such juicy food anywhere else.

At that rest house, all the dogs of the town had somehow gathered. Such a great fight was going on. I fell asleep, but the politician could not.

So he came to me, shook me awake, and said, “I feel envious of you. How can you sleep when there is so much disturbance? And I have gone outside and thrown stones at the dogs three times. They go away for a moment, but when I come in, they are back. I don’t think that I will sleep the whole night.”

I said, “If I can sleep, you can too.” He said, “What is the secret?” I said, “The secret is simple: you lie down and listen to the dogs as if they are singing a lullaby.”

He said, “Lullaby? And dogs?”

I said, “Try. You can’t lose anything by trying. Why be against them? Just the idea ‘I cannot sleep because the dogs are barking’ is the root cause of your disturbance: not the dogs and their barking – your idea. Drop the idea, accept the barking. Listen attentively, listen as if you are listening to music.”

He said, “Music?”

I said, “You have to drop it. Otherwise get lost and don’t disturb me. I have to sleep.”

Seeing no other way, he said, “Okay, I’ll try.” After fifteen minutes he was snoring. I went in and shook him. He said, “What are you doing? This is too much. Somehow I managed to get to sleep, and now you have awakened me again.”

I said, “I have come to ask. Did it work?”

He said, “It worked. Somehow I managed it. It was very difficult; it was very difficult to think of the barking as music, to think of it as a lullaby, to think of the dogs as friends. But seeing no other way I said, ‘Okay, let’s try.’ And it worked! Let me try once more. And please, don’t come again.”

In the morning he told me, “I will remember your secret. It can work in many situations; it can work in all situations.”

Mosquitoes are doing their thing. You have to protect yourself, you have to do your own thing, but don’t become irritated. Irritation is the only problem.

If you cannot be irritated, if you are not distracted by all the nuisance that the mosquitoes are creating around you, you will even feel grateful to them: they have given you a secret key.

If the mosquitoes are not distracting you, then nothing can distract you. Then you have come to a very stable state of meditation.